Cowboy Up

by Stacy Finz

  And she still wanted to go home.

  “We’ll stop at that pizza joint you guys like in Auburn,” Sawyer said and grabbed Grady’s foot. “Sit straight, buddy.”

  Travis went back to playing on his phone.

  Ellie turned sideways in her seat and sent Mary Margaret one more text.

  “We’re on our way to pizza, so I’ve gotta go. Hit me later. I’ve got a plan.”

  * * * *

  On Friday morning, Aubrey stopped over at Cash’s on her way to town. Brett wanted to meet with her to talk about Jill’s party. As much as she dreaded being involved, she’d committed to it and had to follow through.

  “Hey.” Cash opened the door barefoot, with his hair wet.

  Aubrey heard the TV in the background and assumed Ellie was catching up on another episode of Full House.

  “Come in. You want coffee?”

  “Just for a sec,” Aubrey said and followed him, stopping in the living room on the way. “Hey, El, how were the water slides?”

  “Good. We went for pizza afterward.” Something happened on the show Ellie was watching and she became absorbed in whatever it was.

  Cash lifted his arms and gave a half shrug. They went to the kitchen and Cash poured her a cup of coffee and pulled a carton of milk out of the fridge. “How come you’re all dressed up?”

  She glanced down at her dress, which was something she would’ve worn to work, as opposed to knocking around Dry Creek, and tried to act casual. “I’m meeting with Brett to go over the party.” Aubrey hadn’t worn the dress for Brett.

  Cash didn’t say anything but took his time looking at her.

  “What?” She dropped her purse on the counter.

  “You look nice, that’s all.”

  “Thank you. I came over to let you know that Ellie’s furniture has shipped. I was thinking she and I could go on a field trip to Roseville and pick out bedding.”

  “I’m not invited?”

  “You’re absolutely welcome to come. I just wasn’t sure you’d be that into pink throw pillows.”

  “I like bedding as much as the next guy.” He was joking, but there was a hint of flirtation in his voice.

  She sipped her coffee, the second cup she’d had today, and held his gaze over the rim of her cup. “When are your folks getting here?”

  “First thing tomorrow morning. You want to have dinner with Ellie and me tonight?”

  “I thought we were keeping this—how did you say it?—discreet,” she whispered, though she doubted Ellie could hear anything over the television.

  He folded the dish towel he was holding and set it on the counter “Dinner is dinner, Aubrey.”

  Okay, he was being mature and she was being…bitchy. What did she want, day-after roses? They’d both gotten exactly what they’d wanted out of yesterday’s hookup: good sex.

  “Yes, I would love to have dinner with you and Ellie. What time?”

  “Six? Or we could go to town earlier and do that bedding shopping. My parents are staying at Jace’s while they’re here because the ranch house is more comfortable. But I should still stop by a grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things.”

  “My meeting with Brett shouldn’t take long. We could go as soon as I’m done.” Traffic in Roseville on a Friday evening was no fun, everyone scrambling to get away for the weekend.

  “Why don’t you text me on your way home and I’ll make sure the SUV is gassed up and ready to go?”

  “Perfect.” She put her cup in the sink and picked up her purse. “I’ll see you later, then.”

  “The car running okay?” He followed her to the door.

  “It’s like there was never anything wrong with it.”

  “I’m glad.” He touched her back. “I’ll walk you out.”

  When they got to her Volvo, he opened the driver’s door and waited for her to get in. She’d hoped for a kiss, but none was forthcoming. Stop acting so needy, Aubrey. She chalked it up to being on the rebound, even though it didn’t feel that way. Nope, it felt like something altogether different, something she didn’t want to look at too closely.

  She backed out of the driveway and drove to town, hoping to keep party planning with Brett to a minimum. The e-vite was ready to go; all she had to do was hit the Send button. Brett just had to okay the guest list and add anyone Aubrey had forgotten. Jill, who’d married Brett right after graduation, still palled around with the same clique she did in high school.

  Aubrey had been a year behind them and had idolized Jill back then. She’d been the girl everyone wanted to be.

  A memory of Jill and Mitch playing around on the beach at Dry Creek flitted through Aubrey’s head. It was before Mitch had been Aubrey’s boyfriend—that hadn’t happened until after Aubrey returned from USC—and they’d all met at the creek for a summer bonfire. Brett had gone into town because Jill wanted marshmallows for s’mores. While he was gone, Mitch and Jill started goofing around, chasing each other in a typical game of grab-ass. No one seemed to think anything of it, but Aubrey’s sixth sense had kicked in, and she remembered thinking that their chemistry screamed of something more than friendship. The whole evening she’d felt slightly uncomfortable, like she’d witnessed a betrayal. But by the next day, she’d forgotten all about it.

  Until today.

  She slipped into a parking spot in front of the coffee shop and cut her engine. Brett was sitting inside by a window that faced the street. Aubrey gathered up her notebook with her list and went straight to his table, avoiding Laney.

  She doubted the old crone had been the one to pour water down her gas tank but everyone was suspect.

  “Hey, Brett, sorry I’m late.” She scooted into the bench across from his wheelchair at the only ADA-compliant table in the place and neatly stacked her notes so she could go through the names with him and get the hell out of Dodge. Aubrey was looking forward to spending the day with Cash and Ellie.

  Jimmy Ray came out from the kitchen and waved. It was more for Brett’s benefit than Aubrey’s, but at least it was cordial, which was more than Aubrey could say for Laney, whose resting bitch face was brittle enough to crack eggs.

  Wren was on her way out and said hi to Brett without so much as looking at Aubrey. Another one to add to Aubrey’s suspect list. She was feeling very Jessica Fletcher at the moment.

  “You want coffee?” Brett started to call the waitress over, but Aubrey stopped him.

  “I’m good.” If she had any more coffee, she’d have to swim home. “I actually have an appointment and need to get through this as quickly as we can.”

  “Another job interview?” Brett appeared so hopeful, it filled Aubrey with guilt for lying.

  “No, a client who needs bedding to match her new room.” That part was completely true. The part about her sleeping with her young client’s father she kept to herself. “And that other interview I told you about…uh, it got moved to another date.”

  Brett brightened, then must’ve remembered how badly Aubrey needed a job. “But they’re still interested in hiring you, right, Ree?”

  “We’ll see.” She had a phone interview with the developer on Monday. “If not, I’ll find something else. Vegas isn’t all that. Besides, I hate the Raiders.” It was Mitch’s favorite team.

  He laughed and gave her a conspiratorial wink. “Me too. So what else do you have cooking?”

  Nothing, that was the problem. “A few things here and there.”

  “Don’t want to jinx it, huh? The good news is, you can come to the party now.”

  Yep, good news all right. “Uh-huh. And if it’s okay with you, I’d like to bring a date and his twelve-year-old daughter.”

  “Yeah?” Brett pulled back in surprise. He must’ve believed the rumors about her and Jace like everyone else. “Who’s the guy? Anyone I know?”

  “He’s
Jace’s cousin, Cash. We’re neighbors, and his daughter recently came to live with him and could use some friends.”

  “Oh, yeah, sure. That’s nice of you to include ’em, Ree. And of course they’re welcome. Anyone related to Jace is a friend of mine.” He flipped through her notebook. “Is this the list?”

  “It is. All I need is your approval and I’ll get the invites out tonight.” Even in Dry Creek, where no one stood on ceremony, a week was awfully short notice for a party.

  He perused the list. “I don’t see Letty Hall here. She and Jill have gotten real close.”

  “I’ll add her,” Aubrey said, distracted. Mitch had come in through the other door and had grabbed a seat in the back. She didn’t think he would dare confront her with Brett there, but he was unpredictable these days. “Anyone else?” Aubrey wanted to get the show on the road, especially now that her ex was in the restaurant. There’d been enough drama the last couple of days. She wasn’t in the mood for a showdown.

  “No, it looks real good, Ree.” Brett turned his head. “Who’s got your attention back there?”

  “Mitch came in. He’s sitting in the back.” Brett started to turn his wheelchair around and then thought better of it. “You want to go someplace else?”

  As if there were any other restaurants to go to in Dry Creek. She supposed they could go to the VFW Hall, but they were here now, and she wouldn’t let Mitch Reynolds run her off. “I’m fine.”

  He leaned forward in his chair. “I don’t know what’s going on between you two and what Jace has to do with it. But I know that besides Jill and the kids, you’re my three favorite people in the world. I wish you could all get along.”

  “Perhaps someday.” It was the best she could offer under the circumstances. And sometime soon, she planned to have words with Mitch. But not now. Not when she was in a rush to meet up with Cash and Ellie. “You want to give the list a second look?”

  “Anxious to get to that appointment, huh?” He turned slightly, trying to catch a glimpse of Mitch without being too obvious about it.

  “I have to maintain what business I have left.”

  “It’s been that bad, huh?”

  She contemplated whether to tell him about the water in her gas tank and how Stu had had her car towed from the market and decided against it. The less he knew the better. “I’m just not used to being unemployed.” Aubrey patted his hand. “But something will come up.”

  Two men joined Mitch at his table. They were probably prospective clients, though Mitch usually met development partners at the job site. She tried to focus on her conversation with Brett, but one of the men was laughing at something Mitch had said and he looked vaguely familiar, though Aubrey couldn’t place him. On closer inspection, the third guy she recognized as Jill’s brother, Pete Beals. Last she’d heard, he’d moved to San Jose and was involved with a startup there.

  “I didn’t know Pete was in town.”

  This time, he turned his chair to have a look. “Yeah. The ranch was robbed the other day by rustlers. Jill’s folks lost two hundred cattle. Pete came home to help them sort out the financials. The other guy, the dude with the red hair, is a cattle inspector with the state.”

  “I heard about it from Cash.” She took Brett’s hand. “I know it must be a big setback for Jill’s parents. I’m so sorry, Brett.” Aubrey glanced at the back of the dining room again. “What does Mitch have to do with it?”

  “Nothing.” Brett wheeled his chair closer to the table. “He’s probably just saying hi to Pete.”

  Sure enough, Pete and the red-haired man stood up and got their own table. Mitch buried his head in his cell phone while sipping his coffee. If Mitch had seen Aubrey watching him, he was putting on a convincing act that he didn’t know she was in the restaurant. Not once had he so much as glanced her way.

  “Can I keep the list?” Brett asked, bringing her back to their meeting. “I’d like to have it in case there’s anyone else we forgot.”

  “Absolutely.” She tore the pages from the notebook and handed them to him. “Everything is set up online, so just email me anyone else you want to include and I’ll shoot them over an invite.”

  “Thanks, Ree. I couldn’t have pulled this off without you.”

  She’d made a lousy list, which had taken less than an hour. In the old days, before Jill had cheated, Aubrey would’ve helped Brett with everything from the food to the decorations. Under the circumstances, though, she didn’t have it in her to be that big of a phony.

  Aubrey got up, walked around the table, and gave Brett a kiss on the cheek. “De nada, my friend. I’ll see you at the party next weekend.”

  “Get there a little early. I really want it to be a surprise.”

  “You got it.”

  Aubrey waved goodbye to Jimmy Ray and snuck another peek at Mitch. He wasn’t as unaware of her as he pretended to be. And if he was the one who’d vandalized her car, so help her…she’d wring his thick neck.

  A blast of hot air hit her as soon as she stepped outside. On her way to the car, Mitch’s sister, Joanne, zoomed down Mother Lode Road in her F-150, leaned on her horn when she saw Aubrey, and flipped her the bird.

  “Nice, Joanne. Stay classy,” Aubrey yelled, then quickly darted a glance around to make sure no one had witnessed her outburst. Let Joanne make a spectacle of herself. Aubrey wanted to keep her dignity.

  She stood on the sidewalk, searching her purse for her car keys. That’s when she saw the bright red word scrawled across the side of her baby blue Volvo: “Hore.”

  Oh, for God’s sake, at least spell it right.

  Stunned, she continued to stand there, staring at the writing, willing it to go away. It was broad daylight. Whoever had painted her car had done it in broad freaking daylight on the most traveled street in Dry Creek. She stepped off the curb and touched the door, smearing red paint all over her hand.

  Aubrey ran back inside the coffee shop to get a wad of napkins, hoping she could wipe off the paint before the sun baked it on and ruined the finish of her car. As she brushed past the hostess stand, she smacked straight into Mitch’s arm.

  “Hey, slow down!” He moved in front of her and blocked her from getting by.

  “Get out of my way, Mitch. So help me God, if you don’t, I’ll…”

  “You’ll what?” He moved into her personal space, towering over her in a way that could only be described as menacing. “What, Aubrey, what will you do about it?”

  Out of the side of her eye, a flash of Brett’s wheelchair glinted off the chrome on Laney’s cash register.

  He rolled to where they were standing and craned his neck up at Mitch. “Knock it off, Reynolds.”

  Mitch threw his hands in the air. “You’re right, Brett. I don’t know why I let her antagonize me with threats. If you have something you want from me, Aubrey, just say it. Right here. Right in the open,” he challenged, a smirk spreading across his face.

  She shook with rage. The bastard was actually egging her on, daring her to spill the beans. He’d pushed her too far this time. He had an alibi. But whoever had graffitied her car had done it because of him and his lies.

  Hore. She wasn’t a hore. She wasn’t even a whore.

  Enough already. Aubrey was ending this once and for all. She began to speak, took one look at Brett in his wheelchair with the guest list for Jill’s birthday party scattered across his lap, and shut her mouth. That was when everything started moving in slow motion.

  There was a hazy recollection of a carafe filled with scalding coffee. Mitch’s arrogant face. Broken dishes. Shouting. And finally, Jace standing over her with a pair of handcuffs.

  After that, everything became appallingly clear. For the first time in Aubrey’s life, she was going to jail.

  Chapter 15

  “Did you really smack a guy with a coffeepot?” Ellie asked.

  Cas
h draped his arm over Ellie’s shoulder. “Not now, kiddo.” They’d have plenty of time for Aubrey’s version of the story when they got home. The duty judge had released her on her own recognizance.

  “I…uh…need to get my car. It’s parked in front of the coffee shop.”

  “Jace took care of it.” Cash opened the passenger-side door so Aubrey could get in, then made sure Ellie was buckled up in the back seat.

  Ellie continued to pepper Aubrey with questions the entire ride home. Cash had never seen his daughter this involved in a conversation.

  Frankly, he had quite a few questions himself but was waiting until he and Aubrey were alone. He’d heard about the car. Jace was convinced Mitch had had nothing to do with the graffiti.

  “You okay?” He reached over and put his hand on her knee. Her arms were wrapped around herself as if she was cold, so he turned down the air-conditioning.

  “Ashamed, mostly. I made an ass of myself.”

  Ellie stuck her head between the two bucket seats. “Did he hit you first?”

  Aubrey shook her head. “He was trying to get a rise out of me, trying to show that he had me over a barrel, and I let him do it. I let him push me until I almost tol—”

  “You almost what?” Cash asked.

  “Nothing. Never mind. I’ve already spent too much energy on Mitch Reynolds today.” She rested her hand on top of his. “Thank you for bailing me out.” She let out a rusty laugh. “That’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.”

  “No bail. I just picked you up.”

  Aubrey turned to the back seat. “I guess it’s too late to go bedding shopping. Sorry, Ellie. We’ll go after your grandparents leave.”

  “That’s okay,” Ellie said and resettled herself in her chair, resting her cheek against the window.

  “Anyone hungry?” he asked, then addressed Aubrey. “Or did you eat in holding?”

  She swatted his arm. “No prison jokes. At least I had the cell to myself. And, yes, I’m starved.”