“Yeah, cute,” I agreed distractedly. “Look, if Cody went to a show, he wouldn’t have gone alone, would he? He always used to take Blake with him, but I saw Blake’s truck at the coffee shop this morning.”
“Morgan said he took some assistant. One of her stall cleaners, actually, which is why she needed more help.”
“Who was it?”
“Emily, the one with the long blonde hair.”
“Really?” That surprised me. Emily was sweet and hard-working, and very, very pretty. Just the kind of girl to turn a cowboy’s head without even trying.
“Yeah, I guess she worked for the Walkers for a little while, then Morgan hired her, and she’s been riding some with Cody.”
“That’s… that’s great for her.” I frowned skeptically. Morgan must have trusted her husband, much more than most women I knew, to send him off on a week-long trip with a beautiful, single young girl. But then I thought of something. “Cody wouldn’t take a girl down there by himself. He’s too married for that.”
“Well, maybe there’s your answer. Dusty might have gone with them. Morgan didn’t say one way or the other.”
I chewed my lower lip and flipped through the magazine. Yes, that made some sense, but it still didn’t solve the mystery of why Dusty wasn’t answering his phone. Unless it had something to do with Emily—another introverted blonde, just like me.
How many times did a guy have to be rejected and ignored before he finally moved on? If he had any sense, it would only take once, and poor Dusty had hung on a lot longer than that. I didn’t even deserve him by this point, and no one could blame him at all if he’d given up on wishy-washy Jess Thompkins, the girl who never even knew he was alive until it was too late. I closed my eyes and buried my face in my hand. It made me sick to even think about it.
“Why don’t you just ask Morgan? She’d know something, wouldn’t she?”
“If Morgan knew what I needed to know, she’d have already told me. What I need…” I made a face and flipped pages of the magazine just to keep my fingers busy. “I might need to talk to Luke. He and Dusty are pretty close.”
Audrey wrinkled her nose. “Isn’t that the bull rider brother?”
“Used to be. He can be a little rough around the edges, but he’s alright.”
“He’s a lunatic. I heard he used to pop the caps off fire hydrants and flood the school parking lot.”
“And the grocery store, too. Shot the lights out at the football stadium once, but as far as I know, he never got in trouble for that because they were going to put new ones up anyway.”
“And you asked why I’m not dating any cowboys. After stories like that? No way.”
“Oh, those are just the tame stories. Sometime I’ll have to tell you how he broke his knee.”
“No, thanks. Way too much crazy for me.”
I rested my chin on my hand. “You know, I think I’ll call him. He would know something about Dusty. I just hope he’ll talk to me.”
“He’ll probably think you’re afterhim.”
“We already settled that. Luke and I could never date, but…” I couldn’t help smiling wistfully. “I think he’d be an awesome brother.”
“So call him, then, and tell me how it turns out.” Audrey turned over her wrist to glance at her watch. “Okay, I’d better go. Lizzy was with her dad this weekend, and he was going to drop her off at five.”
I nodded absently as she gathered up her purse and pulled her coat on. “See you on Tuesday.”
Audrey tied the belt of her coat with a yank, then smiled tenderly and put her arm around my shoulders. “It’s going to be fine, Jess. Call me when you find out what’s going on.”
I grabbed her hand as she withdrew. “Thanks, Audrey. Catch you later.”
Should I call Luke? If Dusty was avoiding me, Luke would do the same, just to support his brother. But I couldn’t keep doing this. Something had to change. I set my phone on top of the magazine and huffed out a sigh. “Okay. Here goes nothing.”
I had his contact pulled up, but my fingers ran cold. I made a fist, willing the nerves in my hand to work, and my eyes left my phone for just long enough to notice something on the magazine behind it. Curious, I blinked and slid my phone aside.
It was a poem.Thepoem, to be precise. The one that had appeared in my pocket that day and kicked off this whole crazy circus to begin with.Mypoem, the one that had spoken to me on a level that resonated with my soul. And here it was, printed in a magazine for everyone to see.The Cowboy’s Call, written by… I squinted. Who in the world was Wyatt Chandler?
Now, I was really confused.