by Em Petrova
“There’s plenty between Crossroads and the neighboring towns, though. How far are you willing to travel?” Joss asked.
“When I had my business in Dallas, I traveled up to a hundred-mile radius to see clients.”
“There ya go. You have a big enough territory to conquer,” Jada added.
“But am I barking up the wrong tree?” Sadie thanked the waitress, who placed her order before her.
“What do you mean?” Jada asked after the waitress bustled away.
“I mean, small-town people don’t believe they need this service.”
“One small-minded person can’t break you. She only saw a way to earn more without paying for your service.”
“But how many others have the same mindset? There are DIY shows, YouTube videos, countless blogs and—”
“That’s it!” Joss burst out.
They both looked at her. “What’s it?” Jada asked.
“You’re right that people in this area, even a hundred miles around Crossroads, might be too small-minded to buy into your business. But! You could expand that footprint so far by going online!”
Sadie gaped at her and then sat back against her chair. She had never considered doing her work online. She loved being hands-on, getting into a house and hanging curtain rods or helping to build a feature for more curbside appeal.
“My business exploded after I started my web shop. That was mostly due to Jada, who kind of threw me into it by listing several of my gowns online. But she was genius enough to see people don’t always know they need something in their life until it’s right in front of them. By having an online business, you can get right into those people’s homes—virtually!”
The excitement exuding from Joss infected Sadie. Ideas flooded into her brain, each building on the last.
“I can receive videos and photos from clients and use computer software to draw out their designs. If they want in-person consultations, I’ll still do that, but it would involve a fee after a certain mileage.”
“Exactly!” Jada jumped up from the table.
“Where are you going?” Joss asked.
“To the bathroom.”
After Jada left, Sadie smiled to herself, and Joss gave her a knowing nod.
“Is she…?” Sadie couldn’t resist asking.
Joss nodded. “She doesn’t think I know, but I know my sister.” She picked up Jada’s fruity water and swirled the contents. “Water? Jada would never give up her coffee unless she had a good reason. Plus, I know she and Dom have been trying for a while.” She dropped her eyes to the table. “She had a miscarriage a few months ago. I think it’s why she’s afraid to get her hopes up now.”
“How hard.” Sadie’s heart ached for the struggles she knew nothing about. Yet she and loss were old friends, and she understood from that standpoint.
Joss ran her finger and thumb along her lips in a zip-it-up action.
“I won’t say a word.” Sadie drank the espresso she hardly needed after being energized with new ideas about her business.
Jada returned with a bright smile, sat down and started picking at her blueberry muffin. “What’d I miss?”
Alarm filled Joss’s eyes as she met Sadie’s stare. “I was asking Sadie if she’s met any guys since her arrival.”
Sadie choked on her scone. A dry crumb got stuck in her throat, and she thought she’d do the nose-trick for a mortifying second. Then she managed to edge the crumb into the correct pipe and swallow. She sipped her espresso more slowly to wash it down.
Jada’s eyes adopted a gleam as she said with complete conviction, “Theo.”
This time she did do the nose-trick. Espresso shot from her nose, and the girls started gasping and tossing napkins her direction. She smashed several napkins to her face, trying to clear her airway while dying of humiliation.
“I think you almost killed her with that, sis,” Joss said after Sadie recovered enough and discreetly blew her nose.
“I’m so sorry, Sadie. I didn’t realize I’d make you choke! I just thought…you and Theo at the party had a sort of chemistry. And you left with him for a while.”
“That was nothing.” She waved a hand, but she felt terrible about keeping her odd relationship under wraps when the girls had been so caring and giving today, helping with her business.
She met Jada’s eyes. “That’s not exactly true. Something did happen with Theo. But I’m not sure where it’s going.”
“I knew it!” Jada leaned across the table. “Give us the deets. But only if you want,” she added.
What to say? She enjoyed getting naked with him? She loved how he spread her thighs and sucked her pussy until she couldn’t remember her own name? How he peeled her off the ceiling he helped her paint?
“You know he’s helped me a lot with the schoolhouse. And he’s witty and…”
“Hot?” Joss filled in the blank.
“Well, yes. Hot.” She attempted to hide her grin. “But I’m not really in the market for a relationship. I’m not ready.”
She thought of how he’d brushed her off after the event with the bull, and she couldn’t figure out why. Was he annoyed at how clingy she’d become in that moment when she realized he planned to go inside the fence with a volatile animal? Now that she understood a hundred and twenty percent—she was annoyed with herself.
She’d offered him a lift hoping for a chance to apologize, and his refusal left her little to do but go home and wait for him to show up later—which he never did.
He hadn’t even texted to explain why.
Total blow-off? Well, it was for the better, wasn’t it?
Jada placed a hand over Sadie’s. “It’s understandable that you’re not quite ready for a relationship.”
“Plus he…” How to say that he scared her?
The ladies waited, while a vision of Theo risking himself to catch that horse and then purposely approaching to a massive, injured beast cycled through her brain.
“He does dangerous work. Long ago, I determined I could not live with another man who earned his living around animals. Unless I find a hamster wrangler. Only then. Maybe.”
They exchanged a sympathetic look, and then Jada said, “I understand how that would scare you, Sadie. And you should move as fast or slow as you need to.”
“That’s right. But if you want to jump into the dating scene, I can attest that the attorney here in Crossroads is very cute,” Joss added.
They all burst out laughing.
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” Sadie said, happy the tone lightened.
Joss shifted in her seat. “Sadie, has Theo mentioned anything about his job on the ranch?”
She pinched her brows together. “Like what?”
“Is he unhappy at the Bellamy?”
Her brows shot up now. “Unhappy? No, from how he talks, he adores working on the ranch.”
“Does he get along with all the other ranch hands? Has he mentioned any problems with the foreman?”
She shook her head. “Why are you asking?”
Jada shifted in her seat too. Clearly neither Jada nor Joss wanted to say much, but since they’d opened the floodgates, they had to tread the water.
“What’s going on with Theo and the ranch?” Sadie asked point-blank.
“Cort told me there have been a few incidents with Theo. I only ask you now, because Cort doesn’t know where Theo’s head is—if he still wants to be there.”
This was news to her, which only proved she knew very little about the man other than the size of his cock and how many strokes it took to give her an orgasm.
“What incidents?”
“It started with a shed that was set on fire. It burned down, and Theo wasn’t accused, but he was the last person to be seen in the shed. In the end, he insisted on paying for the materials to rebuild.”
Sadie gaped at Joss.
“And a couple weeks ago, a water tank valve was left open. A field got flooded. And now some of the horses that we
re in that field have a skin condition the vet believes is from bacteria growing in the mud and dirt.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, trying not to let on how disturbed she was to hear these things. “Was Theo the ranch hand who flooded the field?”
Joss bit into her lip and nodded.
“This doesn’t sound like Theo—at all.” At least not the Theo she knew.
“That’s what I’ve been saying all along. I know Theo—he and Dom are as close as brothers. Theo is a hard worker and conscientious to a fault. He wouldn’t make such stupid, careless, destructive mistakes.”
Joss dropped her gaze to the tabletop. “Cort doesn’t want to believe Theo doesn’t care the way he used to. But it doesn’t look very good.”
Sadie’s chest burned as she recalled that furious light that came into Theo’s eyes when she told him the bull was down after chasing a boy across the field. She had enough sense to keep this information to herself—the only person she told about the boy was Theo.
What was going on?
“I don’t know him very well, but I don’t think Theo’s ignoring his work,” she said with a note of conviction in her tone.
Both women nodded.
“We feel the same, Sadie. We’re on Theo’s side. I wondered if he said anything to you. Since he’s been doing construction jobs for you, Cort wondered if he might want to switch careers.”
Sadie blinked in shock at Joss. “I practically roped Theo into helping me, because all the local builders were booked. I’d say if he wanted to make a career switch, as you say, that he would be taking on many other projects and not only mine.”
Jada reached over and squeezed her hand. “Please don’t get upset, Sadie. We only wondered if you knew anything.” She looked between her and Joss. “Who wants to hit the antique store on the corner before we head home?”
“Oh, I do. I’m always looking for good props for my photoshoots for the web shop.” Joss stood.
More slowly, shocked and a bit disturbed at the odd things she heard about Theo today, Sadie paid her bill and followed the women out of the coffeeshop.
Chapter Eight
Even after a pleasant trip through the antique store, Sadie still felt a weight draped over her shoulders. So when she and the girls parted ways, she decided to take a stroll through town.
The park drew her. With its center fountain spouting water in all directions, she couldn’t resist tossing in a quarter. She figured that was worth twenty-five wishes, right?
She could only think of a few, but she stood there for a while, watching the water arc into the shallow pool below. An older gentleman dressed in a pair of lightweight, pressed pants and a neat button-down shirt with a pocket square approached.
He caught her eye and held up a coin. “Can I buy you a wish, young lady?”
She smiled. “That would be kind. Thank you.” She didn’t want to hurt his feelings and tell him she already made several, all of which had to do with her business launch, confusing feelings about Theo…or closing that crack in her broken heart from losing Jackson.
He flipped the coin. Both of them watched it spin end over end and plop into the water. It sank to the bottom, where it glittered with the rest.
She had a moment where her eyes blurred—maybe her eyes played tricks from the sun dancing on the water. Maybe it was her wish coming true.
This time she hadn’t thought about herself at all when she wished that Theo’s troubles—whatever they were—would work out and he’d be happy in the end.
She looked up at the older man and smiled. “I’m Sadie.”
“William. People know me for my Studebaker. It’s parked right over there.” He pointed.
“I’ve seen it before. Thank you for the wish.”
“Hope it comes true,” he drawled and moved on. She watched him walk down a path and settle on a bench. Pigeons and doves flocked to him immediately, and he pulled out a small bag of seed. Clearly this was a daily occurrence, if the birds’ behavior said anything.
Feeling a bit lighter, she strolled out of the park and onto the sidewalk again. As she enjoyed the sun on her face, she allowed her excitement to rekindle for her business. Since her talk with Joss, she had so many great ideas spinning through her brain. She couldn’t wait to get home and make a huge list.
When she spotted the circular wooden sign with the words Attorney at Law on them, she felt a flush at Joss teasing her about the lawyer in town being cute. For some reason, that made her pace increase, but as she reached the front of the building, the door opened and a man stepped outside.
He was cute, all right. Hot even.
Theo.
And there was no way to avoid talking to him, since he saw her. The grim expression he wore slowly faded, and he smiled. “Hi, Sadie.”
“Hey, Theo.” She stopped before him.
Today he wore a nicer shirt than usual. Was he dressed up to meet with the lawyer?
All of a sudden it hit her—what Joss and Jada told her—that the Bellamy might actually be pressing charges against Theo, and he would require legal counsel.
Shooting a look at the office building, and back to him, she said, “Everything okay?”
“Oh. Yeah. Fine.” He glanced at his polished boots and shifted his feet on the sidewalk.
She hated to bring up the topic, but she had to know. “Is the bull…?”
“Still limping a bit. Looks as if he will recover.”
“That’s great news.” Relief surged through her.
He eyed her. “Sadie.” He doffed his hat and rubbed at his nape with his free hand.
“What is it? You know you can confide in me. I’m more than willing to listen if you’re in trouble.”
His gaze shot to hers. “Trouble? No trouble. I was going to ask if you’d mind keeping the bit about seeing the boy running from the bull to yourself for a bit longer. I hate to ask it of you, but—”
“Of course I will,” she said at once, lowering her voice. “I haven’t told anybody but you.”
He gave a nod and placed his hat on his head. “I appreciate it. Are you doing some window shopping today?”
She rolled with the topic change, but deep down felt a waggle of annoyance that he didn’t consider her a close enough friend to confide in.
“Actually, I just had coffee with Jada and Joss. We’ve been discussing my business.”
“Oh?” His brow arched over one smoldering eye.
“Yes, we talked about how Joss’s web shop has been the key to her successful fashion business…and how it might help me to go online too.”
His eyes widened, and a smile broke over his rugged features. “Sadie, that’s a great idea. Really. I think you can make a huge go of it.”
She grinned. “You think?”
“I do. And knowing you, you already have a million ideas.” He reached out as if to brush a lock of hair away from her cheek, but then he dropped his hand short of touching her.
Her insides gave a warm flip. “It’s true I’m itching to get home and make lists.”
His smile fell a bit. “I’m sorry I didn’t come by last night. By the time I realized it was too late for me to make it, I thought it might be too late to text too.”
She didn’t say she waited up for him to show up…or tell him about her disappointment when she went to bed alone.
She waved a hand. “It’s fine. Work on the schoolhouse will wait another day.”
“Speaking of work, I gotta get to the Bellamy. I’ll text you about finishing that molding.”
She nodded, insides knotting that he’d take his leave in this way, as if she was a stranger. In the light of day, what intimacy that lived between them faded into small-talk. Chit-chat.
She threw him an awkward wave. “Catch you later.”
“Bye.”
They went their separate ways. A minute later, she looked up at his truck passing by on the street. He didn’t throw her a wave—or toss her into the back seat and kiss her senseless either.
>
A feeling of loneliness swept over her. Usually, she was good at being on her own and keeping herself company. She glanced at the library, which boasted a book club meeting in about an hour.
She could attend and make a few new friends. But…she didn’t want to talk to just anybody. She wanted to talk to Theo.
Because she was falling for him.
Her heart gave a flip so wild, she expected to feel herself hit the ground. But the impact never came.
Falling for him? No way. It was a terrible idea—a disaster to her heart. Loving another man who could possibly end his days under the hooves of a huge animal? Never.
She hardly knew Theo. Sure, they had amazing sex, and he was great with his hands when it came to construction. But learning what she had about his troubles on the ranch proved she didn’t know Theo. If she really was his friend, wouldn’t he have told her why he was seeing the attorney?
She wasn’t falling for him. She just…cared. Yes, that was it. Because over the past year, Sadie James had learned that her heart could never be compromised by a good-looking cowboy. And definitely not by one referred to as a show-off in spurs.
* * * * *
As Theo walked up the brand-new brick sidewalk to the schoolhouse, he drew in the changes Sadie had made. A fat pot of flowers stood by the front doors, and she’d added a small brass plaque to the side. When he got close enough, he read: Crossroads School 1896-1947.
He knocked and waited. She didn’t answer, so he knocked again, glancing around to make sure he hadn’t imagined seeing her truck in the driveway. He hadn’t.
For a moment, he considered opening the door and going in, but the last thing he wanted to do was frighten the life out of her. He raised his fist to knock again, and the door opened.
She faced him. Fresh. Pretty. Breath-taking, actually. She’d changed out of the red top he’d seen her in earlier and into a comfy T-shirt with Jackson Jesse James’ picture on it.
He stared at the image of her late husband for a long, heart-sinking beat. What did her wearing the shirt mean? She must still be hung up on him. He knew grief had no time limits, but he thought she’d progressed through some of it.
She watched his reaction to seeing her shirt, and he blanked his expression to keep her from seeing something that might set her off.
