Page 24 of Serious Cowboy

Yet Zeke’s reaction made Callie feel like it was a much closer and more intimate connection.

Maybe it was tacky of her, but she’d actually been looking at all the teenagers that came in as patients searching for signs that they might belong to Zeke biologically. There had been a boywith dark blue eyes that had come in for a sports physical that she’d stared at for long enough that he’d given her a confused look. Only that had made her glance away again.

Callie had kept her eyes peeled for the pregnant girl in the photo, too, but since at least a decade or so had probably passed since then, she wasn’t sure she could even identify her if she did run into her. If the girl—woman—was even still in town.

Despite everything, she felt desperate to know.

She’d been so distracted by her own musings and constructing stories about what may or may not be that she hadn’t noticed her brother narrowing his gaze at her.

“What kind of evidence did you track down?”

“Photographic,” she sputtered, off-guard.

“And?”

“And what?”

“What was in the photograph, Callie? Don’t make me guess.”

“It was him and another woman looking happy.” It’d been the happiest she’d ever seen Zeke.

“What we’re they doing in the picture?”

“Smiling.”

He frowned at her, and when he spoke, his tone was layered in sarcasm. “You’re really giving me high marks for intelligence, aren’t you? Yeah, I’d gathered that much. What else?”

“They were young and dressed up. It might’ve been a formal event.” She hadn’t allowed this particular notion to fully developin her mind, but what if that picture had been from a wedding? The girl had been wearing pink instead of white, but not all brides liked to wear what tradition dictated. And some couldn’t afford to go all out for a big fluffy white dress.

“Like a prom? That young?”

“Maybe,” Callie conceded. “But I’ve been wondering if it could’ve been them getting married.”

“So you think this guy might’ve been hitched before and—” Tim cut himself off. He lasered in on her. “Was the girl expecting?” The question wasn’t something she’d anticipated since she’d deliberately left that detail out, but she could see the switch behind his eyes that flipped over the instant he realized. “Have you been datingZeke?”

She could’ve denied it. She could’ve attempted to continue with the charade and the omissions she’d been maintaining up till now. But as her brother’s jaw tightened, she could see that it was too late for that.

“Don’t be mad, Tim.”

“Mad?” He marched across his small office to lean his back against the door, his arms crossed like a tourniquet over his ribcage. “Upset that you expressly went out of your way to do something I expressly asked you not to?”

“I’m a grown woman, and he’s a grown man. Your opinion on us being together was unsolicited.”

Tim barked out a laugh that had zero amusement built into it. “I suppose you’re right, Callie. But in the future, when I ask you to do something, recognize that I’m doing it for your own sake.”

“What are you saying? That Zeke’s a bad man? A bad person?”

“No,” his volume had been rising but he lowered it. “What I’m saying is that Zeke’s not all right when it comes to relationships with women. He hasn’t been for ages. That’s the last kind of man that you would ever need, one who’s too damaged to handle things and refuses to get the help he needs.”

“But—” Callie began, but Tim interrupted her again.

“But you don’t listen. You never have. Even—especially—when I’m trying to look out for your best interests. But whatever, Callie. You do you.”

He opened the door with a loud creak and bounded through it. She hurried to catch up to him and ask him where he was going, but he’d already vanished through the series of corridors to the exit that came out the other side of the building. One she’d never used or even known about. But when she attempted to follow him, she discovered that it’d locked automatically from the outside. She’d have to find another exit.

Ultimately, she found herself all alone with the only thing remaining of her brother’s presence the dust settling from where his vehicle had left the parking lot. She’d really done it this time. If Zeke had been so angry that he’d abandoned her at his office…

Good thing she had a set of keys and the code to the alarm system so she could arm their security for the night.

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