How had he ever let her go? It was as if the bullet he’d taken months ago had rattled his brain and frozen his heart. How could he have pushed her away for good? He wanted Goldie back more than he wanted his next breath, but she no longer trusted him, no longer could stand the sight of him and he didn’t blame her. He’d put her through hell and now she would never forgive him.
Chapter Ten
Donovan didn’t know exactly what had happened as he saw the sheriff leaving the back of the café. But the man’s devastated appearance told him how it had ended. Had Max Lander tried to get her back? He hoped not, even though that had been Goldie’s plan and why she’d hired him.
The problem was that leaving wasn’t in the cards right now even if he could bring himself to walk away from Goldie. He worried though that Malcolm didn’t just know where he was, that sending Arnie up here to buy the café was part of some plan. If so, Goldie was now in the middle of whatever the crime boss was up to.
With everything that was going on, Donovan felt it was a sure sign he should move on. But he was too short on funds even if he hadn’t wanted to see how this ended with the former café owner once she got her money from the sale. Maybe he could still talk her into taking off to some island in the tropics for a while.
As he pushed open the back door of the café, he spotted Goldie slumped on the floor at the end of the hallway and rushed to her. Dropping down beside her, he took her in his arms. At first, she resisted before melting into his embrace in tears. He smoothed back her long hair, the tendrils that had come loose damp, brushing it aside so he could look into her eyes. She really was beautiful in an innocent, fresh way that he wasn’t used to.
For a moment, he was filled with a need to make her happy, to get her what she wanted more than anything. Even if it was thatdamned sheriff. Max was the one who should be holding her. The damned fool didn’t deserve her.
He thought about the man he’d seen in the alley. The sheriff had seemed wrecked. So what was keeping them apart? Goldie seemed to believe that love could heal whatever was wrong between them. Whatever demons were holding the sheriff back, they were strong. What kind of love would it take to overcome them? Not any kind of love Donovan had ever run across.
“I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about it,” he whispered after her sobs had stopped.
She straightened, wiped at her tears and lifted her chin defiantly. “Good guess.” As she began to struggle to get to her feet, he helped her up, rising with her, holding her.
“I’m here for you,” he said and saw something flash in her eyes. For the first time, he worried about what the sheriff had said to her to upset her this much. He had a sudden fear that it’d been something about him.
“This isn’t working,” she said, drawing up to her full height. She let out a nervous laugh. “I have no idea what I was thinking when I contacted you.” Her gaze refused to meet his. He felt his stomach drop.
“Let me guess. I saw the sheriff leaving. He was here about me, wasn’t he?” He saw the answer as she still couldn’t hold his gaze. “What did he tell you?”
She swallowed before she met his eyes again. “Apparently I took you away from your girlfriend, Lolly Mandeville, down in Laramie?”
He chuckled. “Lolly and I are just old friends.” It wasn’t a bald-faced lie. Had he grown up in Laramie it might have been true.
Goldie didn’t look convinced. Maybe he didn’t lie as well as he thought he did, he realized.
“Hey, you’re missing the point here. The sheriff checked into me?” he continued. “He’s obviously jealous, and wasn’t that the point of this?” He saw her hesitate. “Did he also tell you that I come from a wealthy family, which is why I’m free to do whatever I want rather than hold down a boring job?” He didn’t mention that the old wealth had evaporated over the years. “I’m sure that must look suspicious too.”
“Is there any reason Malcolm Mandeville might be interested in Dry Gulch?”
Donovan was taken aback for a moment. The sheriff had figured it all out? Maybe the man wasn’t as clueless as Donovan had thought—at least about his job. “Are you kidding?” He shook his head. “What makes you think Mandeville is interested in Dry Gulch?”
“Both you and Arnie show up here.”
“Well, you know what I’m doing here. As for Arnie, I heard that he’s always dreamed of owning his own café in a small town.”
“Did Malcolm give him the money?”
“I wouldn’t know, but he might have loaned it to him. No matter what your sheriff thinks about Malcolm, he’s a pretty generous guy.” That was a lie, but he could see that Goldie wanted to believe it.
He wondered himself how Arnie had heard about the café coming up for sale. It was suspicious that Arnie had shown up after Donovan had come here. It would be just like Lolly or her father to have him followed. He wouldn’t put anything past either one of them.
Donovan saw Goldie weaken. She wasn’t totally buying his story, but he could see that she wanted to.
“But you did recognize him when you saw him on the street that day, right?”
“It took me a while,” he said. “I didn’t really know him. He was cooking at the ranch the last time I was there.”
She shook her head. “It’s just strange that you’re both from the same place, know the same people.”
“Not so strange,” Donovan said, smiling. “While Arnie is apparently going to make Dry Gulch his home, I’m just here temporarily, at your request, so I can’t imagine the two of us have anything more in common than Laramie.”
“And the Mandevilles.”
