Page 33 of Unforgettable Cowboy
Calm.Stay calm.
Hayes turned before she did, but Bailey ignored him, somehow managing a bemused expression as she met Chance Meyer’s curious gaze.
“Six, seven months.How are you?”She kept her voice on the cool side, as the friend of a soon-to-be ex-wife would do.She was about to ask him what he was doing in Marietta, but Hayes beat her to it.
“Here early to check out the facility?”he asked, matching Chance’s fake-friendly tone.
Chance obviously knew the rodeo facility well, having competed in the Copper Mountain Rodeo in the past, but Hayes simply waited for the man’s answer, as if it were a reasonable question.
“Interviewing for a job.”
Bailey hoped she looked neither guilty nor threatened, although both emotions were pretty much swamping her.
“Not heading south?”she asked.
“I am.I won’t start until after the National Finals.That’s part of the deal.”Chance eyed her curiously.“You’re also here early.”
This guy, who’d made her friend so miserable in the name of love, was not going to shake her.“I wanted some quiet time to make stock between rodeos.I could either stay where I was or come here early.I decided to enjoy Marietta for a few days.It’s quiet when the rodeo isn’t in full swing.”
Chance gave her a thoughtful look.“Where were you before?”
Hayes touched Bailey’s shoulder, making her jump and reminding her of the times that Bruce had quietly directed her mom in public with a word or a touch.
Hayes is not Bruce.
As he proved with his next words.
“Not to be rude, but I need to get back to Wade.It was good bumping into you.”
Hayes spoke easily, obviously playing along with her ruse that she’d only been in Marietta for a matter of days, but the set lines of his face told her that he was in protect-o mode.The last thing she needed was Chance to think she needed reason to be protected, but he seemed to take Hayes’s presence at face value.
“My uncle injured himself,” Hayes explained to Chance.“I’ve got to get home before the caretaker leaves.”
Bailey gave Hayes a polite smile.“It’s been great seeing you again.Tell your uncle I hope he gets better soon.”
Hayes turned his broad back to them to start the checkout process, and Bailey pulled out her phone, ignoring Chance as she pretended to check a message.After Hayes removed his card from the pay terminal, he wished Chance good luck with the rodeo, gave Bailey a quick yet distant nod then headed for the exit like a man on a mission.Bailey hefted her basket onto the counter.
“Doing some fencing?”Chance asked curiously.Had he noticed that her basket and Hayes’s contained almost identical items?
“I’m repurposing this stuff.”
“Jewelry made out of screws?”
She gave him a cool smile.“You’d be surprised at what sells.”
“Have you seen Jenna lately?”Bailey didn’t know if Chance saw her back stiffen, and she didn’t care.
“To tell you the truth, I haven’t heard from her in months.”
“That seems odd.”
“No.It seems right.She’s working through the shit you put her through and when she’s ready to talk, she’ll get hold of me.”
She picked up the heavy paper bags of screws and headed for the door, hating that this man made her feel self-conscious at a time when she needed supreme confidence.Fortunately, she could fake supreme confidence, but her back still stiffened when Chance called, “If you hear from Jenna, tell her I’d like to talk.”
Bailey wanted badly to middle-finger him, but decided that might be too much for someone supposedly out of touch with his soon-to-be ex.
She walked past Hayes’s truck and down the sidewalk toward the credit union.She heard Hayes’s truck start moving, but she didn’t look back until she turned into the credit union parking lot, and he rolled in after her.She got into the truck without a word and settled in the seat.
