She finally pulled out a royal blue sleeveless cotton blouse to change into later that night for her date with Dusty. She knew the blouse fit her well and brought out the color of her eyes.
She’d managed to get through the morning and early afternoon without thinking about meeting him after work for drinks, but now doubts began to plague her.
The doubts continued and followed her into work. Maybe she should just call him and cancel, she thought as she took dinner orders. What had sounded like a nice idea the night before now filled her with a nervous energy.
You deserve to spend some time with a handsome man who makes your heart flutter more than a little bit, she told herself firmly. Even Juanita said you deserved it. It’s only one night...a couple of hours at the most.
Luckily, on a Saturday night, the dinner rush was busy enough that she didn’t have much time to focus on her warring thoughts where meeting Dusty was concerned.
It was just after six o’clock when Zeke Osmond, Greg Albertson and Lloyd Green walked through the door and grabbed a booth in her section. Trisha swallowed a sigh.
She hated waiting on these men, who were not only rude and often lewd, but also pigs who didn’t tip worth a darn. Greg wasn’t too bad, but both Zeke and Lloyd made her skin crawl.
She gripped her order pad tightly in her hand and walked over to the booth were they were seated. “Good evening, gentlemen. What can I get for you all?”
“Trisha, honey, if you were on the menu I’d order you up in a hot minute,” Zeke said, his dark eyes gliding over her from head to toe. “In fact, I’d make it a double order to go.”
Lloyd elbowed his younger buddy and offered Trisha an apologetic smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Don’t pay any attention to him, Trisha. You know he’s just a dumb knucklehead.”
Daisy ambled over to the booth and smiled at Trisha. “Trisha, why don’t you go ahead and take your break now? I’ll take care of these rascals.”
With a sigh of relief, Trisha headed for the break room in the back of the café. Once inside the small room, she sat in one of the chairs and stared at her blouse hanging on a nearby coatrack. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and gazed down at the keypad.
She’d already put Dusty’s phone number into her list of contacts. All she had to do was punch a couple of buttons and she would be connected to him.
Desire battled with the old fear that had become so familiar. Was she a complete fool to believe that she could really have a normal life? A life that included going on dates with handsome cowboys and hopefully someday finding a special man who would love not only her but also her son?
She slid her phone back into her pocket. She wasn’t going to cancel meeting Dusty. She had no idea if he might be that special man, but she’d never know if she didn’t take a chance.
Is it safe?
She could only hope that she was truly free of the evil of her past.
Dusty stood in front of the mirror above the sink in his tiny bathroom and gazed at his reflection. Hair neatly combed...check. Light blue dress shirt buttoned and tucked into his jeans...check.
He grabbed a bottle of spicy cologne and splashed it on both sides of his neck and beneath his jaw and then left the bathroom. He was ready ridiculously early. It was only a few minutes before nine.
Nerves bounced around in the pit of his stomach. He’d drive himself crazy if he cooled his heels alone in the small bunk room he called home.
He stepped out the door and gazed down the length of the motel-like units where the cowboys who worked on the Holiday ranch lived. None of the other men were anywhere in sight.
He began the walk around to the back of the building where the cowboy dining room and a recreation area were located. Most of the men would be in town on a Saturday night, but there were always a few who preferred hanging out together in the rec room.
“Whoa, we could smell you coming from a mile away,” Adam Benson, the ranch foreman, exclaimed as he waved a hand in front of his nose when Dusty walked in.
“And he’s nice and cleaned up, too,” Tony Nakni, another ranch hand, added. “Hot date?”
“I don’t know how hot it’s going to be, but I’m meeting Trisha at the Watering Hole after she gets off work at the café,” Dusty said and sank down on a chair next to Tony.
Tony clapped him on the back. “So, you finally got up the nerve to ask her out.”
“Yeah, and even more surprising is that she actually agreed to meet with me.” Nerves once again kicked up in the pit of Dusty’s stomach.
“Well, it’s about time,” Adam replied. “You’ve been half-crazy about her forever.”
“You’re one to talk. Everyone knows you have a thing for Cassie. When are you going to ask her out on an official date?” Dusty asked.
Cassie Peterson had inherited the ranch from her aunt Cass, the woman who had taken in a bunch of dysfunctional, lost young boys and turned them into not just cowboys, but also strong and capable men.
There had been a lot of speculation as to whether the pretty blonde would stay and work the ranch or sell it and return to New York City, where she had a store that sold her original oil paintings, among other things.
The crime scene that had been discovered on the property had temporarily halted any plans she might have entertained of selling the ranch, but none of them knew what Cassie’s next move might be now that the skeletons had been removed.
“Yeah, maybe if you cozied up to her a little bit more then you could convince her to stick around here,” Tony said to Adam.
“You all know that the last thing I want is for her to sell out and leave us all not only jobless but homeless and separated, as well,” Adam replied.
They were all silent for a long moment. With the help of social worker Francine Rogers, Cass Holiday had taken in a dozen runaway boys to work her ranch. As they’d grown and matured, they had formed a family unit and Dusty had considered each one of the other men a brother.
As the others continued to speculate on Cassie’s future plans for the ranch, Dusty was far more concerned about his own imminent future and his date with Trisha.
He’d dated several women in town over the past couple of years, but he’d never made a real connection with any of them. Sometimes he wondered in the darkness of the night if his childhood had made it impossible for him to ever trust...to ever really love anyone.
He remained talking with the other men until nine thirty and then stood. “It’s time for me to head out,” he said.
“Good luck,” Tony said. “I hope you both have a great time.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Adam added.
Dusty laughed. “I wouldn’t think of it.”
He left the building and headed for the large shed where the men parked their personal vehicles and stored other big ranch equipment.
In the brilliant moonlight, the blue tent that covered the crime scene rose up like an alien entity. He grimaced as he thought of the skeletons. They had been found under the floorboards of an old shed the men had taken down after the spring storm that had killed Cass.
The discovery had been shocking, and even more shocking was that Chief of Police Dillon Bowie suspected it was possible that one of the men working the ranch might be responsible for the seven murdered young men.
Dusty