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“You’d buy a ranch.”
“Yeah. But you know what I’d do with it? Instead of making it a dude ranch, I’d turn it into a halfway house for juveniles.”
Her head whipped around, and she stared at him.
“I would teach kids real life skills and the value of working hard, just like Eve did for me.” His face contorted into a grimace. “Kids who need a second chance at life and who might end up on the wrong side of the tracks because the system failed them. Those kinds of kids.”
“Dax?” she whispered, reaching to cover his forearm with her hand. “Were you one of those kids?”
He stared down at where she touched him but didn’t pull away. “Yeah,” he croaked. “I was a kid who got into trouble despite all the love and support that Eve gave me. I made every mistake in the book. I hurt people, I stole, I got high. I was a regular drain on society.”
“What changed?”
Dax shifted his focus once more to the field. His jaw was hard and his cheek twitched every few seconds. “Eve got sick. After everything she did for everyone else, she didn’t even get to live a full life.” His voice broke and he swung his attention back to Sarah. “Now, do you think that guy in there had to experience anything like that even once in his life?”
Slowly, she shook her head though she had absolutely no clue. Granted, people with money usually had a different set of problems, but they were less likely to turn out like she had.
“Exactly. If Shane wants to be philanthropic with his money and help the public, he can do so. But having money and using it in the right way is not nearly as hard as experiencing something like what I went through as a kid. Iknowwhat it’s like to be on the outside looking in. And I bet you anything I could do more with a million dollars than that guy ever could.”
Sarah reached for his hand. “I’m sure you could.”
He let out a dry chuckle. “You know what I kept telling myself the whole time on the ride over here?”
She remained quiet.
“I told myself not to mess this up. We needed to have some fun so we could loosen up around each other. And now I’m standing here telling you how I’m better than Shane Owens. I don’t really paint myself in a very good light, do I?”
Sarah traced her finger over the back of his hand. How could she express to him that she related to what he’d said more than he could imagine? What would he say if he knew she actually agreed with his opinion on how having money doesn’t make a person genuinely good? Sometimes people have to walk through the fire to overcome their weaknesses on the other side.
But admitting any of that was dangerous for several reasons.
Instead, she offered him a smile. “I think you are a man who has the biggest heart out of everyone I’ve ever met. The fact that you had to go through such hardships only made you stronger. And I know that if you were to get that money, you’d succeed.”
Dax faced her and placed his hand against her cheek. “How did you get to be so amazing?”
She dipped her head, avoiding his searching gaze. He hooked his finger under her chin and lifted it, forcing her to meet his eyes. As much as he appeared to be enthralled with her, she was ten times that with him. Dax had proven himself a force to be reckoned with. He had a heart of pure gold and he hadn’t let the world crush him. She could only hope to end up as sweet as he was.
Dax studied her, the silence between them growing with each passing second. Even the cicadas that were native to the area seemed to stop their chirping. The earth grew still as Dax moved closer toward her, his focus dipping to her mouth only once.
This was it. The kiss she’d wanted him to steal a few days earlier.
Her heart leaped into her throat, racing, soaring, ready to finally experience what it was like to be held by this amazing man. Sarah’s legs trembled, losing the will to keep her upright. If it weren’t for her grasp on the rail at her side, she might have sagged to the floor.
“Sarah,” he murmured, “I want to kiss you.”
“Okay,” she whispered, and her heart sang along with that one uttered word. Motion out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and for a split second, she glanced in that direction. Someone stood in the shadows at the far end of the porch. Someone whose form she recognized.
The hairs on the back of her neck stuck straight up and she gasped, stumbling back a few paces on wobbly legs.
Confusion filled Dax’s eyes and he took one step toward her.
Sarah gripped the rail even tighter and peered once more in the direction where she could have sworn they were being watched by someone. Her heart hammered but for a completely different reason than the near kiss she’d almost been given.
It couldn’t be.
Not now.
NotKenneth.
