“I’m distantly acquainted with your girlfriend,” she blurted all at once.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where had that come from? He crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a look. “I don’t know who you’re acquainted with, but I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Yes, you do. Sylvia Armbruster? I’ve seen you at her house.”
“You know Sylvia?”
“We went to college together. I didn’t know her well, but we had a couple of classes together. And my neighbor, the one with the pink-tipped hair, who was at court with me—”
“Sylvia and I have been friends for years, but she’s not my girlfriend.”
Nick considered Sylvia a friend-friend, but he would never call a woman who slept around the way Sylvia did a girlfriend.
Sandi made a gasp. “You sleep with her.”
“How do you know?”
“Because, as I started to say, she told my neighbor who does her hair. She has a huge crush on you.”
He shook his head and looked out over the pasture. Sometimes the world was just too damn small. What could he say that wouldn’t dig a deeper hole? “I haven’t seen Sylvia in a long time.”
“Look, I’m just trying to make conversation. You asked me about Richard, so it seemed fair for me to bring up who you’re seeing.”
“Nobody. I’m not seeing anybody.”
All at once, a different bird call floated through the air and saved the day. A full-blown smile lit up her face. She was a beautiful woman and when she smiled, even the sun brightened.
“Oh, listen. Is that a mourning dove?”
“Yep. They’re always out here.”
“Oh, wow. I love hearing them. I never hear them at my house in town.”
“What you probably hear at your house is birds coughing.” He chuckled at his own joke.
“Listen to you. Midland doesn’t have air pollution.”
Just then, Buster raced back to them, barking, dancing and panting, his tongue hanging out. She bent down and rubbed his head, patted his side. “Having fun out there, are you?”
“Hey, boy. Want some water?” Nick leaned back and grabbed a bottle of water and a stainless steel pet dish out of a box. He poured the dish full of water. Buster lapped up every drop. Nick scruffed his head and petted and patted him. “You’d better rest. We’ll be coming up on the cows pretty soon.”
He put Buster back into the Jeep. As he closed the back gate, he looked at her. “Ready to go?”
She made a little huff. “Do I have a choice? I think I’m too far from the house to walk back.”
He moved to the passenger door and opened it for her again. She climbed in, he closed her inside and they set out again.
“Looks like he had a good time,” she said. “Is that how he got lost in the first place, running off like that?”
Luke geared down to cross over a rough patch. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t let him do it.”
He sensed her eyes drilling into him, but he coached himself to control his tongue. She might have visiting rights, but Buster was his dog. “He’s penned up a good part of the time. He’s an energetic dog and he’s curious. He likes to explore and run and play.”
“I suppose you know he’ll probably get lost again someday.”
“No, I don’t know that.”
“Well, you should.”
More silence. Was she pissed off? Maybe having her come out for a visit wasn’t such a good idea. The situation seemed to be going downhill.
Then, “You’ve never said where you got Waffle in the first place,” she said.
“From my neighbor a few miles down the road. He had a bitch that was always having puppies he didn’t want, but he was too stingy to have her spayed. She had another litter and he was gonna shoot all of them, including the mama. So I took them off his hands. Buster was one of the pups.”
Her big-eyed stare came at him. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“Tell you what?”
“That you had rescued a whole litter of puppies and their mama.”
“You didn’t ask. And it didn’t seem important to tell you.”
“How many puppies were there?”
“Four.”
“What did you do with them?”
“I found homes for three of the pups down in Salt Lick. The mama was old, but she was still a good dog. You know how it is. Nobody wants an old dog, so I kept her.”
“So you used an old dog as a working dog.”
“I did not. She’d been abused and was a little bit crippled up. I figured she deserved for some part of her life to be easier. I got her some veterinary care and put her on a good diet. I took good care of her and she had a good life ’til she died last year.”
Sandi looked at him blinking, her eyes glistening. She quickly wiped her eye with a finger. Was she gonna cry? He hoped not. He had already experienced a supper with her in tears at Hogg’s. To his relief, she didn’t break down.
“Humph,” she said. “You are such a phony. You have a soft heart and you never hinted at it. Every time I turn around, I learn something new about you.”
He gave her a grin that he hoped charmed her. “I’m a pretty simple guy. Meat and potatoes. I try to respect all living things. I try to remember God put ’em here for a reason.”
She cocked her head and looked at him for a few beats. “I don’t think you’re simple at all. I wonder if you’re going to step into some phone booth and come out as Superman.”
He grinned. “Don’t have phone booths these days.”
She smiled, but said nothing. She seemed to be in better spirits.
They began to see a few cattle scattered across the pasture. “Ready to see Buster work the cattle?”
“I can’t imagine Waffle doing that, but why not?”
Nick stopped and let him out of the Jeep, again. “Go get ’em, boy.”
Buster loped across the pasture again. As he had done countless times, he began to bark and move the individual cows, eventually collecting them
