Harper,

If you are not too busy and may be feeling up to it some fine evening - say, this Saturday, for instance - it would be my very great pleasure to take you out with me for a turn about the town, as they used to say where I am from. I hear the marketplace is a sight to see this time of the year, and I promise it'll be just you and me, no jockeying for seats at the bar or crowded Inn to contend with. Oh, and Cyrus will be there as well, but I promise he will be well behaved - he seems to like you. And if we end up getting too cold, I hear there is this charming little tea shop there where we can warm ourselves up.

If you accept, be waiting here at around 4 in the evening, and Cyrus and I will be here to pick you up.

Sincerely yours,

Ricky

*****

He frowns at the letter, shaking his head with a sigh. It's been a while since the last time he managed to see her at the Inn, and for all he knows she may have gone and found another man that has more free time to spare, thinking perhaps he had forgotten about her and moved off to who knows where.

Well, he has been a little busy. The work he does calls a man to strange places, after all, but he'd like to think there was something more than a mere flirtation there.

A shame the letter sounds so formal. It's like something he might have written to a girl a long time ago, back when he was still...well, young. Now he only looks young, in reality far older than his looks or behavior let on.

But still with that old-fashioned streak. It shows in damn near every letter of the note. Formal tones, the very thing he might have written if he had taken a fancy to any young lady back when he was still...well, normal, for lack of a better term.

Hopefully, it'll do. He had told her he had that tendency towards old-fashioned behavior. With a sigh, he folds it over and inscribes on it the name, "Dr. Harper Lacey."

The note is slipped under the door of the clinic she works in twenty minutes later, folded in a very old-fashioned style and sealed with earthen-brown wax.

For a miracle, the courier managed to find him the day before. Whoever she was using is pretty good - he isn't exactly listed in the phone book here, after all.

Reading the letter brought a smile to his face, a fine Christmas present, the only one he'd received. A consequence of not only his lifestyle but his life since that one fateful day, so long ago...family turns out to be a thing of the past.

Even though he has Cyrus, it is a lonely existence. The horse had been his loyal friend and companion for countless years, but even so, he wasn't much of a conversationalist. And for a miracle, Cyrus seemed to like Harper, which was rare enough that it makes him take notice.

The Saturday afternoon finds him riding to the clinic, sitting high atop Cyrus as the horse and he make their way through town. Curious glances from the numerous townsfolk bring a grin to his face. No doubt they're wondering why he's dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, leather jacket, cowboy hat and boots - light clothing for this cold.

He feels the cold, but like so many things, it doesn't have the sway on him that it did so long ago. Still, he thinks, it might be a good idea to get into the tea shop he'd heard about as soon as possible. Bundled up or not, he can't imagine a walk around the marketplace being very romantic in this biting cold.

The pair of them arrive a few minutes early, and for the first time since he can remember, he feels that giddy, warming rush of nerves and anticipation.