Nova (7 page)

“What kind of business?”

“The
y
run a horse ranch.
They board, breed, compete…
a
ll that stuff. My sister is big into competitions and other shows.”

“What’s your sister’s name?”

“Sam. Samantha.”

“How old is she?”

“Uh…nineteen, I believe.” He paused and did some math in his head. “Yeah, nineteen
, almost twenty
.”

“Is she your only sibling?”

“No, I have another sister and a brother
. They’re both younger
than me
. Jeff is
twenty-one, Katie is sixteen.”

“So is that where you live
, too
?” I asked. “Bakersfield?”

“Nope. I live in
Arcadia.”

I had to think for a second. “Near Pasadena?”

“Yep.”

“So…is that where you work?”

“Uh, I work in
Irwindale
.”

“And what’s in
Irwindale
?”

“T
he Toyota Speedway.
”

After a brief pause I asked, “The racetrack?”

He smiled. “Yeah.”

“So what do you do there? You said you were in business, right?”

“Uh…y
eah, I’m part of the marketing team there. We take care of all the sponsors and all that stuff.”

“Hmm. You like it?”

“Yeah it can get pretty busy, but I like the scene.”

“Racing?”

“Mmhmm.”

He took a drink of his water, but his eyes never seemed to leave mine. Mine left because I looked away, and then I was glad that Robin arrived to take his lunch order. He looked at me first—maybe to see if I was going back to work, I’m not sure—but Robin
said, “She’s eating too.”

And that’s how I had my first lunch date with Austin Gaines. Okay
,
so technically it wasn’t a “date”
because it wasn’t exactly planned, but we had lunch together.

I did learn
a few more things about him, even though it
seemed like he was sometimes he
sitant to answer my questions. B
ut I
found
out that he travels to Bakersfield almost every weekend to do some work for his parents’ ranch. Business stuff, I guess. My
cowboy vision of him
was kind of squashed when he admitted that he didn’t really care for being around the animals. That was a red flag to me, being that I wanted to spend the rest o
f my working days treating them.
But I didn’t argue the
issue
, and he clarified that he took care of some of the financial and accounting aspects of the business for his dad. My mind jumped back to the conversation with the girls at the bowling ally
,
and
Autumn
’s insistence that accountants were boring.

“So I think I’m done answering your questions,” he eventually said. “I’ll be honest and say that normally a girl wouldn’t even get half of that information out of me, but I figured you’re kind of the bargaining sort. Since I shared with you, I’m sure you feel a little more inclined to share with me. It’s only fair.”

I watched him for a few seconds, thinking it over, and said, “Okay, what do you want to know? You know my name, my age, and where I work. There’s really not more to it.”

“Hmm, I’ll be the judge of that. Let’s start with your last name,” he smiled.

I chuckled and said, “Reynolds.”

“Nova Reyn
olds. Okay. F
amily?”

That’s where I paused naturally. But I figured I didn’t have anything to lose. The guy didn’t like animals; it would never work between us.

“Well, my dad was pretty much a loser from day one. His family is a bunch of druggies and ex-cons—
you know, the Jerry Springer-
type of family gatherings. He left my mom and I when I was
five, and then finally left town when I was ten.
I’ve only seen him six times in my entire life since then.

“My mom was amazing. Besides hooking up with my dad as mistake
numero
uno
, she pretty much spent her life making up for it. She worked hard—she always had two jobs. She was seventeen when she had me, so we lived with my grandparents for most of my life, but after I graduated from high school she insisted that I go to college. She worked at a grocery store by day and was a waitress at night, and we moved into an apartment that was close enough for me to go to school. I got a part time job—against my mom’s wishes because she wanted me to focus on school—but really just that extra few hundred bucks a month is what fed us. My mom didn’t even know I took the job, she just thought I was at the library studying, but I knew it was the right thing to do. I paid for things that she wasn’t aware of so she didn’t have to worry about it.

“But…one night it all changed when
she
died in a car accident coming home from
work
. No one really knows what happened, but in the police report they put that she’d fallen asleep at the wheel. So…a few months later
,
I eventually
moved here
with my aunt and uncle. Meryl owns this place and…that’s how I started working here. That’s how I got my restaurant career.”

Maybe he was a little appalled by my
background because he didn’t say anything for a while. He actually took another bite of his food, spent some time chewing, and then had a drink of water. But he finally asked, “So what about college? You quit?”

“Uh, I kind of had to. Didn’t have the money to continue.”

“What about the rest of y
our family? –Y
our aunt and uncle, or
grandparents.
They couldn’t help out?
”

“Meryl and Scott
have two of their own kids to put through college right now. They’ve also
had their hands full with this place. They had a few financial setbacks,
but
even if they could have helped me out, I’m not sure if I would have allowed it. Maybe I would have with the intent to pay them back, I don’t know. And my grandparents… My grandpa had a gambling proble
m several years back and uh… Well, t
hey had some financial difficulties, too. I don’t come from a family of genius entrepreneurs, but most of us are hardworking—at least on my mom’s side of the family. I don’t have anything to do with my dad
’s
.”

“What about college, though? Do you plan on
finishing
?”

“Well, yes. I’m actually taking a few classes right now to get back on track. I’m not here
every
day,” I smiled.

“Yeah, I’m aware of that,” he said, returning the smile. “So where are you at with school? How far along and what are you studying?”

“Something you’d roll your eyes at.”

“What?” he
chuckled.
“No I wouldn’t. Why would you say that?”

“Because you hate animals.”

He studied me for a few seconds and then a smile appeared. “I don’t hate animals, I just don’t do the horse-thing. I leave that up to the rest of my family. So you want to be a vet, huh? Any specific field?”

“Mm, I don’t know yet. First I need to finish up my last bit of general studies before I can even apply for a veterinary school.
Hopefully I can be done in two more semesters—fall and winter—and then I’ll look to
ward student loans and
transferring.
”

“Where are you looking to go?”

“Well I
origina
lly planned on UC Davis, b
ut right now I
think I’d go almost anywhere
.
”

“No, stick with what you want. You can do it.”

“Yeah, I know I can. It’s just going to take longer than I hoped.”

There was a few seconds of silence so I took a drink of water. I knew it was getting close to the time that I should be getting back to work, but I didn’t want to be rude by glancing at my watch.

“So don’t you have to have a bunch of hours in the field?” he ended up asking. “
Do you do that, too?
When you’re in
a
program
like that
you have to acquire a certain amount of hands-on experience, right?”

“Yes, and I’ve tried and tried to find a vet that can take me on, just so I can get some applied
hours
, but I haven’t been successful. It’s pretty competitive. Shoot, it’s pretty competitive to even get accepted to a
school.”

“But wouldn’t your application look better if you had some hours on there?”

“
Yes
. It’s what I’ve
been
trying
to do for the past
year
.”

“Well I’m just trying to help you out,” he smiled, not seeming
to be
put off by my agitation. “I’m thinking you should go up to Bakersfield.”

“Huh?”

“To my parents’ ranch. They have
one full-time vet and one part-time
, and you could work with them. I mean it’s equestrian, but that doesn’t matter, does it?”

I stared at him for a few seconds, mostly trying to put together a complete thought. He knew a
DVM
that would take me as an intern? Or was it even something that was feasible, and he was just throwing it out there to
impress
me?

“What’s there to think about?” he finally asked.

“Well, uh, well a lot of- of things,” I
stammered
. “First of all you can’t just say, ‘Hey
, go work on my parents’ ranch,’
and second of all, Bakersfield is almost an hour-and-a-half away, isn’t it? That’s kind of a hefty commute.”

“Well first of all, I just did say,
‘Go work on my parents’ ranch,’
and second of all, whether you commute or just live up there, you’re gonna have to make a change if you want something new to happen. I can guarantee you the job, Nova. It’s up to you if you want to make the change.”

I didn’t even know what to say. It was a real opportunity to get some hours in, but up in Bakersfield? I was looking
f
or something a little closer because I wouldn’t be able to afford living somewhere while I worked. Maybe I could afford it, but my budget didn’t want to pay rent
right now
. I was saving for graduate school.

“Why don’t you just spend a day up there first?” he asked. “Then you can decide.”

“Well, yeah, that’s…that’s a better plan…”

“And if you’d rather just live up
there
, my parents have plenty of room in the guesthouse.”

“The guesthouse?”

“Yeah, it’s just a big house that’s
used for visitors that spend time
at Harmony Acres
, and a
few
of the employees live there, too.
What are you doing tomorrow?
”

“What?”

“You should come up tomorrow. I’ll give you a tour of the ranch, and you can meet a few people.
I think you’d probably like
Jack—
Uh,
Dr. Stevens.
”

Did things suddenly start moving
really fast or was it just
me
?
“Uh, no, I don’t think I can this weekend. I have a test on Monday and… Well, no, probably not.”

“Are you sure? Every minute isn’t going to be tied up, you know. And you still have Sunday
to study
.”

“Uh… I just…have a few things I need to do tomorrow.” That was true because I told Levi that I’d go to lunch with him. I didn’t want to cancel that, did I?

“Okay,” he seemed to shrug. “But if you decide it’s something you’d like to do, just let me know.”

He took his last two bites of food, and because he pushed the plate aside and finished off his water, I knew my break time was pretty much up. I’d hardly eaten my food, and after he gave me a hard time about it, he asked Robin for the check.

“Thanks for joining me,” he said. “Can this happen every Friday?”

I smiled when he did b
ut replied, “Uh, probably not, u
nless you come on the tail end of my morning shift.
I’m done at two.
”

“That’s every other Friday, right?”

“Yes,” I said, feeling a little embarrassed that he knew that. He was really perplexing me. I felt like he liked me, but his demeanor sometimes challenged that thought.

He was gathering the papers that he’d set on the seat next to him and stuck them back into a folder.