Chapter 14

Sara

I could see this Alec guy, all suited up in a thousand-dollar dress shirt and an apron that said “Kiss the Chef” on the front of it, his grill practically on fire. I couldn’t help but laugh. It was definitely the most awkward thing I could imagine happening in a place like the Hamptons, which I had only heard of in magazines and movies. I took a bite of my food and shook my head, looking up at Ryan.

“Have you ever done any of your own cooking?” I asked. “Or do you have an army of butlers cater everything for you?”

Ryan threw his head back and laughed, a real, deep, genuine laugh. It was almost contagious, and I found myself giggling at him. He was so cute with those dimples and that perfect smile. It was almost hard to believe he was a real person sitting across from me.

“No butlers.” He laughed, taking a drink of his beer. “Not even a cook. I’ve been feeding myself since I was old enough to use a stove, which was probably still too young by normal family standards. My mother worked two jobs, one that started at about eleven in the morning working for a dry cleaner down the street and the other an overnight shift at the diner. She barely ever slept, and when she was home, she was either taking a quick nap before the next shift or tending to some mess my father had made. I was put in charge of cooking dinner for the family, even if the words weren’t actually spoken. It was that or my mother didn’t eat, and I lived off cereal and whatever I could scrounge out of the fridge.”

“Wow,” I said. “My mom taught me to cook but not until I was older.”

“I have to say,” he said, smiling. “Even though I do all the cooking for myself, it’s nice to know that if I wanted to, I could pay someone else to do the hard work and cleanup, especially the cleanup. I hate doing the dishes and even more so when I’m only cooking for myself. It took me a while to learn how to cook for one person. My first six months of living alone, my fridge was constantly full of leftovers because I cooked enough for an army.”

“I know how that feels. I used to do the same thing.” I smiled. “As far as affording someone to clean up and do the hard work, I would imagine it would feel good to be able to afford to do that, especially after working your way up from where you came from. It’s nice to see that you haven’t forgotten where you came from. That’s important to remember. Still, I’d really like to see you cook sometime, find out what that rich boy palette is really like.”

“You mean like sloppy joes?” He laughed.

“Oh, no.” I smiled and then giggled. “Why does that not surprise me?”

“Hey, I have an idea,” he said, his eyes heating up as he looked over at me. “Why don’t you let me cook you a poor boy, rich boy breakfast tomorrow morning. You can see what I can do first thing in the morning, you get fed, and I get an excuse to spend more time with you. As you can see, I’ve been looking for any excuse to spend more time with you, even getting barbecue sauce all over my face and telling you horror stories from my childhood.”

I shifted in my seat, putting my hands in my lap and gripping my napkin tightly. I knew exactly what he was trying to say, and it wasn’t for him to come over first thing in the morning but instead for him to still be there from the night before. I could already imagine us sitting around the breakfast table, feeding our stomachs after a hot night in the bedroom. Just thinking about it made me weak in the knees, and I could feel the heat almost radiating off my skin. What was so wrong about that anyway? We were two adults, two consenting adults, who were having a blast being around each other. The sexual tension between us was growing stronger by the minute, and we had obviously been attracted to each other since the first time we’d met. Maybe it was time I invited him over and saw exactly what he could do with that bulge I felt pressing against my side that night in my kitchen.

Then, my mind shifted, and I remembered Janson and the fact that he and his cronies were keeping a really tight watch on me. He had already sent his deputy after me, watching me as I went out to the ranch, and there was a serious possibility he had something to do with the animals in my driveway. Who knew what he would do if he found out Ryan had stayed over at my place? He was a wild card, one I wasn’t particularly interested in playing with. It would be like playing with fire, only I knew exactly who would get burned, and neither Ryan or I needed that in our lives. Janson was not someone to be fooled with.

I could feel Ryan staring at me intently across the table, and as much as I wanted to invite him over, I knew I couldn’t. I needed to change the subject, to get our minds on something else so I could avoid the discomfort of the moment. I didn’t want him to think I wasn’t interested, but at the same time, I didn’t want to tell him about Janson and how he’d been basically stalking me since Ryan and I started seeing each other.

“So,” I said, clearing my throat. “Do you do a lot of interviews like the one you did today?”

“Yeah,” he said with a smirk, watching me divert the attention. “I definitely do my fair share. There was a lot of attention when I sold that system to the social media site, and then it kind of escalated from there. It can be a good thing and a bad thing, but that’s why I have a PR team to schedule all of that, talk about what questions I won’t be answering, and try to push the interviews in a positive manner. I’m pretty open to them, though. It helps with business.”

“That sounds absolutely miserable.” I laughed. “Having to expose my personal life to everyone in the world. Having people scrutinize everything about my life from what I was wearing to what decisions I made. I don’t think I could handle living like that. I don’t know how you do it, and I especially don’t know how people like movie stars and musicians do it, either, people who are constantly in the public eye. I like my little, private, boring life with the only person asking me what I’m doing is the horse in the stables during feeding time.”

“Do you hear horses, sweetie?” He chuckled. “If you hear horses, we should go talk to someone and not a journalist.”

“No.” I laughed, throwing my napkin at him. “I’m an introvert. I like my me time, and I like only choosing to talk to certain people. I don’t understand how people can do it constantly being in the public eye like that. Everyone’s always watching, judging, making assumptions that aren’t true. It would drive me absolutely crazy, and on top of that, I have thin skin. I would be hunting down reporters left and right who lied about me and my life like in tabloids.”

“I understand that, and trust me, it’s not something I enjoy in the least,” he said. “When I started all of this, I never even thought about that side of the coin, about the public’s intervention into my private life, but when it came, I had to learn to accept it. I didn’t realize how important the PR part of a company really is. It can literally make you or break you. It’s a way to monitor my brand and try to maneuver the news in a way that keeps the public’s perception of me and the company positive.”

He made a lot of sense, but I still felt bad that he had to deal with it like that. When dinner was done, I felt that regretful feeling again, not wanting the evening to end. I could see in Ryan’s eyes that he felt the exact same way, but I knew I couldn’t invite him back to my house. He put his napkin on his plate and smiled at me.

“You know what?”

“What?” I smiled.

“I’m not ready for the night to end. Let’s go for a drive,” he said.

“I like that idea,” I replied.

We headed out of town, driving under the twinkling stars. I directed him to a butte with a nice lookout that I figured we could stargaze under. We pulled out past the trees and got out of the car. I stretched my arms up over my head and walked over beside Ryan, looking down at the beautiful town lights sparkling beneath us. It was one of my favorite places in town. He put his arm around me and kept me close to him.

“I had a really nice time in your little town,” he whispered. “And it’s all because of you.”

I turned and looked into his eyes, breathless from his words. He leaned down and pressed his lips against mine, kissing me gently. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling the passion ignite between us. It was suddenly my new favorite place to be.