Page 64 of Sheriff's City Girl

I swallowed the discomfort. “Yeah, I suppose so. Can I get ya something?”

She furrowed her neatly manicured eyebrows at me. “No, thank you. I just came by to say that you might not have the chance for your proposal. Graham is out at the Lowe Creek Ranch making Lucas an offer he’s not going to be able to refuse. We hate to take advantage of ranchers who fall on hard times, but the community has so much room for growth, but it can’t grow if none of the farmers are willing to give up a little.”

My jaw tensed. “I don’t think Lucas wants to sell the ranch.”

“Mmm,” she shrugged. “I think if he gets enough money for it, he can just go buy a different ranch—maybe one that he won’t have to deal with bad debt on. It’s a fresh start for him, really. I don’t know why he’d turn it down.”

I nodded, unable to conjure up anything else to say. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to be kind—or if she was secretly taking a jab at Lucas. Brittany was one of the most difficult people to read… And I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.

But I wasn’t sure that was the best idea.

“Anyway, you have a lovely day,” Brittany said to me, flashing me a smile again. “I know that you probably won’t be giving that proposal with your new beau, but you’re still more than welcome to come to the gala, anyway. Not really your people, but you know, it might be fun for you. Bye bye for now,” she shot me a wink and then spun on her heels, heading out of the café.

What the hell?

I blinked a few times and then went straight for my purse, pulling out my cell phone. Surely, Mason knew about the offer being put in for the ranch this morning? I dialed his number, and put the phone to my ear, waiting for him to answer.

“This is Mason,” he said, his voice sounding strained.

“Hey, it’s Emma,” I replied, trying not to be bothered by the generic answer.

“Oh hey, sorry. I didn’t look at the screen to see who it was—just answered it. Everything okay?”

“Um, Brittany just came by and told me about an offer for the Lowe place…”

“Not surprising. I’m at the ranch right now. I’ve been here since early this morning dealing with this shit—can I call you later?”

“Sure, but he’s not taking the offer, right?”

“No, I gotta go,” Mason said quickly, just as I heard someone shouting in the background. Before I could say anything else, the phone clicked, and the line went dead.

Ugh.

I sat my phone down, a little worried by the muffled shouting… But then again, Mason was trained to deal with conflict, right? And more than likely, Lucas was just up in arms about the ranch… right? My phone started to vibrate again, and I scooped it up, hoping that he was calling me back.

“Damnit,” I muttered when I saw my mom’s name on the screen. I glanced around the café, noting that Sarah was sitting in the far corner about to finish her break. “Hey, I’m going to step out and take a phone call,” I said to her.

She nodded, giving me a thumbs up. The lunch rush was nonexistent today, and I knew it wouldn’t make that much of a difference, but still. I didn’t want to leave a customer without.

Heart pounding, I accepted the call, putting the phone to my ear and slipping to the back room. “Hey, Mom.”

“Hi,” she said, her voice brighter than I expected. “I’m sorry that I didn’t have a chance to call you back yesterday. I was just so dang busy with all this moving stuff. You know how big of a pain it can be.”

“Yeah, I do,” I admitted, suddenly not so sure that I wanted to tell her. I pulled the ultrasound out of my pocket, letting out a sigh as I stared at the little, tiny bean that was growing in my womb.

“Is everything okay? You don’t sound very happy. Is it the town? Is the café not going the way you want it to? You always seem to pull away when things get hard.” Mom’s tone was one of concern, rather than chiding and it was relief.

“Well… Actually, the café is doing better than expected,” I said, taking a seat on one of the stools. “But not everything is going as I expected it to. I have some news, and you have to promise not to freak out… please.”

“Okay…” Her voice trailed off. “You’re not going to jail or something, right?”

“No,” I laughed, shaking my head. “I’m not going to jail—nothing like that. I haven’t turned into a criminal. I still pay my taxes.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” she chuckled. “So what is it? What’s the news?”

“I met this guy…” my voice trailed off, my mind flashing to Mason. “And we’re, um, dating?—”

“Is he going to jail?”

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