Page 40 of Rocky Ride

The food was amazing like it always was, and Dad did fairly well. He was quiet and didn’t look around much, but he made it all the way through dinner.

When it was time for dessert, he handed Sunday the dessert menu, “Order one of the desserts, Sunday. There must be one you want to try.”

“Try the lemon mousse,” I said. “It’s so good you’ll want two of them.”

She laughed. “I’ll try it, but I’m too full to eat two.”

Brooke served us and I felt kind of guilty for not calling or texting her for a long while. I’d been out of touch since everything had gone wrong with Tammy and I wasn’t wanting a girlfriend too much.

When we were on our way out she stopped me in the hallway and whispered, “Are you ever going to call me, Harlan?”

“Yeah, sure. Sorry. I’ve been away, Brooke. I had to go to Texas for a while and I’m just getting straightened out after that trip.”

“I heard you were away looking for your sister. Did you find her?”

“Umm…yes. Look, I’ll call you this week and we’ll go somewhere.”

She flashed him a big smile. “Keep your promise, Harlan.”

“I will. For sure I’ll call you.”

On the way to the Jeep Virge said, “She nailed you, bro. You have to take her someplace.”

“Yeah, I’ll take her to a movie in Shelby on Friday night. I’m not sure I like her enough to take her out more than one more time.”

“We’ve got to look harder,” said Virge. “Where should we look for new talent?”

I laughed. “Let me think about that.”

Chapter Nine

Monday, October 21st.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

Billy chopped kindling in the front room at a feverish pace thinking about Sunday. He figured he shouldn’t be liking her so much because Travis brought her home and he had no idea what Travis had planned for her. Before going any further, he had to talk to Travis and find out what he was thinking.

Lost in thought, he didn’t notice Sunday come into the room carrying an armload of wood. She dumped it into the wood box and the loud crash right next to him made him jump.

“Didn’t mean to scare you, Billy. I thought you saw me come in with the wood.”

Billy laughed. “Guess I was thinking about something else.”

At the barn, me and Virge had a big talk about getting new girlfriends and where we would start our search.

“Where do all the hot girls hang out?” asked Virge. “That should be the first place we go look.”

“Beats me. I don’t know where they’re hanging. Haven’t seen any in bunches of them in town.”

“Maybe Dad knows. He’s like the Coyote Creek stud. He’s got to have a handle on shit like this.”

“Let’s ask him at breakfast. Once we have a venue, we can work hard.”

“Without a plan, we’re getting nowhere in a hurry.”

Sunday made pancakes for breakfast and that made Virgie smile. He was the pancake king. While he stuffed them into his mouth, he asked Dad the question.

“Hey, Dad, me and Harlan decided to get us girlfriends, but we don’t know where to look. Can you help us out?”

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