Page 71 of Road to a Cowboy

Cal’s light chuckle rubbed against Austin’s nerves. “I’m not. The prospect of you going so far away for so long leaves me with an ache in my soul that feels like it’s bleeding.”

Austin’s eyes threatened to water, and his throat went thick.

“But I think you’ll regret not taking the job, Aus. Think of the time you spent with Margaret and Abi yesterday, and imagine doing that for an entire school year.”

Man, it would be so fun to do that for a year. Working with Margaret and Abi had been a little like tutoring his workshop students back home, but at a higher level. And he’d enjoyed getting to know the professors. Rolf especially seemed like he genuinely wanted to be Austin’s friend. Austin wouldn’t be alone here, and he had something he could contribute.

Just... why did it have to be so damn far away?

“Okay,” he said and nabbed an oat cookie when one of the servers made her way to their table. “I’ll think about it.”

Call nodded, and though his eyes were sad, he nevertheless looked satisfied as fuck. “Good.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Returning home after a vacation was a bit like blinking after watching the best movie you’d ever seen and wondering if what you’d watched really was as epic as you thought.

Cal had arrived at Windsor Ranch on Monday morning less than twelve hours after stepping foot on US soil feeling like the past week had been a dream. Several hours later, back to the daily grind and routine, it was like Norway had never happened.

It was good to be home, but as he caught up on paperwork in his office, he couldn’t lie, not even to himself—being away, disconnecting from everything, having no responsibilities except arriving for a reservation or pre-booked tour on time, strolling through a foreign city and discovering hidden gems, and spending lazy hours in bed with Austin?

He’d needed that more than he’d known.

And as much as he loved his job, he wanted to be back there, sharing Norwegian pastries with Austin, learning about the history of the city, and browsing souvenir shops for trinkets for their friends and family. Earlier, Las had accused him of having the post-vacation blues, and Cal couldn’t argue. He would’ve happily spent another week in Norway with Austin if they’d been able to swing it.

As it was, they were both due back at work today, Cal at the ranch and Austin at the community center for his first week of photography summer camp.

Cal wasn’t surprised that the ranch hadn’t fallen apart in his absence—Whitney employed competent people. It was both heartening and disheartening to know that he could go away for a week and everything would be fine.

Heartening, because it meant he could actually take his allotted yearly vacation time and visit Austin in Norway when he took the job.

Disheartening, because he’d spent years proving that he was indispensable, but if they’d managed a week without him, clearly he was replaceable.

Or maybe not. Whitney had groaned good-naturedly when she’d seen him and thanked God he was back because she was tired of dealing with Ewan and Orson’s theatrics. Gwen had also thanked God for his return before thrusting vendor management back onto his plate. Ewan had a dozen questions about the results of last week’s soil sample that he’d conducted on the wheat crops to prevent disease; one of the ranch hands was nearly in tears because he hadn’t been able to fix a piece of equipment; and Las was bursting with ideas for his project that he wanted to run by Cal.

It was nice to be needed.

It was also nice to not be needed.

Nevertheless, Cal had meetings with a couple of ranch owners in the area this week to speak with them about his idea for a ranching co-op that he was excited about, so it wasn’t all bad being home.

“Cal, I forgot to ask earlier.” Whitney strode into his office before lunch. “We need to set up the next safety training for the staff.”

“It’s on my to-do list to start looking into this week.”

“Get Orson to help you.”

Cal blinked up from his spreadsheet. “Orson?”

“He’s been spending his free time helping Alana plan excursions for the guests. He’s got a talent for organizing events I wasn’t aware of.”

Cal hadn’t been aware of it either. But still... “I can do it myself.”

“I know you can. You could run this entire ranch by yourself if you had to. But you don’t have to. That’s the beauty of working with a team.” She left, her boot heels thudding against the floor.

You could run this entire ranch by yourself if you had to.

Well, damn. That was nice to hear. Especially from the boss.

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