Toughest Cowboy in Texas

by Carolyn Brown

  “I left my cell phone in the kitchen. We’re on our way to have breakfast at the café and then we’re going to the cemetery to get the family graves in shape before it gets hot this mornin’,” Hope said.

  “Want me to run inside and find your phone? Why didn’t you holler? I’d have brought it to you.”

  “Didn’t know it was missin’ until this mornin’. It’s really your grandpa’s phone. I had mine so I could make calls but I carry his around with me,” Hope explained. “He had some pictures of the two of us together on it and sometimes…” Her voice cracked. “Yes, please go get it for me.”

  “Be right back,” Brody said.

  “Whoa! Before you leave, I heard that you had ice cream with Lila last night. What’s goin’ on?” Valerie asked.

  “Sure was a demon dirt storm last night.” He smiled.

  “Don’t change the subject. I want answers.” Valerie crawled out of the vehicle and got right into his face.

  “Answer is that I had ice cream with Lila and Kasey and the kids. Paul and Gracie were there too. I’m not sure what’s going on but I’ve still got a lot of feelings for Lila and I intend to see where they go before she leaves at the end of the summer.”

  She looked like she could chew up railroad spikes and spit out staples right at him. “I won’t have it, Brody.”

  “It’s not your call, Mama. I’ve invited her to the Fourth of July festival.”

  Valerie inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “I don’t like it one bit.”

  “Well, I don’t like it that you’re being obstinate about something that’s in the past,” he shot back.

  She crossed her arms over her chest just like Emma had done. Females! Didn’t matter how old or young they were, they could be a handful.

  “You’re just like your daddy. He’d argue with a damn stop sign,” Valerie said.

  “Get back in the truck, Valerie,” Hope yelled out the window. “He’s not a little boy. He can make his own decisions and live with the consequences.”

  “Thank you, Granny. Sure you don’t have time to come in for a cup?”

  “No thanks. I’ve got my heart set on some of Molly’s sausage biscuits this morning,” Hope answered. “We’ll visit later. And don’t forget, the Dawson family reunion is this Saturday.”

  Brody shook his head. “No, ma’am. I’m lookin’ forward to it. Jace and I will be over Thursday evening to help Jack get the barn ready. If y’all need anything between now and then, just yell. And I’m giving you a heads-up, Mama. I intend to ask Lila to be my date for that too.”

  “Well, crap!” Valerie got back into the vehicle.

  Brody jogged to the house and brought out the phone, handed it to Hope, and took a step back. “See y’all later.”

  Valerie kept her eyes straight ahead and didn’t even acknowledge him. Hope gave him a broad wink and a big smile.

  “I love you, too, Mama!” Brody yelled as she drove away. Then he crossed the yard and flopped down on the porch beside his brother.

  “You totally forgot that this was the week for the family reunion, right? Lila is messin’ with your brain. I can’t believe that you fought with Mama like that,” Jace chuckled. “Jack called this mornin’ to remind me about the reunion. Are you really going to ask Lila to be your date?”

  “Jack is a good foreman. We’d have never made it without him when Daddy died,” Brody said. “And, yes, I’m going to ask Lila.”

  Lila reached out to wrap her arms around Brody but all she got was an armful of pillow and covers. Her eyes popped open wide and her heart fell to her knees. Same ole, same ole! A booty call and then gone when she awoke. What ever made her think he would change? In the past, it had been necessary. If her mother had caught them sleeping together, her hot temper would have burned down the café. But now they were adults and her mother was in Pennsylvania for God’s sake.

  Her alarm sounded and she hit the button to turn it off and crawled out of bed. More than a little angry, she headed toward the bathroom, took a quick shower, and then with only a towel around her body, she padded back to her room. Her phone pinged when she was tugging on a pair of jeans, but she ignored it. If it was Brody, she wasn’t ready to talk to him. When she was fully dressed and had her long black hair pulled into a ponytail, it pinged again.

  Sure enough, there were six messages from Brody. The first one said: Call me.

  The last one said: We have to talk. I can explain.

  “There is no explainin’,” Lila muttered on the way to the café kitchen. Duke and Cora were sleeping together on the sofa, but she didn’t take time to stop and pet them.

  She pasted a smile on her face even if she didn’t have one in her heart. “Good mornin’, Molly!”

  “I’m not Molly but good mornin’ to you.” Her mother pulled a pan of biscuits from the oven, set them on the cabinet, and then opened her arms. “Surprise!”

  “Wow.” Lila’s heart skipped a beat and then raced. Sweet Jesus! Was that what Brody wanted to explain? She walked into her mother’s arms and hugged her tightly. “When did you get here and where’s Molly?”

  “Five minutes until we open the doors and there’s already trucks out there in the parking lot, so you get the short version. I wanted to see you, so Molly and I hatched a plan. I’d get into the airport at the same time she did and she’d loan me her vehicle for a week. She’s going to Florida for a test to see if she likes it there. I came here for the same reason. We meet again next Monday evening at the airport.”

  Lila was speechless but finally found enough voice to at least ask, “And what time did you get here?”

  “About five this morning. I knocked on your bedroom door but you didn’t wake up. Thought I heard you as I headed toward the kitchen to get things going, but it must’ve been those two kittens runnin’ around. Cute little fluff balls, by the way.” Daisy stepped away from Lila and stirred a pot full of sausage gravy.

  Lila’s phone vibrated in her hip pocket. She pulled it out to see another text from Brody: Have you gone to the kitchen yet?

  Her thumbs moved like lightning: Yes. No explaining necessary.

  His came back: Thanks. Call you later.

  She headed toward the dining room to turn on the lights, adjust the thermostat, and open the door for business. How did you get this number?

  Lights on and she was flipping the sign around when she got the next one: Stole it after you went to sleep.

  She sent a smiley face and tucked the phone back into her pocket.

  The first two people to enter the café were Valerie Dawson and her mother, Hope. Lila hoped neither of them heard her quick intake of air and that they didn’t know where Brody had spent last night.

  “Good mornin’, Lila. We’re here for the pancake special that Molly makes on Tuesday mornin’s,” Hope said.

  “What gets you ladies out this early?” she asked as she came to their table with two steaming mugs of coffee.

  “We’re makin’ sure the Dawson graves are cleaned up. The family likes to go to the cemetery while they’re here for the reunion.” Valerie’s tone had a definite chill to it.

  “Hey, I saw a black cat out there in the cemetery. Y’all ever seen it?” she asked.

  “That would be Chester O’Riley’s old cat. He lives in the house right beside the graveyard,” Hope said. “I heard that you got a couple of kittens out at Henry’s old barn.”

  Lila nodded. “Cora and Duke. One is black and the other is white. Cute little things.”

  “Speakin’ of Henry’s barn, did you or Daisy ever hear anything about where he went when he left Happy?” Hope asked.

  It seemed strange that Hope was eager to engage her in conversation when Valerie’s whole body language said that she’d rather be talking to the devil than to Lila.

  “Mama told me about him leaving town but it went in one ear and out the other. I hadn’t thought of him until I came back this summer,” Lila said.

  “To answer your question, we have no
idea where he went or why.” Daisy pushed through the swinging doors that separated the kitchen and dining room. “How are y’all doin’ this mornin’?”

  “Daisy Jo.” Valerie shot icy looks toward Daisy.

  “Valerie.” Daisy nodded. “I haven’t been called that since I left Texas.”

  “Well, you’ll always be Daisy Jo to us. That’s what your mama called you,” Hope said. “I came for pancakes and crispy bacon and a side order of biscuits and gravy. And what are you doing in town? Coming back for good?”

  “I don’t know yet. Molly is decidin’ if she really wants to leave. I’m decidin’ if I want to return. It’s a test. What do you want, Valerie?”

  “For Molly to stay and you to go,” Valerie said without a hint of a smile.

  “Well, some things never change, but I was talkin’ about food,” Daisy said.

  “I’ll have the big country breakfast with three eggs,” Valerie answered.

  Daisy propped her hands on the table and leaned in until her nose was only inches from Valerie’s. “Just for your information, I’m not in the market for a husband, a significant other, a boyfriend, or even someone to date, so if you’re seeing someone, he is totally safe.”

  “That is enough,” Hope said. “Good God, y’all are both well past fifty years old and you’re actin’ like a couple of teenagers. Get over it, Valerie! And, Daisy Jo, you stop bein’ bitchy.”

  “Mama!” Valerie gasped.

  “Hope!” Daisy’s voice went high and squeaky.

  “We’ll have those orders right out.” Lila looped her arm in Daisy’s and led her to the kitchen. “What just happened?”

  “She accused me of trying to seduce Mitch Dawson in high school and she’s never gotten over it and neither have I.”

  Lila bit back a giggle. “So that’s why she didn’t want me and Brody to date. Because you were still mad at his dad.”

  “Maybe.” Daisy poured pancake batter on the grill. “But I didn’t want you dating Brody either. I’d rather see you in a convent as married to a Dawson.”

  “Why?” Lila asked.

  “They all think they are only a notch below God and the angels and you’d spend your whole life tryin’ to be what they want you to be rather than who you are. We’ve got a whole week to have this conversation. Take this to them and if Valerie asks, I did not poison her eggs but I might next time.”

  “Well, you sure flunked this test with flying colors.” Lila smiled.

  “Or I passed it. I’m not moving back here and it didn’t take a week to make me figure it out,” Daisy said.

  “I’m surprised that you stayed as long as you did with the kind of anger you two have,” Lila said.

  Daisy shook a spoon at her. “Don’t get me started.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Lila picked up the orders and got the heck out of the kitchen.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Someday when Lila had daughters, she might understand her mother but that Wednesday evening, she was glad to see Daisy drive off to church and leave her alone. Working with Daisy was a whole different thing than vacationing with her a couple of times a year. Or maybe it was simply that when they were both back in Happy that Daisy reverted to the mother of a teenager rather than treating Lila like she was a grown woman.

  “Which is understandable,” Lila told Duke and Cora that evening. “This wild streak inside me is hard to keep reined in when I’m here, so I’m not surprised that she thinks she can run my life like she used to.”

  Cora bit Duke’s ear, so he latched on to her tail and the fight was on. Black and white fur all mixed together made Lila laugh but she needed to get outside to clear her head.

  A few minutes later she was headed out toward the canyon with intentions of riding through it without getting sidetracked. But when she reached the lane back onto Henry’s old place, she slowed down and turned into it. She told herself it was because she wanted to see that big white mama cat, but the voice in her head said that she was lying.

  That same niggling voice said that she shouldn’t go into the barn when she saw Brody’s truck parked in the shadows of a big oak tree, but she didn’t listen that time either. She parked beside the barn doors and hung her helmet on the handlebars.

  The white cat came out immediately when Lila sat down on a bale of hay and she stroked its pretty fur from head to the tip of its tail. “So are we here alone? Did someone leave that truck and go off with a friend? Too bad you can’t talk.”

  “I’d trade places with that critter.” Brody’s voice came down from the loft.

  “I saw your truck. How long have you been here?”

  “I decided to swing by after replacing fence posts all day. Join me.”

  Without hesitation, she left the cat and started up the ladder toward his voice. He reached down to help her from the top rung into the loft and sent a shot of pure unadulterated fire through her body. She noticed the quilt spread out over the loose hay in the corner.

  “I wasn’t expectin’ anyone, but I have to admit I was hopin’ you might feel the vibes of me wanting you to come out here tonight.” He kept her hand in his and led her to the quilt. “Sit with me.”

  She let him pull her down onto the quilt and a soft breeze fluttered her ponytail. She’d been in this same spot more than one time.

  “Remember all the times when we used to spend time here?” he asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” she whispered. “How many other women have been here with you on this same quilt since I left?”

  His free hand covered his heart. “I’m hurt that you’d even think I’d let another woman look at our quilt.”

  She giggled. “This isn’t really that same old quilt that you kept in your truck, is it?”

  “It really is the same one—our quilt.” He nodded. “And, honey, no other woman has even laid eyes on it. This is my secret place where I come when I’m lonely and want to think.”

  She’d never thought so much about what Brody went through when she left. She’d always figured that he’d gotten over her within a week and moved on to someone else. “What do you think about?”

  “Everything,” he said. “Important decisions have been made sittin’ right here but mostly I think about you, Lila.”

  “What are you battling with tonight?” she asked.

  “It’s not the breath you take but the moments that take your breath away,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about that phrase all day. And I realized that just about every breathtaking memory in my life involves you.”

  She turned toward him and let her soul sink into those blue eyes. His dark lashes fluttered and then rested on high cheekbones. And then his lips found hers in a long, passionate kiss that raised the heat at least ten degrees. His tongue touched her lower lip and she opened her mouth to allow him entrance. That kiss led to more, each one getting hotter than the last.

  Just when she was ready to start unsnapping his shirt, his phone rang loudly, breaking the mood. He ignored the first five rings. Then within a second, it started again.

  “Dammit!” he said as he fished it out of his shirt pocket. “This had better be good, Jace.”

  He listened for a minute and then hung up. “Our prize bull and two heifers are out on the road. I have to go help get them corralled. Will you wait here for me?”

  “I could go help,” she said.

  He hesitated half a second as if he was weighing the idea and then he nodded. “I’d like that but only if you’ll come back here with me when we get done.”

  She planted a kiss on his cheek. “Want to take the cycle?”

  “It would scare them half to death. Jace is bringing the old farm truck. They know that sound. We just need to get them roped and tied to the back. I’m sorry we got interrupted.”

  She patted him on the knee. “Ranchin’ is a twenty-four-hour job, Brody. I understand that. Let’s go get the cattle off the road.”

  He held her hand and she kept pace with his long legs as they left the barn. The moonlight si
lhouetted an old bull and two cows grazing on the grass beside the road. That old adage about the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence flashed through Lila’s mind.

  “Hey, Lila.” Jace grinned.

  “Jace.” She nodded.

  One of the heifers suddenly raised her head and bawled, then trotted off toward town. The other one headed in the other direction. The bull sauntered to the back of the truck as if he understood exactly what he was supposed to do. Jace quickly wrapped a rope around his neck and tied him to the truck.

  “I’ll turn around the one going toward town,” Lila said over her shoulder as she jogged in that direction.

  “I’ll keep the one headed in the right direction toward the ranch,” Brody yelled.

  Lila managed to get ahead of the cow and take a stance right in the middle of the road. The heifer lowered her head, eyed Lila, and started to charge but Lila waved both arms and yelled. The cow stopped in her tracks and simply turned around and began to run back the other way with Lila right behind her.

  She caught up with Brody near the lane going back to the ranch and found that the problem with the fence was right beside the cattle guard. “It’s a wonder only two got out. I see a dozen or more,” she said breathlessly.

  “Hey.” Jace’s voice carried through the darkness. “I came back for the truck. I got Sundance in the corral. I can get this fence fixed in no time.”

  “I’ll stay and help,” Brody said quickly.

  Jace bumped shoulders with him. “I’ve got this. You want to use the truck to take Lila back to wherever y’all were?”

  Lila could see that Brody was battling with the decision—stay and help where he was needed or go with her. “I can walk back to the barn and get my cycle. I know the way.”

  Brody reached over and took her hand in his. “Thanks, Jace. I’ll be home in a little while.”

  “See you at breakfast. First one to the kitchen gets the coffee going.” Jace waved him away.

  “Well, that was fun,” Lila said. “But honestly, Brody, I can go back alone or else stay and help y’all fix the fence.”