“Okay,” Evie tried to say. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Better. Thank you. Did you sleep here all night?”
“In the hospital? Yeah. One of the nurses pointed me toward an empty room. I got to spend a couple hours not in a chair. How’d you sleep?”
“Okay. I think. I had a weird dream. I was riding a horse backwards.” She didn’t mention the man.
“Oh wow. That must have been some dream.”
“Did I ride horses? Do I?” Evie asked.
“Um, I don’t know for sure, but maybe. You told me you grew up on a ranch. Maybe they had horses. You don’t talk about your childhood much, actually. Did the dream make you think of anything? Any memories?”
Evie paused a moment and tried to get back to her dream. Bits of it were already fading. All she could see—and almost still feel—was the horse under her and the man. She could still see his smile and hear his laugh, but there wasn’t much else. She remembered yesterday. Meeting Blaire and the other two women, her agent and her assistant. She remembered the MRI and how nice Dr. Manzo had been and the sweet nurse who brought her double dessert, but whose name she didn’t catch. That was it. Nothing before waking up in the hospital.
“No. I can’t think of anything.”
“The doctor said it might take a few days. It’ll be okay.” Evie didn’t have any response to that. Instead she just watched Blaire as she started fiddling with her phone, before holding the screen for Evie to see. “Does this guy look familiar to you?”
Evie looked at the picture of a large, muscular Black man in a suit, black cowboy hat in his hand. She thought back to her dream, but this was a different man. “No. Who is he?”
“His name is Jesse Pleasant and you grew up with him. Nicole and I were talking and we think we might give him a call. He might be worried about you. I found a Jesse Pleasant Sr. who is also kind of a stone-cold silver fox, but he’s much older and he’s an actor on some BBC cop show. This is your guy.”
“Is he an old boyfriend or something?”
“I don’t think so. You never mentioned him like that, but he’s fine, isn’t he?” Blaire said with burst of laughter. Evie looked at the phone screen again.
“He is handsome.”
Evie tried to ignore the frustration she felt when Blaire’s smile faded a bit. Maybehandsomewasn’t the word Blaire wanted to hear.
“Anyway, so yeah. We were thinking since—ya know, before—you told Raquelle this guy was your last-line-of-defense type of emergency contact, we could call him and let him know what happened, let him know you’re here. And then we can go from there.”
“Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Is he family?”
Blaire’s expression really dropped this time. She reached out and took Evie’s hand. Her fingers were warm, so Evie did her best to hold still. “No, honey. Remember yesterday we mentioned it was just you and your grandma, and your grandma died about ten years ago. But let’s call Jesse. He might as well be family. Maybe. I think it would be good to at least talk to him. And maybe all together we can look at all of our options for when they are ready to release you.”
“Right. Since I can’t remember anything.”
“Right. But don’t worry. I got you, boo.” That little laugh was back again. A knot tied itself in Evie’s throat. She wished she could laugh with Blaire and share in whatever relationship she was sure they had, but there was nothing. Just Blaire’s warm hand on hers and lingering thoughts of an unknown man.
Chapter 3
Zach Pleasant did nothing to hide his smug smile. Once again, he got exactly what he wanted. His grandmother reminded him constantly that it wasn’t polite to gloat, but when he knew how much it annoyed his older brother Jesse, he didn’t see the point in reining it in. Their ranch foreman, Felix, wasn’t helping the situation either. His own grin of amusement tipped up the corners of his thick mustache as he glanced between the Pleasant brothers. All three of them stood around the large mahogany desk in the center of Zach’s office. They just had to finalize a few details and the deal would be done.
“So you want to confirm delivery for the first Saturday in January?” Zach said.
“Yeah, let’s go ahead with that. I’ll have a sit-down with Arnie and the boys. We’ll aim to have him down at your place that morning.” Don Milcher’s voice came through the speakerphone loud and clear. The Pleasants had done several deals with the quarter-horse breeder over the years. They’d been very pleased with everything Don had brought to the table and today was no exception. “I’m almost sad to part with him. My granddaughter’s in love.”
“That’s exactly why I want to get him out here. We need a little something to bring that sparkle back to the youngins.” Zach had no Southern accent to speak of. He was born at Cedars, right in the middle of Beverly Hills, and raised in SoCal his whole life. Didn’t stop him from pulling out a fake accent every now and then for dramatic effect.
“Alright. Alright.” Don laughed. “Now you’re laying it on a little thick. He’s already yours, Pleasant.”
“Don, I’ll have everything handled by noon,” Jesse said.
“Perfect. Always a pleasure, boys.”
“Would you say it was apleasantexperience?” Zach added.
Don let out a loud groan that rolled into more deep laughter. “Felix, give him a shot to the chops for me, will ya?”