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“Hello Beautiful! Remember me?” Ryan asked grinning from ear to ear in anticipation. His former high school classmate, Taryn Bowman was bound to be surprised and happy to see him again.
It took him several months to sell his construction company in Las Vegas, to sort through piles of items accumulated in the years living there. He packed what he needed, hired movers for the furniture and boxes of belongings, and gave away what he didn’t need. It was good to simplify his life. Finally, he placed the house on the market and drove away from Vegas.
Here he was in Laramie again, the town where he’d been born. He had no idea what the rest of his life would bring, but he was ready for a change.
His brother Mitch had offered him the use of the old homestead. Ryan had put so much effort in restoring that house and now it was livable and cozy. Only he was reluctant to live out there at his brother’s ranch. As Mitch’s guest for a short time, maybe, but not as a permanent tenant who’s forging a new path in life. For this reason, he decided to rent a house in town and if he wanted to set down roots here, then he’d build himself a good house. It was appropriate, a new house for new beginnings.
Now, here he was, at Bowman Law Offices, ready to renew the acquaintance with the pretty attorney that had so expertly dealt with the complicate wills of Ryan’s father and that of Patrick Riley.
She was standing with her back to him – and what a nice back it was – bent over a drawer from the file cabinet, searching through the papers inside. She straightened and a whiff of the flowery perfume she wore wafted to his nostrils. Then she turned to him and the ready smile froze on his face because she was not Taryn. Instead of the easy-going, nice face of his friend, permanently pushing up her glasses, a beautiful ice-queen was looking frostily at him.
“No, I don’t remember you,” she said. Then she pushed the drawer back and took a seat in the chair behind Taryn’s desk. She typed at her keyboard, then stopped and looked at him, arching her perfect brow above her perfect beautiful grey eyes on her perfect face. Yes, every detail about her was so beautiful and in perfect harmony that it could stop traffic on the busiest avenue in Las Vegas. Her expression however was not. She looked at him like he’d just come out of a mouse’s hole and she expected him to go back fast where he’d come from.
Luckily for him, he was not easily intimidated and he recovered fast some of his poise. Just to see if he could rile her, he leaned against the door and smiled lazily. “I was looking for Taryn, honey. Is this not her office?”
As he’d expected, she stiffened some more at the endearment, but answered. “Taryn moved into the larger office next door.”
Keeping the smile unchanged, he saluted and turned to go. “Then I guess I’ll find her there.”
“Not anytime soon. Taryn took two weeks off to go on her honeymoon.”
That wiped the smile off his face and the wind from his pipes. “Taryn got married?”
“She sure did. She’s Taryn Lockhart now,” she said watching with satisfaction as she succeeded to make him lose his composure.
“You don’t say. She married the deputy?”
“Do you know her husband, Deputy Lockhart?” she asked.
He blinked confused. “Of course I know him. But last time I talked to him, a year or so ago, he was happily married.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I just moved to Laramie a couple of months ago. I was Taryn’s law school classmate and now I’m her new partner. I’m Olivia Moore. If you need legal advice, then I can help you until Taryn comes back,” she added in a professional voice.
“No, not legal advice,” he said continuing in the same flirtatious tone. “I just arrived in town and my first attempt to reconnect with old friends failed. Taryn is not available.” He didn’t mention that his older brother, Mitch was a rancher and lived close to town and if Ryan wanted company for dinner, he was welcome to visit Mitch and his family anytime. “Considering that you are new in town too, would you like to join me for dinner this evening?” he asked, almost sure she was going to refuse his invitation. It was written all over her face. Why did he persist in being pushy? Maybe because he was not used to be dismissed like a pest. He was quite handsome – it was not vanity that made him say so – and women were eager to spend time in his company. This woman, with her beauty and icy demeanor, presented a challenge that he couldn’t resist.
As he predicted, she raised her chin and looked at him dismissingly. “I don’t go to dinner with men I don’t know. I have to say no to your invitation.”
Ryan was ready to admit defeat and walk away, when a voice behind him said, “I wouldn’t say no. If you’re in need of friendly company at dinner, I’m game.”
He turned and his jaw dropped. Behind him was a washed out copy of the beautiful Olivia Moore. This woman was, or looked a few years older, with a pale blond hair in desperate need of some bright, golden highlights. Her brows and lashes were so light-colored they were almost invisible. Some make-up would have improved her looks somewhat, but she wore none. Add to this that her face was like a distorted image of Olivia’s perfect features, being somewhat longer, with a longer nose and not harmoniously oval shaped.
He looked to see if she was joking, but she was dead serious. What could he say? He shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
“Great,” she said, ignoring his less than enthusiastic answer. She extended her hand to shake. “I’m Polly Moore.”
The name suited her. She looked like a Polly, bland as her name, Ryan thought, still chagrined to have to share his dinner with her instead of the beauty behind the desk. “I’m Ryan Calhoun.”
“Polly, you’re not seriously considering going out with him. You don’t know him,” Olivia intervened.
“Oh, I am. Why not? He’s good looking and a friend of Taryn.”
“So he says. You don’t know if it’s true,” the beauty argued.
“Hey, people in this town know me. I was born here,” Ryan protested, starting to be really upset with Olivia for talking about him like he was not present. “You refused to have dinner with me. Why is it so impossible to believe that Polly agreed?”
“She’s my sister. We take care of each other.”
Yeah, Ryan had guessed correctly. Impossible as it seemed, the two women, so similar and yet so different, were sisters.
“How about if we meet at the bistro at seven?” Polly asked him, dismissing her sister’s concerns.
Ryan knew of no bistro, probably a new restaurant, but he figured out he was going to find it. Also, when going on a date, he used to pick up the women from home. If Polly wanted to meet him there though, then he was not going to argue. He nodded in agreement and smiling charmingly at both women, walked out of the law office.
Polly raised her hand to prevent her sister from talking. “Don’t preach to me, Olivia. I’m long past the age when I had to justify how I live my life. You don’t see me telling you what is right for you and what is not. I did that once and I got cured for life.”
“It’s just that he is so... predictably phony, with his good looks, smiling and flirting, convinced that every woman will fall at his feet,” Olivia said.
“He reminds you of Miles, but that doesn’t mean he is as superficial and self-important as Miles was. I like him. You will laugh, but I sense a certain vulnerability and uncertainty under his easy-going demeanor.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “How like you Polly to see a complex character in a shallow man.”
“Time will tell. I feel we’ll see him quite a lot. This town is rather small and we’re bound to bump into each other,” Polly reflected, taking out of her purse a brand new paperback. “Here, my new book.”
“I don’t read romances, you know. Not even paranormal romances like your book.”
“Yes. More’s the pity. It would improve your mood, sunshine.”
Polly arrived at the bistro fifteen minutes early. The restaurant was full, but her friend, Kathleen, the owner and chef, had reserved a small table for two in a corner for Polly. Distractedly accepting a glass of iced tea from the server, she wondered if Olivia had been right and she’d been too hasty to think that having dinner with the handsome stranger was a good idea.
She was not afraid of meeting him here, in a public place, but it could be a waste of time. Polly, as an avid reader and a writer of romance novels, was a firm believer in happily ever after. She was an optimist, convinced that despite not being very lucky till now, she’d find her perfect man, the only one for her, who would love her devotedly forever. She had hope every time she went on a date, that maybe this was the one.
This time she was ambiguous. The stranger was too handsome and probably there were a lot of pretty women willing to date him. And she was not blind. She’d seen the interested way he’d looked at her sister, while he’d given Polly only a cursory glance.
She checked her watch. Seven twenty. He was late. Twenty minutes were enough to cross the town east to west and north to south.
Kathleen, who was helping her servers when the restaurant was full, carried a load of dirty dishes to the kitchen, then returned and took a seat in the empty chair, near Polly. “I have five minutes to breathe, then it’s back to work.” She took off her chef’s bonnet and ruffled her mane of curly red hair that Polly envied so much. “What happened? Did the ladies at the knitting circle saddle you with another toad?”
Unfortunately, it was well known in town that the famous matchmakers’ new project was to find a partner for Polly, the English literature teacher and writer. She loved the old ladies and was not adverse to their matchmaking, but the town’s gossip considered the projects taken by the ladies as hopeless, and thus to be pitied and even joked about.
“No, this time it was my own doing,” Polly admitted, looking at her watch again. Seven forty-five. He was not coming. She had to face the truth. It served her right for being brazen to take over the invitation meant for her sister.
“Really? It’s so not like you. Who is he?” her friend asked curious.
“A man, new in town, Ryan Calhoun.”
“Hmm, what are the odds that he is Mitch Calhoun’s younger brother? Brett doesn’t have a good opinion of him. He was wild in his youth and left town under a cloud of suspicion. It happened some ten or fifteen years ago and as I was not in town then, I don’t know much. But I’ll ask Brett about it.”
“No, don’t. Not on my behalf. Ryan is a lost cause. He was more interested in Olivia, not in dating me. As Olivia refused him, I sort of barged in. Nothing came of it, as you can see.” Polly smiled sadly.
Loyal to her friend, Kathleen disagreed. “Did he say yes to this date? Because if he did and then stood you up, then he’s worthless and you’re better off without him. Handsome is as handsome does. And in this case, he isn’t.”
“I was aware he wanted to date Olivia, not me,” Polly repeated.
“Listen. I meant to tell you. There is a new deputy at the Sheriff’s Department. Brett assures me he is a very good, serious boy. I could invite him to dinner and you could come too.”
Polly didn’t know if to laugh or to cry at another attempt, this time from her dear friend, to match her up. “Boy is the key word. I bet he’s fresh out of high school and I’m thirty-two.” Were her friends considering her so desperate to find a partner in life that they were looking everywhere, even at a young boy?
Guessing her thoughts, Kathleen added, “Well, I thought it better than the fifty year old man with gout that you met last week.”
“Better, but not what I am looking for.” She took a book out of her purse. “This is for you.”
“Your new romance. Oh, I’m a sucker for a good love story and you tell them like no other. Thank you. I’ll treasure it, even if I prefer to read it on my e-reader. Is this about the vampire’s brother, who was kidnapped at birth and taken to another planet? I can hardly wait to see what happened to him.”
Amused by her friend’s prattle, Polly smiled. Her life was not bad. She had good friends, earning a living doing what she liked to do, teaching English literature and writing fantasy romances and having a faithful companion in her dog, Maurice.
A customer snapped his fingers, and Kathleen left to attend him. It was time for Polly to go to. She asked the server how much she owed for the tea.
“It’s on the house, ma’am. Kathleen said so,” the server answered on her way to the kitchen.
Polly shook her head. She left a few dollars on the table and walked out of the bistro. Out in the street, she took a deep breath and looked at the starry sky. Yes, life was good, even if occasionally she was stood up by her dinner date.