Page 54 of The Cowboy's Country Charm

Rusty took a minute before he answered. He certainly didn’t want to overstep whatever boundaries she was trying to set. Agreement seemed the best course. “Looks good. Most people will think it’s a chuck wagon.” It was likely more important to have the impression of a chuck wagon rather than the real thing. But he could have gotten her the real thing. He did know a guy.

“And it will be much easier to get into the convention center.”

“Guess you don’t need my help then.” Was that the message she was trying to send? That she didn’t need him?

“I know you like to be the one to come up with the solution, but actually, that’s my job. And Ariel’s. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate your help. But when you rush in to solve the problem when I’m just thinking out loud, it makes me feel…” She hesitated.

“What?”

“Like you don’t think I’m capable enough to solve the problem myself. Putting the jail together notwithstanding.”

“So you don’t want my help?”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Because today I definitely needed your help today. But maybe just wait until I ask for it.”

“I don’t mean to make you feel incapable. I think you’re plenty capable. Guess I’m a problem solver at heart.” Like he had been trained to do.

“And you’re good at it. It’s just that I have a father who steps in and tries to solve things when there isn’t even a problem. He’s so sure I’ll fail if he doesn’t do that.”

“I don’t think you’ll fail. I just want to help you not fail.” He felt his face flush. “I see what you mean.” Maybehehad been thinking she’d fail without his help.

“Sometimes I just want a sympathetic ear.”

Hadn’t Junie said something to that effect?

Charlene set a glass of water and a mug of beer on the table. “Food will be up in a few.” She strode away.

Kristy took several gulps.

He took a swig of beer before weighing in. “In the military, you always have to have a plan. You’re trained to be a problem solver. And it’s always on you to solve the problem. No one else.”

“Didn’t you work as a team though?”

“Yeah, but everyone had their area of specialty. There are munitions guys, sharp shooters, explosive experts.”

“And your area of expertise?”

“Extraction. I had to figure out how to get them out of wherever it was they were, which was often where they shouldn’t be.”

“Sounds like very serious business.”

Like life or death. “It was.”

“Did an extraction ever go wrong?”

Too often. And he’d had nightmares about it for weeks, months afterward. Usually, a good experience drove out the bad, but he could go stretches where the demons just took over. That was one of the reasons he’d gotten out. And why he was leery of getting in too deep with anyone. Except she was the first woman who made him yearn for something more. For a real relationship. But what would she think the first time he had a nightmare?

“There were a lot of variables that were out of anyone’s control. At least that’s what I had to tell myself.”

“That must have been rough.”

“It was.” And still was.

“Is that why you left?”

Yes. But that was not something he was ready to admit to someone who wouldn’t understand. “My record was actually one of the better ones. I left because they wanted me to train rather than do.” Which was partly true. But the reason why they wanted him to go into training was as much about age as burnout. His commanders knew the toll pararescue took on a person. “I’m thirty. The average age in my unit was twenty-four, including me. They wanted younger guys, and they wanted me to train them.”

“And you didn’t want to train them?”

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