“At least you’re a local boy.”
He slid onto a stool. “Meaning the town won’t like it if I hire out a ranch manager?”
I put a large ice cube in a squat glass and dug out my special bottle of bourbon. Autumn’s Summit.
His gaze landed on the bottle. A dry chuckle escaped him. “It never dawned on me before. There’s one for each of you.”
“I thought you banned it from Silver’s premises.”
He took a sip, his jaw moving as he rolled the fluid over his tongue. His throat worked with his swallow. “I make it my business to know my competition.” He studied the fluid in the glass.
I laughed. “You didn’t know I was staying at the Silver last weekend.”
His burning gaze flipped up to mine and held me immobile.
“You knew?”
“I wanted to be notified if a Bailey ever came into the casino. I’d be remiss if I left the Kerrigan sisters out.”
“You were watching me?” I picked up a rag and swiped at the bar. The butterflies went dead silent. Mortification did that to them. “Our meeting wasn’t a coincidence?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Like I said at your mom’s, I was heading to Glitter anyway. Running into you in the elevator was still mildly surprising.”
“Huh.” I should be creeped out. Scandalized. But the sense that we’d been entangled since before we’d met was calming. It gave me hope I shouldn’t have. This was exactly why Summer was worried.
“I have some bad news.”
I stopped wiping the counter. “What?”
“I didn’t have time to get to Bozeman. The good news is that the next drink on my tongue will be you.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Gideon
I swiped sweat from my brow and put my ball cap back on my head. Today was cloudier and cooler than yesterday. I might need to break out that new coat if I kept coming out to help Dad. “I’ve gotta get going.”
“Gotta date with the wife?” Dad picked up his small tool bag and went to the pickup. We had finished, but he’d mentioned going all the way to the tree line to make it uniform. He’d also said that he wanted to go through the old stables that had been used by my grandparents when they boarded horses. He thought some of the gates could use new hinges and a few boards needed replacing.
“It’s a valid reason for stopping.” I was baiting him, and he gave me that infuriating, aloof smile. I was too stubborn to ask outright why he’d cut yesterday short. “Autumn’s class program is tonight. I helped her and the other teachers make the set.”
I was just shy of boasting like I was a little boy who wanted his dad’s approval. But also, I was proud of that damn set, and I wanted to see it in action. The physical work was different than the paperwork I normally did. Silver ran on my authority, but I hadn’t put one screw in place. I hadn’t even hung the pictures in my penthouse. I hadn’t even picked them out.
“That’ll be fun. I always enjoyed watching you squirm up there.”
“I didn’t squirm.”
“Please,” he scoffed. “You hated the spotlight.”
I still did. I’d grown up with people watching me, and it had never been for a good reason after Mom was gone. “You got everything taken care of?”
“Go ahead.” He waved me off. “Tell Autumn I said hi.”
We’d driven separately, so I hopped into Autumn’s car and took off, bumping down the path to the road.
After I reached her house, I ran through the shower. I almost chose slacks and a polo, but I paused. This was a Bourbon Canyon Elementary School program. I picked jeans and one of the nonhoodie sweaters I’d purchased at the tractor supply store.
Before I left, I stopped at her fridge and frowned at the contents. We needed groceries.
