The Crown Jewels (41 page)

“If by boring, you mean nobody has died or set anything on fire, then I’ll take boring any day.”

“That’s not exactly what I meant,” I replied with a grin. “Maybe we should go to the city some night, have a girl’s night out?” I was desperate for some fun, for something to change.

“That sounds nice. I don’t know when, though,” Georgia replied, as usual being completely noncommittal. This wasn’t the first time I had suggested a getaway. “Rodeo season is coming up again and Beau will be even more busy.”

“Well, he doesn’t need you every second of the day, Georgia, we could get away.”

“Sure, sure,” she replied, waving her hand dismissively, telling me not to push it.

What was it about relationships that made women so unavailable for their girlfriends? I’d seen more than one woman isolate herself from her friends when she got in a serious relationship, and I’d never understand it. Seems to me that’s when you needed your friends more than ever.

But what would I know? I’d never been in a proper relationship myself. Instead, I was in some twisted secret game with Crit that I didn’t even have a name for.

“I need another beer. You want another one?” I asked, as I stood up from the booth to go to the bar.

“Sure, thanks,” Georgia replied, as I walked away.

I was halfway to the bar when I saw him.

A tall, dark drink of water that I had never seen in town before was sitting at the end of the bar, and there wasn’t a soul in this town that I didn’t know.

He had short, layered, dark hair, and he was dressed up compared to the jeans and overalls that most of the farmers in this bar were wearing. He wore a black button down shirt and black slacks, with shiny black leather loafers.

I thought of Crit, his usual uniform of tight Wranglers and black t-shirts, his thick, muscular biceps stretching the fabric tightly, all of it leaving nothing to the imagination.

This guy was nothing like him.

He was sleek, shaved, smooth. I looked at his hands, and they were big, but looked as if they hadn’t done even a minute of real work in their life. He was drop dead gorgeous, in a buttoned-up kind of way.

A striped black and blue tie sat on the bar beside him. He sure as hell didn’t live in Sugar Hill. That was probably the only tie in a five mile radius.

I stood beside him at the bar, and I felt his eyes on me as I ordered another round of beers.

“Jimmy, two more, please?” I asked the bartender. I had known Jimmy for years, in fact we had dated briefly, but after a quick roll in the hay, way before I had gotten involved with Crit, I knew I’d never endure that again. Jimmy was sweet, but he was a terrible lover.

“Sure, Ruby,” he replied, as he walked away. I guess I had broken his heart, so he wasn’t too chatty with me these days. That was one of the consequences of being easy and open with people. You tended to burn bridges when it didn’t work out, and living in a small town, you ended up having to face those charred bridges afterwards.

I turned slightly, and the man was still looking at me. I smiled my best smile and held out my hand.

“Hi,” I said. “I’m Ruby.”

“Hi,” he replied, taking my hand in his, and kissing the back of it. I was a little taken aback, but my good graces kicked in, and I smiled sweetly. “I’m Lincoln.”

“Lincoln? That’s an interesting name. You aren’t from around here, I take it?” I asked, looking into his deep green eyes. He smiled, and I was almost blinded by his perfect white teeth.

“I live in New York,” he replied, and I detected a slight accent in his deep voice.

“New York, really? I’ve never been there.”

“No? It’s a wonderful place to live.”

I nodded and smiled, as all the years I wasted in Sugar Hill doing absolutely nothing flashed before my eyes.

Jimmy sat two cold, frothy beers in front of me and I thanked him and turned back to the stranger.

“What brings you to Sugar Hill, Lincoln?” I liked the way his name rolled off my tongue, and I wanted to say it three more times just to feel it.

“Just a little bit of business. I won’t be here long,” he replied.

“Oh,” I said. Of course. He knew better. He knew to get the hell out of Sugar Hill as fast as he could. “Well, nice to meet you, Lincoln,” I said, as I picked up the beers.

“Nice to meet you, too, Ruby” he said, his eyes trailing away from mine, and looking me up and down. I turned to walk away and he laid a hand on my arm to stop me.

“Ruby, could I take you to dinner tomorrow night?” he asked, his green eyes shining into mine. “If you’re free, that is?”

Once again, Crit’s face flashed in my mind, but I pushed him away. If Crit didn’t want to make our relationship official, what harm would it do to go out with someone else?

I was bored to tears and dinner with a handsome stranger sounded like the perfect cure.

“Why, I’d love to, Lincoln!” I replied. I sat the beers back down on the bar, grabbed a cocktail napkin and scribbled my phone number down on it. I had to ask Jimmy for a pen first, and I ignored the knowing look he gave me.

I handed Lincoln the napkin with a grin.

“Call me,” I said, picking the beers back up and walking away, making sure to exaggerate the swing in my hips just slightly.

I didn’t have to turn around to know he was watching me walk away.

Crit

I wanted to believe none of it was true. I wanted to believe there was some sort of mistake, some miscommunication of some sort. But everyone who could confirm this for me was dead.

I went through an entire six pack of beer as I searched Pa’s office.

My
office.

It was so hard sometimes to realize they were gone, that I would never hear Pa tell another groan-inducing joke, or taste Ma’s chocolate cake again.

It was so hard to believe, even after a year now, that this was all mine.

My
responsibility.

My
burden.

Or, hell, maybe it wasn’t. Apparently, everything I had been busting my balls to save for the last year belonged to some faceless stranger I had never heard of.

I was about to give up when I finally found what I was looking for. Johnson had showed me a copy of the loan agreement at his office, but I wanted to find a copy in Pa’s papers to confirm this was all true. And now, here it was, in my hand. With Pa’s unmistakeable signature at the bottom, along with LaCroix’s.

Undeniable and yet totally unbelievable.

I spent the next hour looking at my bank accounts, trying to make some sense of what I was dealing with before unloading all this on my brothers and Georgia. I was hesitant to tell them at all, but this was just too much to bear on my own.

By the time I was done, it was way past midnight and I felt worse than I did when I began. I sat in the kitchen, having given up on the beer long ago, an open bottle of whiskey sitting in front of me.

I downed shot after shot until I felt like I could get to sleep.

It was going to be a very long day tomorrow.

Ruby

As soon as I opened my eyes, I felt guilty for agreeing to have dinner with the handsome stranger at the bar, and I felt ridiculous for feeling guilty, all at the same time.

Crit Hope had a hold on me that I couldn’t shake.

Despite his refusal to make our relationship official, I still felt loyal to him. Hell, I loved him, and to be honest, he was the only thing in life that I wanted.

I rolled over in my bed and grabbed my phone from my bedside table. I needed to talk to Crit, to hear his voice, to find some shred of hope that everything was going to eventually work out between us.

He answered on the second ring.

“Ruby, I’m really busy right now,” he answered gruffly. Not even a hello or a how are you.

“Sorry, Crit,” I replied, suddenly not knowing what the hell to say to him. “Is everything okay?” I asked after a pause.

“No, everything is not okay at all. Shit is hitting the fan all at once. I gotta go.”

“Okay, well…um…could I see you tonight? It’s been a week since we’ve seen each other.”

“Jesus, Ruby, I just told you I was busy. I don’t have time for this right now.”

Like a stab to the heart, his words shot through me. What the hell was wrong with him? Why wasn’t I enough?

“I just asked if I could see you, is that so bad?” I sounded needy and whiny and I hated the sound of my voice more than ever right now.

“Ruby, you just don’t quit, do you?” he asked, frustration rising in his voice.

“Crit, you don’t have to be so rude to me,” I replied.

“Look, I’m not being rude. I told you I have a lot going on. I’ll call you later.” The click of the phone was like a bullet to my heart.

I stared at the phone in my hand, and then threw it across the room in frustration, tears stinging my eyes.

Why was I wasting my time with him? Why did I let him treat me like an afterthought constantly? I was tired of being treated this way, tired of being hurt, tired of hiding something that should be celebrated. My eyes filled up with tears as I laid there, replaying our conversation in our head. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed it, but damn he didn’t need to be so short with me.

My phone started ringing again, and I jumped out of my bed to answer it. Maybe Crit had a change of heart. Maybe he realized just how rude he really was being. Maybe he had finally come to his senses, or at least was calling back to apologize for hanging up on me.

“Hello?” I answered hopefully.

“Ruby? This is Lincoln. I was just calling to work out the details of our dinner tonight. Are we still on?”

Lincoln. Handsome, rich, and a man who follows up on his word. Lincoln, a stranger, but a stranger that actually wanted to spend time with me.

What the hell was wrong with me? I was wasting time with Crit, and like my Daddy always said, life was short and heaven was just waiting to snatch us all up before the devil could get to us.

“You bet we are, Lincoln,” I replied.

“Excellent. I know a wonderful place to go. Can I pick you up at seven? What’s your address?” he asked.

There was no way in hell I was going to give him my address. The last thing I needed was to start this off by being embarrassed of where I lived, or introducing him to my father.

“I’ll meet you at the Sugar Hill Saloon at seven, if that’s okay? I live out in the sticks,” I lied.

“Sounds great, see you then!” he said, his deep velvety voice like music to my ears.

“It does sound great. See you tonight, Lincoln,” I replied, drying the tears that had fallen down my cheeks.

Maybe it was high time to give up Crit Hope. Maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe I was just intoxicated by his kisses that I couldn’t see that he clearly wasn’t interested in me.

Like they say - don’t kiss a fool or let a kiss fool you. Maybe I had been playing the part of the fool all along.

I jumped out of bed, forcing all images and thoughts of Crit out of my head.

“Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln,” I said over and over as I went about my day.

It rolled off my tongue smoothly, and I was hoping the date went just as smooth. I had given Crit too much of my time and energy. It was time to put my focus on someone who deserved it.

Crit

“Mr. Johnson, it’s Crit Hope,” I said into the phone, my head splitting with an awful hangover headache.

“Crit, hello son, how are you today?”

“To be honest, I’m pretty upset. This whole thing has me spinning in circles trying to wrap my head around it all. You sure took me by surprise.” I called Johnson as soon as I woke up and shook the fog from my head. I had tossed and turned all night, despite the whiskey’s best efforts, and my stomach was in knots.

“I know, Crit, and I apologize for that.”

“It’s alright, sir, I understand why you didn’t tell me, but I’m ready to face this head on. I was calling because I was hoping to get the phone number for this nephew of LaCroix’s.”

“He just called me. He’s in town now and I’m meeting with him this afternoon. I’ll set up another meeting for the three of us. You free tomorrow?” he asked.

“I sure am. I’ll clear my schedule, just let me know what time to be there.”

“Will do, son, will do,” he replied. “In the meantime, Crit, you just relax. We’ll work this all out.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said, before hanging up the phone. If he wasn’t right, then this man was going to have a huge fight on his hands.

I had been through so much already, and the last thing I was going to do was let someone take this farm away from me.

I set about my day, trying to forget everything for a while. I fed the horses and helped Jesse clean the stalls. Just being around the horses helped. They always calmed me down.

Later, I had my biggest challenge - sitting around the breakfast table with Seth, Jesse and Georgia without telling them what was going on.