Page 23 of Waiting in Wyoming

It had been months since Preston’s arrest. It had been delayed a bit too long. Any longer and more eyebrows would be raised.

He had to do what he had to do—Dale reached out and signed the warrants. “Tell the boys in blue to just make sure nothing ismissed.I’d hate to see all of this be for nothing.”

As soon as the prosecutor was gone, Dale pulled out his private cell phone. As expected, Kelby found his way inside his chambers before he’d finished dialing.

Dale held up a hand to the younger man to wait. To keep his mouth shut. As he filled the young man on the other end of the line in on what had happened now. And listened while Kelby tried to figure out what to do next.

Core of honor? Kelby Londell didn’t have one of those at all.

19

He wasninety-nine percent certain the woman he had just seen walking around the Talley Inn was his long-lost older sister. Quade Davis just didn’t know what to do about it.

He didn’t even know how many sisters he had. He definitely didn’t know why one would be in Masterson County, Wyoming, either.

Unless Zoey was looking for him.

He seriously hoped she wasn’t looking forhim.He wasn’t ready to deal with long-lost family drama. Not now.

He was still hurting from his owndrama.Far too much. He didn’t know if he would ever stop hurting from it.

Ashley Renae Charlemagne would have been twenty-four years old today. Had she not had a heart attack two days after New Year’s Eve—they’d just been walking down the street on their way to dinner. And she had collapsed in his arms.

Within a week, her heart had failed completely. And the rest of her organs followed. He had never been so helpless in his life. Not even as a kid, running from an abusive father to find his older brother clear across the country.

Losing her was like losing a piece of his soul. They’d only dated for three months, but he had loved her. Feltrealwith her in ways he never had with a woman before. And probably never would with a woman again. No woman would ever make him feel that way ever again. Ashley had been hisone.If by some chance he ever did find a woman who made him feel that way again, Quade was going to scoop her up and run. Spend every minute with her forever.

He knew exactly what he had lost now.

Quade turned toward the dining room. It was closing in a few hours, he thought. He had been to the inn many times before. He liked it there. Had friends there. People he could be with if he wanted.

But he just didn’t want to.

Quade didn’t feel much like doing anything any longer. Working—he always worked. But it wasn’t as satisfying as it used to be. Not before Ashley. Ashley had listened to him, encouraged him to do a few more children’s movies in the next year or so. She’d said he should do what made him happy.

Not much made him happy right now. It just didn’t.

Not without her.

His brothers had both called him already, even though they were busy on set. He was finishing up a few things to help his friend Rowland now. Then Quade was going to head back to his condo and just think. Get through another day and then another and then another.

That was the way it worked, right?

He wasn’t up for family drama now, and reuniting with anyone from his birth mother’s family hurt too much to even consider. It had just been recent that they had learned of what she had done—and that they had a large family in Texas. Sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles—he thought—that he would never know.

It hurt. All of it hurt. Quade just hurt so much.

Quade had grown up knowing that he had his brothers—and that was it. His brothers wanted nothing to do with their mother’s family. They were concerned it would bring negative publicity that they just didn’t want to deal with, not to mention his oldest brother Slater’s ex-girlfriend was tied to that family.

The last thing Slater wanted was to ever deal withheragain.

Or so he said. Quade suspected that was the exact opposite of what his brother really wanted. His brother had come alive when that woman was near. She had almost died in October, along with three of Quade’s sisters. He had only met one of those sistersonce.

Zoey.

And he was almost certain she was walking around this hotel now.

He took the back way, hoping she wouldn’t be in the dining room.