Page 28 of Home to the Cowboy's Arms

“Wise advice, Ms. Maggie. Hopefully our mayor will listen to it.”

Tori cringed inside. She did not need to turn around to know that Cade Lockwood was standing behind her. When would she learn to keep private conversations just that? Keep them on the other side of her office and its closed door. She turned slowly and found herself just a couple feet away from the man.Neutral smile, play the part.

“Mr. Lockwood,” she said. “I don’t believe you’re on my schedule today.”

“True, Mayor Parker,” he responded, his mimic of her greeting not lost on her. “But I did not think I needed to see you just to bring by your two pie plates that you left at the ranch for my crew. I told my housekeeper that I would drop them off.”

Wallace spoke up. “And I put them in your office.”

“And I need to get down the hall to my office,” Maggie said. “Good to see you again, Cade. Look forward to our meeting on Thursday. Bye all!” Maggie abandoned her.

“Thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. Have a good day.” She sailed around him and entered her office, closing the door behind her.Rude? Okay, maybe. Coward? Yes.She reminded herself that her new resolution was to keep Cade Lockwood far from her mind. Strictly business was the order of her days. Her list was long each day so she had plenty to keep her mind occupied. She sat down behind her desk, setting her coffee to the side, and began getting organized. The door opened and Wallace came in with the mail.

“Your appointment is here. It is a brief one with Dr. George from the hospital board. Then I expect the Ladies Guild to be early as usual. So if you finish with the good doctor early you can sail right into your next and maybe get out of here early today. Okay, don’t give me that skeptical look of yours. A person can hope, can’t one?”

“Yes, you just keep hoping, Wallace, for the both of us. Let’s not keep the good doctor waiting.”

And so the day was beginning and she had put the cowboy from her thoughts for a good five minutes. That was progress. She looked up with a smile at the door as her visitor entered. Then it froze.

“Good morning, Mayor Parker.” The doctor extended his hand and they shook. “I had breakfast this morning with our friend here, Cade, and thought it would be a plus to bring him along to this meeting to bring you up to speed on a couple of things. You don’t mind if he sits in with us?”

And what if she did? She smiled and graciously swept her hand toward the two empty chairs in front of her desk. “Of course not. Please make yourselves comfortable.”

She managed to get through the preliminaries by keeping most of her gaze on the doctor as he spoke. Very little attention landed on the cowboy who was dressed the part of a wealthy rancher that morning in a gray western-cut suit with vest, crisp white shirt and a black bolo tie with a silver etched concho with the Lockwood brand on it at the shirt’s collar. His Stetson rested on the crossed knee of one leg. Maybe he had an ‘engagement’ next with his lady friend? And there went her attention to the last thing the doctor said.

“I’m sorry, Ian,” she said. “Could you repeat that?”

“I was saying how helpful the Lockwood Foundation has been in getting things off the ground. It is amazing. Wait until you see what they have done and will still do out there and it…” His pager went off and he grimaced as he read the brief text.

“I’m sorry about the interruption, but I have an emergency consult,” he said standing. “Perhaps Cade can fill in any details in my absence. Let’s do lunch later this week, Tori. I’ll call you.” He was gone very quickly.

“Sorry.”

She was forced to look over at the man still seated in front of her. “It couldn’t be helped. But please don’t think that you must stay. Our meeting was to be brief anyway.”

“I take it that’s my cue to leave. I know you’re a very busy person.” He stood and so did she.

“I’ll take my leave. I know the way out.” But he paused with his hand on the doorknob and looked at her. “You know I agree with Maggie on the advice she gave you.”

“Advice?”

“The part about you being young and beautiful and needing to get out and find Mr. Right. I won’t repeat the part about traffic and sewers. But she is correct. There’s more to life than this office, Victoria. But maybe you’re afraid to venture outside it?”

“Afraid? I doubt I’m afraid. It’s a question of priorities.”

“So you don’t consider a husband, children, home to be priorities?”

“Dreams don’t always become realities, Mr. Lockwood. Some of us deal in the real world. My next appointment is here so I won’t keep you.”

He slid his hat onto his head and gave her one last look. “Realities can become priorities before you know it.”

*

“This is anice break in my day, but it might not be in yours,” Matt said, shaking his head at his lunch companion. “I don’t know if chaperoning a playdate for a bunch of six-year-olds is often on your social agenda. And the meal offered on the grill is hamburger sliders, chips, and one of Jillie’s aunt’s trays of cupcakes for dessert. You could be having better fare at Tillie’s.”

“No way,” Cade replied, pushing back in the lawn chair and studying the group currently intent on redecorating the tree house in the corner of the yard. “Living dangerously on the back of a ton of mad bull might not be as challenging and not as much fun.” He took a swig of the soda that Matt’s daughter had presented him with on his arrival.

Matt laughed. “You might be right at that. But I promise we will have a grown-ups’ lunch next week.”

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