Toughest Cowboy in Texas

by Carolyn Brown

“Jace has got it and I want to spend time with you,” he said.

  “But it’s not easy for you to let him, is it? Tough cowboy that you are, you think you’ve got to take charge of everything,” she said.

  Brody gently squeezed her hand. “You know me too well.”

  “Right back atcha, cowboy,” she said.

  The sky was filled with twinkling stars surrounding a moon with darkness on one side and light on the other. Lila felt as if that was her life that evening. Light flowing around her in the present and darkness where the future was concerned. Maybe, she thought, she should concentrate on the present and not worry about what the future holds.

  “You’re awfully quiet,” Brody said when they turned to go down the lane leading back to the old barn.

  “Just enjoying the moment,” she said softly.

  He stopped, dropped her hand, and tucked his knuckles under her chin. She tiptoed to meet him part of the way when he bent to kiss her. Like always, her knees went weak, her palms resting on his chest became clammy, and her pulse raced.

  “I’m enjoying the moment too,” he said when the kiss ended. “Would you go to the Dawson family reunion at my folks’ ranch with me on Saturday?”

  She cocked her head to one side. Had she heard him right?

  “Brody, going to the Hope Springs thing for Independence Day is one thing. Everyone in the whole county is invited to that. The Dawson family reunion is personal.”

  Valerie might really get out the gun if she showed up with Brody, but then if they were going to test the waters of the future, they’d both better stop thinking about her or Hope or even Daisy.

  “I’ll introduce you to my whole family.” He squeezed her hand.

  “Are you sure about this?” Lord have mercy! The Dawson family reunion with Valerie and Hope both there—Lila might as well sign her own death warrant and pick out her burial clothes.

  “Never more sure about anything in my life, Lila. Please,” Brody whispered.

  A star shot across what was left of the moon, leaving a trail of brilliance in its wake. Was that her sign? She and Brody had hoped to see a falling star many times when they were teenagers and God saw fit to throw one through the sky that night. It had to be an omen.

  “Okay.” She nodded.

  “Thank you.” He leaned over and brushed a soft kiss across her cheek. “I’ll knock on your door at six-thirty.”

  “If you change your mind—” she said.

  “I won’t.” That time he stopped the words with a steamy string of hot kisses.

  When she finally drew away, she said, “I would have floated all the way to the clouds if you had invited me to your family reunion when we were in high school.”

  “I’m not that kid anymore,” Brody said as he took her hand in his again and began to walk the rest of the way to the barn. “I want to go forward, not backward.”

  “Sounds good to me.” She stopped at the bike. “I should be going.”

  “Come inside for just a little while with me.” His heart was about to float right out of his chest and he couldn’t bear to let her leave—just another hour, maybe two so that he could hold on to the feeling.

  She looped her arm in his and he led the way back inside the barn, and let her go ahead of him on the ladder. When they were in the loft, he pulled her down to rest in his arms as he stretched out on the quilt.

  “I was a fool,” he said. “You know what they say about not missing the water until the well runs dry.”

  “What happened after the well went dry?” she asked.

  “I tried to get you out of my mind with hard work. So what kind of girl were you after you left?”

  “I turned into a quiet nerd in college.”

  “That’s hard to imagine,” he chuckled.

  “Mama said that no one knew I was Lila Harris, that crazy kid from Happy, Texas, who caused all kinds of trouble. She said I could be anyone I wanted to be, so I became the quiet Dee Harris and molded myself to fit into the character that she was,” she said. “I made excellent grades, graduated with honors, and had my pick of teaching jobs.”

  “And the Harley?” he asked.

  “I didn’t get it until last year. Every so often that Lila girl would surface and want to go on a ride with her daddy down through the canyon. I bought it so that she’d be quiet and leave Dee alone.”

  “I can’t imagine anyone ever keepin’ Lila quiet and I sure don’t see you as Dee.”

  Lila nodded. “Brody, in six weeks, I’m going back to Florida. I don’t know if I’ll stay there for another year or move to another state, but wherever I am, it’ll most likely be far away from this part of the world. Are you sure you want to start something with no future?”

  “So you like teaching better than runnin’ a café?”

  She rolled over and propped up like him, her face just inches from his. “What do you think?”

  “There’s schools all around us,” he said. “Lila, I can’t imagine why you’d want to hide yourself in another person. You’re beautiful, witty, fun, and we were just kids who did crazy things. We never hurt anyone with our shenanigans.”

  “And Lila was also the poor girl who lived in the back of her mother’s café that no one asked to proms or family reunions or even to a rodeo.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Brody was a fool who didn’t listen to his heart but he won’t make the same mistake twice. Let’s give it the six weeks and see where it goes. What have we got to lose other than time? And when summer is done…”

  “We can wave good-bye without tears this time,” she said.

  If he had a lucky bone left in him, maybe there would be no good-byes. “What are you thinkin’ right now?”

  “Something that your smart little sister said,” she answered.

  “And that would be?”

  “That we might be able to have both the inner child and the responsible adult if we want,” she said.

  “So maybe you could be responsible for everyone else and be my wild child?” Her lips called to him. His body ached for her. But that night shouldn’t be about sex. He needed to show her that he was willing to court her properly, and that was more than sneaking into and out of her bedroom for a fast roll in the hay.

  She flipped over on her back. “This business of being both is confusing. What if I forget who I am at your family reunion?”

  He traced the outline of her lips with his forefinger. “Might liven things up.”

  “You sure?” Her mouth tingled from his touch.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered as he leaned down and kissed her softly.

  She wiggled around until her head rested on his chest. “You know what I missed most when we left?”

  “Me?”

  “Well, there was that, but I missed the smell of hay and hot summer nights.”

  “I missed you, Lila. Everything about you. Your wet hair hanging down your naked back when we went skinny-dippin’. Your wit and the way you never let me get away with anything,” he said. “I missed holding you and not just for the sex. I flat out craved even half an hour with you nearly every evening. No matter how much I tried to lose myself in work, it never eased the pain.”

  “I think you were the reason I invented Dee Harris. If I changed it all, the heartache of leaving Happy and you wouldn’t kill me. If I was someone else, a studious girl with no background or memories, I had no reason to hurt.” She yawned.

  Lying there with her in his arms and not saying anything else should have been awkward, but all the words in the dictionary were useless. Nothing could begin to describe the peace in his heart and soul. He pulled her closer to his side, not caring that the night was hot or that the only thing they were doing was enjoying being close.

  She mumbled something and then her body went limp when she fell asleep.

  He smoothed her hair, drew her closer to his side, and closed his eyes, hoping that she believed in second chances.

  Lila awoke with a start. She squirme
d out of Brody’s arms and sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees.

  “Good mornin’,” Brody yawned. “Did you sleep well in this five-star hotel?”

  “Yes, I did. What time is it?”

  Thank God it was still dark. Hopefully, still early enough that her mother was still at the church affair or else she’d gone to one of her friends’ houses to catch up on the gossip.

  “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 m
achine 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.