Chapter Four
“Do you believe in arranged marriages?” Feet in the warm pool of bubbling water below her, each hand being tended to by a manicurist, and her hair stylist behind her giving her blow out some final touches, Ryane looked at her reflection in the mirror. Was her father serious? He couldn’t truly want to marry her off, he had to be joking, he only wanted her to get serious.
In unison, both her manicurists shook their heads. Her pedicurist shrugged.
She wrinkled her nose and turned back to the one person who knew her every deep dark secret, not limited to the exact color combination to make her signature blonde hair. “Nick?”
Her hairstylist finished working on the lock of hair and looked up to the ceiling.
He paused and Ryane held her breath waiting for the verdict.
At last, he faced her. “Like a set up?”
“No, like someone else choosing your spouse.” She furrowed her brow.
“Don’t make wrinkles.” Nick ran his fingers over her forehead. “Our aesthetician is out today.”
Before she could ask another question, her phone rang. Belinda jumped up from her chair and ran over. “It’s your father.”
A shudder ran through Ryane.
“It’s Mr. Windsome!” Nick cupped his hand around his mouth and yelled out.
In an instant, the entire salon silenced. Windsome Holdings owned the entire building that housed the salon and the salon as well. She figured after the news her father dropped on her in her office, she needed to start learning the company business right away, and this was one building she felt most comfortable with.
Belinda hit the button and put the phone up to her ear.
Ryane swallowed. “Hello, Daddy.”
“Where are you princess?” her father asked.
“The Barton building. I walked through the lobby and everyone there said hello. I then visited the little boutique they have on the third floor, and now I’m at the salon. You always said it was important to frequent the businesses that rent in our buildings.” Even though he couldn’t see her, she smiled.
Everyone around her nodded.
“I suppose every journey begins with one step.” Her father sighed. “I also have begun a journey of my own.”
“What’s that?” Maybe he put this finding her a husband thing to rest. She couldn’t just be given away like a dog at a pound. This wasn’t medieval times where a woman needed a husband. She had to show him she could run the business on her own. Any man her father found would only want her for her name and her money.
“Tonight I have someone I want you to meet, a Mr. Patrick Allen. He has an MBA from an Ivy League school, his reputation is impeccable, and from what I have been told, he is quite handsome.”
Her stomach dropped. “Isn’t this a little fast Daddy? I told you I can learn the business.”
“Buying a dress and getting your hair and nails done is not learning the business.” Her father barked into the phone. “Meet me at the office at seven sharp. I will be chaperoning this event personally. I’ll call you with any follow up details.”
“But Daddy—”
“I have made up my mind, our Anniversary Ball is just around the corner. Stay by your phone in case I need you.” The line went dead.
All right. The man was serious. She wondered how he was finding these suitors, but truthfully she didn’t want to know. All she knew was she had to get out of there. “Everyone stop!”
The people surrounding her held their hands up like they just finished a reality show competition.
Before tonight, she had to show her father she was more than manicures and dresses. She needed to get away, needed to think, needed to make a plan, be strong, take a stand. “Turn my phone off.” At even voicing the words, she put a hand to her chest. Never had she disobeyed her father.
Belinda gasped. “Your father said to be available.” She put the phone down and backed away.
“Then I will do it.” She snatched up her phone and looked at it. How did one even turn the device off? “Never mind.” With a huff she shoved the device into her purse. “I need to get to work.” Before she second-guessed her next move, she slid her freshly polished feet into her stilettoes and walked out, then rushed to her car parked right in front of the building.
At seeing her, the attendant opened the door, and once inside Ryane glanced at her phone again. Her eyes heated and she knew the tears would start soon. Was her father serious or was he merely trying to scare her?
Again, her phone rang. This time it was her father’s office.
Her first thought was to throw the phone in the back seat, out the window, run it over. Instead, she answered, “This is Ryane.”
“Hello Ryane, it’s Mrs. Peabody. Your father wanted me to tell you that a cocktail dress is appropriate for this evening.” The woman sounded official, as if she was about ready to tell Ryane she had to sign a contract. “He also wanted me to remind you to be available should any more details arise.”
She started the car and glanced over at the passenger seat with the file folder from the Los Padres property she'd tossed there earlier. “What if I don’t have a cell site?”
Mrs. Peabody paused and let out a little noise. “Well, I suppose you don’t have control over that, but this is the city so you should have no problem.”
The property was far and located in the forest. Trees had to block cell sites. “I need to get to work.” She hit the accelerator and took off.
Her navigation led the way, and for the first time in a long time, she had a goal other than making sure Belinda knew the time of her next hair appointment.
Once she got out of the city, the drive up the coast went surprisingly fast. She glanced at the reception on her phone and the bars seemed to dwindle with each mile.
By the time she got off the freeway and traveled through the canyon leading to her company’s property, she had only one tiny bar, something that would normally upset her, but right now it was nothing if not liberating.
At last, she turned down the one-lane road that ended at a huge barbed wire fence. “Windsome Holdings.” She read the sign. Everything on the other side, her family owned. Acres and acres of prime property with trees, and wildlife and some of the most incredible flowers. Too many years had passed since she had been out here to her mother’s favorite piece of land. Her father told her to learn the business. Well, she needed to start here by reacquainting herself with something close to her heart. She glanced down at her cell phone and nodded. At last, she'd hit her goal. “No service.” Finally, she was unreachable.
She got out of the car, and went to the fence, frowning that it was unlocked. Well, that could be her first piece of business. With a shrug, she stepped inside and winced when her heel sunk into the soft ground below her. A businesswoman couldn’t be concerned with designer shoes and pedicures. There was something to be said for communing with nature, maybe it would give her some clarity.
Long ago, her mother made her father promise he would wait to develop the patch of land. When she opened the file earlier, Ryane read that investors were pressuring her father to make a move, have the area be more than a shrine to his dead wife.
She sighed and stepped further into the forest. The thick trees blocked out the late afternoon sun and gave everything a sweet surreal glow, almost as if she were walking through a fairy tale on her way to a gingerbread house. One of the main things she remembered about being out here in the wilderness, as her father called it, was a little lake. When she was a child, her mother would take her here and they would toss stones into the water and watch the rings ripple out from the point of impact.
In an effort to save her shoes, she tiptoed through the leaves and smiled at a little patch of pink flowers. She picked one and continued on her trek, moving a low hanging branch aside and spying the sparkle of the water.
After making her way around some trees, she stopped. Someone was there in her spot, on her land.
At the sight of a man sitting at the edge of the lake on a rock, her heart sped. Not prepared to deal with this trespasser, she went to leave, only succeeding in tripping and catching her hands on a tree before she went down. “Oh.” The bark of the tree dug into her palms and she dropped her flower. “Ah!” She pushed back and stared down at her hands, dirty hands, with indents of tree in her flesh, and to make matters worse, she chipped a nail.
“Hey there, are you all right?” the man called to her. He wasn’t just any man, he had long flowing dark hair and a bit of scruff. Complete in what appeared to be a pair of ripped jeans and a well-worn leather jacket. If he were in the city, he might be able to pass as a trendy, rock star type, but out here he was most definitely a maniac wanting to kill her, or trap her like an animal.
Her breath caught and she nodded. “I’m fine.” She struggled to speak and put her hand on her bag in case she had to get something to defend herself. Lipstick and her out of range cell phone wouldn’t provide much defense. By the time someone found her dead body, the man could have dragged her anywhere or thrown her to the bottom of the lake. “I won’t bother you.” She would leave the land that belonged to her and get the proper people to get rid of him.
“Who said you were bothering me?” the man asked.
“I’m just going to go.” She took one slow step back, her feet crunching on the leaves and branches below her. Now she ruined her shoes for nothing and she would have to return to the world. “I didn’t know anyone was here.”
“Just because someone is here doesn’t mean you can’t be here,” he said.
The man had a point. At least she'd found herself an intellectual serial killer. “Be that as it may, I think I’ll just go back.” She had to get her chipped nail fixed before her grand dinner tonight.
“Before you go, may I ask you a question?” He turned, but made no indication he was going to move or run after her.
“Just one.” She hugged her purse to her chest. Maybe if she appeased him, he wouldn’t follow her when she left.
“Why is it that people are so terrified when they see another human being? I mean isn’t that how we meet, what binds us together? Everyone always starts out fearful and defensive.” When he tilted his head, his hair fell in his face, and he did that thing only guys with long hair did and flipped it back. His hair obeyed and drifted off to one side.
“I think it would depend on where you meet. I think it’s safe to say when one walks through a forest, encountering another person would be unlikely. It is a remote location, probably not the safest for a woman to go walking around alone.” There, she gave him an answer, now she had to depart.
“Then why are you walking out in the forest alone?” A smile lit up his face, showing off perfectly white teeth and a pair of dimples.
No way would she tell this man she owned the rock he sat upon and everything else, that would only ensure she would never see another sunrise. “I don’t know.” She exhaled and took a moment to stare out at the water. “I wanted to see how far my cell site would reach. How far did I have to drive to not be reachable?”
“And turning off your phone never occurred to you?” He laughed, deep and hearty as if he were completely and utterly amused.
She glanced down at the chip in her nail and ran a fingertip over the sharp imperfection marring her perfect French manicure. “I can’t turn it off, then I would be cheating.” She bent down, picked up the flower, then walked toward him. “If I turn it off, it would be considered irresponsible. Even my father can’t control if there’s a cell site, though you would think he could.”
He rubbed his hand over his chin. “Do you have a cell site now?”
Her chest seized. This was why no one believed in her. Here she drove away, far away, purposely going to a place where technology didn’t reach and this man was double checking she didn’t have some super cell phone in order to take his time torturing her. “Actually, I do, my experiment didn’t work.” She slid her cell phone out of her purse.
“You’re a bad liar.” He leaned back on the rock. “If I told you that there is no way I could run after you, nor do I have the desire to do you any harm, would you sit down, take in your pretty pink flower and enjoy the fact that you are off the grid? I’ll even lend you this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little nail file.
What her father would call stupidity, she called trust. Somewhere there had to be one good person who simply wanted to sit and look out at the lake. Almost as if she were under a spell, she tiptoed toward him, took his offering and then sat down on the edge of the rock. “Thank you, I’m—”
“No.” He cut her off. “Don’t tell me. No names, no games, no charade. Just two people who need to not have a cell site.”
“All right. That seems reasonable. No names, no games, no charade.” She would never give him her last name on the off chance he knew the Windsomes. Not used to tending to herself, she filed her nail, making it lopsided, but at least there was no chip. “Why don’t you want a cell site?”
“Every phone call I get seems to hold one horror story or another. Something I have to deal with, something I have to do, a commitment I don’t want to keep. The people I want to talk to never seem to call, those I don’t want to hear from have me on speed dial.” His voice lowered. “And you?”
He stared at her, revealing the most amazing blue eyes, light, shining and clear. In fact, now that she really took him in, he wasn’t a crazed mountain man, but one of those men who innately possessed style and edge, with a ring of a snake on one finger and a leather cuff on his wrist. She was the polar opposite in her designer business suit and smart jewelry. Part of her wished she could let loose and put on some leather and lace, maybe have something with a skull. Wouldn’t that shock her father?
“I think you and I are leading the same life, we’re just in different dimensions.” She gave him back the file.
“Most people aren’t all that different.” He twirled the little tool between his fingers. “Trying to hold on to something we want even if we shouldn’t have it. Trying to let go of something we have even if we need it.”
“Are you a scholar or wizard or something?” How did this man say exactly what was in her mind?
“No, just a guy with too much time and not enough sense.” He picked up a small pebble and tossed it into the lake. The small rock barely made a splash, but she watched the ripples anyway.
“I’m a girl with no time and a lot of dollars.” She shook her head and lifted her flower. When had she simply appreciated a flower? Last time she checked, she was upset the floral arrangement delivered to her office didn’t have the right pink roses. “Maybe I need to take the time to learn some stuff, look at a sunset, talk to a nameless man.”
“All things money can’t buy.” His voice echoed through the space.
They faced each other.
“Strange, isn’t it?” she whispered. How did she have a connection to a man who she didn’t know?
“Not really,” he said. “Maybe when you are caught up with whatever you do, you can remember that what you really want is free of charge, and that will give you a little comfort.”
“Who are you?” She had to know.
“Exactly what you see.” His tone teased her.
Ryane shook her head. Though she needed to leave, get back to her own life, deal with her father and dinners and trying to learn the business, she couldn’t quite move away from him yet. “Well, at least tell me what I should call you.”
He stared out over the lake as his long hair blew in the light breeze. “Why don’t you give me a name you find fitting?”
“I don’t understand.” Instead of leaving, she continued to sit there on the rock with the strange man.
“What does it matter what my name is?” He faced her. “I would rather you call me something you come up with. Isn’t it much more personal that way?”
The way his blue eyes took her all in and how his soft voice seemed to caress her, her breath caught and she swallowed. “Personal?”
“Yes, Petals, personal.” A low laugh escaped his throat. “Never be scared of being personal, be afraid when things become impersonal, then it means it doesn’t matter anymore.”
She paused. His words came out laced with sadness and she swore she felt heat form behind her eyes. “Petals?”
“It fits you. It came naturally. Soft and sweet, exceptionally beautiful and hiding something." He shrugged. “Your wheels are turning.”
“That’s not what some would say.” No, most would call her indecisive, incapable, and inept. However, the man did call her beautiful.
Again, he turned and looked out at the water. “Well, the some you speak of aren’t here, and I only see pretty Petals.”
She crossed her arms. “Maybe I don’t want to be soft and sweet.” No, not sweet. She wanted to be hard, a businesswoman, she wanted to be ruthless and cunning, a force to be reckoned with.
“You can’t deny what you are.” He shook his head. “Took me a long time to realize that.”
“I don’t think I’ve learned that lesson yet,” she whispered.
Together they remained side by side. The sun lowered in the sky, appearing as if it was melting behind the mountains in the distance. Before she lost all the light, she had to leave. “I need to go.” She slipped down the rock, falling with a thud into a little patch of moss.
He slid down the rock and offered her his hand. “You need to be careful.”
Without even thinking, she placed her hand in his and he helped her up.
“Thank you.” She didn’t let go. Instead, she took a moment to let his soft hand encompass hers.
“Consider me at your service.” He dipped his head down and kissed the back of her hand.
“Knight.” Her cheeks heated and she bit her lip. Like he predicted, his name simply came to her.
“Pardon?” He raised his eyebrows.
“You’re like a knight.” A bit of confidence racing through her, she reached over and found a branch. “In fact, that’s what I’ll call you.” As if she were truly knighting him, she tapped the stick on both his shoulders.
He bowed his head. “I must say, Petals, I am honored.”
“I really have to go.” She looked down. For the first time in a long time she didn’t have a pit in her stomach weighing her down. Part of her never wanted this moment to end. The magic would be gone.
“Go chew up the corporate world, but don’t forget to stay soft and sweet.” He let his hand slip away from hers, then reached over and gave her the flower and returned to his perch on the rock.
The moment he let go her body tensed. Reality was out there, back in meetings and contracts and deals. “Will I see you again?”
“Apparently, I’m a knight. If you need me you’ll know where to find me.” He gave her a wink.
“Goodbye.” Not wanting to let him out of her sight, she backed up. All she knew was she would have to return.