The Sweet Life

by Dakota Star

  The Sweet Life

  By Dakota Star

  The Sweet Life

  Copyright © 2018 by Dakota Star.

  All rights reserved.

  First Print Edition: March 2018

  Limitless Publishing, LLC

  Kailua, HI 96734

  www.limitlesspublishing.com

  Formatting: Limitless Publishing

  ISBN-13: 978-1-64034-341-2

  ISBN-10: 1-64034-341-5

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

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  ~ Life is too short not to be sweet.

  Chapter One

  The muffled hum of a cell phone forced Alexis to glance away from the computer screen holding her attention. The slide presentation dominating her life for the last two weeks was almost ready for her boss.

  Alexis looked out her office window. While the New York City skyline never embraced the night, the sun had departed long ago. On cue, her stomach growled. Her cell phone continued to ring. She pulled it free from the drawer where she had earlier hidden away the distracting technology.

  “Are you still at the office?” purred the voice on the other end. “How many ways do you need to sell a sports drink? The presentation was perfect yesterday.”

  “Don’t lecture me, Jo Jo. You know how hard it is for me to take a Friday off.” The curvaceous redhead rose from her chair, feet bare, stretching out all the kinks.

  Alexis hit the speaker icon and Jo Jo’s voice took over the room. “You need to go home and pack. It’s close to midnight and we want to get an early start. You know Nicole likes to keep to her schedule.”

  She imagined her best friend sitting at home in a worn-out t-shirt and black yoga pants, happily eating chips and sipping wine in front of the television, wild brown hair tamed in an elastic, and Alexis was envious. But only for a moment.

  Was it only last week that Alexis had told her friends about the new marketing account, the one to rebrand and improve sales for a dude ranch? Once the news leaked, Nicole insisted the three friends visit the ranch for a girls’ weekend. “Firsthand experience,” her enthusiastic friend had insisted, but Alexis knew better. Nicole and Jo Jo, born and bred New Yorkers, wanted to rough it, ride horses, and find their inner cowgirl. Perhaps meet a ranch hand or two.

  Tomorrow began her dude ranch weekend, which was fine by Alexis. She had a secret agenda for the visit. Flummoxed by the appeal of country life, she needed to do some research to better understand and jumpstart her marketing campaign, now in its infancy.

  “Right.” Alexis slumped back down in her chair. “I’m going.” She saved the presentation, shut down the computer, put her black Jimmy Choo three-inch heels on, and pulled her purse from the desk. She headed to the wardrobe for her jacket, all the while listening to Jo Jo discuss her latest date. As she exited her office, she noticed one other light on. She hurried by that door, but all in vain.

  He stepped out before she could make her escape.

  “Got to go.” Alexis ended the call abruptly, turning away from the advancing figure.

  “Alexis.” The tall, impeccably dressed man leaned against the doorframe. “Burning the midnight oil, I see.” He snagged her wrist.

  She pulled away. He held on, thwarting her attempt.

  She warily turned back. “Hi, Nate. Working late too?”

  Keeping her wrist trapped in his fingers, he tried to draw her nearer.

  She pulled back and let out a loud yawn. “I really need to get home. It’s late. You should leave soon too. Doesn’t your wife wait up for you?”

  “I’ll leave now if you agree to get a drink with me.” His too-white teeth and spray tan should have impressed Alexis, but she had met too many men just like him.

  “Sorry, I have to get ready for a trip in the morning.”

  He pulled her closer. “Tell me more.” His mouth was inches from hers. He leaned close, his warm breath rancid.

  She twisted so the sloppy kiss he planted hit her cheek. She braced one arm against his chest and pushed. He didn’t budge. “I don’t think so.”

  “Tease,” Nate muttered.

  She tried to yank her wrist away but still he didn’t let go.

  His next words echoed in the empty building. “I’ve heard around the office you made it to marketing manager because you know how to take care of the right people. I guess I don’t rank high enough for you.”

  Alexis’s look was death. After getting a recent, much coveted account, resentment had reared its ugly head at work, with people claiming she had slept her way into her boss’ favor. “But you know better than to believe ugly gossip. Right?”

  None of the rumors were true.

  The urge to stomp on his two-hundred-dollar shoes and yell some rather inappropriate words overwhelmed her, but she controlled those emotions. That wouldn’t solve the problem she’d become accustomed to since graduating from college. She was petite and what most men considered cute with curves, with ginger hair and a smattering of freckles. At work, few people considered her a threat until she ransacked their accounts or, with men like Nate, reported them to Human Resources. They needed to blame her success on something other than sheer talent and ability.

  Enough was enough. She pried her wrist out of his sweaty fingers and sprinted to the elevator. Over her shoulder, she hissed, “Sorry to disappoint tonight.”

  Even late at night, the main avenues were crowded as Alexis swerved to avoid tourists and revelers until she turned onto a quiet street. While New York could be a cold, unfair place, the rapid pace of life thrilled Alexis, and pedicures and massages always alleviated any deep chills. She blamed her type-A personality for the insatiable desire to keep pace with the ass-kicking, high performers at work. She might not look it, but this five-foot-four, well-rounded redhead loved the harsh, fight or die city.

  Once home and tucked into her queen-size bed, sleep eluded her. It galled Alexis how some men treated her, but reporting Nate to HR wouldn’t be a picnic either. Giving up on sleep a couple hours later, she rose early, hastily packed her small suitcase, and departed for Nicole’s condo with her hair in a messy bun and no makeup. Alexis, tired and cranky, found riding in the backseat of her friend’s BMW did not improve her mood.

  “Food,” she begged as they passed a restaurant featured on her TripAdvisor app.

  “We’re not stopping. We have to make it to this dude ranch of yours,” Nicole said. Her fierce hazel eyes posed a challenge through the rearview mirror. “No rest for the wicked or the weary today. No lunch with mimosas for you.”

  Jo Jo laughed at Alexis’s bad mood, her stylish brown hair bouncing in happiness. “Dude ranch, dude ranch. Dude ranch,” she chanted.

  “I get it.” Alexis pouted, but her mood improved slightly with her friends’ antics. “I still love you even when you deprive me of
nourishment.” In truth, she wouldn’t survive a day in New York City without them. After last night, she was glad for the long weekend out of the city. And she only had herself to blame for being tired and cranky.

  To get her mind off her self-made misery, she stared out the back window of the black BMW and ignored the nonstop chatter emanating from the front of the car. On the way to the ranch, they cruised through Main Street in Townsend, Pennsylvania at twenty miles above the speed limit, giving Alexis little time to notice the quaint appeal of its upscale hotels, trendy boutiques, and old-fashioned movie theater, but a lot of time to develop some serious car sickness.

  After leaving the town limits, Nicole’s car climbed a small mountain into the back country. They passed a few farms and many cows lazing in fields as they journeyed upward, but conifers, oaks, and maple trees dominated the landscape. They crested the final hill where fenced pastures with tall grass and a faded wooden sign proclaiming Sweet Life Dude Ranch welcomed them.

  Nicole glanced in the rearview mirror as she maneuvered the car through the welcome gates. “Is it everything you thought it would be?” Her long black hair was fastened in a clip. Stray strands fell across her angular face.

  Jo Jo rolled down her window and put her face in the wind. With hair whipping around her and covering glossy full lips, high cheekbones, and long-lashed, large brown eyes, she reminded Alexis of a mystical elf.

  The smell of manure wafted in through the open window and spread to the backseat. “This is wonderful.” It was anything but magical. Alexis hacked and then raked her red curls into a ponytail as the breeze swept them across her light blue eyes, obscuring the view. “This place is losing money faster than the horses can run, and I don’t know what I’ll do to change that.” Concern etched worry lines across her brow.

  “Relax. You’ll figure it out. You always do.” The opposite of Alexis, Nicole had been created with precise angles, hard lines, and a forceful personality.

  The car crawled down the long length of driveway. Jo Jo twisted around in her seat to face the back. “What do you think of the new hire in your department?”

  “What?” Alexis twirled a strand of hair between her fingers, thoughts focused on the ranch campaign.

  “The new hire,” Jo Jo repeated. “He’s the cute, available man in marketing. Haven’t you noticed him?”

  Alexis tried to picture the guy, but couldn’t. She could count all the clients she’d brought to the firm, more than some of the most seasoned partners. Even though she was twenty-seven and the most successful hire at her marketing firm, she still dealt with a lot of crap. One CEO called her “kid,” a nickname she detested. One client actually patted Alexis on her head. It was one of the reasons she never backed down at work. No one would ever say she was hesitant or afraid to speak her mind, which was why she didn’t care if the new hire was attractive, only his potential to poach clients. “Not a threat to me.”

  “I wasn’t talking work-wise.” Jo Jo, a serial dater, sighed.

  Alexis noticed her friend’s gorgeous amber eyes focus inward on a fantasy involving the new hire. “Stop. Just stop.”

  “He’s really cute.” Jo Jo sounded like a teenager.

  “Enough.” Alexis, absorbed in her career, didn’t date often. She had a casual, on-and-off again relationship that suited her fine. “I’ll be impressed when I see what he can do on the job.”

  “Look at the lake,” Nicole said as they inched by.

  Alexis was instantly pulled back into work mode. “Pretty. I wonder what the rest of the ranch looks like.” Her boss, Jake Peterson, had surprised her with the dude ranch account. The owner of Sweet Life Dude Ranch was a college buddy of Peterson’s, and her boss wanted the best for his old friend. Now gazing around the ranch, she wasn’t sure the account had been the big score she previously assumed it was.

  They found a spot, parking the car in the pothole-filled lot.

  “It’s so authentic and rustic.” Jo Jo’s voice was hushed.

  “Seriously?” Alexis shook her head. “It needs updating.”

  “Don’t judge.” Her outspoken friend took the keys from the ignition. “You haven’t even been here for five minutes. The ranch is so different from the city. That’s what people come for. Give it a chance.”

  “It’s my job to judge.” Alexis spun in the backseat to get a better view of the dude ranch. “I’m the marketing expert. You’re the lawyer, remember?”

  “And Jo Jo is the numbers girl. Got it.” Nicole opened the driver side door. A long leg shot out as dusty air filtered inside. “I’m so sore from driving.” She wriggled her ankles, stretching.

  Putting aside her inner pessimist, Alexis playfully punched the back of the seats to motivate her friends, who stretched out the kinks in their muscles in front of her. “Let’s get out of the car, check in, and look around. Out!”

  Standing in the driveway, she surveyed the lodge from the perspective of a marketing expert. It needed updating. Lots of updating. Inside the main hall, minimal decorations welcomed guests. A natural stone fireplace embellished one wall, but the wooden benches by the fireplace were covered with uninviting, flat cushions. The fireplace had become home to a stuffed squirrel that perched on the logs inside it and a ratty deer head that hung above it. Both animals had to go.

  Alexis followed her two companions to the check-in line before digging into her purse for her phone to take notes with, all the time preoccupied with how the hell she would market this place to the right target group and improve sales.

  Her delight at winning the account ebbed as the wait increased.

  Then the quiet giggles started. Alexis couldn’t believe the noise came from her twenty-something-year-old friends. They whispered and stared, and then nudged her. She followed their eyes and instantly forgot her phone.

  He screamed cowboy. Tall, tan, and leanly rugged, he appeared out of place behind the small wood check-in counter in his red flannel shirt. He wore faded jeans so light they almost turned white under the harsh glare except for brush strokes of grass and dirt. Out of place playing clerk, the cowboy scratched at his mussed dark brown hair with the back end of a pen. But what she noticed most were his eyes, bright golden brown and friendly, even as the woman with two small children he tried to help grew agitated.

  He smiled at the tired-looking woman on the other side of the desk. “Your reservation says you’re staying for three nights.”

  “No, sir.” The woman talked over the screaming, squirming boy in her arms. “I booked four nights due to the all-you-can-eat buffet on Tuesdays.”

  “I’m sure it’s fine, ma’am.” The smile remained on his lips even as the color of his eyes became darker, muddy. “I just don’t know how to change the reservation.”

  As she watched him interact, Alexis was mesmerized by his eyes.

  “Then get someone who does.” The woman’s voice rose over the screaming boy.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He continued to stare at the computer screen.

  Jo Jo bumped her. “Quit staring.”

  Alexis was embarrassed. She’d been caught ogling him. “This is going to take forever. I have to pee.”

  “I’ll take me a piece of him any night over the posers in New York,” Jo Jo said with a smile.

  “You can have him,” Alexis replied. Thoughts of John flooded her mind. They had a good arrangement going: casually dating and sleeping together for nearly six months. Smart and sleek, he was the opposite of the man behind the counter.

  “Thanks for covering the desk, Mitch,” an older woman said on her return. “I’ve got this.” She sent her long, lean coworker a quick smile, then focused on the woman with children. When the cowboy didn’t move, the receptionist said, “Why don’t you take the next person in line?”

  The cowboy stared at Alexis. “Right.” He waved the group over. “I’m Mitch. Let me get you checked in.” He ambled to a second computer as they dragged their luggage to the front desk.

  Nicole sashayed to the counter, s
queezing between them. Somehow, one or two of the buttons on her shirt had magically come undone. “The reservation is under Perez.”

  He focused on the computer screen. “I have you staying for two nights.”

  “That’s correct. And what a fun two nights it will be if you’re around.” Her friend flipped her long, dark chocolate hair and smiled as sweet as cotton candy.

  Stunned, Alexis’s mouth dropped open for a split second. She closed it just as quickly and shook her head. Brazen, but then that personified Miss Perez of Queens, New York, who always went for what she wanted.

  “We have a credit card on file for incidentals. You’re all set. Let me know if you need anything,” Mitch said as he handed over three keychains in the shape of horses with cabin keys attached. “You’re in cabins number three, four, and five.” He took out a map and highlighted the locations.

  “I will most definitely send for you if I need anything.” Nicole leaned into the desk, voice husky, ample cleavage evident.

  “The last ride is still available.” A smile touched the wrangler’s lips. “If you drop your luggage and head down to the stable, you should be able to make it.”

  “I love a good ride,” Nicole said with another flip of her hair.

  “Me too, but you’ll have to hurry.” The cowboy smiled at Alexis.

  The man wasn’t put off by her friend, and Alexis wondered if flirting was a natural part of the job or if this happened to him more often than she could guess. She, on the other hand, tried to hide her discomfort at the blatant exchange. There were kids in the next line.

  “Ladies.” He tipped his cowboy hat as he put it on. “Excuse me, I have to get back to the horses.”

  Chapter Two

  After Mitch left, they grabbed the luggage and headed to their rooms. The small, brown-shingled cabins had large rocking chairs on each stoop. Inside cabin three, Alexis dropped her overnight bag on the bed, which squeaked in protest. The interior was small and dark with wood paneling on the walls behind some old and dusty prints of flowers. Two twin beds hugged each other. The night stands held lamps and an alarm clock, but no television or radio. She already knew the only internet connection was in the main lodge, but couldn’t fathom how anyone thought that would be appropriate for this day and age. She sank on the bed, the springs under the mattress creaking the entire time. A long night and little sleep awaited. Her first recommendation: update the rooms with brightly painted walls, new art, maybe abstract paintings, large flat screen televisions, internet connection, and new beds and linens.