Page 66 of Love Me Reckless

“Shocking but yes.” I wind down a long curve in the road. The lake comes into view, framed by the snow-covered foothills to the west. “Do you know anything about a place called Gold Coast?”

“As in Australia?”

“Maybe?”

I give him a quick summary of the conversation I overheard in the ski lodge.

“Huh,” he says. “Finn River law enforcement has pretty limited interactions with the ranch, but I do know they had problems with the EPA last year. Wastewater or something.”

“Could Birch be rescuing the ranch from some kind of eco-disaster waiting to happen?”

“It’s possible. Maybe the investors got twitchy after the EPA started sniffing around, and Birch is swooping in for the rescue?”

He could be on to something. “And in exchange, he gets to marry their daughter.”

“If Kirilee feels like she’s saving Finn River Ranch by marrying Birch, that would make a lot of sense.”

I’ve been wondering that too.

“You want me to ask Rowdy?” Zach asks. Rowdy is Sofie’s dad and the local conservation officer. “He might know more aboutthe issue.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Behind me, a car honks, snapping me back to the stop sign I’ve been idling at for too long. I turn left.

From Zach’s end of the line, a car door shuts. He must be in his sheriff’s vehicle. “I got some news for you,” he says. “I was going to call you after my shift.”

News can only be one thing. I brace myself. “Okay.”

“Sheldon got released from Goose Point a month ago.”

I try to shake my unease with a full breath. “What was he in for this time?”

“Boosting cars.”

“Huh.”

“Apparently, he got involved in a gambling help group inside.”

Compulsive gambling has wrecked Shel’s life. I tried so hard to get him to stop, but it’s an addiction, and one he’ll only quit if and when he wants to. “I hope it sticks.”

“Me too,” he says.

We end the call as I turn down Water Street, my thoughts unspooling faster than I can reel them in.

It hits me that the timing of Shel’s release matches up with my truck being broken into… but if it was Shel, why rifle around in the glove box? I don’t keep anything valuable in there, and he knows it. The Sheldon I remember would have shown up at the front door, all smiles.

Unease tickles my gut.

Unless Shel broke in to make sure it was my Dodge. Make sure he’d really found me.

It’s not like I don’t want Shel in Finn River. There are good jobs here. Good people.

But he’s a wild card. He’s never stayed on the straight and narrow for long. I’m convinced his addiction started as a coping mechanism for what we endured as kids, and it’s what keeps him stuck. And it’s also why I can’t just cut him out of my life. I played a part in what happened to us. Something I’m not proud of. Sheldon has used itagainst me before, and a part of me is bracing for when he’ll do it again.

As I near my driveway, two boys I recognize from their daily stops at Kirilee’s library are browsing the collection. They have identical backpacks, and though of different ages, they have the same brown hair and round faces. Brothers, likely.

I cruise slowly into my driveway so I don’t spook them.

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