Big Easy (Cowboy Craze)

by Sable Hunter

  “Yea, you saw that, Jewel Baptiste, then you went and did…what you did last night anyway.”

  Just that quick, her mind turned to Ezekiel Blackhawk.

  Buzz! Buzz!

  And in the next second, the phone rang. As if she’d conjured him with her thoughts, Jewel knew Easy was on the other end of the line. What she didn’t know was she would say to him.

  Placing the broom next to the door, she returned inside to take the call.

  …Easy held his breath, waiting for Jewel to pick up. Two rings. Three rings. “Come on, baby. I need to talk to you.”

  “Hello?”

  “Ah, treasure, so good to hear your voice.” Easy let out a relieved breath. “I missed you this morning.”

  “You did?”

  “Oh, hell yeah.” He slowed down to make a turn, watching to make sure the gooseneck trailer he was towing cleared the curb with room to spare. “I didn’t want to call too early, I thought you might be sleeping in.”

  Jewel shivered at the sweetness of his words. “I’ve been up awhile.”

  “You feeling okay?”

  There was a teasing lilt to his voice. “I feel fine.”

  “Oh, you are – fine, that is.”

  “You feel okay?” she asked, ignoring his flirtatious comment.

  “Oh, I’m great. Looking forward to seeing you tonight.”

  Jewel almost doubled over with self-inflicted pain. “Okay. We need to talk.”

  Easy chuckled. “Oh, I certainly intend to do more than talk.”

  Jewel opened her mouth to say something, but was saved from responding when a car horn honked.

  “I got to go, baby. I’m at the sale barn. By the time the day is over, Belle Chasse will be back in the cattle business.”

  “Okay. Be careful,” she couldn’t help but tell him.

  “You have a good day, Miss Jewel. I’ll see you later.”

  The line went dead just as she whispered, “Bye, Easy.”

  * * *

  Sitting cross-legged on the dock, Jewel stared at the red and white bobber floating on top of the water. She was pooped. After a thorough house cleaning, grocery shopping was the next order of business. A trip into Thibodeaux proper was never high on her list of fun things to do but all in all, today hadn’t been all bad.

  Bloop!

  Her eyes flew to the bobber. “I gotta another bite!”

  Standing to her feet, she held onto the cane pole, ready for a fight. If she was lucky, this would be another whopper catfish.

  While she waged war with her evening entrée, Jewel recalled what happened in the produce section of the local Piggly-Wiggly.

  Whoever first advised against food shopping while hungry was very wise. Jewel found herself piling fruit in her buggy like it was going out of style. Bananas. Grapes. Berries. Tangerines.

  When she rounded a huge display of apples, Jewel noticed a woman standing at a card table handing out some small white cups full of fruit salad. Several people were standing around, including a man holding a little boy’s hand. While she watched, the boy pointed toward one of the cups and the father stepped forward to claim one for him. As he did, warning bells went off inside Jewel like a dozen fire alarms. Pushing her buggy to one side, she raced forward before the youngster could empty the contents of the cup into his mouth.

  “Stop!”

  Reaching out her hand, Jewel grabbed the cup from the boy’s hand and crushed it in her palm. The father looked at her like she was crazy.

  “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Lychee fruit. There’s lychee fruit in the mix and your son’s highly allergic.”

  At her frantic declaration, the father’s face blanched pale. He looked to the store clerk and she nodded. Jewel watched him visibly lurch, weak in the knees. “Thank you,” he told Jewel, coming toward her, still holding onto his son. “Thank you. So much. I should’ve checked.”

  “No problem. Glad I could help.”

  The man held out his hand. “Davis Vaughan and this is my son, Lucky, which he was today. We both were. Thanks to you.”

  “I’m Jewel Baptiste. Good to meet you.” She accepted and returned his handshake.

  “How…?” Davis shrugged his shoulder, glancing down at Lucky.

  Jewel noted the people standing around them, looking more than interested. “Intuition.” She took her buggy by the handle and angled it away. “I’m glad I happened along when I did. I hope you two have a good day.”

  “Wait.” Davis stopped her. “I’d like to thank you. Properly.”

  Jewel saw him check out her left hand. “Uh. I was just glad to be in the right place at the right time.”

  “Excuse me.” A woman behind Jewel cleared her throat. “I need to pass.”

  “Oh, of course. I need to run.” She gave the father and son a friendly smile and started to go on her way – and then stopped. “The Epi-Pen you have with you will fail. Throw it away and get a new one.”

  “I got you!” Jewel set the line, then held the pole high to bring the catfish out of the water. While she removed it from the hook and placed it in the small cooler, Jewel remembered what she’d seen in her head when she saw the boy reach for the fruit cup. Him fighting for breath, turning blue. The ambulance not arriving in time.

  After rebaiting her hook, she returned it to the water, her thoughts continuing on about the boy and his allergy. Upon arriving at home, she did a bit of research and found that complaints about the failure of the life-saving device had doubled since 2016, with seven known deaths attributed to those failures in 2017. Extreme temperature fluctuations could render them useless, as could exposure to bright light. Jewel shuddered to think how horrible it would be for a parent to place their faith in something like an overpriced Epi-Pen and then have it fail their child.

  Sitting down on the dock, Jewel studied the surrounding area, the opposite bank, and the water at her feet. She tried to be ever vigilant for gators and snakes. As much as she loved her home, those dangers were still ever-present. Her perusal didn’t turn up anything.

  Unlike her foray into the realm of social media this afternoon.

  While on the computer, Jewel succumbed to temptation and checked Easy out on social media. She didn’t often visit Facebook – her page was pretty stale. Still, it gave her an avenue to search and find the man she found herself beyond curious about. When she located his page, it was obvious he didn’t visit it any more often than she did hers. What was different, however, was the number of photos showing up on his page where he’d been tagged by others. These photos all featured Easy with a beautiful woman. Jewel found herself feeling dizzy as she examined them. Even more disturbing were the comments beneath the photos.

  Asshole. Never called me back.

  Don’t date this Casanova. He’s a player.

  Easy Sucks!

  Jewel had slammed the lid down, unable to look at anymore.

  So, here she sat, fishing for her supper. Doing anything she could to occupy herself and think about any and everything but him.

  It wasn’t working.

  Bloop!

  Another fish took the bait and this brought her to her feet – and off the dock.

  This was no fish!

  With an exclamation of surprise, she was jerked into the water. “Oh, hell.” She’d hooked a damn gator.

  …Having just arrived, Easy was making his way over to Jewel’s when he heard her cry. Immediately, he took off in a run. “Jewel! Where are you?”

  “Get back you overgrown lizard!”

  “Oh, fuck.” Easy sped off, cutting through the backyard, jumping bushes with his heart in his throat. “I’m coming, Jewel!”

  When he emerged onto the boardwalk, Easy sprinted to the bayou. Seeing Jewel swimming toward the bank with an alligator in her wake – he didn’t even hesitate. Easy dove in, cutting downstream through the water with powerful strokes. As Jewel pulled herself out of the water, the alligator lunged toward, mouth gaping. Just be
fore its great jaws could snap on her leg, Easy jumped square on its back.

  Scrambling from the water’s edge, Jewel fully expected to feel teeth tearing at her flesh at any moment. When she didn’t, the panic subsided enough for her to hear the commotion in the water behind her. Whirling, she gasped in disbelief to see Easy fighting the alligator, rolling in the water. She couldn’t help it, she screamed, “Oh, my God, Easy!”

  Without a weapon, all Easy had to defend himself with was his fist. Drawing back, he hit the gator as hard as he could between the eyes. The blow stunned it enough for Easy to break away and make for the bank.

  “Give me your hand!” Jewel leaned out to help Easy to shore. “Are you all right?”

  Easy accepted her help, pulling himself up and out of the bayou. “Yea. Are you?”

  Jewel nodded, the ramifications of what nearly happened making her weak. Instead of falling to her knees, she threw her arms around Easy’s neck and held on. “Oh, thank you. Thank you. You saved me!”

  Pulling her to him, Easy let himself breathe for the first time since seeing her fighting to stay out of the jaws of danger. “Of course, I did.”

  As the shock drained from her body and the realization of their situation settled in, Jewel began to cry. “Every day. Every day you arrive just in time.”

  “Why, sure.” Easy rubbed her back. “That’s why I’m here. Must be fate.” He knew he was rambling, but the reality of what could’ve happened was settling in. “What did you do before I came?”

  “I don’t know.” She also didn’t know what she was going to do when he left. “Let’s get into some dry clothes.” Stepping out of his embrace, Jewel headed toward the dock where she’d been fishing.

  Easy followed along with her. “We look like two drowned rats, treasure.” As they walked, he raked a shaky hand over his face and into his hair. “Why did you decide to take a swim?”

  Jewel scoffed. “I didn’t. I was fishing.” She pointed at the cooler as she headed toward it. “I guess you could say I caught more than I bargained for.”

  “Let me.” Easy picked up the cooler, noting her pole floating in the bayou. “I guess the line broke. You want me to get it?”

  Jewel grabbed his arm. “No. Leave it.” She glanced around, looking for the alligator who’d tried to attack her. “There it goes, just like nothing happened.” Jewel nodded toward the reptile as it swam a few dozen yards away. “Do you know I probably fed that a-hole when it was a baby?”

  Easy laughed. “Like Betty White in Lake Placid?”

  “Yea, pretty much.” Jewel pushed her hair from her eyes as they trekked back to her house. “Ungrateful beast.”

  “I’m sure it was nothing personal, treasure. You can’t blame an animal for acting on instinct.”

  “No, I know.” She walked a little faster, needing to put some distance between her and the unsettling incident. “I’ve lived on the banks of Bayou Lafourche all my life. I’ve swam in those waters time and time again. I’ve never been attacked before.”

  Easy shook his head, her confession making him feel unsettled. “Well, I’d say you’ve been fortunate.”

  “I won’t put myself into jeopardy again, I assure you,” she said as they neared her back door.

  “I’m going to run home and change.” Easy carried the cooler to her back entrance, then left by the left fork in the trail. “I’ll be right back. Okay?”

  “You don’t have to. I’m fine.”

  Easy stopped in his tracks. “I thought we had plans.”

  “I don’t have anything cooked.” She didn’t feel like frying the fish in her cooler. “Maybe, we should…” Frankly, she was so confused, she didn’t know what to do – what to say to him.

  “Food is not my main concern.” He gave her a very pointed look over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll bring over some cold cuts, we’ll make a sandwich.”

  He didn’t give her time for further argument, so she went on in to clean up and change clothes. First, she dealt with the fish, putting the filets in the freezer for later. Next, she showered off the bayou water, noting the single scrape on her leg left by a sharp stick as she’d frantically clawed her way up the bank and away from the alligator’s sharp teeth. Absorbing the reality of her near-miss with death, Jewel sank to her knees, letting the warm water from the faucet overhead cascade over her body.

  “Jewel?”

  The unexpected sound of Easy’s voice caused Jewel to jump up so fast she had to steady herself on the shower wall. “Be out in just a minute!” she called through the shower curtain.

  “I’ll start some food!”

  Knowing he was making himself at home just added to her lack of certainty. Once she was dry, Jewel pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then went to join Easy in the kitchen.

  “Louisiana Moon…cast its spell on me.”

  Hearing him sing in his husky, sexy voice made Jewel shiver with delight. “You’ve got a good voice.”

  “Whoa!” He jumped and jerked, dropping a slice of tomato on the floor. “You snuck up on me.”

  With a laugh, she picked up the tomato, throwing it in the garbage. “You wrestled an alligator with your bare hands – yet I scare you?”

  “Not scare, my beauty. Surprise.” He stepped close and kissed her full on the lips. “You have taken me completely by surprise.”

  “Easy, we need to talk.”

  A sudden chill brushed by Easy. He didn’t know if it was a spirit or a foreboding. “Eat first. Talk after.” Putting the finishing touches on the two club sandwiches, he sat a plate in front of Jewel, then pulled out her chair so she could sit down. “So, how was your day?”

  Instead of sitting, she went to the fridge and pulled out two soft drinks. “I thought we were saving the talk for later.”

  “This is conversation, there’s a difference.” He tore two paper towels from a roll at the far end of the table and placed one by her plate. “I spent the day in a smelly sale barn bidding on cattle.”

  Jewel waved her hand around. “I cleaned house. Did some grocery shopping. Went fishing and nearly bought the farm.” She shuddered at the thought, having to put down the sandwich in her hand to keep from dropping it. “Lord, Easy, what if you hadn’t been here?”

  Easy took her hand across the table. He’d thought the same thing. What if he’d been ten minutes later? What if he’d caught a couple more red lights on the way home? “But I was here. With you. For you.”

  Jewel felt emotion well up in her like a rising tide. “Easy…”

  Sensing she was about to say something he didn’t want to hear Easy used an old tactic. Evasion. “Eat. Remember?” Taking his own advice, he picked up his sandwich. “What were you like as a little girl?”

  The question took Jewel by surprise. “Well, I was self-entertaining. I played by myself.” She pointed out the window toward her fairy garden. “Spent a lot of time out there. Pretending.”

  “Pretending you were what?”

  Jewel blushed as she picked at a crust of bread on her plate. “Oh…let’s see.” She tapped her finger on her bottom lip. “A fairy princess, obviously. I even had a pair of wings.” A smile appeared on her face. “I also imagined I was a vampire. I think I’d been reading too much Anne Rice at the time.”

  He laughed at the thought. “I used to pretend I was white.”

  His answer shocked Jewel. “What? Well, you are…mostly.”

  “Half. In some people’s eyes – none at all.” Easy held up his arm and looked at his bronzed skin. “Of all the Blackhawk brothers, I took most after our mom. I’m a trifle lighter skinned. My hair is a shade or two lighter than ebony.” He touched his chin. “I can grow a little more scruff than my brothers can.”

  “So, what did you do when you were imagining you were white?”

  Easy considered her question. “Ah, you’ll laugh. I was just a little kid.”

  “I won’t laugh.” She promised him. “Tell me.”

  “All right.” He wip
ed his fingers on the napkin, leaning back in his chair. “I always imagined I was at a city council meeting.”

  “A what?” Jewel frowned, picking up by his tone of voice how important this was to him.

  He clasped his hands together. “Once, when I was about six, I remember going with my dad to a meeting at city hall. Several landowners were there to speak against some type of ordinance and my dad was one of them.” His face clouded as he remembered. “Even though there were chairs available, I can recall these men making my dad and me stand up in the back of the room. Also, when the time came for him to speak, the guy conducting the meeting wouldn’t recognize him.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. And you think it’s because he was Native American?”

  “Oh, yea. No doubt. Years later, we talked about it.”

  “That’s crazy.” Jewel felt so bad for him. “Although, I can relate in a way. I tried to go with a friend to a church function and they wouldn’t let me in the door.”

  “Because…” He didn’t know how to put his suspicion into words.

  “My family’s reputation for the…arts.” Jewel smiled sadly.

  “Ignorant hateful people,” Easy muttered as he stood to pick up their dishes. “I want to have things in common with you, but not stuff like that.”

  “Probably made us stronger,” she mused. “In any case, you have to know how amazing you are. You’re a good man. Plus, you’re gorgeous.”

  Her compliment took him by surprise. “Really?” Easy couldn’t help but grin. “You think I’m gorgeous?”

  Jewel moved to help him with the cleanup. “Oh, you know you are. Women have been falling at your feet for years.”

  “Don’t worry about the others. I’m only interested in what you think about me.” What might have been a line he used at one time was absolute truth with Jewel. “We had a good time last night, didn’t we?” he asked as he put the leftover cold cuts back into the plastic bag.

  “We did.” She blushed at the memory.

  “You are an incredible lover.” He came close enough to run a finger down her cheek. “I can’t wait to make love to you again.”

  “Oh, Easy.” She stared at him, searching for his thoughts in the depths of his big golden eyes. “I can’t do this.”