Rodeo Rancher

by Lauren Wood

  Chapter 3

  Dennis

  “Dennis Yearling’s office.”

  Peggy stopped me at the door and I sighed. I wasn’t supposed to be here yet. I wanted her to take my calls, hold them for a while, but she then told whoever it was that I was there and I didn’t have a choice but to tell her that I would take it in my office. It was most likely a client and pissing one of them off wasn’t a good idea right now. Not with the fact that we had just lost Cantella Chocolates as a client.

  She covered up the phone and told me that it was their competitor on the phone. I smiled to myself and then at my secretary. This was a call that I didn’t mind taking, as long as I could convince them to come to us for their advertising needs. It was a good opportunity, the silver lining as it were. I was hoping that this was the window that everyone talks about opening after a door was shut. Cantella was an old and valuable client and I was eager to fill in the void that they left behind with their departure.

  I moved into the office and took my jacket off before picking up the phone. “Harry, how have you been? I was looking forward to your call.”

  “You knew I was going to call?”

  “Of course, after we dropped Cantella there is no conflict anymore. If you weren’t going to call me, I know I was going to call you. This was supposed to happen and I knew it was just a matter of time before we sat down and chatted.”

  I wasn’t as optimistic about it as I sounded, but that was okay. I had learned a long time ago you have to fake it till you made it.

  “Well that is good to hear. I have been waiting for you to drop them. I won’t ask the details, but I need to know if you are ready to pitch us. I was thinking about Friday maybe?”

  The man was not giving me much time to work my magic, but I knew that there was going to be something to pitch by then. It didn’t matter if I had to keep the team up until then, we would deliver.

  “Sounds good. Give me an idea of what you are looking for?”

  I took out the paper and pen that I always left near the phone and jotted down the man’s ideas. They sounded much like the account that we had just lost, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. He wanted another campaign similar, so that they could get the same bump in sales at Cantella had.

  We talked for a few more minutes and I turned him back over to my secretary to get a lunch set up for Friday. I smiled as I set the phone down. I had hoped that it would work like that and it seemed as if the universe smiled and approved. The week was already getting better. I was in early and for once it was worth it.

  Not forgetting about the other meeting I had in a few hours with another client, I went through some ideas that ran through my head for their chocolates. It wasn’t until almost noon that I came up for air and made my way downtown to one of my go-to places when I wanted to impress a client. Downee was one of those clients and Ginger’s was the place to go. It was a small place with beautiful waitresses that showed a bit too much skin and food that was to die for. It was a hidden jewel in the city as well, which meant that it was never too busy to find a seat without a reservation.

  What I didn’t expect was that the main account man that I was going to be working with brought another with him. As he introduced Tammy Vanil, I had to wonder why the change. She was prettier to look at certainly, but I didn’t like changes sprung on me. Before long my anxiety was dampened by the expression on her face and the slight hand that I felt underneath the table.

  I met her gaze a bit surprised and wasn’t sure what to say. It was surprising to say the least and I swallowed hard. The woman was beautiful. She had black hair and dark brown eyes. Her smile was her best feature and it transformed the look on her face. She was looking at me as if I was the only one in the room and it bothered me that I was in a meeting and I couldn’t properly help her right then.

  The food came and she moved further down my thigh and made a gesture after she got up to powder her nose. I should have ignored it. I knew better, but I followed Tammy to the bathroom in the back of the restaurant nonetheless. It was exhilarating to think that we could be caught, but it was also something that happened to me more than I cared to admit. It seemed like there were plenty of Tammys around when I was feeling this way, ready to fix me right up and get my mind off of everything for a few brief moments.

  She pulled me into the ladies room and started to kiss me right off the bat. “I have heard a lot about you Dennis. I am glad I was able to snag the account. I promise that we are going to have fun. A lot more than you and Stan can have together.”

  I liked Stan, but she was right that I would have more fun with her. The woman was already pulling her skirt up to get her panties down. She bent over the sink and looked back at me with eyes that called to my every need. Her round ass shook a little to entice me and it did a very good job because I was enticed. My cock throbbed and I quickly released it as I moved towards her with a flick of my fingers.

  “Let me show you how much I appreciate your business Tammy.”

  ***

  I left the meeting with a new client and a clear head. Tammy was good for that and I didn’t even want to go back into the office. I had secured a several million dollar account and part of me just wanted to go home and kick back. But I knew that I was supposed to go back in. I was the boss and it was a hard thing to do sometimes when there was no one telling me that I had to do it. I didn’t have my father looking over my shoulder anymore to keep me on track.

  The office was busy and it took me a total of five minutes upstairs to be ready to go back home. It was a madhouse and everyone was worried about the work that had to be done. I finally just shut everyone out and locked my door. I needed time to come up with a pitch like what I had discussed with our new client and I wasn’t coming out until it was done. A drink in hand, I started to think of all of the possibilities and ignored the buzz of the intercom. I really needed to get a sign. Then everyone would know what was going on and that I wanted to be left alone.

  It didn’t take long for the secretary to be knocking on my door, telling me that I had an urgent call. Everything was always urgent with her and I almost didn’t take it, but I am glad that I did. I would have missed a call I didn’t want to. It was an old friend from high school that I hadn’t seen in years.

  “Bobby, what are you up to?”

  “Not much. I am in Miami and I was wondering if you want to get a drink, talk about old times. I am in town until the morning.”

  I looked at the clock that didn’t seem to be moving anyways and I told him the name of a bar that I would meet him at in thirty minutes. My heart wasn’t in it anyways today, so I took the rest of the day off, to my secretary’s aggravation. She walked me to the door, telling me how many important calls I had to return, but I knew they would all be there in the morning. I gave her the rest of the day off and that at least got a smile out of her. Then the service would pick up all of the angry callers that I ignored today, so that would just have to do.

  Making my way down to the pub a few blocks away, I saw Bobby at the bar and waved him down. He was always a pretty big guy, but now it seemed like the years had caught up with him and the weight had settled lower in his body.

  “It has been a long time Dennis. Look at you. All dressed up like your old man now.”

  I didn’t like the reference because I knew it was true. My father dressed in the same sort of suits that I was wearing right now. I had hated the way he dressed back then, swearing that I would be different. But in the end, I was running his company and now wearing his suit. It wasn’t a reminder that I cared for.

  “And you haven’t changed a bit. I thought you were here on business?”

  “I am. I am a recruiter now. I get to dress however I want and check out football games all day. I was in the city to watch a ball player that is going to be going places very soon. I haven’t seen anyone play like that since you.”

  I was jealous. I couldn’t believe that he got the job everyone wanted. It was always a dream
to stay in the game. I was happy for Bobby for finding a way to do that and get paid. It wasn’t much by what he was wearing, but I had a feeling that his happiness was higher than mine. I had everything, except that stupid little grin that he had on his face now. Money couldn’t buy that kind of happiness.

  “So what have you been up to Dennis? Are you married, kids?”

  His question threw me off and I asked if he had any of his own. Was that the reason for the goofy grin on his face, love and family?

  “I have a wife and three daughters. Kids do something to you.”

  I nodded my head and didn’t answer the question right away. I liked to think that I had it all, but maybe I was missing something. Maybe there was more to life than money and an endless supply of beautiful women.

  “So how about you Dennis? How is the love life? Has anyone gotten you to settle down for a while yet?”

  “No, not even close.”

  “That is hard to believe. When we were in school, you always got all of the hot pieces of ass. God, I had wished more than once that I was you back then. I can’t believe that none of them talked you into going down the aisle and making an honest woman out of them..”

  There was one woman that I had thought about it with. I was young though and I was convinced by others that there would be time later, other women and that then it was just a fleeting feeling. It hadn’t been and it turned out to be a feeling that I never felt again.

  “Once, back in the day when we were still in school.”

  “Kendra?”

  I turned to him and nodded. I hadn’t thought about Kendra in a long time, but all of this talk about marriage and kids had me thinking about her. Bobby bringing up her name, instantly put me in the mind frame of way back when and I caught myself smiling for no apparent reason.

  “Yeah, Kendra.”

  “I wonder what she is up to nowadays? I would have given my right arm with a chance with her. She was one hot number. I wonder if she still is or if she let herself go?”

  I gritted my teeth a little because after all of this time, I still didn’t like to hear about her from other men. She would always be mine in my eyes. Period. No matter how much time passed didn’t matter. Kendra was always mine and never Bobby’s to sit there and talk about. Why did it bother me that he thought she was hot?

  “She was. I wonder what happened to her too. I bet she is just as pretty as she was back then.”

  He got me thinking and on my way home I wanted to know more than anything what happened to Kendra. I just had to know. Where was she? What was she doing and more importantly, did she ever think of me like I fondly thought of her? I wondered what would have happen and I cursed Bobby on the way home. It was his fault that I was even thinking about all of this. I had been perfectly happy being blissfully unaware of what was missing in my life, now a picture of Kendra was in my head and I had to get the answers that I burned for.

  Kendra was more than just an old flame, she was the memories of some of the best sex of my life. When I was with her, I had been unstoppable and she had been a woman that could never get enough. I wanted to see what she was up to, but my body’s response was to the fact that I still remembered how she felt and how she tasted. How could I have forgotten her when all of my best memories were with her?

  Chapter 4

  Dennis

  I got home and didn’t have much idea how I was going to go about finding her. Kendra had most likely moved on and gotten married, changed her name. She was beautiful. I could still see the little dimples in her cheeks when she really smiled. Her blue eyes were always so bright. There was no way that she was unattached. The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that it was all a fool’s errand anyways. Why was I trying to find her, just to find out that I couldn’t have her?

  It made no sense, but I still went about finding her. The most obvious way was social media and I was thankful that her name was rather unique in the spelling. There were only a few with her name and after a quick view of the profile pictures, I knew instantly which one was her. In the back of my mind I had tried to gauge what she would look like now. Ten years is a long time and she could have changed a lot. But she hadn’t, not a bit from what I could see. She had the same dimples and the same devilish eyes that had always pulled me in before.

  I stared at the picture for a while and I did nothing else. All of the memories I had with her started to flood back, no matter how hard I tried to stop it. I remembered too much and there was a moment that I questioned everything. What would have happened if I would have stayed back and been with her? My football career was okay, but it wasn’t enough to get me into professional. I still ended up working at my father’s company like I always knew I would. There had been big ideas of fame in football, but it never happened. I got my fame and fortune in business, much like it was predestined to be.

  Scrolling through her posts and pages of information, I was surprised how open she was about everything. She worked at a youth shelter. I wasn’t sure what that was, but I imagined that it was linked to some kind of social work job. It didn’t pay much in the public sector, but that didn’t surprise me. Kendra had always wanted to help people and it seemed like she had found who it was she wanted to help.

  It also occurred to me that she was still the sweet girl that I once knew. I had broken her heart and I knew that. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but I had. She loved me and I loved her, though I never said it. I had said everything but that. I even let it slip once and then changed it to tell her that I loved being inside of her. It was a cop out and one that I regretted now. Kendra had a right to know how I felt about her.

  I made the decision to contact her. We weren’t connected, so I had to ask her to connect and then wait. It was a long wait and there was only space for a sentence to be sent with the request. I closed the app on my phone and waited for a long time. It was actually only ten minutes when I opened it back up and checked to make sure that the notifications was on. I didn’t want to miss anything from her, no matter what time it was. I thought she would have responded by now.

  Going to bed, I was thinking about Kendra and what I had picked up from her timeline. It looked like she was single, though there were a few pictures with her and another man. It didn’t have the most romantic feel to it, but I didn’t know what to think. Her status was unclear and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted her to be single. Then I would be able to get a second chance. I hadn’t thought about it, but damn Bobby and that stupid grin of his. It was irritating to no end, but at the end of the day I wanted to be as happy as he was. I was only truly happy when I was with Kendra. She had made me feel different than any other girl I had ever known. Now my life was filled with gorgeous women, but it was an empty sensation when I went home at night. None of them were enough compared to Kendra.

  ***

  It took almost a week before I got a notification from Kendra. Every morning, noon and night I was checking the app, but nothing. When I finally did get a notification, it was not at all the one I was looking for. Kendra had refused my friend’s request and now I couldn’t even play through all of the ways I was going to win her over. I felt like for once I had failed miserably.

  Why didn’t she at least want to talk and catch up? It didn’t make sense to me. She still wasn’t mad, was she?

  I sent the request out again, trying to connect with her, with a different sentence. I hoped that this time I would get her attention, but I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen. I had a feeling that I had hurt her more than I ever could have realized.

  Peggy came in with my coffee and asked me what was the matter with me. “You got that sourpuss look on your face.”

  “Nothing, why?”

  “You look sad Dennis. Did you have some bad news come in?”

  Peggy had worked for me for several years now and she knew me too well. She also didn’t get the whole point of giving space either, but I had gotten used to that side of h
er. The woman cared, but right now I just wanted to be left alone with my thoughts.

  “Yes, I got some bad news.”

  “Well Sir, you always turn it around somehow. I am sure you will this time.”

  “I made a mistake many years ago and I don’t know if I can turn it around.”

  She waved me off as she was walking out of the office. “I have seen you do the impossible. I am sure whatever it is, you will figure it out soon enough. You are a hard person to say no to Dennis.”

  Peggy left and I was left thinking of what she said. I was the one that closed the deals. I was a closer. I changed people’s minds and I knew Kendra front and back and everywhere in between. I knew what it was that she wanted and in the end it was the same thing that I wanted. It just took me longer to figure it out.

  At the end of the day, I got another denial notification and I can’t say that it was as devastating as before. I was going to take it as a challenge. This is what I did in business to win and I know that it would work just as well on women. Kendra wasn’t that different than all other women I had been with. All women wanted to hear those sweet words that told them how much they were loved. I had never been good at that, but with Kendra it wouldn’t have to be made up. I felt strongly for her and I knew that if she would just give me a chance, I would be able to convince her that we were meant to be together.

  I got home and tried again. I was nothing else if I wasn’t persistent. I knew that there was a lot riding on her acceptance, but even as I waited for another denial to my request, I was already thinking about what I could do to change it to a yes. I just needed an angle. That was all life and business was, just finding the right angle.