I shook my head, fighting the blush I could feel creeping up my cheeks. A date was something I couldn’t take Camila on, and she knew it. Not unless we were to go somewhere hours away from home. Even then, a quick stop at a fast food joint would be all I could afford after the gas money it would take to get there. “It’s a ride in my truck into the middle of nowhere, but if you want to call it a date, go for it.”
She hummed. “You did make me buy picnic food. If you have a blanket in the back of your truck, I’m going to have to rule this a date.”
I squeezed her leg and pulled my hand back to the steering wheel to focus on the bumpy drive ahead. “All right, you win, then. It’s a date.” I nodded to the stereo, which I’d recently added a CD player to. “I made us something for the drive. Can you get it?”
She shuffled through my plastic folder of the short selection of CDs I owned until she got to one marked Last Dollar Road and pushed it into the slot just as I turned onto the main gravel road that marked the beginning of the thirteen-mile scenic drive through the San Juan Mountains. Tom Petty’s “You Don’t Know How It Feels” started up, and a smile bloomed on her face. Instantly, a different sort of energy—calm, peaceful freedom—entered the cabin as the music enveloped us.
While we always enjoyed our time together, no matter where we were, an underlying line of tension always seemed to radiate between us while we were in our hometown. The anxiety of possibly getting caught and knowing it would be enough to end whatever it was we’d yet to define was enough to lose sleep over.
As we started down the off-road, we passed open pastures and numerous caution signs warning us of mud, rocks, and fallen trees. Historic farmland was marked off by rotted fence posts that surrounded us, and mountain bikers zoomed by us on their way back from where we were headed. Every now and then, I stopped the truck to force us both to breathe and take our time on our way across the mountain.
Beauty enveloped us as we passed by enchanting aspen groves and open wildflower meadows by the plenty. We made our way through the curvy drive slowly and with care. Steep drop-offs met us at every turn while beautiful valleys stretched for miles below us. Open sky and mountain peaks met us at every turn. And once we reached a higher elevation and farmland was still stretching around us, we stopped to watch a herd of sheep slowly walking across the land.
Finally, we slowed at the end of what had seemed like an endless gravel drive. After one last cliff and a roundabout, we went back downhill and exited the truck for one final pitstop before we would find a place to eat lunch. I helped Camila out of the passenger side and wrapped my arm around her in a close hug. As exhilarating as it was to reach the high elevation, my anxiety hit its peak when she wanted to sit at the edge of the cliff.
Something about that girl, who took every situation to the extreme, made me want to hold on to her and never let go. Pushing limits and seeing how far she could go were in her nature. Allowing her that freedom, while being more than ready to catch her when she fell, was in mine. We’d already been walking that fine line for years. I loved her wild spirit as much as I loved protecting her from it. It was just who we were.
We returned to the truck a few minutes later, and I started the engine again. “Hungry?”
Her eyes lit up. “Starved.”
My lips curled into a small smile I hoped she didn’t see. “Good.” I had one more surprise in store for her.
I circled the roundabout and headed back down the path we’d come from then didn’t stop again for a few miles until I found a private off-road that led to the real reason I’d brought her there. “Hang on,” I said as I passed the drive, then I stopped and backed onto the private road. The short drive backward ended at a wide, open meadow of wildflowers that looked like it went on for endless miles.
Camila’s expression said it all as she stared through the back windshield, her mouth open and her eyes wide. “Wow. Ridge, this place is beautiful. But how in the world did you find it?”
I parked the truck before shutting off the engine. “I met a lot of people on those hikes. Come to found out there are a million little treasures around this area that very few know about. Like the one you found at Blue Lakes.”
Her blush made me chuckle. The memory of finding her and Josie at the hot spring in Ouray was one I would never forget. “C’mon,” I said while sliding open the back window that led to the tailgate. “Let’s eat.” I grabbed the food then climbed through the window before turning around to hold out my hand to her.
Camila’s fingers slid through mine, and she followed my lead without asking questions as to why we hadn’t just gotten out and walked to the back. She was smart enough to understand that meadows like these required all standards of preservation. Neither of us wanted to be responsible for destroying the beauty spread out before us. Instead, I laid out a large blanket, then we pulled out the food and ate until satisfied while sharing the most beautiful visual of the open field.
I started to clean up our food. After passing the empty bag through the window and setting it on the seat, I looked over at her to find her bottom lip still glistening from the sip of water she’d just taken.
“What?” she asked, eyeing me with amusement.
“Nothing.”
She sat up straight and tilted her head. “Really? Because you’re looking at me like there’s something on my face.”
I chuckled before sliding a finger across her bottom lip. “Your face is perfect.”
Her expression grew serious. “Do you really think so?”
I tilted my head. “Do you question my words?”
“No, it’s just… that was a sweet thing to say. You don’t compliment me very often.”
Camila was as crazy as she was wild, and I loved it. “I don’t?”
She shook her head. “You don’t. I mean, I think I know how you feel, but it’s nice to hear sometimes, you know? You should speak up when you’re thinking nice things about me.”
I’d learned to keep my thoughts private when it came to Camila. For years, I’d built up a sort of filter to speaking my true thoughts when it came to her physical attributes—mostly out of respect for her age, but it also felt wrong to have those feelings. “But I’m always thinking nice things about you.”
When she looked surprised again, I leaned against the back of the truck, pulled her to me, and brushed her cheek with my thumb. I turned her face so that we both stared out at the meadow. “What do you see, Camila?”
She hesitated for a second, looking confused. “I see a meadow of wildflowers and a backdrop of the San Juan Mountains. Why? What do you see?”
My eyes flicked between hers for a second before I turned to the explosion of color in the picturesque scene before us. “I see the very essence of nature as we should understand it. I see the heart of the land that we’ve lost sight of over decades of fighting a war we’re all losing but won’t realize until it’s too late. But I also see our potential. The land has been preserved with love, and that means something.”
I panned the landscape slowly, taking it all in as I continued. “I see untamed beauty living in a world of chaos with roots so strong that the changing seasons don’t matter. A wildflower always comes back stronger in the end, more beautiful than the year before and only that much more precious to those fortunate enough to bask in its presence.”