Chapter Seven
After a pleasant enough dinner with Goldie the night before, Donovan had attempted to talk her into coming up to his room. She’d declined. He feared she was giving up and he’d soon be out of a job. He’d offered to walk her down to her cousin’s house where she was staying but she’d again declined.
“I really need to be alone right now,” she’d told him. “Let’s talk tomorrow.”
That had sounded ominous.
Since seeing Arnie in town, he told himself maybe it was for the best if she canceled their arrangement and he moved on.
He had to admit that Arnie being here in town wanting to buy her café made him nervous.
Clearly, Donovan felt, he hadn’t gone far enough away from Wyoming and the Mandevilles.
Maybe he would head for California after this.
If he had more money, he might skip the country.
The knock on his hotel room door made him smile in anticipation that it might be Goldie. For her to come up to his hotel room could mean something good. Maybe he’d stay in Dry Gulch a little longer, he told himself as he went to answer the knock.
But he was quickly disappointed—and alarmed. “Arnie?” he said as the little man pushed his way in, closing the door behind him. “What are you—”
“Listen up, I have a message from Malcolm.”
That shut him up, at least for a moment. “If this is about Lolly—”
“The boss wants to know what you’re doing here.”
He didn’t owe either Malcolm or his former prison cook any answers. “I could ask what you’re doing here.”
Arnie just gave him a look, one that had probably served him well while in prison. “Or I can call Malcolm. I’m sure he’d love to come up here and ask you himself.” He took a step closer. “What’s the story with you and the owner of the café?”
Donovan realized he didn’t want to tangle with Arnie—let alone Malcolm. “She hired me to make her former boyfriend jealous.”
“Isn’t her former boyfriend the sheriff?” the cook asked. He nodded. “That’s it? You know I’m buying the café. You aren’t doing anything that could foul up the sale, are you?”
“No.”
“Good, because Malcolm really wouldn’t like it if you did.” Arnie turned and headed for the door. Donovan was trying to imagine why the crime boss would care about any of this when the cook stopped and turned back. “Make sure you don’t.”
This was the last thing he’d wanted to hear, Donovan thought as the cook left.
He wanted nothing to do with whatever Mandeville was planning for Dry Gulch.
The moment the hotel room door closed behind Arnie, Donovan began to pack.
He traveled light so it didn’t take long.
As he finished though, he thought of Goldie. If he just had a few more days here…
He thought of their kiss and began to unpack.
He couldn’t leave just yet. Goldie was signing the papers for the sale of her café tonight.
If he held it together for just a little longer, he might be leaving here if not with Goldie at least with her money.
She might not want to lie around on a tropical island, but he sure did.
LOLLY MANDEVILLE COULDN’T believe Donovan had left the way he had, sneaking out in the middle of the night. She’d known that he wasn’t in love with her. Or her him. But she’d expected better, which only made her angry at herself.
She’d thought about going to her father and asking him to deal with it.
He’d certainly scared off enough of the young men who’d come around the ranch.
But she feared that her father might already suspect her true interest in Donovan Cole.
Just as she suspected the man himself might have figured out her plans for him and that was why he was long gone.
Angry with the turn of events, she looked across the huge ranch breakfast table at her brother, Bobby. She had no idea where her father or the hired men who came and went here at the ranch were. But none of them seemed to be around. It was just the two of them here now.
She watched her brother play with his food for a moment, still thinking about Donovan and what—if anything—she was going to do about him running out on her.
She couldn’t let him get away with this.
Once she found out where Donovan had gone, it would be so easy to send her brother after him to show him who was really in charge, since she could get Bobby to do anything she asked.
Except she couldn’t trust Bobby not to mess it up and get himself into trouble, which would come back on Lolly in a big way. Neither of them wanted to be in trouble with their father.
Maybe it was better to forget about Donovan Cole. She’d gotten a text this morning from her lover. He wanted to see her. “I’m going out of town for a while,” she told Bobby now.
“Think that’s a good idea, in your condition and all?”
She looked around to make sure no one was within hearing distance before she said, “I’m pregnant, Bobby, not incapacitated.
” She hated that he’d found out by accident.
Her fault. She’d been careless and Bobby had always been nosy.
He’d overheard a phone call with a friend, but fortunately, he didn’t know everything.
“Is this about Donovan? Because if it is, I think—”
“No one cares what you think,” she snapped. But she worried because she felt as if her father had been looking at her suspiciously lately, even though she wasn’t showing yet. “It’s not about Donovan, okay?”
Bobby nodded. He could be so gullible. “Then who’s the father of the baby?”
“It’s not Donovan’s.” That much was true. As she began to show, she’d planned to let everyone think it was his, Donovan being the lesser of two evils when it came to her family. But now the bastard had run out on her.
“Well, whoever’s it is,” her brother said, “they’re in big trouble once Dad finds out.”
Lolly groaned inwardly, thinking that Bobby had no idea how much trouble there would be if that happened. “But we aren’t going to tell him, right?” Unfortunately, she didn’t trust her brother to keep his mouth shut and said as much.
He pushed away his uneaten food and looked across the table at her. “Going to be hard to keep it a secret, won’t it, as the baby grows?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Bobby sighed and got to his feet. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
She hoped so too, she thought as her hand went protectively to her only slightly rounded stomach.
Damn Donovan for taking off. He must have somehow figured out that she was pregnant and thought she was going to tell her father it was his.
That’s exactly what she’d planned to do to buy herself time.
That she’d been having second thoughts was putting it mildly.
Not about the baby, but about the baby’s daddy.
Frustrated and growing concerned about her future, she thought about finding Donovan. He didn’t know who he was dealing with, she told herself. No one walked out on Lolly Mandeville and lived to ever tell about it.
MAX, LIKE EVERYONE else in town, heard about the sale. The for-sale sign had come down from the front window of the café with a finality that shook him to the core. Was this really happening?
Josie had called to tell him that Goldie would be signing the papers tonight at the hotel. “Max, you know this isn’t what she wants.”
“We don’t always get what we want,” he’d said, assuring himself that Goldie would back out at the last moment.
She couldn’t sell her café. Not the woman he’d known since they were teenagers.
Goldie’s had been her dream. He’d watched her build it with sweat and tears and…
love. It was the love that had touched him most.
Max had never felt that kind of purpose himself, let alone experienced that kind of drive.
He’d only become an officer of the law because the ones he’d met in his youth had let him down so badly.
He couldn’t stand the thought of boys like him and his brother being abandoned by law enforcement when they needed it so desperately.
He would be the sheriff he’d needed all those years ago.
But that was also why he’d made the decision not to get back together with Goldie. He’d thought she could do better. But now she was selling the café. He felt sick. This was his fault. That she would give up the café of her heart… He felt as heartbroken as he knew she must be.
Just when he thought his day couldn’t get any worse, he heard about the kiss that apparently everyone had either witnessed or already heard about between Donovan and Goldie this morning at the café.
Goldie was moving on. But with Donovan Cole? Surely, she wasn’t planning to leave town with him now that the café was going to be sold.
How could he stand back and let that happen knowing there was a connection between the man and the Mandeville crime family, but not knowing the extent of that connection? He couldn’t.
GOLDIE NEVER CLOSED the café early, but she did today. She felt so confused and upset with her big decision to sell that she had to talk to her friend.
Josie took one look at her and hurriedly led her into her office. “I’d ask if you were all right, but instead I’ll open the wine,” she said, motioning her onto the couch. “Then I want to hear about this kiss everyone is talking about.”
“Please don’t.” Goldie raised her hand to stop her. “It was just a kiss,” she lied as she dropped into her spot on the couch.
Her friend shot her a look, daring her to keep lying.
“Okay, I felt something, a lot of something. I never thought I could feel that way with another man, but it turns out I can.”
“That’s good,” Josie said quickly. “If things don’t work out with Max… Don’t cry.”
Goldie wiped at her eyes. “That’s the thing. I did all this because I was so certain that he was still in love with me and that once he thought he might lose me, he’d stop me from selling the café, stop me from leaving town, just stop me.” She shook her head and sniffed. “It’s not working.”
“The good news is that you’ll soon be rich,” Josie said as she handed Goldie a glass of wine and plopped down on the other end of the couch. “That’s something, right?”
Goldie shrugged, knowing Josie was trying to find a silver lining in all this. “You must think I’m such a fool.”
“No, I—”
“Of course you do, because I do. What was I thinking, Josie? I gambled everything on this.”
“You were tired of waiting around for Max and I don’t blame you,” her friend said angrily. “You wanted to shake things up and you did.”
“Oh, I did that,” Goldie said and took a gulp of her wine. “Now I’m not sure I’m ready for whatever comes next.”
“Nothing’s wrong with a change,” Josie said. “Goldie’s was your passion. Maybe there is another passion for you waiting in the wings. Maybe you’ve already found it,” she said with a wink.
Goldie tried to smile, but a sob came out.
“Oh baby,” Josie said and moved down the couch to hug her. “You’re going to be all right.”
“Am I? Seriously, I’m not so sure.”
Josie smiled at her, compassion welling in her eyes. “You thought Max wouldn’t let you sell because he knows how much the café means to you. Maybe it isn’t too late. You’re not signing the papers until tonight at the hotel, right?”
She nodded. Her throat worked, but no words came out. She felt so na?ve. So foolish. She was giving up her café for nothing. Nothing but money. Now what was she going to do? “You really think Max will try to stop me?”
“We can only hope,” her friend said and held her tighter.
ARNIE ADAMS COULDN’T wait to get his hands on Goldie’s.
He had all kinds of plans to make the café his own—starting with taking down the Goldie’s sign and putting up his own.
He hadn’t waited until the sale was final to order his sign.
The moment the papers were signed, he planned to take ownership, closing the café, soaping over the windows and locking the doors.
All those years in prison, he’d dreamed of having his own diner.
But it had only been a dream until he’d gone to work for Malcolm Mandeville.
He liked to think that Malcolm had seen something in him and that’s why he was backing the café.
He didn’t want to think it might only be about the man’s ulterior motives.
“You can do better than working for me,” Malcolm had said. “I know you want your own place.”
“That’s always been my dream,” Arnie had admitted almost shyly.
Truth was, Malcolm intimidated him as he did many other people.
But there hadn’t been a lot of people willing to give an ex-con cook a job.
“Not that I don’t enjoy working here.” Malcolm always had associates flying in and out of the ranch and they were always hungry.
“Dreams are important,” Malcolm had said, but didn’t mention it again until he’d made Arnie an offer, he suspected he couldn’t refuse even if he had wanted to. Arnie still couldn’t believe that he’d paid a small fortune for Goldie’s, but his wealthy backer hadn’t blinked an eye at the cost.
“Cheap at half the price,” Malcolm had said with a laugh.
Arnie suspected there was more to the deal than the crime boss merely wanting to make his cook’s dream come true. “I’ll pay you back every cent,” he’d promised.
Malcolm had waved that away as he told him what he wanted in return.
Fortunately, Arnie didn’t mind looking the other way for a while. He just had to make sure that everything went as planned, and then the café was all his, free and clear after his big grand opening.