Her Unforgettable Cowboy

by Debra Clopton

  The boys were young but they came up to Ms. Jo’s shoulder. When they didn’t smile, she whipped her crooked pointer finger out and hiked her brow at them. Jolie knew they were in a heap of trouble—trouble that would be good for them in the long run.

  “I didn’t just ask that question to the air, boys. We’re going to have ourselves a mighty fine time in here baking and cooking, so I’d surely like to see a little enthusiasm. You only get out of life what you put into it.”

  Sammy’s eyes were big as saucers. “You ain’t gonna whip us, are you?”

  Ms. Jo’s thin brows practically banged together and her eyes flashed with indignation. “Whip you? Why would I want to go and do that? I know for a fact that once you dig your fingers into the pie crust I’m going to teach you to make, you are both going to want to bake pies for a living because you’re going to have so much fun.”

  “Fun. Cooking?” B.J. looked far from convinced.

  Joseph had already tied an apron around his midsection and came striding over, his ever-present grin on his face. “Come on, little slowpokes, get your aprons on and let’s get this show on the road. I’ll show you my skills from last year.”

  Ms. Jo winked at the cute teenager. “Now that’s a great attitude. B.J. and Sammy, right?” she asked and they immediately nodded. “Y’all go with Joseph here and he’ll get the two of you all set up. Do you trust me?” B.J. nodded instantly, but her question clearly startled Sammy. His expression was guarded. “Trust is something earned, son, and I’m aiming to earn your trust so remember what I’ve said. Deal?”

  Sammy thought on it. “Deal,” he finally said. There was no doubt in Jolie’s mind that Sammy would be watching everything Ms. Jo did. And when it was all said and done, he’d have a verdict.

  And a very tasty pie to call his own.

  Who knew cooking could build trust in a little boy who really needed a good experience in that department? As they walked off, Ms. Jo pivoted to her. Nana and Mabel, who’d been across the room handing out aprons, came over to join them.

  “So, how are things?” Ms. Jo asked without so much as a blink of the eye.

  “Things?” Jolie pretended ignorance.

  “Now, Jo, easy does it,” Nana chuckled.

  “Easy does it, my foot,” Jo balked. “I’ve been waiting for a little news and haven’t seen hide nor hair of her.”

  “That makes two of us,” Mabel harrumphed. “And I’ve had to put up with Jo’s constant complaining because you’ve been AWOL. It’s enough to make an old woman crazier than she already is!”

  Jolie laughed. “Y’all knew exactly where to find me, so don’t think I’m feeling sorry for you.” She hoped the boys would return and they’d have to turn their attention to the baking at hand, but the boys were fighting over who was going to have to wear the apron with the big strawberry on it, and there was no telling how long that was going to go on. “I haven’t been AWOL. I’ve been working.”

  Ms. Jo’s brow cocked. “Is that all?” She sounded suspiciously like she wanted something more than that to be going on.

  “Yes, that’s all. And exercising—keeping my training up takes time, too.”

  “And going on roundups and birthing colts, too.”

  Nana was not helping the situation.

  “Sounds like fun to me,” Mabel cooed. “It is so romantic on the trail—once you get past the dirt hanging in the air and the heat. And the sweaty horses. On second thought, maybe the trail isn’t a place to foster a budding relationship.”

  “Budding? Who said anything about a budding relationship?” The words were out of her mouth before she could clamp a hand over the traitorous lips—she hadn’t intended to talk to them about any of this at all. “The last time I checked, you three were all against my starting anything up with Morgan.” The words were hissed quietly so that the boys wouldn’t overhear.

  “True,” Ms. Jo said. “However, there have been a few indications that maybe we were a bit hasty being protective of our boy.”

  “We’re all set,” Joseph called.

  Praise the Lord for the intervention!

  Joseph and Wes had lined up the motley crew like they were about to compete on the Iron Chef television show.

  Jolie grinned. “Look, ladies, the boys are ready to cook.”

  “Bake,” Ms. Jo corrected.

  “Cook,” Nana said, giving Jo the eye. “Eggs and sausage are necessities.”

  Ms. Jo gave a snort. “Depends on who you ask.”

  “Then I guess it’s both bake and cook,” Jolie chirped, escaping from the interrogation huddle. She had a terrible feeling that things were just about to start heating up.

  The thing was, she hadn’t seen much of Morgan since their kiss. They’d agreed to meet again and attempt to get her in the water, but it hadn’t happened. She’d gone home and immediately gotten cold feet. Obviously Morgan had, too, because he hadn’t called yet to reschedule the date. And that had been fine with her.

  At least she’d kept telling herself it was fine. But just thinking about the feel of his arms around her and the heat of his kiss made her cheeks warm.

  So far the only good thing that had come of the day beside the river was that her nightmares had eased up. And that was probably just because thoughts of Morgan were keeping her from sleeping in the first place. But that was a piece of info that she and she alone was privy to. And she planned to keep it that way.

  * * *

  Morgan was late. On purpose.

  “You better hurry up,” Rowdy teased as he threw a leg over his horse and jumped to the ground, his spurs jangling on impact. “We don’t want to let the pies get cold.”

  Morgan deliberately took his time getting out of the saddle. When Nana overheard the boys begging him to come join their cooking class, she’d basically demanded that he and Rowdy sample the food with the boys. He’d groaned, knowing full well that the boys had an agenda—they were always trying to get him and Jolie in the same room. Knowing he was going to have to face Jolie for the first time in a week scared him.

  He’d arranged his every move over the last few days with the sole purpose of staying out of her range. And with good reason. She was far more dangerous to him than he’d ever suspected. He’d naively thought that what she’d done to him would insulate him from the feelings that he’d had for her; he’d thought his heart would be protected. And then he’d gone and kissed her.

  And completely messed up his world.

  One wrong move and he was mincemeat.

  Rowdy was having a lot of fun teasing him. The slug was supposed to have his back, not enjoy watching him hotfoot it across coals without his boots on.

  “Payback is going to be sweet, just you wait, little brother.”

  “Hey, I don’t have anything on the burner right now, so don’t get your hopes up.” His lips curved into a lazy smile.

  “I wouldn’t get too smug if I were you,” Morgan warned, striding past him. “I’m a patient man.”

  Rowdy’s chuckle followed him as he headed toward what he was certain would be a circus—with him as the main attraction. He knew Nana had keyed in to the fact that he was avoiding Jolie. She had asked him a time or two where he’d been hiding out at lunch—he might as well have admitted his guilt flat out. All the more reason for her to join forces with the boys to get him here today.

  And she had backup—Ms. Jo and Mabel would be watching his every move, expression and twitch.

  He was doomed.

  And Rowdy wasn’t helping him at all.

  The last thing he needed was everyone in that room realizing what a vulnerable spot he was in. A rock and a hard place would have been better than this—at least he’d have had somewhere to hide. But no such luck.

  Steeling himself for what was to come, he shot the good Lord a pl
ea for help, pulled open the door and stepped into the center ring under the glaring spotlights.

  * * *

  “Morgan, look what I did!” B.J. yelled, instantly alerting Jolie and everyone else that Morgan had entered the room.

  “Hey, I’m here, too,” Rowdy clowned, pretending to be hurt, following Morgan into the kitchen. The room seemed to shrink with the two tall cowboys in it.

  The instant Morgan’s gaze sought out Jolie, all the air disappeared. Jolie dropped her metal spatula on the stainless-steel worktable, splattering meringue everywhere—including on Sammy—before it clattered to the floor. Every eye turned her way.

  “You kinda like him, don’t you?” Sammy whispered, blinking through globs of fluffy white meringue on his eyelids.

  Jolie gasped, as much from having splattered the kid with pie topper as from his keen observation. “Why would you say that?” she whispered, concentrating on cleaning the sticky stuff from his face with the skirt of her apron.

  He squinted as she held his chin. “’Cause you get all nervous when he’s around. That’s what happens in all the gushy movies.”

  “No, I do not like him.” She scrubbed harder.

  “At all?” Sammy asked, looking confused now.

  Guilt slid over Jolie. She stopped her scrubbing so she could leave some skin on the poor kid’s cheek. “Yes, I do like Morgan. As a friend,” she added quickly.

  Nothing more.

  “Well, you’re pink right now and they do that in the movies, too, when they like the guy a lot.”

  She was about to ask him when he had time to watch all these gushy movies, but Morgan was coming their way.

  “B.J.’s pie looks great. How does yours look, Sammy?” he asked, his eyes landing on her for only a moment before turning to Sammy. She wondered what was going on behind those pools of blue as her pulse cartwheeled through her body and memories of his kiss played havoc on her senses.

  “We’re about to put it in the oven. See?” He proudly pointed at the chocolate meringue pie. He’d been helping Joseph and finally decided to make his own, so they were running late on getting his into the oven.

  “That looks mighty tasty.” Morgan placed his hand on Sammy’s shoulder. “You did a fine job.”

  “I didn’t want to at first. You know cooking ain’t for boys. But Nana showed us how to cook egg-and-sausage breakfast tacos so us boys won’t starve when we go off to college.”

  Morgan chuckled. “She taught me the same skills before I went off myself. It came in real handy. And pie making—now that would have really come in handy for a college man.”

  A grin spread across Sammy’s face. “I liked it. Jolie helped me and she did good. Till she dropped her spatula when you came in.” He leaned toward Morgan. “And she turned kind of pink. You know what that means, don’t you?”

  Heat stung Jolie’s cheeks. “Hey!” She gently tugged on Sammy’s ear and he laughed mischievously.

  “You tell me what it means, Sammy,” Morgan teased, crossing his arms.

  B.J. was suddenly glaring at Sammy. “You aren’t supposed to say anything,” he hissed in a low whisper that caused Sammy to grimace.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot.” He looked contrite, but then the words came flying out of him in a rush. “When a girl turns pink, it means she likes a boy. And when she drops stuff, too.”

  Morgan took in her hot cheeks, which she was certain were fire-engine red. “So I guess that means you better go tell Rowdy she likes him.”

  Both boys looked confused. Jolie was relieved—instead of being embarrassed, she found the scene touching. In their minds, the boys were just trying to help out the clueless adults.

  “Morgan.” B.J. spoke carefully as if explaining something to a two-year-old. “She likes you.”

  Sammy shoved him. “You weren’t supposed to say it!”

  B.J. glared at him. “You did and Morgan had it all mixed up!”

  Rowdy sauntered over, bringing Ms. Jo and Mabel with him. Nana came from the other side of the room with the older boys trailing her. Jolie suddenly wanted to crawl into a hole.

  “Did I hear my name? Morgan, what’s up? You walk in and the kiddos start to fight?”

  Ms. Jo didn’t miss a beat. “You two looked like you just choked down a live cat for lunch. And I’m not talking about B.J. and Sammy. Jolie, why are you so pink? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re a little flustered.”

  She did not need this. She really, really didn’t. Fighting a river was easier than this.

  “Do you feel well?” Mabel chimed in. “Maybe you have a fever, honey. Maybe Morgan needs to take you home.”

  “Good idea,” Nana chimed in. “Morgan, why don’t you take poor Jolie home.”

  “Whoa!” Jolie boomed, stopping the chatter erupting around the room. She knew a hoodwink when she saw one. “There is nothing wrong with me. I certainly don’t need to go home. Now, weren’t Rowdy and Morgan invited here to taste-test these goodies? Because I’m in the mood for pie!”

  It was one thing for her to be having thoughts about Morgan. It was altogether another thing for this entire room of folks knowing it!

  Thankfully Mabel led the boys away to set up for the tasting. Only problem, that left her standing alone with Morgan. “That was awkward—talk about being on the hot seat,” she said, forcing herself to look at him.

  “Is that what that was? Felt more like a frying pan.” He chuckled.

  Jolie’s traitorous thoughts went straight to thoughts of the kiss beside the river. His gaze dropped to her lips and she knew he was thinking about it, too.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to you about us going back to the river,” he said.

  “We better get over there before they start up again.” Jolie knew this was not the time or place to discuss what had happened between them.

  Besides that, she wasn’t sure at all what to say about that day...which was exactly why she’d been avoiding him. She’d been a disaster that day. It was embarrassing, and the fact that she’d been so distraught that she’d thrown herself into his arms and cried like a baby—that was the worst.

  Chapter Fourteen

  On Monday morning a few days after the pie fiasco, Jolie drove up to the schoolhouse to find the boys huddled in the front yard in deep conversation. The instant she stepped out of her Jeep, they busted apart, looking like guilty puppies that had just torn up her flower beds. Something was up.

  “Hey, guys.” She strode over to them as if she suspected nothing. “How are y’all today?”

  “We’re good.” Wes grinned, excitement glistening in his pale green eyes. The teen looked more like a grown man than any of the kids, even Joseph, though he wasn’t as tall. He was muscular and serious, unless he was thinking of an adventure. He was ready to finish school and get into college on the roping team. Life on the ranch had been good for him.

  “How are you?” he asked her, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “You doing okay?”

  She wasn’t sure what to make of his line of questioning. Did she hear concern in his voice?

  “Yeah, how are you?” Sammy asked as all the other boys chimed in.

  “I’m fine, fellas. What’s with all the worry?” She looked at Wes and then Joseph for answers. “What’s going on?”

  Wes shifted his weight from one scuffed boot to the other. “Well, I, ah, I was surfing the Net last night looking at your YouTube videos,” he added. “And well, we’ve looked at it before, all the amazing stuff you can do in a kayak. It’s really cool seeing you coming down those rapids and over those sixty-foot falls. It blew me out of the water. You’re awesome, Jolie. But, man...” His words trailed off...worry filled his eyes.

  Dread filled Jolie.

  “We came across your accident.” Joseph was the one who
said the words, his lips tight with concern. “We hadn’t seen that. You almost died, Jolie.” He raked his fingers through his too-long hair, reminding her of what Morgan did when he was upset. “It was bad.”

  Bad didn’t begin to tell the story.

  “It was,” she said, trying to figure out what else to say but coming up empty.

  “People were screaming on the video,” Wes said, “going crazy when they thought you weren’t coming up. Then your kayak came loose and it seemed like forever before you surfaced.”

  Jolie’s stomach rolled. Inhaling slowly, she counted to ten, fighting hard to keep her nerves steady. Falling apart in front of the boys twice was unacceptable to her. She was stronger than that.

  Please, God, hold me up. Take me past this moment when I’m unable to hold myself up.

  She searched for words of assurance for the boys who were so concerned that most of them couldn’t speak. Their care steadied her.

  “What happened?” Sammy asked, touching her arm. “How did you live through that?”

  “By God’s grace, Sammy. By God’s hand.” It was true. “Only God could have given me the extra air it took to be under the water all that time. There are things in life that can only be explained by God’s interventions, guys. And me surviving my accident was one of them.”

  “I don’t see how you can get back in your kayak after that.” Coming from Mr. Thrill Seeker himself, Wes’s words startled her.

  “In all honesty, guys, it’s time for me to come clean with you. I can’t get in my kayak. I came here to try and get my head on straight, but the thought of getting back in the water is rough. I’m trying, though. It’s just taking some time.”

  “That’s why you haven’t been too keen on teaching us,” Tony said.

  “That’s why.”

  “It’s kinda like getting back on a bull,” Wes said. “Only, a bull is more controllable than a river.”