Red Lines Read Free

it wasn’t as if he had given her anything to go on.
    She should know these things about where he was from. They had spent an entire summer together. When you spend that much time with someone, shouldn’t you know what his house looks like? What color his bedroom is? If he even has a single houseplant? She wondered if there were more things she didn’t know than she did.
    So much had happened since this morning. They had put themselves back together. It felt real and secure, but at the same time, Haven knew it was delicate. She only had four days in Austin to work out her contract with Blue Steel before she was scheduled to return home. What if she and Evan couldn’t make all the broken pieces fit together the way they did before?
    “Hey, what’s going on over there?” Evan turned down the radio.
    “What do you mean?” Her gaze had been set out of the window ever since they pulled away from the terminal curb, but she couldn’t recall anything she had seen on the drive.
    “You look like you’re thinking about something, and I have a feeling it’s not lyrics.” He slowed the car to a crawl and turned onto a dirt road. “But if there’s a song in there, I want to hear it.”
    Haven shrugged, not wanting to sour his happy mood. This was part of the delicate stage they were in. She was still trying to find her footing. “No song. Just taking in the scenery. Are we at the ranch?” She looked at the big C displayed over the gate’s archway.
    “Yep. This is it.” He rolled down the window and entered an access code into the keypad.
    Haven watched as the iron fence separated just enough for the car to pass through. He waved at a man stationed in a small hut by the gate. The gates closed behind them as Evan drove over the threshold of the Carlson estate. She tried to quell the excitement that had started to bubble. She prided herself on not getting wrapped up in celebrity, or in this case, all the perks of being with a movie star, but it was becoming more evident that Evan lived a completely different life than she did.
    “Tomorrow, when we have some daylight, I’ll show you the whole place. I know it’s kind of hard to see right now.” Evan pointed out a few of the fields and ponds along the way, explaining what kind of fish he had stocked or where the particular cattle came from.
    Haven listened and watched as the acres rolled under the tires and the car drove deeper into the ranch, turning around sharp corners and following the fence line.
    “All of this is yours?” Haven asked.
    “Sure is, darlin’. And see? Those reporters can’t get in here. The perimeter fence is wired, there’s a gate, and I have a security system on the house. You’ll be as far away from that mess as I can get you.”
    His eyes focused on the driveway that had sprung up out of the gravel. Haven stared at the house in front of her. If you could call it that. It wasn’t a house. It was a resort.
    “This? This is your ranch?” She pointed to the sprawling set of buildings. It was bigger than South Fork; it was bigger than the White House. It was a monster ranch.
    “What do you think?” He waited while one of the ten garage doors opened and he could steer the car inside.
    “When you said ranch, I thought you meant a little house out in the open. This-this is…” She didn’t know how to finish the statement without hurting his feelings.
    Now that she was here, she could see what a contrast it was for him to spend an entire summer in a camper. Silver Belle was probably the size of his pantry. How could the same person live in this mansion?
    She stepped from the car and waited for Evan to direct her. There were multiple doors surrounding them, and she didn’t know which one would take her inside. Suddenly, she felt off balance again.
    “Right this way.” He ushered her in the closest door, and they walked through a short hallway before emerging in the kitchen.
    “Wow.” Haven had never seen anything like it. It was as if