Page 10 of Winning His Wager

“Why did you end up in the attic?” He had been up there before. It was a typical attic, but he’d heard that Gerald had hired Fletcher’s cousin Martin to finish it out into a small room fast, once Dylan had been found. “Why not downstairs with the rest of your family?”

The Talleys lived in a private wing of the inn—all except Dylan. And now Dusty, who was living across the road with Ben.

She shrugged again. “It just sort of felt right. And Dahlia couldn’t be put in the attic. She needs to be near Devaney. Devaney could have been put up there, but she tends to keep a close eye on Dahlia. And, well, Dorie would have been too scared and lonely up there so far away from everyone else. So it made the most sense for me to be up there. There wasn’t room in the rest of the family wing for me. Not really.”

“Even with Dusty moving out?”

“No. We put Dorie in Dusty’s room. Don’t worry. I was okay up there. I had a bat up there once, but Uncle Gerald got it out for me. So no biggie. Besides, I’m here now—I’m sure they won’t even miss me that much. I seriously doubt I will be bonking my noggin on the ceiling here.”

“Hardly. Not unless you grow ten feet.” His place had fifteen-foot ceilings with hand-hewn wooden beams running through it. It was plenty big enough for him and her.

Fletcher planned to raisehiskids in this house someday. Once he was more financially stable, once his new partnership to develop better ranching technologies worked, once the house was remodeled the way he wanted, once he found the woman he wanted to have those kids with…

That was the big one there—he hadn’t found a woman he wanted that with. Period. He definitely wanted that. Tylers were family men, after all. He just hadn’t found her yet.

Dylan yawned again, pulling the blanket tighter around her. “You are really lucky, Fletchie. I used to dream…”

“About what?”

“About…having a place that ismine.Not one that can be taken away…with a garden space, all my own. Maybe even a room to start seeds in the winter. With lots of sunlight. A sunroom. Even if it’s just a little one. I love being in the sunlight, you know. I want my kids to play outside far more than we got to. I want lots of kids and lots of sunshine. Well, maybe someday, when I finally figure things out.”

He waited for her to say something else. But she didn’t. He tilted his flashlight in her direction. Dylan was sound asleep. In his favorite chair. A quilt his mother had made years ago covered her.

Hell, this was not what he had expected to happen tonight.

Fletcher threw another log into the stove. It would keep them warm all night.

He just stayed where he was for a long while as he tried to imagine what her life being controlled by Arthur Talley would have been like. What it would have felt like to have just been uprooted so many times. To never feel settled…

Hell, Dusty was right. Dylan had deserved far better than what she had gotten. So had Devaney, Dahlia, and little Dorie. And Dusty, Daisy, Dixie, and Darcey, for that matter.

All of them had deserved better.

Arthur Talley had a long way to go to make itright.

All Dylan dreamed about was a home of her own where she belonged and didn’t have to leave?

Hell.

It was obvious.

She didn’t feel like she’d had eventhat.

It made him appreciate the walls surrounding him just that much more.

5

Will pickedAbby up from the inn like the dutiful younger brother he was. His dad made him drive her around like a fucking chauffeur. It chafed, no denying that. But his dad made it clear—Abby had a job, Abby was bringing in money to help out now that his dad could no longer drive for Morris Preston under the table like he had, and something had to offset his dad’s disability payment without sending his dad over the legal limit. At least on paper. Abby’s job was so fuckingimportant.

His dad had driven for Morris because Morris paid cash. His dad hadn’t exactly reported that cash on his taxes or anything. Just one way people around Masterson could get by.

Just like Will had distributed a few things for good old Morris at times too. For cold, hard, untraceablecash.

His own supply of Opal Joy was dwindling. Will didn’t use OPJ that much now—he couldn’t. Since Preston was arrested, Will didn’t have access to much more.

Once he sold what he had, he was shit out of luck unless he could find someone to give him more. There was supposed to be another shipment hidden around Masterson somewhere. That punk Sonny from Finley Creek had dropped one off somewhere before Judge Fisher had offed him. Will just hadn’t found it yet. No one had found it yet.

He was still looking. When Will found it, he would have an entire truckload of his own OPJ to sell. There would be enough there to make him rich, especially since rumors were going around that supply was going to be even tighter to come by.