The next day, Sawyer returned to Dry Creek Ranch. Cash, Aubrey, and Ellie stayed behind to take advantage of summer vacation and spend a few more days in the city. His aunt and uncle wanted to take Ellie to the zoo and to Alcatraz.
He’d been invited to stay but had declined, yearning to get home and begin hunting down the US Marshals’ lead. Cash wasn’t the only one with friends.
He pressed his back against the lumbar support of his leather seat to soothe the ache from sleeping on his aunt and uncle’s sofa sleeper. All night, a metal bar had pressed against his vertebrae. He’d offered to get a hotel room but his family wouldn’t hear of it. And it wasn’t as if he hadn’t slept in lots worse places. Besides, it had been a fun evening. They’d all stayed up late, playing a rousing game of Texas Hold’em, eating popcorn, and sipping his uncle’s killer martinis. Ellie, of course, had stuck with grape juice.
It was a damned good visit.
But as he drove through the Dry Creek Ranch gate, his mouth ticked up and he got that feeling he always did when he saw his family’s land stretched out before him. It was pretty damned awe-inspiring and it made a man happy to be home.
As he passed Gina’s cabin, he slowed. Her BMW was parked where she’d last left it before leaving to go back to Los Angeles.
At his own home, he decided against parking in the garage and cut his engine in the driveway. Later, he might head to the coffee shop for dinner. Or raid Jace’s refrigerator.
He grabbed his duffel from the back seat and climbed the stairs to his apartment. A gush of cool air and loud music hit him as soon as he walked inside.
He dropped his bag on the floor and followed the smell of browning onions. In the kitchen he found Gina at the stove with her back to him, dancing to a Rolling Stones song. Her hips swayed back and forth while he stood silently watching her, mesmerized.
As if sensing someone was there, she turned and jumped when she saw him. “Way to scare the shit out of me, Dalton.”
“I see you’re back in my kitchen.” His eyes moved over her, taking in the clingy T-shirt and cutoffs.
“I’m making short ribs. Your beef, my recipe.”
“What about LA? ChefAid?” She appeared to be in a good mood, which seemed odd given her situation. He’d kept up. There was nothing to celebrate.
“I couldn’t take it anymore. Damned reporters found my hotel and chased me to work every day.”
He noted she hadn’t answered the real question. “Are you out of a job?”
“I own the frigging company, Sawyer.”
“What about the rest of it?”
“ChefAid dumped me…or at least it’s in the midst of dumping me. The company’s signing Candace.”
“And you know this how?”
She teared up, trying to pretend it was from the onions. “They told my lawyer and canceled our meeting next week. I’m only guessing about Candace. But, come on. It’s got to be her. As far as my show, I don’t know yet. FoodFlicks isn’t returning my agent’s calls. So, you tell me.”
He cocked his hip against the counter. “You have a plan?”
“Yep,” she said, trying to hold it together. But she was cracking. He could see the fission marks all over her face.
“Rebuild,” she continued. “Make a new pilot. I was sick of the Italian shtick anyway. Ancestry.com says there’s not a lick of Italian in me. Adopted, remember?”
He nodded. “Have you given up on proving that the story about you and Clay is a sham?”
“What the hell’s the point? My reputation is in the toilet, my revenues are in the toilet, and I hate these people. I hate them, Sawyer. I hate them so much.” She pressed her face against the wall and her body heaved with silent tears.
He pushed off the counter and pulled her into his arms. “Don’t cry.”
“Easy for you to say.” She wiped her nose on the front of his shirt. “Everything I did…all the hard work…gone.”
“You ever hear the saying ‘There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself’?” His lips hovered over her hair. “You’ll come back bigger and better.”
“Maybe. Or maybe that was my one shot, my fifteen minutes, and now it’s over. For good.”
“Nah, you’re too talented. And, Gina?” He gently grasped her chin and lifted her face so their eyes met. “The truth will eventually come out. You’ll be vindicated.”
