Page 120 of Let Me Be the One

Showing his exasperation, Dirk threw up his hands and glared at Tanner. “Can’t you do something about this?”

Tanner said, “I’d be happy to.”

“Second,”Callie interrupted, emphasizing the word so they’d all understand she wasn’t done yet. “I don’t need anyone to fight my battles for me. I told Sutter to get lost and that should be the end of it.”

Lang snorted. “Get real. That prick…er guy, is pushier than you think.”

“What do you know about it?” Tanner asked in a deceptively mild voice.

It shocked Callie when Dirk said, “He tried to make a deal with us.”

“What?”How would Sutter even know Dirk and Lang?

“Go on,” Tanner said. “Let’s hear it.”

“We met him a few weeks back when he was here. Said he was picking up her cousin or something like that.”

“He was outside waiting on Glory,” Callie recalled.

Lang nodded. “We saw him.” With a shrug, he explained, “When he realized we were your neighbors,he had a lot of questions for us, but Dirk told him to fuck off.”

Tanner nodded. “Good instincts.”

“Thanks.”

Now, after all this time, they were agreeable? Astounding.

Dirk continued. “He said he’d like to talk to us about a deal. I knew right off he was trouble—and weak, too, with his fancy shoes and turned up nose—but I figured he wanted weed or something. That day, he didn’t have time to talk, so I gave him my number. He told me not to mention it because Callie wouldn’t understand.”

“No,” Callie stated. “I wouldn’t have.”

Tanner removed her ice packs and put them on the tray. He was better at timing the treatment than she was, but it felt good to have the prickling ice removed.

While he folded the hand towels, he said, “I saw you talking with him at the sandwich shop near the tracks.”

Swiveling her head, Callie glared at him. “You didn’t mention that.”

“By the time I saw you again, it didn’t seem like a big deal.” Keeping his gaze on the brothers, Tanner asked, “I know he came here after, so what was that about?”

Lang seemed uneasy, but Dirk just rolled a shoulder. “He offered us cash to keep an eye on her, let him know how she was getting on, if you were hanging around, stuff like that.”

Damn. Callie wanted to close her eyes, but she made herself face the humiliation. “You told him about the tree, didn’t you?”

A sardonic grin curled Dirk’s mouth. “The tree you climbed in the middle of a thunderstorm because you thought I’d kidnapped your goat? Yeah, I told him.”

“Jerk.”

He laughed. “You weren’t exactly an angel yourself.”

No, she hadn’t been. Callie blew out a breath. “I’m sorry for misjudging you.”

“I’m sorry for repeating the story.”

She supposed she’d have to be gracious about it. Didn’t mean she had to like it.

Tanner forged on. “What else did you tell him?”

“That snakes spook her, that she was spending time with you, and that she was fixing up the place.” He smiled. “And overall she was doing a great job.”

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