Page 27 of Caught By A Cowboy

“The chickens lay but, apparently, not enough.” I shrug. “So is the sheriff what the town meeting was about?” It shocks me that a town could be so behind the times.

“No, you see, Clearwater Creek has its town meeting, and then it has its ‘Jean’ meeting. She’s, like, chairman to the busybodies.”

“Jean from the diner, right?” I narrow my eyes while trying to keep up.

“That’s right, she was married to Dennis who ran out on her, he left their only son running the garage. I don’t know Cade all too well, but I get the impression he’s pissed about it. I’ve heard whispers that he wanted to get out of town and move to the city, but there's no way he could leave his momma, now.”

“Wow…Okay.” I nod, trying my best to find space in my head for all this new information.

“Then you have Daphne who owns the salon and Eleanor from the florist, her husband, Hank, knows how to fix just aboutanything.” She continues to load me up as she talks and my shoulders start to ache from the weight she’s piling in the basket. “Their son, Hayden, is our deputy sheriff which is probably why they’re all so up in arms about this new woman being appointed as his boss.” Her voice drops into a whisper when a huge guy starts to march up our aisle, the sleeves of his checked shirt rolled up revealing thick, tree trunk-like forearms. Jace is tall, but I’d say this guy’s at least a foot taller. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man so big.

“That’s Beckett, he lives up on the mountain, and barely speaks to anyone, scary, huh?” She gets back to the list while I watch the man make no interaction with the cashier at all as he pays for his milk and marches out the door. It swings back shut so hard the ceiling rattles.

“So, who’s Daphne married to?” I get back to learning about the town’s busybodies.

“Daphne?” Isabel laughs. “That old crow isn’t married to anyone, I guess every town needs its spinster.” She shrugs.

“Gossiping isn’t very becoming, especially when it’s coming from the mayor's wife.” Isabel’s eyes double in size before she turns around and faces the tall, blonde woman who was standing behind her.

“Eleanor! I, ermmm, I didn’t see you there,” she laughs nervously.

“It appears not.” The woman overpronounces her words as she looks down her nose.

“Maddison, I assume?” She holds out her hand for me and when I take it, she twists my wrist so she can examine my hand.

“Marie’s ring.” She raises her eyebrows as if she’s impressed. “You must have made quite the impression.” She dismisses me from her hold.

“When you come to plan the wedding you must come and see me, it’s my specialty.” Her beady eyes move over to settle on Isabel.

“I’m sure your town guide will be glad to show you some examples from thehappiestday of her life.” Her smile is as fake as her nails. “Me and my daughter ran the entire project. Photos of the church flowers even made it into the paper.”

“You did a wonderful job, Eleanor.” I’ve only just met Isabel but I can tell she’s forcing that smile.

“I look forward to seeing you.” She finally walks toward the cashier with her heels tapping against the floor and Isabel closes her eyes as if she wants the ground to open.

“I really suck at this whole mayor’s wife thing.” She looks down at the blouse she has tucked into her pencil skirt and we both laugh. “Do you want to grab a coffee? Usually, Eli and Jace have a lot to talk about, they could be a while.”

“I’d love that.” I get back to loading the basket with my superfoods so we can see what coffee selection the Clearwater Diner has to offer. I’m not holding on to much hope of anything fancy, but I do want to learn about this town that's become my new home.

“They’re an odd match aren’t they, Isabel and the mayor?” I question Jace as we head back to the ranch. I’ve really enjoyed this morning talking to her, it’s nice to know I now have a friend here. I have no idea what my friends back in Denver will be thinking of me. I haven’t even spoken to Kendra yet.

“Some might say that about us,” he points out.

“Why?” I laugh at him.

“Because you’re a nice girl, and I’m… well, I’m me.” The laugh he makes sounds a little sad, and when he reaches across the console and grips his hand around my thigh, I touch my hand over his so he keeps it there.

“Why do you make out that you're such a bad person? I don’t see that at all.” I look across at him, while he keeps his eyes on the road.

“Hell, I don’t know how he met her but Eli’s sure punching. She’s gotta be young enough to be his daughter,” he chuckles, trying his best to divert our conversation away from my question.

“I get the impression she’s not happy. That could easily have been me.” I sigh with relief when I think about how miserable my life would be right now if I’d given in to pressure and married Adam.

“Yeah, well, thankfully it ain’t. You’re exactly where you should be now,” he tells me with a grin.

“She didn’t talk much about her husband, but she did talk about the dance.” I start twisting my fingers around my hem when I bring up a subject we need to discuss.

“You wanna go, don’t ya?” He shakes his head and lets out a long drawn-out huff.

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