CHAPTER 6
MORGAN
It had been two days since I’d jumped into a hole in the ice in Lake Bliss, and I still felt chilled to the bone. Even though I’d had a cup of coffee before I left home, the Merc looked too good to pass by this morning. The warm light filtering through the front window called to me, and I pulled into a spot right in front. I could be a few minutes late to work. Coffee wasn’t just a craving this morning. It was triage.
The scent of sugar, dark roast, and something buttery greeted me as I entered. A bell chimed softly behind me as the door swung shut, and a few heads turned to see who had come in from the cold. Folks in Mustang Mountain didn’t stare outright but they noticed everything.
Ruby stood behind the back counter, her sleeves rolled up, hair pinned back, eyes sharp as she jotted something down on a notebook. She looked up as I approached and gave me a knowing smile.
“Well,” she said, setting the pen aside. “If it isn’t the woman everyone’s pretending not to talk about.”
I paused mid-step. “Good morning to you too.”
She poured coffee without asking and slid the mug across the counter. “You look cold.”
“I am.” The heat from the mug warmed my fingers as wrapped my hands around it. “I’m pretty sure jumping into that lake ruined me. Or maybe I’ve been spending too much time out on the ridge.”
“With Slade.” Ruby’s eyes sparkled.
I took a quick sip of coffee before I answered. “Yes.”
She hummed, her eyes flicking toward the windows, like she could see the Kincaid ranch from here if she wanted to. “That explains the tension.”
“Is it really that obvious?” I huffed out a quiet laugh.
“Honey, this town can smell unresolved conflict from a mile away. Especially when it involves a Kincaid.”
I took another sip and tried not to let that name do anything to my pulse. It did anyway. Slade Kincaid had a way of lingering under my skin…part irritation, part heat, part something I didn’t know how to define yet.
“Since I’m already under examination,” I said, “maybe you can help me understand something.”
Ruby’s brows lifted. “Such as?”
“What’s the real story with the Kincaids?” I slid onto a stool at the counter. “Not the version everyone wants me to believe, but the truth.”
Ruby didn’t answer right away. She wiped the counter slowly, like she was deciding how much truth I could handle.
“They’re builders,” she said. “They put up fence lines. Grow herds. And they’ve built up quite a reputation. They don’t do anything halfway. Not even their mistakes.”
“And Slade?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Her mouth twitched. “Slade’s the one everyone decided was trouble before he ever decided anything himself.”
“I get that.” Something in my chest tightened and the urge to defend him surprised me. I barely even knew man. Didn’t mean I couldn’t empathize though. We might have more in common than I thought.
“Do you?” Ruby studied me, her gaze too sharp to miss the shift in my voice.
I hesitated. Then I nodded once. “More than you might think.”
She refilled my mug without asking. “Orville told me you lived in Denver before you came to Mustang Mountain.”
“That’s right,” I replied. “I worked on a planning team in one of the suburbs.”
“And your family?” she asked casually, like she was asking about the weather.
I’d heard people mumble about my dad buying my job in Mustang Mountain, though no one had been brave enough to ask me about it outright.
“They’re successful and ambitious,” I said. “And very involved in each other’s lives.”
