“Before we do anything, I want to loop your mom in on this.”
“Wendy Dalton’s your mother? That explains a lot.”
Sawyer shot Danny a look and Danny waved him off. “I only meant that Candace had done her research. Everyone in the industry knew that Gina had hired Dalton and Associates to manage the crisis. Candace must’ve traced Wendy to you and the ranch and made an educated guess that it was where Gina had gone to lie low. Then sent that wormy photographer to check it out and drum up more trouble.”
So it hadn’t been Tiffany who’d blown the whistle after all.
“How did you wind up talking to the photographer?” Sawyer asked.
“He approached me and threatened to divulge Gina’s hideout if I didn’t pay him five-thousand dollars.” He addressed Gina: “I tried to contact you about it but you wouldn’t take my calls.”
“Did you pay him?” Jace asked.
“No, but I told him I’d have him arrested for blackmail. Frankly, I don’t think he feared my threat.”
It was another piece of the puzzle. They still had the man’s memory card and could use the pictures to prove that he’d been to the ranch. It wouldn’t take too much work to connect him to Candace. More damning evidence against her.
Sawyer asked Danny to retell the entire story. This time while Sawyer taped it on his phone. An hour later he sent the recording to his mother and sent Danny to the nearest motel.
It had been one crazy day.
“I can’t imagine that this won’t clear you,” Sawyer said as he walked her home. “When the news breaks about what a scheming liar Candace is, ChefAid will rescind their offer to her and come running back to you. You could probably jack them up for more money.”
Gina laughed, though none of it was funny. “I don’t know about that.” She wasn’t even sure she still wanted to represent a company that had so easily dumped her after she’d put her heart and soul into promoting its products. From now on, she planned to be more discriminating about the brands she represented.
She thought about today, slinging hash at the coffee shop and her gut told her that in a similar situation Laney would’ve stood by her. The Daltons sure had. They had never once wavered in their loyalty. The knowledge of that put a lump in her throat.
“This will be a big story. Probably even bigger than the original story.”
“You would know.” She flashed a weak smile. The idea of facing the press all over again, even if it was to absolve herself, was exhausting. If she could take a long nap while the true story came out and wake up when it was over, she would.
“You going home soon, huh?”
She wondered if she’d heard regret in his voice or had she’d imagined it? Gina remembered his earlier words.
“Besides the fact that I wasn’t looking for a relationship, our lives don’t mesh. Not even a little.”
She quickly replied, “Yes. I’ll need to be hands-on to clean up the mess Candace made.”
They’d arrived at the cabin and loitered on the front porch. She wanted so badly for him to come inside. To stay the night.
“I don’t know how I can ever thank you for…Danny. The questions, the recording, the way you handled it. If it had been left to me I would’ve driven to Candace’s house and strangled her.”
Sawyer’s lips curved up. “Probably not a good idea. Jace would’ve had to arrest you.”
Under the porch light, they held each other’s gaze, then he looked away. The break in contact left her bereft and a sudden wave of loneliness wrapped around her like a shroud of gray.
Was this what life was like before Sawyer?
She forced herself to believe that as soon as she got back to her old surroundings and buried herself in work, the melancholy would dissipate.
“I guess this is it.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and rocked on his heels.
The air was still, not even a light breeze. There was only the sound of the creek and the stridulating of crickets while she deliberated on whether to beg him to come inside. One last time together before saying good-bye.
But she could see in his deep blue eyes that he’d already cut the cord and that she’d only humiliate herself.
“I’m falling for you and I don’t like it,”he’d told her.
