Chapter Sixteen

Dolly

A fter Dolly wrapped up her presentation, Jefferson looked over at Martha and said, “Would you mind if I spoke to Ms. Keller privately?”

Dolly’s heart stuttered in her chest.

“Of course,” Martha said. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer of coffee now.”

“It’s right around the corner,” Dolly said through numb lips.

When Martha left, the click of the door latch sounded like a gunshot in the stillness of the office.

Dolly sat down at the conference room table.

“I was surprised to hear your name from Finn,” Jefferson said, thumbing through a stack of brochures that showcased the upcoming events. “You’ve done well for yourself.”

“I’ve worked hard to get where I am.” She lifted her chin, meeting his stare head-on. “And I’m not going to let anything jeopardize that.”

“Easy.” He held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I’m not here to cause trouble. I just wanted to see you again. See how things worked out for you. Finn loved the photo shoot that you did with him. It was very professional.”

Despite the tension coiled in her gut, Dolly felt a flicker of pride. “Thank you. Finn makes it easy. He’s really making a name for himself on the rodeo circuit, isn’t he?”

“Sure is.” Jefferson beamed with pride. “He’s got more talent than I ever did. I reckon he’ll be one of the greats someday.”

“I don’t doubt that for a second.”

He hesitated for a moment before continuing the conversation. “Listen, I know we have a complicated history, but I’d like to put that behind us. I’m happy to see that you’re doing well. I’ve thought about you often over the years. You’re a strong woman, and you deserve every success that comes your way.”

Dolly had to fight to blink back tears. That was unexpected. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

“Anyhow…” Jefferson glanced at his watch, a flicker of regret crossing his face “…I hate to cut this short, but I’ve got another meeting to attend to.”

“Of course.” Dolly got up and smoothed down her skirt.

They walked through the busy office. Martha joined them as they passed by the break room.

“Martha, Lonestar Leathercraft will be sponsoring ten athletes of Dolly’s choice. We’ll work out the details later.”

Dolly did blink back tears this time. “That’s incredibly generous. Thank you. UPRC has no shortage of gifted athletes. I can put together a list of popular riders who’ll be more than happy to have a Lonestar Leathercraft saddle.”

“Excellent,” Martha said.

With a final nod at Dolly, Jefferson walked into the elevator with Martha.

Dolly let out a big sigh. She had kept her secret safe and secured a major sponsorship deal. Not bad for a day’s work. It was a bit of a relief that Jefferson Laker was still the nice guy that she remembered.

Now all she had to do was get through the rest of the day and then she could enjoy her night with Nash. But as she made her way back to her desk, Dolly’s eyes flicked to Debbi’s empty desk. With a glance around, she confirmed that no one was looking directly at her. She eased into Debbi’s office and quietly closed the door behind her.

When she jiggled the mouse, the screen appeared. Luckily, it didn’t ask for a password. The first thing Dolly wanted to do was get her hands on the staffing information for the Laredo rodeo. The preliminary email had circulated this morning, which is how she knew Nash’s name hadn’t been on the VIP list, but the final version wouldn’t be sent out until later. It was a piece of cake to open up the document and add Nash’s name so his VIP badge would be available at the will-call booth this time. She sent the email with the word “Final” in the subject line. If Blevins could send out promo packages from her email, turnabout was fair play and she could send out information from his office as well.

With Nash’s name safely on the Laredo list, Dolly was about to cover her tracks and go back to her own office. But the thought of that offshore account that Debbi had mentioned gnawed at her. She decided she could afford to snoop around a bit more. She navigated through a labyrinth of digital files, searching for any hint of illicit financial activity. File after file opened and closed, revealing nothing but mundane transactions and tedious bookkeeping. It was boring and frustrating, and she was risking getting caught the longer she sat here.

A prompt flashed up. Debbi just got a new email from Blevins by the looks of it. But she couldn’t access it without a password. She tried a few generic guesses, all meeting with rejection. With a huff, Dolly stopped attempting to hack her way into Debbi’s email. She didn’t want to lock Debbi out of the system.

She was covering her tracks and erasing the history when she caught sight of a file she had missed before. It was marked DK6969. It struck her as being the type of thing that Blevins would name a file. She opened it, skimming through the contents.

“Fuck,” she whispered, feeling the world tilt.

DK was her. Dolly Keller.

There in cold, unforgiving black and white were the details of her employment history at Leisure Industries. Scanned pictures of the catalog that Leisure had sent out with her featured in it were in the file. Shame burst through her, like hot vomit. Her family would be mortified if they saw these cheesecake pictures. And Nash? He’d be disgusted. She was disgusted.

She stared at the screen, the words blurring together. She saw a receipt for the cheerleader uniform. Blevins knew. He had been the one to send it. That made total sense. The “How much?” card was something he would do. Why hadn’t she figured that out before now? She was supposed to be smart.

Just what was he planning to do with this information? Was the whole reason he sent the cheerleading outfit and the “How much?” card because he was serious about hiring her as an escort? Or did he plan to somehow blackmail her with the information?

Who else aside from Debbi and Blevins had seen this? Did Shelby know?

Panic clawed at her insides, threatening to consume her. She deleted the file. And then emptied the trash. It was gone from the computer, but not from existence, not from the minds of whoever had already read it.

She had to get out of here. Hurrying out of Debbi’s office, she kept her head down as she went back to her own. After gathering up her things, she ran out of the building. She wanted nothing more than to go home and throw herself down on her bed and scream into her pillow.

Unfortunately, when she got home Loretta was painting in her apartment. She looked up when Dolly burst through the door.

“I thought you’d be in the Winnebago,” Dolly said, realizing that she hadn’t bothered to hide the emotion on her face.

Loretta put her paintbrush down. “The light’s better here. What’s the matter?”

Dolly forced a bright smile. “Nothing.”

“Cut the crap.”

And because Dolly didn’t have anything close to her usual defenses left to fall back on, she did. She told Loretta everything, from the moment she got canned from the cheerleading squad all the way up to seeing Jefferson Laker and finding the catalog on Jackson Blevins’s computer.

Loretta handed her a glass of sweet tea and a tuna salad sandwich with a plate of chips. Dolly blinked at it.

“I’m not hungry,” she said.

“Have you eaten anything today?”

No. Dolly grudgingly ate a potato chip and then scarfed the sandwich down while Loretta watched.

“Do you hate me?” Dolly asked when she finished.

“Don’t be an ass. Did you hate me when I screwed up my marriage?”

“No, but that wasn’t your fault and neither was your affair with your art professor.” Dolly leaned back on the couch. “I, on the other hand, knew what I was doing.”

“You fucked up. Guess what? You’re human.”

Dolly gave her a painful smile. “Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?”

“It’s not on my list of conversations to have with them, no.” Loretta sat across from her and put her stockinged feet up on the coffee table. Dolly resisted the urge to bat them down—after all her older sister did make her lunch.

“But you need to tell Nash, just so he hears it from you.”

“I know. I’m planning on it tonight. Do you think he’ll think differently about me?”

“If he does, he’s not worth your heart. Because it’s leading that way, isn’t it?”

Dolly gave a slow nod. “I really like him. He’s funny.”

“He’s a grump.”

“He’s honest and a decent man.”

“That’s not a high bar,” Loretta said. “I should know. Look at the losers I’ve been with.”

“What about Taylor?”

“Taylor’s different.” She gave a self-conscious smile. “I really like him too.”

Dolly wondered if Taylor had given her the turquoise necklace yet, which he got from Hector Ortiz. “I really like the fact that I can always trust Nash to do the right thing. He is loyal and kind, but I think he might have too rigid an outlook on life for me.”

“You haven’t really given him a chance,” Loretta pointed out.

“There hasn’t been a lot of time. I’ve been so focused on making the UPRC successful so I’ll have a permanent place in the business that there hasn’t been a lot of time for anything else.”

“All jobs are temporary. It doesn’t matter how good you are, sometimes shit happens.”

“Yeah, I’m just worried that if shit happens, I’ll be back at Leisure Industries.”

“No, you won’t. I won’t allow it. We’ve got the Winnebago so you’ll never be homeless and your type of job allows you to work anywhere in the world. If worse comes to worst, you can try and build your brand again. This time not with makeup tutorials or any of that shit. You can do a travel blog about life in an RV. That’s really popular right now.” Loretta flashed her phone at her and scrolled through the reels. “I’m not saying it’s an ideal solution, but it’s one you can do without letting billionaires grope you.”

Dolly chuckled. “They didn’t grope me.”

“That’s because you probably intimidated the hell out of them.”

“Hey,” she said and kicked out at Loretta’s feet. Loretta quickly moved them to the floor.

“And I know that Mom and Dad would let you move in with them until you get back on your feet again. Ask me how I know?” she said sadly.

Loretta had been living with them ever since her divorce.

“I’m worried though if it comes out that I was an escort, LeAnn could lose her sponsorship.”

“If she does, you’ll find her another one.”

“You have a lot of confidence in me,” Dolly said.

“That’s because I’ve seen you in action.”

Dolly nodded. “You know, I feel a little bit better. It’s a huge relief not to have to carry this all alone. I’m going to tell Nash tonight and I think it’s going to be okay. Hopefully, I deleted the only copy of that awful file and by the time Jackson Blevins is out of the hospital, he’ll have other issues to think about.”

“What about his secretary?”

“Debbi hasn’t said anything so far. She might not have seen it. She might not even care.” Dolly thought that was probably wishful thinking, but she didn’t want to dwell on it.

“You should have told me sooner,” Loretta said.

“I couldn’t. I was too ashamed and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone.”

“I’m your sister. I’ll love you no matter what. Don’t you feel the same?”

“Of course I do.” Dolly got up and gave her sister a hug. “But your ass has to be out of here by dinner tonight. Nash and I have a date and hopefully he’ll still be here for breakfast.”