Page 34 of Mystery at Rescue Ridge

“Did you work weekends?”

“No, sir.”

“Not ever?”

“No, sir.”

“You were never asked to sit with the kids while Ms.Ashworth went out with friends or on a date?”

“No, sir.Simone never left the children except to go to the store, which is where I came in.”

“Did she go anywhere besides the store?”

“To the gym,” Ms.Bart supplied.“For the stress she was under.It was her release.”

Evie knew the real reason her sister went to the gym.To look good on camera.She glanced at Owen and realized he’d had the exact same thought.

“How did Ms.Ashworth make money?”

Evie leaned a little closer to the speaker.Owen did the same, and they almost banged heads.His soft cedar-musk scent filled her senses.Why did he have to smell so damn good?

“Something to do with the internet,” Ms.Bart said.The woman was giving as little information as possible.Was she being protective of Simone?It warmed Evie’s heart to think someone else had cared so much about her sister.That she hadn’t, in fact, been completely alone.It assuaged some of the guilt for the non-visits.Simone had built a life here in Saddle Junction.She’d been doing what she’d believed necessary to provide for her children.

Had Evie really been living in Dallas?She’d all but stopped dating the last couple of years.She’d buried herself with work, which was great for job security but not so much for her mental well-being.She could admit that life in Dallas had been lonely on the rare days she hadn’t worked.Even when she’d been required to arrange a shoot, she’d been scouting locations or skimming magazines for new ways to present places.She’d dropped out of the monthly dinner club at work last year, where a handful of co-workers had taken turns cooking and hosting the small group.Glancing down at her thighs, she noted the effects of cutting off her gym membership.And she couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone to brunch with friends.Friends?She nearly laughed aloud.You have to make an effort if you want to have friends.

Was that a life?

“Do you know what kind of internet business Ms.Ashworth ran?”

The speaker went dead quiet.

“Oh, hold on a sec,” Evie said to Owen, who picked up on the same thing.She caught his gaze.“Will you sit with the kids for a second?”

“Of course.Go.”

Evie darted into the next room, needing to hear the response in person.She folded her arms against her chest and leaned into the doorframe.Her gaze lasered in on Ms.Bart.

The woman’s body language was tense, uptight.She shifted in her seat and clutched her handbag closer to her chest.Not a word came out of her mouth.

“Ms.Bart.”

“Do I have to answer that?”

13

“I’d appreciate it if you would,” Travis said to Ms.Bart as Evie suppressed a gasp.Had the older woman known?

Leaning forward, Evie almost lost her balance.

Ms.Bart sat there for a long moment, quiet.Travis waited.

“Fine,” Ms.Bart said.“It was my idea in the first place, so I might as well come clean.”

Evie had to pick her jaw up from the floor.Did Ms.Bart realize what she was admitting to?Evie had pegged the woman as a prude.Had she seriously told Simone to wear practically nothing for money?Talk to strangers in a private chat room for dollars?

“Simone was fretting over how to take care of the little ones on what little government money she was getting.”

Evie blinked, unsure she could trust her eyes as she watched Ms.Bart spill her secrets.

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