So she’d left him alone.
Thoughts of him distracted her the rest of the day and she ended up sitting out on the back porch, staring at the moon and contemplating everything banging around inside her head.
Her daddy always said she could be sassy as a new colt kicking up his feet on a fresh spring day when she wanted something, or quiet as a mouse when something was on her mind. Brent was definitely on her mind—the pain in his eyes, the attraction she felt for him—the matching attraction she saw reflected in his eyes when he looked at her. Needless to say, she didn’t sleep well and was dragging her feet as she stopped to talk to Esther Mae this morning in front of the Sunday-school annex.
“Esther Mae, how’s y’all’s contraption comin’ along?” Applegate asked as he strode up to the two of them.
“Goodness, App,” Tacy said, giving him a quick hug. “You are lookin’ dapper in your Sunday best.” That won her a grin and a lifted right brow.
“Thank ya, little lady. Yor lookin’ like a fresh spring day yourself.”
Tacy glanced down at her moss-green dress. “Thanks.”
“Now, App,” Esther Mae broke in, “you know I’m not going to give away any of our secrets, so don’t even think about sweet-talking me. And don’t bother asking Hank if he knows them, either. I’ve threatened his life if he so much as opens his mouth about anything he hears or sees at the house.”
Applegate grunted. “I ain’t about ta sweet-talk you. And Hank done told me you’d put him in the doghouse if he said anything.”
Esther Mae smiled. “My Hank is a smart man.”
Applegate scowled at her as he turned his sharp gaze toward Tacy. “Have you seen the design?”
Tacy had to smile as his face turned into a cascade of wrinkles. “No, sir, not yet, but I’m going out there later.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “If you’ll give me a big ole smile I might be willing to give you a few insights. How’s your contraption comin’ along?”
“Hey!” Esther Mae squealed. “You’d better do no such a thing.”
“Hang loose, Esther Mae. I’m just teasing. You people are taking this far too seriously.”
“You bet your daddy’s boots we are,” Stanley said, coming out of the annex and catching the tail end of the conversation. “Who don’t take men versus women serious? Us fellas gotta win or we look bad. Ain’t that right, App?”
“Shore ’nuff.”
Esther Mae harrumphed. “I hate to break it to you boys, but there’s no amount of winnin’ that’s gonna make y’all look good.”
Tacy covered her mouth with her hand and held in a laugh. The “boys” glared at Esther Mae. She lifted a hand and patted her hair. “Now me—well, Lacy has done a lovely job of making me look fantabulous.”
Applegate’s bushy brows became one. “Fantabu-what?” he practically shouted.
“Fantabulous. Do you like my new color?”
Stanley and App looked at Esther Mae as if she’d just spoken in a foreign language.
“It’s bull’s-eye red, Esther Mae,” App said at last.
“Men!” Esther Mae rolled her eyes. “In case you hadn’t noticed, boys, all reds are not created equal. This is Chili Pepper red, for your information.”
Tacy gave her a thumbs-up. “Perfect for you.”
“I thought so. It’s a tad spicier than my natural color, but I figure these days the brighter the better.”
“I’m with you on that,” Tacy said. “Maybe we should paint our catapult red or something equally bright.”
“We gonna paint ours?” Stanley asked App, who just headed toward the annex shaking his head.
“I guess that’s a no.” Stanley grinned, then followed his friend.
“They’re a tad touchy when it comes to this competition,” Tacy said.
Esther Mae waved a hand. “The thought of getting beat by women terrifies ole App.” She grinned. “Of course, he’s not too fond of losing to a man, either, yet that happens with checkers every day.”
“Now, Esther Mae. You know it’s the thought of being beaten by you and Norma Sue that’s not sitting well with him.”
“This is true,” she said, looking amused. “It’s fun tormenting him.”
Tacy laughed. “Seems we have something in common as far as men are concerned.”
“My Hank gets on me all the time when I tease him, but he says that since App and Stanley give me such a hard time, they deserve all the torture I can dish out to them.”
Hank came out of the annex. He was a short man with a paunch and a pleasant grin. “There you are,” he said to Esther Mae, then gave Tacy an affable smile. “Mornin’ to you, Tacy. Class is about to start, so I thought I’d better come see where Esther Mae got to.”
“I didn’t get lost, just ambushed by Applegate.”
Hank looked past them toward App and Stanley, who had stopped to talk to a group of men. “He asked you about that contraption, didn’t he?”
“You know he did. It’s driving him crazy.”
Hank shook his head. “She loves giving that man a hard time. If I didn’t know she was so crazy about me, I might have call to get jealous.”
Tacy paused before heading toward the singles’ class. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Hank.”
Esther Mae took her husband’s arm and squeezed it fondly. “I only have eyes for you, Hank. Even after all these years. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
“Yep. I’m a lucky man.”
App and Stanley came into the building. “You jest keep a tellin’ yerself that,” App said, adjusting his hearing aid as he passed them.
Hank and Esther Mae chuckled as they followed App and Stanley down the hall to their Sunday-school class.
Tacy watched them go, hanging back, feeling unusually chicken-hearted today. Earlier, when she’d first arrived, she’d seen Brent heading her way and she’d changed direction. Why? Avoiding someone was certainly not her style. But after yesterday—she couldn’t believe she’d actually opened her big mouth and told him she was in his life for a reason. Crazy talk—that’s what it was. Wasn’t it? She breathed a quick prayer, asking God to calm her nerves, then entered the classroom. Immediately, she saw Brent and her crazy heart started doing the rumba inside her chest. “Okay, God, I’m trusting you to help me get through this,” Tacy mumbled inwardly.
She took a deep breath and gave Brent and the fellas he was talking to as easy a grin as she could muster. Then she chose the seat right in front of Brent. She refused to let herself avoid him any longer. Fear of anything was just something she wouldn’t accept. Even this unexpected attraction to Brent. She could handle it.
The last thing she’d expected was for Jess to walk in and take the empty seat beside her.
Brent let go of the table saw’s trigger and set the saw to the side. “Fellas, I am not going to try to spy on Tacy so I can learn how the ladies are building their catapult.” Brent had come out to App’s straight after church and so far it had been a miserable day. He’d been forced to sit and watch Jess-the-flirt giving Tacy his best shot all through Sunday school. Didn’t the man know you weren’t supposed to flirt in church? It was ridiculous.
The cowboy didn’t even come to church. He was too busy hanging out on Saturday nights over in Ranger at the bars. Brent hadn’t been able to keep from asking around about the cowboy after seeing Tacy wink at him in the diner. It was obvious that Jess had come today for one reason and one reason only—and it wasn’t to encounter God. No, it was to encounter someone with copper hair that fell midway down the back of her chair and bounced with life every time she nodded or chuckled at something Jess said to her.
So she liked wild cowboys. Kinda hypocritical on her part, seeing as how she’d been down on him about the tabloid covers. Thing was, he’d learned and left that life behind…and here she was smiling and teasing Jess.
“What has you in such an all-fired bad mood, anyway?” Applegate asked.
Brent scowled. “I’m not.”
/>
Stanley spat a sunflower seed onto the barn floor. “Then I’d hate ta see ya in a bad mood if this ain’t it.”
“Yup.” Applegate snorted. “I know what’s eatin’ ya. You seen that Jess at church, didn’t ya?”
Stanley crossed his arms. “That boy ain’t walked through them doors ever before. Probably too hung-over most Sunday mornings ta ever consider it.”
It was none of his business, Brent told himself. But it bothered him. He was attracted to Tacy—there was no denying it. But he had no hold on her and no reason to be aggravated that she seemed to be her usual sassy self this morning while he’d felt all ill-tempered and…jealous. There. It was out. He’d been jealous.
He grabbed his measuring tape and strung it along the two-by-four. “What’s that measurement?”
Applegate plucked up the drawing and squinted at his handwriting. “Seventy-two inches,” he said.
Brent marked it with his pencil, snapped the tape so it would recoil then dropped it to the table and picked up the saw. “You fellas really believe God orchestrates our lives?”
App’s bushy brows crinkled as he rubbed his chin. “Thar’s different opinions on that. I believe He’s in control…but I don’t believe He sits back and works me like a puppet. I got free will. I mess up all the time. If ya haven’t noticed, I kin get purdy cantankerous, too.”
“Ever’body’s noticed,” Stanley drawled. “The way I see it, God’s got us here and we’re learning as we go. If He was guiding our every move, thar would be nothin’ fer us to learn. Now don’t get me wrong. I thank the Bible is purdy clear that He knows what our choices are goin’ ta be. That don’t mean He orchestrates our lives, though.”
Brent tapped his finger on the edge of the saw trigger, but didn’t engage it. “What about sending people into your life when you need them?”
“Oh, He definitely does that,” App said. “No doubt about it.”
“Yeah, seen plenty of that in our own lives,” Stanley agreed. “Not to mention here in Mule Hollow. Now that I thank about it, that sort of contradicts what I jest said. Still, jest ’cause He puts us in people’s paths don’t mean He uses us like puppets. Why?”
“Tacy said yesterday she thought she was put in my life for a reason.” Just as he’d expected, both older men started grinning.
App was the first to speak. “She done told all them cowboys in the diner that she ain’t here ta date. How’d you get her ta change her mind?”
“I’m not dating her. She’d probably kick me in the knee if I asked her.”
Stanley’s grin turned to a grimace. “You ain’t asked her out? Are ya addled in the brain? Been tossed on yer noggin a time or two too many?”
“No. This has nothing to do with me being attracted to her.”
“Hear that, App? He admits he’s attracted to her.”
“The boy’s got hope, then.”
Brent pulled the trigger and welcomed the blaring grind of the saw. Why had he opened his big mouth? He finished cutting the board and took the plunge. “So what’s up with her not dating?”
“She ain’t interested, so she says,” Stanley said.
“But why is that?” She’d pretty much told him to back off the other day in the barn. Sure, she’d said she didn’t date and that she’d made it clear to all the cowboys, but the woman was flirting and winking in the diner all the time. Especially with Jess. Did she not realize that kind of behavior was sending mixed messages? He was certainly confused.
Applegate studied him. “She says she’s got things ta get done before she puts marryin’ some old cowboy and raisin’ a family at the top of her list.”
So her career was top priority. Horse training. Things became clearer to him. She was serious about this horse business.
“Why don’t you push to get ta know her better?” Applegate suggested, taking the finished board from the table. “Young gal like her don’t need ta be sittin’ home alone.”
“She’s sitting there alone because she wants to.”
Stanley brought a new board over and placed it in front of him. “Maybe the right cowboy hasn’t come along ta change her mind about thangs.”
Brent thought about that. No, there was too much room for conflict as far as he and Tacy were concerned.
App was watching him intently. “Yor thankin’ about it. I kin tell. You should ask her out ta dinner or somethin’. I know. Take her fer a horseback ride and a picnic. Women—even tomboy cowgirls like Tacy—enjoy picnics.” He grinned and winked at Brent. “And when ya go, be sure and ask her about Norma Sue’s punkin chunker.”
Chapter Nine
“Norma Sue, you sure this will work?” Esther Mae asked, staring at the drawing of the catapult.
“It’ll work,” Norma Sue snapped, looking up and glaring through her protective glasses as she prepared to use the power saw. “If I build it, it’ll work. Even if we’re not using any electrical triggers.”
“Now, Norma,” Adela cautioned in her genteel voice, causing Tacy to smile. “Don’t get all worked up. Esther Mae was teasing you—weren’t you, Esther?” Adela turned her serene eyes to Esther Mae.
“I’m teasing and you know it. You’re just so set on beating them boys it’s making you grumpy.”
“Them boys are just as fixed on beating me. I heard App talking to Stanley about getting Brent to try and weasel information out of you, Tacy. So be on your guard. If he comes around asking what this chunker looks like, don’t tell him anything.”
“Brent’s not going to get any information out of me.” Tacy laughed at the idea, thinking it might be fun to see if he tried. She couldn’t imagine him doing such a thing. “You really think he’d do that? I mean that they’d actually get him to do such a thing?”
Esther Mae’s eyes bloomed twice their size. “Oh, yes, they would. He might even do it just to keep them from badgering you.”
Norma Sue ran the saw blade through the wood in a quick, loud motion before adding, “He might even ask you out just to try and be sneaky about it.”
Tacy laughed so hard her chest hurt. “Puh-leze,” she wheezed. “Brent Stockwell would never ask a woman out just to see if he could find out covert information about a punkin chunker.” She’d already set him straight about her dating policy, anyway.
Norma Sue’s brows arched above the protective glasses. “You aren’t dumb. I know you’re not. But that right there was about the silliest thing I ever heard.”
“I, um—I’m not sure I understand,” Tacy said.
Adela patted her arm. “Norma didn’t mean to sound so rude,” she said, shooting her friend a sharp glance. “What she meant was that he would use it as an excuse to ask you out—you know, as a favor to the boys.”
Okay, so maybe she was dumb. She still didn’t understand.
Esther Mae shook her head. “Tacy, he’d ask you out because he wants to.”
“Oh,” she gasped. “Sorry, y’all, my mind must have been on vacation. But excuse me again for missing something here. What makes y’all so sure he’d do that? How do y’all know he wants to ask me out?” She knew he’d thought about it, but she’d been alone with him when that had happened. How did they know?
Adela looked sheepish. With her pixie cut, sparkling white hair and vivid blue eyes she was the picture of sweetness. “See, dear, I came into the diner one day through the back entrance to see my Sam. Well, I overheard Brent in the dining room talking to the three of them. They were giving him a hard time about you, and I could just tell by the way he was talking that he was interested.”
“Adela can tell.” Esther Mae nodded, beaming. “She always can.”
Tacy didn’t know what to say. Or think. There was no denying the fact that there was something between her and Brent. But she’d also set him straight. “No,” she said. “I don’t think he’d sink to such devious tactics.”
“Believe what you will,” Norma Sue said, warning in her words. “But when he asks you out, don’t tell him nothing about this cata
pult. ’Cause it’s goin’ to sling a pumpkin farther than anything Applegate and his crew could ever cook up.”
Tacy started to say that even if Brent asked, she wouldn’t go…but then she stopped—she didn’t know Brent well enough to know what he would and wouldn’t do. But what bothered her was realizing that she wasn’t sure what she would do if he decided to ignore her warning and ask her out…
“Did you sell any meat loaf today?” Brent asked her two days later when Tacy went to feed and exercise Rabbit after work. She hadn’t seen him during either of the two trips she’d made to feed her horse the day before. And she’d felt strangely let down at missing him.
“Hey,” she said, spinning to face him. “Where did you come from?” Where had he been?
He rested a shoulder against the stall, crossed his boots and grinned at her. The easy smile did odd things to her insides.
“I’ve been around. Why? Did you miss me?”
“No—” she started to say but stopped as his smile broadened. The man was gorgeous—not that it should matter to her. But it did. “How are the broncs doing?”
“Good, I’ve got one ready to ride and wondered if you and Rabbit might want to tag along.”
It wasn’t a date, but it was another chance to show him her equestrian skills and she wasn’t about to pass that up. “I would be delighted.”
“Did you have fun working on the catapult with Norma Sue and her gang?” he asked casually a few minutes later.
“You don’t waste any time, do you?” she said.
He grinned. “I thought I’d get it out of the way. Don’t you have something to ask me?”
She laughed. “Why, yes, actually, I do. How’s the catapult coming?”
He chuckled and held her gaze for a long moment as they shared the inside joke. It was Tacy who broke the contact, focusing ahead as Rabbit followed the now-familiar road into the pastures. “They are taking this competition very seriously.”
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