Page 23 of Will (The Cowboys of Calamity, Texas #3)

Chapter Fourteen

Will followed Honey to Sunrise Shop, a high-end boutique in the historic district of Calamity, later that day. Will believed they were going on a wild goose chase about these socks, but he admired Honey’s tenacity.

Once inside the boutique, he watched her make a beeline for the front counter. Victoria, a woman in her forties, wearing a black suit and glasses, was behind the cash register, ready to help customers.

When Honey reached the counter, she slipped off her navy-blue backpack purse and pulled out the package of socks.

“Is this an exchange or a return?” Victoria asked her.

“Actually, neither.”

Honey leaned in as if she were telling a conspiratorial secret to a close friend. It looked like she’d used this tactic before, and he guessed it must have worked.

“I’ve never been to this boutique before, but I’m looking for information about these socks. My cousin purchased them from your store.”

Victoria appeared slightly confused, but concealed it with a polite smile. “This brand is one of our most popular walking socks. They’re made of a thin wool material, so they’re quite durable and help provide moisture control.”

Will stood back and continued watching Honey. She was naturally cheerful and smart as hell, too. The way she phrased her questions put people at ease, a necessary component in her work as a reporter.

And yet, he still couldn’t see how gathering information about Ronnie’s socks would help them find him. Especially if the guy didn’t want to be found.

“I wasn’t able to find the receipt for this purchase. Is there any chance you have a copy of it?”

Despite Honey’s practiced me-to-you approach, Victoria hesitated. “Do you mind if I ask what this is about? Your requests are unusual for our store. We don’t normally give out information concerning other customers.”

“That’s understandable,” Honey said. “The truth is, my cousin Ronnie Baines is missing. We’re trying to put together a timeline of everything he did on the day he disappeared. We found these new socks in his gym locker and just had questions about them.”

Now Victoria looked even more confused. “What questions?”

“Well, first I’d like to know the day he purchased them, since I can’t find the receipt.”

Victoria’s face relaxed into a smile. “Management came up to conceal the receipt in our signature ribbon that’s included with every purchase.

There’s a small pocket sewn into the underside of the ribbon.

When a purchase is made, we tuck the receipt in there.

It’s a little fussy,” she said, then winced.

“Okay, a lot fussy. But I didn’t come up with the idea, I just follow store policy. ”

Will didn’t care about store policy or secret compartments in ribbons. He just hoped, for Honey’s sake, that this didn’t turn out to be a fruitless endeavor. Her guilt about Ronnie’s disappearance was unwarranted, but he didn’t know how to convince her of that.

Once she found the receipt, Honey held it up to show Will, as if she’d just caught a trophy fish.

Will felt like he was dangling on her line, too. His body went into high alert every time she walked into a room. He couldn’t stop thinking about her—and didn’t want to stop. He’d never felt like this about any woman before.

And he’d be leaving her in five days.

But Will couldn’t think about that right now. He watched her study the receipt, then she looked up at him with that cute little frown line in the middle of her brow.

“Ronnie paid with cash, and the receipt was time stamped. Ronnie bought these socks last Thursday, about an hour before he checked in at the Ninth Street Gym. That was about four hours before he showed up at my apartment building looking for me.”

Honey turned back to Victoria. “Are you sure you don’t remember waiting on him?

Ronnie is about five foot nine and has floppy brown hair.

He also has a very inquisitive personality.

He would have asked questions, both personal and professional, and probably would have told you he’s working on a big news story. ”

A spark of recognition flashed in Victoria’s eyes. “Oh, that guy! I do remember him. He was here for over an hour, asking every question you could think of about socks. Especially hiking socks.”

“Hiking socks?” Honey echoed. “I don’t think Ronnie’s ever gone hiking in his life.”

“Oh, you’re right,” Victoria said. “He made that clear, just by the number of questions he asked. I think he was nervous because he was meeting a girl on a first date, and she’d insisted they go hiking together.”

“Did Ronnie say when this date was scheduled or the name of the girl?”

“No. The only thing he said was something very odd, like, ‘Steed better not ruin it.’”

* * *

“Looks like our sock investigation turned up a solid lead.” Honey sat behind the steering wheel and carefully backed her car out of the parking lot. She’d been tempted to do cartwheels after walking out the door of the Sunrise Shop but had corralled her excitement.

“It sure did.” Will sat in the passenger seat, slowly scrolling on his phone.

Honey was still hyped up from her conversation with Victoria and wanted to go over it all again. “Now that we know Ronnie had a hiking date planned…we can start trying to find the name of his date. I think the first step is to research hiking clubs around Calamity. I know there’s at least one.”

“Uh-huh.” His gaze still fixed on his phone.

“We could start interviewing the members and see if anyone has heard the name Ronnie Baines. Perhaps his date has already talked about him to her friends. Women do that.” She glanced at him again, but his attention was still fixed on his phone.

She watched while his index finger slid up his phone screen in a continuous rhythm.

During the past week she’d spent with Will, he’d never been this unresponsive to her, even when he’d been doped up on painkillers. Then an unwelcome thought occurred to her.

Was he moping because she’d been right about investigating Ronnie’s socks?

She didn’t want to believe it, but Will had been skeptical of her idea, right up to the moment they’d entered the shop.

Her fingers flexed on the steering wheel, and she felt a wave of irritation that he might be one of those guys.

The ones that didn’t want to be proven wrong, especially by a woman.

Honey had dated men in the past who thought she was too independent. One of them had even told her she was too smart for her own good. But rather than be angry, she’d been relieved that those men had shown their true colors early in the relationship.

#

But Will wasn’t one of those guys, she told herself. At least, he hadn’t been during the time she’d spent with him. He found her independence and resourcefulness attractive.

Her fingers gripped the steering wheel more tightly. She would not let his current surliness distract her from the task at hand, so she continued the conversation herself.

“If we knew the name of his date,” she said, “we might know where to find him.”

Then she changed her pitch to a higher tone.

“That’s a clever idea, Honey. Or at the very least, his date could tell us his state of mind before he disappeared. Or let us know if anyone had threatened him.”

Her conversation with herself seemed to catch his attention.

Will stopped scrolling and looked over at her. “What?”

“Oh, I was just talking about looking for Ronnie, and how we might have an actual lead.” Then her gaze fell to the phone lying almost flat in his hand. He’d lowered it slightly when he’d started speaking to her.

A dating app logo graced the top of the screen, and an attractive woman’s face smiled back at them.

Honey faced forward in the seat, and a hot flush crawled up her neck. She’d been blabbing on about her sock investigation while he’d been looking at other women.

The ache in her throat surprised her. She swallowed hard.

“Speaking of Ronnie,” Will said. “I want to continue to search for him. But I’m going to have to do it from Austin, starting on Sunday.”

She turned to look at him while keeping an eye on the gravel country road. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve been called back to work. I start on Monday. Apparently, they’re satisfied there is no serious threat to me because of that letter.”

This was the last thing she expected to hear. “But what about finding The Destroyer? And the letter he sent to my parents’ house? Do we matter?”

He sighed. “I’m guessing they’ll turn that investigation over to the local authorities. The good news is that your sheriff has a solid reputation in law enforcement circles, so I’m sure he and his deputies will take the case seriously.”

“You’re really leaving?” she asked, still trying to absorb his news.

When he didn’t answer, Honey looked over at him and found him scrolling through the dating app again.

She carefully pressed on the brake pedal to avoid sliding on the gravel. Then she turned onto a short dirt-packed driveway that led to an open meadow.

Will looked up, surprise etched on his face. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting out of here,” she announced. Then she bolted out of the car and slammed the door behind her. Angry tears blurred her vision, but she blinked them back, refusing to let them fall because of a man who obviously cared so little for her.

Will followed her. “Honey!”

She tried to move faster through the knee-high grass and wildflowers. At any other time, she might have found their sweet perfume pleasant, but right now it seemed sickening. She wanted to walk and burn her anger and hurt away, so she wouldn't cry over a man who didn't deserve her tears.

“Honey, wait!”

She glanced over her shoulder to see him in fast pursuit. “Leave me alone!”

But he wouldn’t listen to her and wouldn’t stop moving. His longer legs made it easier for him to traverse the tall grass until he finally caught up with her.

“What are you doing?” He kneeled over at the waist and gasping for breath. “Trying to kill me?”

“Don’t tempt me!” She struggled to hold on to her anger. Because the alternative was dissolving into a pool of tears, and she would not give him that satisfaction.

“Please hold up.”

“You can start walking back to the ranch, cowboy. Because you’re not riding with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why you’re so angry with me.”

She thought she had met a lot of dense men while writing for the newspaper, but Will's cluelessness was the worst.

“Fine,” she said. “How about the fact that you’re already searching for hookups once you get back to Austin?”

“I—”

Did you find anyone suitable while scrolling the dating app on your phone?”

“Honey, if—”

She swatted at a newly flowering bush that grazed her elbow as she moved past it. “You couldn’t even wait until you were alone to start swiping right on your next fling?”

#

Will wanted to reach out and hold her. He’d never seen her this angry before and wasn’t sure she’d give him time to state his case. But he had to try.

“I’m not looking for a fling, Honey.”

Her eyes flash in disbelief, and then she shook her head. “I saw you.”

“I was scrolling through a dating app, but I wasn’t looking for a fling.” Will took a step closer to her. “You’re already more woman than I can handle, Honey. The only woman I want in my arms.”

Will watched a hint of indecision flicker across her beautiful face. A face clearly torn between her feelings of betrayal and perhaps a desire to return to the easy trust they’d shared during their time together.

“Why should I believe you?”

He reached out to brush a stray tendril of blond hair from her face. “Because you were also right about investigating those socks.”

One corner of her mouth lifted in a self-satisfied smile. “I’m glad you can admit it.”

He wanted to pull her into his arms and fall back into this bed of wildflowers with her. But not until he told her everything. “I have something else to admit.”

“What?”

“I think I know where to find The Destroyer.” He flipped the phone over in his hand. “And it starts with this dating app.”