"Nearby?"
She only shook her head, now with pinched lips. She kept her face averted, looking out the passenger window. And then, as if she'd steeled herself, she turned to him. "What'd you do after high school? College? Let me guess, you were a football player? We're in Texas, after all."
The hit was sharp and deep. It made his voice sharp when he answered. "I didn't go to college."
He'd lost his scholarship because of the accident. When Mackie had insisted he get out of her house, he'd had no money for an apartment, much less tuition.
"I started working construction for a company that did home renos. I have my own company now."
Saying the words filled him with a pride that never got old. He'd made something of himself even after Mackie had doubted him. After the mess he'd made of his life.
"Are you going to keep doing that?"
Her question didn't make sense. He shot her a look that said so.
"Do renovations part time while you run the ranch?"
He snorted. "I won't be running the ranch."
His words fell into the sudden silence. He glanced at her. Her eyes were wide with surprise.
"You're selling?"
"I live in Houston. My business is there." All that was left for him on the No Name were memories that haunted him.
He was selling the ranch?
Cord's words raced in circles around the inside of Molly's brain as he slowly crawled down Main Street. Sutter's Hollow was just as small as the town she'd grown up in. One stoplight. A tiny grocery store across from the single bank. Elementary school and library.
Cord pulled his truck into an empty space in front of the hardware-slash-auto parts store.
Why did it matter? It wasn't as if she were staying on the No Name anyway. He hadn't asked her to stay. He'd told her from the beginning that he didn't have a job for her. But she’d refused to believe. Maybe there was a part of her that'd seen the help wanted ad and dreamed about a safe place to land.
Ridiculous. She'd only spent one night there.
So what if he had a sweetheart of a dog? The man was a porcupine in a human body.
She shrugged her backpack over her shoulder and got out of the car. A glance both directions down the street showed that she and Cord were the only crazy ones out in this weather. Nothing to worry about.
And he'd done what he'd promised. Dropped her off at the parts store. He didn't even get out.
She nodded her thanks through the windshield.
He was still frowning. Probably his normal expression. The man was miserable. She felt sorry for him.
She was passing in front of his truck, moving slowly on the icy sidewalk, when she heard his phone ring from inside the cab. She glanced around again before she ducked into the parts store.
Her nerves were jangling, which was silly. She hadn't seen a trace of Toby since the night she'd run.
"Help you?" the good 'ol boy-turned-man behind the counter reminded her of a friendly face from home. He was roughly her dad's age, with thinning hair and wearing a pair of coveralls that had seen better days. His warm greeting gave her the courage to sidle up to the counter. His name tag read RICK.
"I need an alternator for my truck."
A couple of hours under the hood, and she could replace the alternator. Too bad she couldn't replace what Toby had taken from her that easily.
Rick punched in her truck's information on his computer and then disappeared into the floor-to-ceiling rows of shelves at the back of the shop. She was left to look at a flyer taped to the countertop. An advertisement for an upcoming town-wide swap meet or some sort of festival. The marketing was horrible, so she couldn't quite tell.
It was something she would've seen back at home. Nostalgia closed off her throat.
Where was she going to go? Sutter's Hollow was the first place she'd felt safe.
So, another small town, then? Somewhere she could see for miles, hear the rattle of an unfamiliar vehicle. Somewhere everyone knew everyone else's name.
The bell over the door jangled, and she jumped, whirling that direction.
It was Cord. He had his phone to his ear, and his voice was fierce as he spoke into the receiver. "I never signed any papers. I don't remember that."
Rick cleared his throat, and she jumped again. She'd been staring at Cord and hadn't realized he'd returned behind the counter.
"Sorry," she said.
"I'll have to order your alternator. Should arrive in about two days. Maybe three, if this storm holds."
She glanced out the window at the pure ice still falling from the sky. Snot nuggets. What was she going to do?
She passed her credit card across the desk for him to swipe. A couple hundred bucks would put her close to her credit limit, but it couldn't be helped.
She signed the credit slip and was turning away from the counter when she had a thought.
She turned back. "Do you know anybody who buys antique tractors?" She opened the photos app on her burner phone and showed him the few pictures of Cord's tractors. She'd snuck outside in that last ten minutes on the ranch and snapped them.
"Callie Rae in Honey Bend—that's the next town to the west—buys and sells tractors like those. She makes a pretty penny when they're fixed up real nice."
Molly glanced over her shoulder to find Cord was still on the phone, sounding furious now. She turned back to Rick and smiled. "Would you do me a favor? When he"—she threw her thumb to indicate Cord—"comes up here, will you tell him about Callie Rae? He's selling his ranch, and I'm sure he could use the money."
She put her wallet away, threw her backpack over her shoulder, and wandered up the nearest aisle toward the window that faced Main Street.
What was she supposed to do now? Stranded in the middle of an ice storm? Cord had made it clear she wasn't welcome back at the ranch.
