Page 74 of Happily Never After

If she had to plan a proposal at that exact spot, what would she do? If it was winter, dress it up like a shabby Christmas treefor sure. Stage some fake plants. A gingham blanket and a classic picnic basket. Maybe even a yurt.

By the time they reached the end of the trail where the picnic was scheduled to take place, the imaginary proposal she was planning had distracted her long enough to allow the panic to recede. Her limbs still shook, but at least she could function.

Claire and Mindy hopped down from their horses, and Claire’s knees nearly buckled. Mindy steadied her, concern written across her face.

“I’m fine, seriously.” It was almost true. “Let’s go over the checklist.”

They spent twenty minutes drawing a diagram of exactly where everything would be stationed. Claire took dozens of pictures and sent them to Nicole to help plan her shots. The Hollywood sign stood tall on the hillside above them. Claire wasn’t an expert in photography, but even her untrained eye could imagine the airlifted Marry Me letters shining bright in the sunset. It would be beautiful. Now she needed to address the ride.

“So, Rita,” Claire said on the way back down. “I was wondering if you might allow me to make a couple of enhancements to the trail.”

“What kind of enhancements?” Rita called over her shoulder.

“I’m thinking some fairy lights to mark the path and maybe a framed and backlit picture of our couple every hundred yards or so.”

“Honey, for an extra hundred bucks, you can throw all the crap you want out here long as you pick it up after,” Rita said.

Well, that was a relief. Now she just needed to talk to Brad about the extra cost, choose some pictures, and spend the weekend scrounging up supplies. Easy. She and Luke were supposed to have a day date on Saturday, but surely he’d be okay with making a few pit stops.

“One more thing. It’s kind of silly.”

“Oh?” Rita looked over her shoulder and raised one eyebrow.

As much as it pained her to admit, something was telling her walking back to their car alone right now would be a very dangerous idea. “Are there any men working at the ranch today? Maybe a couple who might not mind walking us back to our car? My mom worries,” she hastily explained. Hopefully if she had reinforcements, ESA wouldn’t do whatever it was they were planning.

“Sure thing. Hank and Brycen will see you the whole way. Hank’s a bit of a talker, though, just to warn ya.”

“Thank you so much.”

Thirty minutes later, Claire and Mindy trudged back to their car, kicking up dust the entire way. Hank, a bow-legged man wearing overalls with more dirt than denim, regaled them with story after story. Brycen, almost as if to compensate, didn’t say a word the entire time.

“So one time,” Hank said, pausing to sling a rifle over one shoulder. “Me and the wife were in Italy, right? On a bus tour, the whole thing. One morning she was mad at me because I didn’t want to wear the collared shirt she had picked out, so she sat ten rows ahead of me on the bus. Frankly, I didn’t mind as I enjoyed the peace and quiet. Now we stopped at a gas station in Naples. Everyone got their snacks and piled back on. I took a nap and woke up when we arrived in Rome. Got off the bus, looked around, she was nowhere to be found.”

Mindy gasped. “You left her in Naples?”

“I sure did. This was way back before cell phones too, so we had a helluva time meeting back up. Doesn’t help that neither of us spoke a lick of Italian.”

“That’s quite the story,” Claire said. She would have murdered Luke if he had left her behind in Paris.

“I still don’t think she’s quite forgiven me. This you?” He lifted his chin in the direction of the black Porsche. They had finally reached the parking lot.

“That’s us. Thank you so much, Hank. And Brycen. I felt a lot safer with you two.”

“Can’t be too careful out here, miss. Never know what you’re gonna see. Those wild pigs are becomin’ a real problem.”

Great. Another topic to add to the safety meeting.

Claire paused with her hand on the driver’s side door. She hadn’t done her vehicle safety check. As she knelt, the dirt clung to her hands. She wrinkled her nose and glanced under the car.

“You all right, miss? You lose an earring or somethin’?” Hank called.

“Just taking a look. I’ve had some trouble with?—”

Something caught her eye. There, behind her passenger side tire, was a shining, two-inch-long screw. She froze, paralyzed. The screw wasn’t laying on its side, accidentally discarded by a maintenance truck. It was standing straight up, directly behind the tire, ready to puncture it. Breath caught in her lungs, and she choked back a scream.

She stood so quickly that she staggered, dizzy for a moment, then reached into her purse and pulled out her pepper spray.

“Claire? What the hell is going on?” Mindy ducked down and looked under the car. She gasped. “Motherfuckers.”

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