The Littlest Cowgirls
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Melinda Curtis
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15.7K
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20
PROLOGUE
SECRETS. GABBY KINCAID loved them. They made her feel like an adult.
Gabby was twelve, a talker, and practically a Monroe. Yes, one of those Monroes. Her dad was marrying one. As such, she knew the Monroe history and a few important Monroe secrets.
Gabby chewed on the rubber end of her pencil, reviewing the Monroes the way she carefully reviewed her homework for tests.
She scribbled a word in her notebook. Money.
The Monroes were wealthy. Or they used to be. Or maybe some of them still were. Laurel Monroe was pregnant and marrying Gabby’s dad this weekend, but she didn’t act stuck-up or bossy-up.
Gabby glanced over to Laurel, who was sitting with her twin sister, Ashley, and their mother on the couch in the Lodgepole Inn. They were talking about the latest trend in fancy shoes as if something big and top secret wasn’t about to happen at any moment.
But it was. Gabby gnawed on the pencil eraser again.
“Gabby, don’t do that,” Laurel said in a kind way, which pretty much summed up her approach to life. That was no secret.
“I need a distraction.” Gabby tapped her pencil on the check-in desk. Another word was added to the list in her notebook. History.
Harlan Monroe had been a total success story, kind of like King Midas. Oil, finance, moviemaking, yacht building, hotels. You name it. Harlan had made money doing it. Harlan had also been born in Second Chance, Idaho, where Gabby lived with her dad and ran the Lodgepole Inn. Though it was cozy, the inn hosted a lot of the Monroes when they came to town, and they complained it wasn’t “The Ritz,” which was when Gabby had learned they didn’t mean the cracker. That still stung a little.
But when it came to the Monroes, Gabby was willing to forgive, because of the next word in her notebook: Secrets.
A long time ago, Harlan had bought the town of Second Chance. But he negotiated with folks living and working here, offering them the measly lease price of one dollar a year. Why would he do that?
Harlan was dead now, so she couldn’t ask him. And he’d left Second Chance to his twelve adult grandchildren, also without a good reason. Didn’t he realize people would have questions? Gabby had questions. And people didn’t always answer them, which was why sometimes she had to just sit silently at the check-in desk, pretending to do homework while she listened.
And when she listened, she learned a lot of things, including other Monroe secrets. Because, yes, there were more.
Like the secret that Laurel’s twin, Ashley, who was a famous actress and often referred to as America’s Sweetheart, was going to make a western movie right here in Second Chance next year. Although...she’d recently told that to reporters. So, it was no longer a secret.
Bummer. Gabby picked at the end of her pencil, plucking apart the chewed eraser. That had been a good secret, too.
But an even better secret was that Ashley wanted Wyatt Halford, the hottest of hot action stars, in the western film with her. They were going to tell the legend of Merciless Mike Moody, who’d robbed stagecoaches in these parts, stabbed Jeb Clark, the blacksmith, and had been killed by a rock slide during one of his escapes. Ever since Gabby was a kid, people would talk about Merciless Mike and wonder what had happened to all his stolen gold. Well, a couple of months back, the Monroes had unraveled the truth behind the legend and found the bandit’s gold! Which was way cool, and kind of a secret, too, since they hadn’t officially announced it to the world.
Gabby stopped destroying her pencil and stared out the window at the blue summer sky.
Secrets. She loved them.
But there was one Monroe secret that was bigger than them all. Wyatt Halford, dubbed this year’s sexiest man alive, was Laurel’s baby daddy. And he was coming here. To Second Chance. Today.
Wyatt didn’t know a thing about the babies that were on the way.
Dad should be pacing. He was marrying Laurel on Saturday, she was nearly thirty weeks pregnant and could deliver twins at any time, and Wyatt was coming to the wedding. But was he uneasy? No. He was in their apartment doing the books. And the Monroes on the lobby couch weren’t even fidgeting.
Shouldn’t their stomachs feel like they ate too much popcorn at the movies? Gabby’s did.
Wyatt Halford. Super Mega Crush!
Was it possible Wyatt knew he was a baby daddy? Due to circumstances beyond Gabby’s control—stupid laptop—it had kind of been posted on the internet—totally not her fault. That bit of information was down now, and Dad always said you shouldn’t believe what was on the World Wide Web, so Gabby had been trying not to worry. But still... It also meant she had a secret of her own.
Secrets were so hard to keep.
The low sound of a large vehicle parking in front of the Lodgepole Inn made Gabby’s heart beat really, really fast. She ran from behind the check-in desk to a front window to witness the arrival of Wyatt, the sexiest man alive, greeted by Ashley, America’s Sweetheart.
It was all heady, complicated stuff to lay on the shoulders of a twelve-year-old.
Especially one who had access to the internet and wasn’t good at keeping secrets.
