Page 92 of Heart & Hope

“Lou?” I settle the bags between us, and she looks up. “Can I help with the base camp for the roundup?”

Her face lights up. “Sure, hon. Always needin’ more hands on deck.”

“Thanks.” I run my bottom lip under my teeth. “Can we not tell Reed? I want it to be a surprise.”

She winks at me. Now I know where her sons get it from. “Mum’s the word, sweetheart.”

I laugh as she shifts the truck into gear, and we head for the airport. I tap out an email to Olive, updating her on my travel plans for the week. Feeling more than a little excited about the prospect of seeing Reed sooner than planned, I all but skip out of the truck when we reach the airport parking lot.

Lou walks me inside, hugging me tight before gripping my shoulders. “I will see you in a week, then?”

“Yup.” Reed’s casual language rolls off my tongue these days. I can’t wipe the smile from my face, and I don’t want to. I readjust my bag strap over my shoulder and turn to go.

“Ruby?”

I spin back on my red heels. Only fitting I leave wearing the spikes I strolled into town on. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

She doesn’t elaborate. She doesn’t need to. The silent exchange between her and me is like some unspoken truth that we two have always known. Incredibly, Louisa Rawlins and Ruby Robbins are unlikely, but very well suited friends.

And if I’m honest, reallydeep down in the depths of my soulhonest, she is more like a mother to me than anyone I have ever had in my life before. And I have needed her for so, so long.

The office is cold. And not in the first-snowfall-of-the-season way.

Not today.

Olive’s hard stare drills into me over her glass desk. The same one I used to occupy. The top floor has been commandeered by Olive and her latest mentee. In other words, my replacement.

“I’m gone for a few months on assignment, and you hand over my entire portfolio to some random rookie?”

I can’t keep the venom out of my voice.

She folds her hands over the file in front of her on the desk. My employee file.

“When I told you to find some perspective, Ruby, I didn’t expect you to lose it altogether.”

I grip the arms of the chair and set my shoulders back.

“I haven’t dropped the ball on any of my accounts, Olive. In fact, being in Montana has only opened up more opportunities, more business.”

“We do not need redneck clients with tiny budgets, Robbins. We are a prestigious firm with a high-class reputation.”

The word redneck raises my hackles like it never would have before. But I hold my composure and focus on turning this sinking ship around.

“My work on my other events hasn’t slowed down, Olive. I have been working remotely.”

“This isn’t a job you can phone in, Ruby.”

Liar, it most definitely is.

We do it all the time. Something else is going on here.

She pushes to a stand and plucks up her tablet. “If I can’t trust you, Ruby, then there is no future for you here.”

“What the fuck, Olive?”

Her face turns to stone. She has never had a problem with my language, but today something is off, and I fear I’ve overstepped. What in hell’s quarter happened here while I was gone?

---