Page 4 of Pitch for You

Rich took a long swig of his beer before speaking again. “She's staying at her mom's old place on the ranch.”

My heart raced at the thought of seeing Sofia so soon. “Yeah, I work tomorrow so I’ll definitely run into her. Am I crazy to shoot my shot?”

Rich laughed. “You’ve been in love with that girl since you were little. Honestly, I don’t think you will open yourself up to anyone else until you know for sure Sofia is not interested.”

What would I say to her? How would she react?

Pondering this day for years, I dreamt of many different outcomes, but hopefully it worked in my favor. Since coming back to Lawson Ridge, and working at the ranch with her mother, I hadn’t dated a single person. I guess I always figured she’d eventually come back. And now she’s here.

I chugged my beer and slammed it down on the table. How the hell was I going to get any sleep tonight? I stood up and said goodbye to Rich and headed back home to toss and turn all night.

The next morning, I woke up early, too anxious to sleep. I paced around my apartment, rehearsing what I wanted to say to Sofia. By the time I had to leave to be at work I was a bundle of nerves. The drive to the ranch was both impossibly long and far too short. As I pulled up to the familiar white farmhouse, my palms began to sweat.

You ready for this?

I climbed out of the truck and made my way up the porch steps. My hand shook as I raised it to knock on the door.This was it. The moment I had been waiting for, dreaming of, for twelve long years.

The door swung open, but it was a little boy. “Hey there, is Sofia here?”

He looks at me with a smile. “She’s out on the ranch working already.”

I looked out over the ranch. “Okay. I’ll find her, then. Thanks, bud.”

She got an early start, which didn’t surprise me. When we were younger, she lived for doing ranch chores. Instead of going out on a search, I had a long list of things that needed to be donetoday anyway. I’d see her eventually. I noticed her a couple of times. Just as beautiful as I remembered, maybe even more so. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun, and she wore a simple t-shirt and jeans.

That was one of the things I loved about her. She didn’t dress fancy or wear a pound of makeup. She always wore jeans and a t-shirt with no makeup and still looked stunning.

Instead of approaching her first, I figured maybe I should let her do it. On her own terms.

3

Sofia

Everything in my life had changed in such a short amount of time. When I got married, as like any other woman, I thought it was my happily ever after, but soon after Max was born, things changed. The man I married wasn’t the same. He didn’t want anything to do with us. A career was more important than his family. After several years, I had enough and made the decision that Max deserved to grow up seeing me happy. My ex-husband didn’t even contest the divorce or ask for any kind of rights toward Max. Not even a month after the divorce, I got the call that my mother passed away.

After lots of crying and regrets fumbling to the surface, Max and I made the move back to Lawson Ridge to take over the ranch. It might not be what I had in mind, but it was my family’s legacy. I wanted to make my mother proud.

Being a single mother was as hard of a job as any and I had to deal with the pressure of the ranch on top of it. Max had been adjusting pretty well to the change of scenery thankfully.

I walked around the property, hair tucked beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Eyes surveyed the vast expanse of land. The soft rustle of leaves in the breeze and the distant lowing of cattle provided a familiar soundtrack to my thoughts. Dressed in jeansand a plaid shirt, with worn leather boots treading through the tall grass, my strong-willed nature was evident in my determined stride.

As I rounded a corner near the old barn, my gaze fell upon a scene that left me momentarily breathless. There was Brett Johnson, my former high school sweetheart. It made me laugh a bit. After everything that happened, he was probably nervous to see me again. His muscular arms strained against the weight of hay bales he was stacking, his short blond hair damp with sweat, and his blue eyes focused intently on his task.

“Momma, who's that?”

“Uh, that's just one of our workers, sweetie,” I replied, as my mind raced with memories of our past together.

“Is he nice?”

“Very nice,” I said, absently tousling his hair, gaze still fixed on Brett. I took a deep breath, attempting to steady myself before making my presence known. “Why don't you head back to the house? I'll catch up with you in a bit.”

“Okay, Momma,” Max skipped off towards the main house, oblivious to the emotional storm brewing within me.

I hesitated, heart pounding, before finally summoning the courage to approach Brett. As I drew closer, he straightened up, sensing my presence and wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Hey there.”

“Hi,” I managed to say, swallowing the lump in my throat. I studied his face, searching for any hint of the boy I once loved so fiercely. “It's been a long time.”

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