Page 105 of The Talk of Coyote Canyon

“She’s never really known me.” Ellen paused. “Wait...”

“What?” he asked.

Rolling away from him, she grabbed her phone off the nightstand. “When I arrived at the Haslem property the morning after the well had been sabotaged, I found a tire imprint in the mud. I didn’t think I’d really be able to use it for anything, but I snapped a picture, just in case.”

“Wow!” he said as he took her phone from her. “You got a good shot.”

“Thanks. Just before you came over tonight, I stopped by the police station and spoke to Sherman Wilkes. I’ve known him since I fixed the pump on his well right after I moved to town and he was new on the force. He said Jay would have to file a police report, since it happened to his property, but then he’d look into it.”

“Are you going to talk to Jay about it?”

“I plan to.”

He continued to study the photograph. “Even if Jay files a report, who knows how long it’ll take the police to make any kind of determination—or if they ever will.”

“There’s also a chance Jay won’t bother, now that the well’s been repaired.”

“We could use this to check the tires of the people we suspect,” he said. “There’s a lot of detail here. We should be able to tell if Rocko’s tires are similar or vastly different, at least.”

“Vastly different could work as a means of elimination.”

“And if we find that any of Rocko’s tiresaresimilar, we could press him harder—maybe even accuse him outright to see what he might give away under pressure—because there’d be no reason for his vehicle to be anywhere near that well.” He sent the picture to himself before giving her phone back to her. “Why do you think he claimed Maribeth was on the back of his bike if she wasn’t? That was such a risky lie. All you had to do was check with her.”

“Honestly? I think he was embellishing to make the lie more believable—providing a good reason for being on his motorcycle so late at night that far from his house—and never thought I’d check. He used to date Maribeth. He might be aware that we don’t know each other. Without Talulah, I never would’ve approached her.”

“And he has to be familiar with how you felt about me and Lynn and Stuart. He owns and works at one of the most popular businesses in town, so he hears most everything. I bet he thought it would be easy to cause a fight between us—that he’d set it up, and we’d just go after each other and never investigate further.”

“Then he’d have his revenge on me for turning him down, and you’d no longer be a romantic rival—meaning there’d be a chance I’d change my mind about him.”

“Would you ever date him?” Hendrix asked.

“Absolutely not,” she replied. “But he doesn’t know that.”

Hendrix sighed. “The last thing we needed was for him or anyone else to cause more trouble between you and my aunt. Things have been bad enough for the past twenty years.”

“Well, if things get so bad between you and your aunt and my father that you get fired, at least I can offer you a job.” She lifted her head to grin down at him. “In case you haven’t seen the notices posted around town, I’m looking for a good driller.”

He laughed. “Working with you every day doesn’t sound half-bad. But if I’m not going to be able to buy Stuart out of the business I’ve been helping with for years, you’d have to make me more than just an employee. Would you be willing to do that?”

She tilted her head to the side, wearing a skeptical expression while making it obvious she was teasing him. “We’ll see. At least we both know the demands of the job.”

He’d hate to lose all he’d put into Fetterman Well Services. The equipment alone was worth millions. But all the power was in Stuart’s hands, who was heavily influenced by Lynn. There was a very real risk Hendrix could be cut off.

Was he going to allow Stuart and Lynn to use the business to control his personal life? That they might even try made him angry. But taking up that fight came with huge risk. What he felt for Ellen was exciting and hopeful, but it was also brand-new. He had no idea where it would go. And if it didn’t go anywhere, he’d be risking his financial future, as well as his relationship with the only family he had, for what? Would Lynn block him from seeing Leo? Refuse to forgive him if he chose Ellen over her?

They all lived in the same small town. It would be miserable if a serious rift occurred.

The ramifications were daunting. But he wasn’t going to think about all of that right now. He’d solve the mystery of who’d sabotaged the Haslem well and mitigate some of Lynn’s anger that way—show her that Ellen wasn’t out to get her. Then, hopefully, she’d feel bad for assuming it was Ellen and be more tractable in the future.

“For the first time since you moved here, I’m glad you’re in the same business,” he said as he rolled her beneath him. “There could certainly be some advantages.”

Her arms tightened around his neck as she pulled him in for a kiss. When he lifted his head, he couldn’t help thinking how beautiful she’d become to him, which was so weird, given how he’d reacted to her at first sight. She was probably the only woman in town who wore her hair so short, but it made her eyes look that much bigger. “On the other hand, maybe we’d never accomplish anything if we worked together. It’s getting harder to leave you by the second...”

“That could prove to be a challenge.”

“Even if we got to a jobsite, I probably wouldn’t be able to let you out of the truck.” His alarm sounded, making him groan in disappointment. “Damn.”

Reluctantly, he got out of bed to silence it. “I still need to go home, shower and change into my work clothes, so I’d better take off.”

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