Page 21 of Road to a Cowboy

“Do you... like Twizzlers?” Austin asked his best friend.

Cal hesitated. “I don’t hate them. Do you like Twizzlers?”

“They’re fine.”

“That’s what I said,” Las interjected. He removed his hat and ran one hand through hair that was nearly as dark as midnight, then pointed the hat at them as he walked away. “I told you—there’s better candy out there.”

Feeling mysteriously unsettled, Austin stared at the bag in his hand. “Should I start bringing something different?”

“And mess with tradition?” Cal plucked a Twizzler out of the bag. “I think there’s karmic retribution for that.”

Austin chuckled. “Oh, is there? Will the universe smite me for changing things up?”

“You don’t know that it won’t. Why take the chance?” Cal’s phone beeped in his pocket, and he pulled it out as he bit off the end of the Twizzler. “Sorry, let me make sure Ewan and Orson don’t need me. I sent them to check the fencing in the east pastures.”

Austin hopped up to sit on the fence between them. “I thought those two didn’t get along.”

“They don’t, which is why I keep forcing them to work together. Builds character.”

“Or maybe you’re hoping one of them will kill the other and save you the trouble?”

Cal chuckled, but it faded fast when he opened his phone.

Concerned that something was wrong, Austin glanced at it too. Sitting where he was, he was at the perfect angle to see that no, Ewan and Orson weren’t in trouble. Instead, the notification on Cal’s phone was from...

But that couldn’t be right.

Clearing his throat, Cal blanked the screen. He shifted away a step, avoiding Austin’s eyes even though Austin was staring at the side of his head. Surely, Cal could feel his gaze on him.

“Are you... on a dating app?” Austin’s heart fell to his toes, his every wish for the future crumbling to ash.

He couldn’t have kept the mingled disbelief and disappointment from his voice if he’d tried.

He’d known Cal to date, of course, though not often. There’d been Miranda in high school, then whatever her name was about a decade ago, then a guy a few years back—one of the seasonal workers in guest services.

But a dating app meant he was either looking for a hookup, which wasn’t Cal’s MO, or he was looking for a relationship, which was.

Austin slid off the railing and back onto his side of the fence.

“I’m not,” Cal protested. “I mean, I guess I am, but... Alice made the profile for me and...”

And... what?

Cal shrugged one shoulder in a jerky gesture, uneasiness fairly radiating off him. Austin clutched the fence railing in both hands and held tight. “I didn’t realize you were dating.”

“I’m not,” Cal repeated. “Well, I did set up a coffee date with AmeliaJ, but I doubt that’ll come to anything.”

AmeliaJ. She sounded... sweet. Unassuming.

Austin hated her instantly.

“Well.” He clenched the railing tighter and took a deep breath, his pulse hammering loudly in his ears. “If you’re jumping back into the dating world, would you consider dating... me?”

Chapter Seven

If Cal hadn’t seen the desire in Austin’s eyes just this morning, he might’ve thought Austin was joking.

As it was, Cal was tempted to make a joke just to cut through the tension that had suddenly sprung between them.

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