Page 4 of Perfect Cowboy

Doug looks around nervously or else I’m just paranoid. I haven’t been off the property in a while, but surely I can’t be imagining this niggling pit of anxiety that my fellow townsfolk are putting in my gut.

Something is going on.

“You’re doing okay?” he asks, with a wince. “Have you seen her yet?”

I can’t figure out why people keep looking at me like I’ve just received devastating news. It makes me think about Bobby’s call mixed with the fact that everyone seems to know something that I don’t.

Lindsay is months behind me, so hopefully people don’t still pity me over what she did. I’m fine now. Besides, even though I’ve decided to be permanently single, all I need to be happy is cattle.

“Seen who?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. If my ex is here, I’ll be polite and nothing more. “And I’m great. Why do you ask?”

He shrugs. “Uh, no reason. Just, well, you know.”

No.

I donotknow.

Before he can continue, my phone vibrates again. This time, it is Bobby.

“It was nice to see you,” I say to Doug. “I have to take this call.”

“No problem, man. Good luck.”

I frown and my mood is beyond sour when I answer my brother. Not only has the checkout line barely moved, but I’m starting to feel like hidden cameras are recording my reaction to a soon-to-be-revealed terrible surprise.

“You better not ask me about the goddamn weather,” I answer. “Just explain why you’re really calling me and be done with it. It’s not about the snowstorm.”

“Sure it is.”

“Bobby, of all the people in the world, you can’t lie to me. What’s going on?”

He hesitates long enough that I know it’s true – he has a bomb to drop.

So, maybe I’m not paranoid and everyone really is staring at me like they don’t want to miss my reaction.

But reaction towhat?

“Look, I just wanted you to hear it from me given the… well, the history,” he says. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard it yet, to be honest, but I’m guessing no one wanted to tell you.”

“For Christ’s sake, Bobby,” I growl, earning a glare from the middle-aged mom in front of me. “Sorry, ma’am,” I say to her.

“Okay, okay,” he relents. “Ashley Gibson is back in town.”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” I sputter, and this time, the mom’s glare is strong enough to kill me. “Seriously. Tell me this is some kind of joke.”

“No. It’s true. Victory called to tell me and Cameron confirmed it. We both know that he knows everything about everyone.”

Cameron Williams is my lead ranch hand and one of my closest friends. But he went to my twin instead of me, which means that he’s really worried about how the news will hit me.

That’s because “the history” Bobby referenced is just a nice way of saying Ashley betrayed me and destroyed everything sacred between us.

No wonder people are staring at me.

And in a town this size, it will only be a matter of time before I come face-to-face with my enemy.

Chapter 2

Ashley

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