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“I’m leaving in three days, Ev. I have a life in Colorado, in case you forgot. With any luck, I’ll be headed back to school in a few weeks.” There will be exactly zero free time for any man in my life, much less a cowboy living eight hundred miles away. Exactly the way my ten-year plan has spelled it out. No man. No strings. No heartbreak. And sadly, no more mind-blowing orgasms.
“Have you heard anything?”
“About the letter?” I shake my head, too embarrassed to admit I forgot all about it. I haven’t bothered Nadia since the day of Paps’ surprise party. I pull out my phone to scan for texts from my best friend, but my screen is taken over by Ryder’s name. I send the call to voicemail as the girl behind the counter appears with an order pad.
“What can I get you?” she asks me.
“You still serve We Got Cows?”
“Of course we do!” Everleigh chimes in. “It’s only a classic.”
“What size?” the server asks.
It’s probably all the sex, but I’m in a celebrating kind of mood. “Make it a large.”
“Anything else?”
I glance up at the menu above the pass-through window and smile. Though the board itself appears new, it’s the same Twister inspired menu it’s always been. The one my best friend and her grandma created before Everleigh left Montana to pursue her dreams. I’ve been so busy helping Paps with his misfits and getting naked with Ryder that I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and talk to my childhood best friend about what really brought her back to Emerald Creek a year ago. I don’t know if she plans to stay or if this is just a stopping point.
“Can I get a Dorothy 2.0 to go?” I look at Everleigh. “I better grab something for Wyatt.”
“You in the dog houses with your brother?”
“I haven’t been home a lot.”
“Really?” Her expression is completely flat, aside from the twinkle of mischief in her eyes. “Can’t imagine why.”
“Anything else?” the server asks.
“Just a couple of waters, sweetie,” Everleigh says to the girl who can’t be more than sixteen. When we’re alone again, Everleigh locks her stare on me. “I heard Flynn was in town. You get to see him?” Her tone hints of accusation.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I did see him. Wyatt made us breakfast the other morning.”
“He’s gone already, isn’t he?”
“Sticking around isn’t really his thing.” I sit back in the booth to allow our server to slide a couple of ice waters onto our table, as well as a giant cup of ice cream I’ve been craving for years. We’ve Got Cows is, and always will be, my very favorite ice cream concoction of all time. The mixture of soft serve, pink frosting, and frosted animals cookies shaped like cows is heaven. I pluck the cow from the top as Everleigh does the same. We clink them together in toast before eating them whole.
“I’ve missed this,” Everleigh admits. “I’ve missed you. You sure you don’t want to move back to Emerald Creek and keep me company?”
“You’re staying then?”
Everleigh shrugs. “For now, it looks like I am.”
“What happened, Ev? In Oklahoma. You were going to tell me the night we went to The Rusty Nail, but you never got around to it.”
Refusing to look up from her ice cream, Everleigh says, “Today’s not the day.”
“I’m only here for three more days?—”
The bells above the door jingle, announcing the nearly empty diner has acquired a new patron. I look up to find a handsome stranger emerging through the door. He seems slightly out of place in his brown leather jacket, thick dark hair, and perfectly shaved cheeks. “Who’s that?”
“Dr. Garrison,” Everleigh calls, waving at the man. She looks at me to explain. “He’s the new vet who took over Paps’ clinic when he retired.”
“You must be Dr. Knight,” he says, extending a hand the moment he reaches our table. This up close, he has a definite Dr. McDreamy vibe going for him. The light catches the gold band on his ring finger, but I’d be willing to bet the poor man is harassed on a daily basis by all the single women—and the sex-deprived married ones despite his marital status. Some things in this town never change.
“How did you know that?”
“I meant to say hello at Paps’ surprise party, but you disappeared on me.”
