Page 2 of Boston
“She carried a huge bag too,” Julie said. “Like, as a purse, and she had three people helping her with her luggage.”
“You would too, if you’d moved here from Florida.” He didn’t know anything about the Silvers, as Mae had two daughters—twins—and they were several years older than Boston. They also hailed from Rusk, a tiny community about an hour north of downtown Coral Canyon, with this land about ten minutes from both Rusk and Dog Valley.
“Hey, did you still want to meet Ottie?” Julie asked, and Boston sighed heavily.
“I don’t know,” he said. “You’ve set me up with three women now, and I’m starting to think you don’t know me at all.”
“Hey.” She nudged him with her elbow. “I know you, and Ottie’s fun.”
“You said that about LucyAnn too,” he said. “And she took one look at me and immediately made up an upset stomach.” He chuckled, though that had not been a fun night.
“I think I’m going to pass on any more blind dates,” he said. “There’s got to be a way to meet women in other ways, right?”
“Sure,” Julie said.
“How did you meet Calder?” he asked.
She grinned at him mischievously. “My sister set me up with him…on a blind date.” She laughed, and Boston joined her, though he shook his head.
He groaned as he stood up. “Well, I have to go ride the Wicker Road Trail for that group I’m taking out tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Julie went back to her computer. “Walk real slow past Mae’s office, and text me if you catch sight of her.” She made Cora Silver sound like a zoo animal, and Boston didn’t go down the hall toward Mae’s office at all.
He turned in the other direction and headed to the staff living quarters—a nice, two-story building that sat out of the way, out of sight of the guests, where he had a one-bedroom, one-bath unit on the second floor.
The sunshine outside helped Boston breathe a little easier, and he really loved the mix of his job from inside, desk work to outside, get-dirty work.
He walked along the immaculately kept gravel road, moving past the guest lodges and cabins, listening to the sky be blue and the wind whisper through the pine trees. Around the corner and past the tall Ponderosa pines waited the staff quarters.
Boston sighed and smiled just seeing the building, and he couldn’t wait to get to the stables, which waited with the horses on the other side of the road.
He stepped into the air conditioning of his little space, relaxing and settling into the peace that always came with going home. As he unknotted his tie, he pulled out his phone.
I’m riding the trail for tomorrow’s group, he sent to the stable manager, a man named Cotton.Who should I saddle for that?
He stepped out of his slacks and stuffy shirt and into his regular cowboy clothes. He hung his dress hat on a hook and picked up the cowboy hat he wore when riding or working outside.
He sprayed sunscreen on his arms, so he could tell his momma he had, and he grabbed a bottle of water and started drinking it on the way over to the stables.
I’m at the stable, Cotton said.I can go over tomorrow with you. The group is one of our Gold Status Groups, and I don’t think you’ve worked with them before.
Boston’s pulse bumped a little harder, and he wondered why he’d been assigned to this ride with a group who surely someone elsehadworked with.
He found Cotton driving a wheelbarrow toward their compost pile, and he joined him with a, “Howdy, Cotton.”
The older man smiled. Cotton was nearing forty, and he was one of the strongest, kindest men Boston had ever met. “Howdy, Boston.” He dumped the straw and waste he’d cleaned out of a stall and reached to shake Boston’s hand.
“Who do we have tomorrow?” he asked, needing this pit in the bottom of his stomach to be filled.
Cotton cut a look over to him. “The Silvers.”
The hole fell out of his gut, and Boston sucked in a breath to fill it. “I’m gonna need the day off.”
Cotton laughed, but Boston wasn’t kidding. “You’ll be fine with them. Mae’s riding, with her daddy and her daughters.”
“Is it some sort of test?” he asked, wondering if it was for him—or for Cora, who’d been called home to run the lodge reluctantly.
Boston didn’t want to make judgments on the woman, because he wouldn’t like it if someone came to learn about him through rumors and a single staff meeting where his daddy gave the highlights of his life.
