Space that I’d provided for him without complaint.
Who we needed to think about right then was Dean.
He was the top priority.
And I wasn’t going to insert myself into their new reality until it was best to do so.
Hence why I was at a car dealership, trading in a car that I’d had for only a few months.
The man who sold me the car was smiling, but it was one of those fake smiles that were plastered on a man’s face when he was trying to placate an overreacting woman.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t take your trade,” he apologized.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because we won’t have any resale for it here.” He practically patted me on the head. “Those kinds of cars don’t do well in Montana.”
I nearly keeled over. “You were the one to sell me this car and tell me that it’d be perfectly fine in Montana. It was something I specifically asked you.”
A motorcycle roared up, and I turned to look behind me to see an older man with a hell of a beard coming to a stop by the window.
The salesman that had just told me he couldn’t take my car as trade left me like a hot potato.
I stiffened my spine and walked toward the man who was now helping the biker.
“…to buy a truck that will get me home. Needs to be able to pull…” the biker was saying.
I walked right into the middle of their conversation and said, “I would highly recommend that you don’t buy a single thing from this crooked dealership.”
The salesman stiffened. “Ma’am…”
“That man,” I ignored the salesman’s discomfort. “Sold me this car only a few months ago and told me that it would be great in Montana winter. Let me tell you something. It’s not. It’s awful. It’s a great car, but it’s not something that I can use here when it snows. It’s unsafe. And this man was the one that made me buy it.”
The biker looked from me to the salesman. “Is that right?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I was going to buy a truck in cash, but seeing as you don’t have any integrity, I guess I’ll head on down the road to the next dealership.”
My smug smile had the salesman narrowing his eyes.
The biker walked back to his bike, and I walked to my car. “You come back here, and you’ll have the cops called on you for trespassing.”
I whirled around. “Seeing as I’m married to a cop, he might be really interested to know that you’re a slimeball that sold me a car knowing damn well and good that it wouldn’t do well in Montana.”
If I could call Gentry my husband. Or even a boyfriend at this point. I had no clue what we were.
Technically he was my husband. But he hadn’t seen, nor spoken to me, in days.
“Yeah, I’m sure that your ‘husband’ would’ve let you come all the way over here without accompanying you.” The salesman snorted. “Next you’re going to tell me that he’s a Dixie Warden and he’ll come kick my ass.” The salesman rolled his eyes as if he couldn’t find that any more annoying. “Because you know, it’s only the corrupt Wardens that work for the sheriff’s department in this county.”
The old man, who’d been in the process of getting onto his bike, froze.
He turned around and leveled a look on the salesman. “What about Dixie Wardens?”
The salesman froze. “Uhhh…”
The biker picked up his phone and dialed someone.
He grinned when whomever it was picked up and said, “Denver. Might want to meet me down at the Ford place in town.”
