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“I’m surprised, Sheriff, that you’d want to invest in a place that encourages drinking.”
“It’s expensive drinking. Microbrews are pricey, right?” Eli asked.
“I guess so,” he said.
“I like that. The cheaper the beer, the more people drink. Bring in some of that fancy-ass stuff and people have to think really hard before they go trying to get hammered on it.”
Ace laughed. “True enough.”
“Hey, before we head out,” Jack said. “I did have a favor I wanted to ask you.”
Oh, there was that other shoe dropping. Ace should have known it wouldn’t be that simple. “What favor?”
“It’s about Sierra West.”
Ace thought back to last night, to the verbal sparring with that pretty blonde, who was a lot less pretty when she was running her mouth. “What about her?”
“She’s going through some stuff. You could probably tell by her behavior last night.”
“Not really. I run a bar. Her behavior seems run-of-the-mill to me. Actually, she was pretty tame. And I don’t know her from a barnacle on the bottom of a fishing boat.”
“Just trust me, she’s going through some stuff. She kind of had a falling-out with her old man.”
“Is that so?”
She’d said that all of her drama was over a man. He supposed that counted. It was difficult to imagine anyone opposing Nathan West. He was such an established figurehead in Copper Ridge, and as far as Ace had ever seen, a decent enough guy.
But hell, appearances didn’t mean a damn thing, and he knew that better than most. Or maybe it was just Sierra throwing a tantrum because daddy wouldn’t let her into her trust fund. Who knew.
“She needs work,” Jack continued. “A job. But she hasn’t had any luck finding one because she doesn’t have any experience that extends beyond working at the family ranch.”
“And how do you know all this?” Ace had observed there was something weird going on between Jack and the other woman last night, something about the way he watched her that went past casual interest.
But if there was anything shady going on he doubted that Jack would bring her up in front of Eli, considering Eli was Kate’s older brother, and he wouldn’t hesitate to cut off Jack’s testicles and feed them to his cows should Jack ever do anything to hurt his sister.
They had only been together for a few months, but everyone in town knew that Jack belonged to Kate. Hell, they were already engaged. Which was really something, considering Jack had spent so many years avoiding commitment.
“Oh, you know, she’s good friends with Kate,” Jack said.
Ace knew there was more than that, but he could also see that Jack had no intention of sharing what more there was.
“So what are you trying to ask me, Monaghan?”
“I was hoping you’d give her a job.”
“So, no one else in town will give her a job because she has no work experience, I just saw her drunk off her ass last night, and you want me to hire her?”
“The chicks in your place serve hamburgers. That’s not exactly rocket science.”
“Watch it, Monaghan, that’s my livelihood.”
“I know. Sorry. I’m not trying to be a dick. But it does come naturally.”
“Sure. But I’m not sure I want a completely inexperienced cocktail waitress stumbling around the place messing up orders.”
That was total crap. He’d hired people with a lot less to go on. He’d hired a borderline drifter, Casey James, a few months ago just to help her get back on her feet. She’d ended up quitting when she’d fallen in love with Aiden Crawford, a local farmer. Working on her own land seemed to be more fulfilling than serving drinks. Which he understood, even if it had left him a little shorthanded.
But he wasn’t admitting any of that.
“I’m helping you out by investing in this place. I’m taking a chance, and I think it’s a good chance. Can you take a chance on her?”
He didn’t want to. That was the simple truth. He so violently didn’t want to that he didn’t want to explore the reasoning. Because it was weird that he should care at all. She was rich, she was a spoiled brat. She had said some ridiculous stuff to him last night about him having it easy. But that shouldn’t matter.
It wouldn’t, if she wasn’t such a pretty little thing.
He gritted his teeth, ignoring that internal voice. He didn’t care if she was pretty. Pretty covered a lot of sins, but Jack had learned that early on. He spread his favors around fairly freely with women, he had no problem admitting that. But there was one type he always avoided.
Sierra West’s type.
He also never screwed around with his staff.
If she was staff, that would put her in a double no-go zone. So, whether or not she was pretty should mean nothing. What she’d said to him last night shouldn’t mean anything, either.
Still didn’t want to hire her. She reminded him too much of another time in his life. Of another woman in his past. Women like her were poison in a good glass of wine.
You could drink the whole thing down before you realized you were already dead.
“I’m not running a charity. I don’t give out first summer jobs to grown women who play like they’re high school girls. If she wants a job, she needs to come and ask me for one.”
Jack frowned. “Do you have something against her?”
“I wouldn’t go so far as that. But I gave her a ride home last night, and she was in fine form. Like I said, I’m used to that kind of thing, but it doesn’t mean I need to give that kind of thing a job. If she wants to come by the bar and apologize for her behavior and ask me directly for a job, then I’ll consider it because you mentioned it.”
“Fair enough,” Jack said.
Eli had been silent through the whole exchange, and Ace took a moment to study the other man’s expression. It was unreadable. Unhelpful.
“Is there anything else I should know?” Ace figured he should just go ahead and ask.
“Nope,” Jack answered, shaking his head.
“Okay, then. Have her come down during the slow time. I’m assuming you’re going to tell her she has a job interview.”
Jack rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Kate probably will.”
“However you want to work it out.”
“Thanks. I do appreciate it, for what it’s worth. From what... From what Kate has told me, Sierra’s had a harder time than you might think.”
“If she can deliver french fries to the appropriate table it doesn’t much matter to me.”
“Well, that part will be up to you. In the meantime, keep us posted on everything happening here.”
“Sure,” Ace said. “Did you want to help me pick out curtains?”
Eli broke his silence with a laugh. “I don’t even want to pick out curtains for my own house.”
“I suppose I’ll have to hire someone. That’s the problem with trying to open a place that sits a few notches higher on the restaurant scale than a dive bar. It means I have to cultivate tastes that rise above dive bar.”
“If nothing else,” Jack said, “there will be beer. Beyond that, I’m not sure you can really go wrong.”
“True enough.”
After that, Eli and Jack turned to go. And Ace tried not to think about all the ways this could absolutely go wrong. Sure things, in his experience, were never really sure things. Life had a way of going wrong in spectacular and unforeseen ways.
That was his only defense really. Expect an attack to come from somewhere, even if he couldn’t figure out where it might come from.
At least he would have Sierra West’s attempt at a job interview and humility to entertain him. Or she wouldn’t show up at all.
Either way, he couldn’t lose.
CHAPTER THREE
“JACK TALKED TO ACE about getting you a job.”
Sierra stared at the phone like it was a poisonous snake. Usually, she welcomed phone calls from friends. Particularly Kate. Right now, going through everything, Kate was her best bet for finding an emotional outlet for her pain.
The problem with her typical group of friends—beyond the fact that they had abandoned her at the bar last night—was that she felt obligated to protect her family secrets around them.
The other day, when she had overheard her father nearly bursting a blood vein screaming about Jack Monaghan going back on the deal they had struck years ago, she’d discovered that her entire existence was a carefully constructed facade.
Apparently Jack had confronted their father a few months ago, and now the secret was starting to leak out. In town, and now in their house.
The only reason she had spent many years thinking that her father was a decent person, a faithful husband, a loyal, giving human being, was that Jack had signed a gag order some seventeen years earlier.
In exchange, Jack had accepted a large sum of money. Jack had come and paid her father back, and had dissolved that bargain with that one simple action. There was no protection anymore. Jack could get a billboard and put it up in the center of town, proclaiming Nathan West to be the faithless scumbag he was. And then, it wouldn’t only be her mother, her sister and her brother dealing with the fallout in a contained environment.
If that came out, who knew what else would come out? That was what terrified her the most. If people in town saw one person speaking out against Nathan West, how many others would come forward and reveal wrongs he’d committed against them? How bad was he?
It wasn’t something she was ready to face. Whether or not that was fair, it was the truth.
But Kate knew. Because of her relationship with Jack she already knew the whole story, so while that made it difficult for her to deal with her friend in some ways, it also made it easier. She didn’t have to explain her behavior last night. Didn’t have to go through any awkward or dramatic confessions.
Of course, now she knew Kate’s fiancé was Sierra’s half-brother and it didn’t make her feel too eager to go have dinner at their place.
But phone calls were fine.
This one, though, was a little bit confusing.
“Jack did what?”
“He talked to Ace this morning. He met with him about an investment opportunity, and they ended up discussing you. And the fact that you need a job.”
Heat stung Sierra’s cheeks. She did need a job, and until this past week she had not appreciated how difficult one might be to come by. There weren’t a surplus of positions available for someone without a specific skill set. It was a small town, and most of the shops ran on a very small staff. People coming home from college for the summer had already secured positions at any place looking to hire extra employees to deal with the seasonal influx of tourists.
Sierra had always had a job. When she wanted one. All through school she’d known she would have a job waiting for her when she graduated. She’d been made office manager of the family ranch the moment she’d stepped off campus, because that was what her father had been grooming her for.
Colton had taken over West Construction, Maddy handled dressage lessons and horse training. Sierra had been slated for the business side of things.
Scheduling lessons, managing the horses that were boarded on the property, and the payments. Making sure feed was ordered, the farrier was scheduled to handle the horses’ shoe needs.
Sure, nepotism had gotten her there, but she was good at her job.
But apparently if you took nepotism out of the equation she was like any other sad college graduate who was realizing her degree was barely worth the paper it was printed on.
Hey, at least she didn’t have student loan debt.
“I can’t imagine that Ace wants to give me a job.”
“Why not?”
“Because. He gave me a ride home last night when I was drunk.”
There was a brief moment of silence on the other end of the phone. “That shouldn’t matter. He owns a bar. He understands how easy it is to overimbibe.”
“How charming was I last night, Kate? You talked to me.”
“Okay, you were kind of an ass.”
Sierra frowned. “What did I say to you?”
“You said, ‘Really, Kate? That hat with those boots?’”
“Did I?”
“Yes. It’s okay, though. I knew you were drunk. If you were sober you wouldn’t have said that to me in public.”
Sierra grimaced. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. And you were right.” There was another slight pause. “My boots did not match my hat.”
“You know that doesn’t matter.” Kate was one of the nicest people Sierra knew, and the idea of saying anything that might have hurt her made her heart crumble a little bit.
Okay, maybe she didn’t have illegitimate children littering the countryside, but she had to wonder if in some way she was more like her father than she would care to be.
“Please don’t feel guilty. Are you going to go talk to Ace about the job?”
She groaned. “He’s mad at me.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t exactly tell him his hat didn’t match his boots, but I wasn’t all that nice to him, either.” Not that he’d been Prince Charming himself.
“Well, that explains why he told Jack you had to come talk to him in person.”
“Ugh.”
“And why he said you had to apologize.”
Sierra covered her eyes. “Serious ugh.”
“I’m sorry, but you don’t have better options, do you?”
“No.”
“Then, much like my hat and boots, your resistance does not go with your situation.”
Her friend was right. Sierra hated it, but her friend was right. “Okay. When am I supposed to go talk to him and...apologize?”
“Anytime before things get busy.”
Sierra supposed she should go as soon as possible. Like ripping off a Band-Aid. The very idea of working at Ace’s filled her with a deep and abiding sense of nope. Everyone would think it was weird. There was no way around that. A West taking a job as a waitress in a bar was nothing if not conspicuous. But as Kate had reminded her, she was short on options. She couldn’t live with Colton forever. And not just because his future wife breathed fire and left scorched earth in her rather petite wake.
Well, mainly because of that.
“So I guess that means I need to drive over there.”
“Yes,” Kate said, uncompromising.
Kate was like that.
Sierra sort of wished they could meet up for coffee. But she was afraid that would force her to confront Jack, or interact with him in some way, and she really wasn’t ready to deal with him.
“Okay. I’ll go.”
“I’ll check in with you.”
“I have no doubt you will.”
Sierra hung up the phone and looked up just as Colton walked into the room. “Something going on?” he asked.
“Just...still on the job hunt.”
“Honestly, Sierra, if we had a position available in the office at the construction firm I would give it to you. But I can’t justify the expense of adding an employee that we don’t need. If I’m going to give you charity, it just makes more sense to have you stay here rent-free.”
“I know. And I completely understand that. Anyway, I don’t feel like it should have to be charity for someone to give me a job. I’m not completely inept.”
“You’re not inept at all.” He opened the fridge and started rummaging for something, pulling out a pitcher of orange juice a moment later. “Where are you job hunting?”
“I’m going down to talk to Ace Thompson, actually.”
“Not about a job,” came a shrill voice from the next room.
“Yes,” Sierra said, “about a job.”
That was Natalie’s cue to walk in. Or rather slide in like an eel cutting through the water. Natalie was sleek, her blond hair ruthlessly tamed back into a bun, her figure ruthlessly trimmed by years of eating little more than salads.
Sierra had no patience for that kind of thing. You could try to make them cute by putting them in Mason jars, but they were still salads, and she still wanted a hamburger and french fries on the side.
“But how is that going to look?” Natalie asked.
It was on the tip of Sierra’s tongue to say that Natalie couldn’t have it both ways. She couldn’t have Sierra out of the house and able to support herself and worry about what kind of job she ended up with. But Colton had instructed her to be sensitive to Natalie, because she was stressed with the wedding getting so close. He assured Sierra that Natalie wasn’t usually so high-strung.
Sierra didn’t believe that. What she did believe was that her future sister-in-law was beautiful, and suitable by the standards the West family used to measure suitability. She had a feeling her older brother was thinking with his trust fund and his trouser brain.
She also hoped that he was making sure there was a prenup.
“I don’t know, Natalie, probably not as bad as if I end up taking a job at The Naughty Mermaid,” Sierra said, naming the strip club on the outskirts of town.
“That isn’t true,” Natalie countered, “because no one could say anything about it without admitting they were there and bringing flack back onto themselves. The same can’t be said for Ace’s.”
“Your concern is touching,” Sierra said.
“I am concerned,” Natalie said, gliding to the fridge and taking out some kind of preprepared breakfast smoothie. “Our wedding is only a few months away. Your family is on the verge of a meltdown. One of my bridesmaids has decided to run against my father for mayor. And everything just needs to calm down until after I say I do.”
“Natalie.” Colton’s tone was patient. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“You don’t know that,” Natalie said. “Because, I bet you also didn’t think your father had a secret bastard.”
Sierra gritted her teeth. “Don’t talk about him like that,” she said, not entirely sure why she felt protective of Jack.
“That’s enough,” Colton said. “Of course you should go ahead and apply for Ace’s. If you have an in there, take it. Making an honest living is hardly going to disgrace anyone or anything.”
“People are going to wonder about your family’s finances.” Natalie clearly wasn’t ready to let the subject drop.
“Who cares? They’re still going to come to the wedding. There’s a free steak dinner. I know, because I’m paying for it. They won’t care whether I paid with cash or credit. Everything will go off without a hitch. And I’m sure people will be so thankful to your father for hosting such a delightful event that they’ll vote for him without batting an eye. They won’t even read Lydia’s name on the ballot. Why would they? He’s been the mayor forever.”
Natalie seemed somewhat mollified by this. “You make it sound like it might not be so bad.”
“You’re marrying me. How bad could it be?”
Sierra noticed that Natalie seemed to deflect that. But she did turn her cheek and allow Colton to bend and give her a kiss. “All right,” she said, looking at Sierra. “I guess it’s okay.”
Again, Sierra had to grit her teeth and hold back her commentary. “Great. Well, I’ll let you know how it goes.” She was suddenly in a huge hurry to get down to Ace’s. Mainly because she really needed to get away from Natalie. And honestly, away from Colton when he was with her.
He wasn’t totally whipped or anything, but he spent way too much time placating her and managing her for Sierra’s tastes. She didn’t like to imagine that the entire rest of her brother’s life would be spent with a woman who was little more than a temperamental cat in human form. She was constantly needing to be scratched behind the ears and petted in all the right places or she would bite you on the hand.
“I’ll see you both later,” Sierra said, walking out of the kitchen into the front porch before realizing she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, with her hair in two braids, because she couldn’t be bothered to deal with the mess falling asleep on it loose had left it in last night.
She wasn’t exactly dressed for a job interview. But she supposed this was close enough to what she would be wearing if she actually worked in the bar.
Except she would probably have to show a little more cleavage.
She was pretty sure that’s how jobs like this worked.
She heard the door open behind her and turned to see Colton standing there, his arms crossed over his chest. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I don’t know. But I kind of have to.” And if she felt a little spurred on by her future sister-in-law’s controlling attitude, well, that wasn’t so bad, she supposed. “Hopefully I’ll end up with a better job someday, but the reality is I need to do something.”
“You could go back home.”
She made a scoffing sound. “No, thanks.”
“He was your dad for twenty-five years, Sierra, and you were fine living there, and fine taking his money. The only thing that’s changed is that now you know.”
Sierra’s throat tightened. “I know. I’ve only known about Jack and all this other stuff for a couple of days. And you would think twenty-five years would be so much bigger than two days, Colton, you really would. But it’s not. Not for me. This is the biggest, ugliest two days I have ever lived through. I can’t ignore what I know. I can’t go back. Not now.”
“He’s our father.”
“Right. And you need his influence to keep your business running smoothly. And you need to not create a huge rift because you’re having a gigantic wedding and Natalie will completely melt down if you cut ties now, especially since she’s half marrying you for your last name.”
Colton’s expression turned stormy, his brows locking together. She looked at his eyes, that bright blue color so striking and unique with his dark hair. It struck her then, how similar his features were to Jack’s. It hit her so hard it took her breath away.
“You might want to retract the assertion that my fiancée is only marrying me for my name.”
“I said it was half of why,” Sierra said, not backing down.
“You’re a little butt-head, you know that?”
“Ouch. A butt-head? That cut deep, Colton. Right where it hurts most.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure Natalie cares about you.” She wasn’t really. But, she didn’t want to hurt her brother. Even if she did think Natalie was a social-climbing weasel, desperately trying to sink her little claws into Colton so she could use him as a rung on her ascent to the top.
“It’s fine. I’m not an idiot, Sierra. I do understand that if I was a nobody she never would have pursued a relationship with me. Well, she wouldn’t be marrying me anyway. But that’s the way relationships work. It’s not all attraction, or mushy feelings. You pick the person that fits into your life the best. The person that supports your ambitions. I support hers, she supports mine. It’s not a bad thing.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that it would be a bad thing to meet an untimely death at the hands of his wife’s nasty weasel claws, should he ever disappoint her in any way, or should their family scandal grow any vaster.
“You’re not really selling me on the institution, Colton, I have to say.”
“Just wait until your quarter-life crisis is over. You’ll feel differently.”
He turned and walked back into the house, and Sierra made her way over to her truck. She opened the door and got inside, jamming the keys into the ignition, the engine roaring to life. She loved her truck. Cherry red and perfect, with feathers hanging off the rearview mirror and a hookup for her phone so she could play all of her favorite country music.
But it wasn’t really her truck. The thought struck her numb as she put the vehicle in Reverse and began to pull out of the driveway. Her phone wasn’t hers, either. Not really. Neither was the music on it.
That realization stopped the little moment of happy she’d experienced upon getting into the truck. And it weighed her down on the drive back into town, toward Ace’s.
It also reinforced what she was about to do.
Ask for a job. Apologize.
Another thought hit her as she pulled into the parking lot, putting her truck in Park and killing the engine. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever apologized to anyone before in her life. That couldn’t be right. Surely, she’d apologized at some point. To someone. For something.