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Fair point—that didn’t make it any less infuriating that she had lost in the first place.

“So, number twelve-oh-nine—” Ryan ventured, reaching up to stick his fingers into the open metal of the trailer near the filly. “She’s ours? I mean, mine?”

“Looks like,” he said. “I’d say you made a good choice. She’s got real potential. Once she settles in.”

“And these other horses?” Shay asked, still suspicious.

“Liam wanted me to pick up some riding horses to train up for future guests at your ranch.”

“He sent you to buy them?”

“Apparently so.” His expression darkened suddenly. “Look, if you don’t believe me, you can call him.”

She resisted the urge to do just that. Why else would he have her family’s truck? Surely, he hadn’t stolen it. Shay looked away, embarrassed for even thinking it. Just because his father was a convicted thief . . . “Fine. Then I guess we’re both heading back to the same place. You can follow me.”

She turned on her heel to go, but he said, “Or you can follow me. That way you’ll be certain where I’m going.”

Shay opened her mouth to—to what? Apologize for doubting him? But she decided against it. No point in opening that Pandora’s box. “Whatever you’d like,” was the best she could come up with.

“See you there then.” With a sardonic touch to the brim of his hat again, he swung into the pickup and took off toward the highway, a trailer full of horses in tow.

Shay turned to Ryan. “Well, that went well, don’t you think?”

Ryan shook his head and headed for their truck. “At least we got the horse. You know that guy?”

“Sort of. From a long time ago.” But did anyone really know Cooper Lane anymore?

They’d gone to school together, in Marietta, but he’d been gone for most of their twenties. What had brought him back? She had to admit, she was curious. He’d been dealt a bad hand by his father and the taint of what had happened had rubbed off on Cooper. The town’s inability to separate what was true and what was purely conjecture about Cooper and his father was mostly why he’d disappeared in the first place, she guessed. Personally, she’d never believed he’d been involved in his father’s misdeeds, but Liam’s hiring him felt risky just as they were trying to pull this whole guest ranch thing together on the Hard Eight. Reputation was everything and they couldn’t afford any scandal. Mostly, she couldn’t afford this whole guest ranch thing to fail. Her future and her son’s future depended on it. Struggling along on part-time accounting gig money would never pay for her son’s college or her own survival.

She got in the cab of her truck and pulled out her cell phone, punching in the number for her brother as she started the truck. It took four rings for him to pick up. But before he could even speak, Shay said, “You’ve made some bonehead moves before, Liam, but hiring Cooper Lane? That really might just—”

“Uh, excuse me,” he interrupted, apparently prepared with his argument, “but I seem to recall that you, as project manager, put me in charge of hiring all the—”

“Maybe so, but not Cooper Lane! We’ve got one shot to make this guest ranch thing go. And you know how folks around here feel about Cooper Lane and his father.”

“Who is safely ensconced in prison.”

“I know very well where he is and so does everyone else. You need to rethink this whole Cooper Lane thing. Now, before this gets out of hand. People talk, you know.”

“Shay, I think you’re overreacting.”

“Am I? I’m not so sure. And he outbid me for Ry’s filly. Eight-fifty. Did you authorize him to do that?”

“I would have if I’d been there.”

“But you weren’t here,” she said. “That’s a lot of trust to put in a brand-new hire.”

“You’re wrong about him.”

“Perception,” she pointed out, “is nine tenths of the law.”

“I think you mean possession.”

“Mark my words. Cooper Lane,” Shay said slowly, “is gonna hurt us.”

There was silence at the other end of the line for a long moment. “I’m willing to take a chance on him. I think he deserves that.” He waited another beat. “Anything else?”

“No.” Shay hung up on Liam before sliding a look at Ryan. “Not a word.”