by Holly Rayner
Sean loved the fact that the driver called Delaney his girl. He waved goodbye to Delaney as the driver pulled away. As he was transported through the city, he leaned back against the cab’s leather seats and closed his eyes.
I’m going to see her again in a little more than a week, he thought to himself. I have to make sure that I cook something good. What should I make?
He thought over the dishes he’d perfected, over the years of cooking for himself. His mind wandered to where they might sit. He realized that he usually ate in the same chair, out on his porch.
The single chair was next to a small, glass patio table.
Out on the porch would be best, he thought. She loves to be outside, like me. I’ll show her the sunset; she’ll like that.
The glass table will work. I’ll put a candle out on it.
But I only have one chair!
He realized suddenly that for years, he’d been eating out on that porch alone.
I’ve been doing most things alone, he thought. That’s how I’ve kept my true identity a secret. Now, Delaney knows. What will it be like, to be in a relationship and try to protect my identity at the same time?
Is it going to get in the way of our relationship? What if she wants us to go out with friends from Pepper Ridge? What if they recognize my voice, or something about my walk, or my eyes… What if my secret gets out?
Anxiety began inching into his body, crowding out the blissful feeling that he’d enjoyed ever since he’d woken up to the sight of Delaney in the bed next to him, that morning.
What if someone finds out that I’m Derek Bradshaw? All of the guys on my crew ended up serving jail time for our attempt at robbing the bank. Everyone except for me. I’m the only one who got away.
If the police find out where I live, they could come arrest me. I could lose everything I’ve worked so hard for—my freedom, my dogs, my ranch…
All because I’m so eager to spend time with Delaney.
Is she worth it?
He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Every cell of his body buzzed with the answer to his own question. His anxiety faded, and he looked out of the window at the passing high-rises. He grinned and lifted a finger to touch the dimple on his cheek. He thought about how it had felt to have Delaney’s soft touch on that very spot.
Darn right she’s worth it, he thought to himself. I’d risk everything for that woman.
Chapter 13
Delaney
Delaney spent the rest of her Sunday catching up on housework. She knew she had a busy week of work ahead, culminating in the River Valley Horse Show on Saturday, and she didn’t want to have to bother with laundry, cooking, or cleaning. She grocery shopped, mostly to ensure that Mr. Butters would have enough of his dry kibbles and wet food, paid some bills, and did the laundry.
As Monday morning arrived, she felt optimistic about her workload. By Friday, however, she was worn out from all of the preparations for the horse show. It was one of the largest equestrian events of the year, and riders from all over the state wanted their horses in top condition for it. She logged hours and hours of driving and gave checkups to over forty horses in five days. By the time Friday evening arrived, she was truly beat.
Despite her weariness, she managed to pack a duffel bag and drop Mr. Butters off with a neighbor. She ate a quick dinner and then hit the road.
The drive to Northern Texas took four hours, and it was midnight by the time she arrived in her hotel room, just a few blocks from the arena where the show would take place.
Early on Saturday morning, she met Jessie in the hotel lobby, and the two picked up lattes at the hotel’s cafe and then started walking toward the arena.
“How was the drive?” Jessie asked. “Did you get in last night?”
“Yeah—real late, too,” Delaney said. “It went pretty well. You?”
“Just fine,” Jessie said with a nod. “I left early afternoon, so I beat rush-hour traffic. I really love the stables where Cadence stayed last night. I put her up at a new place, since I wasn’t so impressed with the Johnson stables last year. We’re supposed to meet the trailer at the arena at seven. Think we’ll make it?” Jessie picked up her pace.
Delaney sipped her latte and kept up with her friend. “Sure we will,” she said. “It’s just a quarter-mile from here, and it’s only six forty-five.”
“Whew,” Jessie said. “I hate being late.”
“How’s that tendon doing on her back leg?” Delaney asked. “Sorry I didn’t make it out to your place early this week like we talked about. You wouldn’t believe the flood of phone calls I had from clients. It’s like they forget about me for most of the year, and then this weekend arrives, and all of a sudden, they remember to schedule their wellness exams.”
She shook her head in bewilderment.
“I figured you might be busy… I think the tendon is healing, actually,” Jessie said.
She pushed a strand of her curly auburn hair behind her ear and turned to Delaney.
“You’re the expert, though. I can’t wait for you to see her run. You always have a way of telling if she’s healed up or not. It’s like magic.”
Delaney shook her head. “I hate to break it to you, but it’s not magic. It’s just years of studying and more years of experience.”
“You have been at this for a long time,” Jessie said. “Hey, I haven’t seen you since your reunion. How did it go?”
Delaney finished a sip of her latte. She’d ordered a vanilla one, which she usually didn’t do. She’d been in a celebratory good mood ever since her night with Sean.
“Amazing,” she told her friend happily as soon as she’d swallowed the sweet, vanilla-flavored sip.
“Amazing… wow.” Jessie gave Delaney a suspicious look. “Does this ‘amazing’ reunion have something to do with the reason why you were humming while we stood in line for our drinks? I’ve never heard you hum before.”
Delaney blushed. “Oh, come on. I hum all the time.”
“No, you don’t,” Jessie said. “Usually, you’re too busy checking work emails on your phone to hum. We’ve been friends for years. I know you… and something’s different. You don’t seem so stressed. So uptight.”
“Uptight!” Delaney protested. “You go from saying I can work magic with your horse, to calling me uptight? That’s not fair. I’m a hard worker, sure, but—”
“You know what I mean,” Jessie said.
They turned a corner, and the arena came into sight. Though it was still early morning, a handful of horse trailers were already parked in the massive lot, along with a couple dozen pickup trucks. People milled around, fitting saddles on horses, sipping coffees, and chatting in little groups.
Jessie picked up her pace. Delaney knew she was eager to be reunited with Cadence after their night in separate locations.
“Something’s changed about you,” Jessie said. “You seem… lighter. Happier.”
“I do?” Delaney felt herself grin.
She sipped her drink. It amazed her that the transformation she could feel inside of her, since meeting and falling head over heels for Sean, was that visible to her friend.
“Oh, my Lordy, Miss Workaholic here has met a man!” Jessie said.
Delaney giggled. “I did.”
“At the reunion?” Jessie guessed.
“Yeah.”
“Who?”
Delaney didn’t know how to answer this. Jessie had been a few grades ahead of her in high school, and she kept in touch with quite a few Pepper Ridge graduates.
Sean trusted me with his secret, she thought to herself. I can’t go blabbing about it all to Jessie here.
Jessie noticed Delaney’s hesitation. “Oh, come on, girl, spill the beans! Was it someone in your class?”
Delaney couldn’t answer this with a “yes” or “no.” She didn’t want to go into details about Sean’s past, and at the same time, she didn’t want to lie to her friend.
So, instead of answering the questi
on directly, she said, “He was the owner of the barn that I rented out for the night.”
It wasn’t the whole truth, but it wasn’t a lie, either.
Luckily, it seemed to satisfy Jessie. “That’s amazing!” she squealed. “What’s he like? Tell me everything.”
Delaney sipped her sweet drink, thinking over how she could describe Sean. His looks were stellar, of course, but it wasn’t the most important thing about him.
“He’s… deep,” she said finally.
“Makes sense,” Jessie said with a nod. “Like you. Go on…”
“He’s really compassionate,” Delaney said. “Great with animals. You should see him with the two cattle dogs he has out at his place… it’s adorable. He’s… thoughtful. Funny when he wants to be, and more authentic than any man I’ve ever met. He’s good at opening up, you know?”
Delaney thought about the raw emotional edge to Sean’s voice as he’d described his childhood in foster care. She’d seen the pain in his expression, and it had been such a relief compared to seeing the mask that she felt so many people wore.
In some ways, it was a paradox. Sean had changed his identity and assumed a new one since his days of being a poor criminal. But despite his change of identity, he seemed to have only grown more sure of himself and what he wanted in the world.
“He’s been through a lot,” Delaney said thoughtfully. “And maybe that makes him more willing to be vulnerable.”
“That is so important,” Jessie said with a nod of agreement. “I can’t stand when guys try to be macho all the time. It can be too much.”
Delaney nodded. “He’s actually a great mix… He’s got all these wonderful masculine qualities. He’s great with his hands, he works the land, and he can be very firm and decisive. He even ordered for me when we went out to dinner.”
“You let him?” Jessie asked.
Delaney nodded. “It was really nice, actually. I got to just sit back and relax, and trust that he knew what he was doing. And he did. The food was amazing.”
Her mind traveled back to the meal they’d shared. It had been the best food she’d ever eaten in her life. Every bite was perfection.
They reached the edge of the arena lot and turned onto a walkway that circumnavigated the parking lot. The grass on either side of the pale cement walkway still glistened with dew from the night before. Judging by the heat that Delaney could feel off of the just-risen sun, the dew would be burned off in no time.
“And mixed in with all that amazing masculinity is this really sensitive side,” she said to Jessie.
She thought of how intuitive Sean could be, and how well he read her emotions. It seemed he was always tuned in to how she was feeling, even if she didn’t put it into words.
“I guess it’s hard to explain,” she said, thinking about that quality. “It’s like he… I don’t know… he’s wise beyond his years or something. Maybe it’s because of the life difficulties he’s been through.”
She stopped there. She was wary of getting into too much detail, for fear that Jessie would ask for specifics.
She was glad when Jessie didn’t ask a follow-up question.
“It sounds like you really like this guy,” Jessie said instead.
“I do,” Delaney admitted. “I know this might sound crazy, but I feel sort of like he’s the guy I’ve been waiting for… Like somehow, I knew he was out there, and that’s why I’ve never felt sparks fly with another guy.”
She wondered to herself if somehow, she’d known even back in high school that Derek was the right man for her, though she did all she could to deny it at the time. Despite her best efforts to stay away from him because of his bad-boy reputation, she’d always been drawn to him on a deep level.
“Maybe I’ve been waiting for him my whole life,” she said aloud to Jessie.
Jessie slung an arm around Delaney’s shoulders.
“I am so happy for you, Del! I’ve seriously never heard you talk like this about a guy! I think I hear wedding bells chiming… somewhere off in the distant future.”
Delaney laughed. Jessie’s words thrilled her. Was there a chance that she and Sean would marry one day?
“We’ll see…” she told her friend. “Hey, is that Cadence’s nose I see sticking out of that trailer?”
Jessie nodded, and then pulled her arm away from Delaney so that she could wave to the woman standing by the giant silver horse trailer.
“Heidi! Hey! How did the night go?” Jessie called out.
Delaney followed Jessie over to the trailer. While Jessie spoke with Heidi, Delaney headed into the trailer and led Cadence out into the sunshine.
For the next two days, Delaney was occupied with caring for horses. The show went well for Jessie and Cadence, who ended up taking home two blue ribbons. Cadence’s tendon was indeed healed, and Delaney parted with Jessie late on Sunday afternoon by giving her a list of exercises that would continue to strengthen the horse’s hind legs.
Jessie was grateful and gave Delaney a big hug. “Have fun with your new man,” she said as Delaney waved goodbye.
It was four p.m. on Sunday by the time Delaney packed up her hotel room and hit the road. After about an hour of cruising, she stopped at a drive-through for a quick meal of a burger and fries.
She was still sipping the iced tea that came along with it when her cell phone rang. She picked it up without checking the caller ID. She’d cared for many horses over the course of the weekend, and figured it was one of the owners calling in with a question.
“Hooves with Heart,” she said. “This is Delaney.”
“Delaney, it’s Jake.”
Delaney felt like her heart skipped a beat. The meal she’d just eaten was like a cement block in her stomach, and her breathing became shallow as a wave of anxiety hit her. Her last talk with Jake had not gone well. What did he want, now?
“I have some news for you,” Jake said.
Oh, great, thought Delaney.
Jake continued, “You know that ranch owner that you booked the barn with? I found out his real story. His real name’s not Sean, it’s Derek. Derek Bradshaw. We went to high school with him!”
Delaney’s heart started to beat rapidly in her chest. Her palms began to feel clammy.
“No way that’s right,” she said carefully. “It can’t be. He said his name was Sean.”
She hoped that Jake wasn’t picking up on the tremble in her voice as she spoke. Maybe the sounds of driving would cover it up.
“You must be mistaken,” she said.
“What, are you trying to cover for him or something?” Jake said slowly.
Delaney drew in a sharp breath. How much did Jake know? And how far was he going to go with the information? He’d always been the jealous type. If he’d found out somehow that she was seeing Sean, how far would he go to ruin Sean’s life?
She didn’t speak, and Sean went on.
“I told you I was going to do some digging, and I did. My cousin down at the Sheriff’s office came through with some pieces of the puzzle, and my contact at the DMV supplied the rest. Derek’s a criminal, Delaney. Did you know that?”
“He may have made some bad choices in the past,” Delaney said. “But he’s a good guy now.”
She could feel her blood pressure rising. She didn’t like the fact that Jake knew about Derek’s criminal past. Could he get Derek into trouble? She was sure that Jake could, if he wanted to. It sounded like he knew all too much.
Maybe I can talk him out of going to the police with this, she thought.
“Jake, don’t do anything stupid,” she said. “Just leave Sean alone, okay?”
“What’s it to you?” Jake asked. “Why do you care so much?”
“Jake… Don’t do this,” she said with a sigh. She could tell that Jake was getting into jealousy mode.
He must have heard about our date somehow, she thought.
“He’s a criminal, Delaney,” Jake said. “I’m just watching out for you, since you don’t
seem to care about your own safety.”
“I didn’t ask you to protect me, Jake,” she said. “I’m a grown woman. I can watch out for myself. And don’t act like you know who Sean is just because you found out his old name and dredged up his past. People can change, you know.”
“Once a criminal, always a criminal, in my book,” Jake said. “That guy would be better off behind bars.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Delaney said. “You don’t know him.”
“And you do? How well do you know this guy, anyway?” Jake demanded.
Delaney didn’t like his tone. She didn’t respond.
It’s none of your business, she thought to herself.
“I have a cousin that works at Sunny Side Up,” Jake said. “I caught up with her last Sunday afternoon. We always get together at her dad’s place—my uncle’s—for Sunday dinner. You know what she told me? She said she saw you at the diner, with a guy. A really handsome guy, she said. She was sure he was a famous country singer or something. She even managed to snap a picture on her phone. She showed me.”
“Oh, so what?” Delaney said with exasperation. “So I went out to breakfast with him. What’s the big deal?”
“He should be in jail, that’s the big deal,” Jake said. “I care about you, Delaney. I think you’re making a fool of yourself hanging out with that guy. If I catch wind of you spending any more time with him, I’m going to let my cousin at the Sheriff’s office know just where Sean Macintyre lives. They’ll be over there in no time, and—”
“No, you wouldn’t stoop that low,” Delaney said. “Think about this, Jake. You have no right to butt into Sean’s business, and you’re acting irrationally. You and I haven’t been an item in years. Who do you think you are, messing with—”
The line went dead. At first, she thought that Jake had hung up the phone. Then, she realized that her phone screen was solid black. Her battery had died.
Delaney cursed under her breath. She was taking it slow on the empty stretch of road she was on. As soon as she saw that her phone was dead, she pulled off onto the gravel shoulder. She put her hazards on and then got out of her truck. Her suitcase was in the truck bed. She hopped up, knelt by her luggage, and opened it up. She started rummaging through it, trying to find her charger.
