Page 20 of Tempting Fate
Gabe laughed. It was too cold anyway. The burger drive-through only had outdoor seating. And the Ponderosa had sort of become his home away from home when he wasn’t loitering at Logan and Annie’s. Although his little apartment had a full kitchen, he never touched it. “I’m right outside the restaurant. I’ll grab us a table.”
Gabe crossed the square and felt the warm air as soon as he entered the restaurant.
“Hey, Gabe.” Today it was Mariah, Sophie’s other half, working hostess duties. Gabe didn’t say “better” because the dynamic duo were both great. Smart, beautiful, sophisticated, older, and, unfortunately, not into men.
“What’s happening?”
“You tell me.”
“Oh, you know, wedding twenty-four seven.”
She laughed. “I’m looking forward to it.”
He ordered a plate of super nachos and a beer and read theNugget Tribuneon his phone while he waited for Raylene. He wondered what she’d been up to all day, besides her meeting at the real estate office.
Ten minutes later, she swept into the Ponderosa in her rhinestone jeans and her turquoise cowboy boots. No frog hogs at McPatrick’s in Coronado ever dressed like that. Their look ran more toward spray tans, bikini tops, and flip-flops, which Gabe liked just fine. But Raylene…let’s just say he was growing partial to cowgirls.
“You want a beer?” He started to call a server over but Raylene stopped him.
“I’ll get a cup of coffee when the waiter takes our order.” She took off her jacket and hung it on a hook on the wall.
“So you ran out before meeting Maisy, huh?”
“I got a decent look at her coming out of the Winnebago. She’s different than I expected.” She unwrapped the scarf around her neck and draped it over an extra chair.
Gabe made a Herculean effort not to check out her rack—and failed. “How’d you think she’d be?”
“I don’t know, kind of slutty.”
Gabe would’ve laughed, except they were talking about Logan’s mom, a woman he happened to adore. “Cut her a break, Ray. She was barely out of her teens when she met your old man. According to Logan, he seduced her, not the other way around.”
Raylene shrugged, her mouth forming an affected pout that had probably won over more than a fair share of men. But Gabe saw right through it. Her whole self-entitled schtick was nothing but an act. Armor for the insecure.
“I heard you had a meeting with Dana McBride this morning.”
She flipped through Gabe’s menu. “Word always did travel fast in Bumfuck.”
The nachos came and Gabe handed her one of the small plates the server had left on the table. “What else did you do?”
She took a sip of water and stared at him over the rim of the glass. “Trespassed.”
“Yeah?” He arched a brow, trying to act disapproving when for him B&E was just another day at work. “Where?”
“Rosser Ranch.” She scooped up one of the cheese-laden chips, dipped it in a mound of guacamole, and popped it in her mouth.
“I hear Flynn Barlow is a good shot.” He and his wife, Gia Treadwell, owned Rosser Ranch now. While Flynn wouldn’t shoot Raylene on sight, he wouldn’t be too happy about her roaming his property. “What were you doing over there?”
“Checking it out.”
This was exactly the reason Logan had put Gabe on Raylene duty. Leave the woman alone long enough and she’d cause an international incident.
“Not the best idea, don’t you think?”
“It was my ranch first.” She pouted again, and Gabe got the sense she was lying. Not about the ranch being hers first—that was uncontested—but about how she’d spent the day. She was trying to throw him off.
“What’d you think of that new addition they put on the house?”
“Tacky.”
