Chapter 21

Ryan

“Over here is where all the computers are being set up,” I said, pointing to the right.

I was doing a group interview with a bunch of journalists and showing them around the facilities. It was only an hour after I had a ton of conference calls to take, so at first, I wasn’t looking forward to it at all, but it wasn’t actually going that badly. Everyone was attentive, listening to everything I said, snapping pictures of everything, and walking along quietly. Not a single one of them even so much as mentioned Natasha or any of her bullshit allegations. I figured that maybe it had finally blown over or maybe my PR rep had finally sent me a bunch of professionals to look over the facility. But, as always, there was another surprise waiting in the wings, one that I was not expecting in the least. I stopped and turned toward the group, about to take another round of questions from them. A young woman in the front raised her hand, and I nodded at her.

“This question is just a little off the topic of your company, but I know everyone wants to ask it,” she said.

“If it’s about the Russians, I’ve already said my piece,” I said.

“No,” she said with a smile. “Not about the Russians. We wanted to know about the identity of the woman you were photographed kissing in the vineyard not far from here.”

“I’m sorry? What picture?” I said, looking down as the journalist showed me on her tablet. “Uh, I would really prefer not to comment on that. Next question?”

“The woman has been identified as a local veterinarian,” another reporter shouted out, looking down at her notes. “A Sara Baxter. She’s apparently considered a pillar of the local community here in Baxter. Would you like to give a statement on your relationship with her? Are you dating?”

“Listen,” I said, shaking my head. “I think that I have revealed enough about my life over the last six months with the Russian scandal. I want to ask that you and other journalists consider respecting my private life. Now, if there aren’t more questions about the facility, I’ll show you the way out.”

I ignored the questions flying at me and nodded at the security guard standing close by. I turned right down the hall, but he stopped them from following, showing them back out the front doors. I headed down to my office and closed the door, sitting down behind the desk. I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes, shaking my head. Just the mention of Sara’s name brought back all the thoughts and feelings that had not been far from the front of my mind since I’d dropped her off the night before. She never really left my mind, and apparently, now she was on the mind of a whole lot of people.

I turned in my chair and pulled up my Facebook account, scrolling through the picture of us kissing. Every major outlet had run the story, and they didn’t make me or her look good in any kind of light. I slammed my fist down on the desk and leaned back again, looking up at the ceiling. I had really enjoyed my time with Sara, maybe too much, in fact. I had found myself thinking about forever with her at the vineyard, kissing her like I planned on doing it for a lifetime. All the while, the real world was lurking right around the corner, popping up to remind me I wasn’t the kind of guy who got the happily ever after, no matter how much money I had in my pocket.

Sara was too wholesome, too good of a person to end up with someone like me. She had a heart of gold, the kind of woman who would give her last dollar to someone to help them out. She wasn’t the kind of girl I was known to be with, and now everyone was going to see her in a completely different light. None of them were going to know how amazing she was and how I didn’t deserve even a second glance from a woman like her. No one was going to give her the benefit of the doubt. I had been an asshole for my entire life, no matter what my intentions had started out to be. I had done things I was not proud of, especially back in my old neighborhood. I’d had to help my mom keep the lights on, and I’d had to do anything I could to help put food on the table and keep things flowing in that house. I grew up long before I was supposed to, and I learned how to live life and how not to live life, and all because of the situations I’d found myself in through the years.

Sara had a future ahead of her, a life, a future family, a practice that she had built, and she did all of without ever treating anyone poorly. If I stuck around in her life, I would do nothing but drag her down, down, and down until everything she had worked so hard for was ruined. That was what I did, that was what the media did to unsuspecting people like her. They pushed and pulled until they had taken the last bit of a person, and when the story was done, they walked away, never looking back. No matter how hard my life had been, my mother had taught me better than that. Hell, just seeing how she wasn’t treated fairly was enough to make me know better. Sara deserved a good man, better than I could ever be. The least I could do was try to be a good person and call things off with her before she lost everything and everyone.

I owed her that, and so much more. I had come into her life, forced my way in, and now she was paying the price for the fact that I didn’t think things through like I should have. How I didn’t get a call from PR when this story first leaked was beyond me. At least then, I could have stopped it, slowed it down, or something. But no. I found out hours after it had been published. I sighed and put my head in my hands, shaking it back and forth. Almost as if the rep was psychic, my office phone rang, and it was her.

“I seriously want to know why no one caught this story when it first went out,” I said angrily. “I just found out about it during a group interview with a bunch of young, idiot reporters.”

“I tried to call you this morning,” she said. “But you must have been out of range. Why in the world do you sound so angry?”

“This is just what I need, more bad press, and to top it all off, this girl is actually a really good person,” I said.

“First of all, this is not bad press,” she said. “It’s playing out really well in the press. Secondly, if you find the real journalists who actually did their research, you would see they talked about her as an upstanding member of the community. A civilian to royalty kind of enchantment to the story. I like it, Ryan, so stop freaking out. I want you to keep it up.”

“That’s not possible,” I said. “I’m leaving town really soon, so this relationship, it’s not sustainable.”

“So, bring her back to New York,” she said.

“There’s no way she would agree to that,” I said. “Her life is here in this small town. She has a practice, she’s happy here, and the last thing she wants is to be dragged to the city and made the center of attention.”

“I need you to reconsider leaving then,” she said. “Please, Ryan. You know I don’t beg, but I’m begging you right now. We have killed ourselves trying to get an ounce of good press, and now that you have it, you want to run from it. You owe me this.”

“No,” I said. “I pay you to kill yourself for good press.”

“Come on,” she groaned. “Staying a couple more weeks in Bonanza is not going to kill you. A couple of weeks with this Sara girl will do more to erase all the bullshit of your past faster than a thousand green energy projects will.”

“Are you serious?”

“Heart-attack serious,” she said.

“Fine, I will think about it,” I said. “But you need to know this can’t go on forever. I’ll call you later.”

“You’re my hero,” she said before I hung up the phone.

Holy crap, how did I go from being the villain, allegedly working with the Russians, to being America’s sweetheart love story overnight? It was frustrating and unbelievable, and I knew Sara was going to hate it, every second of the press. I didn’t know what to do. I liked her, more than liked her, in fact, and beyond just hanging out and laughing with her, I loved the idea of another passionate night of sex with her. It was dangerous, though, and it could end in a bad way with a lot of hurt feelings. At the same time, I couldn’t get this girl off my mind, and ever since we got back from the vineyard, I had been dreading the idea of leaving her and going back to my old life in the city. I hated to even think about not seeing her anymore and letting everything that we had become float away like it never happened.

I sat up in my chair and put my hand to my chin, thinking about what the PR agent said to me. Maybe all of this was a sign, and maybe she was the right woman to help me with this transition into a better, stronger life. She already made me want to be a better man, to help others like she did, to remember where I came from and to stay humble when the rich part of me tried to take over. I had never been that careful with anyone in my life. Maybe I needed Sara to continue along that path, a woman who was sweet, honest, and accepting. Someone who didn’t make me feel like shit because I had too much money or not enough money. The girl didn’t give two shits about my bank account and could sit at a breakfast table laughing at corny jokes with me over pancakes and muffins.

I had never met anyone like her before, and I had a feeling I wouldn’t again. She was a one of a kind person and the kind of woman who didn’t exist in the world anymore. She was exactly what I needed, and I didn’t even know it until she was right there in my arms. There was no real way I could walk away from her, no matter how hard I tried to tell myself I could. I had to be resolute, and I knew I wanted to take my relationship with Sara to the next level, even if that meant being in Bonanza longer than I expected.

A warmth filled my chest thinking about having more time with her, showing her how much I cared. I needed to do something special for her, especially after what happened today. I thought about it for a second and then remembered our conversation at the barbecue restaurant. That was it. I would stop by her house that night with supplies and cook her a home-cooked meal.