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“So this is it?” I asked, gesturing to the area around us. We’d parked in a dirt lot outside a forested hillside that might’ve been a dozen acres or so. There was a large wooden fence not far from where we parked, some elephant sized barns, and hardly anything else of note.
“Yep,” he said. “Great, isn’t it?”
“It smells.” To be completely honest, the smell was a little comforting. It reminded me of the time before my parents divorced. Dad owned a farm in Georgia, and it always smelled similar—kind of musty and earthy, but not overpowering. I wasn’t about to admit I liked the smell in front of Travis, of course.
He took a deep sniff. “Yep. That’d be from the elephant manure. Want to meet the girls?”
I lifted my palms. “There’s nothing I would like more.” I’d meant for the words to come out sounding exasperated, but I accidentally let a little bit of my excitement leak into my tone. I loved elephants. I always had, ever since my dad took me to a circus when I was little. Of course, mother wouldn’t let me get in line to sit on the elephant’s back, but they seemed like such sweet, intelligent creatures. I’d even read once that they gave funerals for other elephants who died and sometimes came back to visit the graves. How could you not admire an animal like that?
He jerked his head toward me in surprise, eyebrows raised. They were nice eyebrows. Dark, naturally arched, and close to his eyes. “Well look at you being a good sport.”
For reasons I couldn’t begin to explain, his excitement made my cheeks burn a little hot. I shoved the feelings down and remembered to glare at him. “I’m just hoping to get this over with.”
“People who say that usually don’t understand the secret. Want to know it?”
“Why do I have a feeling you’re going to tell me no matter what I say?”
“Because you’re getting to know me. And that’s wonderful. The secret is it’s all part of the ride. Good days. Bad days. Spontaneous dates with your charming upstairs neighbor. We’re all just strapped in and coming along for all the twists and turns. Since you can’t get off the ride, you might as well stop wishing you could and just enjoy it, right?”
“You realize the reason I can’t get off this particular ride is because you won’t let me, right? And what happens to your theory if someone is tying me down and hitting me with leather straps, or something?”
“I can’t tell if we’re still in the metaphor or if you’re subtly hinting you were hoping tonight was going to get a little Fifty Shades. You said we only had two hours, but if your heart is set, we could try to make it work.”
I glared. “I’m saying your world view depends on good things happening. Not everybody is as lucky as you apparently are.”
“Amendment. As long as you’re not getting physically or emotionally harmed, the secret is to sit back and enjoy the ride.”
“It’s not usually a good sign when people have to make last-minute amendments to their ‘secret’ foundational life lessons.”
“Is this what you do at work?” he asked, easily pivoting from the way I was starting to dig into him.
“Sort of,” I admitted. “The higher up the food chain you go, the more the work seems to be about critiquing everybody else.”
“Depends which food chain you’re on, I guess. The higher I went, the more golf I got to play.”
“What sort of work do you do?” I asked. “Last time I asked, you blew me off and told me ‘sales,’ but I feel like that’s not the whole story.”
He started walking toward the fenced area where a small, adorable elephant was slowly approaching. I still hadn’t seen any sign of employees and was starting to fear we were trespassing after hours or something.
“So she’s recalling minor details of prior conversations,” he noted. “Showing interest in my personal life, and thinking about my many mysteries in her spare time. I’d say we’re really making progress here, Elizabeth.”
Ignoring all of that, I cleared my throat. “And I’d say you’re dodging my question. Again.”
“I work with a team that is sort of hard to define. We own or manage several large corporations, businesses, and so on. My work is a little here and there, but I basically get called in to convince people who need convincing.”
My throat went dry. Oh God. He’s a mobster. He probably has a gun on him right now. That’s why he’s so carefree. If anybody crosses him, he just shoots them in the head, doesn’t he? “Convincing?” I asked. “Like… Violent convincing?”
He laughed. “No. Like the way I convinced you to follow your heart and come on these dates with me.”
I sputtered. “My heart? You mean the organ that has told me nothing except to kick you between the legs and run since the moment we met?”
