“Ashley? Are you in here?”
“I’m in the loft,” she yelled from above him.
Matthew stood in front of the ladder. “What are you doing up there?”
“Feeding the cats.”
He hauled himself up the ladder and stared at her. She was sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded by their six barn cats. Grouchy sat on her lap, purring like a freight train.
“You’ve made a friend.”
She tickled Grouchy under his chin. “He’s a good boy.”
Matthew could have sworn the old cat grinned. “Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks.”
Seeing Ashley sit cross-legged with straw in her hair made him wish for a lot of things that would never happen. He studied the line of her jaw, the way her mouth tilted into a smile when Grouchy licked her hand. She was as much at home on his family’s ranch as he was, only she refused to admit it.
“Why didn’t you fly back to New York with Jasmine in her private jet?”
“Too risky. If someone took a photo of us, Congressman Welsh would know something was going on.”
He nodded and looked through the loft window. From this height, the land looked like a patchwork quilt. The early evening light painted the ranch in splashes of purple and deep green. In the distance, the Bridger Range rose and fell, shrouded in a blanket of shadows and mystery.
Ashley patted Tabitha, their oldest barn cat. “I’m going to miss your cats. They’ve all got different personalities.”
He watched Hoppy push Gonzo out of the way of the grits. “Some are bossier than others. I’m surprised you’re up here. I thought you didn’t like heights.”
“I don’t, but I force myself to come up here each day. I might be able to stand on the roof of my apartment building when I get home.”
“What’s on the roof?”
“A garden. Mrs. Moretti and Mr. Stokes live in my apartment building. They decided to make a rooftop garden last year. Up until now, I’ve only seen photos of their flowers and shrubs. When I see the plants in real life, I’ll tell them it was because of your barn cats.”
The happiness on Ashley’s face was almost enough to make him forget she was leaving. She was more content than she’d been all week. In some strange way, it felt as though the last three years had never happened.
Sissy and Spinach, his twin cats, jumped off a hay bale. He moved his legs as they ran toward their dinner. “I’m surprised Jasmine agreed to your plan.”
Ashley had convinced Jasmine that the only way she would come out unscathed from what Congressman Welsh had done, was to tell everyone her side of the story.
They’d spent more than an hour together, talking about The Reaching High Foundation and Congressman Welsh’s involvement in its activities.
Ashley lifted Grouchy off her lap and moved across to the cat bowls. “Jasmine wasn’t kidding when she said the non-profits she manages are important to her. Everyone assumes she’s another daddy’s-little-rich-girl, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. She knows what she’s talking about when it comes to business.”
Matthew frowned. “She wasn’t very clever when it came to Congressman Welsh.”
“I’ve met him at a couple of charity events. He’s a charmer. More people than Jasmine were sucked into believing his stories. The sad thing is that his fraud would have gone unnoticed if he’d won the mayoral election. Over time, his new salary would have more than covered the money he stole. No one would have known what he’d done.”
“Has Jason called you with the results of the search warrant?”
Ashley sighed. “Not yet.”
“What are you going to do with the information Jasmine gave you?”
“I’ll write a follow-up story, then send a copy of the interview to the police. I hope Jasmine’s charities survive what’s happened.”
Tabitha rubbed against Matthew’s leg. He absently patted her head. “You’re getting more and more involved in this story.”
