Czytaj książkę: «Destined for the Maverick»

Chapter One

“Montana?” The word was a comment in and of itself simply because it was practically a screech at the top of her coworker’s lungs. So much so that it drew the attention of the trio of teenage girls who were browsing the rack of clearance-priced jeans. “What do you mean you’re moving to Montana?”

Addie McBride managed a calm smile, even though inside she was a mass of bouncing nerves, and continued folding the cap-sleeved T-shirts she was stacking on the table in the front of the store. The Cincinnati, Ohio, mall where Honeyque was located was typically quiet for the middle of the morning in the middle of April. It was also the middle of the school week, and from one corner of her eye, Addie kept an eye on the girls. If it had been a vacation day for students, the clothing store would have been busier, and she’d bet they were cutting classes.

“I mean I’m moving to Montana,” she told Daphne again. Maybe once she started her life there, she would lose the cynicism she’d acquired that made her automatically suspicious of three giggling teenage girls.

Daphne rolled her eyes and continued plying the portable steamer over the dresses she was hanging. “I got that, Addie. The question is why? Honeyque doesn’t have any stores in Montana, much less this. . .what did you call the town? Brown Creek River? Might as well be Timbuktu.”

“Rust Creek Falls,” Addie corrected with a laugh. “Remember that woman I’ve been telling you about? Theone from Bootstraps who went to Montana to help with the recovery efforts after it was flooded out last summer? I saw her on the national news and started following her blog about it,” she prompted.

“The one who moved there and got all hitched up with a cowboy as a result?” Daphne looked disbelieving. “You’re moving because of that? Because you want a man? You had more dates last week than I’ve had in a month! You’re too picky, that’s the problem.”

For most of her life, Addie had been accused of talking too much. And she wished now that she’d just kept her mouth shut. Just because she’d been moved by Lissa Roarke’s blog regarding her experiences in the small Montana town and the dignity of the Rust Creek people who lived there didn’t mean that Addie’s young coworker would share the dream that had tugged Addie into making such a monumental change in her life.

“I’m not picky,” she said. And she wasn’t about to tell Daphne that she did hope to find a man. Yes, she’d had a few dates recently. And they’d been as go-nowhere as always. She just couldn’t find the kind of man who wanted the same old-fashioned things she wanted. Not here in Cincinnati. “I’m moving because I want a change. I’m leaving next week.” And she was crossing her fingers that her fifteen-year-old car, Edith, would stand up to the drive, because even as expensive as gasoline had become, it was still cheaper to drive the long way than to fly.

Daphne went from disbelief to shock. “So soon?”

“I have a week of vacation on the books, so I’m using that as half of my two-week notice. If I make good time, I’ll have a few days to get settled before I start my new job.”

“In retail?”

Again, she wished she’d kept her mouth shut. “It’s a, um, a new development there,” she said vaguely. She didn’t want to get into the details of the position she’d been offered, particularly when it was a temporary job. She’d already battled her parents over what they considered a massively foolish decision to give up her position with Honeyque after she’d been working there for five years.

“It’s the job, then,” Daphne deduced. “You’re mad because you didn’t get the store manager promotion here. But come on! You don’t have to go all the way to Montana.”

The teenage trio had migrated from the clearance jeans to the wall racks where jewelry and other accessories were artfully displayed. Addie shifted slightly so she could keep a better eye on them, and deftly flipped a perfectly folded neon-pink tee on the top of the neat pile. The stacks of shirts were all brightly colored, replacing the Easter-egg pastel ones that had been out the week before.

“I’m not leaving because I’m mad,” she told Daphne. She’d put her name in for manager of the store when their present manager had been promoted to a district position, but she hadn’t really expected to get it when there were others with more seniority already waiting in line. “And I’m going all the way to Montana because I want to. I’ve been thinking about this for nearly a year. I wanted a change and this is it.”

Daphne propped one hand on her trim hip and held the steamer wand out with the other, sending wispy tendrils of vapor out into the air. “But why?” She was twenty-one. Five years younger than Addie and still in college. Working at Honeyque was only a part-time job for her until she finished and moved on to bigger and better things.

Addie had been just the same, once.

Only “bigger and better” never came along. Or, more to the point, Addie was afraid that it might have come, and she had somehow missed noticing.

She was reasonably intelligent. She wasn’t going to win any beauty contests, but she didn’t think she was exactly doggy kibble, either. All in all, she was pretty average and yet, of all her friends, she was the last remaining singleton. No marriage. No near misses. No nibbles on the line, period, despite the dates. She’d come to believe that she hadn’t found her future in her hometown of Cincinnati, because her future wasn’t in Cincinnati.

Maybe, like her favorite blogger, her future was in Rust Creek Falls, Montana.

“I’m moving because I need a change,” she told Daphne again, hiding a sigh because she’d just seen two of the teenage shoppers slip several chains from the display into their pockets. “Call security,” she instructed her coworker.

“Call the men in the little white coats,” Daphne countered, “because you’re the one who’s gone out of her mind.”

“Maybe I’m heeding the call to my destiny!”

“Just hope it’s not like a moth’s destiny,” Daphne muttered, setting down her steamer wand to pick up the phone. “They can’t keep from incinerating themselves by flying into the light.”

Addie tossed up her hands in frustration. She’d had too many similar reactions from her own family. “Say what you want. Rust Creek Falls is waiting for me. And I am not going to disappoint her!”