His hands swept slowly down her arms until they dropped back to his side. Cadence felt the absence of his touch immediately, but the heat lingered on her skin. Something had changed between them since that kiss last night. She felt drawn to him. “Still on for lunch?” he asked.
“I was planning on it.”
She wanted him to kiss her again, almost as badly as she wanted to start a new life in Sunset Ridge. She’d thought of nothing else since Ed interrupted them on the trail. But Ford took a step back when someone walked by, creating a gap between them.
“Hey, Ford,” cooed a familiar voice Cadence had endured more than enough of for the week. “Cadence, good to see you again.”
“Hi, Tanya.” Cadence forced a smile. She had no reason to be mean to this woman, but something primal churned inside her anyway. She could see the same in Tanya’s dazzling blue eyes. Poor Ford was caught in the middle of a silent territory war.
“I just sent you those listing photos. Check your email when you get a chance?”
“Wow, that was really quick,” Ford said. “Thank you for getting that done.”
Tanya winked at him. “Don’t forget you owe me dinner.” She let her fingers brush his shoulder with leisure before she walked away.
The overpowering scent of Tanya’s perfume smothered Cadence like a gassy fog. Uneasiness churned in her stomach at what Tanya had just implied. A rational person would just ask Ford outright if he agreed to dinner to get those photos taken so quickly. But Cadence didn’t want an answer. Because there wasn’t likely to be one she wanted to hear.
“I’ll see you at the Dipper soon?” Cadence slipped away, hurrying down the street toward an unknown destination before Ford could stop her. She didn’t like the idea of Ford kissing one woman then taking another out for dinner. But then, Ford wasn’t expecting her to stay.
Halfway down the block, she shook away the childishness of her stomping off and turned back. She owed him more than this. Ford had done nothing but help her since the very first day. But before she could start walking, she saw him slip into Mr. Jenkins’ office.
“It’s a small town,” she said quietly to herself. “Nothing more.”
Chapter Twelve
Ford
As Ford lifted the unstable display shelf from the wall and set it on Mr. Jenkins’ desk, he teased, “Got anything for me to sign today?” How the loose screws had held the shelf and its burden of framed photos, he wasn’t sure. Mr. Jenkins was a brilliant man when it came to the law, but handy he was not. It didn’t take a stud finder to determine the screws had been drilled right into drywall.
“Not today.” Mr. Jenkins lifted the receipts Ford brought him off his desk and took a seat. He scanned the receipts for the breakers and the topsoil Ford had picked up earlier that week while Ford secured drywall anchors.
Ford would only have something to signifthe Whitmore sisters signed their own addendum of intent to keep the lodge.
“Ran into Cadence on the way in here, that’s all.”
“You’re fishing.”
“Is it working?”
Mr. Jenkins gave a good chuckle at that, still flipping through the different receipts for flowers, paint, and mulch—everything Ford had collected during the past week for the lodge improvements. Mr. Jenkins couldn’t really tell him how the terms of the will were spelled out. Patty liked things better this way. Kept everyone on the edge of their seats.
Cadence had only confessed her desire to stay last night; not any sort of way to make that happen. It would be too much to hope she had figured it out overnight, and that was why she stopped by. Ford wasn’t even sure she would stay past tomorrow.
“You tell her yet?” Mr. Jenkins asked.
“No.” Telling Cadence about the fifty-thousand-dollar incentive was never part of the plan. Patty was clear about that. It was her choice, and a secret she thought better kept between the two of them. She insisted Cadence would never agree to stay unless it was in her heart, and Ford had no reason to doubt her.
“Better that way, don’t you think?”
The pull to confess the truth grew stronger with each passing day. Feelings had developed when he hadn’t thought it possible to ever care for someone again. There could be no secrets between them now. “I plan to tell her everything tonight.” He hoped with the right romantic mood at the street dance, she might forgive him more easily.
“You’re sure that’s wise?”
What wasn’t Mr. Jenkins telling him? He studied the man from across the desk, wishing he had some of Rilee’s investigative instincts. Maybe then he’d have a clue. But the skills with reading people his sister had inherited from their dad had not been passed on to Ford. “I think she deserves to know the truth.”
“Very well, then.” Mr. Jenkins slid the receipts into a folder and filed it in the cabinet’s top drawer.
Ford secured two new screws inside drywall anchors and rehung the shelf. “Something I should know?”
