Page 13 of Opposites (Never) Attract
“Okay, so where do I come in?” she asked me.
“You were mentioned in the will,” I said, taking a sip of my drink. “The second will.”
“Second will?”
“At the first will reading, McGraw set the conditions for the wedding and saving the Feud Day Festival. We did that. Once it was done, the lawyer said there was a second part of the will and so we all gathered together again. Leroy McGraw said we had to bring you home.”
“Me?” she asked, looking stunned. “Like me, personally?”
I nodded. “Sunshine Calloway has to come back. She’ll know what to do.”
“I don’t know what to do!” she cried. “I haven’t even been home since Dad died.”
“Then I figure you better come home, or we’re cooked.”
It was as if someone had cracked open her head and showed me her big brain at work. Wheels turning, steam coming out of her ears, arguments forming.
Harmony said to pull on her family strings, but this was a woman who had only been home once in over ten years, when her dad died. Not even for the holidays.
Sunshine’s reaction to the first will had been to get her family out of the Gulch, and bring them all to New York. That was never going to happen, but it’s where her head went. Which meant the emotional strings tying her to her hometown were at the very least frayed, if not completely snapped.
Time for a risky cow turn. Which, as an experienced cowboy, I could handle.
“Anyway,” I continued. “I volunteered to come out here and give you the message, but the truth is…I don’t think it will matter.”
It was a long shot, but I was an excellent marksman too.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t think you can do it,” I said, and prayed I could sell this line of bullshit. “Don’t get me wrong, you’ve done really well for yourself here…”
“Well for myself?” she said, her beautiful features scrunching up in disbelief. “Look around. Do you know how hard it is to get a table at this restaurant? Look over there. Do you see who that is? That’s Pedro Pescal!”
“Pedro who?”
“Fuck me,” she snapped, and I had to work to hide my smile. I loved that dude in the Star Wars show. “Look at me,I just turned thirty and I’m on the verge of making partner in one of the largest brokerage firms in the city.”
“You always were ahead of the curve,” I said, with unforced admiration. She was amazing. Always had been.
“I’ll be the first woman and the youngest person at the firm to ever do that. That doesn’t just happen.”
“That’s all well and good, Sunshine-”
“My name is Kaitlyn,” she said.
The waiter came out with a tray on his shoulder. He placed grilled shrimp and what looked like a spiky potato in front of Sunshine. My steak and potato were set down in front of me, as well as minuscule bowls of butter, sour cream, shredded cheese, crumbled bacon and shaved truffles.
“Where’s the rest of it?” I asked.
“I’m sorry?” the waiter asked.
“It’s wonderful,” Sunshine jumped in. “Thank you.”
The server nodded his head and left.
“This isn’t the Pizza Barn,” she muttered, naming an excellent restaurant in Big Horn known for their baked potato bar with unlimited toppings. “That’s a reasonable amount of toppings for one person. And those shaved truffles…I can’t even imagine how much…it doesn’t matter.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. Look, Sunshine-”
