A Cowgirl at Heart

by Christine Lynxwiler

  B.T. looked back over his shoulder. “I’d better go tear Martha away from the other ladies, or we’ll never get to eat. You have plans for lunch?”

  Andrew remembered Lynda McCord’s invitation. Tempting, but too many complications for someone just passing through. “I’m going to throw together a ham and cheese sandwich and grab my rod and reel. Who knows? Maybe I can catch supper while I eat lunch.”

  B.T. laughed, his silver tooth glinting in the sunlight. “You sound like the luckiest man alive.”

  How ironic, Andrew thought, as he walked out to his truck. For the past three years, he’d considered himself one of the unluckiest men alive.

  ***

  “I’m sad he didn’t come. I was dying to meet him.” Kaleigh tossed the dishcloth into the sink.

  “Must be your journalist’s curiosity. Because I don’t see what the big deal is.” Elyse retrieved the rag, wrung it out, and draped it across the divider between the two deep aluminum sinks. She rinsed her hands and dried them.

  “You’re kidding me.” Kaleigh lifted her mop of red curls off her neck. “He rescued you.” She sat down at the bar and took a long sip of iced tea. “It would just be cool to get to meet a real knight in shining armor.”

  “This must be your lucky day then,” Luke said wryly as he lifted the garbage bag out of the can and tied the ends. “If you’re talking about Andrew, he just showed up.”

  Elyse’s heart thudded against her ribs. “He’s here?”

  “In the flesh.” Luke set the full bag down and deftly tucked another one into the can. “Or at least, in the living room,” he said over his shoulder as he walked out the swinging door.

  Elyse sat down beside Kaleigh.

  “Aren’t you going out there?”

  “I don’t know. Today has been so stressful.”

  Kaleigh put her hand on Elyse’s shoulder. “Because of Blair’s news report?”

  Elyse nodded. “Everyone at church wanted to ask me about it. At once.”

  “Grr ... Blair gives journalism a bad name.” Kaleigh’s green eyes shone with sympathy. “Did you have a panic attack?”

  “No. I just froze up like I did in front of the camera. Then Luke dragged me out of the line of fire.”

  “Our brother—a hero in his own right,” Kaleigh drawled.

  The kitchen door swung open again, and Crystal walked in. “Andrew’s here.”

  Elyse looked at her oldest sister. Her usual bright smile was missing. Jeremy and his six-year-old daughter, Beka, had been conspicuously absent at lunch today. Usually the couple and Beka took turns eating with the parents on Sundays, but today, for whatever reason, they’d gone their separate ways after church. As far as Elyse knew, no one had asked why. “Are you okay?”

  Crystal’s brows tugged together, but she ignored Elyse’s question. Her blue eyes had dark circles under them. “Did you hear me? Andrew’s here.”

  “Luke told us,” Kaleigh volunteered.

  “So why are you sitting in here?”

  Kaleigh sipped her tea. “We’re just not sure we’re up to facing Superman today.”

  Elyse shook her head. “I wouldn’t exactly call him Superman. His hair’s not dark. But he does have kind of a chiseled jaw.”

  Crystal poured herself a glass of tea. “What then? Batman?” She lifted the pitcher toward Elyse. “Want some?” she mouthed. Elyse nodded. Crystal got another glass from the cabinet.

  “Not unless he has pointy ears. What about Spiderman?” Kaleigh suggested.

  “You know the weird thing about him is”—Elyse said as Crystal set a full glass of iced tea in front of her—“he’s not like anybody else. He’s unique.”

  “Call Marvel Comics,” Kaleigh quipped. “A new superhero.”

  Crystal pursed her lips. “He may not be like anybody else, but he looks like a mix of Owen Wilson and Matthew McConaughey.”

  Kaleigh pushed to her feet so fast she almost knocked her stool over. “This I’ve got to see.”

  Elyse gulped down a big drink of the cold liquid as if it were a shot of courage. She slammed the glass back down on the counter. “Let’s do it.” She followed Kaleigh and Crystal into the living room.

  “Where is he?” Kaleigh whispered as they hovered in the doorway.

  Elyse glanced around. Her mom was talking to Matthew on the loveseat. Chance, Kaleigh’s twin, lay sprawled on the couch, eyes closed and mouth open. Luke was slumped in his favorite chair watching a muted baseball game. Elyse stepped up and slapped him gently on the head. “I thought you said Andrew was here.”

  “He’s out at the pole barn with Dad.”

  “Why?”

  Luke never took his eyes off the TV. “Something about getting him to paint it?”

  “It’s a beautiful day for a short walk before Sleepyhead and I head back to campus,” Kaleigh pronounced.

  Elyse protested, but within less than a minute, she and her sisters were outside “walking,” coincidentally in the direction of the barn. The only consolation she had was that it was also in the direction of her house. “I don’t know what you two are doing, but I’m on my way home to check on Pal.”

  “Great idea. We’ll all go,” Kaleigh said. “And just our luck that we have to walk right past the barn to get there.”

  Crystal absently nodded. Elyse could tell that her heart was a few miles down the road at Jeremy’s parents’ house. But she just as obviously didn’t want to talk about it.

  They walked up over a hill, and the pole barn came into sight. Beside it, Andrew was talking to their daddy, making big sweeping gestures with his arm toward the side of the building.

  “He’s serious about his painting, isn’t he?” Kaleigh whispered.

  Even though they couldn’t hear what the men were saying, the enthusiasm on both their parts was palpable.

  Crystal frowned. “Daddy seems to be excited, too. Weird.”

  “Just keep walking,” Elyse said quietly as they got closer. “Maybe they won’t notice us.”

  “Are you teasing?” Kaleigh hissed. “What purpose would that serve?”

  “Girls!” Daddy spun around, a smile lighting up his face. “Out for a walk?”

  “We’re on our way to check on Pal.” Kaleigh’s smile radiated innocence.

  Too much innocence, Elyse thought. She should have let Crystal answer. As a professional actress, she knew how not to overact.

  “How’s Pal?” Andrew said, his gaze meeting Elyse’s.

  “He’s doing better. Finally getting rehydrated.”

  “Good.”

  “So are you going to paint—” Kaleigh stopped abruptly, and Elyse knew the twenty-two-year-old had done again what she so often did—speak without thinking. “I’m Kaleigh, by the way.”

  “I’m Andrew.” He looked at their dad. “And as far as painting, I’m going to give an estimate, and then we’ll see.”

  Daddy nodded. “You’ll be out Thursday, right?”

  “Yes. See you then.”

  “I think I’ll head back up to the house, then, and see if it’s too late for my Sunday afternoon nap.”

  “I’ll give you a ride if you want,” Andrew offered, nodding to his truck.

  “No, thanks. My girls have inspired me to walk.” And with that, he strode confidently back up the hill toward the house.

  Andrew walked over to where Elyse and her sisters stood.

  “So you came by to look at the barn?” Elyse asked, cringing at how stupid the question sounded.

  His blue eyes twinkled. “Not really. I came to see you.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t dare look at Kaleigh. No telling what kind of reaction her little sister would have to that news.

  “Yes, I wanted to know if there’d been any word on your Jeep.”

  “Oh.” Okay, not exactly the same as just coming to see her, but at least he was concerned. “No, no news.”

  He nodded across the field to her little cottage. “Your dad said that’s your place over there.”

>   Elyse smiled, keenly aware of her sisters both watching her interaction with this painter. Even though he didn’t make her nervous, their obvious fascination with her reaction to him did. “My humble abode.”

  “It looks cozy.”

  “Thanks. See you later.” She locked her arm in Kaleigh’s and spun the redhead around toward the path to her house. Crystal followed.

  When they were several yards away, she glanced back to see Andrew getting in his truck.

  “I can’t believe how you talked with him.” Kaleigh skipped along backward in front of her. “There wasn’t a shy bone in your body.”

  For the first time that day, Elyse saw Crystal smile. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. It’s amazing.”

  Elyse laughed. “You two are making a big deal out of nothing.”

  “Trust me. How he looked at you wasn’t ‘nothing.’” Kaleigh’s bow mouth tilted into a wry grin. “I’ve been waiting forever for a man to look at me like that.”

  Crystal snorted. “Men look at you like that everywhere we go.”

  “The right man, I mean,” Kaleigh said, her grin fading.

  Her words froze in Elyse’s heart. In spite of the fact that she didn’t get nervous around Andrew, there’d be no “right man” for her. She may have had childhood illusions of fairytale endings, but by the time she’d become an adult, she’d accepted that her life would be a solitary one, filled with four-footed friends rather than human companionship. And unless she found a time machine that let her go back and rewrite history, that wasn’t likely to change.

  CHAPTER 6

  Kaleigh McCord glanced across the car at her twin brother. “Who are you taking to Crystal’s wedding?”

  “Huh?” Chance looked over at her for just a second then brought his gaze back to the road. “Who am I taking?”

  She smacked her forehead with her palm. “A date.”

  “Oh.” Still clutching the steering wheel with both hands, he shrugged. “I don’t guess I’m taking a date.”

  “You’re kidding!”

  He frowned. “Crystal didn’t mention that we had to bring dates, did she?”

  “No. But everyone single brings a date to a wedding party.”

  His frown grew deeper. “Really? Which book did you read that in? The Singles’ Guide to Weddings? Or Wedding Dates for Dummies?”

  She sighed. “Forget it. You don’t have to bring anyone.” She stared out the window for a minute. “But I do.”

  “Why?”

  “There are three McCord sisters. Crys will have Jeremy.” She looked over at him. “Obviously.”

  He nodded. “Even I’m smart enough to know that.”

  “And now Elyse has her hero.”

  “That Andrew guy? You think Elyse is interested in him?”

  Kaleigh sighed again. Having four brothers, she really should have the inside track on how oblivious men could be. So why did it never cease to amaze her? “Yes. She’ll take him to the wedding.”

  “So?”

  “So that just leaves me, without a date.”

  “Harding is a big school,” he said. “You’ll find someone before Christmas.”

  “You think so?”

  “Sure, you can start as soon as we get back to campus.” He smirked. “But this is just September. The trick will be keeping him until time for the wedding. Maybe you’re starting too early.”

  “Chance! That was mean.”

  He pulled into the Bulldog Drive-In. “I’m going to get a cherry malt.”

  “We’re just ten minutes from campus. You can’t wait and get something there?”

  He just looked at her. “Do you want anything?”

  “Yeah, a nicer brother.”

  He shrugged and slid out. “You’re out of luck.”

  While she was waiting for him to get back, she pulled a little notepad out of her purse. At the top of the page, she wrote Operation Wedding Date. Under it, she started to list the names of guys she knew.

  Chance came back with two Styrofoam cups. He handed her one.

  “What’s this?”

  “Strawberry-banana malt, just like you always get.”

  “Aw, thanks. I take back what I said about you not being nice.”

  “Uh-oh. What do you want?”

  She tossed him a smile. “Just to pick your brain on the rest of the trip.”

  “We’ve only got ten minutes.”

  She wanted so badly to say, “That should be plenty of time,” but she bit her tongue and said, “Then we’ll have to hurry.” After all, she needed his help.

  She used her tiny penlight to read the list to him. On the first several names he just said no. She didn’t feel like arguing, so she marked them off. “Nathan Manchester?”

  He shook his head.

  “Why not?” She was tired of just taking his word for it.

  He glanced at her then back at the road. “You really want to know?”

  “Yes!”

  “He can’t stand you.”

  “Why?”

  “You humiliated him last year when you trounced him in the intramural Ping-Pong tournament.”

  “Humph.” She remembered now. He hadn’t wanted to play the third game just because she’d already won the first two. “Sore loser.” She put a big black mark through Nathan’s name.

  “Tristan Jones.”

  “No.”

  “C’mon, he really liked me.”

  “He canceled your last date, remember?”

  “Because he had strep throat.”

  Chance made a funny noise. “Not exactly.”

  “Why then?”

  “Because you sang karaoke when y’all went out to eat.”

  “It was karaoke night!”

  “Yeah, but you sang three songs.”

  “And got a standing ovation every time.” Kaleigh couldn’t keep the righteous indignation from her voice. “They were still yelling ‘encore’ when he hustled me out of the restaurant.”

  “I think he was probably just jealous,” Chance said softly. “But you were going out to cheer him up after he auditioned for that small singing group on campus and didn’t make it.”

  “Oh. Yeah.” They rode in silence for a few minutes. A grave realization hit Kaleigh like a speeding bus. “I’m going to have to change.”

  Chance tapped the brakes. “What?”

  “I’m going to have to change who I am, unless I want to end up like Granddad did.”

  “Living on a houseboat on the Mississippi River?” Chance asked.

  “Old and alone,” Kaleigh said. She ripped the list off the notepad and wadded it into a tiny ball. Then she got out her pen again. “Operation New Me,” she said aloud as she wrote it in bold letters.

  “Oh no,” Chance muttered.

  Kaleigh ignored him and started making her new list.

  ***

  Andrew stared at the woman lying in the hospital bed. What secrets slept within her unconscious mind? Maybe none. Or maybe the key to solving Melanie’s murder and finally clearing his name after all these years.

  He looked down at the rumpled bouquet of flowers in his hand. They seemed like a poor weapon against the antiseptic smell of the room. He ran his finger around the neck of his shirt. He didn’t know which was harder to bear, his guilt at coming for a hospital visit with ulterior motives or the disappointment of finding her still semicomatose.

  He’d found out from his preacher that Zeke’s sister’s name was Maxine Moser and she actually used to attend the tiny little congregation in the woods. She was in her sixties. Since he wasn’t family, he’d not been able to get any information from the nurse. A no-nonsense woman, she’d looked as if she considered throwing him out just for asking. Thankfully, she’d gone to get him a vase instead.

  Over the sound of the beeping machines hooked up to the woman, he could hear muted voices from the hallway. A tap on the door was quickly followed by the door being pushed open. Miss No-Nonsense waltzed in, waving a plastic vase made to
resemble crystal. She shoved it under the sink faucet and filled it with water. “When she goes home, the vase stays here,” she announced and set it on the nightstand next to the bed.