“I agree,” Kelli said.
Carter and Roan looked at the two women with eyes full of concern.
“Are we . . . ? I mean . . . ” Carter said to Kelli.
“Baby, we’re great!”
He sighed in relief and so did Roan when Danni kissed his cheek.
“So what’s the problem between Sophie and Reede?” Danni asked. “What’s making them the two unhappiest people on earth?”
Not one of them could come up with an answer, but now Dr. Reede’s three employees were asking Carter to help them.
“You see,” Betsy said, “we sort of made a vow that we’d do whatever was necessary to make the doctor happy. We were the ones who kept the secret of who he was.”
“And the corset was us,” Heather said.
“But Sara helped with the horse,” Alice added.
“And the doc’s costume, of course,” Heather said.
“We had nothing to do with the robbers, but Mike took care of that. He’s been a real asset to this town,” Alice said.
“So you see,” Betsy said, “how hard we’ve worked.”
“And it’s paid off as Dr. Reede’s temper has greatly improved since Sophie came to town,” Alice said.
“But now he’s so glum that—” Heather began.
“That’s too mild a word,” Betsy said as she looked hard at Carter. “The truth is that Dr. Reede is so depressed that he’s barely functioning. And we think Sophie isn’t much better.”
“They are very polite to each other,” Heather said. “The day I’m polite to my husband is the day I’ll ask him for a divorce.”
The three women stopped talking and stared at Carter.
“Ladies,” he said slowly, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Not a word of it.”
Betsy looked at the clock on the wall. “We have to get back to work or we’d stay and explain. But it all boils down to the fact that you have to talk to Sophie and find out what’s going on between her and Dr. Reede.”
Immediately, Carter saw a thousand things wrong with that idea. Kelli, for all that she pretended not to be, was quite jealous of Sophie. “This past summer?” she’d asked. “Just a few months ago you were thinking of marrying Sophie and now you want me to believe that you’re completely over her?” Nothing he’d said had made her believe Sophie was in the past—the recent past.
Besides that, Roan and Reede glared at him, and the giant who was the local sheriff stopped in often and looked at Carter as though he were a criminal he had to keep close watch over. Although, since Christmas, the sheriff had seemed to be looking at Sophie with less than affection.
As for Sophie, she still moved away when Carter got too near.
“Really and truly,” Carter said, “I don’t know what’s going on.”
Betsy stood up and the other women followed her lead. “That’s just the point. No one knows what’s going on but you are the one who has to find out.”
With that, the three women left the restaurant. Carter locked the door behind them then flopped down onto a chair. At this moment the thought of returning to Texas and the little town that was virtually owned by his family appealed greatly to him.
He looked around the empty restaurant. Everything was clean and no one was there. Kelli had gone to get supplies, and Roan and Danni were . . . Wherever lovers went in Edilean. Sophie was upstairs in her apartment, where she often went in the afternoons now. No more staying downstairs and helping clean. Since Christmas Sophie looked as though she would never smile again.
Part of Carter wanted to flee, but the bigger part of him knew the women were correct. Right now, in this town, he was the closest thing Sophie had to a girlfriend.
With a sigh, he started up the stairs. She probably won’t see me, he thought. She’ll probably—
He knocked once and Sophie opened the door.