Page 16 of Dusty Spur Ranch Cowboys

“We’re working right now,” Carrie Jo says.

“You’re interrogating a customer.”

“Multitasking.”

Betty Lou nods approvingly. “She’s got management potential.”

I drop my head into my hands with a groan while both women look entirely too pleased with themselves.

Somewhere behind me, I hear a man at the counter call out, “Ask her if he’s finally smiling again.”

Betty Lou twists around. “Harold, mind your business.”

Harold snorts. “You’ve spent five minutes making her your business.”

“That’s different.”

By the time my breakfast arrives, I’ve learned that privacy is apparently not a recognized concept in Colter Creek.

Everybody knows everybody. Everybody talks. And if Betty Lou and Carrie Jo are representative samples of the local population, information travels through town faster than wildfire through dry grass.

Judging by the way they keep bringing up Red Bronson, word about our shameless flirting at The Silver Bit has already made the rounds.

Thankfully, nobody seems to know it didn’t end there, and I intend to keep it that way.

I spend the next ten minutes dodging questions with the skill of a seasoned criminal. Every answer I give somehow creates three new questions, and every attempt to redirect the conversation only seems to encourage them.

By the end, I’ve managed to convince them that my greatest love affair is with my guitar.

Carrie Jo looks openly skeptical.

Betty Lou looks amused.

Neither woman buys a word of it.

Eventually another customer needs coffee, somebody else’s order is ready, and the two of them finally move on to meddle in other people’s lives.

The second they’re out of range, I fish my phone from my pocket.

Arizona: You wouldn’t survive this town.

The reply arrives before I’ve even taken another bite of breakfast.

Daisy: Rude.

Arizona: They have betting pools.

Daisy: Please tell me it’s rodeo related.

Arizona: It’s about me.

A few seconds pass.

Daisy: Explain.

Arizona: They want updates on my sex life.

I can practically hear her laughing from three states away.