"Stay the fuck off of my ranch," he said.
As I turned my van around, I realized that the building I had parked by wasn't on the diagram of the farm that Herman Banks had given me.
I shook my head to clear it. It looked like leaving quickly was the better part of valor.
As I drove past the entrance to Clint’s ranch, I hesitated. This time, I didn’t pull over, but I thought long and hard about pulling down the drive and taking my lunch break on the ranch with Clint.
My pride won out, and I kept going down the road.
I hadn’t gotten two miles when my phone rang. I fished it out of my pocket and glanced at the screen.
Clint’s name and face lit up the screen, and I had a warm swell of affection.
I answered, and his voice came down the line, immediate and brusque. “Where are you?” he demanded.
“Just passing your place,” I said.
“You didn’t stay on the Yates place?” he insisted.
I checked my rearview mirror before responding. “No,” I said, “It didn’t seem friendly, I got concerned.”
He let out a loud sigh. “Good,” he said. “There’s no reason for you to be out there. I don’t want you to go back.”
“No reason besides my job, right?”
"That's no reason to go somewhere that dangerous," he said. "I've told you, those men aren't to be fooled with."
"I'm an adult," I bit off in clipped tones. "I've been on ranches where I wasn't wanted before, and I've dealt with men doing illegal things, and I am not a child that you need to protect."
"I know you're not," he said. "You're a woman. A woman who is driving me crazy right now. Turn around, come to the ranch, I'll take an hour off."
I hesitated.
I wanted to say yes. I badly, badly wanted to say yes and be the woman that he wanted me to be. I wanted to be in his arms and let him help me.
"I need to get back to the office," I said.
"All right," he said, sounding irritated.
I hung up and tossed the phone on the seat next to me. I did need to finish some paperwork, and I really needed that to be now.
The rest of my day was uneventful, but the conversation I had with Clint lingered on my mind over the boring weekend I spent alone in my apartment.
Did I really want to be with a man who wanted to tell me what to do?
Wasn’t that why I left Justin? Okay, I left Justin because of the cheating, but I wasn’t happy with him before that.
On Sunday afternoon, I called up Sarah at her house.
"Are you ready to come meet the baby?" she asked immediately.
"Woah," I said. "Already? I thought you had another week left."
"Babies wait for no man," she said. "I'm at the hospital and it's boring as anything. Come. Bring food."
I laughed. That sounded like Sarah all right. At her request, I swung by the nearest fast food and grabbed her a burger and fries.
When I found my way up to the maternity ward, her room was empty of visitors.