by Becky McGraw
"Yeah, Dad. James and I are engaged now."
He grunted. "When he shook my hand his wrist was as limp as my dic--"
"Dad! That's enough!" she said in exasperation.
"What you need is a man like that Luke Matthews." He chuckled then laughed, "Even though I almost had to pepper his ass with buckshot that time I caught him trying to climb in your window, he's a good man." He laughed again and then slapped his thigh. "You would've laughed your ass off if you'd have seen that boy's face staring down the barrel of old Annie."
Not likely, because she had invited Luke to climb that rose trellis. She had been terrified her daddy was going to kill Luke that night. But she smiled a wide smile anyway, because it was good to see her father laughing about anything right now.
"Is he still single?" She had wondered when she'd seen him earlier today, but wasn't about to ask. Cassie hadn't noticed a wedding ring, but that didn't mean anything...nor did the fact that he was flirting with her. Once a cheater, always a cheater.
"Yeah, he's single, but all the there's always girls hot on his tail, I hear. He was out here a little bit ago checking up on me."
"He was?" That was odd, he must've come out right after he dropped her off at the garage. To her knowledge Luke and her father weren't close, and from what she remembered of him, Luke wasn't one to care about anyone but himself. But maybe he'd changed, after all he'd had helped her earlier.
"He wanted to see if I needed anything. Offered his help, and suggested I go to a hospital over in Amarillo to get back on my feet. But that ain't happening." Her dad's gray eyes narrowed thoughtfully, "You know...he's worked on a cattle farm before, may---"
"No!" She shouted in frustration, stopping the wheelchair right in the doorway to the kitchen. "Why are you so hot for me to hook up with Luke now? I thought you didn't like him?"
"I changed my mind when they elected him Sheriff. He's made something of himself, and you could do worse for a husband...like that James."
"Dad, please. James is a good man and he's my business partner. I care about him, please don't talk like that."
Her Daddy harrumphed. "He's just not the right one for you, baby girl. You know I speak my mind."
"If there's one thing I know, it's that." She leaned down and kissed his leathery cheek. "Okay my stomach thinks I cut my throat, let's go eat."
"You lucked out, Imelda left some lasagna in the fridge. Think you can manage to heat it up without burning it?"
She laughed and slugged him in the shoulder lightly. "Yes, daddy, I think I can manage that."
The rubber wheels of the chair squeaked across the shiny floor as she pushed him through the kitchen and parked him at the small oak breakfast table covered with a white table cloth. "So how many cowpokes you have working for you these days?"
"Four, not including Bud." She set the brake on the chair before walking around the wide breakfast bar to the big double door refrigerator, beside the huge stainless steel stove.
Bud was the foreman and lived out in the bunkhouse behind the barn. He'd been her daddy's foreman and best friend for thirty years. There wasn't anyone her father trusted like Buddy Parsons. "He's still putting up with you? Amazing."
She dug around inside the refrigerator and found the foil-wrapped casserole pan with the lasagna. James would love this kitchen, she thought when she stood back up looking around. The copper pots hanging on the rack above the center prep island, and the eight burner stove, would put him in heaven. She reached up in the cabinet and pulled down two stoneware plates and set them on the countertop by the microwave. Maybe she'd invite James down for the weekend in a couple weeks. Maybe her daddy would like him if he got to know him better.
Carl grunted and said "I'm still putting up with him you mean."
"I know how the wind blows at the Double B, daddy," she said with a chuckle then dug in the drawer until she found a serving spoon. Cassie scooped out a big serving of lasagna on one plate, then the other. Brushing her finger over the spoon and sampled the cold sauce and moaned. Delicious as always.
"It blew you right out of here didn't it? Thought Buddy would be right behind you."
Cassie picked up the plates and walked toward the microwave. "He loves you more than me, you know that," she told him then winked.
"Not a snowball's chance in hell, darlin', that man thinks you hung the moon and the stars. You practically ripped his heart out of his chest when you left."
Buddy treated her like the daughter he never had, and sometimes she thought their closeness made her daddy a little jealous. Buddy was about eight years older than her daddy...that put him near seventy now. He was getting old too. The Double B would never be the same when he finally retired. And her daddy wouldn't be able to handle things out here alone.
Sadness crept over her like a dark cloud of impending doom thinking of that day. This ranch meant everything to her daddy. He'd be heartbroken if she sold it when he couldn't run it anymore, but ranching was not the life she wanted, he knew that. She had a life...in Phoenix, a business to run, one she enjoyed thoroughly.
But for now, she'd be a rancher. It had been a long time, but she knew the ropes...mostly. And what she didn't know, her dad or Bud could fill in for her.
Cassie set the microwave timer then leaned back against he counter and crossed her arms over her chest. "How many head of cattle do you have right now?" she asked dreading the answer. It was calving season now, and soon there'd be twice as many in their herd, until they were weaned.
"Five hundred or so. About half are pregnant."
She swallowed hard. That many? How could he think to run that many at his age? "Daddy, that's a lot of cattle. Can we sell some off?"
"Not now. We'll have a sale after the calves are dropped."
"But that will be seven hundred fifty head then. And trying to watch over the cows birthing all those calves with only five hands will be nearly impossible. We could probably sell them as twofers now before the births."
"Lose too much money, Cassie Bee. Just hire a few more hands to help with the calving. Talk to Bud about it tomorrow. We need to talk about the cotton we have planted on the back acreage too. It'll need to be harvested in August, if I'm not back on my feet by then."
Oh hell. Not only did she have the cattle to contend with, she had crops. At least that didn't require too much supervision...and she had two months before she'd have to worry about it, if at all. Maybe she'd be gone by then. The timer dinged and she groaned and opened the door to pull out the plate. "How many acres?"
"Hundred."
Cassie stood up and walked over to put her dad's plate in front of him with a fork, then put her hands on her hips. "Wow dad--you sure know how to bite off more than you can chew."
"I've been chewing that for thirty years, little girl." He picked up the fork and shoved a sizable bite into his mouth.
"But you're thirty years older now too, dad. It's time for you to scale down."
"I know how old I am, Cassie. And I know how much I can handle. If that damned snake hadn't scared that new filly I was riding, we wouldn't be having this discussion."
Holy shit, he'd almost been snakebit too? She shivered. If there was one thing Cassie hated, it was snakes. Poisonous or not they all slithered and made her skin crawl. "Dad, really...a snake?"
"Yeah, big ole rattler. Scared the bejeesus outta that filly and she took off and left me behind. Good thing she's barn sour and ran right back here, or I'd probably still be out there."
"You're lucky you didn't get bit."
"I had my rifle out aiming to shoot the damned thing when she bolted. Got off the shot and killed it before I got thrown."
"Thank God for small favors." She breathed a sigh of relief and walked back around the counter to put her plate in the microwave. "Where's the filly? Which one were you riding?"
"Fiona. Clementine's foal."
Clementine had been his favorite mare, but her dad had told her at Christmas that she was too old to work anymore, so th
ey'd bred her a few times and put her out to pasture a while back. Cassie grabbed two glasses, filled them with ice then poured a large iced tea for both of them then walked over to hand him one. "How old is she?"
"Four. Under saddle for less than a year. She's just green." He dismissed the filly's poor behavior.
"I think we should run her through the auction next month. We don't need unmanageable horses here. Someone else could get hurt."
"No." He said and popped another bite of pasta into his mouth.
"What?" Cassie spun back around to look at him. "A spooky, barn sour horse that leaves you hurt out in the field and you don't want to sell her?"
"No--she stays. We'll just get one of the hands to work with her more."
God, the man could be stubborn. "Dad we only have five hands and they are all going to be busy working with the five hundred head of cattle."
"Talk to Bud--tell him to find someone. She stays."
She added working with that damned filly to her ever-growing mental to-do list. Cassie had no idea how this was going to work. There was just too much to do.
The buzzer on the microwave sounded, but she found she'd lost her appetite, as she pulled her plate out. Sleep was going to be what she needed. She had a feeling that would be in short supply for the next month.
A few hours later, after she'd tidied up the kitchen, and helped her dad to get tucked into bed, Cassie grabbed her sleep shorts, fresh underwear and a t-shirt and headed to the bathroom. Her muscles ached from first sitting in the truck for so long, then her war with the heater hose in the truck. She smelled to high heaven she knew, and would probably leave a ring in the tub from the grime that had accumulated on her skin from her unplanned pitstop on the road.
Cassie ran hot water into the large claw-foot tub, poured in some bubble bath then stripped naked. She slid beneath the frothy bubbles and sighed, closing her eyes. Tomorrow would tell the tale on whether she'd survive the next month or so. Once she talked to Bud, she hoped he'd have the answers she needed on how they were going to get through this farming fiasco.
If Bud didn't have a good solid plan, whether her Daddy liked it or not, they were going to have a mass cattle sale and he was going to take the time off he needed to heal. Maybe they could both go back to Phoenix for that. That was the ultimate solution to this problem. If she could get Bud to agree that was the answer, they could gang up on her dad and talk some sense into him.
***
The smothered chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy Luke ordered at the Bluebird Cafe tasted like sandpaper in his mouth. This was his favorite dish, so why wasn't he enjoying it tonight? To distract himself from thoughts about Cassie Bellamy, he'd called up Katie Smith, the woman he'd been dating lately and invited her to supper at the Bluebird. The twenty-five year old redhead worked on auto-pilot with her non-stop chatter, and required little input from him to keep a conversation going. He thought that would be the answer for him tonight, but somehow it wasn't.
Not even the sight of her full breasts spilling over the V in the tight bubble-gum pink tank top she wore could distract him. Everything about the woman sitting across from him was in technicolor, big breasts, bigger hair and she was bold as a brass penny. Katie certainly provided enough visual stimulation to keep most men from thinking of little else but her. Not him, not tonight. Her endless talk about the latest gossip she'd heard down at the Cut Up Corral while she got her roots done, was giving him a headache. Her high-pitched voice, which he usually found cute, bored inside his skull like a drill.
The events of his fucked-up day kept spinning in his mind like a tilt-a-whirl. With every rotation, he got madder and madder. Today, Cassie Bellamy had treated him like an unwelcome acquaintance, instead of the man she'd dated for a year and half then left without a word. She'd offered no apology, no explanation, as to why she'd left Bowie like her tail was on fire. She acted like she didn't owe him one either, like he didn't matter, had never mattered to her.
That pretty much cemented the opinion he'd formed of her after she left. She was a spoiled rich girl who'd chosen him as her play toy, because of his reputation, to put a little excitement into her life, until she got bored and went looking for greener pastures.
He couldn't believe he'd been so blind to her true nature while they were dating. Evidently, she'd grabbed his brain along with his dick ten years ago. Well, Luke wasn't thinking with that part of his anatomy anymore. He was a different man than the one she'd fooled so many years ago, and he had a different agenda.
A little revenge might go a long way to making him feel better. Maybe he'd seduce her then leave her dangling on the limb, like she'd done him back then. Or maybe he'd fuck her enough times to get her out of his system. The thought improved his mood a little.
"Luke? What's up with you tonight, hon? You're as distracted as a bird dog in a chicken coop."
Luke dropped his fork onto his plate and looked up into the bright green eyes studying him intently. "Nothing, sugar...just work," he lied. The last thing he needed was to discuss Cassie Bellamy with his current quasi-girlfriend.
"You have a bad day, doll?" She smacked the gum she always seemed to be chewing, and blew a bubble. "Want to talk about it?"
"Nah, can't do that."
She pursed her cupid's bow mouth, the same mouth that had fascinated him since she first used it on him, then she blew out a breath. "You never want to talk to me about your work."
"I can't talk about it, sugar. I told you that." Luke picked up his iced tea and took a swallow then absently rubbed his fingers on the condensation ring where it had been sitting on the red-checked table cloth.
Katie's lips moved into a pout, and she twisted a strand of her fiery red hair. She looked about sixteen with the freckles on her nose. "Come to think about it, there's not much you do talk to me about...other than sex."
They had nothing in common that's why. She was as shallow as a birdbath and as chirpy as the birds that swam there. Perhaps it was time for him to move on from the big-haired, big-breasted woman he was having dinner with. Three weeks was long enough to know a fourth wasn't going to improve anything.
Inside of the bedroom their compatibility might be a ten, but outside? Barely a blip on the scale. Luke cleared his throat and tried to make it easy. "Listen sugar...I think it's time for us to move on. I'm holding you back from finding someone who could really make you happy."
She gasped and raised her multi-ringed hand to her impressive heaving cleavage. "Why, Luke Matthews, I think you're dumping me."
Give the lady a prize, she got it on the first try. "I think it would be the best for both of us to date other people, sugar. I work so much I hardly have time for you. You deserve someone who can give you more attention."
"Well, maybe you're right. I do deserve better, Luke." She stood and pulled down the micro-mini blue jean skirt that barely covered her round ass then picked up her water glass and leaned closer to him. His eyes automatically traveled to her cleavage.
"Go fuck yourself, Luke. Because you certainly aren't going to be fuc--" she pinched her lips on the last curse and then tossed the water into his face and slammed the glass on the table, before spinning on her heel and stomping to the door.
Okay, that just capped his shitty day. Water dripped down his hair into his eyes and splotched his shirt. He reached across the table and pulled several napkins out of the holder and mopped his face with them. Then he noticed that the entire diner had become eerily quiet and all eyes were focused on him.
"Just a misunderstanding folks...please, eat your dinner." He felt a flush creep up his neck and across his cheeks and he stood, tossed a few bills on the table then picked up his Stetson and jammed it on his head as he walked to the door.
This would be all over town tomorrow, he knew. Luke hated to be the fodder for the town gossip mill. He'd had years of that with his father. It irritated the shit out of him to be there again. Not to mention, it made him look like a fool, because he was Sheriff.