Page 28 of Road to a Cowboy

It was a pretty view.

But not as good as the one in front of him.

Cal had dressed in fitted slacks so blue they were almost black, and paired them with a black shirt and chocolate brown blazer that matched his hair and stubble. Austin had salivated over a filthy and work-roughened Cal just yesterday. A well-dressed Cal, though?

Austin clenched the menu between his fingers to prevent himself from pouncing on him. Cal’s shoulders were extra broad in his jacket, and Austin couldn’t help wondering how it would feel to be surrounded by all that strength.

Except there was also an unnatural stiffness to Cal’s shoulders that Austin didn’t like one bit.

He cleared his throat...

And couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

To his best friend.

Who he’d known forever.

Finally, he settled on the standard question everyone asked when eating out with friends and family. “What are you going to have?”

“I think the pork. Maybe the sea bass. You?”

“The trout. Want to share the goat cheese crepe to start?”

“Sure.”

They fell into silence, broken only by the conversations of other diners and the clink of cutlery on plates.

He couldn’t help the measure of relief that swept through him when their server arrived.

“Hey, Austin. Cal.”

Cal nodded at their old high school classmate.

“Hey, Nadia.” Austin moved his water glass closer so she could fill it. “I noticed Amira’s registered for my photography camp this summer.”

Nadia gave him a sheepish grin. “She loves playing around with my cell phone camera, and I need to keep her occupied this summer so she doesn’t sit around watching TV all day. I’ve got her in a few different camps, but she’s most looking forward to yours.” She looked between the two of them, her eyebrows rising. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the two of you here together before. Are you...?”

“Uh...”

Across from him, Cal looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, having any other conversation.

Nadia seemed to pick up on that. Smiling brightly, she said, “What can I get you to drink?”

She was gone a moment later, and that sense of pending disaster hit Austin again square in the chest.

Cal sat back in his chair, the restaurant’s low lighting making him seem larger than life while the flicker of the tiny candle in the middle of the table cast shadows on his jaw. “How was your day?”

“Good,” Austin said. “The market was quiet today, even after it cleared up, so I didn’t sell a two-thousand-dollar photograph this time.”

He didn’t even get a commiserating chuckle for the bad joke. Just a strained smile.

Clutching his water glass in one hand, Austin said, “How was your day?”

“Good.”

Silence.

Again.

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