A Cowgirl at Heart

by Christine Lynxwiler

  How had she gotten under his skin so quickly? He wasn’t the kind of guy who fell hard and fast. He was the kind of guy—or at least he used to be—who eased into a relationship slowly and only committed his heart after making a long pros and cons list. Had Melanie’s death changed him that much? Or was it just Elyse who had that effect on him? Since the first day when he’d leaped to her rescue, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.

  After he was dressed and ready to face the day, he poured himself a cup of coffee and thought about last night. To say it had gone badly was an understatement. He sipped his coffee. The kiss hadn’t gone badly. Not at all. But after ... He’d tried to warn her, to warn himself. He cringed as he remembered his dramatic proclamation before he’d kissed her. But it had been true. He had nothing to offer her. Nothing lasting.

  He took another sip of his coffee. Even if she could somehow overlook the fact that he’d been a suspect in Melanie’s murder, he’d never want her to join him in the cloud of suspicion he’d been living under for the last three years. Nor would he expect her to understand his desire to see the killer brought down at any cost.

  He finished off his coffee, letting the hot liquid almost scald his throat. For now all he could do was protect her. And be her friend, if she’d let him after last night.

  ***

  For the first time since he’d moved his camper in, Elyse regretted Andrew being her closest neighbor. She’d seriously considered never going out of her house again. But that would kind of put a kink in her plan to have breakfast this morning at her parents’ house.

  She reached over and rubbed the softest part of Majesty’s ear. The dog pushed her head against Elyse’s hand. “If I run out and jump in the Jeep,” she explained to her canine cohort, “I can drive down the lane and out to the road then turn in the next driveway and go to Mama and Daddy’s that way.” She waved a hand in the air. “Voilà! I wouldn’t have to take a chance on seeing him.”

  The doorbell rang, and the four dogs trotted to the door. Elyse got up and followed them. What if it was Andrew? She shook her head. Why would it be? She peeked out the window and sighed. It was him. She opened the door partially. “Hello.”

  He had the grace to look embarrassed; she’d give him that. “Hey. I needed to tell you something I found out last night ... before you called me.”

  “What is it?” Inside her head, she could hear her mama’s voice gently chiding her for her lack of manners, but she was not inviting him in.

  He shifted from one foot to the other.

  She stood without speaking. She’d already asked him what it was. That was better than she could have done.

  “I heard from my contact in Texas yesterday. With some more information about Luis.”

  “I told you I don’t want to hear any more about his con.”

  Andrew ducked his head and cleared his throat. “I don’t see how this can be a con—”

  “No. Normal people never do. That’s the sad part.” She knew her words were sharp. But she was tired of being nice. And just tired.

  He stared at her top porch step and made no move to leave. She had a feeling that if she didn’t let him tell her what he’d found out, he wouldn’t. “Okay. What’s the information?”

  “You know Luis got out of prison two years ago?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, he did something unusual and served his whole term.”

  “Why?”

  “Prison records show that he could have been paroled three years before that but he refused it.”

  “He stayed in prison?” Her mind raced, trying to make sense of that information. How could that have been a con? “Did it say why?”

  “The letter he wrote asking not to be paroled stated that he felt that he could better serve the Lord from the inside.”

  “More than likely he just wanted to keep getting three squares and have a roof over his head.”

  Andrew met her gaze directly, and she was almost positive that she saw pity in his eyes. For her. “Do you really believe that?”

  “Thanks for telling me. I’d better go. I’m supposed to go have breakfast with my real parents.” She closed the door slowly, not wanting to actually slam it in his face.

  “Wait.”

  She opened the door back.

  “About last night...”

  She shook her head. “We’re going to forget that ever happened.”

  “I’m sor—”

  She held up her hand. “Don’t you dare apologize again.”

  His brows furrowed, but he nodded. “Okay then. I’ll see you later.”

  She closed the door and wondered how hard it would be to get used to leaving through the back entrance of her house.

  ***

  Andrew pushed open the big glass doors, clutching the small bouquet of flowers. After checking in at the reception desk, he walked down the wide, carpeted hallway and lightly tapped on Maxine’s door.

  A dark-haired woman in blue scrubs pulled the door open and motioned him inside the room. “We just got Miss Maxine bathed and back in her bed.” She glanced at the watch on her wrist. “Her nephew usually comes in about this time.” The nurse patted Maxine on the arm. “She’s doing so much better. She’ll probably be going home soon.” She motioned toward Andrew’s small offering. “Would you look at those flowers, Miss Maxine?”

  Andrew set the bouquet on the night table and smiled at the woman lying in the barely wrinkled bed. Her face was nearly the same color as the pristine white sheets.

  “Now, don’t you wear her out,” the nurse cautioned as she pulled the door open. “She isn’t really that strong yet,” she added in a lower voice.

  Andrew felt a moment of panic as he looked at the fragile woman lying in bed. She looked as if she would blow away at the slightest puff of wind. He could hardly believe she was well enough to be sent home anytime in the near future, but she had her eyes open and looked much more alert than when he had seen her last.

  Before he could form a sentence, the door opened and Doug came in. He nodded at Andrew but went straight to the bed and leaned down to hug his aunt. “How are you today, Aunt Maxine?”

  The older woman’s face lit up as she looked at her nephew, and she tried to speak.

  Andrew could only make out a few words, but Doug obviously knew what she was saying. “Now, don’t you worry about anything. I’m going to quit my job and move here to Shady Grove to take care of you.”

  She frowned and shook her head slightly. Then she said something else that Andrew didn’t understand.

  “Yes, I am. I know I can find a job here, so don’t you give it another thought.” He leaned over and kissed her wrinkled cheek. “I wish I’d have moved here a long time ago so I could spend time with you. Remember how much fun we had when I was a kid and Dad would let me spend the summers with you?”

  She nodded and smiled.

  Doug stood and turned toward Andrew. “Thanks for coming by to visit her. She gets lonely, but some of her church friends visit during the week.” He reached down and patted the old woman’s gnarled hand. “I wish I could get here more often, but that’s going to change as soon as I get my stuff packed up and move over here.”

  “That sounds like a good idea.” Andrew admired this man’s willingness to step up and take care of a relative. “I just stopped by to see how she was doing.” He smiled at the woman. “You get well soon, Miss Maxine. I’ll be back by to check on you again soon.”

  She nodded and said a long sentence Andrew couldn’t quite make out.

  Andrew opened the door, and Doug followed him out into the hall. “She thanked you for coming by and getting her to the hospital, and she appreciates your girlfriend for taking care of Pal.”

  “My girlfriend?” Andrew’s brow raised.

  “Elyse.”

  Andrew was sure he could see curiosity in Doug’s eyes. Was the man interested in Elyse? If he was, Andrew wasn’t going to make it easy for him. “Oh, okay. I’ll tell her.” H
e walked away and was almost to the door when he stopped and reversed course. He’d almost forgotten. He needed to make one more visit before he left.

  ***

  Breakfast at her parents’ had always been Elyse’s favorite meal, but today had been stilted and odd. Since Crystal had an early meeting at the bank about the drama studio loan, it had just been her and her parents. But back when Crystal lived in New York, they’d had plenty of meals, just the three of them. And it had never been weird. Had not telling them about Luis ruined her relationship with them?

  “So what about Crystal’s surprise shower?” she asked her mama to make conversation. She had talked to Kaleigh and Bree both about it, so she knew it was still on—unless Crystal and Jeremy didn’t work things out. But that was a possibility Elyse wasn’t willing to entertain. “We’re still planning that for Thanksgiving night at my house?”

  Mama nodded, her face taut. “Bree and Aaron will be in for sure, and Bree is excited about the shower. And so is Kaleigh.” She stood and scraped the remains of her breakfast into the trash. Elyse could see the tenseness in her shoulders. “It’ll just be the five of us, but we’ll have fun. Since the women at church are giving her a big one there, we won’t have to be too practical with our gifts.” She slipped her plate into the sink and turned around to face them. “Why don’t we sit out on the porch and finish our coffee?”

  Elyse nodded.

  Her daddy picked up his mug. “Sounds like a good idea.” He led the way, and she and Mama followed him.

  Mama sat in the porch swing. She looked at Elyse and patted the place beside her.

  Elyse smiled as she sat down. She used to love to swing for hours on the wooden slatted swing. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d sat here.

  Instead of claiming the chair next to them, Daddy stood looking out over the railing. “The hills are beautiful this time of year.”

  Elyse glanced out at the hills, rolling with autumn color. Reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and even purples mixed in together on the tree limbs to make a scene that always reminded her of melted crayons and grade school art projects. She shivered. Another thing she didn’t get to enjoy until she was almost too old, thanks to her biological parents.

  Her daddy turned around to face her. “You may not realize it, but Luis Reynolds contacted us years ago.”

  Her eyes widened. Why hadn’t they told her?

  “You were sixteen,” Mama said quietly, beside her. “And we asked you if you would like to be in touch with him.”

  Just like that she remembered. She hadn’t known that he’d contacted them, but she remembered what she’d thought of their question. “And I told you that I never, under any circumstances, wanted anything to do with him.”

  “Ever.” Her daddy half smiled. “One of the rare times you stole the drama queen crown from Cami.”

  Elyse shook her head. “I didn’t know you meant you knew how to reach him.”

  Daddy frowned. “Would it have mattered?”

  “No. Not at all.”

  “You were so upset by us even asking that we didn’t want to upset you further.” Mama reached over and touched her hand.

  “I can understand that.” And she could.

  “We did mention him through the years, but every time your reaction was basically the same.”

  She shrugged. “I guess I remember that. So did he keep harassing y’all?”

  Her mama chuckled. “He never harassed us, honey. We ended up getting to know him fairly well over the years. But he didn’t want to butt into your new life.”

  Elyse’s heart sank. “You didn’t give him money, did you?”

  Her daddy gave her a stern look. “We offered to help support him in his prison ministry a couple of years ago, but he said we’d done enough for him by giving you the family you’d always deserved.”

  While she was trying to figure out the logic to that con, something suddenly occurred to her. “Y’all knew he was here, didn’t you?” That was why they hadn’t seemed that surprised last night when she’d called from the police station.

  Daddy nodded. “After he saw the TV report, he called us and told us Zeke was bad news.” He looked into his coffee mug but didn’t take a drink. “Then he called again and said he was in town for a while. I told him you had more protectors than most, but he was determined to stick around and keep an eye on you.” His gaze met Elyse’s. “I’m sorry for not telling you. I thought he was being unobtrusive.” He shook his head. “And I never thought about him getting himself beaten.”

  “Why would he do that?” Elyse wondered aloud.

  Her daddy shrugged. “Because Zeke was going to hurt you?”

  “This just doesn’t make sense. And according to Andrew, he could have had early parole but didn’t take it.” She frowned. “I can’t figure out his angle.”

  Mama reached over and patted her hand. “Maybe that’s because he doesn’t have one.”

  Elyse let that sink in. “You think he’s turned over a new leaf?”

  Mama smiled. “I think he’s turned over a whole new tree. But what I think doesn’t matter. It’s your trust he has to win if he wants to be in your life.”

  “Be in my life?” She motioned around the ranch. “Even if I believed him, where is there room for him in my life? I have a family, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  Her daddy pinned her with a gaze she’d seen very few times in her life—aimed at her, at least. “We didn’t raise you to be stingy with love. There’s enough to go around, and you know as well as I do that the more you give the more you get. Why wouldn’t there be room in your life for him?”

  She blushed. When he put it like that ... “I’ll think about it.”

  He nodded. “Good.”

  The rest of the day, she thought about what he’d said. And she knew he was right. But she wasn’t ready to see Luis yet. She wasn’t sure she ever would be.

  CHAPTER 24

  “You’re Liza Who Little?” Chance asked, puzzlement evident in his voice. He was on the opposite end of the boat, watching his line.

  “Eliza Doolittle.” Kaleigh enunciated the words plainly as she pulled a night crawler out of the bait bucket and threaded it carefully onto the hook. “From My Fair Lady. Don’t you remember, Cami and Crystal both loved that movie. They made us all watch it over and over?”

  “What does that have to do with you?”

  “Henry Higgins was trying to change a cockney flower girl—Eliza Doolittle—into a refined lady.” Kaleigh made a perfect cast into the water.

  “And she talked about rain in Spain, right?”

  Kaleigh laughed. “Yes, but there was more to it than that.”

  Chance didn’t say anything for a few minutes. Then he grunted. “That makeover didn’t end well, did it?”

  “No.” Kaleigh sighed. “But I’m not following the analogy that far. I’m just saying that Carlton can help me be more refined.”

  “I’ve never even been able to talk you into switching from live bait to artificial. What brought on this big change?”

  She felt her shoulders tense. “You know what brought it on. I don’t want to end up old and alone. Some eccentric old fisher-lady who lives on a houseboat with a thousand cats. Or in the short term, I don’t want to be sitting at Crystal’s wedding, miserable with no date, while everyone else goes by in pairs.”

  “So, in order to avoid that, you need to be a different person?”

  “Yes.” She felt a tug on her line. Almost without thinking, she set the hook and reeled it in. “Got one.”

  Chance reeled his own line in and grabbed the net. He netted her catch then watched as she took the rainbow trout off the hook and threw it into the water-filled cooler. “This whole idea is crazy.”

  “You sound like Candice.”

  “For once, your roommate is right. And you know I don’t say that lightly.” He changed out his purple spinner bait for a neon green one. “Besides, look at how it is with the family. You’re everybody�
��s favorite.”

  A half grin tilted her lips. That must have been hard for him to say. They’d teased for years over which one of them was the family favorite. “That’s just because I’m the baby.”

  “Actually, if you want to be technical, I’m the baby by about two minutes.” He winked and grinned. “And maybe I am the favorite. But you’re my twin. So you can’t be too bad.” He drew back and cast his line into the water.

  Now there was the brother she knew and loved.