“Let’s put this wine in the fridge and look at the menus. I got them out.” Ryan pointed to the coffee table where a fan of colorful take-out menus spread across the polished wood surface.
“Okay. I’ll put this away. You find us something good to eat. I could go for Chinese.” Skylar’s bracelets jingled as she gathered the wine bottles.
“Ooh, that does sound good.” Ryan’s stomach growled at the thought of steaming dumplings and tangy orange chicken along with shrimp fried rice.
“Do you want a glass of wine now?” Skylar called from the kitchen; the refrigerator door closed with a soft thud.
“I’d better eat something first. I didn’t eat today and that wine would go straight to my head.” Ryan ran her fingers through her tangled dark hair.
“Well, I’m going to have one. Oh, let me get my overnight bag out of the car first.” Skylar jingled her car keys.
“Okay. I’ll look for a movie too.” Ryan reached for the remote.
Skylar started toward the door, shuffling her slippers against the hardwood floor. She stopped and looked back; her forehead creased with worry. “Are you okay?”
Ryan shook her head as a tear escaped and traced a path down her flushed cheek. “No.”
“Let me get my things, put them away, get my wine, and then you’re going to tell me what’s going on.” Skylar’s voice was gentle but firm.
Ryan held her hand up. “I promise.”
After Skylar went outside, Ryan turned on the TV and flipped through channels, the images blurring together in a display of colors. Skylar reentered the house, then carried her overnight case to the spare bedroom upstairs. Ryan could hear the familiar creak of the third step, then the soft thud of the bag hitting the guest bed. Then came the sound of Skylar descending. She walked to the kitchen, and Ryan heard the distinctive pop of the cork and the gentle glug of wine filling a glass. Skylar returned to the living room, the crimson liquid swirling in her glass as she took a seat beside Ryan on the plush sofa, the cushions dipping under her weight. Ryan looked at her, noticing the tiny worry lines around Skylar’s eyes.
Skylar raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. “Spill it.”
Ryan took a deep breath that filled her lungs completely and told Skylar everything. From meeting Seth with his beautiful smile and amazing green eyes, to kissing him in the field, to having passionate sex with him in his bed, and to finally falling hopelessly in love with him.
“You would have stayed?” Skylar sat forward, her wine sloshing dangerously close to the rim of her glass.
“Yes. Skylar, you know me. I am not fickle. I don’t fall in love easily, but I am so in love with him.” Ryan’s voice cracked like thin ice. “My heart is just breaking knowing I can’t be with him.”Ryan reached for a tissue and blew her nose, then she got to her feet. “Hold on, I’ll show you.”
Ryan picked her laptop up from the floor, opened it, then went to her folder titled: Seth, and opened it. Pages of pages loaded with photos she’d taken of the ranch, along with the photos of the oats and corn fields. Then she found the ones she was looking for and turned the screen to Skylar. Ryan watched her face and knew the second she spotted the photo of the men on the ranch standing in front of a tractor just outside the barn doors in the bright sunshine. She took it a few days before she left. They had grins on their handsome faces as they all assumed the same pose; arms folded across their chests, feet planted apart, hats tipped low, but the smiles showed, and it was enough to give any red-blooded woman heart palpitations.
Skylar looked at her with her mouth hanging open, glanced back at the screen, then to her again.
“You were working with these men?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I know some of them are way too young for me, but there is not a bad looking one in the bunch.”
Ryan reached over and scrolled a page. “That’s Seth.”
“Oh, Ryan. I can see in this photo you took that you love him. It’s all in the way you captured him.” Skylar looked at her. “You are in love.”
Ryan nodded. “I am. I’m going to print that one out and frame it.” She reached over again to the keyboard and scrolled to the next page and waited, biting her lip.
“Holy shit! Who is this gorgeous specimen? Now, don’t get me wrong, Seth is very, very handsome, but this man…” Skylar shook her head. “Thisman is just that.Allman. Please tell me I can have him. Oh, and his name, please.”
Ryan laughed. “He has the most amazing blue eyes. Bluer than yours. I mean, striking, and he has black hair. He’s forty-two and single. He’s Seth best friend and his name is Cullen Byrne.”
“So, what’s wrong with him?”
“What?”
“He sounds too good to be true. What’s wrong with him?”
“His wife was killed in a horseback riding accident. Seth said it was five or six years ago, and Cull took it hard. So, he’s probably not looking for a relationship.”
