The two looked at Mom and me to try to figure out if we were kidding them or not. Lindsey recovered first.
“David was just telling us that Adrienne’s mad at him because he’s going to Prom with Hannah Minacci,” Lindsey shared with Mom and Kendal.
“Shhhhh! I told you not to talk about that,” I scolded her.
Kendal caught on to our act quickly. Kendal had shown she could be a pretty good practical joker, so I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t miss a beat and helped me mess with the two models.
“Who’re you kidding? Everyone already knows.”
Allison and Lindsey looked at each other and suddenly had to leave. We were all laughing as we saw them hurrying off with their cell phones glued to their ears.
“I wonder how long it will be before that rumor hits the gossip mill?” Mom asked.
Kendal shrugged.
“If they believe that, then I hope it gets spread. I still haven’t gotten Hannah’s people to call me. Maybe the rumor mill will put a fire under them.”
I sighed. Hannah Minacci wasn’t going to care about me one bit. Kendal was having too much fun teasing me about this.
FIRST CLASS WAS NICER than the charter flight we took to see the Florida vs. Kentucky game. I was in an aisle seat and most of the passengers had already boarded. “If this seat’s empty, can I upgrade my mom to first class?” I asked the flight attendant.
I was still worried about Mom’s comfort, and this looked like something she would agree to.
“Let me check to see if this seat’s sold,” she told me, and she went to the plane’s phone.
A few minutes later, she came back.
“Mr. Dawson, I’m sorry, the seat isn’t available. It shows the occupant has checked in but not boarded yet.”
She must have looked my name up when she checked the seat.
“Thanks.”
She winked at me.
“If they don’t show up, I’ll see what I can do.”
I was a little surprised when she did the eye scan of me, checking me out.
“I appreciate that,” I said while returning the favor.
She was cute and looked to be in her early 20s. She looked behind me and smiled.
“I think your seatmate made it.”
I turned to see an out-of-breath Sandy Range smiling at me.
“I almost didn’t make it.”
I took in her appearance: she was wearing hip-hugger jeans with a white turtleneck that made it so you could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra. I smelled a rat. Ms. Range was dressed to seduce. I got up to let her in. She made a point to bump into me so that I had no doubt her bra was missing. The stewardess took her carry-on and stowed it in the overhead, and then took Sandy’s coat and stored it in the closet.
“Fancy meeting you here,” I said once we were seated.
I arched my eyebrows and gave her a tight smile.
“Does your brother know you’re flying home with me?” I asked.
“Hmmm. I think they have me booked on an earlier flight. There was some kind of mix-up, and I was just able to make this one. I had no idea you were on this flight.”
This girl was good. The look of innocence was impressive. If I didn’t know better, I would almost believe her. I started to clap.
“And the Academy Award for Bullshit goes to... OW!”
She had the nerve to whack my arm and then give me her best puppy-dog look.
“Poor baby, did that hurt?”
I rubbed my arm in mock pain.
“Yes. If you leave a mark, your brother isn’t going to be happy.”
She waved her hand, dismissing my concerns.
“Nothing a little makeup won’t cover up.”
I decide to get to the bottom of this.
“So, now that you have me held captive for the next four hours, what are your plans for me?”
She pulled out a sheet of paper that showed my schedule. She found the flight, marked it out, and wrote in ‘David gets to know Sandy.’
“It says here that you’re to get to know me during this time.”
She then scanned down today’s events and marked through something.
“No, that won’t do.”
She wrote in ‘Dance Club w/Sandy and friends.’
“I take it the schedule had some problems that needed to be fixed.”
She gave me a bright smile, acknowledging my firm grasp of the problem.
“My brother’s lucky I caught the scheduling issues.”
“I bet he is,” I said, giving her a doubtful look.
Sandy and I fell into easy conversation. I found out that she was a sophomore and had only had one boyfriend. She went out with a senior her freshman year and they broke up when he went on spring break; he’d admitted he cheated on her. Then her dad died of a heart attack last May, and Devin had been forced to take over the company. She’d always been close to her brother. She recently started to tag along with him so she could learn the business. She was doing this because the family business was taking up the majority of her brother’s time, and she missed him.
I responded by telling her about my family. Once the family talk was out of the way, we reverted to being kids and talking about everything. I found I liked Sandy. She reminded me of John’s sister Alice, because she had the same wicked sense of humor. Somewhere over Iowa or Nebraska, she took my hand and held it. I didn’t stop her because I was enjoying her friendship, and that was all it was. She flirted like crazy but was just being Sandy. By the time we landed, I had a new friend, and we both knew that was all it was.
RANGE RANCH WAS NESTLED in a valley surrounded by mountains. Their spread was enormous. Sandy explained it was as far as the eye could see. After we entered the gate, we drove another 15 minutes before we reached the ranch house. As we pulled in, Kendal and Mom just sat quietly and took in the majesty of the snow-covered valley. Sandy and I talked about the area. Park City was the closest town and was where she went to high school.
When we reached the ranch, we saw the main house was situated on a small hill, back away from the rest of the ranch complex. We were taken to the guest bunkhouse. In the center of the bunkhouse was a great room with a huge stone fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the valley.
The valley view looked like an idyllic Christmas card. The snow-covered scene glistened in the early afternoon sun. I wanted to curl up with a cup of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace and just take in the view. I looked at Kendal and Mom, and their expressions of peace and serenity reflected my feeling exactly. I pulled out my phone to take some pictures to capture the moment. Both women rewarded me with warm smiles. I thought this was exactly what Mom needed to take her mind off her worries.
Sandy gave us the grand tour. One wing was set up as an exercise facility, complete with an indoor pool, sauna, hot tub and exercise room. The other wing was ‘the bunkhouse.’ I got to my room and found I had an outfit ready for me. There was thermal underwear, jeans, sweatshirt, boots, lined leather coat, gloves and cowboy hat.
“Change clothes,” Sandy said. “Devin knows we’re here, and they’re getting the horses ready.” She went into my bathroom and came out with a jar of Vaseline. “Put a thin layer of this on your face. It will prevent that weathered look you can get from the cold, dry wind. I want you looking good when I take you out tonight.”
When I was dressed, I went and found Devin in the barn, which was one of the biggest I’d ever seen. It must’ve had 50 stalls plus a tack room and an office. There were five hands that I could see taking care of all the horses. There were two huge horses saddled and ready to ride. They looked more like draft horses than something you would normally ride.
“These guys are big,” I said.
“We’re crossbreeding Percherons for their power with Arabians for their ride. We need a horse that can plow through heavy snow. These can go through chest-deep snow without a problem, and they’re gentle to ride. Get in the saddle. I want to show you the ranch,” Devin explained.