Page 12 of December's Ride with Scar

“Let’s go grab some food and we can circle back before we leave,” he rests a hand on my lower back.

“Sounds good. Have fun.” Mary winks at me.

Scar guides me to the food table, which is set up with finger foods and small appetizers. We both grab a plate and move out of the way to watch the room while we eat.

“Oh, wow, this food is delicious!” I’m happily surprised by how such small food can taste so good.

“They aren’t trying to make friends in town, that’s for sure,” Scar says.

“What do you mean?”

“My buddy’s wife, Lily, has a catering company in town. If they were trying to fit in, or make friends, they’d have asked her to make the food. Instead, they brought it in themselves. So how do you know Mary?”

“Well, she was on the bus I came to town on. She was nice, shared her lunch with me, and talked about her visit to Silver Creek.”

“You didn’t have food?” he asks, frowning, obviously not happy about my leaving without proper sustenance.

“I had a little, some stuff I stowed in my bag before I left the diner, but it didn’t last as long as I thought,” I admit while finishing off the food on my plate.

“I should have sent you money.” Scar’s mouth tightens and he looks grim.

“Don’t worry about it. If you had asked, I’d have told you not to. Anyway, I was fine. Hey, what’s in there?” I ask pointingto what looks like it was an office at one point, where there are several people looking over a table.

“Let’s find out.” He takes my hand and we go inside.

We find Ruby and Orville on one side of the table and walk up to them.

“Looks like it’s their designs for the hot springs,” Ruby says as we stare at the plans for what appears to be a major resort.

“It is. We plan to revamp the hot springs into a resort that rivals Flathead. It will be great for the small towns around here, like Silver Creek and Mustang Mountain,” the woman says with a fake smile.

“Then maybe you should have invited people from Mustang Mountain to pitch your idea to. After all, you will need their approval, as the hot springs sits on the edge of Mustang Mountain city limits,” Orville says.

“And who might you be?” the woman asks, dropping the false smile.

“The Mayor of Mustang Mountain,” Orville says.

“I’m Wendy and the person in charge of the redesign.” She holds her hand out to Orville.

He hesitantly shakes her hand, but it’s brief. Unfortunately, she gets pulled away before Orville can ask any more questions.

We hang around for a while longer, get some more food, and chat with some of the guests before Ruby says she is ready to head home.

Scar helps me out to the truck, and it hasn’t escaped me that all night he has had his hands on me. If he wasn’t holding my hand, he had his arm around me, pulling me into his side, or he was standing behind me as we talked to people with his hands resting on my waist. Every minute of being so close to his hard body was wonderful, making me feel secure and wanted.

“I have a bad feeling about all this,” Ruby says once we are on the way back toward Mustang Mountain.

We all agree with her.

“I didn’t even know the property was up for sale, and as mayor, I should have. She has to go through us for all permits and planning, and nothing has come across my desk,” Orville says.

“Maybe this was part of the planning to see people's comments and make any final changes before she submitted anything to you?” Scar says.

“Perhaps, but it all seems a little shady, and I don’t like it, not one bit,” Orville says.

Now that my belly is full, and the truck is warm, I’m tired. So I snuggle up to Scar, rest my head on his shoulder, and he wraps his arm around me once again, holding me close to him.

CHAPTER 7

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