“Not all guys in town fall into those two categories,” he said.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Name one. Besides you,” she added quickly.
He thought about it. Thought back to all the guys in his class. Few of them, except for the handful that hung out with Willy, had stuck around. The ones that had stayed had married their high school girlfriends shortly after graduation. Then he thought to the classes before and after his.
“Todd,” he said quickly. “He works down at the hardware store.”
“Todd?” She laughed. “Todd Brewer?”
“Yes.” He lifted his chin. “He’s not married and doesn’t hang out with Willy.”
“But he is gay,” she said with a little head nod. “You knew that, right?”
He frowned. “Todd is not…” He dropped off and suddenly everything made sense. The man always went out of his way to help Nick whenever he was in the store.
Kara smiled. “Don’t worry. He hasn’t officially come out yet.” She leaned her elbow on the table and lifted her eyebrows. “Anyone else you can think of?”
He frowned as he ran through names and faces.
“Okay, you’ve got me,” he finally admitted. “I can’t think of a single one.”
“That’s because there aren’t any.” She leaned back and took another sip of her wine. “Liz and I have gone through all our yearbooks. No one stuck around Cedar. If they did, they got married within the first year out of school.”
“You’re telling me you haven’t dated since school?”
She shook her head. “I went out once or twice, but it was with guys from Casper.”
“What about Liz?” he asked. “She’s dated a few guys from town.”
“Nope. She may brag about it, but most of them she met on a dating app and they are from Casper as well,” Kara answered. “Trust me, men are scarce in this town. Unlike women. I bet you have at least two dozen women our age to pick from. Most of them stuck around town after graduation.”
He thought about it and could easily name at least a dozen women he could take out. He’d gone out on dates with at least three in the past year alone.
“Okay, Cedar is really not equal in that area,” he admitted. “At least you have me.” He held up his wine glass towards her.
“Until you find someone to fall in love with,” she said, tapping her glass against his.
He frowned. “Who says I won’t fall in love with you?”
Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward slightly. “How much wine have you had?”
He set his glass down. Did she really not feel that way towards him? Not even the slightest? Maybe she was only here tonight on the makeshift date because she’d lost the bet.
“What would be so bad about…” He waved between them.
She opened her mouth to answer, but just then there was a loud crash from his father’s room. He jumped up and rushed down the hallway, spilling the glass of wine he’d just set down.
The red liquid seeped into his mother’s rug and stained the material. A mark he would always look at and remember just how his first date with Kara had ended.
ChapterNine
Kara stood in the Howe’s living room three days later. Only this time, the place was filled with townspeople she knew. The smell of food carried in from the kitchen. The hodgepodge of aromas made her stomach turn slightly.
What she needed was air. Glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention to her, she slipped through the crowd and stepped out onto the back deck unnoticed.
The snow had stopped, and the sun was warming the fields. Only a few patches of snow remained on the silhouetted hills, where the sun hadn’t hit.
In the darkness of the shadows, the air was crisp, unforgivingly cold. But the sun shone on the back of the house, and she leaned against the railing, taking a deep breath of the cool air while the rays warmed her.