By Summer's End (Christian Fiction) (17 page)

   Holly decided it was a good idea to
give the men a moment alone.  “Brianna, will you accompany me to the restroom?”
she asked with forced cheer. 

Brianna hesitated, but realized Holly
meant business by the terse set of her mouth.  When the women left the table
and reached the door to the restroom, Ryan glared at his friend.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“I’m trying to save Holly and her sister
additional hardship.  If you’d given them permission to use the barn—or, God
forbid—the idea the barn belonged to them…  Ryan!” he cried.  “What’s going on
in your head?  That woman is going to be devastated when you finally give her
the news that her home is sitting on your land.  For God’s sakes, tell her!”

Ryan glared at him, retaining a challenging
glint in his eyes, but soon practically crumpled in the chair.  “You’re right,”
he said.  “I know you’re right.  I’d planned to tell them tonight.  It’s just…”

“You care about her—them,” he amended,
nodding his head.  “You’re in love with Holly.”

Ryan didn’t try to deny it.  Obviously
his feelings for Holly were intense.  He knew if gave her the news about the
land, she was going to be devastated, and she would leave.  He couldn’t bear to
envision her gone—the plot of land empty of the house and the woman who dwelled
within it and made it a home.

And she was Ben’s great niece.  How
could he cause such hardship for the niece of the man who was more a father to
him than his own father had ever been?

“What do I do, Jim?” he asked in an
agonized voice.  “I know what I should do—what I should have done—but I’ve…”

“Fallen in love with her,” Jim finished
decisively.  He folded his arms across his chest and watched his friend. 
“Well, if you hadn’t, I would have…” he said with resignation.

Whatever
Ryan had intended to discuss with her and Brianna at dinner, he hadn’t gotten
around to it.  Holly could understand why.  They’d been repeatedly interrupted
by people, from the two men with whom Ryan worked, to Jim, and then later, a
whole bevy of people who seemed thrilled to see Ryan back in town.  He had
graciously visited with all, but she could see he was worn out by the end of
the evening.

“Thank you so much for dinner,” Holly
said, as Ryan pulled his truck in front of her house.  “And for Brianna’s boots. 
That was … really kind of you.”

“Yes, thank you,” Brianna echoed.

“You’re welcome for everything,” he said
with a smile.

Brianna opened the passenger door, which
prompted Ryan to scramble out of the truck and help her out.  She was too quick
for him and was already waiting beside the truck.  He raised a hand to Holly. 
She smiled her thanks as he helped her safely to solid ground.

“I’m going inside,” Brianna said,
smiling indulgently at her sister—almost as if she were the older sibling. 
“Thanks again, Ryan,” she called, as she hurried off, kicking up clouds of dust
with her new cowboy boots.

Holly knew right away her sister was
making a hasty retreat to give the two time to talk.  When the front door
closed behind Brianna, she turned her attention back to Ryan.  “You had
something to talk to me about,” she prompted.  “It seemed … important.”

He forced himself to make eye contact. 
She didn’t miss the flash of pain in the depths of his brown eyes.  Alarm
coursed through Holly’s system.  Something told her she didn’t want to hear the
words Ryan was about to speak to her.  She braced for the worst, though she
couldn’t begin to imagine what he had to tell her.

“Holly, there’s something…”  He paused
and searched her face.  Their eyes linked and held.  He started again, only to
stammer to a stop.  Still, their eyes held.

To her dismay, she felt the pull of
attraction between them, irresistible, undeniable.  When he leaned in and
claimed her lips in a kiss, she found herself leaning into him, seeking
support, since her knees practically buckled beneath her. 

When he pulled back, she raised a
trembling hand to her lips.  She hadn’t expected the kiss, but had yearned for
it, nonetheless.  Once again, their eyes met and held. 

When Ryan lowered his lips to hers a
second time, she met them with her own.  He pressed with a gentle insistence,
only deepening the kiss when he sensed she wanted it as much as he did.  She
wrapped her arms around his neck, wanting to be closer, and he urged her even
closer still by wrapping an arm around her back.

Finally, it was Holly who ended the
kiss.  Startled by her own actions, she watched Ryan, wide-eyed.  “I…”  She
smoothed her hair back with shaky hands.  “Ryan, I’m…”

“I…” he began at the same second, but
paused and smiled into her eyes.  “That was…”

She smiled in return.  “I haven’t…”

They burst out in nervous laughter.

“May I walk you to your door?” he asked
finally.

“Yes.”

When they reached the porch and Holly
was about to reach for the doorknob, she paused and turned.  “I’m sorry, Ryan. 
You had something important to talk to me about.”

He nodded.  “Yes.”  He paused and stared
into her eyes.  As much as he hated to do it, it was time to come clean about the
land.  “Holly, I…”

He was interrupted by the sound of his
phone trilling in his pocket.  He pulled it out and checked the screen.  “Excuse
me.  It’s Annabelle.”  He answered the call and listened.  Even Holly could
hear the hysteria in his sister’s voice.

“Okay, okay.  I’ll be right there.”  He
ended the call and turned to Holly, his expression apologetic.  “I’m so sorry. 
I have to go.  Annabelle purchased a horse—a stallion—a couple months ago and
took delivery today.  Anyway, she went to check on him a few minutes ago and he
managed to get past her.  I guess he made it to the north pasture and she needs
help corralling him.”

“Oh, my goodness.  You’d better go.”

“We’ll talk later?”

She nodded.  “Yes.  Go.  Annabelle needs
you.”

He strode off, heavy-hearted that he
hadn’t managed to finally tell her the truth about the land beneath her home. 

As he sped home to help his sister, his
mind refused to be quieted, but his thoughts were on Holly, rather than his
sister’s current predicament.  The darned horse could just wait.

He considered what had just transpired
between him and his new neighbor.  They had kissed.  He raked a hand through
his hair, suddenly worried he’d made a grave mistake by kissing her.  But it
wasn’t as if he’d planned it.  Sure, he’d thought about it—about the attraction
between them—but his timing certainly needed work.

If she ever learned he’d kissed her on
the very night he’d intended to finally come clean about everything, that on a
warm summer evening beneath a beautiful nighttime sky, he had opted to kiss her
rather than finally tell her the truth, she probably wasn’t going to be very
happy about it.  What if she came to believe he had taken advantage of her? 
What if she ended up hating him for keeping his secrets?

As he pulled up to his house, Annabelle
burst out the front door and met him in the drive.  “Ryan, I can’t catch him. 
He ran off and I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself.”

Ryan growled an unintelligible response
and ran past her and around the house to the back.  He started off in a fast
clip toward the farthest pasture.  As he drew closer, his lungs bursting from
the exertion of running, he could finally make out the silhouette of the big
horse against the dark sky.

He pulled to a stop, bending at the
middle to get a breath.  He finally rose up and considered his options. 
Fortunately, the horse was haltered and its tether still hanging from his
neck.  “Hey, boy,” Ryan said softly, approaching with his hands out in front of
him.  “Be still, boy.  It’s okay.”

The horse dropped its head and pawed the
ground.  He emitted a threatening sound that brought Ryan to a stop.  “Hey,
now,” he said softly.  “Calm down, boy.”

The horse appeared to watch him, as if
sizing him up.  As if by magic, its manner softened.  Ryan detected the shift
from aggressive to submissive and reached for the tether.  “There you go,” he
said.  “I’ve got you.  Let’s get you back to your stall.  You’ve had a long
day, haven’t you, fellow?”

He led the big stallion back to the
barn, where Annabelle awaited him.  She sighed with relief as they approached. 
“I was afraid he was going to jump a fence,” she admitted, as Ryan walked past
her.

“Naw, he was just letting off a little
steam,” Ryan said affectionately of the big horse.

“You’ve always had a way with horses,”
Annabelle observed. 

“Naw, that’s you,” he said, as he
carefully urged the stallion into his stall.  He eased the wide door closed behind
him and then breathed a sigh of relief.

“No, Ryan,” Annabelle said pointedly, “you’re
the one with the true gift around here.  Ben called you the horse whisperer
when you were little.”

“I don’t remember that,” he said,
furrowing his brow.

“Yes, you do!  If it wasn’t for you, we
wouldn’t have horses around here.  Don’t you remember asking Mom for a pony
when you were about four?  Ben told the story all the time.”

He searched his memory.  “I guess I
don’t.”

Brother and sister left the barn. 
Annabelle kicked at a clod of dirt, an attempt to release her frustrations. 
“Dad disapproved of your love for animals.  It’s why you began avoiding
horses.”

“I don’t avoid them,” he said, forcing a
smile.

“Yes, you do.  Sure, you ride
occasionally, but you have little time for them.  It’s a shame too.  For me,
riding is the best way for me to clear my head.  I ride along—talk to God about
my troubles—and before I know it, I’m feeling much better about whatever ails
me.”

“Whatever works, sis,” he said
noncommittally, and started for the back of the house.

She ran after him and pulled him to a
stop.  “Well, did you tell Holly about the property mix-up?”

“I … tried.”

“What do you mean, ‘you tried’?”

“Just that.  Every time I tried to tell
her this evening, we were interrupted.”

She gave him a dubious glance.  He
raised his right hand.  “It’s true.  First, Drake and Bill showed up.  And then
Jim.  Oh, and then the rest of the town.”  He gave a rueful shake of his head. 
“Sort of reinforced the fact that small-town living may not be for me.”

  “You’re telling me you couldn’t carve
out a single moment to tell her the truth?”

“That’s what I’m telling you.”

She considered his words, and then
sighed.  “Hey, what did Drake and Bill want?  Isn’t it odd for them to head
this way after work hours?”

“It’s odd for them to head this way at
all,” he agreed.  “Apparently, they stopped for dinner, with the intent of
coming by the house after.”

“Why were they coming by?”

He gave a brittle laugh.  “Apparently
they’re confounded by my continued absence from the workplace.”

“Yes, well, you are the boss,” she said
drolly.  “When do you intend to go back to work?”

He shrugged.  “I don’t know.”

She hesitated to speak her mind, but
opted to forge ahead.  It wasn’t as if she didn’t give him a piece of her mind
on a fairly regular basis.  “Ryan, listen.  Do you think it might be time to
make a big change—you know, as in, quit the business?”

“Quit?”

She nodded.  “Yes.”  She turned away
from him briefly, but turned back to snare his gaze.  “Look, Drake and Bill
stopped by here while you were away.”

“Why?”

“They wanted to broach a, er, well, a
particular subject with me, and wanted to get my opinion.”

“Go on.”

“They’re going to offer to buy you out. 
They pretty much told me that your heart just isn’t in it.”

“Oh, yeah?  They told you that?”

She nodded.  “They said you don’t seem
to derive much satisfaction from a job well done.”

His eyes narrowed and he considered what
Annabelle had just told him.  On one hand, he was furious that these men had
the gall to suggest he leave the business his father had founded, but on the
other hand, he’d given the idea quite a lot of thought himself.  It wasn’t as
if he needed the money.  Both his father and mother had left him and Annabelle
substantial trust funds, as well as the home and the lands around it.  Neither
needed to ever work again if they didn’t want to.

Unfortunately, he was his father’s son
and railed against the notion that someone whom he had hired was attempting to
take what rightfully belonged to him.  An array of emotions criss-crossed his
face.  His sister stood silently by, in order to give him the space to
process.  Finally, she spoke, “Ryan, what are you thinking?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.  “I’d be
lying if I said I hadn’t considered selling out myself, but it infuriates me
that they have the gall to suggest it.”

“In their defense, you haven’t been on
the job for so long, they probably forgot what you look like.”

“Yeah, well, there’s that,” he said with
a humorless laugh.  “I don’t know, Annabelle.  Everything is happening so
fast.  I don’t know what to do about work.  I can’t seem to make a decision
about the property to save my life.  Do we sell it, or do we keep it?  And if
we keep it, do you develop it into some sort of horse lovers’ paradise?  But if
we make that choice, do we hold off until you return to Washington?  Because
I’m not sure I’m up for the venture on my own, if truth be told.  And then
there’s the situation with Holly and Brianna.  I’m afraid I’ve ruined any
chance of a…”

“Of a what?” she prompted, folding her
arms over her chest.

He took a deep breath and forged ahead. 
“Of a future with Holly…”

Annabelle gasped.  “Did I just hear you
right?”

His lips twitched into a smile.  “I
don’t know, sis.  I, uh, well, I have feelings for her.  I mean, I don’t know
her that well yet, but I want to get to know her better.”

She watched him speculatively.  She
didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was evident that Holly was a woman of
faith.  She doubted she would enter into a relationship with a man who didn’t
have a relationship with Christ.

But then, if Ryan could fall for a woman
like Holly, a woman of sound values, there might be hope for him.  If it took
an interest in Holly to get him back to church, then so be it.  She prayed he
would rediscover his love for the Lord once he got there.

She recalled that Ryan, as a small boy,
had had a deep and abiding faith.  She also remembered his father chiding him
for his faith, calling believers sad and weak.  It still surprised her that her
father had retained a friendship with Ben, despite the fact that Ben was a
devout Christian who lived his faith every day.  She couldn’t recall a single
incident of Ben ever backing down to their father.  Perhaps that’s what had bonded
them.  Their father might not have agreed with Ben, but he respected his
convictions, or rather, his willingness to fight for them.