Page 29 of Last Chance Cowboy
“Here,” he said, gesturing toward the plate that he had set on the table. “This one’s all ready for you. Go ahead and sit down.”
He walked over to the grill. “Can I get a strip?”
Cody’s eyebrows shot up. “Sure,” he said.
“She’s on crutches,” he said.
“So she is.”
“Just saying. And she brought sweet rolls for you, assholes.”
“Oh, yum,” Lila said, digging into the basket, even though she was holding a full plate of food. She took a bite of the sweet roll and left icing all over her lips. He wasn’t sure he was hallucinating when he saw Nolan’s eyes dip there just for a moment before moving away quickly.
“Go sit down,” Nolan said. “You’re feral.”
“I’d rather be feral than boring,” she said.
“Who are you callingboring?” Nolan asked.
Lila sniffed. “I think you know.”
“Okay,” Cody said. “Take this bullshit away from my grill, please. You’re going to permeate the meat with your salt.”
Lila skipped away toward where Cara was sitting and joined her at the table. For his part, Zane went and filled a plate up with sides, both his and a clean one for Cara, and brought it to place down at the table.
He could feel everybody watching him, but nobody said anything.
Then he cleared his throat and sat down at the far end of the table.
He mostly watched everybody make conversation, listened as Marlowe retold the story of looking for Cara again, from her perspective, and Lila and Nolan looked on.
It was then that he realized Walker wasn’t there. Heshould’ve noticed it from the beginning, but he and Walker never really made much conversation.
But it was odd to have him not there, adding snarky asides to the conversation.
They were halfway through the meal when Walker came through the house and out the back door, his phone pressed to his ear. “Yes, I know that there were peacocks at the Hancock wedding. Yeah, I provided the peacocks, so I’m familiar. We’re more than acquaintances now, honestly. Their names are Cagney and Lacey. I… Sure, I can get them for the bridal shower if you really want them. But I did feel like they were more of a ceremony feature.” He paused and made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. “Well, it’s just that they do have a pretty packed schedule, and you asking for them right now means that I might not be able to get them. Okay.” He continued to walk toward the grill, grabbed a plate, and dished himself a steak while he continued his phone call. He looked toward the table and made an exaggeratedly furious expression.
“I know you’re busy. Yes, I’m quite sure that running for mayor takes a lot of time. As does being a bride. I’m here to help with that process. Not with your campaign.” He rolled his eyes. “No, but I will… Cagney and Lacey will be on scene. I just want you to be aware that we may have to move the bridal shower within your weekend reservation. If that’s negotiable. Does it really matter if you have the formal gift-giving portion on Saturday or Sunday? Okay. I think we can figure something out. You too, Addison. Bye.”
He hung the phone up and then performatively dropped it into the grass. “Fuck my life,” he said, making his way to the table.
“What’s going on?” Nolan asked.
“You know, we’re hosting the Carey wedding in a month. Amonth, and this woman is still changing things. She’s havinga bachelorette weekend before the wedding and is inviting basically every woman in town under the age of thirty, present company excluded, because you all are not classy enough to merit an invitation, and she needs the peacocks. Those goddamn peacocks are haunting me.”
“What’s the story with the peacocks?” Lila asked.
“Oh, we had them a couple of weddings ago,” Cody said. “The bride wanted white peacocks at the ceremony. It was… It was a whole thing.”
“And now I have a peacock guy,” Walker said. He sat down at the table, his hands pinched into triangles. “I have a peacock guy,” he said, gesturing broadly with his still tightly clenched hands. “Which is a weird sentence. But here we are.”
“You handled that very well,” Lila said, reaching across the table to pat him on the wrist. Zane thought that he might take her hand off.
“Well, the weddings are bringing in a ton of revenue,” Cody said. “So let’s all give our thanks to Walker for fielding bridezilla and adding so much to the new Painted Ridge Resort.”
Everybody but Zane raised their Solo cup in his honor.
Zane did think that what Walker did sounded like the next level of hell, but he wasn’t foolish enough to involve himself in something like that. So there.
