“Sarah,” Stephanie’s mother started. She was pretty nice, a little on the racist side, but as long as you were white she was sweet, I guess. “I can’t believe your mother didn’t tell you to keep away from there.”
“Well,” I cut her off, “my mother doesn’t treat me like a little kid. I would hope she wouldn’t think so lowly of me to try and control what I do.” I was not impressed with her attitude.
The entire room fell silent, including Stephanie’s mom. No one said anything for quite a few seconds as I looked around the living room. “You know, this is such a nice house.”
Stephanie looked relived to have something else to talk about. “Yes. John and I bought it last year. Well, actually, we had it built for us.” I could hear her pride.
“Really? That’s amazing.” I turned to John. “What do you do for a living?”
“I own a few of the clothing stores in town. And the boat rental down by Lake Micky.”
“Hmm.” I paused, pursing my lips. “I’m so glad to see you doing so well for yourself.”
I stopped talking, catching my mother’s eye. She looked worried, and I didn’t blame her.
“It’s awesome how much this town has grown,” I continued. “I remember growing up we thought for sure this place was going to go under. We hardly had any stores. Now we have multiples of almost everything. And you,” I pointed to John, “own a boat rental? That’s …” I shook my head trailing off. I looked down at my glass of wine, then looked up from under my lashes. “I remember my Gran saying she always prayed for the town to be able to come back from the recession. I’m so glad to see her prayers have been answered.”
There was no mention of Ken or his brothers. No mention of the ranch, but everyone knew what I implied. Everyone knew the ranch was the only reason things had boomed here. If Ken’s family hadn’t bought the ranch and done half as well as they did, no one would ever bother coming here.
I took a sip of my wine as everyone sat in silence. My mother caught my eye, taking a sip of her own wine.
“Your grandma would be so proud,” she said, and I was pretty sure she wasn’t just talking about the town.
Ken
I sat outside at one of the tables, a cold beer in my hand and a grin on my face.
“What are you so happy about?”
I glanced over to see Jeff. He made his way over to me, and I shrugged. “Nothing. What do you want?”
“Let me guess, you have another date.”
“It’s not a date. She’s not ready to date, so it’s a sorta date.”
“A sorta date?” My brother raised an eyebrow as he sat down beside me. “What do you mean she’s not ready to date? What does the rumor mill say about her?”
“It’s not what the rumor mill says. It’s what she says. She’s divorced.”
“Oh, ouch.” Jeff grimaced.
I nodded. I was sure it was rough on her. I hadn’t brought it up more than a couple times because I didn’t want it to seem like a big deal.
“How’s she dealing with it?” Jeff asked.
“Really well. Like, surprisingly well.” She didn’t seem upset about it at all, honestly. My brow furrowed. Should that be a red flag? I wasn’t sure at this point. “Anyway, enough about her. How’s your girlfriend doing?”
“She’s fine. She’s excited to be coming out here for the summer.”
“Good!”
We’d brought up Tasha at the last meeting, and we all agreed to give her a weekend test to make sure she was going to be a good fit for our staff; mostly just to make sure these two could handle being in the same kitchen together. After that we’d move on to a month, and then if they were both still happy with their relationship, we were going to hire her full time. We had plans to expand the place, so it would be important to have more than one cook on site. Once we got the place renovated, we were going to reach out to radio stations, traveling groups, and anyone else we could think of who might be willing to book our rooms if they got a bulk rate.
“It will be nice to see her again.”
“I bet.” I grinned. Jeff had been to see her three times already, including the first time she left the ranch. He decided to go home with her because he wanted to spend more time with her. I’m glad Sarah lives so close. I watched my two older brother’s struggle over the distance in their relationships. As much as they loved the girls, they disliked it and I could tell.
But they really do love them. I watched my two brothers – who for years had been jumping at the hottest piece of ass they could find – turn down girls who could be models because of the women they were in love with.
I gave my brother a smile. He glanced down at his cell phone. “I, um … she’s about to call. Is it okay if …?”
“Go.” I didn’t make him finish his sentence. It wasn’t a big deal if he wanted to talk to his girlfriend. I totally understood, and I didn’t want him to feel bad. “Tell her I say hello and that we can’t wait to see her when she comes out.”
My brother smiled as he lifted himself off the bench and headed for his room, his phone ringing just as he was about out of sight.
Sarah
I dropped down on the couch and let out a loud sigh. “If I never have to do that again, I will be happy.” I closed my eyes and tried to de-stress from the night. Trust me, it was hard. I inhaled a deep breath remembering how all my friends had practiced meditation and sworn by it. We’ll see about that, I thought.
“You were quite the dinner guest tonight,” my mother said, sitting down beside me.
I brought my feet up onto the couch, bending my knees and wrapping my arms around them. “I didn’t like the way they were talking about Ken and his brothers.”
“I could tell.” My mother grinned. She watched me for a couple of seconds. “And I’m sure they just about shit themselves when you said you had a date with him tomorrow.”
I opened my mouth to protest. It wasn’t a date. But nothing came out. I stared at my mother, my eyes wide. She just said ‘shit’. I sighed. “I don’t really get why they all seem to have this hate for him.”
“Because you know what small towns are like. Once one bad thing happens between someone and –”
“What bad thing happened? What could they have done to make the whole town hate them?”
My mother pursed her lips. She shifted to face me dead on. “When they moved here … one of them, I don’t remember which one but not Ken, started dating a young girl.”
I already didn’t like where this was going, but I stuck through it. I waited for my mother to tell me all the details.
“I’m not sure what happened and I’ll probably never know, but they broke up. And … she took it really bad. Little Jamie. Do you remember her?”
My heart dropped into my stomach. I knew where this was going. I remembered my mom telling me when the girl killed herself. I remembered sending flowers to the family. “Oh god.”
But how could they blame the brothers for it? It was a stupid thing to think. I knew how they could, though – by banding together and picking the one thing they could hold against someone to make themselves feel better.
“The truth is, I don’t think a lot of people in town hate them. They just hopped on the bandwagon.”
“And did you?”
“No.”
I felt relief the second my mother said it. I was glad she didn’t hold it against them; I was glad she wasn’t like most people in town. I had been when I was younger, but these days I was a very different person than I had been growing up here.
“So that was it?” The way everyone looked when they talked about the boys up at the ranch, I would have thought things were much worse. “I mean,” I added quickly, “they didn’t hurt her or anything? She just had a broken heart?”
“As far as I know, yes.”
I nodded, taking it all in.
I pushed myself up and stretched my arms over my head. “I’m going to bed,” I said, turning and heading for the stairs. I took them slowly, thinking
about everything my mother had said to me. The truth is, I wanted to talk to Ken about it. I wanted to know what he thought about everything. Maybe I should invite the brothers over for dinner, I thought. It might be nice for them to know that there were at least two people in town who didn’t hate them. Hell, two people in town who liked them.
I made my way down the hallway at the top of the stairs and then into my room, closing the door behind me. I shed my clothing quickly and pulled on a pair of yoga pants that were older than I’d like to admit. I crawled into bed and pulled the blankets over me, closing my eyes. 2:00. That was when I was going to meet him. Then, I’d tell him the truth. I’d found out why people hated them in town. I wouldn’t hide it, but I would hide who told me. And I’d tell him right off the bat I didn’t care. That I wasn’t going to hold anything against his brother.
I just hope it’s the right call. Some people might get mad about it, but I wanted to be honest.
~~~~
I was pacing by the time he said he’d come pick me up. Just take a deep breath, I thought, trying to calm myself. It didn’t work.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I grabbed it as quickly as I could. Not that it would be him. He didn’t have my cell phone number, which was stupid of me to forget to give him.
I stared down at my phone. There was a text from one of my friends. She had found a place she thought I should look at. When are you coming back? I read those words again and again. They replayed in my mind.
I glanced up to the sound of tires against gravel. My heart did a backflip as I saw him through the windshield. Then it crashed. When are you coming back? I couldn’t stop thinking about those words as I stepped out of the house.
“Hey!” he called, getting out of the car and resting against the door frame. “You ready?”
“Yes.” I felt as if I’d been kicked. All the air was sucked out of my body as I walked over to his car and slid into the passenger seat.
He looked at me, his brow furrowing. “What’s wrong, Sarah?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly. I’m pretty sure it was too quick and he realized there was something up, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t focus enough to actually pretend to be okay. I stared out the window as we made our way down the driveway and to the ranch.
“How was the fish last night?”
“I didn’t get a chance to have it, sadly.” I paused as I glanced over at him. I don’t want to tell you right off the bat … But now was the time, right? “I got invited to dinner by Stephanie and her husband.”
I watched his entire body tense. “Oh. How was that?”
“Burning, mostly. Although I did find out a couple of interesting things. Like how beneficial the ranch has been to them.”
Ken nodded. I watched as he stared out the windshield as if we were navigating in New York, not in some small town where the population was 432. “I see.”
“And yes, your family was brought up at one point during the night.” I decided to cut right to the chase. “Yeah, I know why they all hate you guys. At least, I think I do. I know some of it.”
“Which part?”
“About … your brother and Jamie.”
I watched all the color drain from his face. “Oh.”
“Just for the record, I think they are all stupid for acting the way they do. It obviously wasn’t his fault.”
Some of the color came back, but he still looked pale. “Thanks.”
I shrugged. It was the truth.
“And what else did they tell you?”
“Nothing. I shut them down pretty quickly when I reminded them that your ranch is the reason they can afford the house they live in.”
Ken snorted. “You actually said that?”
“Not outright.” I knew better than to do that. I wasn’t interested in starting any huge feud. I just wanted to remind them they shouldn’t be rude. I wasn’t sure if I had managed that, or if there would just be more rumors about me than there would be about the ranch. Either way, I didn’t care. I’ll be out of here soon.
A twinge of pain shot through my chest. I shouldn’t feel hurt when I thought of leaving. So why did I?
It doesn’t make sense, I thought as we pulled up the driveway to the ranch. I’ve known all along I was leaving. I couldn’t wait for it a few days ago. It had never been the plan for me to stay; well, at least not my plan. My mother wanted it, but that was just her being hopeful. I cracked my neck as we came to a stop.
“Just for the record,” Ken turned to me, shutting off the engine. “It would mean a lot if you didn’t mention to Jeff that you know about him and Jamie.”
I wanted to frown, but I gave the man beside me a smile. “I’m not stupid,” I reminded him, my smile widening as I slipped out of the car. “So, more fishing today?”
“Yes. This time a little different, though.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I actually just came back here because I forgot something. You stay, I’ll be right back.”
I stared at him, confused as he turned and headed into the check-in building.
Through the window, I watched as he talked to someone else there. He glanced out at me and smiled, waving. I waved back. Is that Jeff? I hadn’t seen his other two brothers in a long time. I wasn’t sure who was who. I hadn’t even realized it was him when I first met him, I reminded myself.
Ken grabbed something. A backpack. I knew because he slipped it over his shoulders and then came out. “You ready?”
“Yes. Where are we going?”
“Back in the car,” he said as he crossed over to it, opened the driver’s door, and got inside. I got into the passenger’s seat and glanced at him as he put the backpack in the backseat.
“Okay, and now where?”
“That’s a surprise.” He grinned.
My brow creased. Why would he be taking me somewhere else to go fishing? I mean, he had a lake right by his place. This didn’t make sense.
Still, I didn’t say anything for a while as we made our way down one of the dirt roads. When I did finally say something, it was just chitchat. We talked about what we’d been up to since high school; we talked about our family. We talked about everything except where we were headed.
As the car slowed down, I was beginning to wonder where the fuck we were going.
“I noticed the fishing was a little dry yesterday,” he said, finally giving me a hint I might get to find out more about his plans.
“And?”
“And I decided to fix that.”
I stared out the window as we drove up a narrow driveway. I raised an eyebrow and glanced back over to Ken. “You’re taking me to someone else’s’ house?” It was the best I could guess.
“For now.”
“For now? What the hell does that mean?” The man wasn’t making any sense and I was beginning to wonder what I’d gotten myself into. I knew now there was no backing out, but still. I had no clue what to expect and it kinda freaked me out.
I could feel my heart rate increase.
The car came to a stop and Ken pulled the keys from the ignition before slipping out of the car and grabbing the backpack.
“Hey, there!” a man called. “You’re the one who booked the plane?”
Wait, what?
I tripped over my own feet as I heard those words.
“Yes, is it ready to go?”
“Sure thing, come this way.” The man motioned for us to take a small dirt path. I grabbed Ken’s arm. “Plane?” I hissed.
“I hope heights don’t scare you,” he said with a wide smile.
Oh, they didn’t. “But … how?”
“Easy. I just made a couple of phone calls.”
He laughed softly and my jaw dropped. Was he for real? He made a couple phone calls. That was how he was going to explain this?
“Come on, you’re making us trail behind.” He grabbed my hand, our fingers tangling together, and he pulled me along with him. We fell into pace with the man who would be flying the p
lane.
“All the information went through, I assume?” Ken asked.
“Sure did. Thank you for your speedy payment. I can’t say I’ve ever had someone ask me to rent out the plane for a pleasure ride. Normally, it’s for their crops.”
“Well, you’re the one closest to us, so I figured I’d start with you and see where it went.” Ken smiled. He squeezed my hand gently. “Turns out, it went pretty well.”
The other man laughed as he adjusted his baseball cap.
All in all, he looked like the typical farmer. Dirty jeans, dirty shirt, and sun weathered skin. He turned to me. “You must be a very special lady.”
“I feel it,” I admitted, unsure of what else I was supposed to say. I bit my lip, trying to process everything. What had he said to the farmer? I wondered.
“Well, there she is.”
He pointed to the left and we saw the airplane. It was small compared to some of the ones I’d been on, but it still looked huge up close. “Wow,” I whispered.
~~~~
“Okay, here ya go. Give me a shout when you’re ready to come back, and I’ll come get ya.” The man, Erle, handed Ken a walkie-talkie.
“Thank you. We’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we’re finished.”
We watched as he made his way to the plane. I looked out over the place where we’d been dropped off. It was gorgeous. A very remote location; after all, we had to be flown in. There was a small waterfall that opened up into a river. The water was so clear I could see all the fish swimming in it. I held the fishing rods that had been waiting in the plane.
“Are you ready?” Ken asked me as the plane took off. He reached out and touched the small of my back.
“Ken … this is amazing,” I whispered, letting him guide me to the edge of the water.
“Like I said, I noticed the lake up by the ranch was pretty bare.” He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. Yeah, no big deal at all. “I’ll have to get some fish to put in there, but until then I thought this might be a neat surprise.”
“Neat?” I laughed. “This is so fucking cool.”
We came to a stop by the riverbank, and Ken slipped the backpack off his shoulder. Opening it up, he pulled out a blanket. “I’m glad you think so.”
The Billionaire's Fake Marriage: A Single Dad Next Door Romance Page 36