Page 41 of A Rancher's Heart
“—magical bag of tricks?”
A voice that was already familiar rang in the air as Tamara stepped into view.
She waggled her fingers at Josiah before holding out a hand. “Sorry, but this is one nanny who has not yet figured out locomotion by umbrella.”
Something in Josiah’s eyes lit up as he took Tamara’s hand willingly. A grin crossed his face, and for one fevered moment Caleb imagined what it would be like to gut his best friend from nose to knees.
Because Caleb could see it coming. The damn bastard planned on flirting. The way he flirted with everyone of the female persuasion whether they were two years old or two hundred, so the idea shouldn’t burn as hard as it did.
But that was a logical thought, and logic could get the fuck out.
Sure enough, Josiah lingered over the handshake. “I recognize you from the coffee shop the other day. You do not look like Mary Poppins, but I bet you could make the medicine go down just right.”
Caleb rolled his eyes.
A smile slid over her face. “I know a thing or two about making people’s days brighter. So does my sister.”
Sister?
Josiah looked positively gleeful. “Yes, about your sister. She moving to Heart Falls as well? Because I know someone who’d be mighty interested—”
Caleb coughed abruptly. “You need to take a look at this, Josiah.”
His friend had forgotten about the animal in the pen behind him, so Caleb pushed the vet into the pen and closed the gate after him as if worried about keeping the colt in.
Then he turned so he stood between Tamara and Josiah. “Need something?”
Tamara shook her head. “Not really, although I wanted to check if it works with your schedule for me to go out tomorrow night. Kelli suggested it. I think things are going well with the girls, but it would probably be good to have a little space for a night. I didn’t want to confirm plans until I talked to you.”
Caleb was nodding when Josiah, the right bastard that he was, popped up again, resting his arms on the top of the gate and whipping out his lady-killer smile. “Sounds like a great plan. Caleb was saying that the girls were settling in well to having you around, but I bet they would appreciate some quality family time.” He aimed the full potency of his flirting at Tamara. “As it happens, I’m free tomorrow. I’d love to escort you and Kelli to Rough Cut.”
Tamara looked confused for a moment. “Is that somewhere we want to go?”
“Local bar. Because of the coal in the area, and the nearby town of Black Diamond, but yeah, it’s a great place to hang out for a while. Drinks and dancing. I do it all.”
He was getting a boot up his ass if he kept this up much longer, Caleb thought darkly.
He’d had enough. “No objections, but if you’re planning on going out with Kelli, maybe make it a girls’ night out. Luke’s fiancée is around.” He ignored the sudden coughing from the pen where Josiah stood. “Or I bet Kelli could introduce you to some of her other friends. Be good for you to get to know more women in the community. You’ll mostly spend time around guys here at Silver Stone.”
Tamara leaned a hand on the nearest post, looking Josiah up and down for one long, deliberate moment as if to poke Caleb in the ass before she smiled at them both. “That sounds like exactly the thing I need. The girls’ night out, and all. Josiah, I’ll take a raincheck on the dancing, if you don’t mind.”
“No problem. I’ll give you my number. I should give it to you anyway in case you ever need to reach me. I hear you’ve got goats on the property.”
“I’ll call if it’s necessary,” Caleb offered.
“I am the vet,” Josiah pointed out, completely deadpan. “And I have a phone,andI happen to especially like goats.”
Caleb was going to kill his friend later. “Oh look, there’s Penny.”
He put as much enthusiasm into his voice as he could muster, but it took a lot of energy, and he didn’t think he did a very good job because both Tamara and Josiah stared at him as if he were possessed.
Yeah, his tone had been forced for more than one reason. Penny was a nice enough girl, he supposed, but he wasn’t quite sure what Luke saw in her. And the fact they planned on getting married somewhere down the road but never seemed to make any further commitment than that made Caleb uneasy.
Luke insisted it was because he was still working on their house, which was true. The place was not much more than skeleton framing with a roof, but there’d been so many changes to the plans…
Enough. Penny hadn’t done anythingspecificCaleb could point a finger at, but she always seemed to rub him the wrong way.
Course it wasn’t that difficult to rub him wrong when it came to marriage.
