Page 3 of The Stranger's Code

“Yep. That’s me.”

“I think that’s amazing, Cam. I really do.” Levi smiled. “You wouldn’t believe how many people want to buy up farmland and don’t have the faintest idea how to do anything on a farm. It’s like wanting to run a restaurant when you’ve never worked in one. I mean, if anything goes wrong, how would you even know how to fix it?”

Levi stopped himself as he shook his head. “Sorry. You don’t need to hear all my opinions.”

“No, you’re right.” It was my turn to smile. “If I do something, I want to be all in. Being phony is so… overrated. Whatever I commit to, I want it to be as authentic as possible.”

“You sound like my kind of guy.” Levi gave me an approving nod. “Where were you running off to, anyway?”

“Oh, I just wanted to see some new equipment at the barn?—”

“Boo.”

“What?”

“Boo,” Levi repeated, flashing another grin. “How boring. Listen, Cam, you’re not going to learn how to run a farm by just staring at tractors all day. How about I give you a full tour of the ranch and then I promise you can get to the boring stuff?”

“Yeah. Okay. Whatever you say.”

* * *

Levi was straight outof a goddamn movie. Ripped from the headlines. Jumped out of the pages.

We’d loaded into his pickup truck before he sped away from the cabins. His cowboy hat was stylish and black, like the rest of his outfit. As he drove, he’d slipped it off the dash and back onto his head, which explained the perfectly messy hair. My heart raced as dust picked up around us, and yet, I couldn’t keep my eyes off him for even a full minute.

He was it.

He was the cowboy Antonio Cruz wantedme to be.

I was already taking mental notes on how he talked, how he moved. Everything about him seemed like he’d grown up around cowboy culture but still had a personality all his own, like he found a way to stand out from the crowd.

Like he found a way to capture everyone’s attention on the big screen.

“We have some stables over there. If you stick around long enough you might get to meet Ursula. That’s my sister’s favorite horse,” he continued, nodding towards the stables as he drove. “You ever been on a horse before, Cam?”

“Only at petting zoos.”

“You went to those a lot as a kid?”

“I worked at those a lot as an adult.” I chuckled. “Anything to make a few extra dollars, you know.”

“That’s the kind of work ethic that’ll take you a long way on a ranch, Cam.” His eyes were focused on the road ahead. “The best cowboys are always the hardest workers.”

“Would you consider yourself a cowboy?”

Levi laughed. “Something like that, sure.”

“Something like that?”

“I’m a Stratton. Being a cowboy is in our blood,” he replied. “To the point that I don’t really think of myself as a cowboy. I just… am. The last name always spoke it for me, I guess.”

“Wait. You’re related to Virgil?” I said, without thinking. “But you’re… uh…”

“You were going to say that I’m normal, weren’t you?” Levi laughed again, the sound of it perfect. “Don’t worry about Virgil. He’s harmless. You’ll get used to his quirks.”

“So, you like it? Being a cowboy? Being a Stratton?”

“I love it.” Levi shrugged. “But I’ve always been a nature lover. Especially at night. When everything comes together… there’s nothing like it in the world.”

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