GOLDIE HADN’T THOUGHTthe café would sell right away—maybe not ever. To her surprise, she began getting calls at once from all over the Northwest—even at what she thought was a ridiculouslyhigh asking price. Her Realtor had assured her that the café was worth it. Goldie was certainly getting a lot of interest. She had prospective buyers on their way from as far away as Minot, North Dakota, and Napa, Idaho.
People had heard about Dry Gulch because of the resort Cordell had started when he’d reopened the hotel. She’d seen for herself his plans behind the hotel with the mineral water pools and the cabins and summer horseback rides. In the winter, he would rent snowmobiles. He was even talking about maybe a small ski area in the mountains outside of town. Cordell’s dreams for the town were all coming true, and now Goldie was going to benefit from it—if she really did sell the café.
More and more it looked as if it was going to happen, and she felt herself panicking. Josie assured her that it could be a good thing given how much the place was worth. It shocked her. She’d started the small diner-style café from scratch and on a shoestring.
If she invested the money from the sale wisely, she’d never have to work again. That thought left her wondering what she would do with her days. She’d always worked from the time she could get babysitting jobs to waitressing at the former café in town before it closed, and she opened Goldie’s.
Looking up from the latest phone call inquiring about the café, she spotted the sheriff standing across the street. She recognized both Max’s stance and the set of his shoulders, not to mention the expression on his face. He’d seen the for-sale sign, she thought with both satisfaction and a deep sadness. Did he know how hard this was going to be for her, to give up her “baby”? Was she really going through with this? What if Max didn’t care? How far was she willing to go with what had really been a wild, hare-brained dare?
She couldn’t stand the thought of leaving Dry Gulch, but how could she stay if her attempts to make Sheriff Max Lander admithis true feelings for her failed? How could she leave the place that had always been her home? Then again, how could she stay when she couldn’t help seeing Max most days—even from a distance?
But it was the big question that haunted her. What if she was wrong and Max no longer loved her, as he apparently wanted her to believe?
MAX HADN’T BEENable to sleep last night after seeing that damned sign in Goldie’s café window. Like many nights, he had the nightmares. Even after all these years, they felt so real that he often awoke screaming. Not that he didn’t still live them in the daylight. The memories haunted him, making him feel scared, unworthy and vulnerable, even though his abusive so-called stepfather was now dead.
“You have your mother’s stubborn streak,” Roger Grimes hissed at him in the nightmares as the big mean man pulled off his belt and lurched drunkenly toward him. Grimes had the belt strap gripped in his big rough hands, the heavy silver buckle dangling as he began swinging, determined to beat the young Max until he was bloody.
Then, in his drunken rage, Grimes would look around for Max’s little brother, Cordell. Their mother would hide in her bedroom as Max crawled after Grimes, knowing that trying to stop him from beating his brother would only make it worse for him. But he’d been determined to save Cordell—something Grimes had been equally determined Max wasn’t going to do.
Often that was when Max would wake up screaming, covered in sweat, the scent of fear all around him as he fought to surface from the horror. The nightmare would slither away in the darkness, but it would be back the next time he closed his eyes.
Most nights, he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep for fear his stepfather would be waiting for him. It didn’t matter that finally, one night after their mother had died and Max was older, he’d done the unthinkable. During one of the beatings, which had only gotten worse after the death of their mother, he’d attacked Grimes, killed him, taken Cordell and run.
He’d disposed of the body and his stepfather’s pickup, determined to put the past behind him. He and his brother had found their way to Dry Gulch, where the woman who ran the boarding house had taken them in. Max had found some peace and happiness in the small town—until Grimes had turned up, having survived his injuries and been set on vengeance.
Max felt the scar the bullet hole had left. But that was the least of his injuries. For years in Dry Gulch, no one had known anything about him or his brother. Since Grimes had never married their mother, they hadn’t changed their last name from Lander. Cordell, who was younger than Max, had thrived, doing well in school and sports. As time went on, Cordell had fallen in love with Josie Brand and Max and Goldie had fallen in love too.
Roger Grimes returning from the grave months ago had changed everything. It didn’t matter that the man was now finally truly dead and gone. Cordell had been able to not just put the past behind him, but commit to Josie, buy the hotel and start his dream resort. Max hadn’t been so lucky.
He hadn’t been able to move on. The past had come screaming back, exposing the shameful secret he’d kept all these years and leaving him feeling exposed. Trying to stop Grimes, he’d been shot and nearly died, Goldie had been taken captive and the life he’d carefully built for him and his brother had nearly been destroyed. The entire incident had left him afraid that something bad was still coming for him and always would be.
Goldie deserved better than the likes of him, he told himself. He couldn’t bear the thought of marrying her, having childrenand letting his job bring someone dangerous and destructive like Roger Grimes into their lives ever again.
He loved her too much to do that to her or to those children he used to dream of having with her. Her best friend and his future sister-in-law, Josie, didn’t understand that any more than Goldie did. But Max stuck to his guns. His life would be his job and taking care of this town. As hard as it was, he had to let Goldie go.
IT WAS THEsecond big decision of Goldie Shaw’s life that made her wonder if she’d lost all reason. Still shaky from her first decision, she told herself that she was ready and committed. Time to set the next part of her plan into motion. She couldn’t back out now. She had put the café up for sale. Her Realtor assured her that it was going to sell. It was just a matter of getting the best offer from the interested buyers. It was too late to have second thoughts, she told herself.
She’d thought putting the café up for sale would rattle Max enough that he’d try to stop her. He knew how much Goldie’s meant to her. But that hadn’t happened. So now it was time to move on to plan number two. She needed to make Max jealous, and there wasn’t anyone around who could fit the bill. She had to find a man.
Max still loved her, and she was going to prove it to herself and him as well. She wouldn’t let the past stand in their way. She had to make Max realize exactly what he had to lose if he let her go for good. Wasn’t this why she was doing this?
She’d had no idea how easy it was to rent a man for her purpose, but she’d been wary. How could she know for sure that the man wasn’t dangerous? She couldn’t and maybe that was part of the appeal when Donovan Cole contacted her. He’d saidhe’d seen her post on one of the dating sites and would love the job.
If she could believe the photo he’d posted, he was handsome and apparently available right away since he was just over the border in Wyoming. It was only a matter of negotiating her terms and his price. Still, she hesitated. Was she really doing this?
Most of the time, she felt breathless at even the thought of how far she was willing to take this. But when she thought of Max standing across the street looking at the for-sale sign in the café window and not having the gumption to cross the street and talk to her, she felt her anger bubble up again. In her daydreams he would have made that short walk across the street to the café to at least talk to her if not beg her to change her mind.
Well, he hadn’t. He’d made himself perfectly clear. He didn’t care what she did. So why spend the money to get Donovan Cole to Dry Gulch?
Because selling the café was one thing, but she refused to believe that Max would really let her move on with another man. She was, however, about to find out. Heart in her throat, she hit the return key and let out the breath she’d been holding.
Desperate times required desperate measures she told herself. Once she’d met Donovan Cole face-to-face online and she was sure he was real…well, then she had to move ahead with the plan. She was getting him to Dry Gulch. The worst that could happen was that she’d finally know for certain if Max still loved her. If not, she could move on with her life. As she set her plan in motion, she felt as if she had climbed into a dangerous roller coaster; strapped in for the whole ride, there was no turning back.
The hottie who was possibly going to save her relationship with Max would be in Dry Gulch by noon tomorrow.
Chapter Two
Donovan Cole breathed a sigh of relief after he’d gotten off the video chat. Goldie Shaw wasn’t at all what he’d expected. The woman was gorgeous in a wholesome, innocent way that intrigued him. Blond ponytail, big blue eyes, pretty and shapely, she was a stunner, from what he’d seen of her. Her ex-boyfriend had to be a fool since she seemed far more normal than most of the women he’d known.
