Maybe it was better to forget about Donovan Cole. She’d gotten a text this morning from her lover. He wanted to see her. “I’m going out of town for a while,” she told Bobby now.
“Think that’s a good idea, in your condition and all?”
She looked around to make sure no one was within hearing distance before she said, “I’m pregnant, Bobby, not incapacitated.” She hated that he’d found out by accident. Her fault. She’d been careless and Bobby had always been nosy. He’d overheard a phone call with a friend, but fortunately, he didn’t know everything.
“Is this about Donovan? Because if it is, I think—”
“No one cares what you think,” she snapped. But she worried because she felt as if her father had been looking at her suspiciously lately, even though she wasn’t showing yet. “It’s not about Donovan, okay?”
Bobby nodded. He could be so gullible. “Then who’s the father of the baby?”
“It’s not Donovan’s.” That much was true. As she began to show, she’d planned to let everyone think it was his, Donovan being the lesser of two evils when it came to her family. But now the bastard had run out on her.
“Well, whoever’s it is,” her brother said, “they’re in big trouble once Dad finds out.”
Lolly groaned inwardly, thinking that Bobby had no idea how much trouble there would be if that happened. “But we aren’t going to tell him, right?” Unfortunately, she didn’t trust her brother to keep his mouth shut and said as much.
He pushed away his uneaten food and looked across the table at her. “Going to be hard to keep it a secret, won’t it, as the baby grows?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Bobby sighed and got to his feet. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
She hoped so too, she thought as her hand went protectively to her only slightly rounded stomach. Damn Donovan for taking off. He must have somehow figured out that she was pregnant and thought she was going to tell her father it was his. That’s exactly what she’d planned to do to buy herself time. That she’d been having second thoughts was putting it mildly. Not about the baby, but about the baby’s daddy.
Frustrated and growing concerned about her future, she thought about finding Donovan. He didn’t know who he wasdealing with, she told herself. No one walked out on Lolly Mandeville and lived to ever tell about it.
MAX, LIKE EVERYONEelse in town, heard about the sale. The for-sale sign had come down from the front window of the café with a finality that shook him to the core. Was this really happening?
Josie had called to tell him that Goldie would be signing the papers tonight at the hotel. “Max, you know this isn’t what she wants.”
“We don’t always get what we want,” he’d said, assuring himself that Goldie would back out at the last moment. She couldn’t sell her café. Not the woman he’d known since they were teenagers. Goldie’s had been her dream. He’d watched her build it with sweat and tears and…love. It was the love that had touched him most.
Max had never felt that kind of purpose himself, let alone experienced that kind of drive. He’d only become an officer of the law because the ones he’d met in his youth had let him down so badly. He couldn’t stand the thought of boys like him and his brother being abandoned by law enforcement when they needed it so desperately. He would be the sheriff he’d needed all those years ago.
But that was also why he’d made the decision not to get back together with Goldie. He’d thought she could do better. But now she was selling the café. He felt sick. This was his fault. That she would give up the café of her heart… He felt as heartbroken as he knew she must be.
Just when he thought his day couldn’t get any worse, he heard about the kiss that apparently everyone had either witnessed or already heard about between Donovan and Goldie this morning at the café.
Goldie was moving on. But with Donovan Cole? Surely, she wasn’t planning to leave town with him now that the café was going to be sold.
How could he stand back and let that happen knowing there was a connection between the man and the Mandeville crime family, but not knowing the extent of that connection? He couldn’t.
GOLDIE NEVER CLOSEDthe café early, but she did today. She felt so confused and upset with her big decision to sell that she had to talk to her friend.
Josie took one look at her and hurriedly led her into her office. “I’d ask if you were all right, but instead I’ll open the wine,” she said, motioning her onto the couch. “Then I want to hear about this kiss everyone is talking about.”
“Please don’t.” Goldie raised her hand to stop her. “It was just a kiss,” she lied as she dropped into her spot on the couch.
Her friend shot her a look, daring her to keep lying.
“Okay, I felt something, a lot of something. I never thought I could feel that way with another man, but it turns out I can.”
“That’s good,” Josie said quickly. “If things don’t work out with Max… Don’t cry.”
Goldie wiped at her eyes. “That’s the thing. I did all this because I was so certain that he was still in love with me and that once he thought he might lose me, he’d stop me from selling the café, stop me from leaving town, just stop me.” She shook her head and sniffed. “It’s not working.”
“The good news is that you’ll soon be rich,” Josie said as she handed Goldie a glass of wine and plopped down on the other end of the couch. “That’s something, right?”
