“You all are not helping,” he repeated. “I’m trying to win her heart. I need to make sure she knows I’m coming back to Hope.”
“Are you?” Dixie asked. “When?”
“Next week. I’ve decided I’m getting too old for bullfighting. Or maybe I just don’t love it like I used to.”
“You’re going to quit?” Dixie’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, I’m quitting. I’m going to raise some cattle, start a business I’ve been thinking about and hopefully get married.”
Dixie hugged him tight. “I’m going to be your best man.”
“You’re eleven,” he reminded her. “But first we have to catch us a bride.”
“Good luck with that,” Daisy mumbled.
“Thanks for the optimism.”
“I’m just saying, this might not be as easy as you think. The two of you have more than a little water under the bridge. You’re kind of gimpy, not exactly a great catch.”
He tuned her out and focused on Dixie. She had a lot to tell him about school, her friends and about her visit with Holly. He heard all about their shopping trip, where they ate dinner, the clothes they bought and the new baby.
The more she talked, the more he felt his heart shifting, changing, wanting. If Holly hadn’t left town, he would have been going after her, begging her to give him another chance.
Begging was probably not a good plan. When Holly became his, it would be by mutual agreement. She would come to him, ready to trust. Or she wouldn’t come at all.
Chapter Sixteen
Colt liked rodeo clowning. He enjoyed seeing the laughter, the smiles. He loved bringing people down from the stands, making them a part of the show. It never failed to make his day. He thought if he continued to do anything with rodeo, it would be this.
Today he’d worn cutoff green pants with suspenders, a worn pair of boots, a quilted shirt and white makeup. Considering everyone these days had some strange aversion to clowns, he kept the makeup light. He had dark circles around his eyes, a couple of stars near his eyes, big eyebrows that arched above his eyes. Daisy had helped.
At the moment he stood on a barrel doing that new dance as a bull named Kitty raced around the arena.
“Colt, how’s it going down there?” the MC asked. “You gonna try to hold that kitty?”
Colt shook his head and pantomimed being gored, holding his stomach and falling backward off the barrel, watching as Kitty spun in his direction. He yelled, “Uh-oh,” and jumped in the barrel. Everyone laughed. He held tight as the barrel rolled, compliments of the one-ton kitty in the arena.
The MC, Mike Parker, laughed and asked if he was okay. He gave it a minute and then, as the music for a jack-in-the-box played, he managed to rock the barrel upright, one of his best tricks. He jumped, bouncing himself out of the barrel, and stood on the sides, swaying back and forth. Kitty turned to eye him.
“I think it’s time for this kitty to go back in the cage,” Mike said drily.
“I don’t like that kitty cat,” Colt said in his best Tweety Bird voice. “Bad, bad Kitty.”
He saw his daughter sitting in the stands next to Daisy. Dixie was practically rolling. He loved the job more than ever now, because Dixie watched him.
“Hey, Colt, are your clowning days over?” Mike asked.
The question took Colt by surprise. Mike had no reason to ask him that. If he hadn’t had the painted on brows, he’s sure his own would have arched, and his eyes widened in surprise.
He shook his head and raised his hands. “Is this like a knock-knock joke?” he asked over his mic.
The crowd laughed and then they pointed.
“Sure looks like you’ve been replaced,” Mike told him with a chuckle. “By a girl clown, no less.”
Colt turned in the direction the crowd was looking. He saw all of his friends standing up back in the pens and on the chutes, watching the unexpected show. His heart began to pound because this clown in her patchwork outfit, her face painted up with a big smile and flashy, happy eyes, looked familiar.
He hopped over his barrel a few times, got it sideways and rolled it across the arena a few feet while standing on it, then he jumped down and bowed before his clown queen. As he stood, he had a trick up his sleeve, so to speak.
He pulled out the wand, waved it around and out popped the bouquet of flowers. He handed it over to his clown queen. She smelled them and hugged them and then stuffed them in the pocket of her clown pants so that the multicolored flowers were sticking up.
“Colt, have you met your replacement?” Mike asked, interrupting the moment. “Did the clown union send you notice that you’re out? I mean, it’s time we had a female clown. Don’t you all think so?”
The crowd cheered. The clown—his very own Holly—turned in a circle, waving her arms in an outlandish way. The more she waved, the more the spectators cheered.
But Colt wanted her attention. She was here. With him. Why?
He turned, putting a hand to his heart. He wasn’t going to talk to Mike the MC. He only wanted to talk to one person.
But she wasn’t talking, she stood there staring at him with a painted-on smile. She backed up and he followed. She put a hand out, stopping him.
He tried to give her his imaginary heart, but she clearly already owned the real thing. She didn’t need the invisible heart he held in his hands. He brought his hands back to his chest, reinstalling it.
“I don’t think she’s that into you, Colt,” Mike teased.
He wanted to tell Mike to take a hike.
Holly made a pouty face and drew a line down her cheek, as if a tear were trickling. She reached for his face and did the same. And then she reached into her sleeve and pulled out a bright red handkerchief. Instead of handing it to him, she first pretended to blow her nose. She tried to hand it to him.
He shook his head.
She pulled back a little and shrugged. She pulled out another handkerchief, this one yellow. She looked at it, feigning surprise when it was attached to a blue handkerchief. She handed him the yellow one and kept pulling, handkerchief after handkerchief. As he gathered them up for her he wondered where this was all going.
He turned off the power to his headset.
“Holly?”
“Colt, are you talking to us? We can’t hear you. Folks, can you hear Colt? Do you want to hear Colt?”
The crowd cheered. Colt ignored them. Holly ignored them. She gave him an imploring look with her dark eyes melting his heart.
She pulled the last few handkerchiefs from her sleeve and he noticed the last wasn’t a handkerchief, it was paper. She grabbed it and he stood there, floored, unable to breathe as she went down on one knee in front of him, her eyes seeking his.
“Well, what do you know about that,” Mike the MC spoke quietly. “I don’t think Colt has been replaced. I think he’s just been claimed. Sorry ladies, I think our handsome cowboy clown just got taken off the market.”
“Yes,” he whispered as he read the sign she held.
“MARRY ME” it read in bright red letters.
He turned on the power to his headset. “Yes,” he repeated.
She turned the sign around and it read: “I love you.”
He went down on one knee in front of her.
* * *
“I love you, too.” Colt spoke softly but the cheering crowd heard.
Holly felt as if the world were spinning around her. She’d never been so frightened, so excited, so in love as she was at that moment. She remained on her one knee, aware of the crowds of people all around them. Aware that Dixie was in the stands, too.
Most of all, aware of the man who had just gone down on one knee in front of her. His silver-gray eyes caught and held hers. He took the sign from her hand and folded it up, putting it in his pocket, patting it.
“Yes,” he repea
ted for all the world to hear.
“Yes?” she asked, stunned.
“You meant me, right?” he asked. “Because it’s possible you got the wrong clown?”
“No, I got the right clown.” She couldn’t help but laugh. “It seems I’m a one-clown woman.”
“That’s good, because there is no other clown for me.”
“I’ve missed you,” she said. And then she wished the whole of Tulsa wasn’t watching because she had so much to say. She wanted to tell him she trusted him. She loved him. She wanted to spend her life with him.
“I’ve missed you, too,” he answered.
And then, in front of that stadium and the live broadcast, he kissed her. She put her arms around his neck and he lifted her off the ground. His lips left hers for a moment but then returned.
“Hey, Colt,” Mike interrupted. “I think you’ve forgotten where you are.”
Colt waved him away. He kissed her again and she started to laugh. She couldn’t stop herself. This man of hers, she would never let him go.
“Folks, I think you’ve just witnessed the most romantic proposal I’ve personally seen. Let’s give these two kids a big hand. Boys, could we show Colt an open gate out of the arena to escort his pretty clown fiancée? We’ve got a buck-off to finish up. And if you enjoyed that proposal, folks, share the love with our buddy Johnny and his family. They could use your support. Right, Colt?” Mike the MC spoke loudly, his show voice back in place. Holly waved, thanking him for taking part.
As they turned to depart the arena, a riderless horse entered with a makeshift wreath around its neck.
“Look at that, Colt, I think your friends are helping you out. Buddy, you can’t let the woman be the only romantic one.” Mike called out.
Colt caught the horse, a pretty gray, a ring of plastic roses around its neck. He swooped Holly up in his arms and placed her in the saddle. She smiled down at him, thankful for the lift from the arena. Her legs were shaky and her heart felt like it might break free and fly away.
“I love you,” he said as he placed her in the saddle. “I have always loved you, even though I wasn’t very good at showing it. I’ve let you down. I let Dixie down. From this day forward, I’m going to work at being the man you deserve. A man is to love his wife the way Christ loves the church,” he said. “I do.”
She leaned from the saddle and captured his lips in a kiss.
“I trust you.”
They left the arena to the cheers of more than a thousand people who had witnessed the greatest proposal in rodeo history.
Epilogue
Two years later
Holly watched from the window of the house as her husband and daughter worked on Dixie’s barrel-racing skills. She loved watching them together. She loved the bond that had grown as the weeks, months and now years had gone by.
They were a family. It had taken Dixie some time but she’d made a decision that first summer that she wanted to be with her parents full time. After all, she needed to help plan a wedding, be the best girl, and she hoped in time she’d be a big sister. Of course Daisy was still a very big part of her life, of their lives. Holly and Colt wouldn’t want it any other way.
Colt worked with Holly at the café, but he also trained horses. Together they’d bought an old Victorian house near the lake and they were remodeling it to be a bed-and-breakfast. Daisy gave them decorating advice from time to time but she was busy with her own life. That was another story...
Each Sunday they picked Opal up for church and brought her home for lunch. She was with them today, sitting in her chair, listening to her granddaughter shout as she made the barrels in her fastest time yet. There were moments she seemed to remember them and other moments she slipped further away, not even able to walk through the house without help. It was odd, but Holly found that her relationship with her mother had grown in the past two years. They’d cried together. They’d found peace. Today Holly had shared a secret with Opal. Maybe Opal understood, maybe she didn’t, but she’d smiled as if she couldn’t be happier. Even now she had a secretive smile on her face.
Her attention returned to the arena, to Colt. Her heart overflowed. After eighteen months of marriage, her life had never felt this complete. They were building something that would last a lifetime, for them and their children. She loved him more each day.
She left the house, walking across the yard to join them. Colt was focused on Dixie and he didn’t turn to see her coming. She stopped at her mother’s side and facing Opal, she put a finger to her lips. Opal giggled but she nodded.
“Cool him down,” Colt said. She peeked to see where he was and she winked at Dixie. “Then you can brush him and grain him. Turn him out with Buster.”
“Got it, Dad.”
She dismounted, but she didn’t lead the horse away. Instead she led him in circles, staying close to the fence.
“What’s she up to?” Colt asked as he came up behind Holly. “Is there something going on that I should know about? Opal, are you okay?”
Opal giggled and Holly turned around, laughing as Colt jumped back, grabbing his heart. Dixie joined the laughter as she led the horse from the arena and joined them.
Colt looked from one to the other of them. “You’ve already proposed and as far as I remember, since we’re definitely married, I accepted.”
Holly made a face and Dixie giggled and pretended to sneeze. Holly pulled out one of her mystery red scarves.
“Not this again,” Colt said, suspicious but smiling. She wanted to kiss him but Dixie really didn’t like PDA.
Holly pulled out another handkerchief and another.
“I hope there isn’t something bad at the end of this.” Colt stepped away, as if truly worried.
Opal clapped her hands and started to say something but Dixie stopped her. Holly handed Colt the handkerchiefs and he continued to pull each one free from the wide sleeve of her clown outfit.
At the end he tugged and nothing happened. She widened her eyes and nodded. He tugged a little harder and the final handkerchief popped out. Attached to it was a baby blanket, and attached to that, a tiny teddy bear.
The two items weren’t new. She’d kept them a very long time. For over thirteen years they’d been hidden in a drawer in her room. From time to time she’d taken them out to sleep with, thinking of the baby girl who had been wrapped in that blanket. She’d cherished the pictures of herself and Colt with their infant daughter. Just recently she’d framed those pictures and put them on the mantel over the living room fireplace.
Colt stared at the object in his hands, then tears trickled down his cheeks. He handed the items to Opal and told her to take care of them, then he grabbed her up in a hug and held her tight.
“Grandma Opal and I should go unsaddle my horse.” Dixie reached for Opal. “Come on, Grams, I think they need time alone.”
“I love the baby,” Opal said.
“I know.” Dixie sounded a little watery as she said it. “Me, too. I’m going to be a big sister. You’re going to be a grandma again.”
Opal patted Dixie’s hand. “I know.”
They left, Opal carrying the stuffed animal and blanket, Dixie leading her horse.
“We’re having a baby,” Colt said with wonder. “We’re going to have a baby.”
He whooped and hollered and picked her up to swing her around. But then he stopped, settling her back on her feet with the gentleness of a mother with a newborn.
“Colt, I won’t break.”
“I know you won’t but...it’s a baby. We’re having a baby.”
“Yes, Colt, we are having a baby.” She laughed, even though a few tears escaped to slide down her cheeks. Happy tears. The best kind.
“The bear,” he said, struggling, it seemed, to compose himself.
“The very one,” she answered. He’d bought it for her; it had be
en attached to flowers and a box of candy. It had upset her at the time. She was having a baby she couldn’t keep. She hadn’t wanted flowers or gifts. In hindsight it had been the sweetest gift he could have given her. It had been a memory.
He hugged her again, his lips settling on hers in a feather-soft touch. “I need to warn you now, I’m going to be overprotective. I might suffocate you with the need to take care of you. But I love you, so you’ll forgive me. I’m making up for the time I wasn’t there for you.”
“This is now,” she told him. “This is our family, Colt, and we’re going to live this moment today, not in the past. I want to enjoy every moment of this pregnancy with you, with our daughter and our family.”
“Agreed.”
Together they walked back to the house, arm in arm. Cooter barked and rushed ahead of them.
* * *
If you loved this story,
pick up the other books
in the Mercy Ranch series,
Reunited with the Rancher
The Rancher’s Christmas Match
Her Oklahoma Rancher
“His Christmas Family”
in Western Christmas Wishes
The Rancher’s Holiday Hope
from bestselling author
Brenda Minton
Available now from Love Inspired!
Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com
Keep reading for an excerpt from Her Hidden Hope by Jill Lynn.
Dear Reader,
The Prodigal Cowboy was quite a journey for me because it was so different from many of my previous books. I hope you’ll enjoy the difference.
Colt and Holly have a long history of friendship, love and heartache, but at the core of their relationship is the love they’ve always had for each other. Love should be simple but it is a complex emotion that includes the pasts of both people, their insecurities, their personal experiences and their ambitions. For Colt and Holly there is a lot of the past and not a lot of the present at the heart of their relationship. It is only when they begin to deal with their past hurts that they can move on to the present. And to the future. A future which may—or may not—include a special girl named Dixie.
The Prodigal Cowboy (Mercy Ranch Book 5) Page 17