by Tina Leonard
“Going somewhere?” he asked.
Olivia felt herself blush. They didn’t know each other well enough for her to tell him she just needed a quick second behind a bush. “I need to get back,” she said, which was true.
“I understand.” He sighed, then grabbed her to him for a quick kiss. “Thanks for spending the night with me.”
Self-consciously, she tucked her hair behind her ears. She had to look terribly unkempt, nothing like the gorgeous women in his paintings. “You’re the only man, besides my husband, that I’ve slept with, in the nonbiblical sense.”
“Well, we are getting somewhere, then.”
They started walking toward his truck. “Olivia,” Calhoun said, “despite your father’s misgivings about me, I do think you should invite me to your home sometime.”
She laughed. “You’ve seen our motor home.”
“I mean your real home. I feel awkward letting you walk out of my life like a traveling circus leaving town.”
“That’s what we are,” she said simply. “Traveling, and something of a circus. I could tell you my address, Calhoun, but you’d never visit. We both know that.”
He stared at her, and she could tell he wanted to refute her statement. But he didn’t.
“You’re very busy with the ranch,” she said, wanting him to have an excuse, and yet also wanting him to insist that she was not just a traveling attraction that had momentarily caught his fancy.
“Come on,” he said gruffly. “Let’s get you back to your trailer. I’ll call my brothers right now and see what time they’re bringing the children back.”
She nodded. “Thanks. I need to get over to the hospital and check on Dad. Hopefully, he can go home.”
Calhoun made a quick call to his brothers. Olivia sighed, looking out the window while he spoke, then giving in to the urge to watch his lips move while he talked on the cell phone.
He was so handsome.
A second later, he hung up. “They’ll be here shortly to bring Kenny and Minnie right to the motor home. They said the kids have had an absolute blast. Also said they never knew kids could be so much fun.” He grinned. “I was a little surprised.”
“That’s sweet. Thank you.”
Calhoun nodded after a moment. “Hey, do you need me to help you pack everything up? Hitch the truck to Gypsy’s trailer?”
She shook her head. “We’ve done this many times. Have it down to an art.”
They got into Calhoun’s truck. “So, who drives the motor home and who drives the truck pulling Gypsy?”
“I drive the motor home. Dad wouldn’t let anyone haul his precious cargo. That horse is practically his best friend.”
Calhoun nodded. “One of my brothers has a horse named Curious George that he feels that way about. Curious George is his prize companion. Funny thing, my brother married a woman who was terrified of horses.”
“What happened between them?”
He smiled. “Curious George and Navarro went to live in Delaware. They are inseparable, and Nina couldn’t bear for Navarro not to have his sidekick. Nina has since learned to love both George and Navarro.”
“I like happy endings,” Olivia murmured. “Thank you for bringing me back.” Her eyes were big as she said, “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, and my kids, and even my dad.”
“It was my pleasure, Ms. Olivia.” He kissed her fingertips to say goodbye.
“I think…I was serious when I said that if I ever fell for another cowboy, it might be you,” she said, her heart strangely twisting inside her. This was really goodbye, and it seemed strange that they’d never see each other again.
“Another cowboy?” He shook his head. “It’s okay, honey, you can just cross him off your list. You haven’t had a real cowboy till you’ve been a Jefferson’s girl. We are the real deal.”
She smiled. “Goodbye, Calhoun.”
“Bye, my lady.”
Hesitantly, her gaze locked with his; she closed the truck door. And then she headed for her motor home to call the hospital.
Although something about Calhoun’s turn of phrase—a Jefferson’s girl—kept tugging at her mind.
Somehow he made it sound so good.
MINNIE AND KENNY sat behind the two cowboys taking them home. They each had a lunch bag to snack from, though the drive was short, only a bit over two hours. Bandera and Archer had given them horse rides, and they’d let them play with the golden retriever, who fetched very well. They’d been allowed to throw rocks into the huge pond out back of the house.
And the Christmas lights strung on the house were amazing. Minnie couldn’t stop thinking about all the lights she’d seen. If Santa ever wanted to live at a ranch, she was certain he’d pick Malfunction Junction.
Not to mention the fussy old housekeeper Minnie had barely been able to understand. She’d fussed over Kenny and Minnie, almost like a real grandmother. And they’d eaten something called potato pancakes for breakfast, which Kenny had adored. There was a lady there named Valentine who had baked delicious bread because she worked in a bakery now, she said. Then she’d curled Minnie’s hair beautifully and tamed Kenny’s bird-perch cowlick, because she said she’d learned how to do those things in a beauty salon a long time ago.
Minnie thought everyone at the ranch was wonderful. “All that ranch needs,” she told Kenny softly in the back seat, “is two little kids.”
“Huh?” Her brother looked at her funny.
“Did you see all those Christmas lights?” Minnie got a warm glow just thinking about it. “Red and white all over the house. And a stocking for every brother, each one hanging up the staircase. I want a stocking on the staircase with my name on it,” Minnie said wistfully.
Kenny looked into his snack bag. “Minnie, a popcorn ball!”
She gasped, looking inside her bag. “I never saw one of those!” Pulling hers out, she stared at it in awe. “I’d rather have this than cotton candy any day,” she said, thinking of the spoiled little girl with the pink sugar on her plump cheeks.
“Me, too,” Kenny said. “I’m never eatin’ it. I’m saving it forever.”
Minnie thought about that for a minute. “I don’t think it would last,” she said quietly, “but Kenny, if Momma could just see Malfunction Junction, I bet she’d change her mind about cowboys. I just know she would!”
Kenny’s eyes got round. Then he carefully put his popcorn ball back in the paper sack. “You’re going to get in big trouble, Minnie,” he said. “Momma said no more cowboys.”
Minnie looked at the back of Archer’s and Bandera’s heads. Their hats were big and dusty. But she was used to that. Real cowboy hats looked that way. They were kind. Country music played, louder in the speakers up front. Occasionally Archer sang a little, completely off tune. But Minnie liked to hear him try to sing.
“I bet Calhoun can’t sing a lick,” she told Kenny.
“But he can paint.”
Minnie folded her lips. “I don’t think Momma liked that very much.”
“Maybe she’d like him better if he sang.”
Minnie sighed.
“Hey, Thinker and Stinker,” Archer said, turning around, grinning kindly.
Minnie’s eyebrows shot up. “Thinker and Stinker?”
“Yeah. You’re the Thinker and Kenny’s the Stinker, because you two are always up to something. The back seat’s too quiet. What are you two hatching back there?”
Kenny giggled. “Minnie wants to live at Malfunction Junction.”
Archer looked at her. “You do?”
Minnie nodded solemnly. “I want a stocking with my name on it, just like yours. One for Kenny, too. And one for Momma and one for Grandpa.”
“And I want to eat potato pancakes every morning,” Kenny said.
“Maybe you should tell Santa Calhoun that,” Bandera muttered.
“It won’t make any difference,” Minnie said. “Momma doesn’t like cowboys.” She thought about that for a minute. “I don’t know why
, because Grandpa’s a cowboy. He’s got lots of horses back home, and a windmill in the backyard. ’Course it doesn’t really work.”
“Does he?” Archer asked.
“Yeah. But Gypsy’s his favorite horse,” Kenny said.
“Did Grandpa get well?” Minnie asked, suddenly wondering what Gypsy would do if Grandpa couldn’t ride her anymore.
“I think he’s much better,” Archer said.
“Good.” She took a deep breath. “Everyone thinks Grandpa’s so mean, but he’s not that way at all.” Since Archer was still smiling at her, and because she saw such interest in his big eyes, she said, “He reads us bedtime stories every night. And we’re the only kids who get to travel in a show. No kid has a rodeo clown for a grandfather, ’cept us.” Then she burst into tears.
“Pull over,” Archer told Bandera. “Thinker’s overheating.”
Bandera eased the truck off an exit ramp, parking in a Dairy Queen parking lot.
“Don’t cry,” Archer told Minnie. “Everything’s going to be fine.” Under his breath, he said, “Call Calhoun. Tell him to meet us here, because we’re stopping for a Blizzard. Tell him not to drag his boots, either.” He got out of the truck, opening the kids’ door. “All right, Minnie. Come here. You, too, Kenny. We’re going to fly in the face of all those parenting magazines Last has been reading, the ones that say comfort food is a bad thing. Let’s go get happy the DQ way!”
AN HOUR LATER, Calhoun met his brothers at the Dairy Queen. “Are they all right?” he asked Archer, who came out to meet him in the parking lot.
“They’re fine.” Archer shrugged. “Worried about their Grandpa.”
Calhoun shook his head. “I believe he’s going to be fine.”
“Believe?”
“Well, without talking to a doctor or getting today’s update, I can’t say. But last night, Olivia indicated the doctors thought he was suffering from a bit of stress.”
“Unexpected stress?”
Calhoun looked at his brother. “Perhaps a little stress brought on by me. We’d had some words.”
“And then we had words with him,” Archer admitted. “Nothing much, just a little ‘cool it, dude.’ No more, no less than we give anybody else. I’ll admit his territorial approach riled us.”
“Yeah, he’s not the kind of man that would ever change his mind.” Calhoun rubbed his chin. “I swear, it seemed like he hated me before he ever met me.”
“He did.” Archer glanced inside the DQ, where he could see Bandera tossing M&M’s into the air and catching them in his mouth, to the delight of the children and a few nearby diners. “Minnie wants to live at Malfunction Junction.”
“She does?”
“Yeah.” Archer scratched at his neck. “She also says Pops is grossly misunderstood and that his reputation is undeserved. He’s a very nice rodeo clown.”
“Ah. Under the makeup and attitude is a lamb. I’m not sure I buy it.”
“So, is there a thing between you and Olivia or not?”
“Not,” Calhoun admitted. “She disliked me before she ever met me, too.”
Archer shook his head. “The old man’s worried someone’s going to take his family away from him, I guess. He’s not willing to give anyone a chance. And that’s probably been drummed into Olivia’s head.”
“The thing is, she’s crazy about me, I just know it,” Calhoun said.
Archer laughed. “Aren’t all women?”
“No.” Calhoun looked at his brother. “Women get crazy about the ranch, or about what they think a cowboy should be, or our money. But that’s what all our other brothers did right—they found women who were crazy about them.”
“You could always go visit her,” Archer said. “Though I think Pops would shoot you on sight.”
“Nah,” Calhoun said. “I asked her for her address and she cleanly dismissed that. I could tell she didn’t believe I’d come her way. That little girl got burned bad when she got burned.”
“Yeah, and single moms have different issues. Just like single dads, and brothers who have to become single dads,” Archer mused. “No wonder Mason’s always been such a pain in the ass.”
“Heard from Last?”
“Hell, no. Hey, those two kids in there?” He looked at Calhoun. “Much as I hate to say it, those two have more grit than Last. They’re tough little pieces of rawhide, I’ll give ’em that.”
“Yeah?” Calhoun looked at him.
“They could grow on me,” Archer said.
“Funny,” Calhoun said. “They could probably grow on me, too.” Thing was, he wasn’t one hundred percent certain that they hadn’t already grown right into his heart.
But with a grandfather who despised him and who might blow a fuse every time he saw him and a mother who didn’t want a man in her life, what chance did Calhoun have, except for heartbreak?
“Dude, if you’re going to try for it, you’re going to have to stiffen up. You’re going to have to dig deep and be brave.”
Calhoun sighed. “I come from a divided family tree. Half of us winners, half of us wienies when it comes to emotional issues.”
“That’s right,” Archer said. “And those two little kids in there, they need a man who plays on the winners’ team.”
Calhoun ground his jaw. “I need a Blizzard.”
“Comfort the roadside way,” Archer said cheerfully. “My advice is you order double M&M’s. You’re going to need them.”
“And you can close your advice column now,” Calhoun said testily. “I’m going to call Olivia and invite her and her father to the ranch.”
“I admire your game plan,” Archer said. “Though I suspect you’ve lost your mind.”
“It wasn’t much to lose,” Calhoun said, dialing the hospital, “but I feel like being a hero to those kids once again. I sure did like them clapping for me at the show the other night. I got a kick out of their faces when they saw their portrait.”
“Good,” Archer said, nodding his head. “You just go right ahead and lose your heart. It’s the Christmas season. If you fall, the rest of us are safe.”
“Who made up that addendum to the rule?” Calhoun said crossly.
Archer grinned. “I did. Because I wouldn’t want to be in your boots for nothing!”
“HELLO?” OLIVIA SAID when the nurse handed her the phone. “Calhoun? Is everything all right with Kenny and Minnie?”
“They’re fine. Enjoying some R and R with my brothers. How’s your dad?”
Olivia looked at the empty bed. “Gone to have an extra test or two run, just to rule out any blockages or other things. It’s precautionary.”
“So, does he get out today?”
“With any luck.” But Olivia wasn’t positive. “He’s a bit weak, though, which concerns me.” Frightened her, actually, but she didn’t want to admit it out loud.
“I wonder how good traveling will be if he’s not up to snuff.”
She’d wondered the same thing herself. “Well, I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. You know Dad. I haven’t even suggested he might not be able to drive Gypsy’s trailer. And hook everything up.” And jump in and out of barrels, and…the list went on and on. Suddenly, Olivia knew her father’s world was forever changed. “He can’t do it,” she said.
“I’d offer, except we’re talking about Gypsy,” Calhoun said, “the princess of your father’s heart. I am the least likely person he’d trust with her.”
Calhoun cleared his throat. Olivia sensed his embarrassment.
“I know what you mean, Calhoun,” she said. “It’s not going to be easy for Dad to realize he has to make some adjustments.”
“So, I have an idea,” Calhoun said, “which isn’t going to go over well with your father, either, but it is something to think about. Perhaps if he came out to the ranch and recuperated, he could give himself a chance to get stronger. Then he would be able to drive the trailer home.”
“That’s awfully kind of you—”
“
Now, I realize I’m the source of your father’s anxiety,” Calhoun interrupted, “but the ranch is very large, and we might not ever even run into each other—”
“Calhoun, you weren’t the cause of anything. It turned out Dad had hypertension he’d never told me about, as well as a few other things he needed to make changes for. He wasn’t taking his medication, because he said that damn doctors didn’t know anything, and he was just fine. I called our pharmacist back home to see if Dad was allergic to any medication the hospital might give him, and Mr. Finley said Dad had medications he never picked up that the doctor called in for him.”
“Whoa,” Calhoun said. “That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not. Now, Mr. Finley couldn’t tell me what the prescriptions were for, of course, but he gave the cardiac doc here the name of Dad’s doctor so they can discuss Dad’s case. It’s going to be fine. But you’d think he’d at least take the medicine he’s prescribed.”
She’d been startled, actually, by the chain of events. They were all lucky he hadn’t had a heart attack. Or worse. “You know, Dad’s too stubborn for his own good.”
“I can’t comment on that, exactly, because I’m from a long line of stubborn men. It’s really to our disadvantage to be as ornery as we are, but it seems to be a gene thing.”
“Well.” Olivia felt as if her chest was heavy with worry. “I hope Minnie and Kenny have been good.”
Calhoun glanced through the DQ window. Archer had gone back inside, and now both of Calhoun’s brothers were teaching the kids sign language—with a few Gig’ems and Hook’em Horns thrown in for their greater education. “I say come on out to the ranch for a bit,” Calhoun said. “Give your dad a chance to get his strength back. You’d like it, I think,” he said. “Minnie does.”
Olivia laughed. “It must be good then.”
“It’s a no-strings-attached offer,” Calhoun said. “No fair, no foul, nothing but a house to yourself and a place for Gypsy to hang with some horse friends.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Olivia murmured. “We can’t just pull up with a motor home, a trailer, a truck, two kids and a sick man.”