"Chasing after You"
Chapter 2

When the sun rose the next morning, Beth had already been awake for an hour. She'd finished the Schwartz and Meyer paperwork she'd brought with her from Utah and was now pouring over the ranch's financials. While the property brought in millions of dollars each year, it also maintained a huge operating cost; Paradise Valley was facing exponential growth and her father was terrified that they wouldn't be able to keep up with rising expenses. Fortunately, it was Saturday, so Bob wouldn't expect to hear from her until Monday, which meant she only had the ranch to worry about for now. She'd finished an uneventful breakfast with John and was now enjoying a third cup of coffee and a cigarette on the porch.

The door opened and her elder brother Jamie came outside, rubbing his eyes. "Well if it isn't bachelor number two," Beth remarked.

"Still smoking, I see," he retorted.

"Yeah, well, the women in this family don't tend to live much past forty anyways, so I figure I might as well enjoy myself." She looked him over- he wasn't dressed and his hair looked like he'd just rolled out of bed. "Up at the crack of 9:30, I see; dressed to take on the world. You missed breakfast." He started saying something about it being Saturday, but Beth was in no mood to entertain him. She took one last drag from her cigarette before flicking the ash at his feet before going back inside.

She planned to go into town for a few things and was about to get ready to leave when she heard footsteps in the hall outside of her room. She looked out, expecting to see Jamie again, but found Rip heading towards her father's study instead. "He's not here," she said, leaning against the door frame.

Rip smiled at the sound of her voice and turned around. "You're up early," he commented.

"I don't really sleep," she replied, coming closer down the hall towards him.

"Yeah, well, they say spiders don't." To anyone else, his comment probably would've been insulting, but to Beth, it was like foreplay. She untied the bathrobe she was wearing and it fell open where Rip could see a strip of her porcelain skin, the curve of her breast just visible.

He turned his head away with an uncomfortable sniff. "What're you doing?"

"Adjusting my web," she replied. She could see the indecision on his face, but she knew that he wanted her. "Everything doesn't have to be so damn complicated, you know. You can turn around and walk back down that hall or you can fuck me."

You ruin it every time! Her words hurt and, while it hadn't seemed like much of a choice at the time, Rip figured walking away would have been the better bet. He should've known better than to ask her to a music festival, too. Not only had she laughed at him, but she'd also insulted the size of his manhood before marching away. He'd spent years trying to figure Beth out and he'd thought there was something between them the night before, but he should've known that it wouldn't last…

Fuck! Beth thought to herself as she slunk back to her bedroom. Why? She wasn't sure if she was asking herself why she'd reacted like she had or if she was trying to figure out why he'd asked her to a music festival in the first place. But she knew why he'd asked her out- it was the same reason he'd been asking her out for the last 20 years. The better question might be why she always said no, but that was a question for another day. For now, she had other things to worry about.

Saturdays on the ranch had a tendency to be more laid back than weekdays, but today Rip was looking for things to do. He'd found a few hour's solace in mucking the horse stalls and was now about to head home for the afternoon, thinking a cold beer might do him some good. As he walked out of the barn, he noticed someone leaning against a nearby fence- Beth. "I don't have the energy for you today," he said without stopping.

"Never thought of energy as something you lacked," Beth replied. He stopped and turned back to her. "Take me anywhere but a music festival," she demanded.

"Beth, I thought you liked music. That's why I suggested it." He let out an exasperated sigh and watched her come closer, noticing the subtle sway of her hips as she approached.

"Still like music, it's the festival part that bothers me. Pick something more suited to my personality." She looked up at him expectantly, waiting for a suggestion.

He thought for a minute. "You wanna go get drunk and watch some wolves kill an elk in the park?"

Beth pushed past him. "I'll drive," she called over her shoulder.

After a quick stop at Rip's cabin for a bottle of whiskey, they were in her car and ready to go. "Where we headin'?" she asked him. Rip told her the way, but otherwise the ride was quiet. They reached their spot fairly soon and Beth turned her car towards the clearing. There were three or four wolves circling and she could just make out the elk carcass in the tall grass. One of the wolves looked up at them and yipped before turning back to its meal.

Beth picked up the whiskey bottle and took a long swig before handing it to Rip. "Ya know, I've done some morbid shit on a first date, but this one takes the cake, Rip," she said with a giggle.

He laughed, too. "This is far from our first date, Beth."

"Statute of limitations on our first date ran out years ago." She looked at him and smiled slightly, thinking back to Salt Lake and how the city seemed like eons ago. "When something dies in the city, it's roped off, zipped up in a bag, and hauled away before anyone can bother to notice." She watched as another wolf emerged from the brush, but Rip had barely taken his eyes off of her.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but everything you see is gonna die one day."

Beth turned to him and brushed her hand against his cheek, enjoying the familiar feeling of his beard under her fingertips. "You got old," she said simply.

"Yeah?" he murmured, "God, you haven't aged a day. Shit, you might just cheat death yet."

Their eyes met and Rip thought she was about to kiss him when she suddenly did the last thing he'd expect- she jumped out of the car and began running at the wolves, screaming at the top of her lungs. In a flash, he was chasing after her, breathing heavily, and the wolves dispersed. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He had his hands on his knees and was trying to catch his breath.

"Cheatin' death, like you said." She said it as though running at a pack of wolves was the most natural thing in the world.

"You're the craziest person I've met in my life, you know that?"

Beth's expression turned solemn. "It's only the things that I love that die, Rip, never me."

"Yeah?" he asked, unsure where she was going

"Come to think of it, I'm surprised you're still standing. Guess God isn't done punishing you either." With that, she took another long swig of whiskey and headed back to the car.

Only the things that I love die. Beth was an enigma, a mystery that Rip had given up solving years ago, but her comment hung with him long after they'd said goodnight. In not so many words, she'd said exactly what he'd been hoping to hear from her for years. Come to think of it, I'm surprised you're still standing.

Her life had been hard and it had made her become even harder. While most of the world only saw the façade she wanted them to see, Rip knew that there was something more underneath her layers. There was a kind, vulnerable woman somewhere deep inside her and he knew he only had to coax her out. He'd waited this long for her and he was determined to be there when she was ready for him, however long that might take.