AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She took a sharp left, having memorized everything about the road to her house. She knew where to veer to the north when the rains swept up like this and when to gun it in the winter with the ice and the snow. Today, she gunned it and veered to the north. She had no patience for anything—if Sarah was in trouble, Eli wanted to make sure she was okay.
One of the most interesting parts about owning and runningIndigowas the people who would come stay. She enjoyed getting to know them for the short time they visited with her. She was a natural born extrovert who loved chatting with new faces, but she was stuck in a town with faces she saw every day, and while she longed for the newness, she certainly enjoyed the mundane and routine more than adventures to big cities.
Sarah had been nearly a last-minute booking, made only a few weeks before. Winter was her off-season, so she’d been surprised to see the two-week booking, but whoever it was must have needed the vacation. Sarah reserved just for herself, which was also rare for Eli to see. Mostly it was newlywed couples or couples in desperate need of a break from the norm. Most were from within a few hours away, but occasionally she’d get people from farther out.
Eli had worked hard to build up her reputation in the last two years, and she knew word was finally getting around about her. She rubbed her hand against her forehead as she pulled up to the intersection at the main road. No one was there. No lights shining in the pitch black, nothing to indicate anyone who was lost.
Eli turned onto the next dirt road and moved toward the highway. She would go there and then to town if she had to, but she didn’t want to be gone too long. At least her house phone would forward to her cell if Sarah called, asking for directions or to tell her she wasn’t coming—which wouldn’t surprise Eli. She’d had her fair share of cancellations for this and that.
It took her twenty minutes to get to the highway, and the thunder and lightning storm wasn’t letting up. Her windshield wipers flew back and forth and barely kept up with the rain as it pounded around her. At least the fields would get a good soaking to help with the crops. She had taken a risk and planted some winter wheat this year to test out if she wanted to farm as well as ranch. Her father had called it a joke, but she was determined to prove him wrong.
Bill, however, defended her in one of their calls. When she’d found out about that from her mom, she was beyond happy. Bill had been over more and more, checking in on things and helping in ways he hadn’t ever done before. It was nice to see him and to have the silent support he offered. She was pretty sure it was also because he was missing his daughter, but hey, she’d take what she could get.
When she reached the highway, there were only a few cars here and there. She stopped and pulled up to the main paved road, waiting and watching. Every vehicle that passed she either recognized or looked like they knew where they were going. With a sigh, Eli pulled out onto the asphalt and turned toward town. She hadn’t wanted to make the drive that day, but it looked like it was going to happen one way or another.
* * *
Sarah’s heart hadn’t stopped pounding in near an hour. If anything, she could count this as her exercise for the week. Laughing at her stupid joke, she drove toward the lights on the house that she hoped wasIndigo. She could barely see them in the dark, but she knew they were there.
The back wheels of her car slid in the mud, and she had to hope she didn’t go off the edge of the road, but there was nothing to tell her where to go and where not to. No lines, no railing. Nothing.
She was farther down the road than she had expected, and it took her twice the amount of time to get there because she was driving at a snail’s pace. She turned into the driveway, glad to see there was an open gate with wooden poles over each side. She’d been told they would be there, which meant she must be in the right place.
Sarah relaxed. She was finally at the house. Her nerves—already completely frayed—pulled together slightly, enough that she hoped she’d make sense when she showed up. She pulled up along the front of the long porch. The house was gorgeous, it was white and old, and stood out from the dark because of the lights shining on it.
Narrowing her eyes as she reached forward to turn her car off, Sarah groaned. It wasn’t the right house. This house looked nothing like the one in the pictures on the website she had stared at for hours. Her anxiety picked up again. She was completely lost, and she wasn’t ever going to find where she needed to be, and she was going to end up sleeping the entire night in her car before she gave up and just took a plane home.
Clenching and unclenching her fists, Sarah shook her head. No. She would go up to the door, pray someone was home without a shotgun in hand, and ask if they knew whereIndigowas. She just had to get the courage up to walk to the house and knock on the door and not think she would die in the process. That was it. Nothing else.
With the car turned off, she wrapped her fingers around the door handle and shoved it open. Her heart skittered as she jumped from the vehicle and raced toward the covered porch. By the time she got to it, she was already drenched from head to her shoulders. Shaking off the excess water she could, which Sarah knew was useless, she marched toward the front door of the house. She looked way more confident than she was.
Sarah searched for a doorbell, but she didn’t find one. Instead, she formed a fist and knocked hard, hoping she was heard over the raging storm outside. There were lights on in the windows, so she at least knew someone was up. When the door opened, a middle-aged man with a blue plaid shirt, a belly that would rival a nine-month pregnant woman, and a shotgun in his hand stood before her.
“Sorry,” Sarah said, her voice trembling. “I’m a little lost, and I was hoping you could help.”
“It’s two in the morning,” he replied.
“I know. My flight was delayed, and then the storm.” She pointed over her shoulder at it. “And then my phone died. It’s just…it’s been a mess. But I’m just trying to find my way toIndigo B&B.”
“There isn’t a place around here called that.”
“What?” Sarah’s eyes widened, and she turned to look out into the night. From the brightly lit porch, she couldn’t see anything except the barely-there reflection of the light off her white car.
“Who is it, Dwaine?” A woman with a robe wrapped around her, long gray hair braided, and sleep in her eyes walked up next to him. Sarah was about to speak when she was interrupted. “Come in! Get out of the rain, sweetie.”
Sarah’s lips parted. She wasn’t sure she wanted to walk into a stranger’s house with no one knowing where the hell she was, but did she really have an option? With every hair on her neck standing straight, she stepped between Dwaine and the doorframe. He had barely moved enough to let her in.
“You said you were looking forIndigo B&B?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Sarah suddenly remembered all those manners she’d been taught growing up in the south.
Dwaine stood staunchly by the door as the woman led Sarah into the kitchen and sat her at the table. Sarah gnawed on her lip, her stomach twisting more than she thought it could, and she was pretty sure if it didn’t ease up soon, she was going to lose the last of the pretzels she’d had on the plane.
“My name is Ginger. That’s my husband, Dwaine. He was just going out to check on the calves.” Ginger gave Dwaine a pointed look, and he hesitated before he turned to put his gun down and grabbed his jacket.
“Calves?”
“It’s calving season, sweetie. You’re not from around here, are you?”
