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me.”
    He nodded once. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
    Callie got out of the nice luxury beast he drove and then climbed in to the ancient POS truck she owned.
    Seated for ten seconds and she already missed the opulence of Clay’s ride. She had a long way to go for her own luxuries. But at least now, there was an actual chance she’d achieve them.
    Callie pulled out on to Main Street and pointed her vehicle south, headed for the highway that ran alongside her property. Clay pulled in behind her and together they drove the few miles to their respective properties.
    When Callie saw that Clay missed the turnoff to his property, she realized he was following her home. Even if no one was following her, he was. A gentleman and a friend. She knew he had other places to be tonight.
    Kissing him had been nice and safe, but it didn’t quite have the volcanic intensity of kissing Bo or Rafe. And that was her reason for doing it. She needed a comparison.
    After kissing Rafe in the barn, she needed to know if suddenly she’d become wanton and attracted to all men.
    Clay’s lips had been very nice. She might not miss an opportunity to kiss him again, if another one came along. However, kissing Bo and Rafe took her to an entirely different plane.

    * * * *

    Clay watched Callie speed onto her property in her beat-up blue pickup truck and remained at her gate until the rusty truck that had followed them earlier passed by.
    His gut told him someone had been following her. He pulled out and followed the rusty truck all the way to Kincaid’s ranch.
    He’d heard loose talk in town about a rivalry brewing between the two ranches about a week or so ago. He wasn’t interested in gossip, but a few malicious things had been mentioned. Given his feelings for Callie, he felt honor bound to ensure she stayed safe.
    She was his friend. His good friend. She’d been crucially helpful when she didn’t have to be back when he sought out buying the land that bordered hers for their Double Rider Men’s Club playground.
    He wouldn’t have even known about the property as it hadn’t gone up on the market yet. She’d been seated next to him at a diner counter. He’d been reading an outdated real estate section of the local paper trying to find not only the perfect place, but also scout the area in general for their purposes.
    She asked him if he was looking to buy. They had struck up a conversation and she had then told him about a piece of property that bordered hers. The owners were good people, but needed to sell before the bank took it from them due to some medical bills they’d incurred above what their insurance had covered.
    After a quick tour of the property, he’d known it was absolutely perfect.
    Callie had introduced him to the owners. He’d found out what they owed in the ways he had about finding certain pieces of information and offered them a good price over and above what they owed. It had still been a good deal for the perfect piece of property.
    He’d taken her out to lunch as a thank-you. She’d told him that it had been self-serving because she knew a man named Kincaid was sniffing after it, and he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to help her neighbors.
    They’d been good friends since. He didn’t see her often, but they always stopped to chat as they had today outside of the bank.
    Bo had wanted him to casually bring up their men’s club and gently explain the aspects of it to her if she asked. But she hadn’t. Clay figured he’d done enough matchmaking for one day. The three of them would have to do the rest.
    Callie also had one other remarkable trait. She reminded him of his former wife. So much so that he’d done another private search on Callie’s history to determine if the two were somehow related to each other. They weren’t related, but he’d discovered a couple of interesting things about one Calista Warren. He’d found secret things. But he’d never reveal them.
    She was his friend. She had helped