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“I thought if you understood what things were like back then, you might not judge us so harshly. You know how much Lynn adores you. I don’t want Ellen to come between the two of you.”
“It’s not my place to judge anyone. Lynn’s mad at me. I’m not mad at her. But...just to be clear, I don’t think I’m willing to take her side over Ellen’s any longer.”
“What does that mean?”
Hendrix could immediately tell he’d said the wrong thing and tried to explain. “It means I like Ellen, Stu. I want to feel I’m free to be her friend.”
He waited but there was no response.
“Hello?”
“Is this one of those situations where you want something simply because you feel we disapprove?” Stuart asked.
“No. Of course not. I’m not a teenager.”
“So...what’s the sudden attraction?”
He’d been watching Ellen for a while, growing to appreciate her unique beauty, and now he was learning more about her personality. He’d seen how kind she was to Leo. He knew how much Brant, his brothers and Talulah liked her—all people whose opinions he could trust. And everyone knew how hard she worked. From what he could tell, she was sensitive, determined, hardworking and honest, or he would’ve heard otherwise by now—all of which eroded what he’d believed before. That she’d been a terrible child who’d grown into a terrible adult. That she was “just like her mother” as Lynn claimed. And that she was unfairly targeting their business.
If he were in her shoes, he probably would’ve done as much or more. “I think she’s a good person,” he replied and left it there. No way was he going to admit that he was quickly coming to see her as one of the sexiest women he’d ever met...
“Are we still talking about the woman who’s been stealing work from us?” Stuart said wryly.
“She’s angry, Stu. We just spent fifteen minutes discussing why she might have reason to be.”
“I’m not saying you have to mistreat her. I hope you never got the impression I wanted that from you. I’m just saying there are plenty of women in Coyote Canyon, Hendrix. You don’t have to be especially close to Ellen, do you? There’s just no reason to go in that direction.”
He supposed Stuart had a point. As long as he was nice to Ellen and did his best to defuse the rivalry that’d developed between them—to give them all some peace—he didn’t have to make any public statements. As strongly as his aunt felt about Ellen, his becoming too friendly with her would not only endanger his relationship with Lynn, it would ruin the work environment at Fetterman Well Services, and if things got bad enough, it could even endanger his job.
And for what? He doubted any kind of relationship with Ellen would work out too well in the end. She was obviously jealous of him, and jealousy was a difficult and inexplicable emotion. One of the hardest to overcome. “No, I don’t have to be especially close to her,” he said.
“Fine. Let whatever kindness you show her fly under the radar,” Stu said, “and all will be good.”
Hendrix thought of the moment he’d kissed Ellen at the barbecue. That certainly couldn’t be considered “flying under the radar.” He shouldn’t have done it, especially since he wouldn’t be able to follow up on it. “Okay. No problem.”
“Great. All’s well that ends well,” Stuart said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
After their early meeting, Hendrix would be going to help Ellen finish the Haslem well. He’d have to dodge any calls he received from the Fettermans and pull away to handle a few things to make it look as though he was working. But he couldn’t leave Ellen in the lurch, not when they were so close to finishing. And there was no way he was going to tell Stuart what he was doing, not after this conversation. He knew his aunt would’ve loved nothing more than to be able to reclaim the Haslem well. That he’d stood in the way and actually made sure Ellen got the job had cost them a significant sum of money. Stuart might let that slide, but he knew Lynn never could.
He’d just help Ellen finish up the well and hope no one ever mentioned that he’d been out at the Haslem property to his family. He’d gotten through one day without anyone noticing; he could get through two. Then he’d try to keep his distance. “Yeah. I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.
Talulah generally used her second day off to run errands, do some grocery shopping, clean her house and take care of other things she didn’t have time to do when she was working. She’d just put some supplies in the back room of the diner and was locking up when she turned and saw a white Audi with Oregon plates parked on the street a few cars down from where she was planning to pick up some dinner.
Taking a few steps toward it, she tried to peer through the front windshield. As far as she could tell, no one was in the car, and she didn’t see where the driver had gone, but she was thinking this might be the vehicle that’d made Ellen believe her terrible online date had come back to exact revenge.
If this car was parked in plain sight, right in the center of town, Talulah couldn’t imagine it belonged to Jordan Forbes. He wouldn’t just hang out indefinitely five hours from where he lived and worked.
Or would he? Maybe he’d taken a few vacation days and was making his presence known as a way to frighten Ellen.
Hoping Ellen could confirm it wasn’t Jordan’s vehicle, so they’d all be able to rest easier, she pulled out her phone to snap a picture. But just as she was texting that picture to Ellen, she was interrupted by a voice she never liked to hear.
“Well, look who it is...”
Thewhooshthat signaled her text had been sent sounded as she forced her eyes up. It was Charlie, all right—the man she’d left standing at the altar when she was only eighteen. In her opinion, not getting married at that young age had turned out to be the best thing for both of them, but it didn’t matter. He and his family would never forgive her.
She often lamented that falling in love with Brant meant moving back to Coyote Canyon. Now she had to face Averil, Charlie or someone else in the Gerhart family on almost a daily basis.
“Hey,” she said, faking a smile.
