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She’d never met Zach’s ex. Had never even seen her.
Aiden touched Nadine’s chin to bring her attention back to him. She wondered whether the presence of a woman was unusual enough for them to vie for her attention.
“Tell me what else you liked,” he said.
She outlined all that she thought was strong about his writing. Aiden watched her without a word, his serious attention charming her.
When she finished, he asked, “Can you put it in the paper?”
“The newspaper?”
“Yeah.”
He’d surprised her. She had no idea what Lee would think. “I can ask the publisher, if you like.”
He nodded so hard a hank of hair fell across his forehead. “I’ll write another story,” he said. “Just for you!”
Nadine looked at Ryan on her other side. “Do you write, too?”
“No, but look what I can do!”
He jumped up from the sofa and did a somersault across the carpet.
Aiden joined him and they started to roughhouse.
They rolled around on the floor like a pair of bear cubs in freshly fallen snow, so much like two halves of a whole it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended.
Zach and Rick carried on a conversation with Nadine, asking questions about how the fair was coming along—Nadine was on the Rodeo Revival committee, and the event was only a month away—while she kept her eye on the two boys grappling and giggling.
Apparently, this was normal. Neither Zach nor Rick batted an eye. But Nadine noticed...and remembered the admonishments she’d received as a young preteen.
Don’t slouch. Stand up straight.
Only speak when spoken to.
Don’t get your clothes dirty.
Put your books away now. Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Tidy up. Tidy up. Tidy up.
Do better.
Brush out those ridiculous curls.
Be a good girl.
And the worst of all: You’re just like your mother.
Considering that she’d always adored her mother, Nadine hadn’t understood what her aunt meant by that. Not when she’d first arrived in town as an eleven-year-old, at least. But in time, her aunt had made certain Nadine was clear that it wasn’t a compliment.
The loop of recriminations hadn’t stopped, even with her aunt’s death four years ago. Like a Möbius strip that never ended, Nadine had internalized her aunt’s voice.
God, she was tired of it.
The twins stopped fighting and ran from the room. They pounded up the stairs. Nadine meant to get her story as quickly and painlessly as possible and then stay far, far away from Zachary Brandt and his enchanting boys.
Chapter Three (#u1d471d90-c6d1-5dd6-ba3b-17b5fe89ffc4)
Nadine parked her car on Main Street, wishing for the hundredth time that she had a garage to protect it from the elements. She needed a car in rural Montana, but if something serious happened to the one she had, she wouldn’t have money for another unless her circumstances changed drastically.
She hadn’t saved money in New York. She might have worked long hours, but living there was expensive.
Lee didn’t pay her well. If she didn’t get this story and he fired her, getting another job in her field would be nearly impossible after that incident in New York.
She couldn’t think about it. Couldn’t face her own hubris. Had left it behind in the Big Apple.
Her stomach cramped. She picked up her bag and walked down Main to the Rodeo Wrangler office, staring at the gold and black lettering on the door.
Lee had made promises when she’d come home.
He had no children. No heirs. He’d intimated he wanted to retire. He needed someone to take over.
That someone would be her.
Coming home in a state of utter loss, his promise had been a prayer answered.
But now she faced this changed man and his unreasonable demand.
Lee stood in the large plate glass window watching her approach.
When she’d worked for him in high school, she had never gotten a bad feeling from Lee. He’d given her a first shot at journalism and she had been grateful. Who was this man he’d become and what had he done with the Lee Beeton she’d known?
Despite her anger and feelings of betrayal, sadness filled her.
He’d once been a decent man.
Judging by the look in his eye, he was in the same mood as when she’d left to go out to the Brandt ranch. He would want a full report, she was sure. His gaze seemed almost malevolent.
Boy, she was chock-full of exaggeration today. Or maybe not.
How could she have misjudged him so badly? As a teenager, she had thanked him profusely for the opportunities and the experience. And when she’d returned to Rodeo a year ago with her tail between her legs, Lee had once again agreed to give her a job. She’d seen signs that he had changed. Grouchiness. Tension. Impatience. Her friends had said he’d been slowly becoming more bad-tempered over the years. Nadine had ignored all of this, but could no longer.
Not with his demand for dirt on a fellow citizen.
She stepped into the office.
Without preamble, he asked, “Did you get it?”
“The story? Of course not, Lee. That was just the first interview. I can’t jump into the nitty-gritty without gaining his trust first.”
“Trust. Yeah. I guess so.”
He guessed so? Lee knew how to conduct an interview and how to handle a subject. He’d been a good journalist in his time, but these days he seemed desperate. What was going on with him?
“Lee, if your mother has a memory of something fishy in the Brandt family, why don’t you just ask her about it? Why send me to do your dirty work?”
“Because she isn’t telling me. She said she needs to talk to Richard Brandt.”
“Rick? Zach’s father?”
“No. Richard—Zach’s grandfather.”
Dread settled into Nadine’s stomach. “His grandfather who’s been dead for decades? Does your mother not understand that he’s gone?”
“Sometimes she’s lucid and sometimes she isn’t.”
“So how can you trust anything she has to say? Maybe all her memories are suspect.”
“Naw. When’s she lucid, she’ll remember the dress she wore on her first date and what they had for dinner that night.”
“But that must have been one of the most significant nights of her life,” Nadine ventured. “It makes sense she’d remember those details, but how can we trust that her memory of a secret about the Brandts is accurate, even if she tells you about it when she’s lucid?”
“My mother and Zach’s grandmother were best friends.”
“I see.”
Light through the window haloed Lee’s head, the wisps of his remaining hair highlighted like cilia.
He wasn’t taking care of himself these days. He used to be a nice-looking man with kind eyes, but he no longer seemed to care about his appearance. His old cardigan had a hole in it. A blob on his shirt that resembled Italy in the Rorschach test of food stains might have been made by spilled coffee. Some days, Nadine was certain he had forgotten to bathe.
Today wasn’t one of those, thank goodness. The office wasn’t large enough for her to avoid him when he smelled ripe.
At first she’d been concerned for his sake, for the loss of an old friend, but this morning he’d gone so far she was almost past caring. Almost.
On the drive back into town, she’d done a lot of thinking. “Why do you need me, Lee? Why not wait until your mom has a lucid moment and just listen to what she has to say about the past?”
Lee bristled. “I’m paying you good money to do a job, girl, and you’ll do it.”
Good money? Not by a long shot. And girl? What kind of way was that to speak to an employee? Lee didn’t used to be rude.
“My mother won’t confide in me. She rarely talks to me anymore. When she does, it’s by accident.” His gaze slid away from hers. “A year or so ago, we had a fight.”
A falling-out with Zach. A fight with his mother. She remembered them as being close. “Why not wait until a day when maybe she’s forgotten about that?”
“She’s never forgiven me for the things I said.” He added bitterly, “Her dementia has destroyed more memories than I’ve probably ever had in my lifetime, but she knows every word of that conversation by heart.” He turned away from Main Street and said, “That’s why I need you. She always liked you. She would talk to you.”
“I’m not sure she would. You said first she would talk to only Zach and then only to Richard, his grandfather.”
“Then get the secret from Zach,” he snapped.
“Do you honestly think Zach will just give up a family secret that’s so titillating you think it will sell extra issues of your paper?”
“No, he won’t just give it up.” Sarcasm. Another new feature with Lee. “Use your skills. Use whatever you have in your arsenal to get it out of him.”
“But—”
“Where else do you think you could get a job in town? This is the only newspaper for miles around. If you want to continue to live in Rodeo and keep this job, then you’ll do whatever you have to do to get me that article.”
Something was making him desperate, and he was dead serious.
Sure, there were laws against this kind of workplace harassment and coercion, but she couldn’t afford a lawyer.
He was right. If he fired her, she would have to move away from her friends to find another job in reporting. She’d come back home because of a mistake she had made, only one, but it had been a doozy.
She’d come back to the only home she knew, not because of the town or the geography, but because of her friends. They were her only family. Without them she was alone. That thought caused an ache so deep inside of her it felt like fire ate at her belly.
Her aunt had been her sole remaining blood relative. She had died four years ago and had decided to ignore Nadine in death. She’d left nothing to Nadine, not a single penny or knickknack, as though every speck of resentment she’d felt toward her niece had followed her into the afterlife.
So Nadine’s family was Rachel, Violet, Honey and Max, all of them tied together by common experiences and similar heartbreaks. They were the town fair’s Revival Committee, but also the best of friends, and now Rachel’s new sister-in-law, Samantha, had been added to the mix.
Nadine liked Rodeo. She liked the people here. She respected them.
Then Lee had told her the newspaper could be hers someday, a dream come true for her in Rodeo.
When she’d left town the first time, it had been her choice. She didn’t want to be pushed out by someone else now, by Lee’s need for a dirty article. Unfortunately, she couldn’t live without the measly paycheck he paid her. Rodeo wasn’t exactly a bustling town. Nadine wasn’t even certain Vy could give her job at the diner, friend or not.
But even more important than losing a paycheck, she couldn’t possibly lose her friendships. She’d lost a lot in New York City. Losing her friends would be far worse.
Nadine stared at her boss. “Lee, what’s wrong?” She might be angry with him, but he had given her her first job and had encouraged her in her choice of career. He’d had enough faith in her skills to tell her that she could someday run this office. The small part of her that still cared worried about him.
“What’s wrong?” she repeated.
He rubbed his stomach as though it ached. “Nothing.”
Then he scrubbed his hands over his face. “I—I can’t tell you.”
He sounded more like the old Lee, as though he lurked inside of this new harder person.
“What can I do?” Nadine asked.
“Can you just get the story? Please?” Desperation again. “I meant what I said this morning, Nadine. Get me that story.”
His tone might be softer and less mean, but the new Lee was determined, leaving Nadine with no choice but to do what he wanted.
He glanced at her then away. “Take the afternoon off. Tomorrow will be soon enough to get back at it.”
A peace offering, just when she was prepared to hate him.
