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“I have no idea! You have lost your ever-loving mind!” Olivia sighed. “And I wish I could talk to you a little bit longer but my boss is glaring at me. I’m not meant to have my cell phone on the floor.”
“I know.” Olivia worked in an exclusive boutique in Greenwich Village, and she couldn’t afford to get fired because she was as broke as I was.
“I don’t know what to do, though, Olivia. What do I do?”
“Look, Montana can’t be that big, right? How many ranches can there be? Rent a car, drive into town, find a bar, and ask them if they know where the ranch is.”
“You think that’ll work?”
“How many ranches can there be called Horseshoe Ranch?”
“I guess that’s true. Okay, I’ll rent a car. This sucks. I only have $100 in my bank account.”
“Well, you have a credit card, right?”
“Yeah,” I sighed, “but it’s almost maxed out.”
“Maxed it out on what?”
“Clothes for the trip.” I looked down at my two big Tommy Hilfiger suitcases that were filled with new clothes to wear in the country. “I kind of bought some sexy negligees—”
“Why?”
“Because I’m about to get married,” I said like it was obvious.
Olivia made a strangled sort of noise. “Lucy, are you joking? You are the only woman I know that would buy sexy negligees for a man she’s going to marry that she’s never even met. What if he’s like some old crusty guy? Are you going to want to sleep with him then?”
“I’m praying to God he’s not some old crusty guy. I mean, it’s his parents that contacted me. He can’t be that old.”
“Girl, you don’t even know if it’s his parents that contacted you. These are some random people! You’ve never met them either!”
“I know. Oh, my God, I’m absolutely crazy, aren’t I?”
“Just take a couple of deep breaths. Okay?”
“Okay. Okay. I’ll speak to you later. I’m going to go and rent the car now.”
“Bye. Text me if you need anything.”
“Okay. Bye.” I hung up and looked around the airport. I needed to rent a car and get into town. Hopefully, someone would know where Horseshoe Ranch was, and maybe I could get a quick drink as well. I needed it. I was starting to think I’d made a really bad decision coming to Montana.
What had I been thinking?
Well, I’d hardly been thinking at all, but that was because the last couple of months of my life had been absolutely horrible. I dated this guy who I thought was amazing who turned out to have a lot of money and no real job. And he turned out to be not so amazing. And it turned out that when I broke up with him, he didn’t really like it. I’d been his possession, and when I no longer wanted to be with him, he’d been pissed. He’d made up some lies about me, and then I also lost my job, and because I was a little bit of a spend-a-holic, I didn’t have enough money in the bank to cover me until I got a new job. And now the credit card companies were calling me. And my landlord. I’d felt like I was sinking into a cesspit of manure.
I had no good options, and things around me were falling fast. And then I’d found the newspaper on the train and it seemed like all my prayers were being answered. Just the night before I’d been saying, “I wish I could find a rich husband.” And while I didn’t know if this guy was rich—technically. I didn’t even know if he really existed—I did know it was an opportunity to get out of New York City and start afresh.
And as much as I loved New York City and as much as I loved Olivia, I needed a change. I needed to do something with my life. I was 28 years old, and I was going absolutely nowhere. And that wasn’t what I wanted for myself.
I wanted to be married. I wanted to have kids, and I wanted the white picket fence and big house and yard. And, well, it looked like there was plenty of space in Montana, unlike New York City. Maybe this would end up being my place. The home I’d always dreamed of.
I just hoped that I wasn’t being taken for a ride by some psychopath. The last thing I needed was to find myself locked in the back of some cabin in the middle of nowhere because I’d been dumb enough to agree to marry the one serial killer in Montana.
Chapter Two
I pulled up to a bar in the middle of nowhere.
I’d grown up watching those horror movies set in some podunk town with a bunch of locals who wanted to do something to you. I didn’t want to be the Montana chainsaw king’s next victim. I knew I looked cute. If there were some psycho sitting at the bar who wanted to do something to a hottie like me, I would definitely be targeted. I was from out of town and very obviously out of place.
