A Winter Wedding

“Nothing.”

“You look thoroughly disgusted,” she said and laughed at him when he growled at her to get out and shut the door.

Kyle was wrapping up his conversation with the client from Los Angeles when Morgan came in again. This time she sat in the chair across from his desk while waiting for him to finish.

“Don’t tell me Noelle’s already here,” he said when he’d disconnected.

“No. I’m hoping to be gone by then. This is good news.”

He sat up taller. After having his ex-wife, of all people, make an issue of his dismal love life, he could use some good news. “What is it?”

“I received a call from that dude who wants to rent the farmhouse.”

“I hope he’s not canceling,” Kyle said. “Noelle keeps asking if she can move in. I’ll be relieved when it’s occupied and she can’t bug me about it anymore.”

“Can’t she just move out of town instead?” Morgan responded. “No one would miss her.”

Yet another reason Kyle forced himself to be decent to her. Despite all the terrible things she’d done—especially to him—he felt sorry for her. She couldn’t seem to avoid screwing up her own life. “She’s trying to launch a modeling career. Maybe she’ll be discovered and relocate to New York or LA.”

“She’s delusional if she thinks anyone’s going to pay her to model! She—”

“What’s your news?”

She scowled in apparent frustration. She was all revved up, and he’d removed her target. “Fine,” she said, shifting gears. “Meade’s no longer coming, but—” she held up a hand so he wouldn’t react too soon “—he wasn’t looking at the house for himself, anyway.”

“Who’s it for?”

“A client he manages.” She grinned. “Are you ready for this?”

“You have my full attention,” he said drily. He liked his assistant, but she got on his nerves occasionally. After dealing with Noelle, he preferred to be left alone right now so he could get some work done. He didn’t want to stay late tonight. He didn’t live far, but he’d rather not get caught in the storm they were expecting. It was supposed to be the worst they’d had in twenty years.

“Lourdes Bennett,” she announced.

The way she’d said the name sounded like ta-da!

“Bennett? Is she related to our police chief?”

“No! There’s no connection. You don’t recognize the name Lourdes Bennett?”

“Should I?”

“She’s a country-western singer!”

“Am I supposed to be familiar with every country-western singer?”

“Not necessarily, but she has several hit songs—and she was born and raised less than an hour away.”

Now that she’d jogged his memory, Kyle realized he had heard of Lourdes. He just hadn’t expected the person who might be renting his farmhouse to be someone truly famous. “In Angel’s Camp, right? This is the Lourdes Bennett who sings ‘Stone Cold Lover’?”

“That’s the one.”

“Why would she have any interest in coming here?” he asked.

“I have no clue,” Morgan replied. “But you’re about to find out. She flew into Sacramento Airport this morning and rented a car. She’s on her way, should be here any minute.”

“Is she coming by herself?”

“Sounded like it.”

Kyle scratched his head. “That seems odd.”

“What seems odd?”

“The whole thing. If she’s from Angel’s Camp, why isn’t she going there? Why would she want to spend the holidays in Whiskey Creek?”

“You’ll have to ask her,” Morgan said. “Unless you want me to show the house. I’d be happy to take over for you.”

He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Sorry, you have a couple of hours before quitting time, which you’ll spend here. I’ll take care of meeting Ms. Bennett.”

She huffed. “Great. I’ll be the one to get tortured by your ex-wife.”

“Just point her to the back corner of the warehouse, where I put that used water heater.”

“I’d like to point her somewhere, but it isn’t to the back of the warehouse.”

He chuckled. “Be careful crossing her. She can be vengeful.”

“You’re too nice to her. She doesn’t deserve a guy like you, even as an ex.” She mimed zipping her lips. “But that’s it. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“Thank you.”

She straightened the cowl of her sweater. “I hope Lourdes Bennett wants the house. Wouldn’t it be exciting to have her in town—on your property?”

He wasn’t so sure. Thanks to Noelle, he’d had about all he could take of difficult women. “Unless she’s a diva. But if she is a diva, I can’t imagine why she’d rent my house. A diva would want something fancier—in Bel Air or the Bay Area.”

“Whiskey Creek may not be as famous as San Francisco or LA, but it’s beautiful here in the foothills. And she’ll love the house. After what you’ve done to the place, who wouldn’t?”

Built in the thirties, it had once been a farmhouse, which was why they still referred to it as the farmhouse. When he’d purchased the land so he could expand his plant, he’d decided to update the house that was there and turn it into another rental. He already had a couple of places he rented out, so it made sense. “The house is only about a thousand square feet.” He’d opened up the kitchen and living room areas and expanded the office, but there were only two bedrooms and two baths. That wouldn’t be conducive to hosting a large group, so if she planned to bring her whole entourage for a Christmas party or something, it wouldn’t work.

“One person can’t need any more space than that,” Morgan said.

“If it is just one person.” Kyle was tempted to search Google for Lourdes’s name. He sometimes listened to country-western music, enough to be familiar with her song “Stone Cold Lover” as well as one other that he couldn’t remember the title of. But he didn’t know anything about her background, family, age or marital status, and now he was curious. From the pictures he’d seen, she didn’t look much older than twenty-five or twenty-six, but who knew how current those photos were? She could’ve played the bars and honky-tonks for years before getting any serious attention.

He would’ve taken a few minutes to read up on her if he hadn’t been afraid Noelle would arrive before he could leave. That made him decide to use his smartphone instead of his computer, since he could do it off the premises.

Grabbing his coat, he told Morgan he’d see her in the morning and drove over to the rental.

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