Her Favorite Cowboy

“No. I’ve never seen my grandmother so upset. She’s usually happy and loves everyone she meets. This is crazy.”

“I wish I could say the same for my grandfather. Unfortunately, grumpy seems to be his only gear.”

Cori chuckled. “It’s been a long day for everyone. Maybe we should keep our distance until we find out what this is all about.”

She secretly wanted him to stay and tell her the heck with their grandparents, the three of them would sit at their own table. But instead he agreed. “Probably a good idea.”

Then, without so much as a smile or a “see ya later,” Gage hurried to catch up with his grandfather, leaving Cori to wonder if there was more to his hasty departure than merely wanting to please his grandfather.

* * *

IT NEVER OCCURRED to Gage that Cori could have a child... Not that she didn’t seem like the type... It was more that in his circles none of his friends had children or even mentioned children. They weren’t on his radar screen, so he never imagined himself as father material.

He and his ex-wife had discussed it briefly when they were married, right before she’d asked for a divorce, but for the most part raising a family had been pushed off into the future...the distant future. He always thought he wasn’t cut out to be someone’s dad. Way too much responsibility came with the job title. Plus, Cori’s child had experienced trauma when she’d lost her dad. She certainly didn’t need any more father figures disappearing from her life.

Of course, that would assume that he was aiming for a serious relationship with a woman he’d met less than six hours ago, which under the current circumstances would more than likely never take place. He needed to be clear on the subject. Especially since every time he spoke to Doctor Cori Parker, his attraction to her kept deepening, almost to the point where he was losing control over his emotions.

He couldn’t allow that to happen. Not now. Not when he was busy working on rekindling his relationship with his grandfather. A relationship that seemed to take a negative turn with each hour they were together.

Everything about his grandfather was a mystery to Gage, and that mystery was only part of the puzzle. Gage felt as if he’d somehow stepped out of his entire family for the past ten years and they’d all gone off on different paths and now he was frantically playing catch-up.

Not only had his marriage dissolved in part because of his drinking, but his relationship with his parents, who lived only blocks from him in New York City, had become strained. His sister barely spoke to him after he’d repeatedly showed up at her apartment in the middle of the night wanting to crash on her sofa, and his best friend had told him flat out to stay away after Gage had made a pass at his girlfriend—an accusation Gage denied, but in fact he simply couldn’t remember.

He hadn’t thought his life could get worse until his divorce became official, and soon after he’d been overlooked for a promotion he thought he’d had. Normally, the combination of the two would have sent him on a long self-indulgent alcohol binge, but somewhere along the line, he’d realized that alcohol only prolonged the misery.

Going sober had been, and continued to be, more difficult than he’d ever imagined. He had decided to do it on his own, with an occasional AA meeting when he was feeling particularly vulnerable. So far it was working. There were still times when all he could think about was a shot of bourbon: the taste of it on his tongue, the heat of it in the back of his throat, the effects of it on his mind and body. There were moments when he’d crave it more than his next breath, but then he’d remind himself of who he’d become because of it and he’d decide all over again that he liked himself much better sober.

And now, his grandfather had demanded he steer clear of the one shining light in all of his post-drinking gloom, Doctor Cori Parker.

Perhaps it was one of those blessings in disguise, and for now, he’d roll with it.

He caught up to his grandfather standing in line at the buffet table, well ahead of May and Hailey. “What’s going on, Gramps? Why the cold shoulder for Cori and her grandmother?”

Buck piled potato salad and green beans on his plate. Gage grabbed a plate and opted for the green salad. Most everyone was already seated at the tables and the room echoed their conversations.

“That woman’s been persnickety ever since I joined this organization.”

“How?”

“I don’t want to talk about it now. She’ll upset my stomach and I need this here food to keep my blood sugar normal.” He turned to Gage. “You’ll know why, come the annual auction.”

“There’s an auction?”

“Yep, and lately they haven’t been so good because of that persnickety pill.”

Gage grabbed a chicken thigh and leg along with a rack of ribs from the heated pans, piled everything on his plate and then ladled on thick dark-red barbecue sauce from a silver bowl at the end of the table. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten barbecue of any kind, especially with an endless supply of sauce. His meals were mostly high-end cuisine in fancy Manhattan restaurants or something organic he’d picked up at a market. This kind of food reminded him of his summers on the ranch in Briggs, Idaho, and he looked forward to chowing down on the memories.

Barbecues on the ranch in Briggs with friends and family were perhaps some of his favorite memories. There were horseshoe games, roping games, potato sack races and long days of endless laughter. Adults and kids would participate. There was never a game that excluded the kids, and there were plenty of kids, cousins mostly, to play with.

What he remembered most clearly about those days, was that even though there was plenty of beer served along with all the barbecue you could eat, no one ever overindulged. No one ever had to be driven home afterward or made a fool of themselves because they were drunk. Everyone seemed to know their limits and stuck to them.

A trait Gage had apparently never learned.

When the day had ended, they sat around a roaring fire singing cowboy songs, telling stories and reciting poems, and Gage had wanted nothing more than to sit out under that starry sky for the rest of his life. On more than one occasion, he’d lean back on the ground, stare up at that dazzling night sky and imagine himself as the hero in one of Zane Grey’s books.

“You don’t have to worry, Gramps. I can outbid anybody in this room. Just tell me what you want and it’s yours.”

The thought of buying Grandpa Buck a first-edition Zane Grey novel really appealed to Gage. He loved a good competition. It was in his DNA from playing on Wall Street for the past six years. It was all about the score. All about the win. All about the money. Thanks to his ex-wife, Gage had become addicted to making money, and now that he had made more money than he ever thought possible, it was time to spend some of his cash to help out his family, beginning with Grandpa Buck.

“I don’t need your dang money. I can get whatever I want on my own.” His voice was stern and somber. Gage didn’t understand his reaction. Everyone wanted free money.

“I’m only saying, I can help.”

“Don’t want it.”

“But Gramps, I’m trying to...”

“You try too hard, son. Settle down. I saved us two seats,” Buck said. “Make up your mind. Will you be sitting with me or my enemy?”

“With you, of course.”

“And no more money talk.”

Gage wanted to ask him why, but he let it go. “Whatever you want.”

“I want us to enjoy our first meal together in a very long time.”

“You got it, Gramps.”

“Then our relationship is headed in the right direction.”

Grandpa Buck took off for their saved box seats. Gage trailed after him, still wondering what the heck that last blowup was all about. How could his grandfather not accept his generous offer? He’d never experienced such refusal. Before his drinking had taken over his personality, his parents had accepted his money and even asked for a loan when they bought their last apartment. His friends had accepted all the lavish presents he’d given them, and his ex-wife had tried to break him in the final settlement.

Everyone wanted his money except Gramps.

He didn’t know how to digest that fact, but he couldn’t dwell on it or it would sour his stomach, and right now he wanted nothing more than to dig into those ribs.

As he approached his grandfather’s table, he caught Cori’s gaze from across the room. Inner passions told him to acknowledge her, but circumstances demanded that he keep focused on the task at hand, pleasing his grandfather. At this point in his overly complicated life, no matter how much he craved Doctor Cori Parker, it was probably better for everyone concerned if he honored his grandfather’s wishes and kept his distance...at least for tonight.

Chapter Three (#ulink_bcc68ae5-7308-5f31-9747-c718ca86b80a)

Once the meal had finished, the opening talks welcomed everyone to the yearly conference. There was a video of last year’s conference, a couple of letters from members who couldn’t make it this year, and a rundown of all the upcoming events, including a train ride up to Silverton, which Hailey was already excited about.

“Are we going on the train ride, Momma? Can we? I’ve never been on a real train.”

“We live in New York City. We’re on a train most every day,” Cori told her daughter.

“That’s a different kind of train. Grammy says this is a real Western train with a real coal-burning engine and everything. I promise not to get a cinder in my eye if we go. Honest.”