Authors: Claire Adams
“You
know, you two could be sisters,” he as he walked back past us and just before
heading to his table.
“Mr.
Reynolds, it’s nice to see that you were able to wake up this morning and eat
some breakfast. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow morning,” my mother
said.
She
was horrible at taking a compliment and Garrett was a little too cheesy with
his. Although, I had heard people say my mother and I looked a lot alike and
some had even tried the sisters line before. But my mother had aged a lot over
the last few years. The sun, work, and money stressors were taking their toll
on her.
“I
will be here tomorrow morning,” Garrett responded confidently as he sat down
next to Forest.
“Do
you think Forest has told him how everyone manages to wake up in the mornings?”
I asked my mother.
“Well,
he was up this morning, so maybe.”
I
wasn’t about to tell my mother that I had woken Garrett up on my own. She
certainly wouldn’t have been happy with me and I liked when my mother was
happy. My mom could get pretty wild when she was angry. There had only been a
few times in my life that I had witness her truly upset with me and I didn’t
plan on repeating that experience anytime soon.
“Yeah,
he must have told him.”
Chapter 5
Garrett
I
knew I liked Forest. After telling him that I couldn’t go into town, he still
brought me back a wristwatch with an alarm on it. I instantly noticed it was
the same one all the other guys were wearing.
Luckily
for me, Forest had taken a liking to me because Sid had been very clear that I
wasn’t to go into town. Agent Walker threatened to place me on a fishing boat
in Alaska if he found out I was causing any trouble. So when Forest handed me
the wristwatch, I was extremely grateful.
“It’s
got a vibrate function on it, you can set alarms for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner and the watch will vibrate to notify you.”
His
broken, toothy smile was smug yet playful and I knew their little game with me
was finally over. It had only taken me a couple of weeks to figure it out, but
I was grateful to finally have a way of making it to breakfast in the morning.
I couldn’t exactly expect Sarah to sneak into the bunkhouse and wake me up,
although I certainly would appreciate it if she wanted to.
I
had gone to college and been through the horror of hazing as I joined my
fraternity; my theory of holding out and not complaining had finally paid off.
It was a huge relief and I finally felt like I was one of the guys.
It
was odd to be placed at the ranch through the witness protection program. I had
seen the movie and television shows about the program and always assumed people
were hidden away in cabins where no one could find them. It was a bit of a
relief that I did get to work on the ranch and interact with people each day
because I was sure I would have gone crazy if I had been stuck in a cabin all
alone.
Free-time
had never been something I liked. From the time I was in high school up to my
current work, I always packed my days as full as possible. If I wasn’t at the
gym or at the office, I was likely out with friends or visiting potential
clients. I couldn’t sit still very well and that had served me greatly as I
grew my business. I strongly believed that anyone who was willing to work hard
and hustle would make something of themselves eventually. Although, it was hard
for me to meet quality women when I was always hustling around.
Sarah
was the kind of woman I had never really met up close. In the business world,
she was aloof and not really the sort of woman I was looking for when I was out
with my friends at a bar. To be honest, I figured a woman like Sarah probably
didn’t go out to the bars much. She was serious about life and I could see
that. Even at home at her family farm, Sarah kept a serious nature about her
that could drive men away. But the more I talked to her and the closer I got to
her, I was realizing that her serious nature was just her armor to make it in
this man’s world. Sarah was actually very sweet and kind and tried to hide it
behind everything else that she portrayed.
The
touch of her hands on mine wasn’t something I could forget though. Even though
for the next several weeks she seemed to be avoiding getting close enough to
touch me. Something about our interaction during that morning of making
breakfast had scared her, or perhaps her parents had told her to stay away;
Sarah was very obviously avoiding me.
She
had promised to teach me more about the horses and yet had totally avoided me
since that morning we made breakfast. There were some quick glances as we
worked, a smile and nod, or even a quick hello as I walked by, but Sarah was
avoiding me.
At
first I thought she was just trying to play hard to get. Or maybe she was
proving her point that she was the supervisor and I was an employee. But the
way here eyes lit up when we did look at each other, I felt like she was for
sure interested in me. I understood she didn’t want her parents to think
something was going on between the two of us—hell I didn’t want that either.
But there was no use in totally ignoring each other if we were going to work
together; we could certainly decide to do that and just be friends if that was
what she wanted.
“Can
you show me how to saddle the horse?” I asked one late afternoon after I had
finished all my other jobs.
She
looked around nervously as she stood at the end of the barn. I wasn’t sure why
I was suddenly making her so nervous, but as a man I knew not to move forward until
she allowed it. As men, we had to be in tuned to thing like the way a woman
felt when alone with us; there were too many shady men in the world and they
had ruined it for all the good guys.
Even
thought I was clearly a good guy and I knew it, I wasn’t sure that Sarah was
one hundred percent convinced of my good guy status. She wanted to like me, I
could see that in her eyes; but she had some trepidation about giving in to her
gut feeling about me.
To
be honest, I wasn’t sure that I would trust the guy I was at that moment in my
life. The story I had been given when I was placed at the ranch seemed a little
shady to me and I probably hadn’t done it justice with my unconvincing lying. A
guy traveling to Wyoming to Washington for a job opportunity wouldn’t actually
stop to work at a ranch. If he had a job opportunity, he would want to get to
that damn job and not sit for weeks on a ranch. But I tried to avoid the
realities of the story I had been telling about my past and move forward. I
just had to make the best of it and hope that Sarah could see through the lies
and see that I was a decent guy.
“Um,
actually I was just heading into town to get a saddle for Buckjoy. You could
come with me if you’d like.”
The
agent who had dropped me off at the ranch had told me very clearly never to
leave the ranch. If I went into town, it was more likely someone would see me
and if Frank Gordano sent people looking for me, it was more likely they could
find me. I knew the rules; I had avoided going to get my own watch because of
these rules. Everything in my mind told me to refuse this offer of Sarah’s …
but my mind wasn’t really in control at that moment.
Lust
can do wondrous things to a man’s psyche though. Justification and logic seem
to swim together and make sense of situations and excuses to forgo all that a
man knows is true. And in that moment, lust took control of my mind and I
agreed to put myself in danger and go with this beautiful woman whom I had been
distant from for weeks and desperately wanted to be alone with again.
“Sure,”
I said as I took off my gloves and followed Sarah to the truck.
Adrenaline
pulsed through my body at the decision I just made. As we pulled out of the
driveway, I looked around in expectation. I felt as if someone might be just outside
the gates waiting to kill me. But as the truck moved further away from the
ranch, I began to relax just a little bit. How likely was it there would be
anyone even remotely close to our little Montana city? How would they have even
found me? No, I told myself I was being paranoid and that was all there was to
it.
“How
are your hands?” she asked.
I
held them out for her to see and showed off my proud calluses on them. They
were the hands of a true working man and I was actually proud of them. The
rough nature of my hands now showed that I was physically able to work the
ranch and I wasn’t that weak gym rat that I had been when I first arrived.
Rough
callus-ridden hands weren’t something I ever imagined I would be proud of. Yet
I really was. My life on the ranch had been such a growing experience up to
that point and I was happy to stay a few weeks longer and continue to learn. I
still had the feeling as if I were away at summer camp and having Sarah there
made things even better.
My
body had started adjusting to the long hours, although I was still very tired
and ready for bed each night. Since getting my watch, I was getting up with
everyone else and didn’t seem to be the butt of jokes anymore. Plus, there were
a couple new ranch hands that were doing more of the grunt work as I started to
take on additional responsibilities. Life was good for me and I didn’t feel
afraid for my life like I had when I first arrived.
“They
healed up real nice. Thanks again for taking such good care of me.”
I
wasn’t specifically trying to flirt with Sarah, but I honestly couldn’t help
myself. The way her big, brown eyes looked at me, she had ever nerve in my body
standing at attention. For weeks she had avoided eye contact and hurried out of
the barn whenever I was in there. But there she was, right next to me in the
truck, the two of us alone as we made our way into town. I didn’t regret my
decision one bit, I would have agreed to go anywhere with her.
Sarah
kept her hands on the wheel and concentrated on the road as she drove. It felt
like she was trying to avoid talking to me, yet she had been the one who
invited me to come with her into town. I couldn’t help but stare at her as she
held onto the large truck steering wheel. Her long, brown hair was pulled to
either side in braids and she looked like a college girl. Sarah was half
smiling and I thought she would say something flirty to me, but just as she
started to talk she would bite her bottom lip and then stop.
“It’s
just part of my job. You’re our employee; I can’t have you bleeding all over
the place or being in so much pain you can’t work,” she finally said.
She
looked at me and then her eyes turned back to the road as she sat coldly
ignoring me for the rest of the drive into town. She was trying her best to put
distance between us and I understood. I wasn’t going to let it happen, but I
understood why she was doing it. In the six weeks that I had been on the ranch
I had already seen four men leave and three more take their places. It wasn’t a
place where men came and lived for a long time and I couldn’t promise her I was
going to stay much longer either. Who was I to try and build a friendship with
this woman? I could literally be gone at any moment. The agent who dropped me
off just had to show up at the front door of Mr. Miller’s home and I would
leave with him without a question being asked.
I
couldn’t offer Sarah anything and I was selfish for wanting anything from her.
But I still wanted it. I still wanted her. Even if I was only there one more
day, I wanted to feel the gentle touch of Sarah’s lips against mine. I longed
for a moment when we could sneak away and she would let me explore her naked
body with my lips and hands. I’d take anything she was willing to give,
anything except the silence she was giving me as we drove into town.
“How
am I doing with my jobs?” I asked in an effort to get her to talk to me.
“Good.
I mean, it was pretty hilarious watching you try to catch that pig the other
day though.”
That
damn pig. I knew she had seen me struggling with that thing and everyone else
on the ranch as well. It was emasculating to have a little pig cause so much
chaos. I had never in my life spent so much time trying to grab an animal and
my frustration at the event had grown so high that I would have started throwing
a tantrum if others hadn’t of been watching. It was like the pig actually had a
vendetta against me.
“I
don’t understand how your father did it. He basically used some sort of witch
power and the damn thing totally stopped running and let your dad pick him up.”
Sarah
laughed at my description of her father, but it was totally true. I had chased
after the damn pig for half an hour and when Sid walked up, the pig just
succumbed to him and let him pick the damn thing up. It would have been
hilarious if it hadn’t been me that had been tortured by the damn pig.
With
Sarah, I had done what I had intended to do and broke her armor for the
slightest of moments. My heart filled with potential and I quickly tried to
figure out how I could prolong this moment with her and keep her armor down
long enough to get to know her. She was a tough woman and I accepted that.
Hell, I loved that she was so damn tough, but it meant I was going to have to
work a little harder than I was used to around a woman. I was all right with
that though; I was all right with whatever I had to do to keep Sarah’s
attention.
“My
father is a big of a pig whisperer,” Sarah continued to laugh.
“I
have to admit, working on the ranch is so much harder than I imagined it would
be and I don’t think I’m very good at it either. Your father has been very
generous to let me work with him.”
“My
father wouldn’t keep you around if you weren’t a hard worker. I think you’re
doing all right.”
I
pulled up my pants leg and exposed a huge bite mark on my leg. I had actually
been a little worried about it, but Mrs. Miller convinced me it happened all
the time and as long as I kept it clean, I would be fine. Meredith Miller was a
pretty amazing woman; she was up for breakfast and still up when we all went to
bed. I could see where Sarah got her strength both physically and mentally.
“What
the hell happened to you?” Sarah yelled at me as she stopped the car in the
parking lot of the store.
“You’ll
laugh, its okay. I’m keeping it clean and it should heal up really soon.”
“Are
there any other injuries I should know about while we are in town? I can load
up on some additional first air supplies,” she said as she smiled at me. “Was
that from the pig?”