Long Road Home by Joann Ross

couldn’t figure out how to turn around and get back down again.”
    “Oh, dear.” And so Jack. “Did someone go up and get him?”
    “We debated that and worried that too much could go wrong. So Coop drove over to the county maintenance lot and brought back the cherry picker the linemen use.”
    “I’ll bet he was in seventh heaven getting to ride in that.”
    Sawyer’s answering laugh sounded rough and rusty. As if he hadn’t used it a lot lately. “The trick will be to keep him from climbing up more high places just to get rescued again. Both Tom and Cooper gave him a stern lecture once his feet were back on the ground.”
    “Maybe it’ll actually take.” Austin wasn’t holding out a lot of hope.
    “So, you want to go?”
    “To dinner?”
    “Yeah. Friday night. At the New Chance.”
    Yes! “It sounds nice,” she said mildly. “You haven’t eaten there since Rachel took it over, have you?”
    “No. But I had some of her food at the party. It was really good and Cooper tells me she’s turned the place around.”
    “She’s beyond fabulous. I could see her as one of those TV Iron Chefs. People were afraid she was going to serve fancy New York City food. Not that they don’t have steak in New York, but you know.”
    “Yeah. Which would’ve gone over about as well as a vegan sprouts place,” he said.
    “True. But she somehow manages to take the western food people around here expect and are used to and elevate it. She even got Jake Buchanan to eat juniper-berry-encrusted venison with a red wine and crimini mushroom sauce.”
    “That sounds pretty damn good.”
    “It’s amazing. But you’re talking about a guy who’s always eaten his steak charred to the texture of a burnt boot.”
    “A cowboy mortal sin.”
    “Isn’t it? I’ve always found that strange since he’s a lifelong cattleman. Anyway, Rachel actually has him up to ordering medium well.”
    “By the time he’s a centenarian, he might have worked his way up to eating beef like it’s supposed to be eaten.”
    Austin laughed, feeling the knot in her stomach begin to loosen. This was more like old times, just two friends having an easy conversation. “I said she’s amazing. Not a miracle worker.”
    Sawyer seemed to be relaxing, as well. Those wide shoulders weren’t squared away as if he were standing at attention, and his smile appeared more genuine. More the way she remembered it. It was a half-smile that had always seemed to say, “You know that I know you want me.”
    Austin had seen it work its charm on baby girls in strollers to teenage girls to elderly ladies, like Edna Graham, who’d retired from her job as River’s Bend’s librarian back when they’d been in high school but still showed up a few hours a week to ensure that things continued to run properly.
    “So,” he said, breaking into a memory of Edna getting into tussles with a few of the less open-minded locals over her prominent display of banned books every year, “since we wouldn’t want to cause them to head out of town on their way to Ashland too late, I figured I could pick you up around five.”
    “You’re going to pick me up?”
    “Sure. We’re both going to the same place.”
    This time when he shrugged that tanned, scarred shoulder, Austin had a sudden urge to lick it. Then take a nip. Not a hard one. Just enough to leave her brand. “Doesn’t make sense to take two rigs,” he pointed out.
    Could it really be this easy? Deciding that when Heather got back from her anniversary trip, she was going to treat them both to a spa day over in K. Falls, Austin smiled. “Five sounds great.” Deciding to leave now, before he changed his mind or she caved in to the impulse to just jump him, she said, “I’ve got to go feed the horses.”
    “Thanks again for the flowers,” he said as he walked her the few feet to the door.
    “No problem. They were just growing there, after all.” She was on the porch when she turned and looked back at him. He