Page 62 of Overdue for a Cowboy

“Course I am.”

“There’s a lot to do. I want to replace the scratched-up flooring and put in some custom shelving and more lighting. I need to repaint the outside, and she made these flowers stencils and blades of grass that she wanted painted along the sides. I picked up a small air conditioner unit, and I need to install it. I built her a little desk to do check-outs at, and I’ve got a ton of wiring to put in so that she can have wi-fi and use her laptop.” He checked the items off his fingers as he thought of them. “She wanted it to be more ADA compliant, so I bought some handrails to install on the door to help go up the steps, and asked Elizabeth to order a bunch of large print books. I also made a portable shelving unit that she can roll around outside of the camper. Maisie also wanted to get the sink working, so I was going to try to run down to Camping World and get the parts for it and also pick up anawning to install so the kids could have shade while standing in front of it, but I don’t think I’m going to have time now. And then we still need to put in the books.”

“Dang. Thatisa lot. And you’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this.”

Dodge shrugged. “Some of those things were Maisie’s ideas of what she hoped to eventually be able to add, and some were my ideas. It’s amazing what you can come up with when you’re trying to distract yourself from thinking about a woman.”

Duke chuckled again. “I can imagine. And it sounds to me like we’re gonna need more help. Why don’t you get Chevy out here, and I’ll call Ford and Elizabeth.”

“Do you really think they’d want to pitch in?”

“Hell yes, I do.” He clamped his hand on Dodge’s shoulder. “We love you, and we all care about Maisie. We want you both to be happy.Andwe want our town to win this grant money and have this bookmobile as a community service. So, call your brother and let’s get to work. You’ve got a girl to win back, and we don’t have much time.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

On Monday afternoon, Maisie threw herself into her work at the library and tried not to think about how disappointed she was about pulling her entry for the bookmobile contest and the grant money.

She could have gone out to the ranch the day before and tried to fix up what she could, but the hard truth was just that there was too much to do, and with the way it looked now, it didn’t stand a chance of winning anyway. She’d talked to Natalie that morning and told her to call the judging team and let them know they didn’t have an entry so they didn’t need to waste a trip up here.

There would always be next year. And then she would have time to really fix up the bookmobile and have a better chance of winning.

She sighed.

The bookmobile felt like one more thing that she’d planned that didn’t work out like she’d hoped and prayed it would.

Natalie had said she’d take care of calling the judges so Maisie wouldn’t have to think about it. But she’d still spent the morningthinking about it and trying to get over the frustration and regret of not having an entry because she’d wrecked the bookmobile into a ditch. That is, when she was thinking about Dodge Lassiter or Pete Bishop.

Pete had texted her that morning to tell her what a nice time he’d had and asked her if she’d like to get together again.

She hadn’t heard from Dodge since he’d left her house the Tuesday before.

She also kept thinking about what Chevy had told her, and the fact that she’d heard from one man and not the other should have helped her to make up her mind. She needed to just let Dodge go.

She liked Pete. He was a good man, and they’d had fun together. Dodge had told her right from the beginning that he didn’t want to be with her, so she needed to forget about him and start moving in the direction of someone who actually wanted to be with her.

She’d wasted so much time waiting for Dodge Lassiter. Then when it finally seemed like they had a chance to be together, he’d rejected her and told her he didn’t want to be with her. Well, to be honest, he’d told her that he wasn’t the kind of man she needed. And that she was better off with someone like Pete.

She did like Pete, and maybe they could have something together. She wouldn’t know if she didn’t try. And if she didn’t try to move on with someone new, she might as well stay home and start shopping for more cats. April would love that—the ornery cat would probably puke in her shoes.

She hadn’t texted Pete back, but she picked up her phone now and opened her messages. Her heart might be wounded andlimping along, but at least by messaging Pete, she would be walking forward…toward something instead of living in the past and hoping for something that wasn’t ever going to happen.

Before she could open her phone, Natalie came into her office.

“I think you need to come out front,” the volunteer told her. “Dodge Lassiter just pulled up outside.Withthe bookmobile.”

“Why is he here?” Was he just dropping off the wrecked-up camper to tell her one more time that he didn’t want her in his life? Was this like the part of the breakup where one person drops off the toothbrush and all the things the other left behind at their place?

She looked at her watch. It was three o’clock—the time that the judges were supposed to arrive. Perfect.

“I don’t know,” Natalie said as they walked through the library. “But we should probably go out there, in case he wants to drop off the keys or something.”

Maisie walked through the door and gasped at the sight in front of her.

Natalie should be up for an acting award, because once again, the volunteer had misled her into thinking there was something bad outside, when in fact, there was something wonderful.

The bookmobile was parked at the curb in front of the library. Or what used to be the slightly beat-up but still cute camper thatusedto be her bookmobile. The camper that sat there now looked completely different—and it was amazing.

The outside of the camper had been painted a light blue to look like the sky with her vision of fluffy white clouds floating across the top of it. Along the bottom of the camper were painted tallstalks of green grass with flowers blooming up from between the stalks. Little butterflies with book-shaped bodies floated among the petals.

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