“She has a certain zest for life, doesn’t she?” Hailey collected herpurse and tucked the pink folder under her arm. “Thanks again, Elaine. I’ll be in touch soon.”
“Yeah. Text me when you apply, because I can email the academic advisor at Amarillo State and let her know.”
“Okay.” Hailey waved and walked out, taking some of the good energy with her.
Elaine sighed, but her heart refused to be anything but happy. Her phone pinged over on the desk—the tone she’d assigned to her brothers. All three shared the sound, so she knew it was one of them, but she didn’t know who until she looked.
Right now, it was Easton.Marta wants to go on a road trip to San Antonio. Do you think that’s weird and too soon, or is this normal?
Elaine was used to answering dating questions for her brothers—she’d been doing it for over a decade—but she paused to consider his question.Are you going alone? You and her?
Yeah,he said.Unless you and Austin want to come.
Oh, honey, you can’t invite me and Austin without talking to Marta first.
It’s for a Beanie and Bros concert.
Elaine scoffed. She’d never willingly attend that concert, though it was Easton’s favorite band—and apparently Marta’s too.
I mean, I’m sure we can go if you need a chaperone,she said.But I don’t think it’s weird for couples—serious couples, East—to take a road trip together. You might learn a lot about her—like if you can stand being in the car with her for more than a couple of hours.She grinned and sent the text.
Okay,he said back.
And that was classic Easton. She’d send paragraphs, and he’d respond with,okay. Conrad and Austin did it too, and Elaine once again reminded herself that men and women were not the same, and that hisokaywas his validation of the things she’d told him.
For a brief moment, she considered getting back on Two Cents and navigating to the dating arm of the recommendation app. Then she flipped overher phone.
“Nope,” she told herself aloud. “You need to figure out a job opportunity for Naomi, and you only have a few days to do it.”
With that, she turned back to her computer, determined to stay boyfriend-free for a little while longer.
18
Ty looked up the road, the sound of the wind catching his attention and sending adrenaline straight through him.
Every flight reflex in him told him tomove, and Ty tugged harder on the horse’s rope. “Come on, girl,” he said, his voice crisp and urgent. “Let’s go.”
He got Wonder back into her stall at the same time his phone made a series of noises. One came from the Lone Star stable-wide alert system, but it was quickly drowned out by a blaring emergency alarm. Ty fumbled to get his phone out of his pocket as he heard other cowboys’ phones go off around him.
He scanned the messages quickly, trying to make sense of them. The National Weather Service had just issued a dust storm warning for a huge swath of the Panhandle, including Amarillo and Three Rivers. Ty’s first thought wasWinnie, and then that she wasn’t at the clinic in Three Rivers that day.
The physical therapists had been taking turns going to the hospital for medical training in Amarillo, and today was Winnie’s day.
Ty’s brain moved through so many things so fast.He’d already eaten lunch, and he noted that the time was one forty-seven. So where would Winnie be right now?
Angel had said,We need all horses inside in the next ten minutes. Anyone doing anything different needs to stop and help bring horses in.
The sound around him felt muted, and of course, it was because he could only hear out of one ear. But voices called and boots ran.
Ty ducked around a corner and quickly tapped out a message to Winnie.Where are you? There’s a dust storm coming straight at Amarillo.
He reminded himself that she was from Oklahoma, and certainly they’d had dust storms there in the past. Ty hadn’t been in one for years. In fact, the last major dust storm Ty could remember was from when he was a little boy, probably eight or nine. He recalled the terror at seeing the sky go green, and then everything just being obliterated from sight.
His parents had sheltered them in their master bathroom, which only had one tiny window up near his father’s head. Dust storms could cause a lot of damage, and though they weren’t quite as destructive as tornadoes, they came with high winds and abrasive particles blasting against surfaces, whether that be a house or someone’s face.
Ty pulled in a breath and held it, willing Winnie to answer him. She didn’t, and he turned his phone all the way up in both volume and vibration and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans so he would feel it when it did go off. Then he pushed away from the wall and went to do his job.
He worked with a man named Caldwell, and they put away one, two, three horses before a distant siren filled the air.
