"Thank you, Rick, this looks great. Did you make this?"
He handed me a bottle of soda and sat down with a chuckle.
"No, I'm not much of a cook. Pam Acres prepared that. Her old man runs up quite a tab at the bar, so she settles up with food sometimes."
I dug in, and couldn't recall anything more hearty. I wasn't graceful. I inhaled the vegetables and hunks of meat. It could have been beef, but something was off about it. Not off in the flavor, it was amazing. But it wasn't quite like anything I'd ever eaten.
"Well, my compliments to Mrs. Acres. This is fantastic," I said, between a sip of soda and another forkful of meat. "But I can't quite place the meat. What is it?"
Rick laughed, a comforting belly laugh. "Sorry, Belle, sometimes I forget that everybody wasn't blessed to be from Montana. That's grizzly bear. Hayes shot that on the Acres ranch last week. Big sow. She'd been getting a little too close to some of Thad Acres' livestock."
I dropped my fork for a moment and took a big swig of my drink.
"I'm eating bear?"
"You are, and you aren't finished. That's what's in the cooler over there. We don't get it often, but when we do, it goes a long way. That bear weighed almost four hundred and fifty pounds." Rick grinned, clearly proud.
"I feel bad for the bear," I said.
"I could have sworn you were eating sausage at breakfast the other day. Did you feel bad for the pig? Because I've never run for my life from a pig. But as far as a bear is concerned, you and I are somewhere down the food chain. They're beautiful animals, but when they pose a threat to a man's life or livelihood, somebody has to do something."
What he said made sense, and I stirred the contents of my bowl, trying to focus on the vegetables, but ultimately giving up and going back for more meat.
"So, how'd it go last night? Huck tells me you handled yourself like a pro," Rick said, sitting down across from me.
"He did?" I said. "Well, I think I kept up pretty well, it can get pretty crazy in there. But he and I made a good team behind the bar, I think. I hope I survived the audition."
"I'm sold on you, Belle, but you already knew that. Give Huck a little more time, he'll come around."
I shook my head, "I hope so, but ever since the day we met, it seems like he's hated me. I hope I'm not out of line for asking, but why is he so rude toward me? Did I do something, or is he not a fan of women in general?"
Rick laughed again. "No, no, Huck definitely likes women, and you didn't do anything wrong except show up and look pretty. And there's nothing wrong with that."
"Well, if you have any advice as to how I can get along better with him, I'm all ears. If I'm going to be working with him, for him, it would help if he'd at least be cordial with me," I replied. I looked down at the bowl and was disappointed to see that only vegetables were left.
Rick strolled over to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of beer he must have just put in there. He took a long draw and took a hard look at the label before setting it down and opening up to me.
"Huck just doesn't know how to trust women. So the more attracted he is to a woman, the more of an asshole he becomes. I guess he figures that if he's prickly enough, they'll leave him alone and he won't have to risk another Amber Halliday."
"Amber Halli-who?" I asked.
"Miss Amber Halliday. Only the prettiest girl to ever walk the halls of Whitmer High School. Or at least that's what Huck thought. Hell, all three of them Calloway brothers were after her, along with every other boy who laid eyes on her."
"By any chance do you have another one of those beers?" I interrupted.
"Absolutely," Rick replied, grabbing one for me, popping the top, and handing it to me as I finished the last of my stew.
"Amber and Huck started dating the summer before their junior year. They were homecoming king and queen, prom king and queen, best couple in the yearbook, all that sort of stuff. Huck had a football scholarship to State all lined up. But she talked him out of it. Her ambition extended no further than the county line. Everybody tried to convince him to go play football, or to accept a minor league baseball contract; he was a good enough athlete to play any sport he wanted. But Amber had him convinced that if he left Whitmer, he'd lose her. So he said ‘thanks, but no thanks' to the recruiters and the scouts, and he set about planning a life with Amber, turning her into Amber Calloway.
"A couple months after they graduated, Huck and his brothers were gone for a week to their cabin up in the mountains, elk hunting, and this big oil drilling outfit rolled into town. They talked about buying up ranches, taking big swaths of land, and how they believed there was all this oil around Whitmer. How many jobs it would create, how beneficial oil fields would be to the local economy. The lead man on the project was this slick dude with a fancy suit and thousand dollar boots and a big truck. Well, Amber took one look at this guy and decided that he was the star she was gonna hitch her wagon to. Never mind small-town Huck, and never mind that she cost Huck his opportunity to be somebody. She was blinded by the guy throwing around these big numbers and making all sorts of promises. And the dickhead took one look at Amber and he was smitten. The two of them went to Great Falls together, where Mr. Bigshot wined her and dined her, and next thing you know, she forgot all about Huck.
"Anyway, the boys came back from that hunting trip and Huck had decided while he was up in the mountains that he was going to propose to Amber. So on the way back to Whitmer, they had to drive past the Halliday property, so he pulled off and went to visit her father to ask his permission. He wanted to surprise her. I guess they'd gone into the city and he'd bought a ring and everything.
"So he sat right there on Ed Halliday's porch and made a fool of himself. Told Ed how much he loved Amber, how he wanted to provide for her and raise a family with her, everything a father would want to hear from his future son-in-law. And at the end of the whole thing, Ed had to break the news that Amber had run off to Great Falls with that oil dude. Who, by the way, turned to be all hat and no cattle. He'd spent every dime he had on himself, on his image. He was a con man. He didn't make a dime in Whitmer, but he did break my nephew's heart into about a million pieces.
"A few years later, Amber came back to town with a baby in tow, and she tried to rekindle something with Huck, but he wouldn't give her the time of day. He was a man by then and not someone so easily swindled. One night a year after she left he confessed to me he'd never really loved her. That her showing her true colors ended up being a gift to him. She was just the first girl he'd ever tried to love, but there'd never been a true connection between them. Just common geography. But he did resent her for keeping him from a bigger destiny.
Now how all that pertains to you, all I can say is that he's walled himself off from beautiful women ever since. But I haven't ever seen it quite this bad. Which means, for what it's worth, that he must think you're about as pretty as a field of daisies blooming in a meadow in the springtime."
Rick raised his glass to toast me and my supposed beauty, but all I felt was sad for Huck. And for me.
And not even a little bit for Amber Halliday.
Rick filled my freezer with bear meat and excused himself. "I have four more coolers to deliver before all the ice melts."
When he left, I grabbed a fresh beer from the fridge and drank it slowly, trying to talk myself out of getting involved with a man as deeply wounded as Huck Calloway.
Who was I kidding? He could barely stand being in the same room with me.
But I understood the kind of heartbreak he'd experienced with Amber. I was living it myself. Even when you don't love someone, they can still hurt you and damage you beyond repair.
Especially when you know that if it weren't for them, your life would be somewhere else. Where you could be happy.
I shook my head. I couldn't think about that. Huck Calloway was my boss. And, I supposed, technically my landlord.
And Whitmer wasn't my permanent fate. It was just a rest stop for now. Until I could figure out my ultimate destination.
6
Thursday night was twice as busy as Wednesday. But I had to admit, it wasn't even close to as enjoyable without Huck there. Apparently Thursdays were his night off. His brother Hayes worked behind the bar with me instead.
Hayes Calloway might have looked like his brother, but that was where the similarities ended. Where Huck was cold and aloof, Hayes Calloway was all warmth and big smiles. And tons of questions. The man loved to talk.