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—”
“Bob, I don’t tell Cordell what to do any more than he can his brother.” That was truer than anyone knew. If the Lander brothers were anything, they were stubborn. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a conference call I have to make.” She rose. “Let me show you out.”
SITTING IN HIS sports car with the top down, Donovan prepared himself for his new job.
All the way here, he’d kept checking his rearview mirror, afraid he’d been followed.
Hopefully he’d gotten far enough away from Laramie that none of the Mandevilles would find him, especially Lolly.
In some ways, he thought she was probably more dangerous than even her father.
He glanced again at the front of the café. Goldie had told him that she would be working so to just stop by for their “meet cute.”
Lunch is on me, she’d said, sounding nervous.
Had she been having second thoughts? He couldn’t let that happen.
He needed this job, and Dry Gulch seemed the perfect hideout until the heat was off him in Laramie.
The quaint little community was literally in the middle of nowhere, Montana. He hadn’t seen another town for miles.
Taking a breath, he opened his car door and stepped out. He’d been in this situation enough times before that he was ready to pour on the charm. It came naturally to him. There was no way he could screw this up.
As he entered the café, he caught the scent of burgers and fries.
The décor was all 1950s diner from the booths to the long counter with its glitzy padded stools.
Was that a milk shake machine? He smiled as he cozied up to the counter.
He could get used to this, he thought as Goldie came out from the back.
She was even prettier in person. She saw him and stopped abruptly. He gave her a big smile. “You have milk shakes?” he asked, motioning to the machine.
The question unfroze her. She smiled as she said, “I do.”
“Then we are going to get along just fine.” He gave her a wink and noticed out of the corner of his eye a couple of local ranchers watching them.
As she approached him on the opposite side of the counter, she said, “Name your poison. I can make you any kind of shake you want.”
He cocked a brow at her, still grinning. “You’re on. Chocolate caramel?”
Her smiled broadened. “Salted?”
“Ooooh,” he said. “A woman after my own heart!” As she began to make the shake, he slid onto a stool and said, “Are those burgers I smell cooking?”
“They sure are.”
“If you could have the cook throw one on the grill for me then, I would greatly appreciate it. I’d take some fries too, if it’s not a problem.”
She shot him a grin over her shoulder. “No problem at all. It’s what we do here.”
“I already love the place,” he said with a laugh.
“Wait until you taste this shake,” she said. He liked that she was quick, and after the initial shock of seeing him in her diner, she’d gotten right into their flirting banter. He watched her make his milk shake, studying her shapely backside as he told himself he was going to enjoy this.
There was a teenager at the grill in the back.
Donovan saw him slap a half pound of ground beef down on the grill.
It immediately began to sizzle, the scent rising along with that of the fries bubbling in the hot grease.
Donovan breathed in the smells and began to relax as he considered how far Goldie would go to win back this man of hers.
Either way, he planned to leave here with more than he came with, he told himself.
He hoped it wasn’t soon, but that would depend on whether he’d gotten away clean from the crime boss and his daughter.
Otherwise, things could get dangerous quickly.
He’d be lucky to get out with his life. Shoving that thought away, he breathed in the scent of his lunch cooking and made himself relax. How tough could this job be?
He’d always tried to make the most of any situation, he thought with a grin as he studied the shapely Goldie Shaw. This time would be no different.
FROM THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE, Max had also seen the red sports car pull into town.
He’d even watched as the man had climbed out and headed into the café.
Another prospective buyer? He’d hoped it was just someone passing through town, though that didn’t happen often.
When he checked the clock on the wall, he realized that the man had been in Goldie’s longer than it took to eat lunch.
“You could go down there and find out what’s going on,” his young deputy said with a grin from his open doorway.
“Sorry?” he asked, pretending to be confused.
“Goldie’s,” Rance Fletcher said. “You could walk down there and see for yourself. Just go into the café and have lunch like you used to, like any other resident in this town. I could hear your stomach growling all the way over to my desk. If you’re curious, that might be the quickest way to know what’s going on. ”
Max felt his face cloud over. Rance, seeing the coming storm, quickly added, “Or you can just ignore anything I say.”
“Let’s go with the latter.” Fuming inside, Max hated to think that everyone in the county had noticed his behavior since his breakup with Goldie.
Clearly, some people had. They’d probably had a good a laugh at how he went out of his way to avoid her—and her café, he thought as Rance quickly returned to his desk.
Grabbing his Stetson, Max snugged it down on his head as he rose.
He’d been avoiding the only café in town for months.
At first, he would call and ask whoever was working—and wasn’t Goldie—to please deliver his food.
He’d been buying groceries at the store and cooking his own meals to avoid seeing her.
It might seem silly to everyone, but it was just too painful to be near her.
He’d told himself it would get better in time.
Now he realized how foolish and cowardly he looked.
It was his own fault after all this time that he didn’t feel he could walk down to the café for lunch as he had every day when he and Goldie had been together.
Back then, she would see him coming and already know what he wanted.
They would sit and visit while he ate. Those had been some of the happiest times of his life, which he had deprived himself of since the breakup.