“Yeah, there’s that,” her friend agreed.
CARRYING HIS BOOTSand tiptoeing in the dark out of the Mandeville house, Donovan hoped for the best—but expected the worst. It came with the job. Except with this one, the stakes felt higher.
Once outside, he pushed his sports car down the road until he dared jump in, started the engine and turned the lights on. As he headed for Dry Gulch, Montana, he tried to put the Mandevilles and Laramie, Wyoming, in his rearview mirror. His thoughts turned to more pleasant things like Goldie Shaw. He smiled to himself. He liked new beginnings. He also liked what he’d seenon the video chat with Goldie and couldn’t help being impressed by the young woman.
On top of that, she owned a café in Dry Gulch she was selling for a pretty penny. Money and looks! She’d already set him up for two weeks at the newly renovated hotel in town and assured him that his first week’s pay for the job would be waiting for him. She seemed to think it wouldn’t take more than two weeks. He’d assured her that he was at her disposal for as long as it took, thinking it might not be a bad gig for an extended amount of time.
It did make him wonder, though, what was wrong with the man she was in love with. Maybe he was married and wouldn’t leave his wife. Or maybe there was someone else he was with now. Either way, Donovan was ready to play his part for as long as the job lasted.
As the sun lolled in the cloudless blue overhead, Donovan topped a rise and got his first glimpse of Dry Gulch. The cluster of structures on the horizon looked straight from an old Western movie set. He slowed, hoping he wasn’t going from the frying pan into the fire, as the expression went. He felt as if he’d been dropped into another, earlier era. There was even a giant horse monument at the entrance into town for an equine named Big Blue, according to the sign.
He drove slowly, taking in the small quaint businesses. Everything seemed in miniature, from the drug store and bank to the hardware store and city hall. There was hardly anyone on the main street. What few people there were all turned to stare as if they seldom saw strangers roll into Dry Gulch.
Goldie’s, the café named for the pretty blonde, he saw was next to the bank on the corner. He wondered again about the man he was being hired to make jealous. A local cowboy? Rancher? Banker? Or maybe the town mayor.
Pulling in front of the café, he parked his bright red sports car to let the locals wonder who he was and what he was doing in town. He was wondering himself, although he couldn’t imagine the Mandevilles looking for him here.
Chapter Three
From her law office, Josie saw the red sports car parked in front of Goldie’s and so did half the town. When Donovan Cole stepped out, she knew that more than a few jaws dropped, hers included. If anything, he was better looking than in the photo Goldie had shown her on the phone.
What had her friend gotten herself into? Josie hated to think, but she didn’t sense any darkness on the horizon. Then again, due to a recent head injury, she’d lost her ability to sense trouble before it hit town. While she’d never had her grandmother’s second sight, she’d often felt impending danger, but never strong enough to see it clearly.
Josie, however, didn’t need second sight to know that Goldie could be headed for trouble. The people of Dry Gulch loved both Goldie and Max. Wait until it appeared Goldie was falling for someone other than Max, she thought. People weren’t going to like it. But how was Max going to react to seeing Goldie with another man? That was the real question.
Her office door banged open, and Mayor Bob Drake burst in, flush-faced and impatient as usual. “Have you seen the sign?”
Josie didn’t need to ask which sign. “You must be talking about Goldie selling her café,” she said as she took her seat behind her desk and motioned the stout, short mayor into the chair across from her.
“She can’t sell,” he said flatly as he lowered his bulk into a chair.
“Speaking as Goldie’s attorney, I can tell you that she has every legal right to sell the café she started.”
“I’m talking morally,” Bob snapped. “Dry Gulch needs that café to survive.”
“She’s not closing it. She’s selling it, and I understand there are quite a few people interested.”
“Wouldn’t be the same.”
“Probably not, but this decision is Goldie’s.”
He blew out air. “You’re her friend. Talk her out of it.”
Josie shook her head. “Bob,” she said, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her desk, “even if I could talk her out of it, I wouldn’t. It’s her decision.”
“Goldie’s is part of this town’s history.”
“So is the hotel that Cordell reopened,” she said. “He is willing to add more hours at the restaurant at the hotel if he has to. No one in town is going to go hungry. So, what’s the worst that could happen?”
His eyes widened as he took a huge breath, as if he didn’t know where to begin. As he blew it out, he launched into his opposition. “A stranger could buy the café and turn it into some fool thing, offering food no one in this town can even pronounce let along digest. Not just that,” he hurried on. “What happens when the owner goes broke and closes the café? The last thing we need is a business sitting empty right across from the hotel. Cordell is trying to make something out of this town. It’s the worst time for Goldie to be selling an establishment that’s an anchor for our downtown.”
Before he could launch into more of his tirade, she quickly said, “Change is inevitable, Mayor.”
“Not in Dry Gulch. I’ve already gotten calls from residents. They don’t like it any more than I do.”
She shook her head. “They might like the new owner even better than Goldie. I’m sure she’ll see that there is a smooth transition.”
He scoffed at that as he awkwardly shoved to his feet. “This is about the sheriff, isn’t it?” The mayor nodded as if he didn’t need her to confirm it. “You need to get Cordell to talk some sense into his brother. If Max were to go back to Goldie now before it’s too late—”
