Page 35 of Love for the Cowboy
“Hi!” Katie squealed. “Have you seen it yet?”
“Oh,” Elise breathed out in relief. “The room? Yes, we’re here now.”
“Oh, I hope you like it. I don’t want to keep you, but I have to let you in on the surprise now. Can you put your phone on speaker so Garrett can hear?”
“Sure,” Elise pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed the button. “Go ahead, Katie.”
“Hey, guys! We hope you like your surprise.”
“Thanks, Katie. We really appreciate this. You didn’t have to do it,” Garrett said.
“There’s one more thing I need to tell you, and then I’ll leave you alone.” Katie sounded absolutely giddy.
Elise braced herself for whatever the piece of news was.
“You don’t have to go to an auction,” Katie said.
“What?” Garrett moved toward the phone, his forehead creased in confusion.
“It was the guys’ idea. We made the whole thing up. There’s no auction. We just knew you wouldn’t leave town unless you thought there was something work related. So we booked the hotel in that direction, but you don’t have to go anywhere. You have two nights to spend there, and there are plenty of restaurants and shops nearby. All you need to do is enjoy yourselves.”
Garrett and Elise remained silent, and she kept her gaze pointed at the floor.
“Did you hear me?” Katie asked after the long pause.
“Yeah, sure did,” Garrett answered. “I guess we’re just in shock. Thanks, Katie. Tell everyone else for us too. We’ll let you go.”
“Alright, enjoy!” Katie said, then disconnected the call.
Garrett stepped back and stuffed his hands in his back pockets. “Well,” he said.
Elise crossed her arms in front of her. “Yes, well. I can’t believe they did that.”
“Me either. I don’t know whether to be grateful they care, or mad that they tricked me to leave the ranch.”
“I guess they really know you. If they had told you, you wouldn’t take it off as a vacation.”
Garrett furrowed his eyebrows. “I’ve taken a vacation.”
“Oh? When?” Katie stared him in the face.
“Well, um, you know. They already made me take off two days after the wedding.”
Elise’s heart stung. “Most people take off more than two days when they get married.” No, they weren’t normal people getting married, but somehow it still hurt that he didn’t want to spend time with her more than he wanted to work.
Garrett scratched the back of his head with his hand. “So what do you want to do?” he asked. “We could get something to eat, I guess.”
Katie sighed and lifted her palms to the ceiling as she shrugged. “Sure. I’ll look up what kind of places there are. We can’t go anywhere too fancy. I only brought clothes to go to a cattle auction.
“Yeah, sorry about that. But we don’t need something fancy. I’m good with whatever you want to eat.”
Elise almost said she would be fine if they picked up something at a drive thru, but stopped herself since that would only mean more time alone in this lovely hotel room. “Okay, I’ll find somewhere to go.” She moved to the seating area and sat down as she pulled up a map on her phone showing nearby restaurants. “Mexican? Chinese? Italian?”
Garrett ruffled his nose. “I’m not big on Chinese, and we eat Mexican food more often than anything. I’ve never eaten much Italian, at least not at a restaurant. If you like it, we can try that.”
Elise scrolled through the options and found an Italian restaurant just a few minutes away that had good reviews. “We can go to this place.” She flipped her phone around and Garrett leaned close to inspect it.
“Fine by me,” he said. “Do you need to freshen up before we go?”
