“So let me know what I’m dealing with. What kind of person am I harboring? Who am I really helping here?”
Cole dropped his head with a deep sigh. “You’re not harboring anyone. I won’t be here when they come looking for me. They won’t even know I was here. Just keep pretending you never met me. You hired a random guy who eventually left because the position was temporary to begin with. No pictures were taken of him, so there’s no proof he was me. Tony’s feeling better, and you can hire a new hand if you decide you need one.”
“So you’re not going to tell me anything about why they’re looking for you?” Kat asked. “Was I just a place to hide for you?” There was so much sadness in her expression that Cole wanted to get up from his chair and wrap his arms around her to comfort her. But he was also the cause of her suffering, so he was probably not the right person for the job. He had never been the right person for the job, come to think of it.
“I’m sorry,” was all he could think to say.
She shifted in her seat, clearly searching for the right words to use in this situation. What Cole knew that she didn’t was that there were noright words. He had no choice, and neither did she. The only way to undo his situation was to make an even bigger sacrifice, which he wasn’t willing to make. He’d made a promise years ago, and he wasn’t about to break it now.
“Stay tonight,” she finally said. “Stay tonight and sleep on it, and we’ll talk about it in the morning. Can you do that?”
It was a desperate, final plea, and Cole knew what his answer had to be. But he didn’t want to argue about it. He didn’t want their last conversation to be a fight. So he answered, “OK. I can do that.”
Later that night, after Kat had fallen into a deep sleep, Cole got up and packed his clothes, his toiletries, and anything else he happened to have at her cabin. It was of the utmost importance that he leave nothing behind, no trace that he’d ever been at the ranch. At least then, whether or not she told the police he had been there would be her own choice. She could deny it and go back to her normal life.
He sat in his truck longer than he probably should have, not wanting to drive away just yet. One last look at the place was all he needed, he told himself. He dug around in his glove compartment and found a receipt, one of those long ones that had a lot of extra advertisements on it. This would have to do for a note. At the very top he wrote,Burn after reading, and with that, he began to compose his goodbye.
When he was finished, he took the receipt and hid it in plain sight. As thorough as Kat was when she did her accounting, shewas bound to notice the anomaly. He hoped she would forgive him one day. He hoped she would understand, though he knew it was unlikely. All he wanted for her was the success she craved.
If only he could have stuck around to see it: the guest cabins, the petting zoo, the gift shop. Maybe he could at least follow her social media accounts and check out whatever website she put up to watch her grow her business. Then, the gut punch of a realization hit him. He didn’t even know what her ranch would be called.
CHAPTER 15
KAT
Kat woke up to an empty cabin. Not only was Cole gone, but all his things were gone with him. This was evidence enough that he had no intention of coming back, at least not any time soon. She swung back and forth between sorrow and rage, and she eventually settled on a carefully constructed apathy.
So she got into a bad relationship. She was far from the only person that had ever happened to, right? It didn’t matter in the end. This was just a very inconvenient lesson for her to learn. From now on she knew better. Don’t get romantically involved with the help. Don’t hire anyone without a background check.
She ate breakfast and got started on her workday, telling herself those very things over and over again. She blinked back tears several times but never let them actually fall.
Tony showed up to pick up where Cole had left off, and Kat was glad to see him. “Are you going to be OK until I can get another hand?” she asked him.
“I’ll be all right,” he assured her. “I’ll avoid any really heavy lifting.”
“Don’t worry,” Kat said, flexing her biceps in a joking way. “I’ve got that part covered.”
“You sure do.” Tony laughed. “Let me know if you need help with anything. School’s out soon, so I might even be able to recommend a potential hand or two if you need ’em.”
“Thanks, Tony.”
As soon as the animals were fed and watered, she made her way to her office, the trailer, to do budgeting. More than anything, right now, she wanted to work in private. She wanted to do something tedious that required all her concentration and offered no challenges outside of that. She didn’t want to think about the fact that she’d fallen so hard for a liar, someone who was wanted by the police, someone who had run away the second it was inconvenient to stay.
She started organizing that week’s feed store receipts to digitize them and add them to the right spreadsheet. She had pinned several of the anomalies on her corkboard to deal with later. Among them was one she hadn’t seen before. It was long, all folded up. She squinted at it and saw that it was just regular supplies, nothing out of the ordinary. So, why was it on the board?
Curious, she pulled it down and unfolded it. Maybe there was something lower down on the receipt. But it was only ads and coupons. She flattened it out on her table and noticed something peculiar—indentations from a pen on the opposite side, handwriting. She flipped it over, and all her plans to work hard and not think about Cole for the rest of the day went rightout the window. It was a note from Cole. All she could do was hold her breath and read.
Dear Kat,
There was so much moreI wanted to say to you last night, but I couldn’t find the words or the courage. The most important thing I wanted to say was that you were not just a place for me to hide. I loved you. Truly. If I didn’t, I would have left sooner. I wanted to stay, but the world caught up with me, as it always does. Last night, I realized, no matter what both of us wanted to be true, the best way for me to protect you now was to leave. If I was never here, then you never covered for me, harbored me, or lied for me.
Destroy this note,and every last trace of me will be gone from your property and your life. Please, just know that I would have stayed if I thought there was any other way. What I’ve done, I’ve done to protect someone who deserved protection. If my life was the only one on the line, I would have risked it for you in a heartbeat. Please, don’t look for me. I’ll be watching your success from a distance, wishing I was there every day.
Yours,
Cole
PS—Whatdo you think of the nameLost Kitten Ranch? I like it, and I’ll know what to search for when I’m stalking you online.
