Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Reid
Thanksgiving at the Walker house is a circus on a good day, and today? Well, it’s a full-on, three-ring operation.
There’s the noise. Laughter, constant chatter, the clink of silverware against plates.
Mom’s in the kitchen, whipping up the usual spread with the kind of efficiency that makes me wonder if she’s secretly some kind of kitchen wizard. Sophie’s making sure everyone has a drink, checking in every five minutes as if she’s the social director.
Then there’s Dad. He’s probably already started three new stories and is halfway through his second round of telling them.
And me? I’m here, just… existing.
I’m not sure how I ended up being the loud one at the ranch, with Sawyer and Clint, because here, among the people I grew up with, I’m quiet. Always the one with nothing to say.
Mom’s standing at the stove, her back turned to me, but I know she’s watching me through the reflection in the window. “Reid, Sophie’s talking to you. Are you ever going to answer her?”
I blink, looking up from my phone. “Huh?”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” she says with a smirk, flipping a turkey leg in the pan. “You’ve been sitting here like a statue for the last half hour. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
I sigh and turn to Sophie, who’s perched on the edge of the table, arms folded across her chest.
“I said the shop has been crazy recently.” Sophie rolls her eyes. “And I was asking why you never come in.”
“Ladies’ clothing isn’t really my thing,” I answer, a little too quickly.
“But women are,” she teases with a playful smile. “You can’t be that immune to them.”
I laugh, shaking my head. Sophie’s always been way too good at getting under my skin. “I like to think I’m more than just my ability to be a man of mystery.”
Sophie raises an eyebrow and leans in. “Alright, mystery man. Well, listen up. I met a really cool woman the other day I’m sure you would have liked. Dakota something… I can’t remember.”
I freeze for just a second. My heart does that weird little skipping-a-beat thing. Dakota? What are the chances?
“Dakota?” I ask, trying to keep casual. “What about her?”
Sophie grins, clearly catching onto my sudden interest. “Yeah, she came in with Violet. We talked for a while. Super nice, funny, and just really easy to talk to. She seemed like someone you’d get along with.”
I try not to lean forward too much, but it’s harder than I expected. My mind’s suddenly buzzing, and I can’t stop the questions from flooding in.
Did she seem interested? Did she like you? But I push those aside. Now is not the time to start analyzing every little thing.
“Sounds like you hit it off,” I say, keeping light but my pulse a little faster than it should be.
“Oh, we did,” Sophie says with a nod. “She’s got a cool vibe, you know? Kind of… refreshing.”
“You like her?”
I lean back in my chair, trying to act nonchalant, but inside, I’m anything but calm. My mind’s a mess of images: Dakota’s auburn hair, those soft brown eyes, the way she looked the last time I saw her.
“Yeah,” Sophie says, and there’s a playful glint in her eyes. “You know, Reid, you should give her a shot. I think you’d get along. There’s just something about her. I think she’d get you, you know?”
Get me?
What the hell is Sophie going on about? This is too much.
Mom’s voice cuts through the tension. “If you two are done gossiping, the food’s ready. Help me bring everything to the table, would you?”
I nod, grateful for the distraction.
As we walk toward the dining table, I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the hallway mirror. I don’t recognize the guy staring back at me.
The guy who’s been talking about the ranch, making jokes, throwing himself into work to distract from the gnawing feeling in his chest. The guy who’s been trying to bury the way his heart races whenever Dakota’s name comes up.
But I can’t ignore it anymore.
We settle into our seats, the table heavy with the spread of Thanksgiving classics. Turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing. All the usual suspects. But I can barely focus on the food.
My eyes keep drifting over to Sophie, then back to Mom, then, damn it, I find myself staring at the empty space across from me, imagining what it would be like if Dakota was sitting there.
She’d probably be rolling her eyes at me, laughing at some ridiculous comment I made. She’d be talking about Charlie, and I’d be listening, really listening for the first time in… who knows how long.
This isn’t me.
I never get attached in this way.
But I can’t seem to stop myself.
“Reid,” Mom says, snapping me out of my daydreams. “Are you going to eat, or just stare at your plate?”
I blink, shaking myself out of my thoughts. Dad’s in the middle of another round of his favorite story, the one about the old bull he once tried to rope when he was younger, and Sophie’s looking at me with a raised eyebrow, clearly amused by how spaced out I’ve been.
I feel my cheeks flush a little. It’s hard to pretend I’m not lost in my own head when my whole family’s staring at me.
“Sorry, Mom,” I mutter, reaching for my plate. “Just… thinking.”
“About the ranch?” she asks. “Clint has you busy, right?”
“There’s always a lot to do at this time of year.”
I hope that’s the end of it. I don’t want to explain the ranch situation to my family. I don’t want them to worry when it really might be nothing.
Clint has a tendency to get too in his head about the ranch. I think he’s still trying to impress his stoic father, even though the man died years ago.
Thankfully, that seems to put an end to it. Soon, gossip surrounds me. My family loves a good gossip, and apparently, a lot is going on in the town. Not that any of it is very interesting to me.
“…I overheard Riley McCarter talking to Margaret O’Hara at the Buckhorn, and let me tell you, it’s causing a bit of a stir. Apparently, Jesse’s been spending a lot of time with this woman from out of town…”
“…I think she’s gunning for the Rodeo Queen title this year, I mean, she has had a glow up for it…”
“…The shop is struggling because of Buck Realty, trying to buy up all the real estate in town, which is going to put Colter Creek in a real bad place…”
But I can’t focus on any of it.
Now I have Dakota on the mind, and after Sophie talked about her, I can’t shake off the idea that perhaps I should just take the bull by the horns and ask her on a date.
A real one.
I want to. I’ve been wanting to. Especially since our night at the Silver Bit Tavern. It isn’t my way to put things off, but I have been.
Maybe it’s time to just go for it already. To just walk to her place once all of this is done, and to just speak to her.
See how she feels about me, too.