"So you'll be auctioning off a basket tomorrow, right? You plan on putting some good food in it?" Cole asks me.
My hand is on the handle of the door, and I know I could get out of this truck right now, but instead I turn to him. "Yeah, I'm going to make a cherry pie for my basket. Do you like cherry pie, Cole?"
He grins. "I love cherry pie. It's my favorite."
"Mine too. Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at the barn raising?"
"I reckon you will, Laura. I reckon you will."
3
COLE
After watching Laura walk to her door, I head over to the bunkhouse. I see my friend Luke sitting on the edge of his bed, putting on his boots.
"Hey," I say, "you just getting going for the day?"
He chuckles, "Yeah. I have a hangover after a bit of a wild night. We were over at Buddy's Bar on the edge of town."
I nod. "Was it a good time?"
"Yeah, it was all right. You should come out with us sometime."
"I'll think about it," I tell him, knowing I won't. I'm trying to save all the money I can so that when the timing is right and there's something I really want, I'll be able to buy it. I'm not going to piss my money away on booze.
Hell no, I have bigger goals. Things I want, and hell, Laura doesn’t go out drinking at that bar, so why the hell would I spend any time there?
"Hey," I tell him, "I heard about this picnic basket auction tomorrow after the barn raising."
Luke nods as he pulls open the bunkhouse door. The both of us walk outside, sitting on the stoop. "You just now hearing about that?” Luke chuckles. “They're having you work way too hard, Cole."
"Fair enough. When I’m not on shift here," I say, "I work every chance I get on my land, clearing it out to build a home."
"Good on you," Luke says, "but yeah, the auction and dance are a good fucking time. Everybody in town's there and all those girls from the Ladies’ Society make a big deal out of it. They make the best fucking food and they go all out with those baskets. They're all trying to one-up each other."
"You've gone before?" I ask him.
"Of course. I mean it's really the biggest social event of the year around here in this small town. Besides, where else are you gonna go for Valentine’s Day? The diner for coffee or the bar for beer. But if you want a date—you get yourself a basket."
"Whose basket did you win last year?"
"I won Tully’s. She left for college though. You've never met her. Anyways, we had a great time. Now she liked going to the bar. Even though she hadn’t even started college, she had a fake ID."
"Luke, you're trouble."
"You're just straightedge, man." He looks over at me, questioning. “There some basket you’re hoping to win?”
"I'm going to win Laura's. Laura Callaway's."
Luke laughs. "Damn Cole, go big or go home, right?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, you better bring plenty of money. They only take cash at that auction, but that girl's basket, Laura Callaway’s, always goes for the most. She's the princess of Plain. She may not have lived here her whole life, but everyone loves her."
"How much do the baskets usually go for?" I ask.
"On average, two, three hundred bucks."
I whistle. "Damn. You're not kidding?"
"I'm not," Luke says, "though I guess Laura's probably goes for twice that at least. That guy, Brady, who works down at the bank, he won hers last year, and I heard talk that he's planning on winning it again."
I scowl. "Where did you hear that?"
"At the bar," he says, slapping his knee. "Damn Cole, there's more reasons to go to the bar than just drink. It's where you get the gossip in town."
"I don't want gossip," I say.
"Okay, fine. You don't want gossip, but now you know you better bring cash tomorrow and a lot of it because Brady's planning on winning Laura's basket again. Turns out they must have had a pretty damn good time last year." Now it's his turn to whistle low.
I growl, "Don't say that about her. She didn't do anything with him."
"Oh yeah, you know that?"
I nod. "I do. She told me as much."
Luke grins. "I'm impressed. I didn't think you had the balls to go talk to that girl."
"You don't know shit about my balls," I say.
Luke laughs. "Whatever you say, cowboy, but you've been working here six months and you've never once gone out with a girl."
"Maybe it's because I'm not looking for a girl. It's because I already know what woman I want."
Luke looks me dead in the eye. "I respect that. Damn, I didn't realize you had your sights set on her. My bad."
"I guess I better get going," I tell him.