More Drama #3
He seemed so genuine and honest and open.
Maria looked away at the beautiful distant view and racked her brain for a new topic.
It was tempting to bring up the Montana Rider, because she still kept wondering about him, and Tim seemed to have information nobody else did.
But there was no point. He probably wouldn’t tell her anything.
“Why don’t we play a game?” Maria suggested.
“Sure! Like what? Do you have a deck of cards?”
“No.” Maybe that was a silly suggestion. What games had Maria played at parties that didn’t require cards or paper or anything? “How about truth or dare?”
Why had she blurted out that one? Truth or dare was usually embarrassing.
“Hmm,” Tim said. “Do you really want to know all my deepest, darkest secrets?”
He didn’t look like the kind of guy who would have deep, dark secrets. And he was grinning. If she said she didn’t want to play, after all, she’d ruin the mood. Better go for it. If she kept things shallow, it wouldn’t be too embarrassing.
Maria smirked. “Maybe I just really like daring people to do things.”
“All right then,” Tim said. “If you’re not afraid.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Never.”
“If you’re so sure about that, how about you go first?” Tim asked.
“Fine.”
“Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” Maria said.
Tim studied her for a moment. “What’s your favorite book?”
“I thought you were going to hit me with something horrendous I wouldn’t want to answer,” Maria said. “That’s tough. Probably a Jane Austen novel, or The Scarlet Pimpernel.”
“That explains your obsession with secret identities.”
Maria blushed. Had she talked enough about the Montana Rider that Tim had gotten the idea she was interested in the masked man? “I’m not either obsessed with secret identities.”
“Then why are you blushing?” Tim asked. “Come on. It’s your turn. Hit me with your best shot.”
“Truth or dare?” Maria asked.
“Let’s mix it up. Dare.”
“Afraid of me asking you questions?” Maria said. “Fine. I dare you to rope that stump over there. There’s a rope in the back of the ATV.”
Tim looked at it scornfully. “That old thing? That’s not even worth practicing on.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never seen a real live cowboy rope anything.” Maria smiled sweetly.
Tim groaned. “Fine, fine,” he said, going barefoot over to the ATV. “Watch closely. This counts as Roping Class 101.”
Maria watched with interest as Tim tied the rope, swung it into a loop, and tossed it with ease over the stump, maybe ten yards away. “Nothing to it. Happy to coach you anytime.”
It looked so easy when he did it, but she doubted it would work if she tried. “Well, thanks,” Maria said. “Anyway, it’s your turn.”
“Truth or dare?”
He’d just want her to try roping if she picked dare. “Truth.”
Tim sat back on the rock opposite her. “Why did you decide to come out here to the Rocker A?”
That hit closer to home. “Well,” Maria said, “when Grandma Austin invited me here, the only place I could get a job was an awful pizza place with horrible scheduling and a dirty kitchen. I don’t think the health inspector ever looks at that place.
Besides, I’d always wanted to see where my mom grew up.
And I hoped I could reconcile the two families. ”
“That’s a big thing to do,” Tim said. “Coming all the way across the country, sight unseen, to try to befriend people who had never been friendly to you. You’ve got grit.”
Put like that, it made Maria sound like a lot more of a hero than she was. “Well,” she said, “actually, if you want the whole truth—I was having a pretty crummy time back home. Besides the job troubles, my boyfriend broke up with me and started dating somebody else right afterward.”
Tim’s brow furrowed.
“Before deciding to come here, I ran into him at the gas station, and he laughed at me when he found out where I was working,” Maria said. “As if I didn’t feel bad enough, taking the awful job at the pizza place after my nice job at the Virginian.”
“He sounds like a jerk,” Tim said. “He broke up with you?”
“Yeah.” Maria looked down at her feet. “He didn’t give much reason. He’d met this other coworker, and he must have liked her better. He must not have liked me enough and lost interest. But he always seemed so trustworthy before, in culinary school.”
She was definitely oversharing. How did she keep blurting things to Tim that she hadn’t meant to tell him?
“I’m sorry.” Tim crossed his arms. “That’s tough. But it sounds like you’re lucky to be rid of him.”
“I hope so,” Maria said. “It’s just—it’s hard to trust people now, you know? After I trusted him for so long, he just dumped me.”
“What a loser!” Tim’s eyebrows lowered. “There are trustworthy people out there. You can find them.”
“I tell myself that,” Maria said, “but I guess I’m not the best at reading people.”
Something about Tim’s expression, serious and kind, made Maria’s pulse thump oddly. An idea struck her, and she kicked water in Tim’s direction. “You’re taking advantage of this truth or dare thing to learn all my psychological hang-ups. Are you gonna do a dare again, or will you do truth?”
Tim splashed water back at her. “Truth.”
“Do you know who the Montana Rider really is?”
Tim’s face was inscrutable. “Yes.”
Her heart leaped. She’d suspected he knew. “Can you tell me his name?”
Tim stiffened. “Not even in a game of truth or dare.”
Crushed. “Rats,” Maria said. “Well, it doesn’t matter. I probably won’t see him again. He tells me not to go out after dark.”
“That’s good advice, you know,” Tim said. “Especially for Savannah, but also for you.”
“I know,” Maria said. “I just wish—”