At Any Price(112)

As soon as he was out of sight, I fell against the nearest stall door, my back sliding against it until I sat on the ground. My heart hammered like I’d run a marathon and I shook—a deep-freeze hardening my soul. The nearest horse, Whiskey, poked his head out and nudged against me. I was utterly floored by this new development.

I had just begun to move past this whole thing—or so I’d thought. But now I felt just as shivery and vulnerable as the girl who’d rushed out of the Draco Multimedia complex while sobbing the month before.

A splinter of pain passed through me as I remembered the circumstances behind that last time I’d seen him, with his arm wrapped around his former lover. Maybe Lindsay was going to come up to meet him here? Maybe he’d arranged this on purpose so he could flaunt her in my face, because that day at his office wasn’t enough? Would I be able to suffer though seeing them here, together?

If it weren’t for the fact that mom needed my help so much for this next week, I might have been tempted to call Heath and ask him if I could go crash on his couch until Adam left. It was inevitable that we’d have to interact with one another, but I resolved that I would try my hardest to avoid the confrontation he sought. With this tangle of unwanted emotion inside of me, I went on the rest of my poop hunt with a vengeance.





Chapter Seventeen




It took me an hour to recover from the shock of seeing him again so suddenly—and here of all places. It was obvious he was here to see me, and, after checking the reservation book my mom kept at her desk, I was reassured that he would be here alone. The only reason he’d leave his girlfriend behind to come up here would be to confront me. But why? What more was there to say between us that hadn’t already been said?

Adam didn’t seem the type to want to rub salt into the wounds. Or at least I would have thought so before that display at his office. He’d been rubbing plenty of salt then. I burned with anger at the pretense under which he was here. Whatever it took, I’d keep my mom from getting involved. With any luck, he’d leave and she’d never know that there was a history between us.

I didn’t want to talk to him and resolved that I wouldn’t except to exchange shallow pleasantries for my mom’s sake. I had no desire to find out what his current dating status was or if he was sleeping with Lindsay again. The very thought of it hurt like a bitch.

After showering and doing my hair, I helped Mom put the finishing touches on dinner by tossing the organic, handpicked salad. She was an excellent cook—part of the entire picture of her livelihood. She made breakfasts for her guests every day, creatively concocting new and special repasts. Breakfast was her specialty, but her dinners were damn good, too. When I was little, she’d gone to culinary school during my summer vacations to get better at it.

Dinner was beyond awkward. The only one not affected by the silent uneasiness was my mom. Adam and I did not talk to each other. The entire conversation was conducted through my mother.

“Mia’s a medical student.”

“Not yet,” I corrected her.

“Well, she will be once she aces this big test that’s coming up.”

At least Adam didn’t ask me sham questions that he already knew the answers to—like he had the first few times we’d met. He did mention that UCI had a good medical school and that I should consider applying to it. It was already on my list. Though the thought of attending school in the same city where his company was located had greatly lowered it in ranking on my list of top schools. UC Davis, in northern California, was starting to look better and better.

“I understand you have some wonderful back country around here, even off the PCT,” Adam said to Mom.

“Yes, great for hiking or riding. Do you ride, Mr. Drake?” Mom asked.

He laughed. “No, not at all. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been on horseback.”

If he was angling to get a guided ride from me, I’d have to be quick on my feet to deflect the request. My mind raced with excuses I could come up with. Sore throat? I had to study? A horse had stepped on my foot?

Mom said, “If you’re interested, we have some great horses for beginners and Mia used to take guests on sunset rides. Maybe I can coax her to do one for you if that sounds like something you’d like to do.” Shit, shit, shit. Shut up, Mom.

Adam fixed his dark gaze on me for a moment and my eyes stayed glued to my plate, shoveling in my food as fast as I possibly could. “That sounds like a wonderful idea, but how about a hike this evening, Mia? Do you hike?”

I took a long time to answer, my mind running through at least a half a dozen more excuses—all lame—before I spit out probably the lamest one of them all. “I’m a runner.”