Page 22 of Serious Cowboy

Because that wasn’t how it was between them. They were new, and they’d been heading—she’d thought—for something great. Something lasting.

Before she’d blown any chances right out of the water, anyway.

Even now, her brain burned with curiosity to know who exactly that pregnant girl in the photograph, a girl Zeke had looped an affectionate arm around, had been. Clearly someone important. Someone who mattered.

Maria.

Maria had looked to be around Zeke’s age, so it’d likely been a love interest. She hadn’t had the time to see if she’d beenwearing a ring or not. If she’d been wearingZeke’sring or not. Did Zeke have an ex out there somewhere? A child he never spoke about? Maybe a child he rarely if ever got to see?

Yet how could she ask these questions after what had happened? Wouldn’t she ever learn?

Looking back, her obnoxious curiosity had gotten her into trouble more than once. One time in school, Callie had access to her teacher’s laptop and had peeked at her grades, getting caught in the process. She’d been lucky to not be expelled. As it was, she’d had detention after school for a month. And that teacher—Ms. Parsons, her favorite—had never treated her the same again.

That should’ve taught her any lessons she’d needed to learn in that area, but apparently, it hadn’t. She was hard-headed and mulish, and now it’d bit her where the sun didn’t shine. Callie understood that whatever she and Zeke might’ve been building was probably lost forever.

After not sleeping all night, she paced around her little house the next morning feeling lost and ashamed of herself. Maybe if she apologized to Zeke… But no. Why would he listen to her now? Why ever trust her again after she’d so thoroughly breached that trust?

She didn’t know what to do.

Ultimately, with it being a Sunday, she knew her bestie would be off work today and decided to call her. Daisy had often been the voice of reason when life quit making sense in the past.

“Hey there, lady, long time no hear,” Daisy greeted her, and even though it was her typical welcome, Callie burst into tears.

And with those tears came her blubbering nonsensical explanation. “I’ve messed up, Daze. I’ve messed up bad.” She related the whole sordid mess to her best friend, relating to her every aspect of what had transpired between her and Zeke.

“Sweetie, it’s probably not as bad as you think it is,” Daisy soothed her.

“Yes, it is. I’ve destroyed all our chances, and I’ll never even know what’s been troubling him or why.” There she went again, letting her need to discover people’s personal business override her reason.

“It’s natural to be curious about those we have feelings for. You’re not an evil person for doing that, so stop beating yourself up. I’m sure you’ll be able to talk to him about this after he’s had an opportunity to think about things and calm down a little.”

“I don’t know,” Callie told her, a sinking feeling consuming her gut. “Tim warned me not to date him or go after him in any way and…” She trailed off, thinking about that warning.

Why had Tim warned her about staying away from Zeke? Had it truly been about being an overbearing big brother or had Tim known something about the man’s past that he’d wanted her to avoid?

“Wait,” Daisy spoke up when Callie didn’t continue. “Zeke is Tim’s best bud, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you asked him about this?”

“No, of course not. Zeke and I have been keeping our dating purposely under the radar where my brother is concerned.”

“Well, if it were me, I’ll give it a week to see if Zeke contacts you. It might just all blow over, and you’re freaking out over nothing.”

“And if I’mnotfreaking out over nothing?” Callie asked, feeling in her heart of hearts that Zeke contacting her at this point had some pretty long odds.

“You can either reach out to Zeke yourself or try another avenue.”

“What avenue?”

“The Tim avenue. You could fess up to your brother and ask to know what the deal is with his best buddy.”

But Callie had to counter that with another possibility. “What if he’s keeping Zeke’s confidence?”

“Then, that conversation might go nowhere. Or he might blow up at you for going against his wishes. But that’s not okay, either. Tim shouldn’t have ever attempted to forbid you from dating his friend without a good reason in the first place. Not that you couldn’t probably pick his brain without him realizing it.”

“What do you mean?”