Milli was busy pushing Katy and telling her she had to stay in the stroller, that she could not get out and run through the mall, and didn’t even realize she’d walked right past Beau until her grandmother spoke.
“Well, hello, Beau,” Mary said cheerfully.
Milli felt a slow, hot flame rising from her neck to her cheeks. By the time she turned around she had a high color she couldn’t disguise and only hoped he thought it was the result of just coming inside out of the blistering summer heat.
“Whatever are you doing here?” Mary asked.
“Oh, Amanda wanted to shop after we went to lunch. I don’t get into running around clothes racks a hundred times, so I’m practicing waiting out here like a dutiful husband.”
He squatted in front of the stroller and touched Katy’s chubby hand. “Hi, you little doll. You remind me of my nephews down in Louisiana with all that blonde hair and them big blue eyes. But you got your mother’s pretty skin for sure.”
Milli held her breath until her chest hurt. Surely, he would feel something when he touched his own flesh and blood. He stayed squatted down beside the stroller so long that Milli feared he had recognized his own reflection in the baby. Finally, he stood and she was dizzy with relief.
“So what are you doing in Ardmore this afternoon? Did you bring Jim out for a bit of different scenery?”
“Getting out away from the ranch for a little while. Left Jim at home with Hilda and Slim to watch John Wayne. Just hope he don’t get any foolhardy notions like he can sit a horse just because I’m not there. Every once in a while we have to get out and be something other than cattle women, so we’re going to run around those dress racks. And then we’re going to Braums to eat banana splits until we groan and moan.”
Milli was glad Mary kept up a running conversation. If she’d had to choose between saying a word or standing before a firing squad, she would just have reached for the blindfold and put it on herself.
“Well, don’t be spending Jim’s money on something to wear to my party. You two would look just fine in a gunny sack tied up in the middle with a piece of bailing twine. Too bad we already ate or we’d join you for ice cream.”
“Don’t you be flatterin’ me. A gunny sack, indeed! Now, you might be telling the truth about Milli, and if I was thirty years younger, I might give her a run for her money when all those cowboys are just slobbering to get to dance with her,” Mary said.
It worked. He set his jaw and drew his eyebrows down in a frown.
“We’ll be seeing you,” Mary waved. She’d gotten exactly the response she’d hoped for. There was chemistry between them, by golly, and she intended to fan the flames every chance she got. After all, all was fair in love and war and that hussy hadn’t gotten him in front of a preacher man yet.
Milli gave a short, silent prayer of thanksgiving that Beau and Amanda had already eaten. She couldn’t bear to sit so close to him that she could smell that wonderful aftershave and watch him drape his arm around Amanda while they shared a banana split. Amanda might even feed him a few bites, at which time Milli would upchuck right there in the middle of everyone’s dessert. The very thought of him taking ice cream off the very spoon Amanda had eaten from made her stomach churn in agony. She didn’t even let herself think about the fact that he’d probably kissed the witch quite passionately in the last few hours.
“Hey, Milli, why don’t you let me walk around the center of the mall here with the baby? I need to walk off part of this supper and she’s not a bit interested in all those dress racks. She didn’t cry when I was talking to her, so I think she’d be comfortable with me,” Beau offered.
“Oh, I…” Milli stammered.
Mary pushed the stroller two feet forward and put the handle in his hands. “How nice of you. If she gets fussy, just bring her to the store and we’ll take her off your hands. She loves to ride so I doubt you’ll hear a peep out of her.”
“Sure thing. Now off to your right is a shoe store, sweetheart. You’ll probably grow up to buy eighty million pairs of shoes and not wear any of them. You’d rather wade in the water in your bare toes, wouldn’t you, honey? Of course you would - or else go out to the pasture in your boots and jeans and ride a little pony. I bet Jim buys you a pony by the time you can walk…”
“Now why did you do that?” Milli hissed when he was out of hearing distance.
“Because Katy will love it and so will he.”
Mary looked as innocent as a newborn kitten. Maybe, just maybe, if he spent enough time with the child, he’d finally look down and see that she was the spitting image of him. And if he didn’t, then someone might come along and say something like, “My, don’t that baby look just like you,” and then he’d wake up and smell the roses, or baby powder, or whatever new fathers smelled when their eyes were opened.
Milli wondered if she could get back to the panhandle of Texas by midnight.
They went into the store, past the perfume counter and to the lady’s department. She flipped a couple of hangers around the round rack as she fought down the urge to turn around and confess everything to her grandmother. If Mary knew what was actually happening right under her nose, she might not be so eager to turn Beau loose with Katy, and she might even help her get away from the Lazy Z without too much fanfare.
“Well, hello, Amanda,” Mary said in a sticky sweet voice. “Have you met my granddaughter? She was with us at the barn social the other night but I don’t think you were formally introduced. This is Milli Torres, and this is Beau’s fiancée, Amanda.”
“I’m pleased to meet you,” Milli said, but she couldn’t even force a smile to her face.
Amanda wore a baby blue business suit with a very short skirt and a jacket with a wide white lapel. A gold pin shaped like an alligator with sapphire eyes crawled up the lapel on the left side and her engagement ring glittered in the fluorescent lighting.
“Oh, so you’re the neighbor?” Amanda started at Milli’s toes and sized her up, literally curling her nose by the time she got to her hair, which Milli had pulled back with one of those new plastic clips.
Milli bared her claws and got ready for the catfight. Granted, she wasn’t very classy in her jean shorts and T-shirt. But she wasn’t sweating underneath panty hose and a business suit and the clip kept her long black hair out of her eyes. Even with a shot of self-applied confidence, she still felt like an ugly June bug that Amanda was about to step on with her fancy highheeled shoe.
“When is the wedding? I suppose you’re already up to your elbows in preparations and wedding books,” Milli asked in a sticky sweet tone.
Amanda looked down on Milli, trying to intimidate her, but it wasn’t working. Instead of shrinking and cowering like a little whipped puppy, Milli gazed right back up at Amanda.
“Oh, I’m not sure. Of course Anthony wants to get married tomorrow. He’s so much in love with me it’s just plain sickening. But I really must have a big wedding. You know all of Ardmore expects it. A social affair with a long, long honeymoon afterwards. Maybe the Bahamas or Paris, France. I haven’t decided. Definitely something by early fall, though. I’m not going back to school this year.”
Milli raised a dark eyebrow. “Oh, really.”
“I suppose you will be busy at the ranch,” Mary managed to say without too much acid. “There’s a lot for the wife of a rancher to do. I know. I’ve been one for a long, long time. It’s good that you’ll be arriving in the slow season where ranching is concerned. At least you’ll get your feet wet before the real busy part begins next spring.”
“Oh, honey, I’d never live there. Not that far from civilization. I must have a social life or I’d just wither up and die. No ma’am, ranching is not for me. Anthony and I will live in town. I’ve got the cutest little two-story mansion picked out. We’ll make a bid on it next week, and then..
Milli couldn’t believe her ears. The woman had said those things to her friend in the privacy of the restroom, but this was a very public place.
> “Oh, I figured Beau would want to live on the ranch,” Mary said.
“He probably does. God, I wish everyone would stop calling him Beau and refer to him as Anthony. Beau is so hickish,” Amanda said curtly. “But what he wants and what he gets are most definitely two different things. He loves me. I hate cows and hay and the smell of barns, so he will do what I say. Besides he’ll look so nice in a formal tux at social affairs. I’ve even looked at dress pants and suits in the men’s section tonight. Of course, there’s nothing there that’s quite right. We’ll have some real clothes custom made. Won’t he just be delicious in Italian silk? I’m thinking chocolate brown. What do you think?”
“Frankly, I like blue jeans and a nice white western shirt. And you’ll just have to get used to us calling him Beau. It’s what we know him as,” Milli said.
Amanda sniffed and raised her chin another inch. “Well, it takes all kinds. Not everyone can be born with good taste. I’ve got to run. He’s probably just panting, thinking about me while he sits out there and waits so patiently. But it’s wonderful training, don’t you think? We’re going to a movie tonight. Such a crazy way to spend an evening. When we’re married there will be golfing and all kinds of social events we’ll have to take in, but for now we’ll just do things his way. Dinner and movies a couple of times a week. Such a simple little way. I just can’t wait to remake him into a GQ man. All my friends will be so jealous when they see him decked out in the newest styles. Ta-ta.”
Milli conjured up a picture of Beau in an Italian silk suit and a chuckle began down deep in her bosom, erupting as a full-fledged giggle which she had to stifle with the back of her hand. She got the hiccups and fanned her red face with the back of her hand.
“Guess we’d better go get our baby.” Mary said.
“Good grief,” Milli gasped. “She’ll be fit to be tied if she finds him pushing a stroller around the mall. Beau with a baby, and she hates kids.”
Amanda’s heels clicked on the tile. “What the hell is that and where did it come from?”
He squatted down in front of the stroller and touched Katy’s hair. “It’s Milli Torres’ little girl. Isn’t she the cutest thing you ever saw, Amanda? Maybe by this time next year, we’ll have one like her. Probably a son, though. Us Luckadeaus usually throw boy babies, but I wouldn’t complain if we had one like this.”
“I hope to hell not. God Almighty, I don’t want a baby to ruin my figure and make me fat. You better be wishing for something else.”
“Oh, you’ll change your mind. Here comes your Mommy, sweetheart.”
“I’m not changing my mind,” Amanda said bluntly.
“Of course you’ll want children. We’ll get a nanny to take care of the baby when you go with me around the ranch, and you’ll get your girlish figure back in no time. Riding is good for that. I’ll bet. But for now we’ll think about the wedding and the honeymoon.” He kissed her on her neck.
She brushed the warmth of his kiss away. “Give that kid back and let’s go.”
Milli and Mary overheard the last sentence as they walked up behind them. Milli reached for the stroller handle and her hand brushed Beau’s. The sparks were almost visible as they both jumped back. Mary saw them; Amanda didn’t.
“Mommy, look!” Katy popped her thumb out of her mouth and pointed toward another child in a stroller.
Amanda snarled. “Slobbers. Yuck. There’s a good enough reason right there for me never to want kids.”
“Thank you for pushing her around,” Milli said. “Amanda says you’re off to the movies. We’ll take her now so you won’t be late.”
“My pleasure. Anytime this girl needs a chauffeur you just call on me. I love kids.”
Amanda jerked his arm possessively. “Come on.”
“Be seeing you ladies.” He tipped his hat and followed along beside her like a pet hound on a leash.
Mary frowned and grunted. Milli just watched, mesmerized. He must be drugged to let Amanda treat him like that. He surely didn’t act like that when he was alone with Milli. That first day he’d acted like a madman, and when he found her helping the cow deliver the calf they’d had another shouting match. Just the brief touch of his hand made her knees go weak, and she could tell he was affected by it too. And all that Amazon witch had to do was tug on his arm and he followed two steps behind her like a servant. Something just wasn’t right somewhere, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about any of it.
Mary finally found her voice. “Well, I do declare. This has been an afternoon, now hasn’t it? I can’t believe Beau knows what that bitch has got planned, and I don’t know who needs to tell him.”
Milli put her hands up in defense. “Well, don’t look at me. It’s not any of my business if he wants to make a complete jackass out of himself.”
SIX
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MILLI RODE THROUGH THE PASTURES TO COUNT COWS, see if there were any new calves, and check the fence lines. The sun was a piece of an orange ball on the eastern horizon and morning dew made the grass blades glisten like they’d been kissed by diamonds.
Diamonds. Now why did she have to think about diamonds and that ring Beau put on Amanda’s hand last weekend? It was every bit as big as the one she’d handed to Matthew through the motel door. She wondered what her life might have been this fine summer morning if her best friend hadn’t seen him going into the motel. But, that was water under a bridge that had been blown to smithereens long, long ago.
Two new bull calves were in the north pasture. She pulled a small notebook from the pocket in her shirt and wrote down the tag numbers of the cows who’d given birth since the first of the week. In the east pasture, she found a calf, just minutes old, with the umbilical cord still dangling as it tried to stand up on its wobbly legs to get its first taste of mother’s milk. Again, she pulled out the notebook and wrote down which cow had given birth, remembering the morning just two days ago when she and Beau watched a calf do the same thing.
Poppy was going to be happy when she reported back to him today. And Granny, bless her heart, just might find something to talk, about other than Beau and Amanda. Granny and Hilda had talked it so firmly to death, Milli thought about having a funeral for the issue complete with a preacher and floral wreaths. Just bury the whole thing and get on with life. Jim just huffed and snorted around, declaring that when that gold digger got finished with Beau he’d be worth as much as a newborn kitten in the snow. And this morning as she was leaving the corral, Slim said again that the boy was just plumb out of his mind to be thinking about bringing a city slicker like that to the ranch.
She was sick to death of listening to it, and if they didn’t stop, she and Katy were going back to west Texas, no matter what she had to tell Granny and Poppy. Just when she thought she’d gotten over it, there he was, bigger than life, sober as a judge on Sunday, and fussing about some Angus bull he thought was capable of sprouting wings and sitting right up there in heaven next to the angel Gabriel. Talk about a small world!
She crawled down off Wild Fire to check the fence she’d repaired and found it still as tight as it was the day she’d popped the barbed wire for Beau’s benefit. How dare he hide up there like some kind of detective out of a book. She looked to see if there was the glint off binoculars that morning, but instead saw a three-wheeler lying on its side about halfway down the hill.
“Good enough for him. Depend on those big boy tricycles when a horse can do…” Then she saw a buzzard circle just above the tree tops and light not far from the three-wheeler. It waddled a few feet closer and she saw a tattered red shirtsleeve flap enough to send it back into the sky.
She put her foot in the stirrup and swung up into the saddle. Wild Fire cleared the fence with grace and kept trotting until she felt the reins tighten and Milli fly off her back.
“Beau, what happened?” She hurried to his side.
The three-wheeler had his l
eft arm and leg pinned and he’d hit his head on a rock when he overturned. Dried blood covered his face, and only one eye opened a mere slit when he realized she was bending over him, then he closed it slowly and figured he’d really died and his soul was on its way to heaven. Instead of his whole life flashing in front of him, a mere portion of it played out again. He was back in Texarkana at his cousin’s wedding. He knew he couldn’t hold his liquor - but then who cared, anyway? Jennifer had just dumped him for his cousin.
“Hey, Beau, you better lighten up. You’re going to have a demon headache in the morning,” Darrin had told him.
“Good. Then I won’t be able to think.”
“Well, I won’t be here to listen to you moan and bitch about it,” Damn said.
Then the most beautiful lady in the whole world dropped right out of the sky and sat down beside him. She wore an off-white lacy dress with a slit up the side and long, dangly, silver earrings shaped like teardrops. They’d left the party and gone to the trailer, where they wound up in the back bedroom. When he woke up she was gone.
He remembered stumbling out of the bedroom the next morning to find two of his cousins, Slade and Griffin, drinking coffee around the kitchen table. “Where’s my dark-eyed lady? Is she in the bathroom?”
Griffin poured him a cup of hot coffee and handed it to him. “What lady? You must’ve drunk half the champagne at the wedding. There ain’t nobody here but us boys and hasn’t been all night. You drove yourself home and passed out in the bedroom. We could hear you snoring all night, and ain’t nobody come out of there but you this morning. Didn’t no one come home with you, Beau. You must have been dreaming.”
“But she was here. She was wearing a lace dress and her eyes were big and brown and…”
“And I’m going to start drinking champagne if that’s what you dream about when you do,” Slade said.
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