Page 8 of Lucky Cowboy

“I can’t believe him. I can’t believe I’m the one who hired him to help you, only for him to behave like that. I can’t believe I ever trusted him with you and your career.” Her father agitation grew, and Val regretted her decision to update him. Maybe she should’ve maintained her silence on the matter. Even despite the sheriff’s call.

Fred Bernard could hold a grudge, but he could beat himself up over a bad decision even more. He had a talent for it.

Maybe that’s where she got it from.

“Dad, it’s okay. I’m fine.” She made him take a seat on a nearby stool. When sitting didn’t calm him enough, she made another suggestion. “Let’s go inside, huh? Get some lemonade? It’s a bit warm out here today.”

It was nothing like as hot as Arizona, but she hadn’t lied. For Montana, this was a high temp spring day. Distracting him with some videoed tricks she saw other riders performing on her phone, she then sat him in front of the TV. Eventually she managed to distract him so that he quit railing about the subject of Biggs.

Feeding him a healthy lunch, Val ate with her dad, then breathed a sigh of relief when he nodded off in his recliner. Customarily, she liked to make sure he was tucked away in his bed before leaving him to nap, but he appeared so cozy where he was that she didn’t bother. Only once he’d been snoring soundly for ten minutes did she dare to go back out to the barn by her lonesome, placing his phone within arm’s reach just in case.

Beneath the big azure sky, she moseyed over toward the barn and the stables within. She heard the distinct snuffling of Maybelline as she entered through the heavy wooden door. A sound she’d know anywhere. It comforted her.

“Hey, girl. Ready for me to keep going?”

Her mare didn’t respond, but she stood nice and still as Val continued to brush her luxurious coat. She hummed to herself as she worked, and by the time she finished, Maybelline swung her head and nuzzled her arm, a sure sign of thanks. Boy, did she ever love this horse.

She had never once loved Biggs, had never so much as entertained the notion. Even at the beginning, during what a counselor would likely term the honeymoon period, he’d been confrontational and domineering. He’d embarrassed her more than once when they’d gone out because he’d been so insulting to those waiting on them.

I should’ve known then,Val reprimanded herself.Should’ve known that he wasn’t right for me. Had never been right for me.

She hadn’t, though. Hadn’t seen the man for whom he’d actually been. Only when Mitzi had brought the evidence of his treachery to her had Val understood just how nefarious the man’s intention had been. She’d become so miserable that she found herself holding back tears on a daily basis before that, but the stealing had given her strength in the form of her fury.

What a scumbag.

Regardless, he’d intimidated her to the point that she’d taken the proof of what he’d done and run from him rather than face him. She’d never seen him be violent toward someone, but she’d seen him kick over troughs of water and throw objects across her trailer.

Yet as reprehensible as Biggs might be, her thoughts didn’t remain on him for long. Instead, they ambled toward the sheriff. Mark Talbot had likely only been staying within the parameters of doing his job when he’d stood up for her with Biggs there in Rocky Ridge. And that’d probably been why he’d reached out to her today, as well.

Simply being meticulous. A good cop following up on a case.

Only he didn’t have to do that. She didn’t know if a typical cop in the same situation would’ve taken the time out of his day. Yet this sheriff did. And the thought of that warmed her from the outside in.

CHAPTERFIVE

Mark startedhis work shift with the news that in another little community on the opposite side of Kirby, Ulysses A. Biggs wound up pulled over for speeding in excess of fifty miles over. He also had a multitude of unpaid parking tickets, tickets he must’ve procured since the last time Mark had run his record.

He felt a thrill of vindication when he discovered that Biggs would have to appear in the local traffic court that morning, but when he found out the result that afternoon, his sense of vindication faltered.

All the judge had given him was a slap on the wrist.

Biggs had received a fine and didn’t even lose his license. Since Biggs had somehow come up with the funds necessary to pay, he wound up released on his own recognizance, a free man with zero restrictions.

And sure, this outcome was far from unheard of. It wasn’t even atypical. Judges could choose to be lenient whenever they wanted. Yet, Mark became filled with resentment every time he thought about that guy out there able to appear wherever Val might be whenever he wanted.

It chapped his hide, frankly.

This left him feeling at out of sorts. It was like having a thorn in his heel that he couldn’t get out, and Mark spent the rest of the day in the grumpiest of grumpy moods. Even though it wasn’t like him at all, he found himself snapping at everyone he spoke to who happened to be stuck beneath his chain of command. He felt guilty about it after the fact, but he couldn’t seem to yank his attitude out of the depths.

When Rusty called, Mark avoided answering him. He didn’t need to push his bad attitude on his friend. After listening to the voicemail where Rusty merely told him he had a question without doing him the courtesy of being specific, he ignored it. Rusty called back a few minutes later, and this time, Mark didn’t even check the voicemail.

A third call, though, had him barking into his phone. “What?”

“Whoa there, Mark, tell me how you really feel.”

“What’s your stupid question?”

There was a pause. “I think my question is this: Are you all right?”

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