Chapter 8

Sara

I looked across the table at that handsome man sitting across from me, and I couldn’t help but think about how much I was enjoying my dinner with him. In fact, I was enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I really had figured I would be there, but my mind would be back on the cat in my driveway, but he took all of that away, quieting my mind and giving me something much happier to focus on. Ryan was such an interesting guy. He had so many different layers to him, nothing like I thought a rich guy from New York City would be like. He was really grounded, really down to earth, and it was refreshing. I admired his life and how he’d built his own fortune through hard work and patience, not by anyone handing him anything. I had met people who were rich because their family was rich, not because they’d earned it, and they never appreciated the small things in life. They were always looking toward the bigger items, the shopping, the money, not the accomplishments and hard work it took to get there.

“So, what’s after the ranch?” I asked.

“We have some things working, all in the energy field.” He smiled. “But you know what? I feel like an asshole.”

“Why?” I laughed.

“Because I have this beautiful, mysterious, interesting woman sitting in front of me and I have been doing nothing but monopolizing the entire conversation,” he said.

“I don’t know about mysterious, interesting, or even beautiful, but I’m enjoying hearing about your life.” I laughed.

He smiled. “And I want to hear about yours. Tell me about you. I want to know everything.”

When he asked me about my life, I suddenly felt so shy. He had done so much, conquered the world, built big things, created technologies that changed the way we viewed our computers. I had done pretty much nothing compared to him, and I felt like any attempt to make my life seem anything but ordinary would be futile. I knew he wasn’t going to let me out of it, though. He wanted to know about me and my little life.

“Well,” I said, sighing deeply. “My life is nowhere near as exciting as yours has been. I can promise you that.”

“That’s a good thing.” He smiled. “Tell me.”

“I grew up right here in Bonanza,” I said. “I lived on my parents’ dairy farm on the other side of town, played with cows, ran around with my best friend, Alison. I knew I wanted to be a vet as long as I could remember, so I went to a school right outside of town and then built up my vet business here in Bonanza. There wasn’t another vet within fifty miles, so I knew we needed one here. When it was up and running and I had moved into my house, my parents closed the farm and retired to Phoenix.”

I felt completely and utterly boring compared to his story. There was nothing exciting about my life unless you counted the surprise cow births or doing surgery on a horse. Other than that, it was just me and the animals.

“What kind of animals do you work on?”

“All kinds,” I said. “Well, almost. I don’t have the education for exotic pets, but I can figure it out if I need to. I work with a lot of large farm animals and then your run-of-the-mill dogs and cats.”

“That sounds really cool to be able to help animals like that,” he said. “Very rewarding. I’m hoping I find that kind of satisfaction in my work, you know? The kind that makes you feel good when you go to bed because you helped someone or something.”

He was charming and sweet and did everything he could to dig deeper. I was flattered at the fact that he was so interested in knowing about me. There weren’t many eligible men in Bonanza, and the ones who were, really had no clue. When dinner was done, he paid the bill and smiled over at me.

“Let’s take a walk, and you can show me around downtown,” he said.

“All right,” I said. “But only if you have about, uhm, five or so minutes to see everything.”

“I think I can spare the time.” He laughed.

We walked out of the building and across the street, taking the sidewalk downtown. The entire time, he cracked small town jokes, making me laugh until my stomach hurt. I really liked being around him. It was like opening my eyes for the first time.

“Have you ever been to New York City?” he asked as we strolled along.

“The Big Apple? No.” I chuckled. “Honestly, the biggest city I’ve ever been to is Portland, and I really didn’t like it that much. Have you been to Portland?”

“No,” he said. “But I’ve been to Seattle, which was interesting. I went to the fish market and to the first Starbucks and ate some fries from a food truck. That was about the extent of it, but it was worlds away from New York City.”

“Yeah? What is New York like?”

“Busy, crowded, crazy all the time.” He chuckled. “But so beautiful. There’s the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial, the park, the boroughs, and so many different shops and restaurants. The ethnicity diversity in the city is amazing. You can go one block down and have the best Irish food you’ve ever had outside of Ireland itself and then turn the corner and eat a scone that will change your life.”

“Wow, life-changing scones.” I laughed. “It sounds really amazing. It does. I just don’t think I could see myself there.”

“I think you’d be surprised when you got there,” he said. “I think you would fit right in.”

“Maybe, or maybe I would get lost and never find my way home.” I chuckled. “I’m a small-town girl, born and raised on the farm, knowing everyone’s names, going to a million weddings and even more funerals. Going to town carnivals and seeing the lights twinkle at the tree lighting ceremony in the winter. In a way, I think small town is bred in me. I have imagined living in those places, but I know in my heart, I would always miss this, you know?”

“I don’t, but I think I can relate in some ways.” He smiled.

We walked back to the restaurant, and he helped me into the SUV, smiling as he closed the door behind me. I watched as he hustled around to the driver’s side and climbed in. He was so handsome all the time, and it was amazing to me how good of a time I was having. He sat there for a second, looking down the empty street, turning to me and grabbing my hand. Tingles of excitement blew through me as he started the car and headed back to my house. The drive home didn’t take long at all, and I found myself wishing I lived much farther away. I wasn’t ready to say good night to him. I honestly felt like I could sit there and talk to him all night out under the stars. We knew nothing about each other, which never happened in a small town like this. It was invigorating getting to know someone like this, finding out all their secrets, all the things that made them tick. The memories someone pointed out in the beginning were always good indicators of what kind of person they were.

The car pulled down my street and toward the house, the lights passing over the other houses. As he pulled up in front, the headlights shone brightly on the garage. I froze, dropping his hand and sitting forward, staring at the driveway. There was something on the ground between my car and the garage door, something that looked like it was once alive. I blinked, feeling him looking over at me.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s something on the ground in front of the garage,” I said. “I can’t tell what it is, but I think it’s an animal of some kind.”

He leaned over and looked at the mound on the ground, leaning back in his chair. I turned and looked at him, a frown covering my face. Not again. This couldn’t be happening again.

“You stay here,” he said. “I’m going to go check it out.”

He got out and ran toward the house, stopping a few feet from the animal. I slowly got out of the car and walked up behind him, seeing a fawn lying in the driveway, its throat cut, blood trickling down the driveway. I put my hands over my mouth and gasped. Ryan turned around and stood in front of me, staring into my tear-filled eyes. He forced me to look at him, grabbing me by the shoulders and bending his head down to my level.

“I want you to go inside and lock the door,” he said. “I’m going to take care of this, okay? When I’m done, I’ll walk around back to make sure I don’t see anything unusual, and then, I’ll knock on the back door. I want you to go inside, though. You don’t need to be out here for this.”

I shook my head, tears beginning to stream down my face. I didn’t understand what was happening or why anyone would do something like this. It was a baby and obviously had not died from an accident or from natural causes. Someone had killed that poor baby and dumped it in front of my garage, right where the cat had been. I looked up at Ryan and opened my mouth to protest, but he shook his head.

“I’m serious,” he said in a low, calm voice. “I want you to go inside and let me take care of this, okay?”

I nodded and walked to the front door. I searched through my purse, finding my keys and pulling them out. I grabbed them with both hands, trying to steady them from shaking. I got the key inside, opened the door, and quickly shut it behind me. I locked both locks and leaned my back against it, sobbing into my hands. Who could have done something so terrible like that? I took in a deep breath and leaned my head back, wiping the tears from my face. I needed to get myself under control. I couldn’t lose it just because there was a man there to protect me.

I walked down the hall, turning on all the lights in the house and grabbing the teapot. I filled it with water, watching my hands still shaking, and put it on the stove. I needed some nice, warm tea, something that would help calm my nerves and help me get my emotions under control. As the water heated, I pulled down two mugs and the teabags, deciding on English Breakfast. I prepared the cups with sugar and the bags and waited for the water to boil. I looked toward the back door, wondering what could be taking Ryan so long. He’d told me to stay in the house, and that was what I was going to do until something forced me otherwise. As the teapot began to scream, I picked it up and poured the hot water into the mugs, setting it back down on a cool burner.

I turned to grab a spoon from the center island and screamed, grabbing my chest. Ryan was standing at the back door looking in, and I must not have heard him knock with the teapot going off. I walked over and unlocked the door, letting him inside and locking it behind him. This night was going to get the best of me yet.