I smile and laugh. “I felt one coming on, but then this creeper came on the porch when I was thinking about things and scared the shit out of me.”
“I’m sorry about that, Tessa.” He grins.
Again, my body reacts to the way he says my name and a shiver runs through me. No, that’s the wind. At least, I’m going to tell myself that.
I clear my throat and step to the swing, grabbing the blanket to cover myself. “Don’t be. It’s your house after all. But I do think we’ll figure out what’s going on. I’m sending an email to a friend who knows some guys who can do some digging to find Travis. Thankfully, my laptop didn’t break in my mini panic attack, or we’d have another issue to deal with.”
“Yes, but that would be the least of our worries since I have a laptop you could use,” Killian jokes and then walks closer. “Can I sit?”
“Sure,” I say, hating that I ever got out of bed. At least then I would be able to pretend I’m not at all attracted to him. That last night was just a dream and I didn’t love every second of just being with him—in and out of bed.
I liked our talk, the way he took care of me with food—and the other way.
Killian sits on the swing, and I shift, keeping to the corner with the blanket securely around me.
The two of us stay in the silence for a minute, staring up at the sky. It’s so beautiful and I feel so nostalgic sitting here. “This is the part I miss the most being in New York City. There are no stars.”
His eyes meet mine. “Boston isn’t much better.” I’m sure it’s not. All the cities have this as their one great flaw. “It’s why I come here so much. Life is simpler here. People are kind, we care about our neighbors, no matter where they came from. If someone needs something, we’re there to lend a hand.”
“My childhood was like that,” I say with a smile. “I grew up in a small town, and I remember a time when we didn’t have—well, anything. We were struggling, and all of a sudden, a neighbor came with a casserole, then the next day, another one came. Fora week, there was a stream of food delivered and then someone would offer us a ride when Momma’s car broke down. Since we didn’t have the help we should’ve had, we had our community.”
He shifts in the chair, his leg just brushing against mine. “I’m sensing there’s a story there.”
I laugh once. “You have no idea, but…things work out the way they’re supposed to. Anyway, my favorite thing to do with my mom was sit out at night and talk to the stars.”
“Did they talk back?”
I smile. “I think they did. I would ask for things, wishes and dreams and hopes. I think they came through for me.”
At least parts of them did. I wanted out of the town, away from my past. I needed a fresh start and college allowed me that.
“Maybe that’s what I need to do then, wish for this nightmare to be over,” Killian says with a laugh.
“If only it were that simple.”
Killian chuckles. “If only. This farm, it means the world to me. I love the horses, the land—this is where my heart is.”
I glance at him from the side, our knees now completely against each other’s. “Did you suspect anything was going on with Travis?”
He sighs heavily. “I keep asking myself that same thing. I keep trying to find a moment in time where there was a shift, but I can’t. Travis was tough, he trained those horses hard, and that was often an issue between us. He produced a lot of winners, though. That allowed us to get much better prices on each horse we sold. Other than that, I thought we were great partners. He was running things here, selling horses, which made me happy. I didn’t push back on much, so he seemed pretty content. The only thing I ever questioned was why so many of the horses that were sold stayed here to be trained. Travis was great, don’t get me wrong, but his costs were astronomical, and he’d always been a one-horse trainer.”
“What does that mean?” I ask. “A one-horse trainer.”
“He only worked with one winner at a time. It was his entire motto. Then suddenly he started training anyone who bought from us. It was weird, and when I asked, he said money was money and we needed the brand awareness. I should’ve known something was weird.”
I reach out, resting my hand on his. “Killian, it’s not your fault.”
“It’s my ranch. Of course it’s my fault. I should’ve been more involved, but I was so damn busy in Massachusetts. I had to work, sell more properties and I just let Travis do his thing because it was working.”
“Well, tomorrow we’re going to buckle down again and keep looking. Hopefully I’ll get an email back and maybe my contact can uncover something.”
“You really think we’re going to figure this whole thing out?”
I nod. “People don’t usually disappear without a trace. They always leave some kind of clue—we just have to find it.”
“I don’t know that I agree with that,” Killian says, looking up at the sky. The way he says it leads me to think we’re not talking about the ranch. There’s a softness, almost an ache to his voice. One that says we can’t erase last night either. “When I was a teenager, I had someone disappear and it took me over two decades to find her again.”
“It’s always a girl,” I say with a smile.
