Small-Town Billionaire. Renee Andrews
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smells of hay, worn leather and sweet feed.
But Ryan’s comment about the sky pulled her attention away from the normal sights, sounds and smells of a morning on the farm to the reddish-orange hue claiming dominion above the colors of the land. “Wow,” she whispered.
He nodded. “I’ve never seen a sky that red in Chicago, but that could be because the smog from the city covers it up. Either way, this one is pretty incredible.”
She couldn’t argue with the truth. “Yeah, it is.”
“What’s that saying?” he asked. “Something about red skies at morning?”
Still captivated by the scene, Maribeth quoted, “‘Red skies at night, sailors delight; red skies at morning, sailors take warning.’ It’s actually taken from a verse in the Bible. I believe it’s in Matthew.”
“I wouldn’t know about whether it’s in the Bible,” he said, “but I have heard the saying before.”
His honesty about his lack of Bible knowledge took her by surprise. In this area of the country, “the buckle of the Bible Belt,” as it was called, most everyone was at least familiar with what was or wasn’t in the Good Book. And if you didn’t know that much about it, you sure wouldn’t readily admit it. But Ryan appeared nonchalant about his admission. As if it were no big deal.
Maribeth suddenly thought she knew why God put this man in her path. It wasn’t to tempt her; it was because she was meant to help him. “We have a Bible study here every day of the camp. I’ll probably use that verse in the one we have this afternoon. If the weather does get bad, we’ll have the Bible study in the barn instead of on the trails, so you could come.” A sense of rightness filled her with the invitation. He might have everything money could buy, but he apparently didn’t have God in his life. And she knew what a difference He could make.
Ryan seemed to consider her words but then shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’ve got several conference calls scheduled for this afternoon and reports to review.”
Maribeth had no doubt the head of the company could adjust his schedule if he wanted, and clearly, Ryan didn’t want to.
“So we’re in for some bad weather?” he asked.
She decided it best not to push the Bible study request. If she was meant to get him thinking about God, she’d do it slowly and patiently. Maybe she could control the temptation of having Ryan Brooks around if she were focused on introducing him to the Lord. “I didn’t watch the weather report,” she admitted, “but if the saying holds true, then yeah, I guess we are. And I’ve never known the sky to be wrong about that. My daddy actually gauges his fishing trips in the Gulf around the sky more than the weather report.”
“Your father goes deep-sea fishing?” he asked.
“It’s a popular thing to do where we live—where they live, I mean,” she corrected.
“Where’s that?” he asked.
“In Destin, Florida, where I grew up. We ate a lot of fresh seafood that he caught on his weekend fishing trips. Daddy works for an office supply company during the week, but he lives for the weekends when he can go fishing. And whenever our friends and family came to town, they usually wanted to go fishing with Dad.”
“My father and I talked about deep-sea fishing together sometime, but we never got around to it.” He opened his mouth as if he were going to say more, but then stopped and took his attention back to that crimson sky. “So you grew up at the beach?”
“We didn’t live on the beach, but we were very close, walking distance,” she said.
“I’ve always heard people who grow up on a coast never leave. And your family is still there?” Those blue eyes returned their focus to Maribeth, and she felt oddly uncomfortable in the way he studied her, as though he were trying to put the pieces of her past into place.
She’d rather her past stay put where it was, but she wasn’t going to ignore his question. “Yes, they’re still in Destin.”
“Are you close to your family?” he continued.
Maribeth glanced toward the log cabin and wished Dana would come on outside to get her out of this conversation. “Yes, I am,” she said, and when he looked as though he doubted it, she added, “I love my parents and my two sisters very much, and I didn’t leave Destin to get away from them, if that’s what you’re implying.”
He lifted his palms. “Hey, I didn’t mean to imply anything. I’m just making conversation.” Then he smiled, and Maribeth tried to relax. He was making typical getting-to-know-you conversation, and she’d had these same questions asked several times when she first moved to Claremont. Yet somehow having Ryan Brooks ask them seemed too personal.
Be polite, she silently told herself. This was Dana’s brother, after all, and he couldn’t help it if he was so very similar to the actual reason she’d left Destin.
“What made you leave the beach for a town like Claremont? Since you own your store, I’m assuming you could’ve started it in Destin, or in any other town. I’d never even heard of Claremont until Dana met John Cutter. How did you find the place?”
She’d also been asked that question quite often when she first relocated to the tiny town, and even though she hadn’t heard it in a while, she recited her trademark answer. “I wanted to experience life in a small town,” she said, forcing a smile, “and I wanted to start a business on my own.”
“Make a name for yourself?” he asked.
Actually, she’d been running away from the name she’d made for herself. Making a new name for herself would be more like it. “Something like that,” she said. Thankfully, she saw Dana walking toward the barn with a travel mug in each hand.
“I know what that’s like,” he said, “wanting to make a name for yourself.”
Maribeth started to ask him what he meant, but then Dana called out, “Hey, Maribeth, I didn’t know you’d be here already. I got a cup of coffee for me and Ryan. Want me to get you one, too?”
“I had a cup before I left the store, but thanks,” Maribeth answered.
“You’ve already been to work this morning?” Ryan asked.
“I live there. That was one of the things so appealing about the place on the square—each store has an apartment on the second floor.” She hadn’t planned on saying more than a couple of words to the guy as she made her way to the barn, but oddly enough, she was finding him easy to talk to.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Dana asked as she reached them. “That Maribeth can simply walk downstairs to be at work?”
“Yes,” he said, “it is.”
Maybe this was God’s way of showing her that she didn’t have to see guys like Ryan Brooks as completely off-limits. He didn’t have to be a temptation that she couldn’t withstand. Maybe they could be friends and she could even help him with his relationship with God somehow. Then she could go her merry way without any form of discomfort from being around someone who so blatantly reminded her of her past mistakes.
“Wow, did y’all notice that sky?” Dana asked, taking a sip of her coffee.
“We were just talking about that,” Ryan said. “And about that old saying that red skies in the morning mean bad weather is coming.”
“Oh, that’s right.” She held up the other mug. “Want your coffee now, or you want to wait until we’re in the car?”
“I’ll wait,” he said.
Dana nodded, still taking in that sky, which seemed to have grown even redder in the time since Maribeth and Ryan had started talking. “I’d forgotten about that red-skies-at-morning thing,” Dana said.
“Apparently it comes from the Bible,” Ryan said, and then