Sandia’s eyes fluttered open as the city was coming alive.
It was getting lighter so much earlier now that Spring had arrived and she kept forgetting to close the blinds before getting in bed. She’d been dreaming of Caleb again. Sandia thought about the dark, mysterious cowboy almost every day, while she made her coffee, while she shaved her legs, while she was measuring a client...he’d pop in and out of her mind much like he’d popped in and out of her life.
The events of that cold night were so spectacular that she’d come to disbelieve the entire incident.
The memory was as ephemeral and unbelievable as the fantasies that followed her around during the day.
The memory was muddled by the daydreams, the inconceivable had long been rationalized and explained away in her mind in the three years that had passed.
He was an actor, he was an illusionist, he was a loon.
She had been feverish from the damp and the cold, she had been exhausted and upset...or she was a loon.
Whatever the case, Caleb Wolfe had changed her life forever.
He’d made her a celebrity, indirectly.
Soon after that night, Sandia started studying the clothing of the mid-1800’s in America and incorporated some elements into her line of dresses. The style worked especially well with wedding gowns. They’d been a hit. So, she went even farther with the concept and started a line of completely ‘organic’ dresses, from the material to the buttons to the lace.
As the organic, sustainable craze swept the city, so did her business model. She began ‘recycling’ old materials and fabrics to make her designs, which made her dresses even more popular with millenials. In the three years since her mystery man had appeared and disappeared from her life, her company had grown ten-fold.
She was renting factory space in the Bronx, putting a lot of people in jobs from the old neighborhood, which also garnered her a considerable amount of good press. She had appeared on multiple talk and entertainment shows, even news and financial broadcasts. She was a success story and everybody wanted a piece.
She felt she owed the dark cowboy for all of it…wanted to repay him somehow, but she also had a distinct feeling in the pit of her stomach that she’d never see him again.
Then, when the fantasy had almost faded, it happened. She was at a loft party in Soho, of all places, when she spotted a silhouette from across the room, the hat, the easy lean against the wall. It couldn’t be. But it was. It was Caleb.
Her heart stopped. Ay, Dios mio, he was gorgeous. He looked older and sexier than when she saw him last, and of course he was older, but this was something else. He was dressed all in black this time, including his hat. The same weakness made her knees feel like they might buckle. She had to speak to him, had to make sure he was real.
She made her way through the crowd toward him, a knot forming in the pit of her stomach, worrying he might be someone else who looked like Caleb.
Suddenly, Caleb’s eye caught on something that caused him to dash in her direction. He shoved his way through the crowd and headed toward where Sandia was standing.
Thinking he’d recognized her too, she felt her lips curve into a smile. The expression fell from her face when at about twenty feet in front of her, he took a hard right and ran up a flight of stairs to the second floor. Obviously, he hadn’t seen her at all. Sandia couldn’t stop herself from following him.
For reasons Sandia couldn’t explain, she’d never been truly afraid of the mysterious cowboy, but their meeting had inspired another big change in her life as well. Not only was she helpless against memories of him haunting her mind, she knew she would have been helpless against him if he’d ever posed a real threat to her at the time.
Pipo had taught her the basics in terms of staying safe in a large city but after meeting Caleb she’d furthered her education in self-defense. She’d taken sparring and defense classes twice a week from an ex-Marine. She’d obviously needed them, or so Carlos had frequently reminded her when he pushed her to fight harder.
She’d even found a shooting range and learned to fire a gun, gotten a license and owned a Smith & Wesson .38 Special. Now, she was much more prepared for anything that came her way.
A tangle of emotions gripped Sandia as she followed Caleb to the roof of the building, mainly excitement. He ran across the long, flat roof until he reached the far edge, hopped up on the ledge and prepared to jump.
“Caleb Wolfe!” Sandia shouted, catching up to him with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”
“You,” he said, a mixture of happiness and suspicion flashing across his eyes. “I was hoping you’d follow me,” he grinned.
“Follow you?”
“Or are you with them?” he asked, indicating over her shoulder with a nod.
She turned to see three extremely serious looking people, two men and a woman wearing dark suits, making their way toward them from the other side of the roof.
“No, who are they?” They looked like federal agents. “Still have the police after you, eh?”
He laughed in that roguish way, looking like a cowboy version of Peter Pan as he stood on the ledge with the Manhattan skyline spreading out behind him. “What can I say, my sweet melon...you know me so well.”
“What did you do this time?”
“Interesting choice of words. No time to explain, Miss Sandia, you’re going to have to come with me.” He stretched out his hand to her with a sparkle in his eye.
“What?” She looked back at the three menacing figures and then back at him. “Don’t give up, Caleb. Life is worth living.”
Her eyes widened when he laughed and reached down to take her hand anyway. “Time hasn’t caught up with me yet.”
“I don’t understand—”
He pulled her up onto the ledge. Her body bumped against his and she thought for sure they both might fall to their deaths. Instinctively, her finger clutched at his clothes. With those bewildering blue eyes of his peering into hers he asked gruffly, “Do you trust me?”
“No,” she said, matter-of-factly. “Not in the slightest.” “Well, this ain’t gonna help none!” he said as he wrapped his arms around her and dove off the side of the building.
Sandia’s heart leapt out of her chest as she held on for dear life, the cool wind engulfing her. Then, just as quickly, the falling sensation morphed into a suctioning funnel that pulled her in a completely different direction, as if she were no longer falling downward, but more sideways. Suddenly night turned to day and all was a blinding white light.
She’d always thought death would be more painful. The bright light fit what she’d imagined of the afterlife, but with the lack of bone-crushing agony. Sandia decided she must have landed in Heaven.
She hoped Caleb would be there too, though it was highly doubtful considering how hot he was.