Page 61 of Wrangling a Wild Texan

Sincerely,

Ima Lee Rhimes

Sunny stared at the letter in her hand. A baby? The hush money was about Mrs. Stokes’s daddy impregnating one of the women who had worked for Mrs. Fields? If that was true, then Mrs. Stokes could have a half sibling somewhere.

She picked up her phone to call Corbin, but before she could, it started ringing. She knew it wasn’t Reid. He’d made it clear whatever they had was over. But she couldn’t stop herself from hoping. She quickly answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Sunny.” Sophie’s tentative voice came through the receiver. “It’s me . . . Sophie Mitchell.” She hurried on. “I know you’re probably not real happy to hear from me. Especially afterwhat I did to your car and the way I acted yesterday and all . . . and I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked. “I’m real sorry.”

Sunny knew she shouldn’t be a softie. But she was. Especially where Sophie was concerned.

“Oh, honey, it’s okay—I mean, not okay. You shouldn’t have run off like you did. And you really shouldn’t have stolen my car. You could have been seriously hurt. Or worse, you could have . . . I don’t even want to think about what could have happened. I just want you to promise me you’ll never do anything like that again.”

“I swear I won’t! I had a long talk with Uncle Reid and I don’t feel so icky anymore.” Sophie hesitated. “I think he kinda likes me.”

“Of course he does, Sophie. He loves you.”

“Yeah, and I don’t have a clue why when I’m such a pain in the butt.”

“You had a pretty good reason to be. But take it from someone who knows, acting out doesn’t help the icky feelings as much as pushes them down deeper. Eventually, you’ll still have to deal with what’s making you feel icky.”

Sophie heaved a sigh. “I know.” Again, there was a hesitation. “Hopefully, you’ll be around to help me with that.”

Sunny started to say that them being friends might not be a good idea, but then stopped. Just because Reid had made it clear he didn’t want to have a relationship with Sunny that didn’t mean Sunny couldn’t have a relationship with Sophie.

“I will be,” she said firmly. “And I’ll help you any way I can.”

“Yay! Now I can get to the real reason I called.”

“The real reason?”

“Uncle Reid is in jail. Since it’s your fault, I figured you should be the one to bail him out.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Sunny was still in a state of shock when Jesse drove her to the sheriff’s office.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “Reid is the last person that would do anything criminal.”

Jesse shrugged. “Maybe it’s another one of Sophie’s pranks.”

“It’s possible. But I think she’s learned her lesson about pulling pranks and she was adamant that I needed to get here as quickly as—” She cut off when they passed Nothin’ But Muffins. Her eyes widened.

Someone had painted the sign again. And not just with onet. They had completely painted overMuffinsin white and had started writing something else in neat block letters.

Jesse finally noticed the sign and stopped the truck in the middle of the street. “Are you sure Sophie’s done with pranks?”

“It wasn’t her. The letters are too concise. Sophie is a messy painter. Whoever did this used a stencil.” She read the sign. “Nothin’ But LO’? What does that mean?”

“Nothin’ But Lobster? Maybe the kid likes seafood and ran out of room.”

She laughed. “Doubtful. Since the letters are capital, maybe it’s an abbreviation for something. Kids nowadays love their texting abbreviations.”

“Little Oddball?”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t ever become a contestant onWheel of Fortune, Jess.”

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