Chapter 1 – Kaitlyn #2
“Sounded like you wanted more money out of your qufor, but I don’t know what the hell a qufor is.”
It took a second until I realized what he was talking about. “Q. Four. It means fourth quarter of the year. October through December.”
“Why not just say that?” he asked.
“What are you doing here, Tag?” I asked, straight to the point.
“Leroy McGraw is dead.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I said.
You could take the girl out of Last Hope Gulch, but you couldn’t leave The Calloway/McGraw drama behind entirely. I knew what was happening back home, but I’d refused to engage with the insanity.
The last year had been beyond ludicrous from my vantage point in New York.
“Your sister is married,” he said. “To Ethan McGraw.”
My phone was silently buzzing in my hand and I hit the space bar on my desktop, waking up my Mac. The Asian markets were active and North America was responding.
Time was money in the trading world and Tag was costing me both.
“Again, not new information. I don’t care what Leroy McGraw’s will said, I told Harmony she was insane to do it.”
Old man Leroy McGraw apparently had been a drama queen in his will.
Trying to right every wrong between our long-feuding families by insisting that one of his sons marry one of my sisters in order to save the town and the Feud Day Festival.
Or, it seemed he was prepared to donate all of the McGraw land to the federal land bureau.
And, of course, my do-gooder, people-pleasing sister raised her hand and ended up married to her high school nemesis, Ethan McGraw.
When Harmony told me about it, I thought she was joking, but no, that’s just the kind of stuff that happened in Last Hope Gulch.
“You should know, my vote was to tell Old Man McGraw and his sons to screw themselves and let the Bureau of Land Management take the ranch. Last Hope Gulch can figure its own shit out. No one agreed with me. Obviously.”
Tag had no response to that, so I answered an urgent email from one of my bigger clients. If I played my cards right, I believed that my client, a Singaporean tech entrepreneur, was the key to getting my partnership sooner rather than later.
I hit send with a flourish and looked up to gauge what the silent, broody cowboy thought about my utter disinterest in his small-town soap opera.
He was just standing there. Arms at his side, not moving.
“What?” I asked, because I felt like he was expecting something from me.
“Waiting for your full attention, Sunshine.”
“My name is Kaitlyn, now,” I said.
“Known you since you were a baby. That’s going to be hard.”
“Around here we strive for what’s hard,” I said, then glanced down at my thousand dollar watch to let him know he was wasting his time. “You have my complete attention. For exactly fifteen more minutes. Then I have work I need to get back to.”
“Can’t do this on a clock. How about I take you out to dinner? ”
I blinked. Then I blinked again. Going on a date with Tag Durham, was my teenage dream come true.
“I’m sorry. Did you just ask me to dinner?”
“First time in New York. Heard there’s good food here.”
“The best food in the world is here.” I said, like I was defending New York’s honor.
He knocked his hat back further on his head and grinned at me. My cold heart skipped a beat. “A steak is a steak, darlin. Don’t see how much better it can be in a city that doesn’t have any cows, but I’ll bite. Can you get us into some fancy ass place?”
“I know the manager of 4 Charles,” I said, but he had no idea that 4 Charles was the hardest reservation to get in the city. My flex was wasted on him. “But we’re not having dinner. Just say whatever it is you need to say, then you can head back home.”
“What I need to say to you takes time. Besides, don’t you want to show your old friend from home some of the big city sights?”
I bristled at the word friend.
Fifteen years ago, if Tag had called me his friend it would have sent me over the moon.
He’d been everything I’d ever dreamed about in a guy.
Tall, strong, handsome. Never a bully. Always looking out for those who were younger or smaller or weaker, which was just about everyone in his orbit.
He was every girl’s crush even though he’d dated Jenny Masters exclusively since his junior year.
Who was he dating now, I wondered?
It didn’t matter. Tag Durham,was definitively my past. I stepped toward him, needing every inch of my height, and I gave him my best - I am not here to play games or suffer fools - voice.
“Just because we’re from the same nowhere town in Wyoming, doesn’t make us friends.
If the McGraws and the Calloways have proven anything, it’s that. ”
“I’m not a McGraw.”
I sniffed. “Might as well be. They all but adopted you into their conclave of assholes.”
He tilted his head back and laughed. Reminding me of my teenage fascination with Tag’s Adam’s apple. I used to imagine licking it.
Now, I imagined sinking my teeth into it and ripping it out like a female lion.
I tugged on the bottom of my suit coat.
“Sunshine, my daddy worked for the McGraws for thirty years, and now I work for them too. Nothing asshole about that. Just a cowboy making a living. Now, I’ve taken enough time out of your day.
I can see that, what with you being so important and everything.
You find a fancy place for us to eat tonight, and we’ll talk. ”
“You said you were here to take me home,” I reminded him.
He lifted an eyebrow.
“When you interrupted my meeting, you said you were here to bring me home. That’s not going to happen. You know that, right?”
“We’ll talk.”
“Tag…”
Matthew knocked on the office door and peeked his head inside. “I have coffee. Also, Jared’s heard about the…commotion, and would like a word with you later this afternoon.”
Of course. Jared.
Jared had been awarded partner last year and was currently the biggest pain in my ass. Nitpicking my every move as he assessed if I was partner-worthy myself .
Quietly, Matthew stepped into the office, placed the tray with a carafe and cups on a table by the window.
“Sunshine. Hear me out,” Tag said, tucking his hands in the pockets of his denim coat. “If you give me the time and I can’t convince you to come home, then I’ll go.”
“Matthew,” I said, my eyes riveted to Tag and the beard on his face that looked impossibly soft.
This was undoubtedly a mistake, but I was going to honor my teenage self.
“Thank you for the coffee. Could you do me a favor and call my dear friend over at 4 Charles and ask him if he can get me a table for two tonight?”
“Tonight?” There was a pitch to his voice that I knew all too well. It was his that’s impossible tone.
But I had transformed myself from Sunshine Calloway of Last Hope Gulch, to Kaitlyn Calloway, senior leader of one of the largest brokerage firms in America.
Which meant nothing was impossible.
“Tell Johnny it’s a special occasion,” I said, with a smile to Tag. “There is an old friend from home visiting in town.”
Tag smiled back and I had to look away, flustered and weirdly giddy.
Cowboy charm. It was a helluva thing.