“I’m sure you’re right,” he answered, doing his best not to growl back at her, as she pulled on to the parking lot of Luke’s Garage.
As soon as he exited the vehicle and closed the door behind him, she pulled off, not bothering to wave goodbye. He was still standing there with his hand raised when Luke walked up.
“I see your two’s relationship hasn’t changed since high school.” He just sighed and shook his head in response. “Don’t let it get you down. Believe it or not, there’s still hope.”
He sighed again. “I have to say, it doesn’t really feel like it.”
“I know you weren’t here to witness it, but my relationship with Mindi wasn’t a whole lot different than your relationship with Lucy. I didn’t listen when Zane and the others told me how Mindi truly felt about me either. Now we’re getting married.”
Chapter 1 – Friday, April 26
Tyler had been wondering around Harris Grocery for the last half hour trying to find everything on his mom’s list. Most of the items he at least recognized. It had just been eight years since he had been in here, and he had never really known how the store was set up in the first place. To be honest, he couldn’t tell you if anything had changed, or not. Unlike a lot of the kids in his graduating class, he never worked here. His after-school job had been working with one of the neighboring ranches. Then he would spend the weekends helping his dad take care of the few horses they had for recreation. It had never been his dad’s desire to own a working ranch. He just loved the horses, and kept them for riding.
His dad may have been happy with just the few horses he had for riding, but it had always been Tyler’s dream to own his own ranch. That’s why he had spent so many years on the rodeo circuit, riding both broncos and bulls. He would spend just enough of his winnings to survive, and deposit the rest into a savings account. He had been hoping to retire by the time he was thirty. After an incident with a young fan, where he had barely escaped with his skin still intact, he had decided to retire early. It had never been his intention to become famous, but due to the level of fame he had achieved, he had socked away more than enough to reach his goal.
Of course, if it hadn’t been for the fame, he probably wouldn’t have had a fan crazy enough to try and force him into marrying her. While he didn’t believe he would be remembered the way Lane Frost was, or even come close for that matter, he had probably amassed more in winnings. Unfortunately, Lane Frost had died way too young. If he had gotten the chance to live out his career and truly reach his potential, there’s no telling what he would have accomplished. He had been one heck of a bull rider from all the stories Tyler had heard over the years.
He shook his head to pull his mind out of his musings, and frowned down at the list once again. He was down to the last item on the list, and he had no idea where to find it. He wasn’t even sure how it was used in cooking. As far as he knew it was something used in baby powder. He only knew that much because one of his friends and his wife have a one-year-old little boy. When he was over at their house visiting the other day, he had noticed the baby powder on the coffee table said with cornstarch.
“Where do they keep cornstarch in a grocery store?” he grumbled to himself before turning to head back toward the front of the store. He was thinking maybe he could find Joe and ask him where it was at. It was the middle of the day. The store owner was sure to be there somewhere.
Just as he looked up from the crumpled paper in his hand, he noticed someone backing around the end of the aisle, like they were trying to sneak away before they were seen. “Lucy?” he called out, doing his best not to chuckle.
When he called her name, the cart stopped, and he heard a grumbled curse. He grinned to himself, picking up his pace. He managed to catch her at the end of the aisle, and was soon looking into the prettiest brown eyes he’d ever seen. Despite her obvious irritation, he just grinned at her. “Hi, Beautiful. Fancy meeting you here.”
“Hello, Tyler,” she replied, sounding like she was grinding her teeth.
“Strange how, when I’m needing help lately, I end up running into you,” he grinned. “I think we should take it as a sign from above.”
She shook her head vigorously. “No. The only thing strange I find around here, is you,” she snapped in reply.
“Why would you say a thing like that?”
“Okay, I’ll bite,” she said, pulling herself up to her full five feet five and a half inches, and crossing her arms over her chest. “How did a nationally known rodeo star end up back in Sapphire Springs? A small town of barely more than fifteen hundred people.”
He gave her a hurt and confused look. “This is my home. I grew up here. Why wouldn’t I come back?”
“I wouldn’t think this life would be exciting enough for you anymore.”
“You came back to work in the hospital doing lab work. You could have gone to some major university to work in medical research. You’re one of the smartest people I know, yet you’re still here. And why? Because it’s home. It’s where you want to be.”
She frowned, knowing he was right, and she really had no room to talk. Rather than admitting he was right though, she changed the subject. “What do you want, Tyler?”
He grinned at her, seriously thinking about just telling her he wanted her. “Do you think you could help me with something?”
“Doubtful,” she answered dryly. “I don’t think anyone can help you.”
“Oh, come on, Baby. I just need to know where to find the cornstarch.”
“Really?” she asked, giving him a dubious look.
“Yeah, really,” he grinned back at her.
She took maybe five steps down the aisle he’d just been in and reached up to pull something down from one of the higher shelves. She turned and slapped him in the chest with it, then put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him.
“Oh, I guess I just kept over-looking it. I’ve been up and down this aisle at least ten times.”
She just gave him a dirty look before walking off without saying a word.
“Thank you,” he called, trying to turn his cart around to follow her.
“Whatever,” she said, not turning back to look at him.
“Come on, Luce,” he pleaded, sounding like a little kid, begging for a popsicle. “Talk to me for a minute, please.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
She spun around, glaring back at him. “First-of-all, you’re still calling me Luce.”
“Okay. Sorry, Lucy.”
“Next, you are always trying to drive me crazy.”
“It’s never been my intention to upset you.”
“Sure, whatever,” she shrugged, turning to try and leave once more.
“Hey, you can cook. What’s cornstarch used for, anyway?” he asked, just grasping for a topic of conversation.
“What?” she snapped. “I’m fat, so obviously I know how to cook?”
“No, you’re not fat. I just talked to your mother the other day and she said you were a great cook.”
“Right?” she asked, sounding doubtful. “You talked to my mother?”
“Yeah. I always talk to your mother when I see her. Is that a problem?”
“No. Why would it be a problem?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “You don’t seem to believe I’d talked to her.”
“What I don’t understand is why you would bother to talk to my mother.”
“Your mother is a wonderful, sweet woman. Why wouldn’t I talk to her.”
She just shook her head at him. “Right, Tyler. I know better than that. You always have an agenda.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Whatever.”
When she tried to walk off this time, he gently grabbed her elbow to stop her. “What is it about me that you don’t like? No matter how hard I try, you always act like you would rather run me over with your daddy’s semi than talk to me.”
She crossed her arms over her chest with
a huff. “You’d think after a while, you would take the hint.”
“Oh, come on.”
“Come on, what?” she asked with a really confused look.
“Well, if nothing else, could we just start over?” He gave her a really hopeful look and reached his arms out. When she smacked his hands away, he dropped his arms down to his sides and gave her a pout.
She huffed, glaring back at him. “Fine. Let’s start over. You first.”
“Okay,” he said with a grin. “Hello, Lucy. You look very beautiful today.”
“Grr,” she growled, turning to storm off.
“What?” he asked, throwing his hands in the air. “What did I do this time?”
“You ask to start over, but aren’t willing to be completely honest.”
“I was being honest,” he stated with a hurt look. She didn’t bother to answer this time. She just spun back around and stormed off.
“I see you still have the same finesse that you always did with that one.”
Tyler looked over to find Mark Harris, the store owner’s son standing there. “I don’t understand women, and that one’s worse than most. It doesn’t seem to matter though. I was gone for eight years and she’s still the only one I really want.”
“Unfortunately, I think that’s the way it always works. Maybe it’s so we have to work harder to get what we want.”
“What does she want from me?”
“Don’t ask me. I’m having a hard-enough time trying to figure my own out.”
“Jenny Townsend?”
“Yeah. How did you know? You did just mention being gone for eight years.”
“Mom’s always tried to keep me up on what was going on around here. She knew I missed everybody. Her being really close friends with Momma Townsend probably helped.”
“Yeah. Jamie keeps telling me to be patient, and not to push too hard. I’m not sure she really understands just how difficult that really is.”
“But if you can’t push, how are you ever going to figure out what she wants from you?”
“Exactly.”
“And women say men are bad,” Tyler sighed.
“Then spend most of their time tying our insides into knots,” Mark finished.
“Yep. I know what you mean.”
*******
Tyler shouldered the door open and toed his boots off at the door. It may have finally stopped raining several hours ago, but it would take a couple days for all the mud left behind to dry up, and that was if it didn’t rain for the rest of the week. He had mud caked on his boots up to the ankles, and knew if his mom caught him tracking it through the house, she’d rip him a new one.
“Hey, Mom, I’m back,” he called, sitting the grocery bags down on the kitchen table. He had already started putting things away when she made it to the kitchen.
“Well, there you are,” she said, coming in from the living room. “That took longer than I expected.”
“Sorry, I had trouble finding some of the stuff on your list,” he answered, looking down at the box he’d just pulled from a bag, prompting him to inquire about it. “Speaking of, how is cornstarch used in cooking?”
His mom dragged another bag across the table to where she stood across form him, and started unloading its contents. “It’s a thickener for making gravy, or thickening stew. For example, if you take the drippings form a roasted chicken or turkey, then add a little oil and cornstarch, voila, you have gravy.”
He grinned, shaking his head. “I have a feeling it’s not quite that easy.”
She laughed, shaking her still full head of hair, even if it had gone completely gray already. She was in her mid-forty’s, with crow’s feet just starting to show at the corner of her bright blue eyes. She had put a little extra weight on her five feet, six-inch frame in the last twenty some years, but for the most part, was very healthy for her age.
“Well, technically, no,” she answered. “Why do you ask?”
He shrugged and continued unloading grocery bags. “I thought it was used in baby powder.”
“Yeah, same stuff. It helps prevent diaper rash.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
She gave him a sly look, turning her back on him. “Speaking of baby powder and diaper rash, are you ever going to settle down and have a couple of kids? I want grandbabies. I don’t think your brothers and sister are going to until you do.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Mom, I’m only twenty-six. And the others are twenty-four, twenty-two and nineteen. I don’t think there’s any reason to be in such a hurry just yet.”
She paused in unloading the groceries and gave him a serious look. “That may be so, but you’ve been in love with the same girl since eighth grade.”
“Yeah, about that,” he huffed, pulling out a chair and plopping down in it. He rubbed his hands over his face and thought about banging his head on the table.
“What’s wrong, Son? You know you can tell me anything.”
“I don’t think she likes me very much.”
“Why do you say that?”
He took a deep, sighing breath and sat back in his chair. “For one, she’s always angry with me. I try to be nice, and she bites my head off.”
She nodded her head, giving him a thoughtful look. “Maybe she feels you’re being insincere.”
“Anytime I see her, my brain cells desert me to the point I can’t be anything but sincere. Whatever I’m feeling or thinking shows on my face and comes right out my mouth. I always end up having a really stupid grin on my face.”
“Have you tried simply asking her out?”
“Our conversations never last long enough. I say something like, ‘Hi. You look beautiful today.’ The next thing I know, she’s storming off in a huff. It can give a guy a complex.”
“Well, you’ll figure it out,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “I have faith in you.”
“Yeah,” he sighed, sounding gloomy.
She just chuckled. “By the way, Jamie Townsend called. They’re having a barbecue tomorrow. We’re invited. I told her your dad and I probably won’t be back in time, but you might make it. Especially since I won’t be here to cook.”
“Isn’t it supposed to be too cold for a barbecue tomorrow? It’s pretty cold out there now, and I think it’s supposed to be colder tomorrow,” he said with a shiver. “If we get any more rain, the roads will be icy.”
“You never really know with this Missouri weather,” she shrugged. “Besides, when has that ever-stopped Carl Townsend when he wanted to barbecue?”
“That’s true. That man loves his barbecues.”
“That does however give me another idea of my own.”
“What’s that?”
“Nothing you need to worry about. You’ll know when the time is right.”
“Why does that cause me to worry?” he frowned, not sure he was going to like whatever his mother was up to.
She stopped at the door to the living room and turned back to give him a smirk. “Be afraid. Be very afraid,” she replied, then laughed maniacally as she walked off.
*******
Lucy pulled onto the parking lot of the Sapphire Café, and sighed as she came to a stop next to a bright orange muscle car. Well, at least Jenny is already here, she thought to herself. The Townsend family’s love for classic cars usually made it easy to till if one of them was around. She turned her car off and climbed out, making her way to the door.
She had dinner plans with her three best friends, Jenny Townsend, Jessie Long, and Mary Ellen Edwards. Due to the friendship between their mothers, they had spent a lot of summers together at one or the other of their houses, having sleepovers. So, despite the age differences between Lucy and the other three, they had all grown up close. Lucy had graduated with them, but was two years younger than the rest of them. She had skipped fourth and fifth grade when she was in school, and would have skipped at least one more year, if her mother hadn’t told the school she wouldn’t allow them to skip her thr
ough anymore grades. She had been concerned she might feel too awkward being in a class with other students that much older than her. The only reason she had allowed them to skip her the two grades they had, was because she knew she would be in class with the other three girls in the first place.
When she entered the building, she immediately saw her friends. She walked over to their table and plopped down in the empty chair with a huff. She yanked the menu up in front of her, not even bothering to say hello. She didn’t want to look any of them in the eyes. She knew they were going to ask what was wrong, and she wasn’t ready to answer.
“Well, hello to you, too,” Jenny laughed. “Is something bothering you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled, peeking around the edge of the menu, then withdrawing once again.
Jessie laughed, shaking her blond head, her green eyes sparkling with mischief. “I would bet you five dollars, I know the name of the bug that’s up her butt, but I figure you know his name just as well.”
“Tyler Wentworth,” Jenny and Mary Ellen replied in unison, nodding at Jessie.
Lucy growled, slamming the menu down, causing the table to bounce, and knock over the salt and pepper shakers.
“Easy there, Killer,” Jessie chuckled. “What happened?”
“That man is the bane of my existence,” she growled.
Jenny sat back and crossed her arms in front of her, giving the other girl a serious look. “How is Tyler Wentworth the bane of your existence?”
Lucy huffed, glaring back at her. “You know the answer to that.”
“Oh, no,” Jenny said, feigning shock. “Did he tell you, you were beautiful again? Or did he tell you how brilliant and sexy you were? What compliment did he dare to give you this time?”
She growled again, picking her menu back up. “I don’t want to talk about it, anymore. I’m hungry.”
“Stop hiding, Lucy,” Jenny scolded. “That’s not going to fix anything.”
“There’s nothing to fix,” she snapped back. “Now, leave me be. I’m trying to decide what I want to eat.”
“Leave her be?” Jessie asked, turning a confused look on Mary Ellen. “What’s with her lingo, today?” The other girl just shrugged her shoulders, wondering the same thing.
Oh, Baby! (The Townsends Book 2) Page 24