Ladd Fortune Read Free

closet,”
Ida confirmed. “You can go on back.”
    Annie nodded thanks and hurried past.
Hairdressers were like family. They worked at different salons, but
no one held it as a sticking point. Each had their own client list,
loyal as hound dogs, and gossip was gossip. Ida would expect her
dose of information after Annie’s visit with Candi and wouldn’t
mind for a minute that it came second-hand.
    Turning the corner, Annie found Candi
wearing gloves, plastic bottle in hand, her torso length apron tied
securely around her petite waist. As expected, she was mixing up
hair color for her client. “Hey, girl! What are you doing
here?”
    “ Lacy’s in town,” she said
breathlessly.
    Candi’s hands stilled. Chocolate brown
eyes became saucers, her face framed by her straight brown hair
streaked by wide blonde chunks. “She is?”
    “ Stopped by the salon less
than an hour ago.”
    “ Oh my God...” Candi sliced
the room with a conspiratorial gaze and whispered, “What’s she
doing here?”
    “ Don’t know.” Heartbeats
scampered across her breast. “Said she’s here for a
visit.”
    She gaped. “A visit?”
    Of course Candi was horrified. She knew
their history. “But get this—” Annie hushed her voice. “She says
Jeremiah is in town, too.”
    Where Annie expected Candi to fall over
dead from shock, instead, she glimpsed a glimmer of awareness dart
behind her eyes. It caught Annie on the chin. “Did you know he was
here?” she demanded abruptly.
    “ No,” she blurted. “Er—I
mean, not exactly.”
    Annie’s insides caught on fire. “Not
exactly?”
    “ Well...” Candi smacked her
color bottle down to the counter, then whisked a flat brush through
the goopy contents in her bowl. Mixing briskly, she confessed, “I
called him, Annie. I called him and told him about Delaney and
Felicity and how they were trying to steal Ladd Springs from
him.”
    Annie took a step backward, as though
hit by an unseen force of intense magnitude. “?”
    “ I had to, Annie! They were
stealing the property clear out from under your feet and I had to
stop them! You said so yourself, didn’t you? You threatened to call
Jeremiah. You told Delaney you’d let him know what she was
doing.”
    “ I told Delaney that I’d
call him to scare her, Candi. I never intended to go through with
it!
    Candi’s eyes rounded—froze—like a deer
caught by a flash of headlights. “You didn’t?”
    Annie fell against the counter. “I
didn’t.”
    “ Oh, no... I’m sorry, Annie.
I was just trying to help and now I’ve made a mess of things! I
only wanted you to have a chance to work with Jeremiah, to get the
property for Casey. She deserves her part of it and well, you do
too, and I...” Candi’s hand fell from the bowl, dropping her
explanation like an overheated flat iron. “I thought it would help
you and Casey.”
    Staring at her friend, Annie thought
“mess” was only the beginning of how she’d describe Jeremiah Ladd’s
presence in town. He was here. Because Candi called him. Bringing a
hand to her forehead, Annie groaned. What must he think? Would he
assume that she put Candi up to it? Would he think she did it to
force him to claim Casey as his own?
    Annie sharpened her focus and latched
onto Candi. “Tell me everything you said. Everything, Candi—don’t
leave a single word out.”

 
     
     
     
     

Chapter Two
     
    Delaney Wilkin's hands trembled as she
sat huddled around her kitchen island with Nick Harris and Malcolm
Ward, Nick’s partner in Harris Hotels. The piece of paper was one
document out of hundreds she’d collected, but it was perhaps the
most important one. It was a copy of the title to Ladd Springs—the
very same Ladd Springs that she feared might now be in jeopardy.
“What am I going to do if Jeremiah comes back and contests Ernie’s
life estate deed? What recourse will I have?” She homed in on Nick,
hotel developer and the man instrumental in helping her secure
title to Ladd Springs