Page 45 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)

CHAPTER

TWENTY-NINE

B oston led the way down the ridge, the sprawling grounds of Silver Sage below.

The group he was hiking with today were all female entrepreneurs who ran e-commerce stores, and they were attending a two day summit at the lodge.

These ladies were friends and had decided to come in a day early to see the sights.

He’d met them earlier this morning, and they hadn’t looked terribly awake at the time. They’d come to life with coffee and the oatmeal raisin cookies, which he always packed to get people going in for the early-morning hikes.

He forced himself to slow down and stop in the shade.

He took a long drink of water, glad when three of the four women did the same.

His water was disgusting, though, as it had gotten too warm at least an hour ago.

Still, water didn’t have to be cold to hydrate, and Boston didn’t want to deal with cramps when he finally made it back to his desk to go over that day’s follow up emails.

When he’d first seen his schedule for July, he thought he might try to be over in the administration building by five and take care of the desk work he normally did on his non-adventure days before he had to leave the lodge for the excursions.

That had proven to be difficult, as he often had to gather supplies and food, and prepare animals for the groups he took out into the wilderness of Wyoming.

“It’s only about another mile and a half,” he told the women, and they grinned at him like they were on a bachelorette party escapade.

He put a smile on his face, though he was so over this group and their giggles and squealing whenever they saw so much as a chipmunk.

He tried to remind himself that not everyone came from the country the way he did, and Boston could see the big differences in the people he encountered in the course of his work.

“Ready?”

“Yes, I am,” a woman named Shawna said. “I mean, I’ll go anywhere you’re going, cowboy.”

“Oh, my word,” one of her friends said. “What do you have in that flask?”

Boston wondered the same thing, but he just hitched his smile in place and tightened the straps on his backpack. Shawna had to be at least fifteen years older than him, and Momma had told him that his shorter hair and clean cut beard made him look older.

“Don’t mind her,” the other woman said, and Boston smiled at Rebecca and then nodded down the path.

“Do you want me to keep leading and calling back out where to step? Or do you think you can do it? We’ve been on this trail before.”

“I think you should lead us,” Margo said, and out of the four of them, she had definitely been the quietest, the most reserved, the most respectful.

Boston nodded and stepped out of the shade and into the afternoon sun. He’d chatted with the ladies on the first half of their five-mile hike. He’d had morning snacks and lunch, but their food was gone now, and they simply needed to get back.

“Do you guys have reservations at one of our restaurants tonight?” he asked. “I can coordinate that for you, if you don’t.”

Shawna started to say something, but Rebecca cut her off. “Don’t you dare,” she said. “Yes, we already have reservations, Boston. Thank you.”

He nodded, though they probably couldn’t see him. “How long will you ladies be here with us at Silver Sage?”

“Our summit starts tomorrow,” Margo said. “And ends on Thursday. I’m flying home Friday because I have to go all the way down to Key West, and the airport out of Jackson doesn’t have a lot of flights.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Boston said. “We often see guests stay for days before and after their business meetings here at the resort.” He glanced over his shoulder at them. “Did y’all download the app?”

“Yeah, we-all did,” the fourth woman said. Boston couldn’t remember her name at the moment, and it didn’t matter anyway. He’d never had someone mock him so openly, and he didn’t think his cowboy drawl was all that bad.

He closed his mouth, determined not to say anything else.

He’d been talking to them for hours , giving them the history of the mountains and pointing out the berries and the trees, the shrubs, the animals, all of the things that people from cities wanted to know about when they came to the country.

He didn’t have to continue to speak with them by this point in the hiking expedition, and he certainly didn’t have to set himself up to be made fun of.

Something pinched behind his lungs, though Boston didn’t know why. He’d never see these women again, and he honestly didn’t care if they liked him or not. At the same time, wasn’t it a universal human desire to be liked and feel like you belonged?

He pushed aside the woman’s hurtful mocking, and kept walking.

He focused instead on how soft the bed at Cash’s house was, how good he slept there, how he loved going home after a long day of work and hanging out with his cousin.

Boston could go out with Cora or eat dinner with her and show up at Cash’s around ten, and he’d still be awake.

Cash had been completely disinterested in being a guide at the resort, and now, in the third week of July, Cora and Ernie still had not hired someone.

They both claimed to have fewer classes in August and that he wouldn’t have to work as much then as he was now.

Boston reminded himself that the extra money would be nice, and while Cash had not said anything more about buying a place, Boston couldn’t seem to get it off his mind.

He thought of having something cold to drink and eating one of the salted caramel brownies that surely Julie had gotten for him at the conclusion of this week’s outdoor staff meeting.

She had three weddings she was working, and Boston didn’t envy her for that.

She did get to work in the air-conditioned buildings, though, and Boston recited to himself once again, that he liked being outside.

He liked hiking. He liked talking to people. Desk work was not for him.

The ground flattened and leveled as they came out of the mountains and onto the property. A few horses grazed in the pasture closer to the stable, and when Boston neared, Dolphin nickered at him and came closer.

“Hey, buddy,” he said, forgetting that he was still on assignment.

“Oh, look at him,” Shawna said. “He’s so cute.”

Boston slowed and held out one hand as one of the women started to move past him. “He’s not super friendly,” he said.

“He likes you ,” Rebecca said.

“Yeah, because I take care of him, and I’ve known him for a long time.”

“It’s just a horse ,” the rude woman said. “You guys, I am dying of heat. We have got to go.”

Boston wanted to stop and talk to Dolphin for hours just to spite her. Instead, he ran his hand down the horse’s neck and said, “I’ll be back to bring you in soon.”

“I don’t think he knows he’s a horse.”

“Andie, you are being so rude ,” Margo said.

The other three women moved ahead, and after only a few steps, the trio burst out laughing. Boston frowned at their backs, glad to bring up the rear.

“I’m sorry about them,” Margo said.

“It’s fine.” Boston waved his hand. “Certainly not my most difficult hiking group.” He grinned at her, wondering why she was friends with them.

She made no move to catch up or continue the conversation, and they simply walked back to the meeting place in silence.

“All right, ladies,” Boston said. “I just have one piece of paper for someone to sign, saying all members of your party made it back, safe and well.”

He held out the slip of paper, and Shawna took it from him with a flirtatious smile. “I’ve got it, cowboy.”

“You’ll get an email once I file that,” he said. “Which I’m going to do to get out of this heat.” He grinned at them. “It’ll have a link to review the hike, and me as a tour guide. We appreciate reviews, but of course, they’re not required.”

“Do you take tips?” Margo asked.

“Yes,” Boston said. “But they’re also not required.”

She dug in her hip pack and pulled out a ten-dollar bill. To his surprise, the rest of the women did, too, and he took their forty dollars and pocketed it with a “Thank you very much,” and a tip of his hat. If they thought he was some dumb, bumbling cowboy from the country, he could play that role.

They moved away in a group, twittering and laughing, and Boston shook his head and headed for the back of the lodge. He sank into the chair at his desk with the longest sigh he’d ever sighed, his muscles relieved to be at-rest.

“You’re still alive,” Julie said.

“Barely.” He shot her a dark look. “I don’t see a brownie on my desk.”

Julie half-rose out of her seat and pointed with her stapler. “That’s because a bunch of people have been putting paperwork there. It’s underneath that.”

“They put paperwork on my caramel brownie?” He pulled the pages back, but Julie had put a toothpick in the brownie and that held up a piece of plastic wrap over it. He grinned at her. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“I’m surprised you doubted me at all.” She gave him a mock glare and sank back into her seat.

Boston woke his computer, because he had emails to send for the anniversary party that weekend, and one last checklist that had come in from the wedding party that he needed to distribute to the photographer.

He did both of those items and then opened the slim drawer at the top of his desk.

He kept his own personal checklist there, and he ran through the items for the Anderson anniversary party, checking off the directions for parking and which gate they should come through.

Directions that should be sent out at least seventy-two hours in advance. He’d barely made it, but now he wouldn’t have to field a phone call from Mrs. Anderson.

The wedding on Saturday had a far longer checklist, and Boston went through each item, double checking that everything had been done, though some of the boxes had been marked off for months.

With both of those done, he put his clipboard away and pulled the papers in front of him that had accumulated on his desk.

“Oh, these all go to Ernie,” he said, glancing up at Julie. “Why are they on my desk?”

In fact, he had a slip of paper just like this that needed to be logged to show that the hiking excursion from that day had been completed successfully. Once he did that, Ernie had a workflow that then sent an email to the guests with the review link that Boston had already spoken of.

“He went home with a fever.” Julie tilted her head and gave him a dry look.

“Well, I’m not the assistant over excursions,” Boston said.

Julie grinned at him, and he did not like the predatory look about it. “Apparently you are. You know how to log those, right?”

“Yes,” Boston grumbled at the same time his stomach did too. He worked through the paperwork, ignoring his phone. Once he had everything in, he clipped the pages together so that he could give them back to Ernie, and he wrote “done” on a yellow sticky note and stuck it on the top paper.

“I have to go,” he said. “Cora is expecting me for dinner.”

“Yes, she’s texted four times.”

“How do you know that?” Boston asked, swiping his phone from his desk where he’d laid it face down.

“Because you have a special sound for her.” Julie grinned at him and abandoned her work completely. “Things are going well with her, right?”

“Yes,” Boston said, focused on his phone and not wanting to talk about his intimate relationship with their boss. He quickly typed, hoping to leave immediately after. I’m on the way right now. Do I have time to shower?

I don’t think I have any clean clothes for you at my place, Cora texted, and Boston’s mood lifted. This was the kind of teasing he liked, and he could also admit that he liked that he could shower and change here and then go hang out with Cash later.

“Thank you for the brownie, Jules,” he said, and he moved around the desk and kissed the top of her head. “You’ve got everything you need. You’re keeping caught up?”

“Even if I wasn’t,” she said. “I wouldn’t ask you to help. You have way too much going on.”

Boston did feel extremely stretched thin, and he nodded, and headed for the exit. “All right. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Yep,” Julie said, and Boston hurried back to his apartment, showered and changed his clothes, and then ducked through the woods to Cora’s.

She met him at the front door in an apron long enough to cover her shorts, and a wooden spoon in her hand that looked dangerously like it had brownie batter on it.

“Hey, cowboy.” She licked the spoon, and Boston rushed her, slamming the door behind him as he took her giggling into his arms and kissed her.

“I have had the longest day ever,” he groaned.

“Yes, Momma said you got the drinking party.”

Boston collapsed on the couch, pulling Cora with him. She squealed and lifted the batter-covered spoon into the air so that it wouldn’t mash against her clothes or the couch.

“Boston.”

“Just lay with me for a minute,” he said. “I’m so tired.”

He’d lost his cowboy hat in the kiss, and he didn’t even care as he settled the pillow under his head and Cora curled her back against his chest.

“I got a drinking party today?”

“Momma says that e-commerce group comes every year, and those four ladies always come in early, and they sneak in tons of wine.”

“I didn’t think you could bring outside alcohol to Silver Sage.”

“Oh, you can’t,” Cora said. “I had housekeeping remove it all while they were out with you today.”

“Oh, boy.” Boston chuckled, imagining Shawna and Rebecca and how livid that would make them. And Andie? This wasn’t going to go well. “They’re not going to like that.”

“Momma says she’s dealt with them before, and she gave them her personal number, and said that they could call her if they had a problem with it, and they could pick up their bottles when they checked out.”

Boston snuggled his face into Cora’s hair and breathed deeply. He exhaled as he said, “You’re so soft and warm,” already halfway to sleep.

“You stay here,” Cora said, her voice tender. She sat up and then stood. Boston couldn’t open his eyes, but he sure enjoyed the trail of her fingers across his forehead as she pushed his hair back. “Dinner’s another twenty minutes, okay?”

“Okay,” he murmured, and he heard her footsteps recede… one, two, three …and then he was gone.