Bonnie

He held the restaurant door open for Bonnie like a gentleman. She smiled as she passed him, looking around as she entered. Inside, the restaurant was rustic and adorable. Everything appeared to be made of wood, and there was a friendly warmth to the restaurant. While it didn’t look like much on the outside, the delicious smell of food inside was enough to make her mouth water.

Dylan waved to the bartender and grabbed a pair of menus from the hostess stand before guiding Bonnie to an empty table. She figured he had to be a regular here. There were several full tables, but still plenty of space for the dinner crowd to come in.

“I highly recommend the green chili burger,” Dylan said, handing her a menu once she was seated in her booth. “It’s fantastic. Just the right amount of spicy.”

She grinned and perused the menu. Her stomach rumbled. She was hungry after swimming. Everything on the menu looked good, but she was going to go with his personal recommendation.

“Green chili burger it is,” she announced. “Oh, and of course these cheese curds.”

He raised his eyebrows and set his own menu to the side.

“I heard Chef,” she told him with a shrug. “She said they were good and we should have them.”

He chuckled. “Yup. The best. They taste as good as the ones in Wisconsin. I think they use the same cheese.”

She nodded and perused the menu, just to make sure there wasn’t anything else she wanted. It was comfortable sitting with him.

“So, you gave up the good life to come work on a ranch,” she said after a moment of quiet between them. “How’s it working out for you?”

“Amazing.” He smiled, and it lit up the room. His eyes were so brown they were almost black, but when he smiled, they sparkled like precious black diamonds. “At my old job, I couldn’t trust anyone. Everyone was fake and out to make a name for themselves at any cost. I wasn’t happy.”

“And you’re happy now?” she asked.

He smiled, and the full weight of his gaze landed on her. “I am.”

She wasn’t entirely sure if he meant that he was happy here with her or just in general. Either way, it made her feel like she was blushing.

“What can I get you two to drink?” The waiter saved her from having to ask him what he was happy about.

“Just water for me,” she said quickly.

“Lemonade for me, please,” Dylan told the waiter. He looked at Bonnie. “Get whatever you want. Tonight’s my treat.”

“I can’t,” she said shaking her head. She didn’t want to take advantage of him. Even knowing he was a billionaire, she didn’t want to order more than was necessary. It felt rude.

“I can afford it, I promise,” he said with a smile.

She chuckled. “Water, please. With a lemon.”

The waiter nodded and wrote down the added lemon on his pad of paper. “Are you two ready to order?”

Dylan looked to check with her, and she nodded, so he told the waiter, “I’ll have a green chili burger, medium rare with extra chilies.” He looked over at Bonnie and grinned. “And an order of cheese curds.”

“I’ll have the same,” Bonnie told the waiter, handing him the menu. The waiter quickly made a mark on her paper and smiled before heading off to the kitchen.

“I have to ask you something,” Dylan said, leaning back in his seat.

“Okay...” Bonnie’s shoulders tensed. She wasn’t ready to tell him about the Trio. She wasn’t ready to tell him what her brother saw. She did her best to keep her face steady, but she glanced over to the exit before she could stop herself.

“How did you get Tyson into the water so easily?” he asked. Bonnie let out a small breath. “Elena’s practically had to force him to just put his feet in the water. You had him splashing and halfway to actually swimming in thirty minutes. How’d you do it?”

“I’ve done it before,” she admitted. “I’m a kindergarten teacher. And I used to give swim lessons.”

“I remember you saying that,” he replied, looking interested.

Her chest tightened as she remembered that she wasn’t a teacher anymore. She was on the run. Her brother was a material witness, and she was the threat to get him not to testify.

“I mean, I was,” she said, trying to push the hurt away. “I was a special ed teacher. I worked primarily with autism and sensory kids at my school.”

“I’ve heard of autism, but not sensory kids,” he said. “What’s that?”

“Sensory Processing disorder is very common in kids with autism, but shows up in lots of other kids too. Basically, their brains don’t process sensory information correctly. So, normal sensations, like a scratchy t-shirt tag or a fire engine passing by, are far too intense and can even be painful,” she explained. “Or, the reverse can be true, and they aren’t getting enough sensory info. So, those kids tend to always be moving and searching for more stimulation.”

“Wow.” He thought about it for a moment, digesting her words. “How do you teach someone to deal with that?”

“That’s where therapy comes into play,” she told him. “A lot of what we did in my classroom was working on making the overwhelming sensations less scary. If we could make them fun, that was always the best.”

“Give me an example,” he requested.

She thought for a second. “We play with stuff. I like to make sensory bins where kids can squish and experience sensations. I fill bins with spaghetti, pudding, jello, sand, beads, beans, water beads, and anything else I can think of. Then we just play and make the sensations fun.”

“A tub of jello sounds like fun to me,” he agreed. “Do you have any ideas for Tyson?”

She grinned. “I do.” This was the part of her job that she loved. She loved figuring out what would help an individual child get past a fear. “I’d love to get some water stuff for him. Things like squirt guns and water balloons. Anything that gets him wet and makes water a fun and pleasant sensation. He doesn’t like the way water feels on his face, so the goal would be to make it so much fun that it’s no longer unpleasant to be wet.”

“Does it work?” Dylan asked.

“Depends on the kid,” she admitted. “Each kid needs a different approach, and it takes time. It’s important to remember that their behaviors aren’t naughty or bad. They’re just overwhelmed. It’s hard to un-overwhelm.”

Dylan smiled. “You must love your work.”

She crinkled her brow but smiled. “Why do you say that?”

“You light up when you talk about this,” he told her. “You’re practically glowing, and your whole body is animated.”

Her cheeks instantly heated and she folded her hands on the table.

Dylan reached across the table. “It’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s beautiful. I’m sorry your ex took it away from you.”

“My ex?” Bonnie repeated confused. She caught herself before blowing her story. “Oh, right. My ex.”

She shrugged and quickly tried to think of something to say to make it less awkward. Luckily, the waiter returned then with their drinks. She gulped at her water, grateful for the interruption.

“I guess that you’re pretty over him,” Dylan said, taking a small sip of his lemonade.

She inhaled and took in a lungful of water. She started coughing and sputtering. “What?”

“Your ex,” he repeated. “You sound over him.”

“Right. Right, my ex.” She cleared her throat and set her glass down. “We were officially over when things went south. I thought we’d moved on.”

She’d rehearsed this lie several times, but she hated telling it to Dylan. She didn’t want to lie to him. She wanted to tell him everything, but she didn’t want to put him in that position either. It wasn’t fair to drag him into her issues with them.

“What happened?” he asked, genuine concern in his voice. It made her guilt deepen.

“We broke up. Then, a few weeks ago, I came home and found my house on fire,” she told him. It was sort of close to the truth. She tried to keep her story as close to the truth as possible. It made her less likely to slip up.

“Did you go to the police?” he asked, his dark eyes concerned for her.

“Of course, but there was no definitive proof that I was in danger,” she explained. She remembered her nightmare. “The fire investigator said that I left my book on the stove and it caught fire. It happens.”

“Did you leave a book?” he asked.

“I’d never seen the book before,” she explained. “It was called, ‘You’re Next.’ They also found the remains of the rest of the series in the kitchen. Their titles were ‘Dead Man Walking’ and ‘Dead and Deader.’ They weren’t my books.”

“He put them there?” he asked. “That’s a heck of a warning.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “So I ran. I know that he’s out there. I think I’m safe for now. I’ve crossed state lines, and I don’t think he has a good way to track me, but...”

She shrugged. She hoped they weren’t tracking her. She hoped that they still had the wrong last name for her. She knew her files were being monitored by the police. She would hopefully get some warning if they accessed anything the police had marked. But that wasn’t something she had control over. Anxiety crept up in her chest.

She needed to change the subject.

“So, is this the main restaurant in town, or are there others I need to try?” she asked with a smile.

He took her hint and let the subject drop. “This is basically it for Silver Springs,” he replied. “There’s a grocery store nearby, but if you want more than that, you have to go to the next town over. Evergreen has a Walmart and a Walgreen’s.”

“Wow, that sounds like the place to be,” she told him. He grinned.

“Sandy’s is still better than anything they have there,” he assured her. “I promise.”

She grinned. “Well, hopefully, our food comes soon to prove it,” she said. “I’m hungry.”

“Speak of the devil.” He nodded behind her at the server returning with two plates piled high with food. The spicy smell of the chilies made her mouth instantly start to water.

She was barely able to wait until they both had their plates in front of them before taking a bite. He watched as she brought the burger to her mouth and took a bite.

It was just as good and even better than he promised. She moaned, and he grinned before taking a bite of his own dinner.