Page 23 of Serious Cowboy

“You could prod your brother for intel as long as you’re careful about disclosing too much. Or you could just spill the beans and tell him you’ll date whoever you want since you’re thirty years old.”

Daisy had a point. But it was having the options all laid out in front of her that Callie liked the most.

“So,” Callie ticked the ideas off on her fingers just to reestablish her equilibrium. “I reach out to Zeke after a week. And if that doesn’t work, I tell Tim what’s been going on in a roundaboutmanner and squeeze him for answers. Or I’ll come completely clean and ask him what the deal with his best bud truly is.”

“Yeah, something like that. Only you might not use the term squeeze since it sounds like a mafia hitman. Maybe go with vocabulary that’s less violent.” Daisy’s giggle highlighted how much of a dark cloud she’d been under since all this had gone down. She knew her bestie would help her analyze the situation and put everything in order again.

Despite feeling somewhat better now that she had a plan, following through with said plan felt like torture to Callie. It didn’t bode well to her that she’d seen neither hide nor hair of Zeke in all that time. She hadn’t heard from him, either. Not a call. Not a text. Not an email.

Nothing.

She’d tangled everything up between them beyond recognition, and she had to square with the fact that Zeke Knight might not want to have anything to do with her anymore.

It would be disappointing, amazingly so. But it was still a very real possibility.

On the seventh day—she couldn’t bear to wait any longer and the suspense was killing her—she called Zeke and left a message. She watched her phone like a hawk for the rest of that day, knowing Zeke would be busy at the ranch. But the pediatric office happened to be a little slower that morning, so Callie fidgeted.

Tim, Mr. I Never Notice Anything himself, actually noticed.

“Why are you so… twitchy today?”

“I’m not,” she denied, then thought better of it. “Don’t worry about it.”

Normally with Tim, that would be enough. But despite the iffy timing for this particular go-round, he decided to pry.

Figured.

“Just say it. Is it me? Did I do something wrong with Erika or Julie again?”

Callie blinked. That was downright insightful and self-reflective of him, two things she definitely couldn’t call strengths of his.

“Um, no, that’s not it.” Then to cover her verbal stumble, she patted his elbow. “This is a me issue, not a you issue. I promise.”

At first, he looked relieved. But then, his mouth cinched up on one side. “Tell me, then.”

“What?” Tim didn’t tend to ask questions about her. He was protective, but not like this.

“Confide in me. I’m your brother, right?”

“Of course you’re my brother.”

“Well, we had a cancellation, so I’m all yours for…” He peered at his watch. “The next fifteen to twenty minutes. So shoot.”

Daisy had instructed her to go to Tim about this. It was simply a matter of how much to divulge.

“I’ve been dating someone new from out of town,” she fibbed. Callie still thought of Vancouver as her hometown, so by the barest of margins, she could tell herself this wasn’t technically a lie. “Things have been going well, but I just found out something about him that I don’t think he wanted me to know. He’s shutdown all communication between us ever since. So, lay it on me from the male perspective. What should I do?”

Tim lifted both of his hands as if creating dual stop signs. “Wait, wait, wait. I’m going to need more information. What did you find out exactly? That he’s cheating? That he’s doing drugs? That he running an illegal dog-fighting ring out of his basement? What is it?”

“Well, that’s part of the trouble because I don’t know. Not exactly.” She had to tread so cautiously here. If her brother knew the specifics, he’d be able to identify Zeke as soon as he had the right number of details. “I think he might have some trauma in his past, that he might still be suffering over it.”

“Why?”

Dang it. Why must he keep digging?

“Because I found evidence that he might not have lived alone all his life like I originally thought.”

Zeke had given off that vibe, mainly by purposely separating himself from others. Until she’d happened across that image, him being with anyone else hadn’t seemed high on the probability charts. Callie hadn’t been given much time to study that second pic, but he’d been younger. Quite a bit younger. That girl could’ve just been another family member or even friend of the family.

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