After expressing his concerns, she replied with a text saying, “I don’t think any of the families or the two sets of newlyweds pose any risk to my safety.”
He knew that she was probably right, but he wanted to be careful. He decided he’d go to the ranch early and scope out any suspicious characters. The Marshals sent him pictures of Colin, the goon who apparently was on the lookout for Kayla. Mitch would make sure he hadn’t found his way to Cody somehow.
At six, he got into his pickup truck to make the drive. It felt like he drove for miles without seeing another soul before all of a sudden, a beautiful wooden sign appeared for the ranch. He pulled onto the dusty road and followed it until he reached a parking lot.
Kayla was right; the ranch was a big operation. Although there wasn’t much in terms of livestock roaming around, there was a very impressive stable standing in the distance.
From the looks of it, he didn’t see any suspicious people lurking around. Like Kayla said, it was mostly families with kids and a few younger looking couples.
He got out of his truck and admired the mountains in the backdrop; as he stood there, he got a few friendly “hello’s” and “howdy’s” and a young woman approached him.
“Hi there,” she said. “Can I help you find something?”
“Oh hi,” he replied. “I was looking for a friend. Her name is Kayla?”
“Sure, I’ll show you to her cabin.”
That was a little too easy. Mitch made a mental note to mention it to Kayla and followed the young woman down a winding path.
No wonder Kayla was able to get into fun activities so early in her stay; this ranch was full of life. It was a stark contrast to the past three days he spent alone in his dilapidated house. It seemed like solitary confinement compared to this.
They arrived at a cozy looking cabin. The young woman led him to the front door and knocked. Mitch heard some shuffling inside before Kayla’s voice called out, “Just a second!”
A moment later, Kayla cracked open the door. Her cheeks were a bit flushed. “Hey Isabelle, what’s up?”
“You’ve got a visitor. Is everything okay in there?”
Kayla popped her head out further and spotted Mitch. “Oh, is it time already? Sorry! Thanks so much Isabelle, and yeah, everything is fine.”
“Okay, have a good evening!”
Mitch took a step towards the front door. “Hi, how are you?”
Kayla watched as Isabelle descended the front porch steps and disappeared down the pathway. “Quick,” she whispered, “get inside.”
Startled, Mitch obeyed. “Is someone coming after you?”
Kayla shut the door behind him. “No,” she said impatiently. “I just have a little bit of a situation going on.”
“What kind of situation?”
Before she could say anything else, a large dog came charging from the back of the cabin, barking fiercely. Mitch didn’t flinch. His mom was a huge animal lover, as was he, and he always had dogs growing up.
“Hey fella,” he said, dropping to one knee. “What’re you so upset about?”
“He really doesn’t like men,” said Kayla nervously. “It’s okay Oliver, he’s not here to hurt you.”
The dog continued barking at him with growls intermingled. Mitch made sure not to look him in the eyes as he sat still.
Oliver stopped barking and sniffed his arm.
“We’re not all bad,” said Mitch.
“How did you do that?” asked Kayla, hands on her hips. “He almost ate George the other day when he stopped by. I was afraid I couldn’t let anyone in here again.”
“Dogs like me,” said Mitch. He kept his voice low and made sure not to move as Oliver investigated him. “And I like dogs. As much as I would like to pet him, I don’t think he’s ready for that yet.”
Kayla grabbed Oliver by the collar and pulled him into a hug. “I don’t think he is, and I don’t want him to change his mind and try to eat you, too.”
After a few seconds, Mitch stood up and got a good look at the cabin. Yep – it was definitely a lot nicer than where he was staying. He was glad. Kayla deserved a decent place.
“Is he…one of the ranch dogs?” asked Mitch.
“No,” Kayla said, standing up. “He’s mine. I got him from a farmer who didn’t want him. We’re working through some issues right now, and currently I’m not accepting any opinions on the matter, so you can save it.”
“Okay!” Mitch replied. He almost took a step back from the forcefulness of her words. Cleary this was a sensitive topic. Or she expected him to say something offensive. He felt dread rise in his chest – maybe she did hear what he said about her to Agent Simmons that first night.
“Now,” she continued, “I planned for us to go fly fishing today, but I can’t leave him alone here. He’s developed some…destructive tendencies.” She motioned to a wooden chair that was turned on its side.
Mitch knelt down to get a better look. It looked like one of the legs was chewed clean off. He found it lying nearby.
“I see that,” he said. “I may be able to fix this. Do you mind if I take this leg with me?”
Kayla rubbed her forehead. “Sure, it’s not doing much good now.”
“Alright.”
He didn’t care about going fishing, but he’d spent the last three days entirely alone and he didn’t want to miss out on spending some time with her. Of course he couldn’t admit that, though. She wasn’t his biggest fan.
“Maybe we could take him for a hike? Burn off some energy?” he suggested.
Kayla shrugged. She looked defeated. “Yeah, I guess we can try that.”
“It’ll be good,” Mitch said, trying to brighten his tone. “The first week or two is always tough with a rescue dog. You both need time to adjust.”
She gave him a suspicious look. “You know dogs?”
“A bit,” he said.
As if on cue, Oliver trotted by, squeaking a toy in his mouth.
“I thought it’d come more naturally,” Kayla said, watching him disappear into another room. “But it seems like I’m just a bad dog owner.”
“I promise you’re not a bad dog owner,” Mitch said. “Oliver – are you ready to go for a walk?”
Oliver blasted into the room, his eyes darting between them both.
Kayla shot Mitch a surprised look. “I think he understood you.”
Mitch smiled. “He did. Someone taught him that word. Ready to go?”
She sighed. “Sure, let’s see how this goes.” Kayla grabbed his leash and turned to leave.
Finally, Mitch felt like he could be of some use. He didn’t know how to make conversation, and he didn’t know how to sell insurance, but he did know how to make a rescue dog feel at home. Maybe he could help Kayla after all – and maybe, just maybe, she’d forgive him for being a jerk.
Chapter 10
After clipping on Oliver’s leash, Kayla hurriedly walked him through the front door. She didn’t want Mitch to see that she was annoyed. She didn’t want to deal with Mitch at all, actually. He probably thought it was dumb of her to take in a wild dog like Oliver. But she wasn’t interested in his opinion. She felt silly enough as it was.
The first night with Oliver went well – in hindsight, Kayla realized that it lulled her into a false sense of security. She got him to the cabin and he trotted from room to room, sniffing and wagging his tail.
At first, it seemed like he was quite pleased with his new digs. Kayla unpacked his stuff, set up his bowls, laid out his bed, and provided him with some toys. She figured out how to set up the crate and dragged the bed inside. He wasn’t interested in going in right away, but that made sense. She assumed it would take some treats and bribery to get him to accept the crate.
She fed him dinner that night, which he ate heartily, and as soon as he was done, he went to the front door and peed on it. She rushed over and managed to get him out the door before he did too much damage. After that, he seemed to understand that he had to be
on the other side of the door to go potty. Most of the time, at least.
There were some other issues that emerged over the next two days. First, Oliver didn’t seem to like any other dogs. Whenever Kayla took him out for a walk, he would bark and lunge at the other dogs as though they insulted him in some way.
The ranch dogs just stood and stared at him, almost as if they were amused by his wild behavior. Kayla was not amused, but she didn’t know how to get it to stop. He almost pulled her over one time – she was surprised by how strong he was.
He cowered when he saw men (especially men in hats), so she was particularly startled with his aggressive barking when George knocked on her door. He barked so ferociously that he even peed a little on the floor, and Kayla was afraid to invite George in.
This was all okay, though. She figured that she’d need to teach him some manners. What was not okay was the surprise Kayla had when she came home from breakfast the third day that she had him.
For the first two days, she brought him with her wherever she went. For food, she’d grab something quickly so he wasn’t left alone in the cabin. After two days, though, he seemed to be pretty well-behaved, and since he wouldn’t go into his crate without barking and crying, she figured she could leave him for 30 minutes to have breakfast and catch up with Isabelle and George.
When she returned to the cabin, he came trotting over, wagging his tail and celebrating her return.
“Hey buddy!” she said happily. Then the smell hit her.
“Oh my goodness,” she said, almost gagging. “What is that?”
She had a hard time locating it, mainly because everywhere she turned, she found more destruction. The first thing that caught her eye were the mountains of white fluff that Oliver ripped out of his dog bed. It was utterly destroyed, its innards strewn around the cabin.
Next she saw that he chewed the wooden chair leg off. She wandered into the kitchen and let out a gasp – somehow he managed to get up to the counter, open the breadbox, and eat an entire loaf of bread. The paper bag that previously contained it was ripped to bits.
In her bedroom, she discovered the chewed and destroyed cowboy boots that the wardrobe girls specifically picked out for her “in case of cowgirl emergency.” The carpet was wet – she looked down and realized that he spilled his entire bowl of water.
His crowning achievement, though, was the surprise that he left for her atop the bed. Apparently, eating an entire loaf of bread really gets a dog moving.
She stood there feeling totally stunned.
“What have I done?” she said to no one. “They’re going to kick me out, and then the Marshals will kick me out of WITSEC and the FBI will prosecute me. And it’s all my fault for bringing home this wild dog.”
Following Kayla’s lackluster response to his greeting, Oliver became a bit confused and decided to take a seat a few feet away from her, staring nervously.
It was then that Kayla asked Mitch if he would be willing to change their meeting place. She needed the rest of the day to clean up the mess that Oliver made.
Kayla tried to push the memory of the morning out of her mind to enjoy the hike. She took a deep breath – the air was so fresh that it helped soothe her nostrils, which were still a bit sensitive from all of the bleach she’d used cleaning.
“Do you have a map with any hiking trails?” asked Mitch.
Shoot. She didn’t, and she wished that she had the time to plan something short so she wouldn’t have to spend too long with Mitch. She wanted to go back to the cabin and feel sorry for herself. “No, but I’m sure that they have some in the lodge.”
Oliver caught sight of a squirrel twenty yards away. His body stiffened and he started slowly creeping up on the creature. Even though she was still mad at him, she couldn’t help but crack a smile. Adopting him was probably the most irresponsible thing she’d done in some time – and she was infamous for her spur of the moment bad ideas. He was so stinking cute, though. How could she have known that she would be such a terrible dog owner?
“I could run in and get a map for us,” said Mitch.
“Sure, that sounds –”
Kayla was interrupted by a lovely Southern accent.
“Hey there Miss Smith.”
She turned around and there was George, all ruggedly handsome, squinting into the sun.
“Oh hi George, what’s up?”
“Just finished up my last trail ride for the day. What are you up to?”
He took a step closer and Oliver let out a low grumble.
“Ollie!” Kayla said. “Stop being rude! I’m sorry, he’s still a bit afraid of men.”
“That’s alright pup,” George said, reaching down to pat him on the head.
Oliver’s grumbling intensified into a growl and Kayla tugged on his leash.
She got low to scold him. “Oliver – no!”
Oliver stopped growling, but didn’t break his stare with George.
“That’s alright,” George said. “I like a dog with a little fight in him.”
“He has a lot of fight,” Kayla said with a sigh. She knelt down to stroke Oliver’s head and soft little ears. “George, this is my friend Mitch. And Mitch, this is George, one of the wranglers at the ranch.”
Mitch outstretched a hand. “Nice to meet you, George.”
Kayla continued. “We were thinking of taking Oliver on a little hike. Do you have any recommendations?”
George crossed his arms. “Well I’d be happy to show you one. I couldn’t leave a lovely lady like you out to fend for yourself in these grizzly infested mountains.”
Kayla was glad that her cheeks were already a bit pink from the heat so George didn’t see her growing flushed. This day was looking up after all!
“I’m sure we can manage,” said Mitch.
“If you don’t have anything else to do, of course you’re welcome to join us,” added Kayla quickly. She wasn’t going to miss the chance of hanging out with George. Especially if he could be a bit of a buffer between her and Mitch. What did Mitch care? He didn’t like talking to her anyway.
“As luck would have it, I’m free the rest of the evening.”
“Great! Where should we go?”
For the next hour, George led them through a series of winding trails and foot paths. Kayla found it absolutely enchanting, and even Oliver eventually set aside his distrust of George to pursue the many exciting sites and smells of the countryside.
Kayla’s cover story was that she lived in New York City, so she made a big deal about how beautiful and open everything was compared to “home.” Though it felt a bit dishonest, especially since she’d only been to the city a handful of times, it was mostly true. The mountains and blue skies took her breath away. She wasn’t much of a city person; everything from the traffic and the crowding and the buildings made her feel claustrophobic. It moved too fast for her liking, too. She felt more at home driving from one little rural clinic to another.
“Isabelle’s been going on all week about how cool it is that you’re from New York City,” George commented.
Kayla let out a laugh. “It’s not that great,” she said before thinking.
“Oh, you don’t like it?” said Mitch, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Kayla shot him a look. He knew she wasn’t really from New York City. Was he trying to get her to blow her cover again?
“I mainly moved there for work, but I don’t want to live there forever. I don’t really feel at home in big cities,” Kayla replied, keeping her face forward.
The last part was entirely true. If Mitch wanted her to say something dumb, she wasn’t going to fall for it. She was getting good at this lying thing.
“I could never live in a city,” responded George. “The way I see it, a real man is like a horse. He needs wide skies and open fields to run in, to feel his own strength.”
“Yeah,” sighed Kayla. “It’s so much freer out here.”
They reached the end of the walk then, the pa
th looping them back into the ranch’s parking lot.
“How about we grab some dinner?” said George.
“Oh yeah!” Kayla responded without thinking.
Oliver let out a grumble, as though he just again realized that George was nearby.
“Ah,” she said, “except I don’t think I can leave Oliver alone tonight. We’re working on – uh – some separation anxiety.”
“Bring him along. I could order a pizza in town and we could eat it looking up at the stars.”
Kayla’s eyes caught his for just a moment. Was he…asking her on a date? Sort of? Kind of?
More importantly, was she going to say yes?
“That sounds nice,” she said cooly.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” George said with a wink.
Mitch cleared his throat. “Well, I better head off too. Need to get started on some work early tomorrow.”
Kayla nodded. “Alright Mitch, have a good night.”
He hesitated. “You too. And uh, see you later this week?”
“Sure,” Kayla replied.
She wondered if she’d have time to shower and change before George got back. This was her first date in years – it was no good for her to be all sweaty for it. She needed to get moving.
Mitch leaned down to Oliver’s level. “Nice meeting you, Ollie.”
Oliver sniffed his hand before offering a solitary lick. Mitch laughed.
“I’ll take it.”
Kayla patted Oliver on the head. “Good boy! See, it’s not so hard to be nice, is it?”
Mitch turned to leave. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Will do!” Kayla was finally able to scurry back to her cabin to get ready. Her heart was all aflutter with excitement. Maybe her spontaneous trip out West would lead to a spontaneous cowboy husband?
Doctor's Date with a Billionaire Page 7