by A. J. Pine
“Still night,” he said.
“I’ve got to get home. Mama is drivin’ me crazy with advice already. If she thinks I’ve been with you, she’ll never shut up.”
“You should ask me for a date,” he said.
“What?”
“I asked you to my family events. I’ll make my mother face the fact that there is an us—as in Lila and Brody. Maybe you should do the same with yours,” he said.
“Good advice. Would you go with me to church on Sunday night? I will come and get you at six-thirty and we’ll be there by the time it starts,” she said.
“Wow!” He grinned. “That’s a pretty big step, going to church. I mean the family reunion is one thing, but a public thing like sitting together in church? You expectin’ to share a hymn book too?”
“I don’t share a songbook on a first date. I save that for the third date and only then if I really like the guy,” she teased.
“Well, then, I suppose I’m free on Sunday night but only if I can take you and Daisy to Tulia for ice cream afterward.”
“Why go all that way? We’ll just open the café and invite Mama to join us,” she said.
“Long as I get to pay for it so it’s my treat, that’s fine.” He draped an arm around her shoulders.
“Then it’s a date. I’ll tell Mama when I get home,” she said. “And when are you telling Valerie to expect me for the family reunion?”
“I already told her I was invitin’ you,” he drawled.
“Are you kiddin’ me?” she gasped.
“Nope. Told her that I’d invited you to the Fourth of July picnic and that I was asking you to be my date for the reunion.”
“And?”
“She didn’t like it but that’s her problem. Mine was convincing you to go with me.” He pulled her tighter into his embrace and kissed her on the tip of her nose.
“I really do have to go, Brody.” She rolled to her feet and started for the ladder but stopped after a couple of feet. “Want me to help pick the hay off that quilt?”
“No, it’s so dry, it’ll shake right off. Give me a minute and I’ll walk you out to your bike. I still have trouble believing that you ride that thing.”
She shimmied down the ladder and waited at the bottom for him. In the darkness she had to use her imagination to really see the way he filled out those snug jeans. Could she really say good-bye to him at the end of the summer with no tears?
He tossed the quilt into the bed of the truck on the way to her bike and took her hand in his. Would even the simplest touch of those big, rough hands ever stop sending delicious hot little shivers through her heart?
She threw a leg over the seat of her bike and settled onto it, but he didn’t let go of her hand. He leaned in and captured her mouth in a scorching kiss that made her weak in the knees. She pulled her hand from his and wrapped both her arms around his neck and opened her mouth slightly to allow his tongue entrance. He made such sweet love to her mouth that she wanted to take him back to the hayloft or better yet to the bed of his truck since it was closer.
Then he took a step back. “Text me when you get home.”
She nodded as she settled her helmet onto her head. “Betcha I beat you.”
“I’m right next door.” He grinned.
“I’ve givin’ you a fightin’ chance against my Harley.”
He took off toward the truck and she left a dust storm for him to follow. When she reached the end of the lane, she leaned into the curve and gave the cycle more gas when she straightened up. Glad that there were no cops out at that time of night, she didn’t even look at the speedometer. She braked at the café parking lot, slinging gravel against the old building in a spray.
“So much for sneakin’ into the apartment,” she giggled as she grabbed her phone and hurriedly sent a text: I beat you.
One came back immediately: Only by a few seconds.
Her thumbs typed: You owe me something wonderful.
She put the phone back in her pocket, removed her helmet, opened the garage door, and pushed the bike inside. Her phone pinged and she grabbed it to read: Name the time, the place, and the poison and I’ll pay up.
She eased the back door open and took off her boots. She made it to the living room to find her mother standing in the middle of the floor with her hands on her hips.
“God I hate that bike. I bet you were down in that damned canyon, weren’t you? Actually, I don’t want to know. You’re home and safe and I’m going to bed. Kids!”
“Good night, Mama.”
“I’m glad I made the decision not to come back here. I’d die of a heart attack in a week worryin’ about you. If I’m eighteen hundred miles away, I won’t know what you’re doing,” Daisy fussed. “At least if you were riding too fast in that canyon, you weren’t with Brody Dawson.”
“See you bright and early, Mama.”
“I don’t know which is worse. The bike or Brody.” Daisy got in the last word as she slammed her bedroom door.
Chapter Fourteen
Lila tied on an apron and tucked an order pad into the pocket before she flipped on the lights and unlocked the doors to the café that Thursday morning. No one was in the parking lot yet so she went back to the kitchen, stuffed a biscuit with crispy bacon, and ate it as she watched Daisy crack eggs into a bowl.
Lila took a deep breath and faced her mother. “I’m going to the Dawson family reunion on Saturday night with Brody,” she said.
“Well, that ought to go over like a cockroach in the punch bowl at a church social,” she said. “It might be the smartest thing for you.”
“Really?” Lila had expected a hundred reasons why she shouldn’t go and lots of talk all day about the issue.
“Sure,” Daisy said. “It will show you that those people ain’t never going to accept you. You’ll always be my daughter and Valerie would rather have Lucifer’s sister for a daughter-in-law than my kid. Go on and be miserable.”
“And you won’t say ‘I told you so’ one time, right?” Lila finished the biscuit and made another one.
“Oh no. I’m going to say that at least fifty times on Sunday. You never would listen when it came to Brody Dawson,” Daisy said.
The bell above the door dinged and Lila laid her biscuit to the side. “Well, just be careful you don’t say it in front of Brody. I asked him to go to church with me on Sunday and we—as in me and you and him—are coming back here for ice cream afterward.”
“Are you nuts?” Daisy whispered.
“Not according to my therapist!”
Lila made her way through the swinging doors into the dining room. “Good mornin’, Paul and Gracie. How y’all doin’ today?”
“Coffee for us both and the breakfast special,” Gracie said. “We’re on the way to Amarillo to get some things for Hope and Valerie for the Dawson family reunion and thought we’d splurge and have breakfast out this mornin’.”
Lila pinned the order on the merry-go-round in the window and poured two mugs of coffee. “Sugar or cream?”
“No, just black,” Gracie said. “We started helping with the reunion when Adam got in the family. Since our family is down to just the two of us, we like having the Dawsons take us in.”
“That’s sweet of them,” Lila said, glad that several more folks were arriving so she’d have an excuse to walk away.
“Order up,” Daisy yelled.
From then until after the noon rush, there was someone in the café all the time and Daisy was kept busy. But at two o’clock things slowed down enough that Daisy brought two burger baskets to the front. She pointed at the drink machine and then at the food.
“You know what I drink,” she told Lila.
“Sweet tea for both of us.” Lila nodded. “No lettuce and extra pickles, please?”
“I raised you, kiddo,” Daisy told her. “I know how you eat your burgers.”
Lila carried the tea to the booth and sat down across from her mother. Each of them stretched forth their long legs
and propped their feet on the other side and sighed at the same time.
“Been a morning.” Daisy dipped a French fry in a small container of ketchup.
“Felt more like a weekend than a Thursday.” Lila poured ketchup over her fries.
Lila had just bitten off a bite of burger when the bell above the door rang. She looked around to see Brody swagger into the café. Looking like he’d spent the whole morning in the hay fields or maybe building fences, his white T-shirt was smudged with dirt and his hair wet with sweat. His forehead had a definite line between dusty and clean where his hat had been all morning.
She didn’t realize she was mentally stripping him out of his clothes until Daisy kicked her under the table. Shifting her gaze from him to her mother, she tucked her chin and shot a mean look across the table.
“Something wrong, Lila?” Brody headed around the counter to the drink machine.
“Not a thing.” She smiled. “What can I get you?”
“Y’all keep your seats. I’m just here for a glass of ice tea and I can get it myself,” he said.
“Kasey don’t make tea at the ranch?” Daisy asked.
“Yep, but I had to come into town to get a load of feed and I’m thirsty,” Brody answered. He poured a tall glass from the drink fountain and carried it to the booth where he slid right in beside Lila.
“How you been Miz Daisy?” he asked.
“Busy,” Daisy answered tersely.
Under the booth, his hand rested on Lila’s knee. She took a big gulp of iced tea but it did nothing to cool her off.
He squeezed gently. “Lila tells me that you’ll be here until Monday. You need a ride to the airport?”
“I’ve got Molly’s car. I’ll drive myself and she’ll be here in time to cook breakfast on Tuesday,” she said.
“She hates Florida and can’t wait to get home to Texas. Crazy thing is that Georgia doesn’t like it so much either and she might be coming back to Happy also. They might buy the café after all.”
“Why does Molly hate Florida?” Lila asked.
“Too much sand. Molly says it’s in everything from her hair to the corners of her suitcase. It’s like it follows her.” Daisy almost smiled.
“Well, would you look at that? I wonder what Clancy is doing in Happy, Texas.” Daisy beamed.
Lila whipped around so fast to look out the window that it made her light-headed. She dropped the French fry in her hand and gasped at the sight of her ex-boyfriend walking toward the cafè. “Mama?”
“Hey.” Daisy shrugged. “We still talk occasionally.”
“Why?” Lila glared at her mother.
“Should I leave?” Brody asked.
She grabbed his free hand and held it on top of the table. “No, stay.”
It was Daisy’s turn to glare and if looks could kill, Brody would be nothing but a bag of thirsty bones on the floor right then. The bell rang and Clancy entered the café, glanced around, and smiled when Daisy waved him over to the booth.
“Well, hello, Clancy. Can I get you something?” Daisy pulled a chair out for him.
“Got a drink back down the road,” he said. “I’m good. Keep your seat, Daisy. Hello, Lila.”
“Clancy, meet Brody Dawson.” Lila made introductions. “Brody, this is Clancy. He and I are colleagues at the school where I work in Florida.”
Brody slid out of the booth and extended a hand. “Pleased to meet you, Clancy. I take it that you’re friends with these folks or is it family?”
“More than friends, right, Dee?” He shook with Brody and then sat down. Wearing perfectly creased dress slacks, a pale blue shirt open at the collar, and loafers, he looked exactly like he did every day at school. Not a blond hair was out of place and his cute little mustache was trimmed.
Brody’s phone pinged and he checked the message. “That’s Jace. The kids we’ve hired to help us this summer are down to the last fence post, so I’d better get back to the ranch with what I’ve got loaded on the truck. See you Saturday, Lila.” He stood up. “Nice to meet you, Clancy.”
“Lookin’ forward to it,” Lila answered. “Call me later?”
“Of course.” Brody dropped a kiss on her forehead and started toward the door.
“So what are you doing in Texas?” Lila asked, but her eyes stayed on Brody as he crossed the floor.
“I came to see you, Dee. Why would he call you Lila?” Clancy asked.
Brody stopped at the fountain and filled a takeout cup with ice and tea. He took his time, throwing a wink over his shoulder toward Lila before he finally laid a five-dollar bill on the counter. He waved at the door and she couldn’t keep her eyes or mind off him as he made his way across the parking lot.
“I asked you a question,” Clancy said brusquely.
“Because that’s what I’m known as in this town. Why would you drive fifteen hundred miles to Texas to see me? If you’re going to fire me, you could do that by phone,” Lila said.
Clancy chuckled. “Darlin’ Dee, I’m not going to fire you. I can’t wait for the end of summer when you come on home where you belong.”
“Does Belinda know you’re here?”
“Blunt.” Clancy’s grin got bigger. “Like always. Texas didn’t change that a bit, did it, Daisy?”
“When she crosses the border into Texas, it gets worse,” Daisy said. “I’ve got to get back to the kitchen. You two have things to discuss. And, Lila, we’ll talk later.”
“Oh, yes, we will,” Lila said, and then turned her attention to Clancy. “What’s going on? Did my mother call you?”
For some insane reason, an old song by Vince Gill played through her head—“Which Bridge to Cross (Which Bridge to Burn).” She thought she’d burned the bridge between her and Clancy when they’d broken up last year. If she hadn’t at that time, she sure enough had the torch in her hand now and he’d better run because she was about to set fire to the damn thing.
“No, actually I called her last week and she said she was coming to Texas for a week. Then we talked on Monday. I got a flight from Pensacola to Amarillo today just to see you. I’ve only got about an hour before I have to head back to the airport, but what I wanted to say needed to be said face-to-face,” he said seriously.
“I’m listening.” She imagined skipping across the bridge like a little girl and pouring gasoline from a red can as she went from one end to the other.
“I missed you.” He scooted closer and ran a hand down her arm. It did nothing but irritate her.
“What about Belinda?” Sorry sucker was two-timing his girlfriend of four months. He deserved to get a little gasoline on his expensive shoes, so in the video playing in her mind, she doused them down good.
“Things are going well. We like the same things, love the same old movies, the same books, and we have so much in common. We’re both coaches at the school, so we understand what the job means,” he said. “But there’s this thing between me and you that I need to resolve before I take it to the next step.”
“Which is?” Mentally, she flicked a candle lighter and a flame shot out from the end.
“Which is asking her to marry me. Are you listening to a word I’m saying?” He squeezed her arm too tightly.
“Congratulations. I’m happy for both of you.” She jerked her arm free and scooted over to the other side of the booth.
“Is that Brody cowboy the reason you called it quits with me?” Clancy raised an eyebrow.
“Could be.” She’d seen that look on his face before when he didn’t get his way.
He combed back his hair with his fingertips and not a single strand fell over his forehead like Brody’s did when he did the same thing. “I really love you, Dee.”
“Then why are you marrying Belinda?”
“I won’t if you’ll give me another chance. We had something good and I can’t get you out of my mind and heart. It’s not easy for me to sit here and say this when I saw the way you looked at that dirty cowboy,” Clancy answered.
“Y
ou shouldn’t have come to Texas,” Lila said.
“Is there hope for us after school starts? If you get that rancher out of your sights, you might see things different. A marriage shouldn’t be based on a high school whim,” Clancy said.
“There is no hope for you and me,” she said.
Flaunting the fact that he had money enough to fly to Texas and back in one day did not impress her one bit.
“Then I wish you the best and I’ll go now.”
“Thank you and give my best to Belinda,” she said.
“A good-bye kiss? It might change your mind.” He stood and pushed the chair back in place.
She shook her head. “Not a good idea.”
Propping his hands on the booth, he leaned close to her and whispered, “We could have had something really good.”
That was as far from the truth as black was from white. What they would have had would have been far from good and would have probably ended in divorce.
“I want something that will take my breath away and if I can’t have that, I’ll do without,” she said.
In an instant, his hands left the table and he was plastered next to her in the booth, her face cupped in his hands and his tongue halfway down her throat. She pushed him away so hard that he slid off the end of the booth and sprawled out on the floor.
“You just made the biggest mistake of your life.” Clancy’s voice went cold as ice as he got to his feet.
“Or I just made the smartest decision of my whole life. I can’t believe that you came all the way to Texas to try to get back together with me when you’re living with Belinda.” She wiped the feel of his lips away from hers. “She deserves better.”
“I care too much about you to see you throw away your life on a worthless, dirty farmer,” Clancy said. “You know I could give you a good life, if you would just get over this silly teenage infatuation.”
In her vision of the bridge, she wrung every last drop of gasoline from the can and poured it out.
“You sound more like a parent than a boyfriend and that’s a little creepy.” The imaginary torch she’d held in her hands hit the bridge, sending it into a blaze. “I’ve got to get back to work. Have a nice flight home.”