Thomas decided he and Mike needed some distance after he took a much-needed shower to wash away the events of the night before. He grabbed the rental keys from the bar that separated Mike’s kitchen from the rest of the apartment.

“I’ll be back later,” he told Mike as he headed for the door.

Mike just looked up from where he sat on his couch with his laptop and nodded.

Thomas made his way to the four door sedan he had rented at the airport in Midland before making the rest of the trip to Alpine. Once he was settled in, Thomas put the car in gear and pulled out of the apartment complex.

Letting his memory guide him, Thomas knew exactly where he was going. It was the one spot that Thomas felt at peace. It was a place he had wished many times over the years he could escape back to. He needed to think. He needed to figure things out for himself. Why had he come back? He had told himself it was because he wanted to see Jen. The phone call from that Will guy had made him curious about her again. Not that she hadn’t entered his mind several times over the years.

Over the last year, he had found himself questioning if he was truly happy with how his life had turned out so far. He didn’t want to admit it, but there were a few things he definitely would have done differently twenty years ago. But, he didn’t know. Nobody knew their future then and he believed he had made the right decisions. It wasn’t right to ask Jen to marry him when so much of their lives was still ahead them. No matter how much he had wanted to, it wasn’t right to ask her. He still believed that today. He didn’t know seeing her twenty years later would bring back everything he had felt for her back then. Twenty years too late, as everyone said.

Thomas eased his way to point in the curve where he could pull off and park. He had come to this curve many times when he attended Sul Ross. It was a place where he connected with God, the earth, and himself. It was also the place he had shared with one of the most important people in his life. So, he shouldn’t have been surprised as he put the car in park, to see a woman sitting on top of one of the tables facing away from him letting her long red hair blow behind her in the wind.