When I did, I saw that my query on the room over the barn had been replied to with a number.
I immediately dialed as I gorged myself on the rest of the pastries Denver had brought back.
I fully expected the person who answered on the other end to be male, but when a young girl picked up, I frowned in confusion.
“Hello?”
“Uh, hi,” I said quietly. “I’m calling about the room for rent.”
“Oh!” she chirped. “That’s me! Or us! Well, it’s my dad’s. Kind of? I’m sorry. I’m blabbering. Hi, I’m DeeDee.”
“DeeDee Windsor?” I asked forlornly.
Because I knew that if this number went to DeeDee, that likely meant that this room for rent was over Denver’s barn.
Not some random strangers that hadn’t stolen my home.
“Yes.” She paused. “Do we know each other?”
“It’s Holly.”
“Holly?”
I gritted my teeth when I said, “Georgina. Georgie.”
“Oh!” DeeDee cried. “Georgie!” She paused. “You go by Holly?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Okay. I’ll try my hardest to start calling you Holly then. I don’t blame you for going by something different. Your mom’s name is everywhere.”
It was.
My mother, the Hollywood starlet that she was, was known far and wide.
Even people who had just moved here joked about how my name and my mother’s name were so close. Not that they knew that Georgina Kate was my mother.
I didn’t tell anyone that information.
But the town knew.
There was no hiding it.
Georgina Kate made her way back to Sawtooth every once in a while. And when she did, she always caused a stir. And by stir, I mean she caused her daughter, A.K.A. me, to have to deal with her high-fallutin’, pompous, thinks-she’s-better-than-everyone self. I always had to clean up the mess of anger and resentment she left in her wake.
Anyone who met Georgina Kate hated her.
She was not an easy person to get along with, and certainly wasn’t someone that anyone liked when they saw how she treated people she thought were less than her.
“Thank you,” I said to DeeDee, numb.
What was I going to do?
I’d started this phone call off hopeful.
But now…
“Please, please tell me that you’ll take the apartment. It’s free. The only thing that’s wrong with it is that the shower doesn’t work in the apartment. But it’s something my dad’s going to work on. He has a contractor that he’s on the list with. But he doesn’t trust many people to come out to the ranch and snoop in his stuff. That’s also why this place isn’t taken yet. Dad runs them off before he even meets them. He’s done a background check on every person that’s called so far, and found all of them lacking. I have a feeling you’ll be perfectly fine, though.”
