help me choose the right contractor for the job. We met with a few different possibilities this afternoon.” She glances at her dad. He’s already deep in conversation with my dad, and from the snippets of conversation I’m hearing, it sounds like they’re talking about elk hunting.
Her posture changes when she sees she’s only talking to me, not her dad or my dad. Her shoulders drop away from her ears and she twists the delicate gold band she wears on her pointer finger. “How have you been?” she asks me, looking up into my gaze.
I love how she just softened for me. How she trusts me enough to relax, to be herself.
“I missed you,” I tell her, my tone gruff, the words coming out on the louder side of a whisper. What the hell made me say that? I don’t know, but I can’t take it back. And maybe I don’t want to.
Dakota’s lips fall open, the tip of her tongue peeking out and pressing against the center of her upper lip. She regards me that way for a second, then says, “These past two weeks? Or the past five years?”
“Hi everyone, thank you for coming into Sierra Steak tonight!” A loud, falsely cheerful voice hacks directly into the center of the moment Dakota and I were sharing. Before it’s totally over, I hold up five fingers on one hand. The past five years. It’s as much a surprise to her as it is to me.
Dakota rips her heated gaze from mine and reluctantly shifts it up to the smiling server. I follow suit, frowning at my ruined opportunity.
Mitch orders a bottle of wine for the table. After that, there are no more opportunities for me and Dakota to have a private conversation. Dakota tells us she is back at the Sierra, but staying in a bigger room at the end of the same floor, and that they’re almost certain they’ve chosen a contractor. Dad tells them about our ranch, not the details anybody could find by conducting an internet search, but the stuff nobody hears about. The struggles with the price of beef, the price of hay, the hunters who trespass (some knowingly and some unknowingly). Mitch talks about how he and his wife built his firm. At the mention of his wife, Rosemary, Dakota shifts in her seat and looks away from the table and out at the restaurant. I’d bet a hundred dollars surveying the landscape is the last thing she’s doing right now. There’s something else charging through that smart mind of hers, and it doesn’t look enjoyable.
“You should bring your wife out with you the next time you come out,” my dad suggests, buttering a piece of bread from the basket in the center of the table. “I bet she and Juliette would get along.”
Dakota’s eyes flash to her dad, and they share a look. “Actually, my wife passed a couple years ago. A brain aneurysm in the middle of the night. It was the second of two. Dakota took care of her after the first one left her in need of help.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” my dad says, but to me, his voice is only background noise. I’m watching Dakota.
She blinks, long and heavy, her eyelashes pressing against her skin, and twists the napkin in her lap. When she opens her eyes, she takes her wine glass and drinks twice. Her gaze dances to me, and then away, but it was long enough for me to see the pain inside them. Maybe this is why I’m drawn to her once again. Maybe she carries pain around inside her, too.
The atmosphere is awkward for a few moments, but Mitch steers the conversation back on course. It’s obvious he’s practiced in this situation. Dakota, however, remains quiet.
Dinner finishes up. My dad reminds Dakota of the barbecue we’re hosting next weekend. Mitch orders a round of whiskey neat for the table. Dakota declines. Over her head, Mitch smiles at something near the entrance.
“Hon, I’ve got a little surprise for you.” He grins indulgently at his daughter and looks across the room again.
Confusion cinches together Dakota’s eyebrows. She turns to see where he’s looking, and her eyes widen.
Following her gaze, the only thing I see are two little girls walking hand in hand with a woman and a man trailing behind them. One of the little girls, the one with long blonde hair, looks directly at our table and her eyes light up.
She runs straight at us