starting with how much I loved her.
Chapter 16
Bristol
It was obnoxiously nice outside. Birds chirped in the bushes a hundred yards from my trailer. Their cacophony was worse than living next door to frat boys. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and I was sweating before ten a.m.
I put on the sunglasses that Emma had given me the night she and Taya had come over. I’d told them the bare-bones story about the trust and asked for their discretion. I needed someone on my side in town, but if they told the world what had happened, it wasn’t like my life would change.
Everyone thought I had done something to make Emilia Boyd collapse. Taya had heard I yelled at her. Emma said the gossip was that I’d pushed the woman. Both of them claimed to have defended my honor.
I believed them.
So, that night, we tailgated. I warned them about the trailer and they didn’t let it stop them. They used the bathroom several times and didn’t comment on the state of the rest of the space. Since Taya brought over a couple bottles of wine and I didn’t drink, both women had to crash in the RV for the night. Taya took the couch and I made Emma sleep on the bed instead of on the floor by Taya. I slept in the back of my pickup with Daisy after they each fell asleep. An impromptu campout. Otherwise, they’d have argued, and I couldn’t share a bed with anyone but Dawson. Too soon.
They’d begun the next day hungover and I had started work late. But it’d been worth it.
I’d felt lighter the next morning. Tired and worn out, but not holding in everything that bothered me, not letting it eat away at me. I had even gone to town for mouse traps and rodent stations and managed not to lob off a sarcastic remark when I was asked if I needed more than one. A trailer, three RVs, a shop, and a barn. Yes, I needed more than one.
I missed Dawson every second of every day, but I remembered to eat when I was supposed to. I had even cooked a small meal in my RV. Spaghetti didn’t take much, but it had tasted better than something out of a can.
The Fourth of July was tomorrow. Taya and Emma had tried to talk me into going to the concert after the fair closed and staying for the fireworks. Some country singer I’d heard on the radio was performing, but I didn’t care if I ever heard them again, much less saw them in person. I hadn’t committed.
Dawson and I had planned to go to the fair with his family and I hadn’t heard from him since the day I’d chased him out of my shop. I hadn’t seen increased traffic at his place—not that I’d caught myself staring across the pasture that separated our houses one or a hundred times. I doubt they’d come up for the weekend.
Two weeks. Felt like months.
I hadn’t gotten any new messages from him. The fences were strong, so there was no need to contact me about my wayward cattle. I might have had fantasies about cutting a hole in the fence just to see if he’d message me or leave it to Tucker or Kiernan.
That wasn’t all I’d fantasized about. Working all day by myself ran long. Hours and hours in my own head. Dawson centered in most of my fantasies. And that money. It was hard not to think about it.
What would anyone do with that much money? What would I do with that much money? Move out of town? Build a fresh life where no one knew me?
It wasn’t mine, didn’t matter. But it was natural to wonder. To ponder all the possibilities.
The countdown to his birthday was on. Tomorrow. The town would spread word if he married, but if he didn’t, he was going to lose the trust in a matter of hours. Less than a day.
Curiosity ate at me, but the hole it made wasn’t bigger than the one Dawson had left behind.
I looked at my phone. It was early for lunch, but my stomach protested and I was hot and uncomfortable.
I brushed out Bucket and put him into the pasture. Daisy barked and sped off. An engine rumbled moments later.
As I crossed through the barn, I missed who was driving by. Daisy wasn’t going wild, so it could only be a handful of people.
It hit me. People, as in