One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas)

by Carolyn Brown

  Leah’s phone buzzed in her pocket, and she removed it to find a text message from Rhett that said, I miss you already.

  “Put that phone away. I swear to God’s angels that technology is going to be the death of this great nation. It starts with manners and who knows where the hell it will end. Kids these days ain’t got a bit of respect. Can’t even put those phones away while they have breakfast,” Mavis fussed.

  “Granny, I’m not a kid. I’ll be thirty this fall, and I didn’t answer it. I checked it to make sure it wasn’t an emergency and put it back in my pocket,” Leah said.

  “See what those things cause? You are sassin’ me. What’s the world comin’ to? I swear it’s on a downhill slide right into hell.” Mavis threw her hand over her forehead in a dramatic gesture.

  “Granny, I’m having trouble getting used to your hair,” Honey said, trying to get her off the rampage, but all she got was the old Brennan stink eye.

  Leah mouthed, “Thank you.”

  Honey’s brief tilt of the head said that she’d seen it.

  “Should have had it fixed like this years ago, before that rotten Naomi got her hands on my hairpiece. I swear if she hangs that in her house and says that it’s a Brennan’s scalp, I will burn her house to the ground and then do a jig on Main Street in a pig trough to celebrate,” Mavis said.

  Leah polished off a doughnut, drank all of her juice, and said, “Hate to leave good company, but I need to make a dash through the bathroom and then get my purse. Have to be at the cafeteria in”—she looked at the time on her cell phone—“thirty minutes.”

  Mavis’s lips puckered up like she’d been sucking on a lollipop made with alum. “Can’t wear that nice watch I gave you for your college graduation, but you depend on the cell phone for time as well as getting mail.”

  “Tell me, Granny, which one of the beauticians did your hair?” Honey asked. “I’d like to give her a try.”

  While Mavis was trying to remember the woman’s name, Leah escaped through the sliding glass doors into the house. She ran up the stairs, shucked off all her clothing, and took the fastest shower she’d ever had in her life. She donned a pair of cutoff jean shorts with a ragged hem, flip-flops, and a sage-green T-shirt that she knotted at the waist, and then grabbed her purse.

  As luck would have it, Mavis was in the foyer when she started down the steps and there was no getting out the door without another confrontation.

  “See you at the breakfast,” Leah said.

  “Dressed like that? Good God Almighty, Leah.”

  “I won’t be back home until after the race, so I’m dressed for Sadie Hawkins.” She smiled sweetly.

  “Like I said, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.” Mavis clucked like an old hen all the way to her bedroom suite at the end of the foyer. “But I’d rather see you dressed like that than see you fully clothed on the back of a motorcycle with that hippie cowboy.”

  What about clothed like this on the motorcycle? Leah thought as she hurried out to her truck. Then she looked around to make sure she hadn’t said the words out loud.

  Four Brennan daughters-in-law had taken over the school kitchen and organized the cooking process. Kinsey and Honey had been given the job of serving, and when Leah arrived, she was told to take the money at the door. She was set up with a gray metal box with dividers for the bills, a small desk, and a folding chair.

  As luck would have it, Tanner Gallagher was the first person to walk into the cafeteria, with Betsy and Naomi right behind him. He flashed his most brilliant smile at her and laid a twenty-dollar bill on the desk. When she reached for it, he covered her hand with his.

  “Don’t make change. Just put it all toward the library for the kids, since our kids will be here too,” he said.

  She pulled her hand free. “Thank you for your generous donation, Tanner.”

  “I’ll be hanging back waiting for you at the race. Don’t run past me,” he whispered.

  “Don’t hold up the line,” the person behind him said with a raised voice. “You can run in the race and let her catch you later this afternoon. We’re all hungry.”

  “From his lips to God’s ears,” Tanner said.

  “Good morning, Leah.” Betsy nodded.

  “Hello,” Leah said. “Enjoy your pancake breakfast.”

  “Oh, we will.” Naomi smiled, but it did not reach her eyes.

  Leah scarcely looked up for the next half hour. The cafeteria quickly filled with Brennans, Gallaghers, and neutral folks coming and going. She had about two minutes to catch her breath, and then Rhett, Sawyer, and Jill stepped up to her table. Jill shoved a bill at her and said, “Three adults, and I don’t care if these two cowboys think it’s a sin for a woman to pay for breakfast.”

  “Reckon you could take a break and eat with us?” Rhett asked Leah.

  “No, but I would like a funnel cake afterwards,” she answered.

  “Consider it a date,” he said.

  She handed Jill the change. When she looked up at the next person, she saw her grandmother scowling at her. “Two adults. One for me and one for your dad here. Just remember this: when you play with fire, you will get burned.”

  Rhett turned around, bent low, picked up Mavis’s hand, and kissed her knuckles. “Hello, Miz Mavis. Don’t you look lovely this morning? Are you going to be entering the race this afternoon? I swear if you are, I might let you catch me.”

  Mavis jerked her hand free and glared at him. “I’d catch a Gallagher before I would you.”

  “Ouch!” He threw a hand over his heart. “Does that mean if Leah catches Tanner, you won’t throw her out in the yard?”

  “It means that you should mind your own damn business.”

  Russell winked at Leah.

  Chapter 19

  Rhett put the tailgate of his truck down and scooted to the back of the bed, using the cab for a leaning post and stretching out his long legs. The sounds of the carnival filled the air, along with the laughter of kids and people talking, but he didn’t hear much of it. Mostly what he heard was the Keith Whitley song playing in his ears from the night before. She’d assured him that Tanner was no longer in her heart, and she’d kept her eyes open while they made love, but still there was a small voice in the back of his head saying that first loves were hard to forget.

  “I forgot Mary Lynn Walden,” he muttered.

  You were eight years old, the voice argued.

  “I forgot Lisa Lawson,” he said.

  You were twelve. You want to talk about Anita Green?

  He closed his eyes, and there was a vision of the first girl who he’d kissed, with her long, dark hair and big, brown eyes. Another picture appeared of her in a yellow formal dress at their junior prom, and a red formal dress lying in the corner after their senior prom. It had been the first time for them both, and he’d fumbled his way through it. She’d cried afterward, and he’d promised that they would be together forever.

  You didn’t forget her, did you?

  “But I’m not still in love with her. She broke it off with me and married someone else two years later. I moved past it.”

  He quickly opened his eyes and looked around to make sure no one had heard him talking to himself. Leah was the only one around, and she was coming out of the school cafeteria, so she couldn’t have heard him. She smiled when she saw him and he waved. All thoughts of that first love were erased immediately when she started toward him.

  “I hoped you’d be somewhere close by,” she said.

  “Want to take in the carnival?” Rhett asked.

  Leah hopped up on the tailgate. “I’d love to. I believe you owe me a ride on the Ferris wheel.”

  “Yes, I do, and you sure look cute in that outfit. If you braid that blond hair, you’ll be set to catch me,” he teased.

  She slipped her hand into his. “I can catch you fine with my hair down. I look like Pollyanna with my hair in braids. I have about an hour before I have to be at the bicycle judging, so let’s go check
out the fun.”

  “Finn and Callie’s kids have spent a week working on their bicycles for the parade. It should be cute.” Rhett took her hand in his.

  “It starts at eleven at the school yard and goes to the bar, where Polly always gives the kids cookies and juice packs. Jill and Tanner are the other two judges. To make it fair, the committee chooses a judge from each family and one who’s not a Brennan or a Gallagher.”

  “Finn couldn’t judge because his four kids will be riding, right?” Rhett asked.

  Leah nodded. “That’s right. Judges can’t have kids in the parade.”

  “I’ll wait for you at the bar and watch it at the finish line. Polly is still having trouble standing very long on that ankle she broke last winter. She might need some help.” Rhett let go of her hand and slung a leg over the side of the truck bed.

  When his feet were firmly on the ground, he held out his hands and said, “Jump.”

  She smiled and fell forward into his arms. Nothing she’d ever experienced prepared her for the feeling that shot through her body in the split second between when she left the solid truck and trusted Rhett to catch her. Without even bending his knees or making any kind of noise indicating that she was too heavy, he caught her and held her like a bride as he carried her to the passenger side of the truck.

  “We don’t have to drive,” she said. “It’s not that far, and we may not find a parking spot any closer anyway, so let’s walk.”

  “I could carry you. If we had those cuffs, we could take care of everything right now,” he said.

  She wiggled until he finally set her on the ground. “Why didn’t I think of that? I could have bought a pair of cuffs, and we wouldn’t have even needed a plan.”

  He tucked her hand inside his. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

  When they got close to the carnival, Rhett caught several stares and noticed a few women talking with their hands held over their mouths. The feud might have to take a backseat to the new gossip about the battle at River Bend.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I didn’t say anything,” he answered.

  “Yes, you did. Not out loud, but your body went all stiff. I could feel it.”

  “I can see the way folks are reacting to us being together, and I hate that,” he said.

  “It’s worth it.” She smiled. “You are worth it.”

  “Just know that if you need me for anything when she comes at you with those long, red fingernails, I’m only a phone call and five minutes away.”

  “You can’t get from the bunkhouse to River Bend in five minutes.”

  He squeezed her hand gently. “I can if I make a hole through the fence separating us and goose my motorcycle a little.”

  Her smile turned to laughter. “My knight in shining motorcycle.”

  “I’ll have to practice my war maneuvers. I can see Mavis standing on the porch, swearing at me as she fires a shotgun toward the cycle as I haul you off on the back of it,” he said.

  “Who says I’m going to be on the back? I might be riding on front, holding on to the horns.” She dropped his hand and pointed at the shooting gallery. “Look, there’s a stuffed bull. You think it’s an omen?”

  “I’m a fair shot. Want me to win it for you?”

  “Maybe later. I’d rather go for my Ferris wheel ride.”

  “I thought we were going for funnel cakes,” he said.

  “After we ride the Ferris wheel. So if I get sick, I don’t hate them forever,” she said.

  “Have you ever gotten sick on one before?”

  “I’ve never been on one.”

  He came to a halt right there in the middle of a crowd pushing their way to the Ferris wheel line. “Never?” he asked.

  “I’ve never trusted anyone to keep me safe before,” she said.

  “Darlin’, I promise I will keep you safe.”

  “Want to seal the deal with a kiss? I like the way we do that.” Her eyes sparkled.

  “You sure?” His eyes darted around to see who might be watching them.

  She raised up on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around his neck. He could almost hear the phone lines buzzing as he bent his head and her lips touched his. It was a sweet kiss that only lasted a few seconds, but while her lips were on his, the whole world disappeared. For that short span of time, they were the only two people left in the universe.

  “Now you have to hold me tight and not laugh at me if I get scared when we get to the top,” she said.

  “I give you my promise, but we could seal it with another kiss.”

  She rolled up on her toes and brushed a quick kiss across his lips. “There, now you have to take care of me, because the deal is sealed.”

  They were the last ones that the attendant allowed on the wheel for that ride. When he pulled the bar down, Leah slid over close enough to Rhett that she could lay her head on his shoulder. One of his arms was around her; the other was crossed over in front of his body to hold her hand.

  “Want me to stop it at the top for you two lovebirds?” the attendant asked.

  “Yes,” Leah answered. “He’s going to keep me safe because we sealed the deal with a kiss.”

  “I’d keep you safe if you’d kiss me,” the elderly, gray-haired man teased. “But like usual, I’m a day late for the pretty girls.”

  “I bet you’ve known lots of pretty girls.” Leah smiled.

  “Oh, yes, I have, but when the carnival moved, I left them behind.”

  “A handsome but fickle fellow,” she teased.

  “You better hold on to her, cowboy, or I’ll sweet-talk her into leaving with me when we tear this place down tonight.”

  “I plan on it,” Rhett said.

  The old guy flipped a switch, and the swing moved up. “Next,” he called out.

  They moved a few feet at a time as he filled the wheel with more passengers. As the buckets went higher and higher, Rhett could feel the fear tensing Leah’s muscles, so he drew her even closer to his side, his arm tight around her shoulders.

  “I’m afraid of heights,” she whispered.

  “Don’t look down. Just look into my eyes,” Rhett said. “Think about last night and the stars outside the hayloft.”

  “I didn’t look down from the doors,” she admitted.

  He kissed her on the nose and kept his eyes locked on hers. “Right now, it’s me and you, and I’ll tell you when you can look down.”

  When they made the first round and were on the way up again he said, “Now look to your right. There’s your dad and Mavis over there at the funnel cake wagon.”

  “She’s pissed,” Leah said and then turned to lock her eyes with his again.

  “Oh, yeah, but she’ll get over it. Next time we go around, I’ll tell you to look when we’re a little bit higher up.”

  She kissed him on the cheek, and he turned so that their lips met in a sweet, quick kiss. “And then the next time a little more, until we are on top, right?”

  “You’ve got me figured out,” Rhett said.

  “Have you ever made love on one of these?” she asked.

  He chuckled. “No, ma’am, but I’m willing, even if it means a night in jail, if you are.”

  “Tell me when to look. I like the feeling of knowing that we’re going up and you’re right here. Hey, you think if we did have sex on this thing that Orville would let us share a cell?”

  “It’s our story, Leah. We can tell it any way we want, and in this story, they’d put us in the same cell where there is a king-size bed strewn with mimosa petals,” he answered. “Okay, now look to your right again. There’s Finn and Callie at the fried pickle wagon. I guess it’s true about pregnant women.”

  When the ride stopped at the top, she peeked over the edge. “It’s a long way down there.”

  “Look at those big, white, puffy clouds up in the sky, not at the ground,” he said.

  “Oh, Rhett. They’re beautiful.”

  He kissed her on the forehead when the ride started
again. “Now we’re going down again, so keep looking at the clouds and not at the ground.”

  “Look!” Her eyes widened as the wheel started descending. “I can see the quilts on the school yard.”

  “Is that something to do with the festival?”

  “Not really, but kind of. Everyone brings a quilt for their family, spreads it out in the school yard, and has a picnic. I looked forward to that all year when I was a little girl,” Leah answered. “We could go visit Finn and Callie before the race starts. I always thought it was so much fun to go visit other people on their quilts.”

  “Did you ever visit a Gallagher, like Betsy?” Rhett asked, thrilled that she was loosening up and starting to enjoy the ride.

  She shook her head. “If I had, I wouldn’t be here today. Granny would have sent me away to a convent.”

  “You’re not Catholic.”

  “She would have converted if she’d caught me with a Gallagher.”

  The ride stopped, and the attendant blew a kiss to Leah as he unfastened the bar holding them inside the bucket.

  “So how was your first time?” Rhett asked.

  “Amazing but I don’t want to do it again for a while,” she said.

  “You don’t have to ever do anything you don’t want to do, Leah. What now?”

  “It’s time for the parade,” she answered.

  Rhett walked with her down to the school, where dozens of bicycles, decorated in all kinds of ways, were lined up with numbers fixed to the back of their seats. Orville stood beside the sheriff’s car, waiting to lead the parade down the street. He glanced at Rhett and Leah but didn’t wave.

  “He still thinks we burned down the Gallaghers’ schoolhouse, doesn’t he?” Rhett asked.

  She nodded. “And he probably thinks that they blew our school up, but he can’t prove anything on either side.”

  Tyrell Gallagher held up a hand and waved when they got close to the congested area, where parents and kids both were milling around like ants around a honey jar.