Serious Cowboy (Cowboys of Duncan Ranch #2)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Callie contemplated recent events with her brother’s best bud and could only come to a single conclusion: Zeke Knight was a strange bird. One minute he’d been there, and the next, he’d vanished like a ghost. Like a thief in the night. Despite how he’d been staring at her—she recognized interest when she saw it—once she’d joined him, he’d acted as if he’d wanted to get rid of her.

Talk about mixed signals.

Callie had become distracted by her nieces Sallie and Kimmie right after that, and the next thing she’d known, Zeke had apparently left the room. She’d searched the Overlook Grand Mountain Lodge high and low and hadn’t detected so much as a hint of him. He’d not only disappeared from her side but from the property altogether.

Seemed Zeke could be slippery when he chose to be. Maybe he was secretly a spy for some high security clandestine government organization, and pretending to be a feed manager at a small-town ranch was his cover.

She snorted to herself at the notion and again thought of her mom’s habit of calling anyone who didn’t fit the societal mold a “strange bird.” Then, she pictured her mother with a yellow beak on her face and snorted again.

Callie was often taken over by these flights of fancy. Always had been. It was her own way of keeping herself entertained in any given situation.

As a kid working in a fast-food restaurant, she’d made up creative backstories for her coworkers. Everything from one of them being a long lost princess escaping a mad king from a faraway land to one of the guys—he just so happened to greatly resemble a certain teen heartthrob of pop music—being that pop star’s twin living abroad in America rather than England where the actual pop star was from.

Not that her mom was here. Neither was her father. They’d been preparing to come when her dad had broken his ankle. Callie had offered to come home to help, but her mom had said she could handle temporarily waiting on him hand and foot. Normally her mother and father were experts at being independent—it was why Callie valued her own independence so much—so hopefully, the injury would heal sooner rather than later.

She imagined her dad sitting in his recliner with a little bell and her mom seizing that bell to throw at his head. People had started to throw her odd looks, so she repressed this last snort. She should stay more in the present anyway since this was an important event for her brother and sister-in-law. Amanda had been going on about it for months now.

Years ago they’d had a quickie wedding with just two witnesses at the Justice of the Peace, and while the bride had chosen that at the time, she’d started to regret it as more time passed. So now, today, she’d had her big formal wedding with more pomp and circumstance. Amanda had been smiley all day, so hopefully, going to all this trouble for what amounted to a fancy party was somehow worth it to her.

Callie had often thought about her own wedding. She wanted something outside, preferably in a flowering garden. Something natural rather than festooned with cut flowers and lots of muss and fuss.

She also wanted it to take place during the summer, rather than during the blustery Midwest winter. Maybe in the late afternoon just prior to the sun setting. Her veil would be made of lace and her dress of satin but without a train or poofy skirt. Simple. Slim fitting. Pretty. Elegant.

Callie had pictured that day in her mind a million times over and to the finest detail.

Too bad you couldn’t get married without a groom.

She’d imagined her perfect man for years, but what made him perfect kept altering. When she’d been a teenager, it’d been all about appearances and her crush on the aforementioned pop star. In her early twenties, it’d been all about how external things like his ability to support her yet also be okay with her living as freely as she desired.

Now that she’d hit her thirties, she doubted her perfect fictional man even existed. She’d dated off and on, but while she’d liked many of the men she’d gone out with, none of them had tempted her to make things permanent. It’d made her reassess her goals in life.

Maybe she wouldn’t marry. Maybe she could just keep being the fun aunt to her nieces and nephew and go on focusing on her career. She could live with that. Helping her brother lit her up inside, even on those days when he forgot to treat people like actual human beings. She thrived whenever she could play peacemaker, and helping others in general made her feel good.

Yet sometimes she’d watch Amanda and Tim cuddling on their couch together and just… wish .

Since she’d noticed Zeke heading in Bryce and Lindsey’s direction, she went to ply the ranch owner, Zeke’s boss, for information. Zeke might be a tough nut to crack, but maybe because her brother had made him forbidden fruit, she felt extra curious about her brother’s overly introverted best friend. She hesitated a minute, though. The last thing she wanted to seem like was a stalker woman. If a man did this he’d be in instant trouble as soon as someone found out.

But what’s wrong with getting information to help make new friends? Rationalization done in five seconds, she waves and steps over to Bryce.

“How are you, Bryce?” Callie asked him, noting that Lindsey had wandered off somewhere.

“Fine. Good.”

“How’s the ranch?”

“Busy. Have to make sure the water supplies don’t freeze up this time of year.”

“Oh, sure,” she said, ready to get down to the real subject she planned to ask him about. “So, Zeke. Tell me about him.”

Bryce’s eyebrows flew up. “He’s our feed manager.”

“Right. So, has he worked for you for long?”

“No, actually. He’s a fairly recent hire who’s only been with us a handful of months. Been doing his job with another local ranch before coming on over to us.”

Okay, okay. She hadn’t known that.

“What else do you know about him?”

Bryce shrugged, frustration starting to show on his face. “He does a good job.”

When she realized what little information she’d been able to gather, it wasn’t much. He’s a good feed manager. Only been there a few months. That was it.

She tried a few other inquiries to see if Bryce would open up any further, but it was like running into a brick wall. Either the man didn’t know much else about Zeke Knight, particularly the more personal bits she was after, or he was purposely refraining from telling her.

“Well, that’s good to know. He seems a little reclusive.” Callie pushed just a little further, hoping she wasn’t going too far. And then she realized she’d done just that.

“Hey, nice talking to you Callie, but I need to get going. See you later.” Bryce nodded and walked off probably looking for the safety of his wife. Callie couldn’t really blame him for that. She probably needed to dial things back.

But being a let it happen sort of girl had never been her. She’d struggled with patience for as long as she could remember. The truth was, she could try to restrain herself but her history said she’d still fall into that trap. She let out a long breath and looked around her. She stood quietly by herself while she tried to gather her thoughts.

So it seemed Zeke would remain a mystery for now.

She couldn’t go to her brother, and her sister-in-law would likely tattle to her husband should Callie dig too deeply into that line of communication. She needed another method of finding out what this Zeke Knight guy was all about, though.

Giving herself a mental shake, she had to get this guy out of her mind. At least for right now. She was with family and friends and she should enjoy that.

She was about to mingle again when she noticed the kids playing together on the other side of the room. They were having fun together, laughing and joking around. Craving a change of focus, she went over to them.

“What are you guys up to?” she asked, tweaking her niece’s nose lightly.

“Just goofing off,” said Kimmie.

“Well it looks like you’re having a great time. I think you all are the goofiest kids ever.”

They all giggled. “We are!” yelled one little boy. She wasn’t sure who he was, but he was full of energy and the others were feeding off of it.

“I think I’ll let you continue with your fun. Be sweet now.” She squeezed her other niece’s shoulder as she walked away with a smile.

She spent the rest of the reception trying to figure out how she could easily cross paths with Zeke again. She was so intrigued by him and she wanted desperately to get to know him. That word sprung into her mind and made her cringe. Desperate. Why did she feel this way? Why was she so sure she’d have to chase him to get him to notice her?

She finally pushed the negative thoughts aside and was able to enjoy the last bit of the party. Briefly she hoped she hadn’t come off badly to Bryce, but what was done was done. She’d have to get past that worry and just move on.

Maybe she’d be paying extra attention when she went into town in case she had a chance to bump into Zeke. She didn’t want to miss any opportunities that came to her and she’d take any gift offered in that department. She couldn’t completely brush off the desire to make opportunities happen, though.