Page 92 of The Cowboy's Unshakeable Love

Ace laughed. “Greetings, Mr. Duke. I wanted to check in with you about tonight.”

“You mean what we’re going to do with ourselves while the women are out?”

“Kind of. What we’re going to do is easy – we’re going to hang out at Deacon’s place. Have a single beer while we wait to be summoned to collect them and take them home again.”

“True. What do you mean, then?”

Ace sounded more serious. “I mean, what are we going to do about Libby?”

“Shit. You’re right. Do you know what her plans are?”

“No. I was wondering if you knew.”

“She’s still at the barn right now. I could tell her that she can stay in one of the cabins tonight. If she wants to go straight to The Riverside from my place, we could take her and then bring her back with us when I pick Retta up. I know she won’t stay at the house, but she might take a cabin.”

Ace blew out a sigh. “You can try. But I doubt she’ll do it. She’ll want to go home first to get showered and changed.”

“True. I’d say that we’ll drive her home, but she wouldn’t go for that last time. I … she’s not seeing Brent, is she?”

“Not as far as I know, and you can bet your ass the gossips would have gotten hold of it if she were. I don’t even know that he’d be the one to give her a ride home tonight. That’s the trouble – I don’t know what she’s planning.”

“You know, we could just ask her.”

Ace laughed. “You could. I’ve learned my lesson there. You have to remember that we’ve been doing this for a while. We’ve all suggested that we could drive her home or that she could stay over, and we’ve had our heads bitten off for it.”

“Right.” Travis thought about it for a few moments.

“No bright ideas?” Ace asked.

“Maybe. I’ll call you back.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Trip. If Shelly’s coming, he might be interested in playing chauffeur for her. If that’s the case, they could give Libby a ride. Shelly lives in town.”

“That might work. That’s one of the reasons that Libby gets so mad about us offering – we’d all have to go at least thirty miles out of our way to take her. Trip’s only ten miles from town, and if he’s taking Shelly anyway …”

“I don’t know that he is. He hasn’t called me back. I reckon Retta might know before I do what the deal is there – she’s talking to Shelly.”

“Let me know when you figure it out, would you? If Trip isn’t the answer, I’m going to offer again. She’ll only get mad at me, but I have to try.”

“Is Mav giving you a hard time?”

Ace laughed. “Mav’s just being Mav. I don’t think he knows that Libb gets rides home from different guys when the girls go out, but there’s something different about him lately. Have you noticed it?”

“Nope. It’s hard to notice anything when the fucker won’t return my calls.”

“Shit. Still?”

“Yup. I’m going to have to try him again soon. If he wants to be mad at me about Libby moving, fair enough. But I think I want to give him a hard time.”

“About?”

“About the fact that he hasn’t shown any interest in me and Retta being together. It’s a big deal in my life. I don’t care if he’s mad at me about Libb. I want to share my news with him.”

Ace laughed. “Good luck with that.”

“I know, but I am who I am. It’s important to me and I like to share the important things in my life with the important people.”

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