Wesley looked at the hat as he pulled it down off the hat rack. It'd hung there for well over two months, the silent prayer hanging in the air that the girl he'd loaned it to would come back. But as it stood, it had been nearly three months. He ran his thumb across the buckle on the hat band and sighed, tucking the hat back into the box he'd dug it out and put it back up in the closet where it'd been for years. Even in the three months she'd been gone, Wesley couldn't get Lacey King out of his mind. He'd wrestled many restless nights with an empty bed and pillows. He'd woken up many mornings, tasting her sweet kiss on his lips. He sighed sadly as he closed the closet.
Wesley had invited everybody over for a cook-out tonight. The hands and everybody would be over soon. Lance told him he'd be over early to help get things on the table. The cook sure enjoyed the night off. If there was one thing Wes was good at, it was grilling steaks. He made the best meat in the west, according to a lot of cowboys.
Lance kicked the door once to act as a knock before barging right in, his arms full of paper plates and napkins and what not that Carolyn had sent down from the big house. "Hey, how 'bout a hand, pardner?" he said, glancing up just in time to see Wesley putting the hat he'd given Lacey back in the closet.
"Oh... yeah." He reached to take the cups that were about to topple off the top from the pile, also taking the bag of silverware Carol had packed up all nice. "Thanks for doing that. Was about to head up there myself."
Lance looked at his friend and then back at the closet, jerking his head a bit towards it. "Giving up?" he said gently, not wanting to start an argument but simply curious. He and Wesley had argued about Lacey many times over since she had driven away. Lance had always prodded his friend to do something, anything, call her, hell, even go after her, but Wesley never would.
Wesley just smirked. "Puttin' it away." He pushed past his friend to open up the swinging gates that mimicked the old-time saloons into the kitchen, showing him the table he'd put together with a nice table cloth and such.
Lance followed him, casting another glance back towards the closet, and then set the items down, letting the whole topic of Lacey rest for the night. He just nodded and turned towards the table with a grin. "Not too bad for a cowboy," he said. "What do you need me to do?"
"Set the dishes on the island there. There's potatoes in the oven, and Carolyn's bring over God only knows what. She was fussin' 'bout needin' more. I just lit the grill a little bit ago."
Lance chuckled and moved to set the dishes out, not sure if he was doing it right, but not really caring either. Hell, everyone was going to be digging in so fast it wouldn't matter where the plates were, or in what order. "Sounds good ... what struck you to do something like this?" he asked, glancing over at his friend. His spirits were higher than they had been in a long time. "Some special occasion?"
He scratched the back of his head. Now that was a good question. "I dunno, really. Just wanted to do somethin' nice." The truth was, he missed the cook-outs they'd had when Anne was around. She'd always hold a party of some sort every weekend for the hands during the summer whether it be their grill, a church social, or just tuna sandwiches and chips around a fire. It made everybody feel like a family around here, and he missed it. But there was something else. Something that had been nagging him for weeks and he couldn't put his finger on it.
Lance looked at him a moment and then shrugged, taking a look at the handiwork he had done on the table. "Eh, it's the best you're gonna get outta me," he said with a lopsided grin. He rubbed his nose and then sniffed, following the delicious scent of meat cooking out onto the back deck just as another knock sounded.
"Yoo hoo!" Carolyn waited patiently by the doorway, two cake containers balanced on top of one another.
Wesley went to the front door and pushed the screen open. Tick came running through the house yapping up a storm, wiggling all over as Carolyn walked in. Wes reached to take one of the cakes from her. "Carolyn... you shouldn't have."
Carolyn laughed and brushed past him, "There's a lot more of that in the car," she said. She stopped long enough to peck his cheek with a twinkle in her gray-blue eyes. "Gimme that one back and why don't you head out to the car to get some more?"
