Page 24 of We Redeemed the Rain

“On purpose.”

She paused. “Hold up. Earlier, you said you were sitting at the bar, waiting. What happened?”

I explained every juicy detail like I always did. Jackie was the only person in the world who would understand. She alone knew about the cowboy from my childhood. Everyone else in my family thought I wrote letters to a penpal I met at music camp.

“Fine.” She sighed into the phone. “I’ll go to the airport and pick up your luggage ononecondition.”

I tensed. “And that is?”

“Sneak a pic of your cowboy and send it?—”

I shrieked in laughter. “I’mnotdoing that!”

“I’m not done! He needs to have on his cowboy hat, be sweaty and-or dirty, preferably shirtless, pants slung low over his hips?—”

I wheezed in a breath. “Jackie! No!”

“Okay, then you can kiss your precious high-end make-up goodbye…and your throat spray…and your high-top Converse…”

I moaned. That stuff was expensive.

“Alright,fine.I’ll try to sneak a picture.”

“With his pants?—”

“Slung low.” I repeated with a laugh. “You’re ridiculous, you know. He might not even be handsome.”

The sarcasm in her tone boarded bitterness. “He’s acowboy, Bea.”

“Well, he might not even live there anymore.”

“Ifhe doesn’t live there anymore, the deal’s off and you’ll just owe me.”

She helped me pass a little of my waiting time, and kept me entertained. But, despite the laughter, something I couldn’t put a finger on burned behind my breastbone. I wanted to deny the flame of hope flickering deep within.

Ireallyhoped he still lived there…

SIX

Tag

My phone rang close to 9 p.m. right as I was finishing up a few things in the barn.

I picked it up. “Hey, Jesse.”

“Uh, Tag, we have a problem.”

His tone communicateddisasterloud and clear. I stopped dead in my tracks. “Please don’t tell me that.”

“I answered the ranch phone a few minutes ago, and it was a woman who said she booked acabinhere at Meadowbrook for three weeks.”

“Booked? How?”

“That’s what I was wondering.”

“We had a bookin’ system in place back last year, but Deborah oversaw all that, not me.”

“Any chance she left the system active?”

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