He was so glad she’d opened up to him. It seemed like a big deal to her, to admit her name. It fit her, he decided. Gabrielle. A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.
She waved to him before stepping inside, and he turned on his heel with a little zip-a-dee-do-dah in his step. He’d never been one for whistling, but he could probably bust out a tune right about now.
His phone rang, jerking him from his post-kiss delirium. He answered, and Rita spoke without an initial greeting.
“I found her.”
It took him a few blinks before he remembered who she was talking about. Right. The late-night request he’d made.
“Bethany Harold? Who is she? Where is she?”
“She’s a woman on your father’s payroll,” Rita said.
This surprised him. First Danica, now Gabby’s aunt? “She worked for my dad?”
“Still does,” Rita said. “As for her background—I’m assuming you wanted info on her background?”
“Give me everything you’ve got,” Adrian said, quickening his pace. It was true, he wanted to know as much as he could. Anything that could help Gabby. He couldn’t help but refer to her by her real name. Goldie had been too literal a name for her. Gabby was much better suited, not only to her features but to her.
“Bethany was born in Deer Lodge and moved to Two Pines when she was twelve years old. She never married, no school or education or anything like that, and she’s lived there ever since.” Rita spoke as if in recitation. “She did have a baby and placed it for adoption years ago, and she’s mostly kept to herself.”
“A baby? How long ago?”
Rita paused before continuing. “Looks like about twenty-eight years ago. Her sister was the one who took the baby and moved to Wisconsin.”
Adrian lost the ability to breathe. She couldn’t be serious. “Are you saying what I think you are?”
“That depends,” Rita said. “What do you think I’m saying?”
He didn’t answer her, but his mind screamed it so loud he could hardly think.
“What was the baby’s name?” he asked. He had to clear his throat to get the words out. Gabby had told him she was twenty-seven. This was too coincidental to be a fluke.
“It doesn’t say. Why do you ask?”
He sank against the side of the barn, unsure of how or when he’d returned to it. He’d been heading past the barn toward his mom’s place after dropping Goldie off, but his mind reeled and he must have taken a subconscious detour. The call had thrown him completely off.
He tried to return his thoughts to the matter at hand. This baby Rita was referring to. Maybe it was Gabby’s sister. It had to be—it couldn’t be what he thought. Except Gabby had told him herself—she was an only child.
“You say she works for my dad. Any chance you have a contact number for her?”
“You’re seriously going overboard, boss.”
“I promise it’s not anything suspicious.”
“This whole thing is suspicious,” she grumbled, but she read him the number. Adrian did his best to repeat the numbers in his mind. He didn’t want to forget before he got the chance to write it down.
“Thanks, Rita. I owe you one.”
“More than one,” she said, but he’d already hung up.
His brain was a propeller, spinning faster and faster and threatening to take him forward too quickly. It couldn’t be what he thought it was. But if what Rita was saying was true, was this Bethany Harold really Gabby’s mother? If so, how could he even tell her?
***
Goldie made her way through a few papers, laughing out loud at one student’s parody on cowboy boots verses high heels. She checked her email a few times for good measure.
Nothing. Which left the evening with Adrian. Alone, in his house.
The pit of her stomach curled. She braved a visit to town to gather the ingredients they needed and to fill her truck with gas. Fortunately, she’d made the trip often enough now she recognized a few landmarks.
After returning, she ate dinner and then sat on the porch swing with a sense of change in her bones. Something about tonight was different. Maybe it was the lightheaded cloud she’d been walking on since her kisses with Adrian. She couldn’t remember ever feeling comfortable enough with someone to admit her real name. She hadn’t even told her roommate, Sadie, what it was. To everyone, she was Goldie Bybanks.
To Adrian… She wasn’t sure what she was. Fake girlfriend, but how could that be when she’d been so real with him? She was Gabrielle. And he knew it now.
In the distance, Mrs. Bear and Jordan were making their way down the path before the barn and to the parking lot where her car waited. Goldie waited until they drove away, and then, groceries in hand, she made her way past the barn, past Kimmy and Chase’s house, and to the Bear’s residence on the outskirts. Fading sunlight cast a golden, purple glow along the grassland. She paused a moment to take in the sight.
Adrian was standing on the porch, his hair gloriously windswept and a shadow of stubble speckling his jawline. He carried a bundle beneath one arm and beamed at her.
“I was just about to come pick you up,” he said, offering her the bundle. It was a package wrapped in brown paper.
“What’s this for?”
“Open it.”
Goldie placed her bag of groceries on the step and tore the brown wrappings. Inside was a pair of cream aprons with little green chili peppers on them.
“Matching?” she said with a smile.
“Not quite. Would you rather I take the ruffled one for myself?” He fanned it out and held it to his chest.
Goldie laughed. It was just that much different from the more squared-off version in her hands. “Don’t knock the ruffles. I take it
