The bell rang as Summer walked out. Dylan’s gaze followed, lingered a moment, before he glanced away. Jenny wondered if he had any interest in her friend, or if Summer’s attraction was completely one-sided.
Jenny turned to her brother. “So, what are you doing in town?”
“My shift starts tomorrow. Eight days on before I’m off again. I thought I’d check on you before I went to work.” Dylan was a firefighter in Prescott, a larger town less than an hour’s drive away. Jenny worried about him. Fighting fires was a dangerous occupation. She took comfort in knowing he was very good at his job.
“You didn’t have to do that, but I’m always glad to see you.”
They talked for a while, but Jenny had work to do, and Dylan had begun to glance at his watch. “I better get going.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
Her brother walked out the door, ringing the bell once more. He was such a stand-up guy, so different from Richard, her abusive, cheating, rat bastard ex-husband.
Looking forward to a short lunch with Summer, Jenny headed to her small office in the rear of the lobby.
CHAPTER THREE
JENNY SAT WITHSUMMER AT A TABLE IN THE SALOON, EATING AMiner’s Burger and Fire-in-the-Hole Fries, the specialty of the house, along with a cup of Smelter Soup.
The bar menu was limited—just burgers, sandwiches, salads, and pizza, which came frozen, but, with a few extras, actually tasted very good. There were miscellaneous appetizers, like fried mozzarella, onion rings, and chicken wings. Just enough to keep the customers happy.
It was the bar that made most of the money.
“So how’s everything going?” Summer asked. She’d been living in Jerome since her mother bought the Butterfly Boutique ten years ago, and the two had moved into an apartment upstairs.
“This business is never easy,” Jenny said. “But I’m dealing. It’s harder now that Uncle Charlie’s gone and I’m on my own.”
Summer picked up a fry, dabbed it in a blob of ketchup, and popped it into her mouth. “At least you have your brother.” She ate another fry. “He looks great, by the way. What’s he doing these days?”
Jenny smiled. “Dylan always looks good, and if that’s a subtle way of asking if he’s seeing anyone, the answer is no one serious. Not that I know of, at any rate.”
“Think there’s any chance he would ever ask me out?”
“I don’t know. I think he’d like you if he got to know you, but he’s stubborn. He’d be pissed if I tried to interfere in his love life.”
Summer sighed, and both of them dug into their burgers. Jenny was sipping a Diet Coke when she spotted someone pushing through the old batwing doors at the entrance.
“Speaking of good-looking,” Summer said, “check out the guy who just walked in.”
Jenny’s attention fixed on the door. The man was at least six-three, with a pair of biceps bulging from the sleeves of a black T-shirt snug enough to reveal a set of shoulders any linebacker would envy and a heavily muscled chest.
“That’s Cain Barrett,” Jenny said. “He’s the new owner of the Grandview Hotel.”
“I’ve heard about him, but I’ve never seen him. Wow.” She sighed. “Just wow.”
Jenny smiled. “Can’t argue with that.”
“I heard he’s doing a major remodel over there.”
Jenny nodded and sipped her Coke. “Dylan said he went to Mingus High School, same as I did, but he was older. He dropped out for a couple of years, came back and graduated, then left town. I guess he was just too far ahead for me to remember him.”
Dylan had also told her the men in the Barrett family had been miners since the early nineteen hundreds. Rumor was, they were ruffians, outlaws, and criminals. Dylan said Cain had been extremely poor as a kid, but apparently that had changed. Cain Barrett was now the owner of Barrett Enterprises, a company worth millions.
The Grandview remodel was well underway when Cain had begun showing up in the bar. Occasionally, he would come in with the job foreman or one of the guys on the construction crew. Once in a while, he came alone and sat at the bar. One of the locals told her he had dated an army of glamorous women, but he had never married.
“Oh, my God,” Summer hissed. “He’s coming over here.”
Jenny sat up a little straighter, wishing she weren’t wearing the red bandana that tied up her hair in a ponytail. Not that she was interested. After her cheating husband and her ugly divorce, men were off-limits.
