Restorations (Book One Oregon In Love) (21 page)

Sara felt almost sick with jealousy and
wanted nothing better than to cause Romy bodily harm. Before she
acted out her fantasy, Brian rejoined her and settled his arm
possessively around her waist.

“Well, it was nice seeing you again, Romy.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.”

“I will now that I’ve seen you. In fact,
I’ll be heading back down south in the morning if you want to join
me.” She stood up on tiptoe and suddenly planted a kiss hard on his
mouth.

Shooting a sidelong glance at Sara to gauge
her reaction, Romy smiled broadly before going back to her friends,
apparently satisfied.

Brian released a ragged sigh, hustling her
away from the group. “Sorry about that, Sara. I didn’t see it
coming.”

Shivering slightly, she avoided his eyes as
all her insecurities came roaring back.

“Those guys were all from the old days. I
forgot how they acted.” He led her unresistingly toward the crowds.
“Do you still want to get something to eat?”

She shook her head and
tried to calm the raging emotions choking her. Brian and
Romy?
How many girls has he dated? What
happens when he gets tired of me?
On and on
went her tortured thoughts.

Brian squeezed her hand. “Hello, Sara? Are
you listening to me?”

She looked around and realized they were
back at his pickup. She sagged against the side of the fender and
tried not to think of Brian in anyone else’s arms.

“What's wrong?”

Sara found she couldn’t meet his eyes. Part
of her worried he’d be angry if he knew her thoughts, and the other
part was angry with him for having such a checkered past. She shook
her head.

He tilted her chin up. “What did she say to
you?”

Sara was unable to hide the pain and
distrust in her eyes. Brian dropped his hand and took a step
back.

“That’s all in the past. Do you understand
that?”

“Yes,” she said with a catch in her voice.
She lied through her teeth, terrified of a life with Brian spent
running into one female after another having previous claims on his
affections.

Brian surveyed her for a moment and seemed
to discern the truth in her expression. His face went blank and he
unlocked the truck. “Let’s go.”

Numbly, Sara climbed into the cab and sat
with her hands clasped tightly in her lap. Inside, the temperature
seemed to fall several degrees as if the chill emanated from Brian.
The drive home passed in utter silence. She searched her tired mind
for something to say, but her own heart felt so raw, she didn’t
trust herself to open her mouth.

Back at the farmhouse, Brian turned off the
engine and leaned back against the seat. She sat rigidly, torn
between wanting the assurance of his embrace and recoiling at the
thought of his past choices.

When he finally spoke, his voice was laced
with bitterness. “I know what you’re thinking, Sara.”

She chanced a look over at him and caught
her breath at the anger glittering in his eyes.

“Is this always going to be between us?”

When she didn’t answer, he yanked open the
door and got out, striding away down the driveway without looking
back.

On shaking legs, Sara climbed out of the
truck and went into the farmhouse, blinking dazedly in the
light.

Hattie bustled up to her. “Why are you back
so soon? Where’s Brian?”

Lowering her eyes to conceal the truth, Sara
made excuses of fatigue and as soon as she could, escaped into her
bedroom. When she finally heard Robert and her aunt drive away, she
turned her face into her pillow and unsuccessfully tried to stem
the flood of tears.

Chapter Twenty

The sound of the telephone ringing filtered
through the fog of Sara’s brain. She groaned, rolled over, and
pulled the pillow down over her head. After a moment, the answering
machine picked up the call. A chirpy version of her voice announced
the caller had reached Pine Ridge B & B, with the instructions
to leave a detailed message. After the beep, she only heard the
sound of a dial tone.

Sara closed her eyes. She felt a great
suffocating pressure in her heart and knew something really bad
happened, but for the moment, she couldn’t remember what. Then, as
she came more fully awake, the events of the previous night hit in
a tidal wave of realization and pain. Sara groaned again and tried
to block it all from her mind.

She struggled to a sitting position and
wearily rubbed her eyes, surprised to find she was still in her
clothes and on top of the blankets. Her stomach gave a screech and
as she stood, a sensation of wooziness made her grab the side of
the bed for support. She needed food. First breakfast, then
Brian.

After eating a stale cinnamon roll from the
kitchen for breakfast and taking a hot, hot shower, Sara felt much
better. As her blood sugar normalized, she felt terrible about the
way she’d treated Brian. It was true Brian had made unfortunate
choices before he became a Christian. But who hadn’t? If he in any
way revealed he hadn’t reformed, then she’d back off and think
things through more carefully.

But Brian had done nothing to show he wasn’t
a changed man. In fact, it was obvious he took his faith very
seriously and that he’d grown in the Lord since becoming a
Christian. All at once, Sara wanted to assure him the past was
forgiven and forgotten—and feel the strength of his arms around
her.

After a clumsy scramble into some clean
clothes, she hurried out the back door. Sara knocked on his cottage
door repeatedly before looking around and realizing his truck
wasn’t in the driveway. Disappointment brought tears burning at the
back of her eyelids.

Slowly, she made her way back into the house
wondering where he went. She didn’t remember him mentioning any
plans. When she called his cell phone, she only reached his
voicemail. Her behavior the previous night made her too timid to
leave a message. When she talked to him, she wanted it to be in
person.

In the kitchen she found plenty of cleanup
to keep her hands occupied. While stacking dishes in the commercial
grade dishwasher and wiping off the counters, she willed him to
return quickly so she could apologize. But after two hours of
intensive tidying both inside the house and out in the yard, he
hadn’t returned.

Sara took down the wilted balloons from the
new B & B sign at the end of the drive and looked down the
road, hoping to see his truck appear on the horizon. After a
moment, she plodded back into the house, checked the answering
machine, and spiffed everything in her ‘office’, the corner of her
bedroom containing her grandfather’s desk.

Becoming more impatient by the minute, Sara
grabbed the phone and called Hattie, although she doubted her aunt
knew anything more than she.

After exchanging a few pleasantries and
discussing the success of the open house, Hattie startled her by
asking where Brian went in such a hurry earlier that morning.

“I stopped by at seven because I forgot my
purse there last night and from the living room window, I saw his
truck zooming out of the driveway.”

Sara gripped the phone
receiver, and like a hammer-blow to her heart, she remembered
Romy’s parting words from the night before.
I’ll be heading back down south in the morning if you want to
join me
.

She mumbled some kind of
excuse to her aunt and hung up the phone. Sara stared blindly about
the room as the awful thought wormed its way fully into her brain.
Brian would never...he couldn’t.
Oh, but he
could
.
Why stick
with someone like you when there’s Romy with her electric hips,
issuing a clear invitation?
A haze of hurt,
anger, and jealousy clouded her vision as she strode to her
bedroom, all her recent feelings of forgiveness ancient
history.

Locating her purse and keys, Sara stormed
out of the house. The Ford’s reluctance to start only fueled her
rage, especially when she realized she hadn’t taken it in to the
shop like she was supposed to. Finally, after noisy sputters and
backfires, Sara managed to get the truck out of the driveway and
onto the road.

She drove and drove, not caring where she
went, only knowing she wouldn’t be waiting around for Brian Farris,
pining away for him as she did before. Good riddance to him. Any
time she noticed a softening towards him, she hardened her heart,
holding onto her hurt and nursing it along.

As the scenery flew by,
Sara made plans to sell the B & B, no,
give
it to Hattie and Robert for a
wedding present. She could go back to some boring job in Crescent
City. Then, she’d be truly happy. She’d never wanted to come back
to Buell Creek in the first place.
Only see
what a mess it turned out to be
.

The truck began to slow of its own accord.
Sara pumped the gas pedal, but the engine continued to lose power
until the Ford lurched to a stop in the middle of the road. It
creaked and groaned and hissed, finally settling into complete
silence. Turning the key proved futile. Unable to believe that she
was stuck out in the middle of nowhere, Sara scrambled out onto the
road and kicked the tire with all her might. When she clutched her
smarting foot and fell down onto her backside, her rage fizzled and
died.

With a ragged breath, she clambered to her
feet and limped over to the truck. She had to get it off the road
somehow. After tying the steering wheel hard to the right with some
old rope found on the floor of the cab, she got behind the truck,
heaving and pushing with the last of her strength. The Ford
silently eased off the road and onto the shoulder, coming to rest
in a shallow ditch near a fence.

With sweat pouring down her
face, Sara remembered the forecast was for a scorcher of a
day.
Perfect
. She
wrenched off her shirt, exposing a white tank top beneath, and tied
the shirt sleeves around her waist. In the truck’s ashtray, she
rummaged around the coins, paper clips, and fuses. Finding a rubber
band, she put her hair into a sloppy ponytail. After her exertions,
Sara decided when she got back home,
if
she got back home, she’d buy a
stinkin' cell phone.

She scrutinized her surroundings. As far as
she could see, the road was bordered on both sides by fields
populated with cows. Not a building in sight, not even a barn.
Towering trees arched over the road giving some relief to the
relentless heat. Not a whisper of breeze stirred the heavy air.
Sara wiped her hand across her face, idly noticing the dirt on her
hands and arms. Hearing a nearby moo, she walked over to the fence
and came face to face with a brown and white cow. It stood with its
head over the top of the fence and mooed again.

She tentatively reached out and patted it on
the head. The cow stood patiently when she grew bolder with her
contact. With a minimum of movement to avoid startling the animal,
Sara climbed over the top rung, careful to steer clear of splinters
from the aging wood. She found it soothing to pet the animal, and
felt a measure of her angst ease. Its hide felt warm and smooth,
and it looked at her with liquid brown eyes fringed with long
lashes. There was something almost sympathetic in its bovine gaze.
And she could use a little sympathy right now.

Tears slipped slowly down her cheeks and
dripped off her chin. Sara brushed them away and realized with
awful clarity Brian wouldn’t go after that blonde hussy. She looked
at her hand resting on the animals’ back and saw how the sunlight
refracted off the diamond ring he'd given her before the open
house. He wouldn’t ask her to marry him if he planned to run off
with another female at the first opportunity.

“It’s breathtaking how stupid we humans can
be,” she sniffled to the cow while stroking its side. “Brian is a
different person now, and he would never do anything to hurt me.”
More tears ran in little rivers down her cheeks. “And now I’m stuck
out here in this field with no idea where I am or how to get home.
I’m such an idiot.”

Sara pressed her face into the cow’s side
and cried her heart out. The cow lowed mournfully in a sort of
counterpoint, which had the effect of drying her tears. She gave a
reluctant laugh, sniffing and wiping her eyes as best as she could
with the cleanest part of her arms.

“Thanks for listening,” she told the cow
between hiccups. “Do you have a name? Let me see. You look like a
Cassandra. Cassie for short. How does that sound?” Cassie flicked
her tail and snorted inelegantly.

Sara looked around and considered her
predicament. Either she could wait for someone to drive by and help
her, or she could start walking until she came to a house to call
for a tow truck. The day wavered with a visible heat. She felt
drained and tired—too tired to walk down the road. Blowing out a
sigh, she rested her arms on the fence and looking down, noticed
the grass along side the ditch was starred with pretty, white
daisies.

***

The sound of an approaching vehicle an hour
later brought Sara to attention. An oncoming truck shimmered in the
distance. As it neared, she saw it was Brian’s pickup. With a cry
of delight, Sara scrambled over the fence and out onto the road.
When he stopped and emerged from the cab, she rushed into his arms
and held him tight.

“I’m so sorry about last night, Brian. Can
you ever forgive me?”

Brian looked down at her with alarm. “What
in the world happened to you? Are you all right?”

She followed his gaze and realized her shirt
was filthy, her hair a mess, and she also emanated an awful smell.
“I’m fine. Cassie kept me company.”