“Holy hell,” I muttered to myself. Lor had left an hour or so ago, but I’d stayed glued to the spot, riveted, watching the dance play out.
Ramsey rubbed her face, not saying a word. Then he bent, reaching for something on the other side of the fence. As soon as he set the bucket of grain on the ground, the mare pounced on it. As she did, Ramsey ducked out of the pen.
“That was unbelievable. What will you work on next with her?”
He snapped his fingers, and Kai instantly came to his side, eyeing me suspiciously. “You talk a lot.”
I swallowed a strangled laugh. “I think that’s the only thing I’ve said in the past two hours.”
Ramsey ignored my defense. “I’m breaking for lunch. You can come back this afternoon or tomorrow at sunrise. Your choice.”
I’d been dismissed. But I hadn’t been kicked out. I was already playing over a million different things in my mind, building the character from the ground up. Taking pieces from how Ramsey held himself or the way he moved and then creating embellishments of my own rooted in the hero’s backstory. There was enough for me to chew on for days.
Hell, I probably had most of what I needed for the entire movie in the span of the past few hours. But I wasn’t anxious to leave this place anytime soon. There was a magic in the air that I’d been missing for a long time.
“I’ll see you later…” My words trailed off because Ramsey was already halfway to his house.
Peaches whined from the porch.
“Sorry, girl.” I gave her the signal for release, and she lumbered over to me, jumping up and down in a slow prance. “What do you say we go for a ride?” She let out a happy bark. “Thought you might like that.”
I pulled my keys from my pocket and beeped the locks. Opening the passenger door, Peaches charged, her stubby legs propelling her into the air. Jumps like these sometimes ended with her missing the mark and doing some sort of flip, but this time she landed soundly in the passenger seat.
I climbed behind the wheel and started the engine. As soon as the windows were down, Peaches was in heaven. Panting, she let her tongue loll. I took a roundabout way into town. I didn’t know exactly where I was going, but I knew the rough direction I was headed in. I looped around the mountains and drove by the lake. Eventually, I had to put the heat on, even though Peaches’ window was down because temperatures in the twenties were too much for my Los Angeles blood.
By the time I pulled into a parking spot in front of a small grocery store on the main drag, Peaches had curled into a ball on the seat and was snoring away again. I gave her head a rub. “You gotta stay here while I get groceries.”
Her eyes opened a fraction and then closed again. I chuckled. Two things you didn’t come between with Peaches: her food and her naps.
My phone buzzed in the cupholder, and I pulled it out.
Unknown Number:I’m trying to keep a low profile like Dad asked but I’m running low on funds. Can you spot me?
My back teeth ground together as I stared at the screen. How had we gotten here? This place where Eli’s phone number changed every other week because people were looking for him. The one where he despised me yet was willing to hit me up for money. A world where Carissa no longer existed.
It was the last thought that had me blocking the number. I’d tried time and time again to be there for Eli. The only thing it had gotten me was a lifetime of heartache and cleaning up his messes. I was done.
I shoved my phone into my pocket and pulled on my ballcap. Sliding out of my truck, I slammed the door with a little more force than necessary, and Peaches’ ears twitched. I’d get her a treat to make up for it. But as I headed for the grocery store, I couldn’t make myself go inside. I was too keyed up. Twitchy.
Instead, I headed down the sidewalk, tugging my hat down low. I shouldn’t have worried about it. Only a handful of people were on the street, and none of them expected to see me in this tiny town.
I welcomed the bite of cold air, not caring that I’d left my jacket back at the cabin. Something about the way the temperature attacked my skin mirrored how I felt at the moment. There was a feral edge to us both.
I lost myself in the sights of the town and that feeling. They didn’t match up. Wolf Gap was what my mom would callquaint. It had a charming, welcoming quality to it that didn’t fit with the air or my mood. Hand-painted signs proclaimed coffee shops and pizza parlors. Tourist shops and cafes.
My steps faltered as a building with large windows came into view. It wasn’t the building itself that had my feet slowing. It was an image—a photograph. A woman bent over in a field, her body contorted and hair hanging in front of her face.
Something about it pulled me in. Before I could think about the wisdom of the action, I was opening the door and stepping into the gallery space. But I didn’t have eyes for any other pieces of art. Only the one that had drawn me in.
I felt a tugging sensation in the center of my chest as if an invisible tether pulled me closer. I stopped just two feet shy of the piece. Now I could see the woman’s face. A tear tracked down her cheek. Even though her dark hair hid some of her gorgeous features, her eyes shot straight to me.
No, they shotthroughme. It was as though those amber orbs saw everything I’d gotten so good at hiding from the world. Those eyes were unflinchingly honest. Let you see all the pain below. And for the first time in forever, I didn’t feel quite so alone.
6
Laiken
I movedfrom the back room into the gallery, leaving Gizmo on his bed, happily chewing on a bully stick. My steps faltered as I took in the man in front of my photograph, his back to me. He wore dark jeans that hugged his hips, a flannel shirt, and a baseball cap. It was too cold for only a flannel shirt, yet I couldn’t find it in me to be sad that it was what he wore.