“You got them?” Max asked.
“Luca Havers was dead, but Donovan Cole wasn’t there when we arrived.” The state investigators had taken a statement from Goldie. Donovan had been hit and was presumed dead along with Havers when she’d left. Donovan had given her the gun that she’d used to save Max’s life.
“The money?” the sheriff said with a shake of his head.
“Gone with him. He must have only been knocked out because there was no sign of him or his car when we arrived. I put a BOLO out on him. Haven’t heard anything yet, but we’ll find him.”
Max closed his eyes. “Mandeville?”
“He’s here in the hospital with his daughter. She was shot at the hotel during the fireworks display. He’s been with her ever since.”
“He has an alibi for the whole time,” the sheriff said.
“The staties talked to him. He swears he knew nothing about the robbery, that it was all Havers.”
Max nodded, expecting nothing less. “How’s his daughter?”
“She’s going to pull through. She lost the baby though.”
“The baby?” Max said. “Donovan’s?”
Rance shrugged, and this time when Max closed his eyes he slept.
GOLDIE SAT ONher cousin’s front porch facing the main drag of Dry Gulch, her coffee mug cupped in both hands. The beautiful spring Montana day had dawned bright and sunny, the sky a blinding blue, no clouds in sight. But there was a slight chill in the air. Summer was still months out.
Town was quiet this morning, yet she saw people starting to move around. Several waved as they walked their dogs by. She waved back, thinking with a heavy heart how she’d thought about leaving here. No matter what happened with her and Max,she was staying. Dry Gulch was home. Her recent bad decisions had certainly made her aware of that.
She hadn’t seen Max since he’d been released from the hospital. At his brother Cordell’s insistence, he’d moved into a room at the hotel until he was healed enough to be on his own. She’d given Max space, herself some as well. So much had happened because of her attempt to prove the sheriff loved her.
When she’d heard that Donovan had survived his head wound and was now on the run with the money from the robbery, she had smiled. He’d saved her life and Max’s. She would never forget that. She half hoped he wouldn’t be caught and was now on one of those tropical islands he had talked about enjoying himself on.
The repercussions of what she’d done lived on in town though. Arnie’s had been closed the last few weeks. She’d heard that business was so bad, he’d locked the place up. The rumor was that he’d sold the café for half of what he’d paid for it and had moved on. No one knew who the new owner was, but Penny had made sure everyone knew she wasn’t happy with how things had turned out.
At the sound of a large truck rumbling toward town, Goldie looked up. The bright sun blinded her a little. She blinked, telling herself she must be seeing things, yet her heart leaped at the sight. Already on her feet, she watched the truck with its load go past, afraid she might be wrong about where it was headed.
But as her pulse began to pound, she saw that it had stopped in front of the café. A moment later, Max appeared on the sidewalk out front. Goldie couldn’t believe it as the driver and his crew began to take down the Arnie’s sign.
A crowd started to gather on the street. Penny Birch and her posse came out to watch as well. There was cheering, but not as loud as when the men began to unload the Goldie’s sign from the back of the truck.
Goldie tried to swallow around the lump that had risen in her throat as her sign went back up onto the front of the café building.
“What is going on?” She shook her head. Goldie’s was gone, why would anyone—
Max is going to have to make some grand gesture, her friend Josie had said. At the time, Goldie couldn’t imagine anything he could do that would make her trust her heart to him again. Even when he’d almost died trying to save her the second time, she’d told herself he’d just been doing his job. Anyway, she was the one who’d brought Donovan Cole to Dry Gulch. She felt responsible for everything that had happened after that.
But now… Now she fought tears as the Goldie’s sign was placed atop the café and the truck driver pulled away, taking the Arnie’s sign with him.
She tried to tell herself that, while a grand gesture, it didn’t necessarily mean anything. Arnie’s was gone. But there was no way the diner could be hers again, could it? And did she even want to run the café again? All those thoughts plagued her as she spotted Max coming down the street toward her. She put down her coffee cup and stood. Her feet were already moving as if having a will of their own. She went down the porch steps and began to walk toward Max. The crowd that had gathered to watch the exchange of the signs now began to follow Max as if sensing something was about to happen.
A hush fell over the crowd as she reached the sheriff. She watched him shove back his Stetson and clear his throat, suddenly aware that he looked as nervous as she felt.
“Max?” she asked in a whisper. “What’s going on?” He met her gaze, and she looked into those blue eyes of his and knew, all the hurt aside, she would never love a man the way she loved him.
Without a word, he reached into his pocket and produced what she saw was legal paperwork. “Goldie’s is yours again, ifyou still want it,” he said. “Arnie was glad for me to take it off his hands cheap. He’s opening a diner down in Laramie with his old boss’s help, I heard.”
Still, she couldn’t imagine how he’d pulled that off nor did she know what to say. Did she still want the café? Hadn’t it always been Max that had made her life feel magical? Without him, wouldn’t it just be a café? “I don’t understand,” she said, her voice breaking as she took the papers and tried to hide her disappointment and confusion.
“Maybe this will help,” Max said and reached into his other pocket before dropping to one knee in the middle of the main drag of Dry Gulch. “I don’t want to live another moment without you, Goldie. I love you. I always have.” He opened the small velvet box. “Marry me.”
