Ace and Deuce dozed by the woodstove. Ben had always kept his shit moods to himself, dealt with them himself. It worked for him.
But wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to share this with? Someone to listen to you, verbally soothe you and then you could lose yourself in the heat, softness and surrender of her body to yours?
Just another f**ked up situation in his life. Taking out the damn loan in the first place is what had caused him to lose Ainsley. All because he wanted to do something good, something helpful for his family. All his family saw was the loss of the land. There’s no way he could make them understand he’d lost something far more valuable.
Grabbing the bottle, he flopped in front of the TV and flipped the channel to Wheel of Fortune. But he’d gotten so used to watching the show with Ainsley in the last month, it felt pathetic sitting by himself, guessing the puzzles out loud.
Halfway through the program his phone buzzed. He didn’t recognize the number, but he answered it anyway. “Ben McKay.”
“Ben? Gavin.”
“Fuck.”
“Don’t hang up. Please hear me out.”
“Start that fast talking bullshit you do so well, cause you’ve got about thirty seconds.”
“Charlie called me, mad as hell, and chewed my ass. I assure you I didn’t want any of you to find out this way.”
“What way were we supposed to find out? The McKays are a big family in a small community. Word gets around.”
“Look, I overheard your conversation with Rielle the morning after Chase’s event. You made her a fair offer.”
“But you swooped in and made her a better one.”
“Yes. But not for the reason you think. I bought it as an investment.”
Ben laughed harshly. “So you’re giving up life as an Arizona real estate tycoon to run a B&B in nowhere Wyoming?”
“Not hardly. I’m not big on repeating others mistakes. I’ve seen Rielle struggling with the B&B since I first stayed with her. When she asked for advice I gave it.”
“Big surprise that your advice to her was to sell…to you.”
Gavin sighed. “I’m in real estate. I make decisions like this all the time. It’s nothing personal.”
“It’s goddamned personal to me. My family has been tryin’ to buy that for three decades and once again it’s in a stranger’s hands. Now you’re giving my folks the impression that you’re moving to Wyoming, changing your last name to McKay, which we both know ain’t true.”
When silence burned his ear, Ben wished he could take the words back.
“I never meant to give Charlie and Vi false hope.”
“Too late. And know what sucks? Mom and Dad will take any kind of hope when it comes to you, and I don’t wanna see them hurt.”
“I’m not a bad guy, Ben.”
“Prove it.” Ben drained his whiskey. “And by my clock your thirty seconds are up.” He hung up and poured himself another drink.
Everything in his life had gone to hell in the last two days and he saw no clear way to fix any of it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Not a good sign when a smug Turton knocked on her office door before quitting time on Tuesday and made himself comfortable. “Glad to see you’ve recovered from your illness.”
What the heck? He didn’t give a rip about her health. “You’re lucky you didn’t get it.”
“Well, some of us have a stronger constitution than others. I make it a point to take good care of myself so I don’t catch every bug that crawls along.”
Yes, Turton, you are the picture of health with your bony-assed body and pasty complexion. “Was there something you needed?”
“Yes. I’m not sure how to approach this. Saturday evening I stopped into the Golden Boot. Our Jenny was there and she and I started talking…” He picked lint off his sport coat before continuing. “Then I ran into Steve Talbot at the diner Sunday morning. We had breakfast together, which included a pretty interesting conversation.”
She did not like the turd’s need to talk around the subject to build suspense before he got to the point. She really didn’t like that he’d become so friendly with Jenny.
“Interestingly enough, both Jenny and Steve posed the same question to me. A question about you.”
“Me? Why on earth would I be a topic of conversation?”
“That’s what I asked myself. I’ve been so busy doing my job here at the bank, that I pay little attention to office gossip, and even less attention to the small town gossip about the citizens of Sundance.”
Doing my job here at the bank. As if she’d been sitting in the employee break room checking her Facebook page all day rather than working.
“So I’ll admit to being perplexed that both Jenny and Steve mentioned the same thing. Numerous times.”
“Which was?”
“That you are involved with Ben McKay.”
Ainsley’s lungs seized up.
“Which wouldn’t be a big deal, since you are both single adults. And if you prefer to sneak around and see him on the sly because he’s got a…questionable reputation with the ladies, that’s your business. So that, in and of itself, didn’t bother me. But when Jenny informed me that Ben McKay had applied for a loan, through you, not through Leslie? And that no one in the office was aware of this loan but you? And you immediately sent the loan application to Denver for approval and priority processing? Well, that did bother me. Quite a bit actually. So much that I spent the entire morning verifying those facts.
“When Steve suggested that you’ve been intimately involved with Ben McKay to get the McKays’ banking business away from Settler’s First…I really didn’t know how to respond, except to agree with him it’s very unprofessional on your part, but not necessarily unethical. Then Steve said he saw you and Ben together, late at night after Chase McKay’s event, and early the next morning, which by my estimation is about a week prior to Ben applying for a loan. And that also brings up the question if you were involved with Ben McKay before you helped arrange the community event for his brother, and if that involvement swayed your recommendation for the bank to donate five thousand dollars to Chase McKay’s foundation.”
This couldn’t be happening.
“I’ll admit I’m shocked, Ainsley. You have a solid reputation.”
“Here’s where you’ll make this supposed scandal go away and allow me to keep my solid reputation intact if I…what? Quit and recommend you take over as bank president?”