Chapter 16

Kerri had taxied to the hotel and intended to return home via the same medium. She was in luck as a cab pulled up to discharge a passenger just as she approached the curb. She stood back to allow the man in the rear seat to exit. They glanced as he grabbed his briefcase and she prepared to enter.

Two mouths dropped open at the same moment.

"Kerri?"

"Kevin? Is it really you?"

Her eyes misted.

"It's... It's wonderful to see you again," he stammered awkwardly.

"And you. How have you been?"

"Some rough times, but things are much better now. I work for a computer software company in California. I'm in town for the convention. And you?"

"I wouldn't know where to begin," she said smiling ruefully.

There was an awkward moment when neither knew what to say.

Kerri waited, hoping he would ask her out for coffee, anything. She finally decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Kevin, I was wondering if you'd..."

An attractive black woman with a small child in tow approached them from the hotel lobby.

"Uh, Kerri, I'd like you to meet my wife Veronica and that's our daughter Lindsey."

"Hello," said Kerri, shaking hands with the wife, hiding the pain behind a smile. "And what a beautiful child."

"Thank you." said the woman. "Are you and Kevin old friends?"

"Oh," said Kerri, "We met once a long long time ago."

The silence was awkward once more.

"Uh, We were on our way to dinner. Would you care to join us?" asked Kevin's wife.

"Thanks, but no. I have some plans as well."

"Well, it was awfully good to see you again," said Kevin. "Would you like to share the taxi?"

"No, I think I'll walk. The air will do me good."

"If you're ever in Fresno, we'd love to have you come by for dinner," offered Veronica.

"Yes, dinner would be nice." she smiled, her heart aching.

The wife and daughter entered the cab. Kevin turned to Kerri.

"I hope you find as much happiness as I did."

"I intend to," she said as he closed the door and the cab sped off into the night.

Tears welled but she refused to let them fall. This night, with the help of a very special man, she had found the strength to survive. Now she intended to be more than a survivor.

The knocks were firm, determined.

Jake answered the door. His face showed total surprise.

"Kerri, what are you... ?"

I'm looking for someone to share dinner and a sunrise," she said.

Epilogue

Wyoming winds were chilly this time of year. The woman sat on a blanket as the first shafts of orange filtered through the crags high above. The cry of an eagle drifted downward from its mountain aerie. She squinted to catch sight of the magnificent bird. There were lines visible around her still attractive eyes and hints of gray were beginning to show in her hair. Kerri checked on Windy, her five year old. Still tucked away warmly in her sleeping bag, the child had groggily greeted the sunrise with her mother only to drift off to dreamland again almost immediately.

One of these days I'll explain, thought Kerri, when she's just a bit older. I'll tell her about the father she never got to meet. She vowed to tell her daughter how they met, how he had turned her life around in a single evening, how they were married only seven months and then he was gone, she and his son at his side. He had left her the ranch, Jody a sizable endowment. But for Kerri, his legacy was their daughter who would someday come, like her mother, to appreciate this special place in the mountains where she could watch the morning sun crest the ragged peaks and remember, not the loss or grief or longing, but the happiness they had both found even if for so short a time.

I will teach her Jake, Kerri thought as she sipped from the piping hot mug of black coffee just as she and Jake had done on their last day together. I will teach her to love. I will teach her to care. I will teach her to find out who she is and who she can be. And most of all, Jake, I will teach her to watch the sunrise.