Page 7 of His Cowboy Heart

I almost spit out my coffee. “Washington?” This was some kind of a karmic joke.

“Yeah didn’t you go to summer camp there?”

“Not camp,” I said, walking to my desk and trying not to cough.

Miguel and I worked in an open office full of movable standing desks. There were no walls to foster collaboration. It was also incredibly loud which made privacy difficult.

“Hey Troy.” Nanthany smiled at me as she walked past. She was Abigail’s former roommate and the one who had introduced us at McMenamin’s an Irish bar two years before. “Is Abby ready for tonight?”

Nanthany was one of the only people who called Abigail, Abby. I had never thought the nickname suited her. It was too casual.

“Yeah, not much to get ready for, it’s just a party,” I said.

“It’s a party that the press attends,” Nanthany said, smoothing back her jet black hair. “It’s a big deal. You two are going to be official after this. It’s so exciting. I expect you to name your first born after me.”

“Nanthany Van Rossum,” Miguel said. “It really rolls off the tongue.”

Children. The idea of having children made my heart soar a bit, but something felt off talking to Nanthany about it. The truth was Abigail had been lukewarm on the topic the last time we talked. I hoped we could try right away but she wanted to wait a few years. I was willing to wait. We had time.

“Right, you got it,” I said, hoping to end the conversation.

“Seriously dude, Salishan? You know this place right?” Miguel said, reading an e-mail on his phone.

Salishan.

I gripped the edge of my desk.

“What’s Salishan? Is it a new club?” Nanthany said, sliding behind Miguel. The two of them had been an item for about three months. Abigail joked about us having a double wedding, something she would never agree to of course. She’d never share the spotlight.

“It’s a new development project,” Miguel said. “I knew it sounded familiar. That’s where you summered man, am I right?”

Miguel was one of those rare souls who had known me for years. We’d attended grade school through college at NYU together. He had been there the summer I came home wrecked by love. He had born witness to my shell shock, but clearly he was a bit fuzzy on the details.

“Yeah, I summered there, why does that matter?” I asked, rooted in place.

“You spent the summer there?” Nanthany asked brows rising. “Oh, that’s interesting. Does Abigail know about this?” I think her questions were driven on two levels. Nanthany wanted to understand the competition in the office and she liked to keep an eye on me for Abigail.

“It wasn’t worth mentioning,” I said, unpacking my leather bag. “It was a few months, no big, nothing to tell.”

“Then why do you act like a guy with a secret?” Nanthany asked.

“Come on,” I said. “What’s with the third degree?” My heart pounded in my chest, I hoped my cheeks weren’t flushed. “Salishan is a piss poor tiny town that nobody cares about.”

“Well, it’s about to be big,” Miguel said, scrolling through his phone. “This project is going to be huge man. Looks like we’ve already started buying property along the lakefront.”

I wanted to grab his phone and look at the plans. The lake. Shea’s family had property near there so did my aunt, Mayra. Were they selling? Were we negotiating with my ex-lover’s family right now?

Nanthany stood at her desk; her hand poised about her keyboard as she watched me. I hated feeling as though she were listening. The last thing I needed was her passing Abigail information about me. I knew how that would play out. Abigail insisted on total transparency. She read my call log and my texts. I thought it was a little disturbing, but since I wasn’t a liar or a cheater I’d never cared, until now.

I picked up my laptop. “We gotta go.”

Nanthany, Miguel and I walked into the conference room.

A projector sat on the honey covered wooden table. Sunlight filled the room. Outside was the concrete jungle of New York City, honking horns and the thrum of people and motion. I took a seat as Kyle Drake, Ardent Venture’s VP of Development walked into the room.

Kyle was kind of a prick, a showboat prone to drama. He put his hands on the table. “This is big people,” he said. He nodded at his admin who scrambled from his seat and flipped on the projector. It was hard not to notice the flicker of annoyance on his face. Clearly this scene lacked the drama he expected.

A single picture lit up the screen.

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