Well, she didn’t like falling, either. She abhorred the vulnerable way it made her feel. It was easier to be alone, to have only herself to disappoint.
“I guess so,” she responded and started to say she hoped they’d stay in touch but stopped herself. She didn’t want to go through this each and every time they saw each other.
“You left a bunch of cooking stuff at my house. I could bring it by in the morning, leave it on your porch.”
“Consider it my gift to you. Something to go with your mother’s All-Clad pots.”
He gave an imperceptible nod. “Safe travels then.”
She watched him cross the field in the dark, her heart breaking a little piece at a time, and went inside.
Chapter 21
It was exactly how Sawyer predicted it would be. Even theLos Angeles Timeshad picked up the story about Candace Clay’s revenge publicity hoax. It was all the morning shows could talk about.
Candace would probably never work again. If she had any hope of redeeming herself, she’d take a page out of the Wendy Dalton playbook and announce that she was checking herself into rehab and later write an apologetic autobiography.
The public had done a 180 on Gina and she was getting offers far and wide.
Purina wanted her to have her own dog food line,Saturday Night Liveasked her to host and ChefAid had come crawling back with their tail tucked between their legs. Sawyer had no idea whether Gina had agreed to take the company back, but she could probably demand her price.
As far as her show, she was in negotiations for two more seasons and was the top contender to host a new FoodFlicks reality show: Home cooks competing to make the best dish out of random pantry staples or some such nonsense.
Sawyer had ascertained all of this information from his mother. It had been two weeks and he hadn’t heard a word from Gina.
“Why don’t you call her?” Cash had offered as if Sawyer hadn’t thought of it himself. At least a dozen times he’d started to dial her number and hung up before her phone rang.
She was a star again, which was all she’d ever wanted. And he was free to continue his nomad’s life as a reporter. Different lanes, he reminded himself.
“Wake up.” Jace snapped his finger in Sawyer’s face. “Where’d you go?”
“I was just thinking about my new assignment,” Sawyer lied. “What? What did I miss?”
“Rumor is Randy’s got another buyer, someone other than Mitch.” Jace hung his arms over the corral fence railing while Cash threw a couple of flakes of hay to the horses. It was Sunday and they could linger over their morning ritual. “Word is that Mitch tried to lowball him and in the eleventh hour someone else swooped in.”
“Must’ve been another developer to sell that fast.” Sawyer assumed it was a company from Sacramento or the Bay Area, which might be even worse. Mitch was at least local and would probably make mild concessions on the scope of the project to appease the neighbors.
“I was at the coffee shop yesterday and no one seemed to know anything about it,” Cash said.
Sawyer nudged his head at Jace. “Who’s your source?”
“Charlie knows the real estate agent. She’s bought a couple of pieces from the store and told Charlie there was someone else, someone with deep pockets. That’s all I’ve got. But isn’t it a public record?”
Nodding, Sawyer leaned against the side of the barn. “But not until it closes escrow and even then the buyer could’ve used an obscure company name.” He shrugged. “But how long can it stay secret in this town? I suspect that within the next couple of days everyone will be talking about it.”
He puffed out a breath in the still air. The sale should’ve set him off, but his mind was elsewhere these days.
“If it was Mitch, the whole world would’ve known about it by now.” Cash wiped his hands on his jeans and joined them at the fence. “The sumbitch would’ve gloated. If not him, Mercedes would’ve screamed it from the rooftop of Reynolds Construction. I’ve never met a more devoted secretary. You’d think the woman was his mother. Or lover.”
“No one will be gloating when the project comes up on the city council agenda and I go to the meeting and object to it. I’ll get every damn neighbor to come with me.”
The folks around here would walk through fire for Jace, Sawyer had no doubt about that. Jace wasn’t just the sheriff, he was a friend to everyone in the county. But even so, he was no match for the machine.
“As soon as we find out we’ll come up with a plan,” Sawyer said. “Until then there’s not a whole lot we can do about it.”
Jace gave Sawyer a once-over. “You look like shit.” Sawyer hadn’t been sleeping well. “Charlie says Gina’s back on top, kicking ass and taking names.”
“They’ve been talking?” A wave of jealousy hit him, which was ridiculous. He was happy Gina and Charlie were friends. Aubrey too. The three women had gotten tight while Gina lived on the ranch. He would’ve lost respect for Gina if she’d thrown them over once she’d reclaimed her supernova status.
