Page 49 of Wild and Wrangled

Dusty

Dusty:I need your help with something.

Teddy:Yes, you should get a haircut.

Teddy:You’re looking a little raggedy.

Dusty:Thanks for the advice, but that’s not what I need help with.

Teddy:That’s what you think.

Teddy:What’s up?

Instead of giving Teddy more chances to roast me via text, I decided to call her. “Teddy Andersen speaking,” she said as a greeting.

I rolled my eyes, and I hoped she could hear it somehow. “Can you find out if Cam still doesn’t have a bed frame?” I asked. After the almost-kiss on New Year’s Eve, I was trying to let her control the distance or proximity we had to each other. So far, we landed right in the middle of the two. She didn’t avoid me completely—she and Riley brought me leftovers from a dinner they made a couple of days ago—but I didn’t see her as much as I had around the holidays.

I didn’t know what exactly made her pull back the other night. Had she just gotten swept up in the moment? Had I freaked her out with all my stupid notes? Or was there something that worried her, so much so that she was ready to run back into the cold night? I mean, she had just broken off an engagement, for fuck’s sake. She didn’t need me falling all over her. Whatever it was, I wanted to put her at ease and show her it was okay. Even if I had nearly leapt at the chance to put my lips on hers again, I could still be her friend, without letting everything I felt for her get in the way.

“Probably. Why?”

“I was at my mom’s this morning, and she had a client commission a bed frame in December, but she hasn’t been able to get hold of them since then. We’re past the thirty-day holding period that she enforces for pickup, so now it’s fair game for anyone who wants it.”

“That’s convenient,” Teddy said. “That Cam needed a bed frame and your mom happened to build one that you could give her the day before her birthday.”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” I said. I really hadn’t thought that much about it. I told my mom about Cam’s bed situation after I helped put together Riley’s room. Well, actually, I told Greer, and she told my mom.

“And really lucky that the client just didn’t respond, even though a custom bed is a big purchase.”

“Do you have a point, Teddy?”

“I just think Aggie has a vested interest in this entire situation, that’s all.”

“What ‘entire situation’?”

“The Cam and Dusty situation, obviously.”

“There is no Cam and Dusty situation,” I said. “My momwould do this for anyone, you know that. She loves to give stuff away. I’m pretty sure you have a nightstand that got left behind by someone.”

“Yeah, but I think she’d prefer to do it for Cam.”

“Can you find out for me or not?” If someone knew their friend needed a bed frame, and they just happened to have access to one, they’d give it to their friend, right? That’s all this had to be.

“Give me ten minutes,” Teddy said and then hung up.

—

An hour later, my mom and I pulled up in front of Cam’s house with a deconstructed walnut bed frame in the back of my dad’s old truck. That was one of the drawbacks of the Bronco—no truck bed. Luckily, Renny Tucker’s old pickup was still kicking.

Cam must’ve heard us pull in because she came out the front door. When she saw my mom, she beamed. Was I jealous of my mom? That was pathetic.

Aggie hopped out of the truck and made her way to Cam. The two hugged tightly. “Happy almost birthday, honey,” she said to Cam.

“Thank you,” Cam responded. “And thank you for saving me! I am so sick of sleeping on a mattress on the floor, but I can’t find anything I like.”

My mom gestured toward the truck. “Well, let’s go see if this is your taste.” She linked her arm through Cam’s and started leading her my way.

“Hey,” I said as the two of them approached. “Happy birthday eve.” My heart started kicking up dust in my chest. It had started doing that again ever since New Year’s. Standing thisclose to her, I felt the sting of rejection. But I kept telling myself she was right to pull away; she had always been the smarter one. Otherwise, we could have upset whatever careful balance we had struck, and the last thing I wanted was for her to disappear from my life. Again.

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