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Tom sat back in his chair and put his feet up. A long day, but the steers were loaded and gone, and while the money wasn’t in the bank yet, it would be tomorrow. Which would make Dad happy. And it made him happy because there were fewer heads to feed.
He checked his social media. His friends back in NYC were at some glitzy charity event. At least that’s what the selfies implied. Nobody posted which charity was benefitting; to them, it was just an opportunity to be seen by, and see, all the right people. He wriggled his toes in his sheepskin slippers. He much preferred sitting at home with his feet up on Friday night rather than eating dry chicken while stuffed into a designer suit with tight, shiny shoes trying to look like he was having a good time. He missed some of his friends, though. And he occasionally missed the restaurants, theaters, and nightlife. But most of the time, he was happy with his quiet life.
Of course, he’d rather have a woman curled next to him on the couch. While he was dreaming, he’d rather sit next to Wiz on her couch. And if he really had his way, they wouldn’t be sitting there long.
But she’d said she might not ever be ready for a romantic relationship. He wondered again exactly what happened to her. A sexual assault seemed likely. And, from what he understood, most sexual assaults during deployments were perpetrated by their fellow service members. Which was horrible. How could someone who had sworn themselves to service attack their brothers and sisters? It just didn’t make any sense.
A window popped up on his laptop. “You should change your passwords from the default and make them harder to guess. Wiz.”
He snorted a laugh. Cute. But she was right. He had no idea what program the chat window used. Maybe she could help. He typed, “You’re right. You’ll have to walk me through it.”
“Sure. You play video games, right?”
“Yes. You?”
“Of course. HALO?”
Tom grinned. “Yes. I have to go upstairs.”
“I’ll wait.”
Tom kept grinning and closed his laptop. Maybe he’d get to know her a little better through the game.
A few hours later, he was still smiling, but ruefully. He’d gotten to know her better, all right. The woman was cut throat. No holds barred, dirty tricks, the whole package, combined with a wicked sense of humor and a grasp of tactics and strategy that was downright amazing. He’d known she was intelligent but just how smart was a little disconcerting. Tom wasn’t stupid, but she’d made him look like canned chipped beef next to a prime ribeye steak.
After they’d signed off the game, she’d walked him through how to properly secure his network and online life. And now he felt just plain stupid. Cyber security was her area of expertise, and a home network was child’s play for her, but he was pretty sure it wouldn’t take her very long at all to learn how to analyze economic sectors and do long-term forecasting. It would take him centuries to learn even the simplest home network security tasks.
He flopped back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He was fooling himself. She couldn’t possibly be interested in him. He had some money but not nearly as much as she did, and while he wasn’t stupid, he couldn’t come close to her level of intelligence. He was just a cattle rancher; a cowboy with some fancy clothes. They had nothing in common. He snorted. He should just give up now.
Tom closed his eyes, and those sad gray eyes stared back. Even when she’d smiled and laughed, it seemed a little forced or an act. From Ryan and Erin’s smiles, Wiz had made real progress, but Tom wasn’t sure she saw it that way. And she still seemed sorrowful and rather...closed off, to him. Maybe that was what called to him. Maybe he wanted to take on the role of emotional savior, since he clearly couldn’t help her with anything else. And that was a recipe for failure. She had to save herself. He could support her, but that might not be enough to build a real relationship.
Well, no matter what, he could be a friend. And if it never went further than friendship, that would be enough. Even virtual friendship was enough—he’d take whatever she could give.
Tom rolled to his feet. He’d done enough depressing introspection. Time to go to bed; the cows wouldn’t feed themselves in the morning.
A week later, they were eating lunch after a long morning of hard work. Dad raised his spoon and nodded. “This is good. Where’d you learn to make this?”
“Found the recipe online. It is pretty good, isn’t it?” Tom took another mouthful of delicious slow-cooker chicken and dumplings.
“Yeah, it is. Nice to have something other than beef sometimes.”
“Blasphemy! I can’t believe you said that!” They chuckled. “Maybe we can find someone to trade beef for pork or something. Different is good every now and then.” Variety was the spice of life.
“I’ll ask around. Trading is always better than buying, that’s for sure.”
They both ate; working in the cold took a lot of energy, and Tom was starving. Once he’d taken the edge off, his curiosity got the better of him. “Where have you been disappearing to in the afternoons?”
“I don’t disappear every afternoon.” He swallowed another spoonful.
“Didn’t say you did. And if you don’t want to tell me, that’s your prerogative.” He shrugged. “Tell me to mind my own business.”
“I think you’ll find out soon anyway, so I may as well just tell you.” His face stretched in a wry smile. “I’ve been teaching Wiz to ride.”
Tom blinked, totally surprised. “You are?”
“Yup. Asked her if she wanted to learn, and she said yes.” He smiled, a fond, proud smile. “But she isn’t learning for herself. She wanted to learn so she could help us if we ever needed it.”
Shocked surprise turned to hope, but it burned. “Even without the emotional trauma she’s been through, I’ve got absolutely no hope. She’s smart, pretty, knows how to think ahead and strategize, and she’s giving and compassionate. I’m totally outclassed.”
