Summer Love_ A Steamy Small Town Romance Anthology - Piper Rayne Page 0,228

for the night.” Leon popped his head through the doorway, then pulled up short when he got a good look at her. “You okay?” His eyes narrowed as he took in the room.

“I’m fine.” She sat ramrod straight.

“Your desk . . .” He motioned to the nearly clean space in front of her. It was typically littered with paperwork. “Are you moving out?”

She hoped not. After leaving Missoula, she’d finally made up her mind and had decided that she did want to enact her plan. At least, she wanted to attempt to. “I have a meeting with Mrs. Brandon.” She then let him in on a bit of reality. She looked Leon straight in the eyes. “To discuss the future of the Double B.”

“Oh.”

The man was smart. He’d been around for several decades more than she, and he’d known when he’d hired on the year before that things might change. Mr. Brandon had just died, after all, and everything could be up in the air when such a huge change occurred. Of course, given the way the past year had gone, neither of them had expected any changes.

“You’ll let me know if I need to start looking for another job?” His tone went solemn.

She nodded. “We’ll talk the minute I finish with the meeting.”

Without further words, Leon retreated. They’d returned from that week’s rodeo a couple of hours ago, and making excuses, she’d headed to her office and left Leon to handle the bulls. She suspected he’d just figured out why. But she’d needed time alone to prepare. To review her pitch. This wasn’t going to be an easy sell.

“She’s in the office.” She heard Leon speak from outside the barn, and she pulled in a deep breath and rose to her feet.

Bobby’s mother appeared a few seconds later, for once not in her usual scrubs, and when she offered a genuine smile, Jewel relaxed for the first time that day. Beth Brandon had always been good to her. Just as her husband had been.

“Please, have a seat,” Jewel requested. But as the older woman moved into the room, her footsteps stalled.

Her gaze trained on something behind Jewel.

Jewel didn’t have to glance behind her to understand. It was the gift she’d found waiting for her the weekend before.

“That’s you.” Astonishment filled Mrs. Brandon’s features. “That’s phenomenal.”

When Jewel had returned to the office last Sunday, mentally drained from walking away from Bobby, she’d come face-to-face with a twelve-by-twelve wooden placard of her. It was only one side of her face, her profile rising up out of the wood. Bobby had sculpted both profile and placard from a single piece of mahogany, using stains and finely carved details to perfectly capture her expression when speaking with bulls. He’d mentioned how mesmerizing that look could be a few weeks before, and upon seeing it, she’d collapsed into tears.

“Who did that?” Beth asked.

Jewel didn’t speak. She couldn’t. But Beth had to know the answer.

Jewel waited, and Beth finally lowered to her seat. She dragged her gaze to Jewel’s. “Not Bobby?” she whispered.

Jewel nodded.

“But how?”

Beth studied the sculpture again, and Jewel watched as pieces of the puzzle seemed to click into place. She turned in her seat, looking back over her shoulder as if seeing through the walls of the barn and across the pasture. Seeing the studio where Bobby spent so much of his time.

“I never knew,” she finally whispered. “Does he have more like this up there?”

He had a cabinet full. But that wasn’t her place to share. “You probably should ask him that yourself.”

Bobby’s mother nodded, and Jewel found herself wanting to say more. Wanting to suggest she demand her son not give up this part of his life. Jewel knew he had plans, that he’d always seen himself being a solid “provider” by getting a job that would support a family. But his talent was so extraordinary. He couldn’t just turn a blind eye to it.

She kept her thoughts tucked away, however. Because that, also, wasn’t her place. If she and Bobby were still together . . . maybe. But he was probably already back with Bria.

With the thought she’d done her best to avoid all week now forefront in her mind, she bit down on the pain of her loss and nudged the folder across the top of the desk.

“I have an offer I’d like to discuss,” she said. “Concerning the sale of the Double B.”

She and Bobby’s mother got down to business then as Jewel presented her idea. She