Chapter Five
Garrett
I knew I liked Forest. After telling him that I couldn’t go into town, he still brought me back a wristwatch with an alarm on it. I instantly noticed it was the same one all the other guys were wearing.
Luckily for me, Forest had taken a liking to me because Sid had been very clear that I wasn’t to go into town. Agent Walker threatened to place me on a fishing boat in Alaska if he found out I was causing any trouble. So, when Forest handed me the wristwatch, I was extremely grateful.
“It’s got a vibrate function on it, you can set alarms for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the watch will vibrate to notify you.”
His broken, toothy smile was smug yet playful and I knew their little game with me was finally over. It had only taken me a couple of weeks to figure it out, but I was grateful to finally have a way of making it to breakfast in the morning. I couldn’t exactly expect Sarah to sneak into the bunkhouse and wake me up, although I certainly would appreciate it if she wanted to.
I had gone to college and been through the horror of hazing as I joined my fraternity; my theory of holding out and not complaining had finally paid off. It was a huge relief and I finally felt like I was one of the guys.
It was odd to be placed at the ranch through the witness protection program. I had seen the movie and television shows about the program and always assumed people were hidden away in cabins where no one could find them. It was a bit of a relief that I did get to work on the ranch and interact with people each day because I was sure I would have gone crazy if I had been stuck in a cabin all alone.
Free-time had never been something I liked. From the time I was in high school up to my current work, I always packed my days as full as possible. If I wasn’t at the gym or at the office, I was likely out with friends or visiting potential clients. I couldn’t sit still very well and that had served me greatly as I grew my business. I strongly believed that anyone who was willing to work hard and hustle would make something of themselves eventually. Although, it was hard for me to meet quality women when I was always hustling around.
Sarah was the kind of woman I had never really met up close. In the business world, she was aloof and not really the sort of woman I was looking for when I was out with my friends at a bar. To be honest, I figured a woman like Sarah probably didn’t go out to the bars much. She was serious about life and I could see that. Even at home at her family farm, Sarah kept a serious nature about her that could drive men away. But the more I talked to her and the closer I got to her, I was realizing that her serious nature was just her armor to make it in this man’s world. Sarah was actually very sweet and kind and tried to hide it behind everything else that she portrayed.
The touch of her hands on mine wasn’t something I could forget though. Even though for the next several weeks she seemed to be avoiding getting close enough to touch me. Something about our interaction during that morning of making breakfast had scared her, or perhaps her parents had told her to stay away; Sarah was very obviously avoiding me.
She had promised to teach me more about the horses and yet had totally avoided me since that morning we made breakfast. There were some quick glances as we worked, a smile and nod, or even a quick hello as I walked by, but Sarah was avoiding me.
At first I thought she was just trying to play hard to get. Or maybe she was proving her point that she was the supervisor and I was an employee. But the way her eyes lit up when we did look at each other, I felt like she was for sure interested in me. I understood she didn’t want her parents to think something was going on between the two of us — hell, I didn’t want that either. But there was no use in totally ignoring each other if we were going to work together; we could certainly decide to do that and just be friends if that was what she wanted.
“Can you show me how to saddle the horse?” I asked one late afternoon after I had finished all my other jobs.
She looked around nervously as she stood at the end of the barn. I wasn’t sure why I was suddenly making her so nervous, but as a man I knew not to move forward until she allowed it. As men, we had to be in tuned to thing like the way a woman felt when alone with us; there were too many shady men in the world and they had ruined it for all the good guys.
Even thought I was clearly a good guy and I knew it, I wasn’t sure that Sarah was one hundred percent convinced of my good guy status. She wanted to like me, I could see that in her eyes; but she had some trepidation about giving in to her gut feeling about me.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure that I would trust the guy I was at that moment in my life. The story I had been given when I was placed at the ranch seemed a little shady to me and I probably hadn’t done it justice with my unconvincing lying. A guy traveling to Wyoming to Washington for a job opportunity wouldn’t actually stop to work at a ranch. If he had a job opportunity, he would want to get to that damn job and not sit for weeks on a ranch. But I tried to avoid the realities of the story I had been telling about my past and move forward. I just had to make the best of it and hope that Sarah could see through the lies and see that I was a decent guy.
“Um, actually I was just heading into town to get a saddle for Buckjoy. You could come with me if you’d like.”
The agent who had dropped me off at the ranch had told me very clearly never to leave the ranch. If I went into town, it was more likely someone would see me and if Frank Gordano sent people looking for me, it was more likely they could find me. I knew the rules; I had avoided going to get my own watch because of these rules. Everything in my mind told me to refuse this offer of Sarah’s… but my mind wasn’t really in control at that moment.
Lust can do wondrous things to a man’s psyche though. Justification and logic seem to swim together and make sense of situations and excuses to forgo all that a man knows is true. And in that moment, lust took control of my mind and I agreed to put myself in danger and go with this beautiful woman whom I had been distant from for weeks and desperately wanted to be alone with again.
“Sure,” I said as I took off my gloves and followed Sarah to the truck.
Adrenaline pulsed through my body at the decision I just made. As we pulled out of the driveway, I looked around in expectation. I felt as if someone might be just outside the gates waiting to kill me. But as the truck moved further away from the ranch, I began to relax just a little bit. How likely was it there would be anyone even remotely close to our little Montana city? How would they have even found me? No, I told myself I was being paranoid and that was all there was to it.
“How are your hands?” she asked.
I held them out for her to see and showed off my proud calluses on them. They were the hands of a true working man and I was actually proud of them. The rough nature of my hands now showed that I was physically able to work the ranch and I wasn’t that weak gym rat that I had been when I first arrived.
Rough callus-ridden hands weren’t something I ever imagined I would be proud of. Yet I really was. My life on the ranch had been such a growing experience up to that point and I was happy to stay a few weeks longer and continue to learn. I still had the feeling as if I were away at summer camp and having Sarah there made things even better.
My body had started adjusting to the long hours, although I was still very tired and ready for bed each night. Since getting my watch, I was getting up with everyone else and didn’t seem to be the butt of jokes anymore. Plus, there were a couple new ranch hands that were doing more of the grunt work as I started to take on additional responsibilities. Life was good for me and I didn’t feel afraid for my life like I had when I first arrived.
“They healed up real nice. Thanks again for taking such good care of me.”
I wasn’t specifically trying to flirt with Sarah, but I honestly couldn’t help myself. The way her big, brown eyes looked at me, she had every nerve in my body standing at attention. For weeks, she had avoided eye contact and hurried out of the barn whenever I was in there. But there she was, right next to me in the truck, the two of us alone as we made our way into town. I didn’t regret my decision one bit – I would have agreed to go anywhere with her.
Sarah kept her hands on the wheel and concentrated on the road as she drove. It felt like she was trying to avoid talking to me, yet she had been the one who invited me to come with her into town. I couldn’t help but stare at her as she held onto the large truck steering wheel. Her long, brown hair was pulled to either side in braids and she looked like a college girl. Sarah was half smiling and I thought she would say something flirty to me, but just as she started to talk she would bite her bottom lip and then stop.
“It’s just part of my job. You’re our employee; I can’t have you bleeding all over the place or being in so much pain you can’t work,” she finally said.