Page 75 of Dusty Spur Ranch Cowboys

That’s the thing about this town. A near-miss with a milkshake tray gets treated like a heroic act, and somehow everybody agrees that’s perfectly reasonable.

I can’t even pretend I don’t enjoy it.

The bell over the door jingles. Before I can look up to see who’s arrived, somebody calls my name from across the diner.

“Arizona!”

A blonde missile barrels toward me.

I barely manage to save my coffee before Sadie slams into the booth beside me, wrapping her arms around me like she’s been separated from me for six months instead of two days.

“Good to see you too,” I say, laughing.

Sadie grins. “I guessed right.”

She says it with the confidence of somebody announcing a proven scientific fact.

Emmett arrives several steps behind her, carrying the expression of a man who has already lost today’s argument and knows he’ll lose tomorrow’s too. “You absolutely did not know she’d be here.”

Sadie waves him off. “I guessed.”

Emmett looks at me.

I shrug. “I think she’s technically winning.”

“That’s the worst part,” he says. “She usually is.”

He slides into the booth across from us, hat pushed back, traces of an early morning still hanging around him. Ranch schedules operate on a level of commitment I personally find concerning.

“I get up before sunrise to run a ranch,” he says, reaching for a menu he won’t actually read. “She wakes up five minutes later and somehow runs me.”

Sadie beams. “I’m helping.”

“Tyranny.”

Sadie seems delighted by this answer.

Betty Lou appears at the table carrying a fresh mug of coffee before Emmett says a word. “Your usual?”

“You know me too well.”

“I know everybody too well.” She sets the mug down, then fixes Sadie with a look. “No pie before dinner.”

Sadie’s hand flies to her chest. “But I love pie! I can have cake though…”

A snort escapes Betty Lou before she can stop it. “Nice try,” she says, heading toward another table.

Sadie shrugs. “She liked my idea.”

“It was definitely a no.”

I shake my head and take another sip of coffee.

Talking to Sadie is like jumping onto a moving train and hoping it eventually circles back to the original subject. Somehow she makes every conversation feel like an adventure she started three steps ago and forgot to tell anyone about.

The strangest part is that I never seem to mind catching up.

Sadie suddenly gasps so loudly that a couple people at the next table look over.