“Excuse me? Well, this is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about, Sam,” Marjorie said in an outraged tone. “She is simply not our kind.”

Then she roared off in the Range Rover, spattering Clover with dirt and clods of grass.

When Clover reached the building, Sam was nowhere in sight. Her stomach twisted into a knot. Well, that had been fast. Put him in between a couple of hot, rich chicks, and Clover was yesterday’s news. He hadn’t even come back to get her.

Hurt and humiliation washed over her. Marjorie and her girls must be having a good laugh. Had they seen her kissing Sam? Probably. So everyone would know that she was just as dumb as her younger sister.

She glanced at her computer, then made a decision. She couldn’t stomach seeing him again today, and she could write her blog posts from home. She hurried to her van, calling Blue to let her know that she’d be sending her the blog posts for her review, then got in the van and rumbled off the property, cursing herself the whole way.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Hadn’t she already been shown how well the McCoy men treated the women in her family?

She heard a beep on her cell phone, indicating a text message, but she ignored it. She knew the ring tones of her family, and she wasn’t answering anyone else’s calls today. She wanted some peace and quiet, so she headed to a small dirt road that she remembered from her childhood, and did her work from there before heading back to the boarding house.

Thank God tomorrow was Saturday and she wouldn’t have to see Sam again until Monday. Her gut churned with humiliation at the thought. If he openly laughed at her, she swore to herself, she’d punch his lights out. No job was worth this level of humiliation.

But she had to keep the job, she reminded herself uneasily. As long as her family stayed in Blue Moon Junction, she needed to be able to show that she was gainfully employed, and she really, really needed the money.