“Sounds good, but my friend here will need a menu.”
“Menu?” Darla said as she fumbled to find one behind the bar. “It’s been weeks since I’ve been asked for one.”
“Not a lot of new customers?” Kendra asked.
“Yeah, we pretty much have the same people all the time. It’ll be good for Carlo to have a new order.”
“A challenge,” Kendra smiled. “Let me really have fun with this menu.”
“Why must you be a bother to people all the time?”
“I told you, I’m fucking fabulous.”
While Kendra figured out her order, Mel looked around at the regular lunch crowd. They were older than the nightly crowd. Mostly men who used to be part of the night crowd before they locked themselves into a relationship.
At the end of the bar, Sunny sat picking at a plate of nachos while scratching away at a notebook.
She must have stared too long at the way the light from behind the bar accented his strong jaw and full lips. Then again, she almost fell off her stool when he nibbled on the corner of his lip. When he looked up and smiled, she didn’t know if she should look away or wave.
“Oh sweet cowboy ass, please tell me you know that regular,” Kendra said as she curled her arms around Mel’s shoulders.
“That’s Sunshine,” she sighed and waved.
“Sunshine? I thought cowboys couldn’t be hippies.”
“Never name a child when high on painkillers,” Darla said as she placed two sodas in front of the girls.
Kendra laughed. “Wait, Sunshine? As in the—”
Melody jabbed Kendra in the stomach and her friend laughed louder.
“You’re lucky his mom’s here with access to my food or I’d make a fool of you,” Kendra whispered in her ear. “Damn, no wonder you nicknamed your dildo Sunny.”
“I did not,” Mel lied.
Sunshine slid off his stool and came toward them.
“Oh shit,” Kendra purred. “How have you not wrapped your legs around that waist?”
Mel’s eyes shot south and the way Sunny strode toward them wasn’t helping her stay dry. These were the times she wished she was more like Kendra and could just drag Sunny into the bathroom. Instead, Mel felt her fear taking over and her eyes stayed down.
“Hey Mel.”
Sunny’s Southern drawl had Kendra’s purr turning to growl.
“If you don’t fuck this man I will.”
“Not if you want to live to see Cuddles again,” Mel said out of the corner of her mouth.
“Blasphemy.”
“Where is he this weekend anyway?”
“The spa, he’s getting groomed and pampered. You said dogs have to stay outside at your house.”
“That is true.” Mel finally looked up at Sunny. “Come back for you clothes?”
“I need to find work. I was hoping to talk to Carolyn when she comes in, plus I figured I’d hang out with my mom.”
“Aren’t you just a Southern gentleman,” Kendra cooed.
“Sunny, this is my college roommate Kendra.” Mel rolled her shoulders so Kendra would finally get off her back.
Sadly, she only did so literally, not figuratively. “You work on Mel’s family ranch, don’t you?” Kendra asked. “No wait, you travel around with her cousin, TJ… BJ…”
“JT,” Sunny corrected with a broad smile. “He just hung up his saddle and I’m on a little break from the rodeo circuit.”
“Rodeo? Do you ride or rope?”
Mel reached back and pinched her friend to stop.
“I ride bareback broncos.”
“Bareback? That sounds dangerous.”
Jealousy surged through Melody like a wildfire on a can of gasoline. Heat mixed with anger and she couldn’t decide if it was because her friend had crossed a line or because she was too scared to cross it herself.
“That could be why I’m home with cracked ribs.”
“Those suck, you can’t breathe without pain and worse yet, they can’t cast them to keep ‘em together. We’ll drink milk to get those bones strong and nothing too strenuous, no matter what Mel wants to do with you.”
“Kendra,” Melody gasped as she hopped off her stool. “I’m sorry, her mouth needs to be registered as a weapon.”
“It’s fine. Mel, can I talk to you alone for a minute?”
“I’m sure she’d prefer more than a minute,” Kendra replied with the straw between her lips. She looked up and sucked down her soda.
“You realize you expect to sleep in my house and wake in the morning,” Melody growled before turning to walk to an empty table with Sunny. Nervousness had her flipping her phone in her fingers just to keep from stumbling and knocking over the condiments at the table.
“I need to ask you a favor,” Sunny began. “Actually a few of them.”
“Whatever I can do to help?” she said as the twelve year old inside her swooned looking at the strain the muscles in his shoulders had on his t-shirt.
“Do you know why my dad got fired?”
“I think he was gone before I came home from school. Walt really doesn’t involve me in the daily ranch activities like he should.” Mel bit back her annoyance with the fact the guys wouldn’t so much as tell her if they were repainting a sign, let alone the comings and goings of daily life. She was expected to take her cut of the profits and be happy they’d provided for her.
“So then you wouldn’t know if he’d have a job for me?”
She shook her head no.
“Well, I guess bunking there wouldn’t be your call either.”
“You want to stay with us?” She tried to keep the excited squeal of her voice to a minimum. “I mean, you wouldn’t want to stay with your folks?”
“My dad and I have never really been the type to toss a football around and have deep heart to hearts.”
Mel thought of the other times she’d caught Sunny in the hayloft and suddenly realized what was off with Darla’s face. She turned to see Sunny’s mom giving Kendra their to go boxes and it was unmistakable. “What about your mom?”
“She’s chosen to stay and I irritate him to the point he wants to take it out on someone. I’m not a scrawny kid anymore he can kick around.”
“When I see one of the guys I’ll ask them for you. I got to get my friend settled. Sorry I can’t be more help, but you know how the Long’s feel about womenfolk.”
“Bedroom and kitchen.” Sunny laughed. “And if I remember the way you make cornbread the kitchen is out for you.”
Mel knew what Kendra’s response would be. A long lingering stroke to Sunshine’s leg. The idea danced in her mind as she tried to analyze his look, the timber of his voice, and his words.
“Melody,” Kendra called.
Thankfully, her call broke the pro/con list checking off boxes in her mind. “I better go,” Mel apologized. “I wish I could be more help, but…well, I’ll do what I can on my end. It’s Friday. The guys may come into town.”
“That’s good because I don’t have a vehicle right now.”
“We outtie?” Kendra asked and the girls said their goodbyes.
On the ride out to the ranch, Mel ate her flautas while Kendra worked on her hamburger basket between grilling Mel about Sunny.
“Holy cowboys,” Kendra drooled as they turned into the ranch. “Why aren’t you stopping?”
“Because I don’t live there,” Mel said as she scanned the main house in her rearview mirror. Monty, Miles and Clay were jawing on the lawn with Walt who leaned against pillar on the porch.
“But there was sexiness in boots and hats. Why aren’t they wearing chaps? Aren’t they supposed to be wearing chaps?”
“Not on a normal day.”
“Again…Hot cowboys, let’s go back.”
“I only have so much time before my lunch hour is over,” Mel said as she sped down the road to her home. “Anyway, there weren’t any hot cowboys back there.”
“Yes there was. I thought I was about to see chocol
ate thunder perform their cowboy routine. Please? If you love me.”
Mel pulled up to her home and tossed the car into the park. “The only men you saw were a mixture of my brothers, cousins, my uncle, and probably my dad.” She got out of the car and headed into the house.
“Why did none of these men bring you to school?”
“They did freshman year, then I met you and I feared for their safety.”
“That’s probably smart. Any of them live here?”
“Besides my father?” Mel asked as she walked into the kitchen, only to see her mother in a teddy. “Hey mom.”
“What are you doing home?” she asked in a panicked voice.
“Remember Kendra?”
“Oh hey, sweetheart, good to see you again.”
“Hi Mrs. Long, I surprised Mel and she’s been nice enough to let me crash for the night.”
“It’ll be great to have you.” Her mother looked back toward the bedroom.
Mel’s dad called out, “Loretta, I said I was only giving you a five minute break! Get that sexy ass back in here before I have to head back out.”
“I guess your dad wasn’t part of chocolate thunder,” Kendra laughed
Her mother raised her eyebrow. “Do I want to know?” she asked.
“As much as I want to know why dad’s here and not with the rest of the guys.”
“Let’s just call it null and void then.”
“Sounds good,” Mel said and pulled her friend to her bedroom. “I’ll give you ten minutes and I’m coming back out, so I can get back to work.”
“Ten minutes.” Her mother laughed. “No wonder you don’t have a man.”
Chapter Four
Sunny wanted to check in to the motel down the street, but his mother wouldn’t hear of it. He took his bag and they walked home. Carolyn said he could come back and she’d let him barback with Mike to see if he could handle the lifting.
“Sunshine, if you’re staying here I need three hundred dollars.” The greeting as Sunny walked in the door from his father wasn’t the worst by far. “And I need it now.”
“I don’t carry that kind of cash with me. I can go to an ATM if you want.”
“Race,” his mother began. “He’s our son. He can stay here for free.”
“No,” Sunny said in agreement. “He’s right. I’m not a child. I can pay some rent.”
“He’ll just drink it away in a week,” she said under her breath.
“I got a job. I need to fix the truck,” Race snarled at his wife. “Even with the Long’s trying to destroy my reputation I got a job.”
“With who?” his mother asked.
“Federated Gas.” His father beamed a bit. What a strange occurrence.
“The biggest thing is I need to get a tire. So, Sunny, cash now.”
“I’ll go with you to the store,” Sunny suggested as a way to not only pay the right amount for the tires, but avoid giving his father cash that would, as his mother put it, be drunk away. “Then you can tell me what you’re gonna be doing for them.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“No.” Sunny shook his head. “It’s just if I walk to get the money, then come back, by the time you get to the shop it’ll be closed. It’s already eight.”
“Fine,” he conceded.
When they went outside Sunny double checked the truck.
He got barked at for his trouble. “What? You think I’m lying about needing a tire.”
“No, I think you need three,” he said, kicking an almost bald tire. “Hopefully they’ll have a sale. We can get four so you have a spare.”
“You know how much tires cost for a truck that size?”
“Yes, I’ve got it.”
“Oh, mister rollin’ in dough. Well, you walked your ass into my trailer begging for a room in boots that need to be shod, so don’t act like you have it all together.” His dad kicked at the rocks on the road as they made their way out of the trailer park. “I’ll be making a pretty penny at that gas company. Don’t you worry.”
“I just wished you or mom would have told me about you losing your job. I could have sent the money for the tires months ago.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Sunny. You wouldn’t spit on me if I were on fire.”
“You’re right there,” Sunny said with all certainty. “But there’s no way in hell I’d let mom starve.”
“And I would?” he snarled.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You implied it. I don’t know what JT told you—”
“JT didn’t tell me shit. He doesn’t know what goes on down here. He sold his stake in the ranch to his family almost a year ago.” He turned a sidelong glance at his dad. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do shit.”
“You’ve never been lazy, that I’ll give you. But you fucked up and my mom’s working at the Hard Root when you said she wasn’t going to work a day in her life. Even when I was wearing jeans three years and five sizes too small. Your damn pride wouldn’t let her.”
“The Long’s stole my pride. If you had any you wouldn’t go running after them like a damn lap dog.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I saw who dropped you off last night. That girl will get you killed. It ain’t right.”
“What isn’t?”
“She’s a spoiled kid that never had to do a day’s labor. Rich, getting money from a ranch she probably hasn’t even seen half of.”
“What do you know about Mellie?”
“She’s a Long, and although they took pity on you when you were younger, you’re a Parker, not one of them.”
Sunny thought maybe he should go ask the Longs what was going on himself, than trust second hand knowledge from dear old dad.
They’d reached the store and the three hundred dollars turned into seven, but Sunny could cover it. He may not have won all the time on the circuit, but when he did, JT had helped him save the money instead of blowing it like a home schooled kid away at college.
He got back to the Hard Root right on time and it only took a few crates of beer for him to recognize his limitation. He apologized to Carolyn as she passed him a few twenties for the effort. Now he had to figure out how he could be useful to the Long’s. They were his last chance for a job. But as the night wore on her door stopped swinging from new patrons and none of those in the bar were named Long. Before last call he headed home with his father’s voice echoing in his head. He was a Parker and Parker’s in Tender Root were lower than mushrooms growing off cow pies. At least those you could smoke.
* * * *
Kendra had stayed at home while Melody went back and tested samples for the courier. A gas spec may be something a human hospital would have on hand, but not their little clinic.
“Take the weekend. You have your friend here. At this point I’m not sure a day or two would make a difference.” Doc picked up the phone. “I’ll call Winston’s to give them an update. Why don’t you head—”
“Myron,” Velma called. “We’ve got a bad one.”
Doc and Mel jumped up and headed to the lobby where a little girl, probably about ten, with blonde pigtails was sobbing with blood all over her shirt and a kitten held tight to her chest.
“Randy’s dog got her. Please Doc, I ran all the way here.”
Doc knelt by the little girl and she placed the almost lifeless tabby in his hands. The cat looked to be about six months old. Still small in Doc’s hands as he cradled it as if it were a newborn made of thin glass. Velma passed Mel a stethoscope and she found shallow breath sounds and an erratic heartbeat.
“Please Doc,” the girl sniffed as she wiped the snot from her nose. “Don’t let Winnie die.”
Doc looked at Mel who tilted her head to the side.
“She’s alive,” Mel said, keeping her voice low.
“Velma, call Chrissie’s mama and let her know where she is and make sure none of that blood is hers.” Doc passed Winnie to Mel, then cradled Chrissie�
�s head in his hand. “I’ll see what we can do.”
They went in the back and laid the kitten on the table.
“Chrissie just lives a few blocks away, she’s you in training,” he explained. “You need to assess the damage and run this like any other animal, but I’m mostly doing this because you need the experience.”
“Of what, breaking a kid’s heart?” Mel said as she saw the multiple puncture wounds along the abdomen. Her hands began to shake. It had been months since she’d seen a trauma case, and never something so tiny. She wished she’d paid more attention during the smaller animal part of her training.
“Hopefully not. Its neck isn’t snapped so the mutt must not have shook the thing too much. Let’s get it into x-ray and then shave it so we can see what we’re working with.” Doc stroked the gray fur on the belly. “I know Bert is supposed to deal with the small domestics out here. His clinic gets a lot of traffic, but when you’re thirty, forty miles out of town caring for some cattle or horses, smaller creatures appear. If you don’t help them those ranchers aren’t gonna drive into town for anything besides sterilization on a good day.”
“It’s not that I don’t like the little ones…” Melody looked down and the kitten was struggling for air as its little paws twitched.
“The bleeding seems to of stopped. We may not need to even go in.”
An hour and half later, Doc let Mel give the good news. Tossing her mask and hat in the trash, she looked at Dr. Carlisle while rotating her wrists to the get the stiffness out of them. She did have to admit it was nice that once she’d gotten in the animal, her training took over. She’d been nervous during assessment, but then it became textbook.
She’d stayed with the kitten until it had started to come out of the anesthetic. No reason to get Chrissie’s hopes up. There had been two sets of punctures in the bowel, but Melody had been able to close them.
“Why do you want to do large animal?” he asked. “Your fingers are meant for micro surgery. You saved that cat, not me.”
“Because of the ones I can’t save and the little girls who couldn’t understand.”
Pushing through the double doors, she found Chrissie had been cleaned up and her mother sat next to her with blazing red hair pulled back into a single ponytail. When Mel came out the little girl’s eyes shot up from the book she’d been distracting herself with. Mel sat next to Chrissie with a huge smile.
One Last Sunset (The Long Ranch Series Book 1) Page 5