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He cleared his throat, his eyes sliding past me. “I’d best get back to work. G’night.” He didn’t even wait for a response before he turned on his heel and started back toward the barn.
Boone was probably right to resist temptation. It wasn’t a good idea for the boss to fuck one of his employees, no matter how much the employee wanted it. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t go back to bed dreaming about it.
The next morning, directly after breakfast, I asked Norma for the keys to one of the trucks and took off toward town. I hadn’t driven for a while, but driving the big pickup turned out to be pretty easy on the empty country roads. Bumping along with the wind in my face from the open window gave me a chance to let my mind wander.
Even though I’d been in Wyoming a little over a week, it still felt a little surreal to be surrounded by so much open land. I’d grown up in the city. I was used to buildings and bustle. Sure, I’d spent my share of vacations in remote, exotic locations, but those were always at well-manicured estates or resorts—nothing as rugged and real as this.
I thought about pulling over to snap a selfie and posting it to Instagram. Oscar was one of my many followers, and I felt a good bit of smug satisfaction at the thought of him coming across it. Proof that I was still here and that I hadn’t given up.
But as much as I wanted to rub my success in Oscar’s face, I knew Boone was depending on me to get that medicine, and it didn’t seem right to, as my father would say, faff about.
Or, as Boone would say, lallygag.
Ultimately, I didn’t want to give Boone an excuse to be disappointed in me.
It didn’t take long before I pulled into town—a little place called Silverhollow that boasted a McDonald’s, a Hardee’s, a grocery store called Mutt’s Market, the tack store, a dollar store, a scary-looking pool hall with no windows and a decided lack of rainbow flag outside, and the feed store I’d already learned was the epicenter of Silverhollow social life. Fortunately, it was impossible to get lost in a place that size, and a minute later, I parked in front of the feed store and hopped out.
The medicine wasn’t ready yet, so while I waited, I made a beeline for the diner. I was starving for something, anything, besides beef.
“Anywhere you want, handsome,” a young woman said from the cash register behind the counter. The place was newer on the inside than it had appeared from the parking lot. A few booths had customers in them, but there was no one at the long counter, so I took a stool and reached for a small laminated menu.
When the young woman made her way over to me, she shot me a grin I returned automatically. “What can I get you?”
“Hi. I’ll take this turkey wrap, please, and can I get a side salad instead of fries?”
She gave me a teasing smile. “How about we put lettuce and tomato in that wrap and call it good?”
I looked back down at the menu and realized there were no salad offerings. “Do you have avocado?”
“No, but if you get it to go, you can probably find one at Mutt’s and slap it on there,” she said with a wink before turning to call the order out to whoever was on the other side of the large open window to the kitchen.
She turned back to pour me a glass of water just as the bell tinkled over the front door. The waitress looked up at the newcomer and smiled. “Hey there, Tyler. How’s it going?”
A lanky teenage boy took a stool a few seats over from me. He had messy red hair and a smattering of freckles across his face. Other than his lack of years, he could have passed for any other cowboy around here with a snap-front shirt and worn-in Wranglers raggedly covering a pair of rode-hard cowboy boots.
He let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair, setting it on end. “Not good. I left.”
Her face dropped, and she reached over to pat his hand. “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry to hear that. Things have gotten that bad, then?”
He nodded. “I just had to get out of there. I couldn’t stand it anymore.”
She clucked her tongue sympathetically. “What’ll you do instead?”
His expression turned hopeful, almost desperately so. “Please tell me Maggie and Don are hiring?”
Her face fell. “Nope. Sorry, cutie. Their niece came over from Kansas City for the summer and took a bunch of shifts. She even got some off me. I’d just as soon have them back if you want to know the truth. Have you tried Mutt’s or the feed store?”
