The Cowboy Says I Do

by Dylann Crush

  Dad returned his cigar to the ashtray, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air above them. “Relax, it’s a temporary thing.”

  “What do you mean?” He leaned forward, his forearms resting on his thighs. If his dad planned on reopening the warehouse, that would solve a lot of his problems. Like having to work so closely with Lacey.

  “Pops!” Dad called out over his shoulder. “Care to join us for this part of the conversation?”

  Bodie’s grandfather ambled from the back room over to the desk. “I can’t figure out twenty-seven across. Four-letter word for appealing.”

  “Sexy.” The word left Bodie’s mouth before he had a chance to stop it. Damn, that’s what thinking about Lacey did to him.

  Pops scratched his pencil against the page. “That works, thanks.” He held out a hand to Bodie. “Glad you could join us.”

  Bodie stood and took his hand, not resisting the half hug his grandfather pulled him into. “What’s up, Pops?”

  “We’ve got a situation.” Pops took the seat next to Bodie.

  “What’s that?” Bodie asked.

  “A business opportunity presented itself. We took it. But now we have a few, let’s say, loose ends, we need to wrap up.” Dad leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over the impressive belly he’d earned by eating too many tamales.

  “Why did y’all shut the warehouse?” Bodie asked. “I still don’t understand what prompted that decision.”

  Pops leaned a sinewy forearm onto the desk. He might be getting up in years but he still had the hard-earned physique of a man who’d worked the land for a large portion of his life. “We need you to drop the deputy title for this conversation. Think you can do that?”

  Bodie glanced back and forth between his dad and his pops. “What the hell did the two of you do?”

  “Are we having a family conversation here, Son?” Dad asked.

  “Sure.” Bodie settled against the back of his chair and drew in a long breath. His dad’s mantra of “family first” had been drilled into him his entire life. But he was getting tired of being guilted into looking the other way. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Buck Little made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.” Dad’s chair creaked under his weight. “Simple as that.”

  “What kind of offer?” Bodie’s stomach tightened. He had a feeling the kind of offer Buck made wasn’t exactly above the law.

  “He wants us to move our operation over to Swynton.” Pops lifted his foot, placing his custom-made alligator boot on top of his knee. “Like your dad said, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse.”

  “But Idont needs the business. How can you turn your back? Our family settled this town, it’s in our blood—”

  “Business is business. Sales have been down. Buck is giving us some tax breaks we don’t get here,” Dad said.

  “And free rent.” Pops rubbed his hand along the white whiskers on his chin. “We gave up the land the business sits on years ago.”

  “What?” Bodie’s gaze bounced between the two men. “What do you mean?”

  “The land belongs to the town,” Dad said. “We’ve been leasing it back from them for over a decade. With sales taking a dip, we haven’t made a payment for a while. When Buck offered us a break, we decided to take it.”

  “Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out, then.” Bodie stood, eager for a breath of fresh air.

  “Wait a minute.” Dad pointed to the chair. “Like we said, we have a few loose ends to tie up.”

  Bodie slumped back into his chair. “I don’t understand what this has to do with me.”

  “We should have cleared out the inventory before we made the announcement to shut down.” Pops glared across the desk. “Your dad got a little trigger-happy spreading the word.”

  “And?” Bodie had lost just about all the patience he possessed. “I still don’t get what you want me to do about it.”

  “Well, since we aren’t current on our rent, the town considers us in default. Now they’ve told us they’re going to seize our assets to pay off the debt. We need to get our stuff out of there so we can move it over to the new place in Swynton. Figure out a way to make it happen.”

  “Hold up. How exactly am I supposed to do that? You want me to help you break into the warehouse and steal back all of your stuff?” Bodie stood again. He didn’t have time to listen to their harebrained ideas.

  “Of course, we wouldn’t ask you to help unless there was something in it for you.” Dad pointed to the seat Bodie had vacated.

  “I’ll stand.” He crossed his arms over his chest. What could they possibly offer him that would make him consider breaking the law he’d sworn to uphold?

  “Suit yourself.” Dad shrugged. “But Buck is willing to guarantee you the sheriff’s position in the next election if you help us out.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Why would he want to do that?”

  “Buck knows how things work around here. He scratches our back, we scratch his.”

  “He must want one hell of a back scratch in return for rigging an election.” Of course, it had been done in the past. Rumor had it Lacey’s dad hadn’t won the mayor’s seat fair and square when he’d been elected. But to so blatantly be offered the bribe . . . Something didn’t add up.

  Pops grunted. “You don’t need to worry about that part of the negotiations. Just figure out a way to get in and grab our stuff and you’ll get yourself a promotion. Why the hell you want to work in law enforcement boggles my mind, but isn’t that your dream job? Sheriff?”

  Bodie had enjoyed learning the ropes in the tiny town of Idont, but his career aspirations didn’t stop at playing deputy sheriff for the rest of his life. Sure, he wanted to move up. Even more than that, he wanted to move out. He’d always had his eyes set on a bigger town. One that would get him far out from under the thumb of his meddling family, making it impossible to get himself wedged into a situation just like this.

  “I don’t know, Pops. Who else knows about this?” Bodie scrubbed his hands over his cheeks.

  “You, me, Buck, your dad. Probably whoever takes care of payments down at city hall. But we don’t want to cause a scene. Just get our stuff moved over to the new place in Swynton before anyone notices it’s gone. Should be easy enough.”

  “I’m gonna have to think about this.” He should leave his dad’s office and head straight to the sheriff. But was he willing to rat out his family and sever those ties once and for all? His dad and granddad had caused a stink over the years but they’d always managed to find a way to come up smelling like the aromatic gardenias his mom had planted around the pool out back.

  “We don’t have a hell of a lot of time, Son.” Dad grunted as he levered himself out of his chair. “We’ll need an answer soon.”

  “Give me until the weekend?” Three days. They could give him three damn days to think about whether or not he wanted to risk career suicide.

  “You got it.” Pops stood, too, then lifted his arm so his hand stuck out in front of him. “Family handshake?”

  Dad put his hand on top of Pops’s. Both men looked to Bodie. Hell, why not? He put his hand on top of theirs, then the three of them lowered and raised their hands.

  Bodie shook his head as he stepped back from the desk. “Do you promise not to do anything until I have a chance to think this through?”

  Dad bent over to pick up his cigar. “You have our word.”

  Even though he knew their word wasn’t worth any more than the smoke-choked air he breathed in, Bodie nodded. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “See you, Son.” Dad plugged his mouth with the cigar while Pops lifted a hand in a wave.

  Bodie retraced his steps to the door of the office, the pit in the bottom of his stomach growing. Something else was going on besides just needing their stuff out of the warehouse. Why hadn’t he heard about them no
t owning the land before?

  He’d always known the Victorian house his ancestors lived in had been donated to the town years before he’d ever been born. The town officials decorated it for the holidays and used it as a meeting place every once in a while. But this was the first he’d heard that his family no longer owned the land the warehouse sat on. When had they given that up?

  His dad and pops might be a stone-cold wall of silence on the subject but he had other ways of finding out. Ways that unfortunately involved crossing paths with Lacey again. And it would have to be sooner rather than later. He didn’t have much time.

  As he climbed into his truck, the sound of his phone demanded his attention. He jerked it to his ear without checking the number. “Phillips here.”

  “Bodie, hey, it’s Zina over at For Pitties’ Sake.”

  “Oh, hey. How’s Shotgun doing?” Something about that poor dog got to him yesterday. He couldn’t stand to see an animal in pain, especially when it was intentionally caused by some asswipe of a human.

  “That’s why I’m calling. She checked out just fine. She’s underweight and will need someone to work with her to reestablish trust.”

  Relief coursed through him. “That’s great. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “You’re welcome. I have a favor to ask though.”

  “What’s that?”

  Zina cleared her throat. “We’re full here at the shelter. The two of you seemed to bond, and I was wondering if you could take her for a couple of days.”

  “My place is pretty tight.” No. He couldn’t take on the care of a dog, not with everything going down with the business and Lacey.

  “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need the help. I really think she’d do much better in a home than at the shelter right now. She’s in a vulnerable place.”

  Vulnerable. Why’d she have to use that word? An image of Lacey smiling as she held Shotgun on her lap floated through his head. “Just a couple of days?”

  “A week at most,” Zina said. “She’s had a bath and I can send her home with supplies so you don’t have to buy anything.”

  Bodie rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. “Fine. When do you need me to come get her?”

  “Now? Think you could swing by in the next hour or so? I’ve got to head out for a bit and I want to be here when you get here so I can go over how to tend to the sores on her muzzle.”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll head over in a few.”

  “You’re a good guy, Bodie.”

  “Thanks.” Now, if she could just convince Lacey of that, he’d be in good shape.

  eight

  Lacey cleared her throat before stepping in front of the podium. She’d promised to have a statement to the press about the closing of the Phillips business by the end of the week. At four thirty on Friday afternoon she was cutting it pretty close. The crowd had multiplied since her initial press conference on Monday. The citizens of Idont were concerned. She and Chelsea had been fielding their calls, e-mails, texts, and unannounced visits all week. She’d even been accosted at the Burger Bonanza while she tried to finish up the lunch shift yesterday. Everyone wanted to know . . . What was she going to do about it?

  Thankfully, she had a plan. Despite Bodie’s doubts, the more she researched the idea of positioning Idont as Ido, the perfect wedding destination, the more excited she got. Now she just needed to convince everyone else.

  “Thank you for your patience while we sorted through the announcement that the Phillips family decided to shut their doors.” She glanced down at her notes, worried she’d forget a main point or two. “After consulting with the city management we’ve decided to repurpose the Phillips House into an event center.”

  A hand shot into the air—the same reporter from Houston who’d given her a hard time at the press conference earlier in the week.

  “Yes?” While she waited for the reporter to check her notes, Lacey sought out the friendly faces in the crowd. Zina smiled at her, giving a slight nod of encouragement. Lacey had filled in her best friend on her idea over a pitcher of margaritas last night. For someone who didn’t consider herself much of a romantic, Zina was on board. If she believed in the idea, the good folks of the newly christened Ido would come around, too.

  “Mayor Cherish, what kind of events do you envision the Phillips House hosting? You’re hardly a hotbed of tourist activity around here.” Soft laughter bubbled up from the crowd.

  Lacey pasted on a patient smile. “We’re already working on a plan. Of course we’ll continue to host the annual events we always do, like the Crawfish Craze and Pitty Parade. But extensive research shows that our best bet is to focus on the happily-ever-after variety of events.”

  “Such as?” the reporter asked, her pen poised to capture whatever words of wisdom Lacey shared.

  “Weddings. The wedding industry is booming and we’re in a great spot to cash in on some of that billion-dollar industry. In fact, I’m proposing we even change the name of our town to Ido to cement our place in the destination-wedding market.” Half a dozen hands shot into the air. “I imagine you all have a bunch of questions. As we work out the details we’ll be sure to keep you informed. In the meantime, any employees of Phillips Stationery and Imports are welcome to fill out an application to help with repurposing the house.”

  “Mayor Cherish—”

  Lacey didn’t stick around to face the crowd. She ducked out the back door of the hall and click-clacked across the pavement as fast as she could. She’d no sooner pulled the heavy door of her truck closed behind her than someone knocked on the passenger window. She let out a shriek.

  Bodie.

  He motioned for her to roll down the window. “You’re really going through with this, huh?” he asked.

  Lacey cranked up the heat, hoping to eliminate the chill in the air, even if it seemed to be coming mostly from Bodie. “You have a better idea?”

  “Maybe I can arrange a meeting with Dad and Pops. There are a couple of things they’d like to talk to you about.”

  “I bet.” She shook her head. “They jumped the gun, didn’t they?”

  Bodie arched a brow, making him look all brooding, reminding her of the picture of a rugged cowboy she’d stared at in that magazine the other night. “What do you mean?”

  “The inventory. You can’t tell me they planned on leaving all of their inventory behind.”

  Bodie tapped a finger on the doorframe. “How to handle the inventory would definitely be an item on the agenda.”

  Lacey wanted to laugh at the way he tried to play it cool. Had he forgotten she knew all of his telltale signs? From the time he and Luke taught her how to play Texas Hold’em she’d always been able to tell when he was holding something back. He was hiding something and knowing his dad and pops, it had to be something big. “I’m sure they’ve told you by now they’ve been in default on their payments for months.”

  He nodded as he turned to face the western horizon. The sun had started its descent, framing Bodie’s profile in breathtaking shades of orange and red. His chin jutted out slightly, his jaw clenched tight. For a moment she wondered what it might feel like to brush her hand against his cheek, or run her fingers through that unruly head of hair. Her breath caught as he turned, meeting her gaze.

  “I’m in a pickle here, Lacey.” Gray eyes, the color of the sky just before a summer storm, begged for some level of understanding. But if he felt like he was in a pickle, she was squeezed into a full jar of them.

  “Then I suggest you snag a sandwich and some chips and settle in for a nice, long snack.” She wasn’t ready to forgive and forget. Not yet. Maybe not ever. His family had been in control long enough. It was time the good people of Idont reclaimed their town. Although, she’d better start thinking of the town as Ido. She’d been given the green light to go ahead with the name change. The vote would just be a formality. No matter wh
at they named the town, they were better off without the Phillips family running the show.

  Bodie let out a huff, obviously not pleased with her response. “Will you at least meet with them?” He cocked his head to the left, then bent down to mumble something.

  Lacey lifted herself up to peer out the window. “What have you got down there?”

  He opened the door to her truck and a dog clambered into the passenger seat. A huge wet tongue swiped across her chin.

  “That’s not Shotgun, is it?” Her hand smoothed down the short hair on the dog’s back. There was no way this squirming bundle of energy could be the same dog they’d dropped off at Zina’s the other day.

  Bodie cracked a grin. “Sure is. She cleaned up nice, didn’t she?” He filled the open doorway of the truck as he reached over to ruffle the hair behind the dog’s ears.

  “Hi there, girl. Don’t you look gorgeous?” Lacey laughed as the dog jumped across the center console to land in her lap. “Zina said you agreed to take her for a while.”

  “A few days.” Bodie leaned farther into the truck, his hand wrapped around a teal nylon leash with pink hearts on it.

  “That was awfully nice of you.”

  “Yeah, well, she needs a friend right now.” His gaze met Lacey’s. “And I guess I do, too.”

  The shell around her heart cracked at the forlorn look in his eyes. She’d been the pesky sidekick to her brother and Bodie when they were kids. They tolerated her for the most part and often left her behind. But she’d spent enough time around Bodie to know that his family played some pretty sick mind games with him. As the only child of the empire his pops and dad had built, they’d expected him to follow in their footsteps and take the business to the next level. When he didn’t fall into line there had been some words exchanged. From what Luke told her—and she’d had to beg for the little bit of info he’d shared—Bodie held his ground about following his dreams. But something had changed. He always had a cloud of sadness hovering around him when it came to discussing his family.