Caleb had never had a girlfriend, which was fine when you were a kid, or when you lived in the remote wilds of interior Alaska and might not see a single woman for months on end. Here in the town of Painted Barrel, Wyoming, though, he felt his lack of social skills acutely.

Very, very acutely.

Because Caleb was in love.

Just thinking about love made him reach into his pocket and pull out his bandanna to mop the sweat on his brow. Love was difficult even in the best of times, but when you had trouble speaking to women, it was pure torture. Every time he got up the nerve to talk to a woman, it ended badly.

There was that time he had a crush on a cute bar waitress back in Alaska whom he’d blushed and stammered over until she thought he was mentally unsound.

There was a girl who had worked at her uncle’s game-processing shop one summer. He’d gone there often all summer just to try to speak to her. He’d paid other hunters through the nose for their kills so he’d have some excuse to go into the shop. When he did finally get up the nerve to talk to the object of his affections, she thought he was creepy because he was “killing so many animals” and she wanted nothing to do with him. There were a few other passing women he’d managed to somehow insult without meaning to.

And now there was Miss Amy Mckinney, one of two elementary school teachers in Painted Barrel.

The moment he’d looked at her, he’d been in love. Amy had a gorgeous face and a smoking-hot body, but what he liked most about her was that she was kind. Or she seemed to be. He hadn’t quite got the nerve up to talk to her himself. He’d been around when she was talking to other people, though.

He might have showed up at several PTA volunteer meetings just to hear her talk. Not that he had kids. He didn’t usually volunteer, either. But he showed up anyhow, because he’d get to watch her from afar, see her smile at others as she talked easily, and wish he wasn’t such a damned idiot the moment he talked to a pretty woman.

Today, though, he had a reason to talk to her. His brother Hank was out in one of the distant pastures, and Caleb had been cleaning out the barn when Hank had texted and said his horse was limping and he was going to walk it in, but that meant he’d be a few hours, and Hank’s daughter, Libby, needed to be picked up from school.