Page 21 of Protective Cowboy

Autumn looked down at the painted porch boards. It was difficult to break old habits, especially after years of being conditioned to accept blame for everything that went wrong in her marriage.

But she knew Winnie was right—it wasn’t Autumn’s fault that Phillip was manipulative and controlling.

“I’ll tell him to cut it out.” She pulled out her phone and brought up her contacts.

She’d blocked Phillip last Monday after a flood of messages and phone calls. First, he’d wanted to know if she’d received his gift. Then he invited her to dinner at her favorite restaurant in Bozeman.

When she ignored his initial messages, he began calling her once an hour.

Her stomach clenched nervously. But Winnie’s presence at her side kept her from wimping out again. Autumn unblocked Phillip and sent him a text message.

As she typed with hands that shook with anger and nerves, she kept making typos and having to correct them.

Phillip, you’re not my husband anymore. Stop sending me stuff. I don’t want to see you or talk to you. Just leave me alone.

Her trembling finger hovered over the Send button. Am I being too harsh? Am I going to make him angry?

Then she caught herself. Of course, he’s going to be angry. I’m telling him ‘no.’ He hates it when people—especially me—don’t play along with his plans.

But it wasn’t her job any longer to soothe him and protect his sensitive feelings.

She tapped Send. Then promptly blocked him again.

“That couldn’t have been easy. He’s such a bully. I’m proud of you for standing up to him.” Winnie gave her a reassuring hug. “Now, let’s get back to work. This house isn’t going to renovate itself, and Nick and I want to move in before Thanksgiving.”

∞∞∞

As the day continued, Autumn kept glancing over her shoulder at periodic intervals. She half-expected Phillip to appear as soon as he found out about the rejected florist’s delivery.

That arrangement had looked expensive. Like, really expensive.

In the past, he’d always demanded she acknowledge his grand gestures.

To her relief, he stayed away. But at least once an hour, Autumn spotted a sheriff department’s pickup truck cruising around the neighborhood. She guessed that Winnie or one of the show’s production assistants had asked for additional patrols.

It was mortifying to cause so much trouble. And yet, she was glad that everyone wanted to help her and she didn’t have to deal with this situation on her own.

“Hey, sis, can we talk for a minute?” Winnie asked while the Reviving Snowberry Springs crew was taking their afternoon coffee break.

The crew members were gathered in the house’s big backyard, digging into the trays of cookies, turnovers, and mini fruit tarts catered by Jenna’s Java.

Wondering if something had happened, Autumn picked up her glass of lemonade and followed her sister through the house to the front room.

“I just got off the phone with Karla,” Winnie reported. Karla Jones was the show’s executive producer. “She promised she’ll make it very clear to Phillip that he and anyone he hires are not welcome on our set. And she’ll inform him that if he shows up here in person, she’ll have him arrested for trespassing.”

“Really?” Autumn asked, her eyes wide with surprise. “Can she do that?”

“Yep. This is private property,” Winnie confirmed, a satisfied grin on her face. Then her expression sobered. “I really think you need to talk to Matt about what’s been going on, though.”

“Why?” Autumn asked blankly.

Winnie grinned at her. “Because I’ve heard from, like, four different people that you guys got back together again.” She put her hands on her hips and stuck out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout. “I can’t believe you kept it a secret for this long! You didn’t even tell me.”

As much as Autumn loved living in her hometown again, it was definitely the same old hotbed of gossip it had always been. And Matt’s little white lie at the festival had apparently spread like wildfire.

“It’s not, uh, anything serious. We’re just friends,” she protested. She didn’t want to go into the whole story right now.

Winnie gave her a skeptical look. “Riiight. If you say so. But seriously, talk to Matt about getting a restraining order or something against Phillip.”

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