LENA
“Ithought you’d stopped ordering work deliveries to the house,” Cole said, carrying in a package from the porch. He passed it to Tess where we sat at the kitchen table, rolling out cookie dough for our planned junk-food-and-movie marathon later.
“I have,” she said. “Everything’s going to the salon now.” Tess caught my eye, amused. “The cattle kept trying to eat the cardboard boxes, getting my aesthetician supplies all slimy.”
“Sounds like something Bonnie would do,” I said, the smile sliding right off my face as I realized what I’d said.
The corner of Tess’s mouth twitched in sympathy as she accepted the package from Cole. She glanced over it, frowning. “Honey,” she handed it over to me, “this is for Lena.”
“Me?” Who the hell was sending me packages to Tess’s place?
“Couldn’t tell,” Cole admitted, leaning against the back of her chair. “Looks like one of the calves might have stomped on it.”
“Why are there cattle on the porch?” Tess complained.
“There are cattle everywhere.” He bent over and pecked her on the top of the head. “You fell in love with a rancher, remember?”
“But they’re supposed to be contained. We talked about this.”
“Yes, but sometimes the little ones slip out,” he teased.
I couldn’t help thinking about Bonnie again, the way she infiltrated Lochbrae, and a miserable ache swelled in the pit of my stomach. The way Tess and Cole stared at each other was also nauseatingly adorable. I wanted to excuse myself to wallow in my room, but as my eyes finally caught on the smudge of handwriting that remained beneath a muddy hoof print, my breath caught in my throat.
Oh, God.
It was Weston’s horrible handwriting. The same handwriting I’d teased him about that day in the dining room at Lochbrae, when we’d been going through the old festival paperwork. I’d somehow ended up pinned against the wall, breathing him in. The memory was so strong I swore I could smell that intoxicating cologne he always wore.
Tess finally looked over. “What is it?”
“It’s from Weston,” I murmured, unsure of what to do next. My hand trembled as I laid the package on the table.
“You’re kidding!” Tess said. “How the hell did he even know you were in Montana?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Social media, maybe.”
“And he found our home address how?” Cole wondered, rubbing his jaw.
I huffed a humorless laugh. That was the least ofmyconcerns. “It was probably on some paperwork from when he organized the bachelorette weekend. Or, I don’t know, maybe he hired a PI. The man has obscene amounts of money. If he wanted to find someone, it wouldn’t exactly be hard.”
“Creepy,” Tess said. Cole grunted in agreement. “Open it!”
“No,” I said, shoving the package aside. Tess shoved it back toward me. “I don’t want whatever’s in there.”
“How can you know if you want it unless you see what it is?”
“Because I don’t want anything from him,” I insisted, that same fire stirring inside me that I’d felt on the steps of the courthouse. This was supposed to be my clean break, which admittedly wasn’t so clean of a break with how my stomach continued to gurgle and flump since I’d boarded the plane for the last time from Scotland. How the hell was I supposed to move on if packages from Weston started following me around?
“Maybe we should defer to Lena on this one, huh?” Cole said, nuzzling the top of Tess’s head. “I know you’re nosy?—”
“Iamnosy!” Tess agreed, her entire face lighting up with excitement. “I want to know what that man could have possibly sent all this way.”
“Maybe it’s the divorce paperwork,” I said, but even I could hear that I sounded uncertain. Frankly, it seemed too soon for that. We’d just smoothed everything over with the court in Braeburn. Jumping the gun to initiate the divorce too quickly might cause more problems with the terms of the will. The last thing we needed was Jasper rearing his ugly head again. But maybe Weston was confident that we could now go our separate ways physicallyandlegally.
“Mmm, I don’t think so,” Tess said. “Wouldn’t that come directly from a lawyer’s office? This looks like it’s directly from Weston.”
I sighed, staring down at the bubbled envelope. “I have to open it, don’t I?”
“I really think you do,” Tess agreed.
