by Becky McGraw
He lived a clean life, kept to himself, and tried to stay on the straight and narrow. As Sheriff he needed to keep a low profile. The scene that just played out was not helping that cause. Maybe he needed to date women from Henrietta, instead of Bowie. Taking his business out of town might be the answer to keeping it from spilling out in such a public way.
Dammit, this was all Cassie Bellamy's fault too. Why the hell had she come back to Bowie now after ten years? He thought he was way past being angry over her desertion so long ago. Way past feeling anything for her. Evidently, that wasn't the case, since all he could think about all afternoon, and now, was her.
He'd never admit it, but he was thirty-one years old and unattached for a reason. The gaping hole she had left inside of him when she left him ten years ago was still there, as was the lesson she'd taught him. Women couldn't be trusted. They were fickle, and flighty. Which explained why he only dated bimbos these days, so he wasn't tempted to get attached.
Well, no more. Fate had presented him with a golden opportunity to get his head on straight again, and he was going to seize it so he could finally move on from Cassie Bellamy, and find something more lasting in his life. The old scars she had left would be erased, and the unfinished business between them completed, before the leggy blonde left Bowie again.
Luke wasn't into playing games, so he didn't know how he was going to pull it off, she didn't seem overly interested in seeing him again when he was with her earlier today. No, she'd been too busy reacquainting herself with Cody Lawson at the garage to even say goodbye to him.
Well, Luke was going to be on her like white on rice until she got in the right frame of mind, and then he would accomplish his goal. Luke looked both ways at the corner then crossed the street with determination and walked to where his truck was parked.
CHAPTER THREE
At 8 a.m. sharp, Luke walked into the station and stopped at Julie Beth's desk to pick up the pink messages on his spike there. The dispatcher wasn't around, so he went to his office and grabbed his coffee cup then headed to the kitchen for his second cup of the morning. As he neared the kitchen, he heard a low murmur of female voices inside, one being Julie Beth's. His footsteps faltered, and then he stopped right outside the door to listen for a second. Julie Beth was in her fifties and was probably the head engineer on the Bowie gossip train.
"Yeah..." Julie Beth said a little above a whisper. She craned her neck to make sure nobody was listening and then said, "She told him to go fuck himself, and then threw water in his face!" The other woman, an administrative assistant from the mayor's office the next floor up, gasped then covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled.
With a groan, Luke slapped his hand to his forehead. It took less time than he'd anticipated for the events of last night to travel. Hell, it had probably been spread to half the town by midnight last night. This town didn't need a newspaper with all the mouthy women--and men--it had carrying the news like pigeons.
"Oh and did you hear that Cassie Bellamy is back in town?" The other woman shook her head negatively, which was Julie Beth's 'go sign'. "Well yeah, you know her Daddy fell off a horse and broke his leg. She's back to take care of him and help with the ranch til he's back on his feet. The old man must be off his rocker, because he has over five hundred head of cattle out there and a hundred acres of cotton." Julie Beth shook her head and took a deep breath. "I don't know how the heck he thinks that city-slicker girl of his is going to hold it together for him. Bud's been asking around town for extra hands to help out, but so far he's only found one."
Luke knew Bud was Carl's ranch manager. He also knew the man would be hard-pressed to hire extra help right now. It was calving season, and most of the cow hands around town had already signed on with other ranches. Julie Beth was right about one thing, there was no way that Cassie was going to be able to handle it on her own.
One of the jobs he'd had in college was being a cowhand at a local ranch. The other had been at a horse farm, shoveling shit, cleaning stalls and feeding and exercising horses on the weekend. Neither of the jobs was pleasant, but he did them so he could go to school at night and get his degree in criminal justice.
Once he got his degree and had gone to the police academy, he left all that behind though, and swore he'd never go back. This time he'd make an exception for two reasons. Cassie needed his help, and he was going to finish their unfinished business. Once and for all.
The three weeks vacation time he had coming couldn't be put to better use, Luke thought and spun around without going into the kitchen to head back to his office. This place could run on auto-pilot without him for a few weeks. Bowie wasn't crime central of the country, for sure. Hell, most of his calls were either for bar fights or cattle on the loose. Cole Jackson, his best friend and second in command, could certainly handle it by himself for that long.
Walking behind his desk, he picked up his phone and buzzed his friend. "Hey, you got a sec?"
"Yeah, something up?" Cole asked gruffly.
Cole was not a morning person, and it took at least half a pot of coffee for him to function. He was probably only on cup two or three right now. "I need to talk to you...grab your coffee and get in here."
"Yes, sir." Cole agreed sarcastically and then slammed the phone down.
Luke chuckled and sat back in his chair, tenting his fingers over his chest to wait. Within a second or two, his slightly rumpled best friend and deputy walked in frowning.
"What's on fire?"
"No fire--just some smoldering ashes."
"Cryptic this morning aren't you?" Cole walked to the chair in front of his desk and plopped down. "Spill it...coffee hasn't kicked in yet, so go slow."
Luke just stared at Cole for a moment, trying to frame what he was going to say. Cole wasn't going to like what he had in mind, he knew that for sure. After all, he was the one who had to put up with his sorry ass after Cassie had left the last time. His was the shoulder Luke had leaned on after he tried to drown his sorrows the same way his father had for so many years. Cole had just barely kept Luke out of jail for the subsequent bar brawl and public intoxication. Thank God his daddy, Wiley Jackson, had been Sheriff at the time, or Luke might well not be sitting behind this desk or wearing the badge he was now.
Cole's father hadn't thrown him in jail, instead he sat him down for a conversation Luke needed to hear. "You need to get your shit together boy or you're gonna wind up just like your daddy," he said. "You can choose the side of the law you want to be on right now. If you keep this up, you won't have that choice." He went on to suggest that Luke go to school, and maybe consider law enforcement as a career like Cole planned to do.
"You gonna sit there eyeballing me or you gonna tell me what's on your mind, Slick? Cole said and took a large swallow of his coffee then asked, "This about what happened at the Bluebird last night?"
Heat crept up Luke's neck and he cleared his throat. "No, it's not about that."
"What then?" Cole asked and sipped at his coffee again.
"You hear Cassie's back in Bowie?"
Cole groaned and sat up straighter in his chair. "Yeah, but I was hoping you hadn't."
Luke picked up his coffee cup and went to take a sip, then remembered he hadn't gone into the kitchen to fill it and set it back down. "I ran into her yesterday on the road to the Double B. Her truck broke down."
"And?" Cole pinned him with curious green eyes. "Did you give her a Texas howdy when you passed by?"
No, he didn't give her the finger. "I stopped to help her. Didn't know it was her at first."
"So what happened? How's she look?" Cole asked curiously and then grinned. "That wart on the end of her nose grow a hair?"
Luke chuckled then ran a hand through his hair and admitted, "No wart. She looks the same fucking way she did ten years ago, just better." God he hated admitting that. It would have been so much easier if she'd come back toothless and two-hundred pounds heavier, and actually did have the wart that Cole joked about.
"Not good man. How'd she act? She spill on why she left?" Cole leaned forward and propped his forearms on his thighs.
"Didn't say a fucking word and treated me like I had a communicable disease."
Cole shook his head and twirled his cup around in his hand. "Not good at all...you ok?"
"Not really." Luke forced out a laugh. "We have unfinished business, you know?"
"What'cha gonna do?" Cole drawled.
"Finish it." Luke told him with finality. "Once and for all."
"Luke, you know that's not a good idea. She's not worth your time, man. You always get into trouble when she's around."
"Trouble or not, she needs help out at the ranch, while her Daddy's down. I'm taking my vacation time to help her," Luke told him firmly then asked, "Can you cover for three weeks?"
"You know that's not a problem. The problem is I'm not particularly thrilled about what you plan to do with your vacation time. Why don't you go on that Alaska fishing trip you wanted to take? Just get out of town for a while. She'll be gone by the time you get back."
"I'm going on a different kind of fishing trip, buddy." Cole smiled at his friend, ignoring the concern that pinched between his brows. "There'll be plenty of time later for that Alaska trip. This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity to get my head right for the future, and put the past to bed." There were a lot of things he'd like to put to bed, and the past was just one of them. Now all he had to do was convince her it was a good idea.
"Your head will never be right as long as that woman is around. It's like she scrambles your brains or something, man. Best thing you can do is stay away from her."
"Not happening, Cole. I'm doing this...I have to do this."
***
Cassie tucked her hair behind her ears and slipped on her old straw hat, before heading out the back door of the house. Her boot heels kicked up dust with every stride she made toward the bunkhouse. After wearing a suit and heels every day for the past six years, being in boots and blue jeans felt like heaven, so there was a bounce in her step as she headed out to the barn to talk to Bud.
It was early, but Bud was usually an early riser, so she'd probably catch him eating his breakfast. The six or so horses in the barn nickered a greeting from their stalls when she stepped up on the porch to the bunkhouse.
Although she was tempted to stop in there and scratch every head, she didn't. Her mission this morning was too important. She wondered if Bud had fed the horses yet though. If not, she'd do that for him. It was going to take them a few days to get a routine down pat, one that was necessary to run the ranch right. Changing partners for the delicate dance her daddy and Bud had been doing by rote for thirty years was going to take some time, but she could do it. Her daddy had big shoes to fill, but her feet weren't small, and she was determined.
She knocked on the whitewashed door of the bunkhouse then twisted the knob and walked inside. Nobody was in the kitchen, and she took a deep breath and inhaled the familiar smell of hay, leather and dust. Someone had evidently been cooking bacon in there recently, she thought, when the smoky rich scent teased her nostrils. She took a look over at the old cast iron cook stove and saw the skillet still sitting on the eye.
Walking around the long rough board picnic like table skirted with flat wood benches, then across the narrow kitchen, she looked down the long T hallway to the sleeping rooms and called out for him. "Hey Buddy--get your old bones out here! I need a hug!" Her voice echoed down the hall and bounced back unanswered.
She walked down the long hallway to his room at the end and knocked loudly. "Buddy, sun's up lazy bones. Open up!" Still no answer. This was really odd, she thought. Her dad had still been sleeping when she left the house, and Imelda wasn't there yet to cook breakfast. Maybe her dad knew where Buddy could be. But she wasn't going to wake him up. Sleep healed, and he needed a lot of healing. No, she'd feed the horses, then go see if he was up yet.
Excitement filled her at doing something physical for a change. She felt empowered as she walked back outside then into the barn and grabbed the thick hose from the spindle on the wall, and a feed bucket. Dragging the hose to the first stall, she dropped the feed bucket then opened the latch and stepped inside. Politely, the pretty roan mare with a white blaze on her muzzle took a step backward and then shook her head.
"Morning girl," Cassie said and scratched the mare between her ears then shoved the hose nozzle into the water bucket and turned it on. When it was filled, she turned off the water and stepped back out and locked the stall. "I'll be back with your breakfast in a few minutes." The horse whinnied as if she understood and Cassie chuckled.
She made her way to all seven occupied stalls and refilled water buckets then went to the feed closet and filled up a feed bucket and grabbed a scoop. This job she'd done a thousand times in her life, it had been one of her chores as a teenager, and she loved it. Bonding with the horses in the morning and at night gave her a sense of peace and accomplishment.
After she'd given all the horses their feed and supplements, she went to the hayloft and got a couple of bales and cut the string loose. A tabby barn cat rubbed at her ankles while she peeled off several flakes from the bales. She stopped and gave the fuzzy little kitten a scratch on his back. He licked her hand then rolled on his back and she scratched his belly and he purred loudly.
When she lived here, she'd always spoiled the barn cats with milk, and extra food. She was glad to see there was still some around. She couldn't count the times she'd come up here when she was upset and cuddled with them until she felt better. They were good listeners.
Cassie pushed to her feet and grabbed the hay up in her arms. The rich alfalfa filled her nostrils and tickled her nose. She made another round through the stalls and gave each horse a share.
Cleaning the stalls was something she'd deal with this afternoon. They looked relatively clean, like they always did. Clean stalls was something that Buddy demanded. Hoof rot was not something he would tolerate. He loved his animals, like they were his children.
Slightly sweaty, her muscles aching a little from the unusual physical exertion, she made her way back outside and saw that the sun was up fully now, and the sky was cloudless, a blue so vibrant it hurt her eyes. She pulled her hat down a little then headed for the back porch. Leaning on the doorframe she scraped her boots on the brush beside the door then went inside.
The wonderful smell of bacon and eggs frying and warm biscuits baking drew her to the kitchen like a zombie in a trance. Her stomach grumbled and she put a hand over it, when she walked in the kitchen and saw Imelda tending a pan at the stove, her ample waist cinched with a flowered apron, her gray-peppered black hair up in the same bun it was in every day. "Mama Melda!" Cassie called out enthusiastically.
The short round woman jumped and then spun around. "Cassie Bee!" She shuffled around the breakfast bar and grabbed Cassie tightly around the waist. Cassie squeezed her just as hard. "God, I've missed you girl."
"I've missed you too, mama." When her own mama had died when Cassie was ten, Cassie had been distraught and beside herself asking Imelda what she was going to do without her mama. Imelda, with five children of her own, jerked her to her breasts and hugged her tight, telling Cassie that she'd never be without a mama as long as she was around.
Cassie had started calling her Mama Melda after that day, and Imelda had been the closest thing to a mother she'd known since. It didn't make her miss her own mama any less or regret that instead of being able to go to her mother when she started her period, or when she'd had her heart broken the first time, she went to Imelda instead, but it had given a lonely, sad little girl the comfort she needed to survive.
"My goodness Cassie Bee, you're skinny as a rail. Sit down and let me feed you."