4. Beast
BEAST
By the time I got back to the Last Stand Tavern, I was already in a bad mood.
Which wasn't unusual.
What was unusual was the reason.
Normally I was irritated by tourists.
Broken equipment.
Paperwork.
Trigger.
Today?
I was irritated because I couldn't stop thinking about Sadie Walker.
Or Gerald.
Mostly Gerald.
Definitely Gerald.
Probably.
I shoved open the tavern door.
The room went silent.
That should have been my first warning.
The second warning came when Mrs. Jenkins smiled.
Nobody should ever trust that smile.
Ever.
I stopped walking.
"What?"
Mrs. Jenkins folded her hands.
"Oh nothing."
I narrowed my eyes.
"What did you do?"
"We didn't do anything."
Mrs. Baker immediately started laughing.
That was all the answer I needed.
I turned toward the bar.
Wolf was standing behind it.
Trying—and failing—not to grin.
"What?"
Wolf pointed toward the screen mounted above the bar.
I looked up.
Then immediately regretted it.
There I was.
Covered head to toe in mud.
Half-submerged in the drainage ditch.
One boot is sticking straight into the air.
The picture filled the entire screen.
The entire tavern erupted.
I closed my eyes.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
"Tell me that's not what I think it is."
"It is."
"Who posted it?"
Wolf crossed his arms.
"The caption says..."
He looked at his phone.
Then started laughing.
I knew I wasn't going to like this.
"'Local Ranger attempts to wrestle mud monster. Loses.'"
The tavern exploded again.
Mrs. Jenkins nearly fell out of her chair.
Trigger appeared from somewhere in the back.
Saw the screen.
Immediately doubled over laughing.
"You fell in a ditch?" he asked.
"Shut up. I know where you live."
That made him laugh harder.
Saint walked in two seconds later.
Saw the screen.
Turned around.
Walked back out.
The room howled.
I seriously considered moving to Alaska.
Nobody knew me in Alaska.
Wolf slid a beer across the bar.
"You earned this."
I grabbed it.
Mostly so I'd have something to throw at him.
The front door opened.
The three ranch hands entered.
The moment they saw me, they froze.
The smartest thing they'd done all day.
The youngest swallowed hard.
"Hey, Beast."
I stared.
He took a step backward.
"Still mad?"
I kept staring.
He took another step backward.
The other two abandoned him immediately.
Good instincts.
"Delete the picture."
"No."
The room gasped.
The kid's friends looked horrified.
One whispered,
"You're dead."
The kid ignored him.
To his credit, he stood his ground.
Mostly.
His voice cracked three times.
But still.
"Everybody loves it. I have more views on that than any of my other photos."
I pointed toward the door.
"Run."
He ran.
The entire tavern cheered.
Wolf laughed so hard he nearly spilled a drink.
I sat at the bar and shook my head.
The room slowly settled.
Conversations resumed.
The screen remained on.
Unfortunately.
Every few minutes somebody looked up and started laughing all over again.
I hated this town.
I really did.
Wolf sat beside me.
For a while neither of us spoke.
The laughter faded.
The Magnolia Ladies started playing cards.
Trigger disappeared again.
The tavern returned to normal.
Then Wolf said quietly,
"Why'd she look scared?"
I saw another photo posted, and she looked scared.
My grip tightened around the coffee cup.
I already knew who he meant.
Sadie.
I stared at the bar.
Wood grain.
Coffee.
Anything except the question.
Because I'd been asking myself the same thing all afternoon.
Wolf waited.
Patient.
Silent.
The same way he'd always been.
Finally, I sighed.
"I don't know."
"Who was the guy?"
"Gerald."
Wolf nodded once.
"He local?"
"No."
"Friend?"
"No."
Wolf studied me.
"Boyfriend?"
The word hit harder than it should have.
I immediately disliked that.
"Not that I know of."
Wolf noticed.
Unfortunately.
The man noticed everything.
His eyebrows lifted slightly.
I ignored that too.
"He made her uncomfortable."
"Yeah."
"She looked angry."
"Yeah."
Wolf nodded.
Then he said the thing I couldn't stop thinking about.
"And scared."
Silence settled between us.
Because he was right.
Sadie hadn't been nervous.
She hadn't been flustered.
She hadn't been surprised.
For one brief second...
She'd been afraid.
The memory sat like a stone in my chest.
Heavy.
Unwelcome.
Wrong.
Sadie wasn't afraid of much.
She rode horses nobody else would touch.
Worked cattle.
Fixed fences.
Argued with me every time we saw each other.
Fear wasn't something I associated with her.
Which meant Gerald mattered.
More than I liked.
More than she was telling us.
Wolf leaned back against the bar.
"You gonna ask her?"
"No."
He snorted.
"You're absolutely going to ask her."
I took a drink of beer.
Wolf smiled.
The irritating kind.
The kind that meant he already knew he was right.
I hated when that happened.
"So what's the plan?"
I stared toward the window.
Darkness had settled outside.
The ranch sat several miles away.
Too far.
Farther than I liked.
Especially now.
Especially with Gerald in town.
My jaw tightened.
"I'll figure it out."
Wolf's smile grew.
"That's what I was afraid of."
I looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
"It means you're already in trouble."
"I'm not."
"Sure."
"I'm not."
Wolf pointed toward the television.
"That's not the trouble."
Then he pointed toward me.
"That's the trouble."
I frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
Wolf stood.
Collected his drink.
Started walking away.
Then he paused.
Just long enough to deliver the final shot.
"The day you stop worrying about Sadie Walker is the day I'll believe she's not the woman you're going to marry."
Then he disappeared into the back office.
Leaving me sitting there.
Alone.
Staring at my coffee.
While the entire tavern laughed at my mud picture.
And for some reason...
Wolf's words bothered me a whole lot more than the picture.