Page 133 of Cowboy Heat
“Normally, I’d be all in, but things back home have become…interesting. So I think it’s better if I stick around there for the foreseeable future. Play to our strengths and all of that.”
“Your strengths like getting eaten whole by the wilderness?”
Ethan will then smile.
“Something like that.”
He’ll leave shortly after that conversation and, down the line, we’ll find someone to do the job. To search for something or to finally put the rumor that there’s anything at all to bed.
It’s the least we can do for Connor Dylan and his daughter.
For now, though, in my hospital room Lee and I come to an end of the conversation about the mystery and mayhem that’s taken hold of Robin’s Tree in the past month. Instead, we talk about the future. What better way than to start that conversation with a friendly, brotherly warning.
“Now, I heard from a certain boy who seems to have taken quite a shine to you, thathethinks you should get a horse.” Lee leans in close. “I’m here to tell you now, Baby Beau, that I might let you reinvent the nickname of Bayou Cowboy for the town, but I sure as shit will never let you hear the end of it if you ever utter the words, ‘yee’ or ‘haw.’”
I can’t help it.
I laugh.
Then he does too.
That’s when I see her there, on the edge of my mind.
Sarah Tate.
For years, she’s been crying and cold and covered in terror.
Today, she’s different.
She’s wearing a nice dress with sunflowers on it, her hair is braided, and she’s getting into the car with her parents to leave everything horrible behind her. She pauses but only long enough to find my brothers and me. She looks at all us but stops at me.
She smiles then.
She smiles now.
She leaves.
I won’t see her again.
I don’t need to anymore.
EPILOGUE
Kissy
Summer hitsall of the right notes in Robin’s Tree. The weather’s holding nice and hot and breezy if you sit still long enough. The mosquitos aren’t as horrible, but maybe I’m putting on a brave face for the man I’ve been living with for a few months now.
Beau Montgomery is a lot of things, but there’s something about mosquitos that really gets him ranting, and bless me, I try to be his peace whenever I can be.
Though, that said, I sure love to tease the man.
I’m doing it now at the fence next to the stable. He’s leaning against the post, and we’re watching Mimi, Wyatt, and Ally try to watch Micah ride his horse, Lola, without flinching. Beau’s not too much better. I see him tensing every time Lola goes to galloping.
“He’s fine, Beau,” I say, giving him a small nudge with my hip. “He’s been taking riding lessons since before we got Lola. Riding lessons that you have personally overseen since day one, might I add. You can’t keep hyping up his confidence and then helicopter parenting him. That’stheirjob.”
I point to Mimi and Wyatt, but I guess I could loop in Ally too. She’s had a lot on her plate since what happened at Low Low and has finally just tied up all loose ends within the department. Yet during all of that, she’s become as much of a staple at Blue Lolita as the rest of us. Even after Lee finally left.
She’s never explicitly said there was something between them, but, well, I also know how those Montgomery boys can get under your skin.
