Chapter 81 Questions Answered
“What happened with your fiancée?” he asked as they sat together in a booth at the restaurant. He had a way of coming straight to the point. She considered for a moment how she was going to tell him about Cameron and about what she had gone through in the time that they had been apart. She really wanted to tell him everything. She was relaxed and free, something that had been missing to a certain degree when they had been together a little less than a year ago.
“The short answer,” she replied. “I caught him in bed with another woman.” In the past, that statement always conjured up the image of Natalia’s body moving up and down on Cameron, but this time it was a matter-of-fact statement lacking the emotion it once held. She didn’t even realize the change had taken place. She simply felt nothing when she said it. “The better answer, however, and the one that I came to realize, is that we simply weren’t right for each other.”
“I understand that,” he said. “When did that happen?” He realized that he was prying. “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”
“Actually, Evan,” she began. “It doesn’t bother me to tell you. I seem to have this overwhelming urge to tell you everything that has ever happened to me. Is that crazy?”
“Only if you think that you can do it before dinner arrives,” he grinned.
She remembered how RJ’s grin and penetrating blue eyes seemed to melt her. She felt a little bit that way with Evan, but different. With Evan, it was more genuine; there was something in RJ’s eyes and smile that warned you that he was sort of a loose cannon if you paid attention to it. They drew you in and had you making decisions immediately. The danger and thrill of walking on the wild side was in them. With Evan, one could read freedom, honesty, and confidence in his face and his eyes, but there was also a steadiness and stability.
“I’ve been through a lot in the past year, Evan,” she said after some reflection. “When I left Glendale, I just drove away,” she said. “I left everything, all of my stuff in the apartment and never went back. I called my friend Laura in Pittsburgh, and she sent me to Sparks, Nevada, to live and work with Evelyn.” She paused for a moment. “I thought about coming to you, but it just didn’t seem right. I needed to think and be alone and figure things out for myself. Does that make any kind of sense?
“It makes perfect sense,” he answered. “You had to know where you stood before you tried to figure out where we stood.”
“Exactly,” she replied. “Evelyn has been wonderful for me. Her horse ranch is awesome, the Sierra Nevadas are beautiful, and the Truckee River Valley.” Her face lit up as she told him about Evelyn’s place and the horses. It suddenly turned grim.
“We went riding last fall. On the way home, something spooked Champ, the horse that I was riding. He dove off the trail and tried to jump a ravine. He fell with me and broke my lower leg, and I had some pretty bad bruises. I was unconscious for a while. It was pretty rough for a week or two, and then I started healing. The funny thing about it, not that it is really funny, but it really kind of started helping me to figure out who I am, what I want, and where I’m going. Not completely, I don’t have definite plans yet, but it made me realize where I belong.”
“When did that happen?” he asked, looking pensive. “The accident?”
“I think it was in October,” she said. She stared at him as his face turned pale.
“I had a dream last October,” he said. “It was a recurring dream for about 3 weeks, and then one day it stopped. It was a terrible dream, and I had no idea what it meant. Anyway... now I know why.”
“What?” she asked. “Are you serious? What was it about?”
“I don’t want to get into that,” he said. “It really doesn’t matter now, but it has sort of bugged me on and off since. I’ve had premonitions about you several times, but without being able to contact you, I had no way of connecting it.”
She was fascinated with the idea. “How often?” she asked.
“Hard to tell,” he said. “Half a dozen times in the last year.”
“When was the last?” she asked.
“Yesterday,” he said
“Seriously?”
“Yes. In the evening. Just about this time.”
“Oh my god!” she exclaimed. “That’s when RJ got hurt.”
“RJ?” he asked. His confusion changed to sudden recognition. He had heard something about RJ Falls getting hung up on a bull last night. Someone had asked him about it this morning. “RJ Falls?”
“Yes.” She suddenly realized that she was going to have to let out another secret. She was already thinking ahead when the question came.
“What would that have to do with my premonition about you?”
“Because,” she began. “RJ and I dated for a little while, and then he ran off with another woman, which seems to be my story. Anyway, Evelyn and I had a bet about his buck off time, and I felt like I put some sort of curse on him.” She rushed on ahead, telling the story about RJ and about how she felt. “I was angry and hurt, but that was no reason to hold a grudge and, well, I don’t know. Do you think that a person can kind of feed negative energy into somebody’s life through their anger?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I used to think that was all a bunch of bull, but when I try to explain my dreams and premonitions and the fact that we communicate a lot of things with animals without the use of words, it makes me wonder what sorts of things are floating around out there. How did you happen to make that turn and end up stuck in my backyard, for instance? Just luck, or is there something else going on?”
They continued to try to unravel the mysteries of non-verbal communication and chattered away like they had known each other forever throughout dinner and during their walk afterward. Things were completely at ease between them, and conversation flowed easily. They understood each other on a level that they hadn’t realized before. They knew that there was a lot of chemistry between them before, but each was struggling with so many emotions at that time that so many of the things that they had in common had been lost.