“She was askin’ about horses,” he said. “Maybe she got one and headed down the road?”
I shook my head. “I checked. She didn’t. Mind if I just sit over there and wait?”
“Not at all,” he said, reaching down and grabbing a glass. Before I could think of a reason to stop him that sounded good, he poured me another glass of the carrot juice.
“On me,” he said, sliding the glass toward me across the bar. “Just tell your friend when you see her that she still owes me a surprise.”
“Oh, trust me,” I said. “When she promises a surprise, she always pays off.”
He didn’t know how truthful that statement was.
He beamed at that and I took my glass of juiced carrots and went over and sat down so I could see out the window. The shadows were growing long and the heat was leaving the main street of Evade. It looked as if the nights in this area were pretty chilly. I was glad I hadn’t decided to go up to the cliffs just for that reason.
Let alone whatever a round-up was.
I took a sip of the carrot juice just to quench my thirst, than sat back and watched the few people still out on the street. They all seemed to have tasks and walked purposefully, tipping their hats to each other.
An hour later I had managed to sip down almost half a glass of the juice.
My bartender friend was looking a little worried, and the shadows were almost completely across the street. I figured there wasn’t much more than a half-hour until sunset.
“I’m afraid I got to close up, you know,” he said finally after pacing back and forth a few times near the bar. “You got a place to bunk for the night?”