I’d never been a guy who cared about my phone. Miguel loved to look at music videos and dog shaming, or find some chat in his time off and tell other dudes that shirt didn’t go with those pants. Me? I’d always left mine on the charger when I was home. A phone was a tool when the boss or John needed me, a distraction I had no interest in the rest of the time.
Except now I charged that phone beside my bed every night, and brought it with me even into the bathroom. Four long days, and the damned thing hadn’t rung. At least, not with the call I wanted to get. I’d answered five spam callers who must’ve been shocked by my eager greeting.
I was ridiculous.
My concentration should’ve improved with the guy I wanted to fuck out of sight. It hadn’t. I’d whacked my head tripping over a shovel, and almost fed Spritzer with Trooper’s grain. Luckily I caught myself just before I gave the laminitis-prone gelding fartoo rich a feed. In the evenings, I couldn’t focus on reading or TV or any other distractions. I kept catching myself watching the door, as if some part of me expected Austin to come walking in.
Four fucking days. I congratulated myself that I hadn’t jumped in my truck to cruise the roads looking for a crashed old green pickup. Country boys learned to drive early in bad conditions, and Austin came from a snowy state. He’d have managed fine. Obviously.
His failure to call didn’t mean anything bad had happened.
My phone chimed with a text early the fourth evening. I forced myself to finish washing out my coffee mug before checking the screen. Likely one more sales pitch for siding or windshield replacement—
Unknown number:~Hey, this is Austin. I have my new phone.
Fuck! Finally.I stabbed the screen to demand a voice call and lifted the phone to my ear.
Austin answered, “Hi? Seth?”
Hearing his voice, knowing he was safe and alive, made my vision go blurry. “Who else?” I barked. “Where the fuck have you been?”
“Huh?”
“Four fucking days. You promised to buy a phone and call me. I was imagining—” I cut myself off because I didn’t need to be pathetic. “I figured I’d hear from you before now.”
“Sorry.” What sounded like amusement threaded Austin’s voice.
“You think that’s funny?”
“No. Sorry, really. I wanted to wait till I had more to tell you than ‘I drove a bunch of miles.’”
And didn’t slide off a cliff.But that had been my own anxiety talking. Austin didn’t know I was somehow turning into a worrywart about him. I tried to gentle my tone. “Well, I likehearing from you even when that’s all the news, but there’s more?”
“Some. I found a job. It’s nothing great, just retail for a month, ending on Christmas Eve, but it’ll pay the rent.”
“Congratulations. A job is good.” Relief flooded me, knowing Austin wasn’t going to be broke and starving, even if my anxieties would bounce back in a month. “What kind of retail? Where are you staying?”
Austin laughed. I wished I could see him and watch his eyes light up, but I’d never done video calls. Maybe he’d help me figure out how. He said, “Pure luck, in a way. I was making the rounds of stores that had listed help-wanted on the community website, and I walked into this gift and souvenir store. I had my Stetson on, because it’s warm enough here to do without the beanie. I took off my hat and saidma’amto the owner and she decided I had the right ambiance for the cowboy and Native American stuff she features. John gave me a great reference when she called him, so that helped.”
“John did?” He hadn’t said a word to me.
“Yeah. He told me before I left that I could use his name as foreman for a reference. Since Mr. Bowen, uh, Kendrick, didn’t really work with me at all.”
“That was nice of John,” I said, stuffing down my irritation.
“Right?” Austin agreed. “I started today. Customer service sucks donkey balls, but I think I did okay.”
“I’m sure you did. Where are you staying?”How far away are you?
“This little trashy motel. They have a deal, two hundred bucks a week.”
“How trashy?”
Austin chuckled. “Let’s just say if I wanted drugs, I could get door-to-door service. But my unit has hot water, a bed, a door that locks, and decent heat. I’ve done worse.”
I broke down and asked, “Which town?”
“Oh. Blue Vista. Didn’t I say?”
