Love in Lockdown by R. Frank Davis

Author:R. Frank Davis [Davis, R Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-64108-421-5
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2022-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Dante

MY HERO wants to leave me behind. I am not having it.

“You’ll be safe here,” he says, “with Lilly.”

“And you won’t be,” I counter, “not on the road alone.”

“It’s still a pandemic. Bad for your lungs. And it’s a two-day drive to the ranch.”

“And your big old car has a big old air conditioner to clean the air for us both.” I stare right at him. “C’mon, cowboy, let me ride shotgun. We can share the drive, get there faster.”

I get a snort, which with Conner is a step away from his surrender. But he raises again his one argument: “I don’t want to drag you into this, pardner.”

“I am in this because we are together. I will not let you face danger by yourself.”

If eye color reflects intensity, the two of us must be double sets of paired green laser pointers slashing across the library. We stand apart, probably because that is the only way we can ever be at odds. This summer, stolen from us by disease, made our roots grow more entangled. We are not even angry with each other; we are just being protective.

The inciting incident of this display of worried love is now autumn itself. Western drought and a fire season that’s burning like Hades’s well may be approaching Conner’s horse ranch. News media report a raging blaze in the Bighorn National Forest, and if it’s in the Bighorn, how safe can the Little Horn be? Yes, winds come from the west and south, but it would only take a minor switch to blow embers east to the ranch and maybe two dozen innocent horses. Conner hears from his ranch manager—I’m not sure how—that they are stuck between a rock and a hard place, between the Rockies and the Bighorn.

Jack has no idea what to do—except for selling the stock, underhanded, to a meat processing company. Conner needs to be there, both to stop the sale for slaughter and the potential fire-caused massacre. He says he can let the whole place go to blazes after that. But I was not at all happy to wake up this morning and find him preparing for a round-trip road trip of 2,600 miles. And planning it without me.

“No you don’t,” says I, and we’ve been at loggerheads ever since.

The morning argument got Lilly involved, and her big breakfast of sausage, eggs, and hush puppies cooled on the plates but kept Conner from riding out with no more than coffee. Our discussion of his plan and any monkey wrenches I threw into them took us to now, past noon.

“And it’s too late for you to take off,” I note.

Another snort. “Then I’ll leave in the morning, first thing.”

“I’ll be in the passenger seat,” I say, then head out of the room.

“You sure of that?” he says.

“You sleeping alone tonight?” I toss back. Even Lilly knows that is not going to happen.

“Where are you going?” he calls after.

“To charge my phone. We’ll need the GPS.”

For the rest of the day, Conner and I orbit each other.

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