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“No, thank goodness.” He whistled as he shook his head to emphasize that it’d been a close call. “I got really lucky.”
“Do you remember the color of the truck you saw?” Hendrix asked.
“I think it was white.”
Now even the color was in question? “You told Ellen it was white and had a Fetterman Well Services placard on the door.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Hendrix blinked in surprise. “You didn’t tell her you saw our company name on the door?”
“She must’ve come up with that on her own. You know how she feels about you, Lynn and Stuart. She probably added that part herself.” He glanced back at the registers to see that a few stragglers had wandered in. “I’ve got to get back to work,” he said. “I wish I could tell you more, but that’s all I remember.”
Hendrix nodded and watched as he got up, hurried back behind the counter and started barking out orders as though they were in the midst of a huge crush. Rocko had always been a little self-important. But...was he also dishonest?
Hendrix couldn’t believe Lynn had been out at the well in the middle of the night. He’d seen her reaction—the genuine shock and anger—and considered it authentic. So...what was going on?
Could Ellen have made up the Fetterman branding part of the story?
No way. And yet... Hendrix had to admit that if shewasout to get even for all the hurt Stuart and Lynn had caused her over the years, enlisting his support and sympathy so she could divide them and cause turmoil in their lives and business would be a clever way to go about it.
Making him want her would be even better.
Talulah frowned. “You’ve hardly said a word.”
Ellen glanced listlessly around the bar. After hearing from Hendrix and learning what Rocko had said when he visited Burgers and Shakes, she didn’t really want to be out in public. It was Talulah who’d insisted she stop moping around the house and meet her at Hank’s for dinner while Brant was busy with his cattle and a livestock agent. Her best friend mistakenly thought getting out would cheer Ellen up, but they’d paid their bill and Ellen didn’t feel any better. “I don’t know what to say,” she said. “It feels as though I’ve fallen right into Lynn’s trap—that she had this planned from the time I got the Haslem job. The worst of it is that Hendrix has to believe her instead of me, especially now that Rocko’s changed his story.”
Talulah folded her arms on the table as she leaned forward. “But you don’t care what Hendrix thinks, remember?”
Ellen stared down into her peach smash, which she’d been nursing since she arrived. She wished she could go back in time to before she cared what Hendrix thought—before he’d punched Jordan in the face for manhandling her and helped her drill the well and slept with her. If she hadn’t allowed the last two things to happen, maybe she wouldn’t be thinking of him obsessively, craving the sound of his voice and hoping to see him again, despite telling him she wouldn’t.
What had she done?
She’d handed Lynn and Stuart the perfect weapon to use against her—that was what she’d done.
“Rocko’s mad you won’t go out with him, so he has no loyalty to you,” Talulah said. “And, knowing him, he’s probably afraid of choosing the wrong party to support in this situation. Most people respect Hendrix and the Fettermans. They’re well established, with lots of friends, clients and acquaintances. That’s why he backed off his story. He doesn’t want to get on their bad side.”
She’d tried calling Rocko this afternoon, but he wouldn’t pick up. “I don’t know why he did it, but now it looks as though I sabotaged my own job so I could frame Lynn.”
“Anyone who knows you will never believe you’re capable of something like that.”
“You’re the only one who knows me that well. I’m still considered new in town, remember?” She’d spent all her time working. She hadn’t been out making friends. What trust and respect she’d been able to garner had come slowly over time, as people saw for themselves what she was like and began to form their own opinions independent of what they’d heard Lynn Fetterman say about her.
“This thing isn’t over yet,” Talulah insisted. “We’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“How?”If no one would tell the truth, what could they do?
“Didn’t you say Rocko had someone with him?”
“Maribeth was riding on the back of his bike.”
“Why don’t we go talk to her? Maybe she saw something he didn’t—or could back up what he first told you.”
“If she’s dating Rocko, I have no doubt she’ll support whatever position he takes. Besides, she was riding behind him. Ifhecouldn’t even get a good look at the truck that came barreling off the property, how wouldshebe able to do it?”
“Who knows? But it can’t hurt to ask. I say we at least talk to her.”
Ellen wasn’t optimistic. “I don’t think it’ll do any good.”
