“I guess you think I was never your age? My cabins are pretty much booked with just a day here and there we have an empty one. No chance for you to settle in one this summer. But, I got a little behind around here, stuff I usually get done in March before it all starts still needs doing. There’s things that Tom and his kids don’t have the time for or can’t handle and I’m just getting back in my swing. Stuff I’m talking about takes a little muscle.”

“We’ll get it all done, Sully. But, if there’s no cabin...”

“Don’t worry about it. I never even heard you last night, starting around three...” He grinned. “You’re a nice guy. Maggie’s a grown woman. I make no judgment. Besides, after what I saw her do with that shotgun, she doesn’t need me to run interference for her.”

“All right, look...” Cal rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “I’m not taking your money. I’ll earn my keep.”

“And then some,” Sully said. He smiled slyly.

Cal supposed he’d adjust. The problem wasn’t having sex with Maggie in her father’s house while her father slept in the room across the hall; it was doing that in her father’s house without being married to her, with no plans to marry her. It was a great dichotomy, considering the way Cal grew up. The weird things his parents were into, not the least of which was his father’s dope, and everything from nudism to Wicca, did not foster this conservative thinking. Of course none of their interests were as challenging as those long stretches of time Jed thought the government was monitoring his thoughts or, more fun yet, thinking he had been personally chosen by Jesus to be the next savior of the world. But conservative worries about whether or not a person was married? It never came up.

How I ever got out of that nuthouse with a working brain is a miracle, he thought.

“There’s one thing,” Sully said. “Sit tight.” He went into the back room and came back with an envelope. “This came for you.”

Cal looked at the return address of the Colorado Supreme Court. He smiled. “Thanks, Sully. I’ve had an eye out for this. It was nice to know if it came while I was on the trail you’d hold it for me.”

“You in some kind of trouble?”

“Trouble?” He laughed. “Oh no, Sully. Just a little legal business. Never mind the Supreme Court envelope, this came from a clerk. Sully, when you’re in trouble they send the police and handcuffs, not a letter. This is a license.”

“For the truck?” he asked.

“No,” Cal said. “No, I’ve worked in the court system. Been a while now, but if I need a job in Colorado it can’t happen without registering and getting permission. The courts don’t readily trust out-of-towners.”

“You mean like a court reporter or paralegal or something like that?”

“Something like that. I told you, I’ve had a lot of jobs, from stocking shelves and picking vegetables to putting on a tie and shuffling paperwork.”

“But you’re hanging around here?”

“That okay by you?” Cal asked. “I like the pace. And I like Maggie.”

“You gonna give a better explanation about that license to her?”

“Absolutely. But it’s not urgent. I’m planning to work for you now.”

“Listen, she doesn’t need anyone to protect her, but I’m her father. I’d hate to have to ask Tom to beat you up.” He rubbed his chest with his knuckles. “If I have to do it, I’ll just shoot you.”

Cal laughed, folded the unopened letter and stuffed it in his back pocket. “Sully, I don’t want her feelings hurt any more than you do. You know she’s going to go back to work, right?”