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“Yeah. S’pose.”
Carey dug through a stack of papers on Shelley’s desk, tsking at the disorganization, as usual.
“But what if he ain’t?”
“Well,” he said. “Ha! Here it is. Damn woman puts shit in the weirdest places.” Whatever paper he’d been looking for had been stuck under a potted plant. “Anyway, if he is homeless and he’s a minor, which again, we don’t know, then we’ll have to get state services involved. You know that. If we can even find him. Could be he was just passin’ through.” Carey shrugged. It sounded cold, but without more to go on, we couldn’t allocate too many resources on a hunch.
“Hm.” But what if it wasn’t a hunch? What if Burroughs was right and the kid was alone and scared? What if he was hungry? That was the worst feeling, not knowing where your next meal was coming from. “Just keep an eye out, would ya?”
“Will do. That reminds me. You remember I was out at Milson’s ranch a while back?”
“Yeah.”
“Buckey Mann reported that they’d had some food stolen from the bunkhouse. I told him it was probably just the construction guys workin’ on the new buildin’ who ate the food or maybe one of the other cowboys, but Buckey swears no. He keeps track of that shit like a military cook. It just occurred to me now, but I wonder if your boy had anything to do with that.”
Huh. “Could be. And now with another storm comin’… I’ll look into it.”
“How was your date?” Carey asked, probably trying to distract me. He knew how focused I could get when something was bothering me.
“It was, you know, good.”
“You and the librarian goin’ out again?”
Leaning over my desk and pulling up the call log on my computer, I double-checked if he was right that there hadn’t been any new reports about the kid, but there wasn’t anything new. “Since when do you talk gossip?”
“Ain’t gossip if it comes from the horse’s mouth. I’m just checkin’ in with you, man. You alright?”
I straightened. “Yeah, Carey. I’m good. The date went well. Saw Samantha last night, and I plan to see her again tonight.”
“Good,” he said. “I’m glad you found somebody. I was startin’ to worry about you, ol’ man.”
“Fuck off. How many times in one conversation are you gonna call me an old man?”
He laughed. “As many as I can, ol’ man. So’s you don’t forget. Alright, well, enough of that. I gotta make some stops and then check back in on my girls. This cold or virus or whatever’s wreakin’ havoc on my house. Even the baby has it.” He yawned. “I was up with her, tryin’ to clear the snot from her nose by foggin’ up the bathroom. I think I managed maybe two hours of sleep last night. Poor Frannie just lay there in bed this mornin’, moaning. She said she’s achin’ somethin’ awful. Gracie’s not too bad. She’s just happy she gets to play hooky from school. She’s binge-watchin’ those Harry Potter movies.”
Lucky him. Not the aching or the snot part, but the family part.
“Hope they feel better. I’ll see you later. Gonna get goin’ on these calls.”
* * *
As I made my way across town to Milson’s ranch, I thought about what it would be like to have a family like Carey’s. Time wasn’t exactly on my side.
And then I thought about Samantha. Was she right? Not that I wanted her just ’cause she was younger, but was it part of the reason I was attracted to her? Because she was still young enough for the possibility of a family? It wasn’t my intention to find a woman I only halfway liked and then knock her up ’cause I was that desperate for a family, but I did want a family. I didn’t really care what it looked like, just a family.
I wanted a reason to stop home in the middle of the day. Technically, I had that now with Grum, unless I brought him to work with me, but he didn’t count. I wanted loud plate-clattering dinners and melting snowmen in the front yard. But more than that, I wanted someone I could share my life with. Someone to talk to late into the nights and make love to in the mornings before the world woke up.
But not just anyone. I wanted someone who was passionate about life. Someone I could laugh and argue with. Somebody who could put up with my grouchy bullshit. Maybe someone who made me not grouchy.
Samantha could be my someone. Was it too soon to think that we could make each other happy?
It was. I knew it was fast, but I liked how I felt around her. I liked taking care of her. I liked that she made me think. Being around her had all kinds of things running through my head. The football thing, kids, a future. Love.
The family part would come, or it wouldn’t. The important thing was the love. That was what I really wanted. Someone who loved me enough to stick around.
Old man Milson’s ranch was right at the edge of town. Head of a big cattle operation, Milson owned more land than the whole of Wisper that reached out northwest of Route 20. He had seven full-time cowboys through the winter. Always seven—never six, never eight—’cause he believed the number was lucky. In the spring, summer, and fall, though, he hired day workers to help with calving season, branding, and all the rest of whatever it was that made cattle such a hard business to be in.
Cowboys from all around Wyoming sought jobs at Milson’s every year. He paid well, offered up a nice place to live, and treated his employees like family. Max Gordon ran the place like a well-oiled machine, and I knew he and Buckey, one of the other full-timers, would help me if I asked.
