Free Blame It on the Cowboy by Delores Fossen Page B

the watch while no one’s there.”
    Reese was still skeptical. “And how do you know no one is there? Logan has an apartment on the top floor.”
    Jimena smiled. “He’s not there tonight. Don’t you ever listen to gossip? The clerk at the gas station said Logan was in Dallas for a meeting and won’t be back until tomorrow.”
    It was the first Reese was hearing of this—and yes, she did listen to gossip. Hard not to hear it in a town this small. But she hadn’t been especially listening for gossip about Logan but rather Mia. It turned out that the little girl’s arm wasn’t broken, after all, just sprained and bruised.
    â€œYou said you were anxious to get the watch and then leave town,” Jimena reminded her. “So, here’s your chance. Say, what made you so eager to leave, anyway?”
    â€œLogan. He ran a background check on me.”
    Jimena gasped. A reaction that Reese had had herself. Her past had a nasty way of coming back to haunt her. Usually she could outrun it, but this time it’d caught up with her.
    â€œDid Logan tell your boss?” Jimena asked.
    â€œNot yet. But he will.” If it hadn’t been for taking Mia to the ER and then this trip to Dallas, Logan probably would have already done it.
    That meant tonight might be her last chance to find that watch. Bert probably wouldn’t fire her on the spot, but that was only because of his wife’s surgery. He needed her for both the breakfast and lunch shifts, but he would give Reese her walking papers as soon as he could find someone else. Or heck, maybe he would just close the café for a while.
    â€œI don’t even know if the watch is in the McCord building,” Reese admitted.
    â€œElrond said Logan lives there, like all the time. Where else would he have put it?”
    Maybe in the trash, but that tightened her stomach just thinking about it.
    â€œIf you find it, you won’t even have to do the breakfast shift,” Jimena said. “You can grab Tootsie Roll and ride back with me to San Antonio.”
    It was past being tempting, and it wasn’t as if she had a ton of options. Now that Logan knew who she was, he might never give her back the watch because he might think she’d stolen it.
    â€œYou’re sure you can trust Elrond?” Reese asked.
    â€œThe man gives multiple orgasms. Of course I can trust him.”
    There was no correlation to that, none, but Reese decided she had no choice but to risk it. She put the grocery bags on the counter, pulled on her jeans and a T-shirt and followed Jimena out to the stairs and then out of the Bluebonnet. They didn’t walk on Main Street but rather on the street behind the inn. Probably because Jimena wanted to make sure they weren’t seen.
    Reese only hoped she didn’t regret this, but she already had a bad feeling about it.
    When they made it to Elrond, he kissed Jimena, and they started in on a make-out session while he handed Reese the key. His aim wobbled, because he had his eyes closed while kissing, and Reese finally just snagged them. Part of her almost hoped the key didn’t work, that Logan had changed the locks.
    But it worked just fine.
    She slipped into the back door, the AC immediately spilling over her. The floors were marble, all shiny and cool, and even the walls had some kind of slick finish to them. The bottom floor was dark except for the base lighting around a copper and bronze sculpture of a longhorn. It was large enough to have been a real cow, and Reese dodged the lethal-looking horns as she made her way around it.
    She also had to fight back a scream when something went zipping past her. Sheez. It was possibly a raccoon.
    Or a very small, hyped-up guard dog.
    It shot out of the reception area and disappeared. No growling sounds. No clawing sounds, either, so she hoped it wasn’t coming back for her.
    Since she wasn’t sure how much time she had, Reese