Million Dollar Cowboy

by Lori Wilde

“I don’t. Not for sure. It could just be ringing in my ears. Tinnitus. I should go to the doctor.”

  “It’s not tinnitus.”

  “Maybe. It could be. I pray it is.”

  Granny Blue’s eyes opened wide and she looked slightly alarmed. “Oh, my dear sweet child. Who kissed you?”

  “Please,” Kaia begged. “Tell me how to stop it.”

  “If it is the Song of the Soul Mate”—Granny shook her head, her expression both joyous and rueful—“it is unstoppable.”

  Kaia gulped, squeezed her fingernails into her palms. She’d been terrified Granny was going to say that. “Hopefully it’s not the soul mate thingy.”

  “But my child,” she whispered “why would you wish away our cherished family blessing?”

  “Or curse,” Kaia said. “Depending on how you look at it.”

  Granny Blue clucked her tongue. “Right now, you sound as stubborn as Ember. Normally, you are as easy flowing as the water sign you were born under. Who has you so scared?”

  Ridge Lockhart, that’s who! But she wasn’t saying that out loud. Not yet.

  Not while she was busy logging all the reasons they were incompatible. He was rich. She came from modest means. He was her older brother’s best friend. He used to call her Braterminator and tug on her pigtails. She was still going to school and didn’t need the distraction. He was off to China for six months. She was—

  “I resisted too.” Granny Blue laid her wrinkled, sun-spotted hand atop Kaia’s. “It’s only natural. Finding your soul mate can be quite scary at first.”

  “Honestly, I did not think it was real. I thought it was just a story you told us, like Cinderella. I never believed I would actually hear …” Kaia fanned her palms beside her ears. “This.”

  “I cautioned you,” Granny Blue said. “But you had to have proof, and now you do.”

  Her soft words held such unyielding faith, Kaia’s gut squeezed, sloshed with peppermint tea and cookies. She was glad she’d chosen peppermint now, hoping it would soothe her jittery stomach.

  “What happened between you and grandfather? Was it love at first sight?”

  “Oh no! The first time I saw him I thought he was the cockiest rooster in the barnyard. Although …” She took a sip of her tea and grinned. “He was the most handsome man I’d ever seen.”

  “So you had no idea when you met him that he was your true love?”

  Her grandmother’s smile turned wistful. “Not at all. It wasn’t until he kissed me under the starry night sky and I heard the Song of the Soul Mate that I knew he was the one.”

  Just to have something to do with her hands, Kaia ate another cookie.

  “I miss that man, his kisses and that humming, every single minute of my life.”

  She heard the heartbreak in Granny Blue’s voice, felt the depth of her grandmother’s sorrow all the way through her bones. “Aww, Granny.” She squeezed her grandmother’s hand.

  “Don’t feel sorry for me.” Granny Blue smiled past the single tear streaking down her cheek. “I’m blessed beyond measure. And now you”—she reached out to stroke Kaia’s chin—“whether you believe it or not, have heard the Song of the Soul Mate. It is a great gift.”

  “But who’s to say it’s not just some genetic malfunction in the brains of the women in our family and it has nothing to do with love at all?” Kaia fretted, alarmed at her tightening chest muscles.

  “But you didn’t hear the hum until after this man kissed you, correct?”

  Kaia nodded. She couldn’t deny it, no matter how much she might want to. Ridge had kissed her, and then she’d heard the humming. Every single time.

  “You have doubts, it’s understandable. But like it or not, once you’ve heard the Song of the Soul Mate, he is inevitably yours.”

  “But what if he is with someone else?” Kaia said. “What if he’s married?”

  “Is he?”

  “No.”

  “Did you know that your grandfather was engaged to be married when I met him?”

  “What?” Kaia pressed a hand to her mouth, slightly scandalized. “You stole grandfather away from his fiancée?”

  The dry desert breeze made her skin feel hot. Fig Newton crumbs sprinkled the tablecloth in front of her. In her rapt attention to Granny Blue’s story, she’d finished off the entire sleeve of cookies. With the flat of her hand, she swept the crumbs into a straight line, and then brushed them off the table into her saucer.

  The dogs sat up, watching her, curious as to what she harbored in the saucer. The ceiling fan overhead rotated in lazy circles.

  Her pulse pounded, and her head hummed. Just the thought of Ridge’s kisses set it humming. She felt weak, dazed.

  Granny Blue’s eyes were pinned on her. She smiled a faint, faraway smile, remembering something she did not share.

  “What would have happened if he’d married the other woman?” Kaia asked.

  “He didn’t.”

  “But what if he had?”

  “Then we both would have been miserable for the rest of our lives.” Her bittersweet gaze came back to Kaia. “When he stole that kiss from me, he broke his vow to his intended. His tribe took it as a sign he had a fickle character.” She paused. “They did not understand the Song of the Soul Mate. It was not a gift his people possessed. That’s why we moved to the Trans-Pecos. For a start fresh.”

  “It must have been hard. Leaving your home and your family for a man you barely knew. Did you ever have moments of regret?”

  “Never.” Granny Blue breathed out a fierce breath, the thin line of her nostrils flaring. “How could I regret finding the other half of my soul?”

  “Wow.”

  “Although,” Granny said, touching an index finger to her chin, “your grandfather and I regret that we caused the other woman pain. But when you hear the Song of the Soul Mate”—she shook her head—“everything changes and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”

  “It sounds awful. Out of control.”

  “It is awful only if you resist,” Granny Blue said with ironclad conviction. “If you embrace what is … well, it is like a fairy tale. Happily-ever-after.”

  “Until one of you dies,” Kaia whispered.

  Granny’s eyes burned bright. “No,” she said. “Not even then. The Song of the Soul Mate sings throughout all lifetimes.”

  Kaia crinkled her nose. Granny had some eccentric beliefs that clashed with her own, and she wanted to deny the fanciful lore. But she was open-minded enough to admit something mysterious was going on.

  “So tell me about your first kiss with Grandfather.”

  “The minute his lips were on mine it was as if the earth shifted off its axis, and I thought I heard a choir of angels singing. I realized it was the Song of the Soul Mate my mother had told me about, the same way I told you and your sisters.”

  “How sweet!”

  “But then your grandfather told me he was engaged and he never meant to kiss me but that he was so taken with my beauty he was unable to resist. He was completely tormented by that kiss, but so was I.”

  Kaia ran a palm over her mouth. “I can imagine.”

  “I was too young to be falling in love, far too young to hear the Song of the Soul Mate. I hadn’t even finished high school, and the man I loved was already promised to another.”

  “What did you do?”

  “We tried to forget each other—of course, it was the only honorable thing to do—but we were miserable apart! My heart felt as if it had been ripped from my chest. I couldn’t stop thinking about him and when I thought about him I heard the humming. It would not stop. How I prayed for it to stop! I did not want a reminder of everything I was giving up.”

  “But then Pawpaw broke up with the other woman and came for you.”

  She smiled slyly. “He did. But that’s enough about my story. You are the one who is hearing the soul mate song for the first time. Tell me about it.”

  Kaia shrugged, reluctant to let the cat from the bag. Onc
e she spoke his name, she’d never be able to take it back.

  “Who is this man that has set your head singing?” Granny asked.

  Kaia ran a trembling hand over her mouth, met Granny’s hard-edged stare. Took a deep breath and bravely said, “Ridge Lockhart.”

  A beat of silence passed between them. Then two. Three …

  “Oh no,” Granny Blue whispered.

  “Oh yes. Now do you see why I am so worried?”

  Chapter 19

  It was ten a.m. when she got home from Granny Blue’s, and Kaia had no more than walked through her front door when her cell phone rang.

  The minute she saw Ridge’s name on her caller ID, she started grinning, answered it with, “How did you get my cell number?”

  “Ember,” he said.

  “Don’t ever have sisters. They’ll throw you under the bus every time.”

  “Thanks for the tip.” He chuckled, and the deep-throated sound had her curling her toes inside her boots.

  “What do you want?” she asked, hopefully wary that he wanted to see her again.

  “You want to go do something?” he asked.

  Bounce went her heart. “Like what?”

  “Hang out.”

  “Are you asking me on a date?”

  “We don’t have to slap a label on it.”

  “Hanging out is what kids do. If you want to date me, just ask.”

  Ridge snorted, and she could almost see him shaking his head and smiling, the way he did when she’d both irritated and delighted him.

  “All right then. Would you like to go to …” He paused as if he was trying to think of a good place to take her.

  “In case you’ve forgotten, there are a limited number of date options in this town. Dinner and a movie, bowling, line dancing at Chantilly’s, going out to watch for the Marfa Lights, and/or hitting the new ice-cream parlor on the road into town. Otherwise, for date stuff, it’s a three-hour drive to El Paso.”

  “You forget,” he said. “I own my own plane.”

  “Braggart.”

  “Up for a flight to El Paso?”

  “Nope.”

  “You’re turning me down?”

  “I’d planned on giving blood this afternoon at the hospital, and I’m usually a little light-headed for the rest of the day after I donate.”

  “Could you donate another day?”

  “It’s for Natalie Vega’s baby girl, Amelia. She’s got Von Willebrand’s disease and occasionally needs a transfusion.”

  “Who’s Natalie Vega?”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot you haven’t been keeping up with us for the past ten years. I’m talking about Natalie McCleary, who owns the Cupid’s Rest B&B. I think she was a couple of years ahead of you in high school. Anyway, she got married a few years ago to Dade Vega, a former Navy SEAL. He now works for Border Patrol.”

  “Man, I hate to hear that her kid is sick. Will she be okay?”

  “Prognosis is really good if she gets medical treatment when she needs it,” Kaia said. “Kids with Von Willebrands can live a normal life. But Natalie and Dade have both been through so much heartache. It doesn’t seem fair that their baby daughter has a chronic illness. Luckily, Natalie and Dade have a strong marriage, and their three-year-old, Nathan, is healthy as a horse. Folks in town do what they can to help them out. For me, since I’m so busy and saving up to finish school, it’s donating blood.”

  “I see.” The timbre of his voice shifted, deepened.

  “What?” Kaia rubbed a palm across her face wondering if she’d said something wrong.

  “You.”

  “What about me?”

  He clicked his tongue like he was guiding a horse. “You are one amazing woman.”

  “Me?” She scoffed. “I’m no better or worse than anyone else. Just a hometown girl doing right by my friends.”

  “Who cares so much about other people that they regularly donate blood? Be honest—how many people do that?”

  “You’ve been gone too long,” Kaia said. “Big city living has made you forget what it’s like to live in a tight-knit community.”

  “You might be right,” he agreed.

  Silence lapsed between them as she cast around for something to say.

  “Could you wait until tomorrow to donate blood if I invited you to spend the day with me at Balmorhea State Park?” he asked, referencing her most favorite spot in the Trans-Pecos. “What do you say?”

  “Is this officially a date?” she squeaked.

  “It’s a date,” he confirmed.

  She grinned as if he could see her, but the smile quickly faded as reality set in. Having casual wedding sex with him was one thing; a sojourn to the place where they’d shared some of her fondest childhood memories was another.

  Saying yes would be like diving headfirst into a body of water without first checking the depth.

  “I’ll pick you up in thirty minutes,” he said.

  “You don’t even know where I live.”

  “Ember sold you out all the way,” he said, and hung up.

  She made a mental note to give Ember a good talking-to about passing out her personal information, and switched off her phone.

  Her heart was skipping so fast she got a little dizzy and had to sit on the couch. Dart and her foster dogs, a Jack Russell named Buddy and a sweet-natured golden retriever named Bess, immediately jumped on her, knocking her down. Smelling Granny Blue’s dogs on her, Buddy and Bess sniffed her up and down.

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “I’ve been cheating on you with Granny Blue’s brood.”

  Dart, however, didn’t seem to mind that Kaia had been cavorting with other beasts and staked out a claim in the middle of her chest, settling down to knead her skin with his paws.

  “Going straight for the boobs, huh?” Kaia teased. “Whether cat or human, you men are all alike.”

  Dart looked her straight in the eyes and meowed as if to say, “Don’t you know it, sister.”

  It fully hit her. Ridge was on the way! He’d be here in thirty minutes for their date—a real date with her favorite person in her favorite place.

  Crapple, she was a mess.

  At the speed of light, she let the dogs into the fenced backyard and dashed through the house, shedding her comfy animal-friendly clothes as she went. Her high-octane energy sent Dart hiding under the bed.

  She hopped into the shower, taking her toothbrush and toothpaste with her. Two birds. One stone. Multitasking was a good thing. Thank God, the pedicure she’d gotten for Archer’s wedding still looked good, but she hadn’t washed her hair since Friday evening and it was currently pulled into a ponytail.

  Who cared? She was going swimming.

  Yes, but it was a swimming date.

  Five minutes she was in and out of the shower, body scrubbed, teeth brushed, legs shaved. She did the frou-frou stuff. Deodorant. Cologne. Pull down the ponytail and fluffed her hair. Yes, later it would be wet and plastered to her head, but she wanted to make an impression.

  She dressed quickly. Red bikini, topped with a denim skirt and pink tank top, slid her feet into sturdy pink hiking sandals. Slapped on a bit of waterproof mascara, blush, and lipstick—called appropriately enough—Cactus Blossom Red.

  The front doorbell rang just as she finished putting on the lipstick. Good enough. Breathing a sigh of relief, she bounced into the living room.

  Opened the door.

  There stood Ridge, wearing knee-length swim trunks, a blue T-shirt that enhanced his navy eyes, and a pair of slip-on boat shoes. He held a wicker picnic basket that smelled of fried chicken, and a bouquet of blue forget-me-nots.

  No way. Her favorite food and her favorite flowers? Where had he gotten fried chicken in Cupid this early in the day? And who’d sold him flowers that loved water in a desert town on a Sunday morning?

  But he had a plane and plenty of money. He could get most anything he wanted with a snap of his fingers. She found that both sexy and oddly worrisome.

  “Hey,�
� he said, leaning one shoulder against the doorjamb, still looking like a total rascal with that blackened eye.

  “Hey.”

  She gulped. “How did you get here?”

  “Borrowed Archer’s SUV. They took Casey’s car to the airport in El Paso. He left me the keys.”

  “I see.” Kaia didn’t miss the appreciative look in his eye as his gaze roamed over her.

  She wasn’t the only one who’d just taken a shower. His hair was slightly damp, and she caught the scent of soap and the spicy tang of his bay rum cologne.

  Her nose twitched. He smelled better than the fried chicken, and it took every last bit of fortitude she possessed not to move closer to him.

  “Thank you for the flowers,” she said a bit formally. “Forget-me-nots are my favorite.”

  “I remember,” he murmured. “They reminded me of you. Bright. Fun. True blue.”

  She took a moment to bask in the warmth of his words. He’d remembered. If he was buttering her up in hopes of getting her into bed again, it was working. Big-time.

  “Let me just put these in water.” She took the flowers from him, tried not to react when their hands brushed and goose bumps spread up her arm.

  He followed her into the kitchen. “You look good.”

  Something about the way he said it, so nonchalant and friendly, caused her to turn her head and peer at him over her shoulder.

  “What is it?” he asked. His tone was innocent, but the expression in his eyes was deliciously wicked. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “Right then you sounded like your old self. No hint of that Canadian accent you’ve picked up.”

  “Eh?” he said in a nasally tease, purposely trying to sound Canadian.

  “You can take the boy out of Texas”—she grinned—“but you can’t take Texas out of the boy.”

  “I suppose not,” he said, and grinned wide enough to show off the dimple dug into his right cheek. That dimple loosened her knees and sent a rush of heat flooding straight into her pelvis. “But you do look gorgeous.”

  What was going on? He kept saying the most incredible things to her. As if he wanted a relationship. As if they had a future.

  “Sweet talker,” she scoffed.

  He lowered his head, lowered his eyelids, and sent her a scintillating look. “I’m dead serious.”