Beau: Cowboy Protector. Marin Thomas

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      Chapter Three

      Sierra climbed the steps of the hidden staircase inside the diner’s pantry and entered her living room. There were only two ways into the upstairs apartment—the staircase and the fire escape behind the building.

      “It’s me, Aunt Jordan. I brought you a late lunch—baked potato soup and a roll.” She set the food on the kitchen table.

      Her aunt’s seeing-eye dog, Molly, ventured from the guest bedroom first, followed by her owner. Sierra was amazed at how quickly Jordan had learned the layout of the apartment and could navigate the space without bumping into any furniture.

      “Have you been a good girl, Molly?” Sierra scratched the yellow lab behind the ears. Jordan washed her hands at the sink then sat at the table and confidently familiarized herself with the items before her—take-out soup container, wheat roll inside a paper towel, butter dish, knife and spoon.

      “This was nice of you, dear.” Her aunt buttered the roll. “What time did you get in this morning? I didn’t hear you.”

      “Early.” Sierra disliked being evasive but she’d been on pins and needles, worried Beau would drop by the diner and demand an explanation for her bizarre behavior last night. She owed him the truth, but facing reality took more courage than she possessed at the moment.

      Hoping to dissuade her aunt from prying into her whereabouts, Sierra asked, “What did you do last night?” Several of Jordan’s friends from high school lived in the area and often invited her out to eat or shop.

      “Joshua helped Irene close the diner, then we watched a movie up here.”

      “Watched…?” Her aunt possessed a wicked sense of humor regarding her blindness, but Sierra didn’t see a darn thing funny about having to live in the dark.

      “Joshua watched. I listened.”

      Since returning to Montana, Jordan had been spending a lot of time with her old boyfriend, which Sierra couldn’t be more pleased about. She’d love for her aunt to sell her condo in Florida and relocate to Roundup.

      “This tastes similar to your mother’s recipe, but there’s something different…”

      “Rosemary. I used it a lot in cooking school.” Sierra poured two glasses of iced tea and joined her aunt at the table.

      “Your mother was so proud when you graduated from that famous Cordon Bleu program,” Aunt Jordan said.

      “Mom always envied your talent for dancing.”

      Jordan reached across the table and Sierra clasped her hand. “I wish your mother were still with us.”

      “Me, too.” Sierra’s parents had died in a plane crash five years ago. A former Air Force pilot and captain for United Airlines, her father had survived near misses and engine malfunctions, yet it had been a summer thunderstorm that had brought down her parents’ twin-engine Cessna while flying to their cabin along Musselshell River.

      “Do you have any regrets, moving from Chicago to Roundup?” Jordan asked.

      “None.” After her parents’ funeral, Sierra had decided to use her inheritance to renovate the old newspaper building in town and turn it into a diner where she could put her catering recipes to good use.

      “Your mother would have loved helping you run the diner.”

      Sierra was sad that she hadn’t been able to share her business venture СКАЧАТЬ