Counting on a Cowboy

by Debra Clopton

  “Hey, Pops,” Bo said, meeting him as he reached the truck. “What ya doin’?”

  “It’s a good day to win.” He grinned, and Abby’s heart did a complete double rotation as a boulder-sized lump lodged in her throat. Solomon came barreling through the screen door toward them, howling all the way.

  “Pops, why don’t you stay here with us today? Solomon is having trouble thinking about you leaving him behind.” Abby saw the pain in both Tru and Bo’s eyes.

  “But I have a horse to ride.”

  “Your ride is tomorrow, Pops,” Bo said, as she watched Pops grow distressed.

  “I thought it was today. With Tru.”

  “No, tomorrow, Pops,” Bo repeated and confusion came into Pops’s eyes. “Tomorrow will be a better day to win.”

  Pops looked at Bo and after a minute he nodded. “I’m gonna win.”

  And then, as quickly as he’d grown confused he was fine. And he waved to Tru and Maggie, watching them as they drove away.

  Jarrod had left before dawn that morning with one of the ranch hands and a large trailer full of black cattle. Beautiful black cattle. Abby hadn’t seen the actual cattle operation—that part was on another area of the large ranch. The part around the house was more for the horse operation. It made her all the more aware of how large a place the brothers were managing.

  All the more aware of the hard work that Pops had put into building the place and what his son had almost lost had it not been for the hard work of Bo, Tru, and Jarrod.

  Looking at Pops standing there beside Bo Abby felt a sense of urgency.

  Life was so precious. Time was so precious . . .

  She hugged Levi and he giggled his contagious cackle that always sent joy coursing through her.

  “Moo,” he said, bouncing and straining toward the cows that were grazing along the fence near the side of the house.

  “Moo.” She laughed back as he continued talking to the cattle that were totally ignoring him. He didn’t even say daddy or anything yet, but he was suddenly saying moo.

  Pops turned and grinned then came over.

  Bo did too. “Wow, his first word.”

  Abby laughed at their expressions of awe. “Well, I guess that makes it official. He is a cowboy.”

  Smiling, Abby turned and led the way inside, feeling completely, inexplicably happy that she was here.

  27

  “Pebble, are you sure you are okay?”

  “Clara Lyn, I’ve told you I’m fine. And no, I don’t need to stay with you or Reba. I’ll be fine here. Besides, it’ll be easier for me to stay in one of my motel rooms while the office is being renovated. I’ll still be able to run the motel and watch the work as it’s being done.”

  They were sitting in some of the colorful chairs outside the room where Pebble was going to be living. Clara wasn’t happy about it, not one little bit, but Pebble was being more stubborn than usual. And for a tiny woman she could be as firm as a rock when she wanted to be.

  “But your lungs are still not completely healed,” Reba said. “What if you start coughing and . . . and you need someone to bring you a drink or something?”

  Pebble closed her eyes and tilted her head slightly as if she were praying for patience. She probably was. They’d been after her since yesterday at the hospital when she’d told them her plan. “Girls, I’ll be fine. I’m not an infant. I’ll put a glass of water beside my bed and there will be nothing to worry about.”

  Clara Lyn knew when she’d lost. “Fine. But you have my number and you can call any time.”

  “Of course I will.”

  “So, what about Rand?” Clara asked. Now that she’d given up getting Pebble to go along with her plan she wanted to get to other things. “Did he come to see you yesterday?”

  Pebble toyed with her skirt. “No. I told you he came that first day and not since.”

  “Well, what did he say? You have been extremely close-mouthed about the entire issue.” Clara had been persistent and had gotten nowhere with Pebble and it was driving her crazy.

  “That man was one worried puppy about you that night. He looked about as sick as a dog when they wouldn’t let him in there to try and get to you.”

  Pebble sat up straight. “Clara Lyn, if you must know, he’d been drinking that night. Did you ever wonder why he asked Abby to drive him? He probably was sicker than a dog.”

  Reba’s mouth fell open. “I tell you, I feel like going over there and . . . and locking him in his room until he gives this bad behavior up. Doesn’t he know what he’s doing?”

  Clara sighed and plopped her elbows on her knees and looked at the ground. “I never took myself to be gullible or naïve, but I feel downright foolish right now.”

  “The truth is,” Pebble said, “I do too. But I spent the last few days going over this in my mind. And I wonder if I’ve been looking at this all wrong.”

  Clara looked up. “What do you mean?”

  “I have been so mad at him I haven’t once asked myself how I could help him.”

  “How could you help him?” Reba said, with a sigh. “If you try to help him, he’ll probably think you’re interested in a future and then if you’re not, that’ll just drive him to drink again. It’s just a vicious, vicious circle. Besides, how would you ever be able to believe him again?” Reba tucked her hair behind her ears and frowned as she slumped in her chair.

  Clara knew exactly how her friend felt. “Look, Pebble, I’ve been a bit of a ninny over this romance blooming in my mind between you and Rand. Why, crazy me actually thought back last year when he got drunk and sang “I Will Always Love You” like a hound dog howling at the moon, well, I actually thought it was kinda cute and romantic . . .” Clara scowled in distaste. “When in fact I should have immediately encouraged you to hold to your guns and keep your distance. And then when he got drunk again and you had to hit him over the head because he wouldn’t go home and leave you alone and Jake came and hauled him off to the clink . . . what was I thinking? There’s nothing funny or the least bit romantic about any of that. You’ve been using your common sense and I’ve been acting like a silly fool. You needed to hit me over the head and have Jake haul me off to jail.”

  And here she thought she gave good advice. Always prided herself on giving advice in the salon.

  “Now, Clara and Reba, both of you need to calm down. For starters again, may I remind you that I am no china doll. I don’t know if either of you noticed, but I have always had a mind of my own. So, what I do or do not do is not your fault or your responsibility. And that’s the same way I feel about Rand. He’s made choices that I as a longtime friend have never agreed with. And if you really want to know, once I came very near to agreeing to marry him—”

  “I knew it!” Clara gasped. “You never admitted it but we knew that you and he had a thing going on back in school.”

  Pebble gave a halfhearted chuckle.

  “So, what stopped you?” Reba asked.

  “I thought about any future life with Rand—there were so many variables of the way life with him could have gone. He was exciting. I never knew exactly what he was thinking. He drank some then, of course. He wanted to see places and do things that just seemed would be hard with a wife. And as a girl I was still very practical, and I wasn’t sure how he would pay for all these dreams. I just didn’t see myself as a motorcycle chick.”

  Clara Lyn laughed and so did Reba. “Just you saying motorcycle chick is hilarious.”

  “Well, I didn’t think it was that funny,” Pebble said indignantly.

  Clara tried to stop the chuckles. “Believe me, it is. When I picture you on a motorcycle it’s like trying to picture the Queen of England on the back of a motorcycle. It just doesn’t compute.”

  “Fine. I didn’t care for the picture I had of myself either. I just didn’t laugh at it.” Pebble huffed the last part and tugged at the collar of her prim shirt. “Anyway, I told him I couldn’t marry him. And he left and joined the navy. And as you know h
e has seen the world.”

  “And he came back here wearing loafers, khakis, and starched dress shirts and opened the newspaper and joined the city council.” Clara arched a brow.

  “Gave up that career in advertising out in California to come back here trying to be the man you would marry,” Reba said, her eyes wide.

  “But he still drinks.” Pebble looked out across her yard at the burned shell of her motel.

  Clara wasn’t often at a loss for words. She was at the moment. Reba, too, given the silence coming from her corner.

  “I’ve never asked him what I could do to help him. And I think it’s about time I did.”

  “But—”

  “I said that a lot over the last few days as I thought about this and you know what? I’m all butted out. There are no more buts about it.”

  Bo walked into the kitchen clobbered by the knowledge that he had two weeks to start winning Abby’s heart. To hope that he could get her to think that there was more love out there for her. Specifically, right here. If anyone had asked him a month ago if he was ready for love, marriage, and a baby he’d have laughed. But that was then and this was now, and he wanted Abby. He had a baby and he was looking for marriage and more babies with the woman he loved.

  “So,” he said, as he followed Abby through the kitchen. “What are you thinking?”

  Abby led the way into the living room where the playpen was set up and she sank down on the floor to play with Levi. He immediately got on his knees and crawled across the floor to Bo. Pops trailed off into the den and Solomon followed him.

  “Will he be okay in there?” Abby asked.

  Bo heard the TV click on. “He’ll settle into his recliner for a little while and watch Walker, Texas Ranger or some other rerun that he loves. He’s fine.”

  He bent to grin at Levi who immediately crawled back to Abby cackling joyfully as he went. He grabbed Abby’s fingers and pulled up, then grinned like he was king of the world.

  “I think that Levi is just starting to get busy.”

  “Really?”

  She looked up at him and his heart skidded to a halt.

  “He’s really starting to move around. Babies usually start walking anywhere between ten and fourteen months, so he’s right there.”

  Bo sank down on the floor and held out his good arm. Levi instantly grabbed his hand and held on. When he started to teeter Abby gently placed her hands on the baby’s torso and supported him. Her long and slender fingers wore no rings. Bo could see one there in his imagination and found himself wondering what kind she’d like.

  “He adores you, you know.”

  Bo jerked his thoughts back to his son. “I feel the same way about him. It doesn’t seem possible that I didn’t know he even existed a month ago. And now I can’t imagine him not being in my life.” He felt the same way about Abby. He looked from his cherub-faced baby to Abby, her eyes sparkling, happy.

  “Love, it’s amazing.”

  “Yeah, it is.” He only had one good arm and Levi had ahold of it. And that was a good thing because otherwise Bo would have touched Abby then. Trailed a finger along her jaw or touched her silky hair. He cleared his throat and pulled his finger from Levi’s, not worried about if he would fall since Abby was holding him up. Bo got to his feet. “I better go check on the work at the shop and see if I can do anything with one hand.”

  She smiled. “I’d tell you to take a painkiller for that collarbone, but I have a feeling it would just be a waste of breath. So, have fun and we’ll be here.”

  “I like the sound of that. See you in a little while.”

  He stopped by the den and asked Pops if he wanted to go to work and that’s all it took to find a shadow.

  It was going to be a good, good day.

  “He’s sleeping like a baby,” Abby said that evening as she walked outside where Bo was sitting on the porch step staring up at the sky. His hat was off and his dark hair curled slightly at the nape of his neck. She’d found herself repeatedly studying that little bit of curl and wanting to touch it.

  He’d decided to go work just in the nick of time. For a woman who wasn’t interested in opening the door to her feelings, she had been feeling pretty good as she’d looked into his eyes and listened to him talk about loving his son. That husky emotion that had come into his voice had sent a shiver through her, a longing that had had her barely able to act normal. Normal as in not having just wished he had been speaking about her.

  Of course that had been that morning. She’d had all day to talk sense into herself and to distance herself from any kind of irrational behavior.

  She’d reminded herself that she didn’t deserve to feel happiness in this situation. That she’d been blessed to have any time at all with Levi, but that this was not permanent. One day, when Bo found a full-time nanny or a wife, she wouldn’t be around. She reminded herself of all of that, and the harsh reminder of what it cost to love and lose had sent her guard up when she walked outside.

  And now, here she stood looking at the curling hair at the nape of his neck and thinking foolish thoughts about running her fingers through the rest of his seemingly straight hair and seeing if it would curl at her touch. Foolish didn’t begin to describe what she was being.

  “Thanks for putting Levi to bed. There would have been no way I could have managed without you. I mean, his bath alone would have been impossible. Can you picture me trying to hold that slippery little body with one hand? Nope, even the thought has disaster written all over it.”

  Abby laughed hard at the picture in her mind. Everything he said was the truth.

  He patted the step beside him. “Sit, take a load off. You certainly deserve it.”

  “Sure.” She moved to sit beside him, instantly regretting it when he leaned in and bumped their shoulders together.

  “So, how did you hold up?” he asked, cocking his head forward and looking across his shoulder at her.

  Abby almost groaned as his voice, a gentle rumble in the silky darkness, melted through her like warmed chocolate. How was she holding up? Not so good at the moment. He was obviously into asking trick questions tonight.

  She inhaled to clear her head and instantly regretted that when his woodsy scent enveloped her. “Good. I’m doing good,” she lied.

  He smiled that dangerous smile that spread slow, and then bam, the dimple popped and his entire face came alive. Combined with the moonlight and the blanket of night and the day they’d shared . . . Abby was feeling out of sync with her reality. Was he feeling it too?

  “Good. I’m glad. Levi likes you being here. He didn’t wake up at all last night. At least I never heard him and the three times I checked on him he was sleeping soundly.”

  “You checked on him three times?”

  “Yeah, I do every night. It scares me when I wake up and realize I haven’t heard him on the monitor in a few hours, so I get up and check on him and on Pops too.”

  “Then I can safely say that they were both well watched over last night because I checked on them three times, too, for the exact same reason. And both of them were out. We were obviously on different schedules. You didn’t check on me, did you?”

  He laughed hard at that. “Yeah, I forgot to tell you I opened your door and heard you snoring like a racehorse in there. I had to close the door fast before it woke Pops and Levi.”

  She grinned. “You are so full of it.”

  “Yeah, I am. I did not open your door.”

  “Good.”

  “Didn’t say I didn’t hear you snoring though.”

  “Hey, buster, careful. You have a hurt shoulder that could get poked if I wanted to.”

  His eyes twinkled, catching the light. “You wouldn’t, Abby Knightley. You wouldn’t hurt a flea.”

  His words splashed over her like a bucket of ice-cold water. “I better go in now, I’m feeling a little tired.”

  “Okay, sure.” He stood the same time she did and when she wobbled, he grabbed her arm with his good one and
steadied her. “Are you okay?”

  “Just feeling tired. I-I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “If not before,” he said, but she was already across the porch and entering the house by then.

  Abby went into Levi’s room and stood beside his bed to watch him. She touched his soft cheek and tenderly smoothed his tiny tuft of hair. He was so precious.

  “I love to watch him sleeping,” Bo said, startling her by coming up behind her. She felt his warmth radiating through her back. Abby stood very still, her fingertips lingering on Levi’s sweet cheek before pulling away. Bo moved to stand beside her, angled so he was facing her and looking down at his son.

  Abby tore her eyes off of Bo and returned them to Levi. “I’m so thankful that that friend of his mother’s dropped him off on your front porch,” she said softly.

  “Yeah, me too.” Bo’s voice cracked.

  Abby’s throat ached. “What would have happened to him if we, if you, had never known about him?” She looked up at him, wishing he had stayed safely on the front porch.

  Bo pulled his gaze from his son, the tenderness for Levi still lingering in his eyes. He lifted a strand of her hair from her shoulder and gently rubbed it between his fingertips. Abby couldn’t breathe. “I’ve thought about that every night since he arrived. And I thank God that He brought my son to me. I . . .” He paused. “That’s the only way I can think about it.”

  Abby nodded. “Good-night,” she said, and this time she went to her room and didn’t look back, closing the door firmly behind her.

  28

  “You will keep your distance,” Abby told herself the next morning. “You are here to do a job, and you will do it.” She glared at herself in the mirror. “And no funny business.”

  She heard Levi’s morning cry and rushed from her room and into his. She’d checked on him before getting dressed herself but she’d spent a little too long giving herself a pep talk in front of the mirror. “Good morning, sunshine,” she said, picking him up out of his crib and snuggling him. “Oh my, you are not smelling like sunshine this morning.”