Page 15 of Rescued Hearts
Louise, the diner owner, came over with a hand on her hip, pursing her fire engine red lips at me. “I need legal advice.” She was outspoken in that way old people were when they just didn’t care anymore, and I loved it. You never really knew what she would say next, but nine times out of ten, it would be ridiculous.
“I told you a hundred times, Mrs. Caldwell, I can’t get you out of that parking violation.” She got written up for parking in the loading zone at the grocery store, and when she came outside with her groceries, she told Riley, the cop who was writing her up, to “get a load of this” and threw a bag of lemons at her.
I was surprised she had it in her, to be honest, considering she was nearing eighty.
She rolled her eyes. “And I told you a hundred times to stop calling me that. That’s my mother-in-law—the last one—and I hated that mean old hag.”
Louise was the reason why I loved this place. She was unapologetic; what you saw was what you got. It was a personality trait I admired greatly since I grew up surrounded by the exact opposite. I remember coming here with my cousins as a boy and being awestruck by her when she’d shamelessly flirt with Uncle Mount or share some insane story.
She placed a cup of coffee in front of me. I took a sip without doctoring it, knowing it’d be perfect with a pinch of sugar and one creamer; she had everyone’s orders memorized. “Well, if ya can’t get me outta this damn ticket, then what good to me are you?”
I laughed. “I’ll let you know when I find out.”
I grabbed the paper, skimming over the stock price reports even though I could get them on my phone. But it was when I got to the bottom of the front page that my eyes nearly popped out of my head.
I was in the gossip column:The Wild Creek Whispers.
TessandI.
Hayes, Heartbreak, and a Haymaker
The Bull Penserved more than just whiskey last night—it served chaos on ice.
While fights aren’t exactly rare at the Pen, it was the first one our very own sheriff was involved in. That’s right, Colt McLeod, along with his brother, broke up the scuffle between his best friend and an out-of-towner rumored to be Savannah Hayes’s ex-fiancé!
After a warning from big brother Emmett to show Savannah some respect, the hotshot lawyer from Dallas kept running his mouth. So our rodeo star, Weston Tate, shut it for him with his fist. And just when we thought it couldn’t get better, Delilah Chase topped it off with a full gin and tonic to the face.
Reports say Weston and Savannah flew out of the parking lot so fast that the asphalt was smoking. I wonder what they were in such a hurry for?
Oh, and while fists were flying? Across the dance floor, Tess Hayes and her lawyer, Levi Hollis, were dancing like they’d never heard of the word boundaries. And their chemistry? Let’s just say, if we were in a courtroom, they’d both be held in contempt.
Turns out Claire and Beau aren’t the only Hayes and McLeod reaping benefits from the Golden Circle merger.
Like always, if it’s worth whispering, it’s worth writing down.
- WCW
I only felt vaguelyrelieved once I saw that we weren’t the main topic. Weston and Savannah were. But still, staring at our names lumped together in black ink felt significant somehow.
“Oh, you hadn’t seen that, huh?” Louise said, amused.
My brows shot up. “You had?”
She gave me a look. “Honey, I’m the first one to read those things. I get my copy before the damn ink dries.”
“You could’ve led with this!” I waved the paper at her. This was a disaster. What were people going to say? What was Tess going to say? I sagged in my seat. Oh God, Preston was going to have a field day with this.
Louise chuckled. “Where’s the fun in that?” She waved her hand around in a broad gesture as she said, “All you young people run around, thinkin’ no one’s watching. Someone’s always watching.”
But then my heart nearly stopped. What if Jeremy somehow found this? Tess had told me he didn’t know where they were, but what if he had alerts for her name? Tracked her down and came here? It’d be all my fault. I was an idiot for letting myself be reckless, for thinking that I could take my eye off the ball just once. And now, Tess and Luke could be in danger because of it.
Of course, we’d made it in theWhispers. Of course, someone had noticed. Louise was right, Wild Creek had eyes and ears on every surface. And I knew in the back of my mind last night that I wasn’t exactly being subtle. I’d let myself forget, for a night, that I had a responsibility. To her. To Luke. To their case.
But now it was printed in ink for the entire town to read.
And no matter how many cold showers I took or how fast I ran, I knew the truth would still be there waiting for me.
I was in deep. Too deep.
