Crimson River

CRIMSON RIVER Copyright © 2023 by Devney Perry LLC All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-957376-32-5 No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Editing: Elizabeth Nover, Razor Sharp Editing Proofreading: Julie Deaton, Deaton Author Services Judy Zweifel, Judy’s Proofreading Vicky Valente Cover: Sarah Hansen © Okay Creations OTHER TITLES The Edens Series Christmas in Quincy - Prequel Indigo Ridge Juniper Hill Garnet Flats Jasper Vale Crimson River Sable Peak Treasure State Wildcats Series Coach Blitz Clifton Forge Series Steel King Riven Knight Stone Princess Noble Prince Fallen Jester Tin Queen Jamison Valley Series The Coppersmith Farmhouse The Clover Chapel The Lucky Heart The Outpost The Bitterroot Inn The Candle Palace Maysen Jar Series The Birthday List Letters to Molly The Dandelion Diary Lark Cove Series Tattered Timid Tragic Tinsel Timeless Runaway Series Runaway Road Wild Highway Quarter Miles Forsaken Trail Dotted Lines Calamity Montana Series The Bribe The Bluff The Brazen The Bully The Brawl The Brood Standalones Ivy Rifts and Refrains A Little Too Wild Holiday Brothers The Naughty, The Nice and The Nanny Three Bells, Two Bows and One Brother’s Best Friend A Partridge and a Pregnancy CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Epilogue Sable Peak Acknowledgments About the Author CHAPTER ONE LYLA Visit LibPub.net For more free books “I’m staging an intervention.” Not exactly the greeting I’d expected from my sister when she and her husband had walked into Eden Coffee a minute ago. “Huh?” “I’m kicking you out.” I blinked. “Of here.” Eloise pointed a finger at the counter that separated us. “Right now. You have to leave.” Leave? I was working. There would be no kicking me out. The last time I checked, this was my coffee shop. I stared at her for a long moment, then looked to Jasper standing at her side. “Is she drunk?” “I’m staying out of this. Good luck, Lyla.” He kissed Eloise’s hair, then walked to a table against the wall, taking a seat. “You’ve worked one hundred days in a row,” Eloise said. A hundred? No way. That couldn’t be right. I opened my mouth to argue but she cut me off. “Yes, I counted. You haven’t taken a day off since that Sunday in April when you went to Missoula to get your hair cut.” I scoffed. “I’ve taken other days off since then.” “Oh, really?” Eloise arched an eyebrow. “When?” Uh . . . Well, it was September. And the last time I’d gone to Missoula had been April—my hair was in dire straits and in desperate need of another trip to the salon. But I’d taken time off this summer, hadn’t I? Maybe not a full day, but there were days when I’d ducked out early. That was practically the same as a vacation, right? Okay, so technically I’d come to the coffee shop for the past hundred days. Who cared if I worked a lot? I huffed. “What are you, the work police? Who are you to talk, anyway? You’re always at the hotel.” If she wasn’t at home with Jasper, then she was running The Eloise Inn across Main Street. “Go away. I’m busy.” “Nope.” She planted her hands on her hips, and if she had been able to physically dig her heels in, I’d have had two dents in my hardwood floor. There was a stubborn set to Eloise’s pretty chin that meant she was not letting this go. My sister was amazing and exasperating all at the same time. “One afternoon,” she said. “That’s all I’m asking for. You leave here for one afternoon and do something non-work related.” “Why?” Couldn’t I just be left alone to work in peace? The sad smile she gave me made me feel both loved and pathetic. “Because I’m worried about you. I don’t want you to burn yourself out.” I sighed. “I won’t.” “But you might.” She clasped her hands together. “Please? Just take the rest of the day off so I can stop worrying.” “I can’t just leave, Eloise.” This business was my everything. My only thing. “Why not?” She waved to Crystal, my barista, as she came out of the kitchen carrying a fresh tray of scones. “Crystal is here. Jasper and I will hang out and help close.” Jasper might be able to handle it, but Eloise? Never. She was utterly hopeless when it came to cooking, and I wouldn’t trust her to steam milk if my life depended on it. But once again, the second I opened my mouth to object, she talked over me. “Go home. Relax.” “I can’t go home,” I said. “If I do, I’ll think of everything that needs to get done, and I’ll come right back.” If anyone could relate, it should be Eloise. She knew exactly the commitment it took to run a business in downtown Quincy, Montana. Before she’d married Jasper, she’d probably put in her own consecutive hundred days at the hotel. But now that Eloise had found love, her priorities had shifted, and she was shoving this balanced lifestyle down my throat. This was arguably worse than my twin sister, Talia, who was a doctor at the hospital and kept trying to set me up on a blind date with an X-ray tech. Or my sister-in-law,