Surviving Love - K.F. Breene Page 0,2
the increasingly sparse landscape, she continued with, “Yeah, Reno used to be a big tourist spot, but not so much anymore. Vegas is the big attraction now. Oh, there’s a few shows now and again, but nothing like it used to be. You ever been to Vegas?”
“Nope.”
Jake leaned forward to look out his side window, trying to glimpse behind the truck, since his driver’s-side mirror was cracked and half gone. He flicked on the turn signal, the rhythmic clicking drowning out the cab. Once the lane change was completed, they were dunked in silence again.
Sara grimaced comically to herself, wiggling her eyebrows, trying to will movement to fill the empty space. It didn’t work.
She stared at the looming clouds, puffy white with hints of gray dotting the large blue canvas. She switched her gaze to the yellow-flowered weeds at the side of the road, watching them flash by. Even the weeds were green and lovely in Montana. Not like Nevada. Everywhere was brown, sand, and dirt.
Sara’s thoughts turned to the ring resting heavy against her thigh. It dragged down her pocket and sucked at her thoughts.
She wondered if he had bought the new fiancée a bigger diamond, one with more sparkle. But how would he get the credit? Without Sara, Phil’s credit rating was terrible!
She bet it had something to do with Phil’s deadbeat friend, Aaron. Aaron had probably given him a stolen credit card. Or, hell, a stolen diamond. Sara wouldn’t put it past him. That guy had been nothing but bad news for Phil, getting him involved in pyramid schemes and bad deals, not to mention getting him started on drugs. Sara had bailed Phil out of the financial issues and bled tears trying to get him off crack. She’d done her best to get his life back on track.
And for what? All that, for what?
She dragged her thoughts back into the present. It didn’t matter. That had happened, and yes, it had been a speed bump in her life, but only a quitter would let it drag her down. She wasn’t going to let him beat her.
“Do you work at the ranch?” Sara asked absently.
“I take care of the horses and livestock. Organize the help.”
“Oh wow! Cool. I’ve never ridden a horse, so that should be fun. I think my real job is waitressing and helping in the kitchen a little, but we get to volunteer on the dude ranch, so I will definitely do that. I want to learn all I can this summer.”
Sara took a deep breath, marveling at the landscape. Green rolling hills and bright blue sky seemingly stretched to infinity. The motor droned on.
Would Phil actually go through with the marriage this time? Or would he trade this new girl for a younger one when she started to show her age, too?
Sara’s fists tightened. It didn’t matter!
“So… is there a large staff at this place?” Sara asked. “Probably depends on the tourists. Are there many tourists that come through?”
Jake took a deep breath, the hand on his knee jerking absently. “We got us a nice little ranch with room for about fifteen families. Not too many house staff—you ’n another gal, plus two cooks. That don’t include the cleaning people. Then the ranch hands. I look after them. They’ll tell you all you need to hear at the meetin’ tomorra.”
He said “tomorrow” like her grandparents did, stripping down the ending and filling it back in with a pleasant “ah” sound.
A weight settled on Sara’s chest as homesickness overwhelmed her. Followed by a burst of pain when she realized she no longer had a home. Not one of her own. She’d sold everything in the house, got the deposit back, and paid off, then canceled, all their credit cards. She sold the car out from under Phil a week later, paying off a gambling debt that he’d kindly fastened to her name as a cosigner, and closed that account, too.
But then, he had a new car now. Somehow.
Still, she was debt free for the first time in a very long time. She had nothing to do now but look forward. She would triumph in the end. She would!
* * *
An hour later, the rusty old truck climbed a mountain road into landscape that literally took Sara’s breath away. The green of nature shone through the truck’s windows before dropping away and landing on a valley floor far below. She could just make out a shimmering river as it ran through the valley. Snowcapped mountains