“One of your neighbors. He manages a ranch a few miles down the road in the other direction.”

“So he wasn’t just driving by.”

“Nope,” Russell said, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully as he looked out the door after Ben.

As he turned to her again, she said with a grin, “So he probably wasn’t just driving past like you were.”

He smiled and glanced around. “You find what you were looking for?”

“Who said I was looking for anything?”

He chuckled at that. “Have you had dinner, what they call supper up here?”

She shook her head. “The kitchen’s a mess,” she joked.

“I know a place that cooks up a pretty good steak in town. Unless, of course, you’re one of those vegetarians.”

“Do I look like a woman who can’t handle her beef?”

“No siree, you look like a woman who can handle most anything. But what exactly were you planning to do with that broom?”

Jolene was surprised and delighted when Tinker Horton called to ask her out. She hadn’t expected him back before the weekend.

“I know this is late notice, but I’m in town and I really was hoping you’d be up to having supper with me.”

The thought brightened her day instantly. It had been a terrible day and supper out was always a treat.

“I would love to,” she said with a laugh as she returned the unread short stories to her backpack again. At the rate things were going she wasn’t going to get them read and graded until later tonight.

“Do you mind if we meet in town? I’ve done all the driving I can stand for one day. I’ll make it up to you by taking you to Northern Lights.”

“You’re on. What time?”

They agreed on a time to meet and Jolene headed for the shower to get ready.

She’d met Thomas “Tinker” Horton her first week in Old Town Whitehorse. They’d run into each other at the Whitehorse Community Center when he’d asked her to dance. Tinker traveled from rodeo to rodeo as a bull rider. She got the feeling he didn’t make much money, but that he loved the notoriety since he was famous in this part of the state.

It seemed that he made it back home to Whitehorse more often since they’d met, she thought with a smile.

Tinker was four years older, thirty-three, but he didn’t act it. Nor did she see him as a potential boyfriend. They got along fine and seemed to enjoy each other’s company. But when he was gone, she didn’t miss him and suspected he felt the same way.

Tonight, though, she decided to wear her best dress. It was too fancy for even the Northern Lights, but she was so happy to be getting away from everything for the night, she was going all out.