by Joyce Lee
Chapter Seven
Just Like Old Times
It felt strange being separated from LeAnn, considering Kristin’s best friend was the entire reason she was on this journey in the first place. Being without her reminded Kristin too much of being on sabbatical, a quest for self-approval. But she found she only had a few minutes to rest in her angst, Dale kicking up the conversation again about ten minutes into the trail.
“It looks like everyone in this group knows what they’re doing,” he mused, and Kristin glanced behind her, nodding in agreement. While some of the riders were less comfortable in a saddle than others, everyone had obviously been on a horse before. As she faced forward, Dale asked, “What is it you do in the Big Apple?”
Gritting her teeth against the urge to spew at the mouth about her disgruntling job loss, she thought back to LeAnn’s word. He’d never know the difference if she referenced the job as if she was returning to it in nine days. “I work at a large marketing firm, with our clients ranging from shoe manufacturers to law firms. In fact, I just finished a proposal for a huge account with a high-end retail clothing manufacturer that owns several brands.”
“That’s impressive,” he responded sincerely. “Was your intent to get into marketing?”
“I started out with journalism, but it wasn’t creative enough for my taste. So, I made that my minor and majored in marketing. I discovered I had a knack for it, and I interned at my firm. They hired me as soon as I had my degree.” Sadness swept through her as she realized she’d made herself at that company and was still being forced to start again.
“You grew up on a ranch, Krissy. Don’t you miss grass and trees and clean air?”
She laughed, the question relieving her inner pain. “Spoken like a die-hard Texan. And yes, sometimes the concrete jungle isn’t enough. But I’m happy. If I’m craving greenery, there are parks. I live blocks from Central Park, you know.” Teasingly, she asked, “Don’t you miss the convenience of the corner store and the hustle and bustle of Dallas?”
He made a face. “Hell, no! If I think for a second I want to drive into the city, I head up the road to San Antonio, and I ultimately get reminded of how much I hate the city as I get stuck in a traffic jam. I prefer the company of horses and people who aren’t in such a damn hurry.” He shook his head, slowing down as some of the others passed them, following Shelly and Rob toward a brook Kristin could hear bubbling close by. “I like nature. I always did. I just didn’t realize how much until the day we took your horses out for a spin. I decided then what I was gonna do and never looked back.”
“Never?” Kristin had waffled about her career choice all through college and had only settled with it halfway through her junior year, when it didn’t make sense to start over with a new major. Of course, it had been prosperous for her, and she loved it, but she had questioned it more than a few times.
He stared into the distance, his eyes focused on some distant memory. “I only questioned it once, and it was only a little hiccup. Once that was gone, I was bound and determined to succeed, and I’ve worked my ass off to get here.” He sat taller in his saddle now, a sign of pride, and Kristin smiled. “My parents had saved for my college fund, and the day we graduated, they gave me a check for $40,000. I got scholarships and loans, and I worked through college to pay the rest. I invested that money and doubled it in five years. Of course, eighty grand doesn’t buy anything like this.” He gestured around him.
“How much land do you own?” Kristin asked before she could stop herself.
“One-thousand acres, give or take a few.” She stared at him, awestruck, and he smiled. “But I started with ten. I bought the land the house and the stables are on for practically nothing. Out here, everyone wants to build theme parks or grow crops, and the soil isn’t any good for that. We had enough amusement parks nearby. So, the land was dirt cheap. I took a deferment on the student loans and used the rest of the cash to collect materials to build while I kept working another year. Two years after college, with my brother’s help, I’d built the house and a small stable, and we rescued a couple horses. We worked with them and trained them and started with nothing more than a place people could bring their kids for a quick ride down a trail or to take a lesson or two.”
Kristin noticed that they were far behind the group now, and she grew a little anxious. She wanted to catch up, but then, it wasn’t like Dale didn’t know his own land, especially since he did this every day. Telling herself to relax, she took several deep breaths and asked, “How long have you had this whole gig up and running?”
He made a face, obviously doing the math. “It’s been about four years since the last time I bought land and blasted a trail. We got the pigs right after that. I was turning a good profit as I built the place up, but the real investment came from a risky little venture in the stock market. I bought some volatile stocks, and in a few months, the value tripled. I was lucky. I could have lost my ass in that. That money went a long way in shoring up this place. At that point, the bank loaned me the rest.”
Kristin had never even considered taking that kind of risk. At the same time, she’d never thought about holding that kind of money in the palm of her hand, either. Intrigued, she ventured, “I guess you have to make a killing to pay on the school loans and the bank loan.”
He chuckled. “Well, I wouldn’t call it a killing exactly. I mean, I managed to pay the bank back within two years. And my school loans finally stopped hanging over my head two years ago. I own the land, the house, and everything else I built outright, so aside from the cost of living and running a full, working ranch, everything is profit. And since we use our own chicken, swine and dairy products, sell what we can at market, and have a deal with the slaughterhouse so we keep our own meat, even that cost is minimal.”
It was the American dream, Kristin realized. This entire place was self-sufficient, and Dale simply chose to buy and sell a lot of things. It was what her parents had wanted and never quite achieved. She joked, “I guess in the Zombie Apocalypse, I know where to come. You’ve got everything you need right here.”
He nodded. “Mostly. I’m trying to figure a way to get some of this damn red clay to grow corn, wheat, and cotton. If I can, and I buy up the rest of the land to the west, we’ll truly be a fully functional ranch with no outside needs. Then I can bring in some vigilantes in case of the apocalypse to man the fences.” He laughed, but as he turned to face her, pulling his horse to a stop, his eyes were serious. “You’d be more than welcome here, Krissy.”
She swallowed hard at the expression on his face, wondering why it was so intense. Kristin wanted to crawl in a hole and hide from that look, but she kept her shoulders squared, despite the anxiety building in her chest and the wild, rapid heartbeat that threatened to split her ribcage in two, so the pump that fueled her body could burst forth.
Meeting his gaze fully, she told him, “I’d never make it here. The zombie virus would spread through New York like rabies from sewer rats, and I wouldn’t get out of Manhattan before I was sucking brains.” She meant it as a joke, but it was probably true. The conversation was ridiculous, but she’d grown up around people who really believed in the possibility, and there were more than enough Hollywood action movies that presented realistic scenarios. Hell, she was a Walking Dead fan herself. And without Rick or Glen to bust her out of the city, she didn’t stand a chance.
Maybe if she had Dale with her…
That random thought was irrelevant, and she pushed it aside as he chuckled and told her, “I’m sure you could get behind some big tough guy with a machine gun and good aim.” He leaned forward, resting his elbow on his horse’s neck. “I can’t imagine any guy refusing to help someone with a face as beautiful as yours.”
The blood rushed into Kristin’s neck and face so quickly she felt lightheaded and inhaled sharply. Dale’s mossy eyes beat into her, assessing her with interest and something she couldn’t quite place. “Dale, I—“
“What happened, K
rissy?” he cut her off, urging his horse closer to hers. She stared at him, knowing what he meant but not wanting to acknowledge it. She pressed her lips together in determined silence, but he pushed. “We were good together, happy. We had fun. What happened?”
Kristin still didn’t have an answer and used the same cop-out she’d given LeAnn. “We drifted apart, I guess. You were part of one crowd, I was part of another, and we got busy with senior stuff. We were both looking forward to bright futures, but we were looking in different directions. We lost track of each other.”
He shook his head. “No, Krissy, I never lost track of you until you disappeared right after graduation.”
The intensity in his voice turned it into a low growl, filled with emotions Kristin didn’t want to analyze. Blowing it off, she scoffed, “Come on, Dale. You started dating Emily, and you were the star of the track team. You set records for the school. You didn’t keep up with what I was doing.”
He raised an eyebrow with a smirk. “And I’m guessing you know all that because you weren’t keeping track of me, either?”
Kristin scowled. “I worked on the yearbook committee. It was my job to know those things so you’d be properly recognized for your accomplishment.”
He made a clicking sound with his teeth and tongue, looking more and more like the rustic cowboy from a Louie L’Amour novel, and it took every bit of Kristin’s strength not to swoon at the sheer masculinity he exuded. “That’s funny because I don’t remember any pictures of me with Emily, or any mention of the two months we hung out.”
Anger rose in Kristin’s chest. She couldn’t see the group ahead anymore, and she didn’t want to be here alone with Dale anymore, especially if he was going to taunt her this way. This was her vacation, and she hadn’t signed on for a trip to Memory Lane. She nudged Rocky with her heels and clicked her tongue at him, and he started off at a fast walk. Unfortunately, Dale was right beside her. “Talk to me, Krissy. Tell me what really happened. I know it wasn’t drifting. That would have been a date here and there, a call once a week, then once every two weeks. This was pretty abrupt, and I’ve been curious about it ever since.”
She didn’t look at him, focusing on the trail as she urged Rocky to go a little faster. “If I remember correctly, I wasn’t the only one who backed off. I didn’t hear my phone ring and see your number on the caller ID, either. Answer your own question.” Dale kept pace with her, even as she had Rocky break into a trot.
“I was responding to the cold shoulder you gave me. I came to talk to you between classes one day, and you just smiled and said ‘see you later’. You walked away, and I was blindsided. But I figured I’d respect whatever you wanted and leave you alone. I kept waiting for you to tell me what was wrong, but you avoided me.”
“I didn’t make any special efforts to do so,” she protested. The trot became a canter, and Dale pulled his horse in front of Rocky, causing her to jerk the reins and come to a sudden stop. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Confronting you, Krissy.” His words were clipped, but his face showed hurt rather than anger. For so many years, Kristin hadn’t thought about Dale, and maybe there had been good reason to put it aside. He told her, “I never held it against you, and I never would have hunted you down to ask questions, but here you are, on my land, and I want you to enjoy yourself like any other guest. But I’d really like to know why you ran.”
Kristin deflated. She hated cowards, but in some ways, she was the worst of them. She could face issues in the office all day long, manage confrontation with the competition like a pro. But when it came to her personal life, she couldn’t face the facts, and that was a long-running problem. She didn’t meet his eyes as she said, “I was scared, I guess. Does that satisfy your need for closure?” she asked in a weak, petulant tone that made her cringe internally.
“For now.”
She turned angry eyes on him. “Well, that’s all you’re getting. I’m going back to the room, packing my bag, and calling a cab to take me to the airport. I came here to get away from pressure and anxiety, not to be berated by someone I haven’t seen since high school. I’m sorry if I hurt you, Dale, but as far as I can tell, you turned out just fine. In fact, if I’d clung to you, I bet we’d have either had a huge falling out and regretted it, or you would have come to New York with me and missed out on this grand opportunity.”
Dale flinched, and Kristin wanted to cry. She hadn’t meant to throw painful words at him like daggers. Closing her eyes and hanging her head, she whispered, “Dammit, I’m sorry, Dale. I don’t handle confrontation well.”
His soft, sad laugh made her chest ache. “I’m not so sure about that. You seem pretty good with the low blows. I guess I deserved it, though, for being a prick of a host.” He sighed. “Look at me, Krissy.”
She chanced a quick glance through her lashes and saw his eyes soften toward her. Lifting her head, she waited for him to say whatever was on his mind. “Don’t leave.” There was a plea in his voice, and it pulled at Kristin’s heartstrings. “Please, stay. I’ve been an ass for the last few minutes, but I’m really not a bad guy, and I know how much you love the ranch life. Just stay and enjoy yourself, and I won’t pressure you anymore.” He looked away, and she saw his throat move as he swallowed. “I’ve just spent more than a few minutes over the years thinking about you.”
Kristin‘s eyes stung, and she wasn’t pleased with that reaction. “I chose not to think about you, Dale,” she admitted, feeling vulnerable and exposed. “I chose to put everything I left behind in Texas away in a box in my mind long ago. I didn’t want anything to tempt me, to lure me back. Do you know I don’t even come home for Christmas? I drag my family to a destination Christmas every year, and I’ve done it for years. This place is like a whirlpool, and I felt like, if I stuck one toe in to test the water, I’d be sucked in until I drowned.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” he asked softly.
“It is when you’re determined to make it to the top at your firm, to live in Manhattan and be successful in the marketing business, which is so male-dominated a woman can barely even get her foot in the door.” She forced herself to stop the rant. “I’m not a feminist, really. I’m just passionate about my work.”
“I can see that.” He rode closer to her, coming up alongside her so her leg brushed the side of his horse. “Can we start over? I would have liked to end things as friends in the past, and I feel like I’ve missed out on knowing a wonderful woman. Can I get a do-over?”
Kristin smiled. It was nice to think about the kind of connection he offered. Aside from LeAnn, she didn’t have any friends. That wasn’t an exaggeration; it was the situation she’d created. Friends were a distraction, and if they didn’t pull you away from the important things in life, they got jealous and competitive. Then, they sabotaged other relationships, success, and anything else they couldn’t match in their own lives. With LeAnn, things were different. And considering that Dale had his own great success and lived two thousand miles away, she didn’t foresee having those issues.
“I think I can handle that,” she agreed. She held out her hand in a mock greeting. “Hi, I’m Kristin Jenkins. It’s nice to meet you.”
He took her hand and, like a southern gentleman, lifted it to his lips in greeting. She ignored the heat that seared her skin where his breath touched, the electricity that crawled up her arm and gave her heart a jump-start. “I’m Dale Prescott. Welcome to my ranch, where there’s no pressure and tons of excitement.” They laughed, and Kristin felt every bit of tension she’d had from the moment she’d first seen his face.