Page 1 of Defining their Destiny

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Someone was watchingher again.Dusty Talley hated it when that happened. It seemed like she had been watchedby people from the time she had been just a kid. It had just gotten worse since one of the biggest Hollywood actors in this century had moved to Masterson, Wyoming, and married Dusty’s closest friend within the last eight months.

People wanted to know what that actor was up to at all times. At all times.

Nikki was threatening to dosomethingabout it sometime real soon.

Dusty lived in fear of what her bestie would come up with.

Dusty crossed the street from the side parking lot and headed up the half block to the diner she and her family owned and worked six days a week.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Masterson County had been incredibly tense in the last month or so. A rich rancher named Morris Preston had nearly killed multiple people—people Dusty cared about a great deal. Including Nikki’s older brother Gil. It had unsettled everyone.

Everything was sideways. Unsafe.

Masterson used to besafe.

She hadn’t felt that way in a long time now. It just…something didn’tfeelright. The watching feltdifferent. Really different tonight.

Not that Dusty was the type who believed infeelings,premonitions, or fate. But tonight…

Maybe just a little.

Or maybe it was the snow. The first significant snow of the year was supposedly coming in by the weekend. Mother Nature was already getting started. They’d had an unseasonably dry and warm October.Thatwas over now.

Dusty would probably always hate the snow now.

After what had happened to her before.

Dusty pushed open the glass door into the diner that had almost always represented safety, and finally took a breath. Her family, her friends, were inside.

Marin, her cousin, looked up when she entered. “You’re safe, Destiny Marie, you know. Here. But I really wish you wouldn’t walk here alone any longer.”

Marin had been cautioning her about doing that since a Hollywood executive had hurt Dusty once before. Dusty had just been in the way—he’d wanted Nikki.

Nothing ever feltrightanymore. It just didn’t.

It had only been eight months. Healing just didn’t happen overnight, right?

“I have to be alone sometimes, Marin. We all do.” She’d lost her faith that Masterson was a safe place that day. She was determined to get it back. Marin’s scary doom predictions didn’t help.

“I know. I just…the idea ofyoubeing alone right now scares me a little.” Marin glanced toward the dining room. They had a few tables full at the moment, but not much. It was a Tuesday at four, one of their slowest times of the week. “I’m not sure why. Just a feeling I have been having lately. Just promise you’ll be careful. What has you spooked? You’re as jumpy as the Lowells’ cat tonight.”

Dusty shook her head. She hadn’t realized it showed. “Nothing. Just…being paranoid.”

“Well, call me if you want me to come over and get you tonight after closing. Don’t walk home alone tonight, okay?”

Marin was missing the point. If she drove over to get Dusty, Marin would be the one out there alone then. The older woman had a habit of hovering. Especially since what had happened to Junie in the back alley behind the diner just a month ago. “I drove.”

“I can call Zach. Have him swing by here at closing to walk you and whoever else is on the schedule out to your cars. It’s what hot cop ex-boyfriends are for, you know.”

“It’s Junie on at close tonight. You might cause a massive explosion.” Their waitress, Junie, and Marin’s ex-boyfriend, one of the local deputies, despised each other. Sparks flew whenever they got too close to one another.

“They are so entertaining.” Marin shot her a wicked smile. “They’ll end up married with six kids of their own someday. Bet you a hundred.”

On that, Dusty wasn’t about to take that chance. Marin was right more than she was wrong when it came to people pairing off. Besides,everyonecould see that there was some serious fire between Junie and Zach.

Except for, well, Junie and Zach. Those two seemed to have completely missed the memo.

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