Cowboy Casanova - Lorelei James [113]
“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