Page 27 of Paper Horses

“Driver?” Sheila mouthed. I shook my head, handing her the jeans and shirt before I made my way to the door.

“Make sure she gets some boots. She’s not happy with the ones I have.” Olivia shot me daggers as I opened the door, and I gave her a smirk. “Maybe something to wipe away that attitude while you’re at it.”

“Why you—” The door closed before I could hear the rest of her words.

I walked past the glass window, wanting no temptation to watch her. Resting against the brick building, I crossed my arms and closed my eyes. Olivia Icinda was going to be the death of me. This storm was sure to keep her here longer, and that would be my undoing if I didn’t stop letting my mind wander and my guard down.

After several minutes of silencing my thoughts, the bell over Sheila’s shop door jingled, and I peered over to see Sheila coming toward me.

“Should I ask why she has the same name as your ex?” she asked, propping herself next to me.

“Is there nothing private in this town?”

She shrugged. “Eh, you get drunk with my husband and blab about the love of your life and it’s bound to get out. Besides, everyone knows you carry a torch for an old flame. Otherwise, you would have settled down by now. We had hopes with Jessie, but that wasn’t meant to be.”

“She’s more Carl’s type.”

“True. And that feisty woman in designer clothes who looks like she stepped from the pages of a runway magazine is yours?”

I tipped my head back, resting it against the wall. This was the issue with living in a small town. Everyone was in everyone else’s business, and I liked my business private.

“She’s not.” She had been at one time. “She’s Olivia Icinda, the spoiled daughter of a billionaire, and now she and her brother own my ranch for some convoluted reason.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Is she the same woman?”

“Fuck, you people are nosy.”

She chuckled. “I’m nosy, and if I don’t tell Stan the scoop, he’ll be pissed at me.”

“Yes, she’s the same woman. Just…changed. Aren’t you supposed to be in there helping her?”

“She’s trying things on. She’s intimidatingly beautiful in clothes. I don’t want to be in a dressing room to find out how perfect she is without her clothes.”

I groaned, hating the image that popped into my head.

“I’ve never seen you this frazzled. You’re usually all moody and grumpy.”

“Trust me, I’m grumpy.”

“So why is she here?”

I peered over at her, giving her a scowl that only made her laugh. Sheila was more like my mother than my mother had ever been. There was nothing cold and calculating about her, nothing to her but hugs and good-natured warmth. The matriarch of the town.

“She’s evaluating the ranch, reviewing the operations and the numbers to see what they’ll need to invest to get it back up to par.”

“Shame about that ranch. It’s still odd how fast it turned.”

“Twelve years isn’t fast.”

“For a ranch that stood operational and successful for a hundred years, it was fast.”

I squinted at her. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” I asked, Olivia’s words coming back to me.

She picked at a spot on her jeans. “You’ve lived here for twelve years, and everyone in this town knows you. You’re like one of us, fit right in from the moment you moved here. With your city-boy truck and attitude, we wanted to write you off, but you were more country than some of us even are. Those people up the road from you. They’re standoffish. Have been here since they bought out that farm thirty years ago. Aggressively. They don’t come into town, and they don’t attend events.”

“What are you saying, Sheila?”

“That it’s not right. There’s something not right about them. I warned you to keep your eyes open. Hell, so did Frank, but you were too determined to prove yourself.”