Page 87 of Slow Hands Cowboy

She was beginning to think that option wasn’t on the table, though.

It felt like every stone was being overturned in the deepest parts of her. Like everything hidden was being dragged right out in the open.

She’d been naked in Walker’s bathroom this morning.

In his bed.

In his shower.

Everything was different, but Mustang River looked the same.

Everything was different, but she looked the same.

When she pulled up to the little boutique on main that had clothing and household goodies, she sat there feeling like she was outside her body.

Gin and Tonic was a popular store in town, partly because of how she marketed it online, she knew, but also because it was quirkier than some of the other clothing stores in town, which to be fair, very smartly catered to wealthy clients that were looking for staple pieces. There was a shop only two doors down from her that sold the most beautiful wool shawls, but those were not impulse buys. And while the clothing in her store was of good quality, she kept things a little bit less pricey.

Though some days she felt more like she was the occasional social media manager and silent partner. Her manager and assistant manager were younger than she was, in their early twenties, and very good at buying just the right things for the store to curate an enthusiastic customer.

She got out of her car and walked up the sidewalk toward the boutique, taking a deep breath as she opened the door.

She plastered a smile firmly on her face and was met with wide-eyed shock from the employee and manager that were behind the counter.

“Hi,” she said.

“Addison,” her manager, Beth, said. “You’re... you’re here?”

“I’ve been looking at messages in the chat.”

“It could have been the serial killer that had your phone looking at those messages.”

Addison noted Beth had not called for a welfare check or indeed checked in at all.

“I just wanted to come check in, see how everything was. I’m getting back into my normal routine. Or at least, I will be. And I’m going to be moving into town.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’m going to take my Airbnb off the market. I’ll just live in it until everything gets... sorted out. Although, I guess that is sorted out. I need a place to stay, and that’s the place. For the foreseeable future.”

“Great. Well, I just wanted to go over some things with you, sales and whatnot. Customer behavior changes.”

The behavior changes were mainly that they were actually doing better than usual at this time of year. She wondered if it had to do with the Painted Ridge Resort, because there were more people coming into town to stay there, but then, Mustang River had already been growing. She took the data from that conversation with her and decided that focusing on that was maybe a little bit better than obsessing over her family dynamics.

There was a little café at the end of the block called Eat & Run, that catered to quick lunches and, in a fun dichotomy, also people who were going out to eat.

Also people who brought their laptops in to work for a couple of hours. It worked well, because most of the tables rotated quickly, so they didn’t mind if a few people sat and lingered, even though the building was small.

It had been pretty common for her and Anna to discuss the campaign at Eat & Run. For Addison to come and sit for a while by herself and for Alan to come meet her for lunch before heading back to his practice.

That life, the image of that life, felt like something from a movie. It didn’t feel like her only two weeks ago.

She sat down in her usual spot by the window that looked out on Main Street and took her laptop out of her bag. Before she had it set up, Donna, her usual waitress, walked up to the table. “Addison. How are you?”

The words were laden with meaning, but that was to be expected. “I’m doing really good. Thank you. Just here to catch up on some things. As you can imagine, I’m kind of piecing my life back together.”

“Yeah, can I have the Cobb salad, please? Oh, and sweet potato fries?”

“You sure can. Diet Coke?”