Free Baby Girl: Dare to Love by Celya Bowers Page B

I’m doing the right thing.”
    She moved closer to him.  “I can imagine that’s a lot of pressure.”
    “You have no idea.” He leaned down and kissed her on the lips. 
    The car arrived before they could get into any trouble.  
     

NINE
     
    Jemma relaxed against the leather interior as Kyle drove to the countryside.  Everything so far that evening had been perfect.  Now she peered through the sunroof at the moonlight.  Jazz music played through the speakers, and Kyle was gently caressing her hand.  She felt very content. 
    They drove passed the ranch, further into the countryside.  Jemma had no idea where they were going.  She had assumed it was somewhere on the ranch, but like most of her other assumptions, she was wrong. 
    He turned down a dark, desolated road.  Alarms started going off in her head.  “Um, Kyle?”
    “Yes.”
    “Where exactly are we going?”  She couldn’t see anything but darkness.  She was out in the country with this white man and no cell phone.  How would they find her?  Her mind buzzed with news-story headlines.  Calm down, girl.  He’s not going to harm you.  Slowly, her overactive imagination calmed down to rational, coherent thoughts. 
    He stopped the car, let the windows down, and cut the engine.  Once her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, she saw it.  “It’s beautiful.”  She inhaled deeply.  “It doesn’t smell like a ranch or anything.”  It was too small to be a lake, she guessed it had be a pond of some sort.  It was a quiet, serene place.  She easily imagined a picnic.
    He chuckled as he unclipped his seat belt.  “Actually, this is part of the ranch.  It’s not used often.   Dad was trying to start a stock tank of fish.  The doctor wanted him to start eating more seafood about ten years ago.”
    “Heart attack?”  Jemma knew that scenario well.  Jared’s Dad had the same problem.  Damn it, she thought.  She was doing it again.  Why did she keep bringing that man into their date?
    “Myocardial infarction.  Doctors ordered him to slow down.  But Dad doesn’t do slow.  Although I have been running things, he still has his hand in the ranch.  The horse deal is the first one I’m doing totally on my own.  I had to research it, see how it affects the business, and if we really need that many horses.”
    “How many horses are there at the ranch?” 
    “Currently, we have about seventy-five horses on the ranch. We have about fifty for riding purposes. The others are our personal horses.  Normally, we have some for sale.  Just last month, we sold fourteen horses.”
    “Wow!” Jemma couldn’t keep the amazement out of her voice.  “It’s that a lot?”  She thought it was much like selling a house. 
    “Yeah, I mean we normally sell a few per month.  The horses we sell are trained, so that drives the price up.  A good horse trained and ready to compete can run up to twenty five thousand dollars.  Ours run between five and twenty thousand.”
    “Wow! I never knew how much a horse could cost that much.” 
    He moved closer to her.  “I really didn’t want to talk about horses, I want to talk about you.” 
    “What about me?”  She inhaled the aroma of his cologne.   She shifted in her seat.  He was much too close. 
    “I know you were dedicated to your husband and rightly so.  I know how difficult it can be to process grief, especially when you have others depending on you, such as your daughter.  I have a feeling you haven’t grieved for your husband.”
    How did he know her so well so fast?  “I don’t follow.”
    “Jemma, you bring him into the conversation constantly.  Then when you try not to, it still happens.”  He turned to face her and grabbed her hands and brought them to his lips.  “I want us to be honest with each other.  I don’t have a problem with your talking about your husband.  You’ve been keeping a lot to yourself.  I don’t why you think you’re not allowed to