“Stop that, will you?” I coiled up my favorite belt and tucked it beside the shirts. “We could start seeing calves anytime now. I might be leaving you in a bad spot.”
“Nah. Still a little early.” Luke reached above my desk to my old guitar, the one I hadn’t touched in so long I almost forgot I had it, though it stared me in the face every night. With a metallic “ting,” he sent the strings ringing off-key.
“We saw a few early ones last year, and this has been our second easy winter in a row. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of them started going sooner rather than later.”
Luke tapped the guitar strings one more time. “Well, they ain’t started yet, and I haven’t seen any of ‘em bagging up. Besides, Evan, Dad, and I can handle them until you get back.”
“Well, I hope they hold off. Could you hand me that pile of jeans?”
“They will.” He passed them across my bed, then started fiddling with the pens on my desk. “Need me to do anything particular while you’re gone?”
I straightened and rolled my neck. “I guess you could work Daisy and Duke. They’ll get bored and start chewing everyone’s boots if they don’t have a job.”
“Got it. Anything else?” Luke slid some stuff around on my desk, and I looked over just in time to see his hand hovering over my journal.
“Wait, don’t—”
I guess even Luke has certain standards because he pushed it aside before I could finish getting the words out. In the process, he accidentally knocked my pen jar over, scattering them all over my desk and the floor. He squatted down to pick them up.
“Oh, come on. Can you stop touching stuff?”
“Sorry. What were you going to say?”
“I don’t know, maybe lope Duchess around, keep her exercised. Just don’t try to head on her and mess up my horse.”
“That’s my horse.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I reached up into the top of my closet for a few lighter-weight neck cloths. If I was going to California for a few days, I might as well clean up a bit and shed a few of the winter layers I’d been bundling in lately. Maybe I’d bring my new silverbelly hat, too—the one I’d bought in Fort Worth last fall. It would be cooler than the dark brown one I wore every day.
“Anything else?”
“I can’t think of anything,” I mumbled absently as I counted out my neck cloths. “I’d have you do payroll and bills, but you’d get it all messed up. Marshall can handle that.”
“Huh.” Luke scratched his jaw. “Anything else?”
“Good grief, what am I supposed to say? Why do you keep asking?”
Luke shrugged and stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets. Finally, he was keeping them off my things. “Just wondered if maybe you wanted me to talk to somebody. You know. Find stuff out.”
“Oh,” I sighed. I turned back to my suitcase and tossed in my socks, then slapped it closed to zip it. “There won’t be anything to find out.”
“Suppose there is? You don’t know anything, ‘cept he asked.”
“I know enough.” I set the suitcase beside the door, where I could grab it in the morning without thinking. “I’m tired, Luke.”
He nodded. “Fine, then. I’ll let you hit the hay. You’ve got an early start tomorrow.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” I dropped onto the mattress and pressed my hands on my knees. “I’m tired of hoping something will change, then it never does. I can’t keep doing it.”
Luke strode a little closer and leaned against my closet door. “Don’t talk like that. You just need a little shut-eye.”
“It’s more than that.” I bowed my head and raked my fingers through my hair. “I’m tired of losing all the time.”
“What, losing? You and me are reigning points leaders on the jackpot circuit these two years running!”
I sat up and gave him a deadpan look.
“Well, I was just sayin’.” He shifted restlessly against the closet door, then paced over to plunk down beside me on the bed. “You never even tried any other women. When’s the last time you went on a date? High school?”