AllFreeNovel
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“How do you leave this place?”
“Not easily. Do you want a beer or wine?”
“Wine, cabernet if you have it.”
He grabbed himself a beer, turned the grill on then headed back inside, waiting for me at the door to precede him. I sat down at the island and watched him move through his kitchen with an ease of someone who did it often. He uncorked the bottle, poured me a glass, then moved to the fridge for the steaks he had marinating. He’d put thought into our dinner, and though he’d said the night was so I’d get a chance to wear my dress, the only one I wanted to see me in it was him.
“Did you always live here?”
“Worked out of Cheyenne for ten years, but like you, I had enough of the rat race. I moved back here, built this place.”
He didn’t say doing what, and I didn’t push. I took a sip of wine. I’d never heard of it, but it was just how I liked my wine: dark ruby red and heavy tannins. I took a second to let the flavor play over my tongue before I asked, “How did you become sheriff?”
“My predecessor wasn’t much of one. Someone needed to fill in.”
I was sure there was more to it, but again, I didn’t press. The next words were out before I realized I intended to say them. “You seem to fill in where needed, but if you could do anything what would it be?” The reminder of a similar conversation with Brock had me looking into my glass. The wave of melancholy took me by surprise. When the silence dragged on, I glanced up to find he was studying me.
That was his way of making sure I was okay. He didn’t need to speak the words, when a look could just as easily convey his thoughts. The more I got to know him, the more I liked him. I smiled. He continued prepping the steaks.
“Take on the occasional carpentry project and the rest of the time, chilling and riding.”
Remembering the sight of him on horseback had me taking a long sip from my wine. “How many horses do you have?”
“Two, Cisco and Lady. You ride?”
“No, but I’ve always wanted to learn.”
“We’ve time. You wanna go see them?”
I loved that he loved animals as much as I did. “Yes.”
He grabbed his beer, and I took my glass. We walked back outside and down the steps of the deck. Cooper and Max took off, but we were heading to the gray barn. “How far does your land go?”
“I’m on a hundred acres.”
“Holy shit.”
“There had been whispering of putting in a development. I didn’t want neighbors, so I bought the land.”
“I would have too. How do you monitor your land? Aren’t you concerned about squatters?” I hadn’t been before but, knowing someone had been on my land, it got me thinking about how I would know if someone setup a trailer on it. Unless I walked the entire twenty acres weekly, I would be none the wiser.
“Cameras. Have a monitoring station behind the kitchen.”
“Have the cameras, need to figure out the monitoring.”
He stopped walking. “What do you mean you have the cameras?”
“After you told me about my visitor, I put cameras up, but I didn’t know how to link them to a monitor.”
“Where?”
“On the spot you found, on Sassafras Road, the far back of my property.”
“Who installed them?”
“Me.” I took a sip of wine before I shared, “I do have some surveillance experience. Of course, I was eleven at the time but still.”
“Tomorrow, you’re going to walk me through where you put the cameras. We’ll hook them up to monitors.”
