Lone Star Cinderella

by Debra Clopton

  “Would you like to come in for coffee or something?”

  “Nope. I’ve got cows to feed.”

  “Want some company?”

  He nudged his hat off his forehead and fought off the urge to say “Yes, please!” “Not tonight. I’ll see you around. I’m glad things turned out good for you.”

  “I know you’re mad at me,” she said.

  “Nope. Not my business to be mad at you.”

  “Never stopped you before.”

  He heard the tease in her tone and wasn’t pleased to hear it. “This isn’t funny,” he growled.

  “You’re right. It’s not. And you’re right I shouldn’t have gone alone, and I’ve already apologized for that. But what is done is done, and for the first time in my life I feel peace about my brother. I can’t help but feel good. Tomorrow he very likely will be without a home—which I hate. But I’m looking at it as the beginning of his awakening. He may have to sink as low as he can get before he surrenders to healing physically and spiritually. I’m praying somewhere in all of this he realizes that he needs the Lord in his life, too.” She reached in through the window and placed her hand on his shoulder. “So, can you not be mad and just be glad that I’ve finally done what I needed to do? And what you wanted me to do?”

  “I’m glad. I am. It’s for the best. Get some rest. You look exhausted.” She pulled her hand away, and he ignored the hurt he saw flash in those big violet eyes as he drove away. But they both needed some distance tonight. He’d realized something today, and it stung. He had no idea how she felt about him. She’d never really given him any confirmation that he was more than a treasure-hunting buddy to her…or some guy who bellyached about the way she chose to live her life. He’d told her he loved her, and she’d said nothing.

  The phone was ringing when he walked in the door. “Yeah, it’s about time you called,” he snapped, having seen Wyatt’s name on the display.

  “You sound pleasant.”

  “You should see me in person.”

  His brother chuckled. “What’s the matter, little brother?”

  “You know exactly what’s the matter.”

  “No, I don’t. I moved a pretty lady in next door to you thinking she might be good for you and you sound like the world is coming apart at the seams. How can that be when Cole told me you were looking for a treasure?”

  “We found a stinkin’ cave and I could care less.” Seth collapsed in his desk chair, knowing it was true. He only cared about one thing. Melody. “I love her.”

  “Excuse me. Did you say you loved her? Hey, she’s only been out there—what, three weeks? I was hoping I could be making a match, but this is a little sudden, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I thought the same thing. But believe me, with everything that she and I have been through it feels like I’ve known her for at least three months.”

  “Three months seems quick to me. I was just hoping y’all got along and maybe in time something would work out. But three weeks?” He whistled, and Seth could see him slouching in his office chair.

  “You don’t sound very happy about it,” Wyatt said after a moment of silence.

  Seth told him about Ty, which got him another long whistle.

  “No jokes, when you said y’all have been through a lot. So, she cut him loose.”

  “And she thinks everything is going to be great now.”

  “And you’re not so sure?”

  “Nope. For several reasons. Number one being that I have no clue if she has the same feelings for me that I have for her. Maybe I’m just the guy who happened to be here during all of this.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “What do you know?”

  “Hey.” Wyatt laughed. “I saw the potential the minute I looked into those Liz Taylor eyes.”

  “Yeah, I’ll give you that.”

  “Would you relax? Who wouldn’t love a grump like you? What else has you so tied up?”

  “Same ole, same ole.”

  “You can’t control everything, Seth.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Well, maybe now would be a good time to relax and stop. What else?”

  Seth laughed. “You make it sound so easy.”

  “Yep. Now what else? You’ve got to give me more than this. It sounds to me like things have been pretty heavy. And it has only been three weeks. What about this treasure? Cole filled me in on that interesting development.”

  “We’ve found the cave, but got sidetracked with everything else.”

  “Look, Seth, I know you. I’m startled by the fact you’ve come to these feelings so quickly. But you should just slow down.”

  Seth felt a headache building. “Wyatt.”

  “Yeah, you going to finally tell me what’s really bothering you?”

  Seth didn’t say anything at first. He hated even admitting it. “Even if she ends up falling in love with me, I don’t know if I can handle or want to handle her brother and his problems upending our lives.”

  “That is a problem. So you don’t believe he’s out of the picture like she told you?”

  “I believe she’s trying. That she’s made great strides and is trusting the Lord to deal with it. But he’s her brother. And even if by some miracle he finds his way and goes into rehab eventually…it’ll give her the hope that he’s healed. Until the next time he falls off the wagon or whatever it’s called where drugs are concerned.”

  “When that happens, you deal with it. Why are you asking that? If you love her, you’ll be there for her. You’ll stand up and be the man she needs. You’re the guy who has no tolerance where losers are concerned.”

  “This isn’t about me. This is about what that continual strain does to her. You saw it. You just didn’t realize what you were seeing. I didn’t either until I started spending time with her. She was so torn up inside and beaten up emotionally. I don’t know if I can watch that happen over and over again.”

  “Now I understand,” Wyatt said, his exhaled breath heavy with regret. “That’s—I’m not going to placate you, that’s rough. And, Brother, that’s not an answer I can help you with.”

  Seth took a deep breath. “I know. But at least you helped me face it. Until you called, I hadn’t fully faced the concern. Look, I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Hey, you take care, and I’ll say a prayer for you…for both of you.”

  “Maybe you could say a prayer for her brother, too.”

  “Goin’ up right now.”

  Seth clicked the disconnect and set the phone on his desk. And then he dropped to his knees and prayed his own prayer.

  Chapter Twenty

  Seth was just finishing giving his men their orders for the day when Melody drove over the cattle guard. “We’re going to have to stop meeting like this,” he said, trying to be light as he moved to meet her. His heart had started doing loopy loops the instant he saw her.

  “Hi, cowboy,” she said, leaning against the fender. Her silver Mustang had seen better days, but with all the money she’d paid out to her brother all these years she probably hadn’t had a new car on her list of things to buy. “You ready to load up?”

  He lifted a brow and crossed his arms over his chest. It was either that or he was going to get in trouble for hauling her into his arms. “We going somewhere?”

  “We’ve got a treasure to find, remember.”

  “Oh, I do seem to recall we had that on our agenda.”

  “Then let’s load up and hit it. I’ve got sandwiches and water. And don’t even think about continuing to be mad at me. I thought about it and today’s a new day.”

  Her eyes were dancing, and he couldn’t say no to her. “Then let’s go. All the equipment is still in the back of my truck.”

  She reached in the car and pulled out her little insulated lunch box then sauntered past him. He watched her, stunned.

  “Well, what are you waiting on?”

  “Oh, nothing. Just glad you’re here.” And that was the truth. He had his
worries, and the fact that she was acting so chipper had him a little worried that she was trying too hard not to think about what was going on in her brother’s life today. But none of that discounted the fact that he was really glad she was here, smiling and teasing him.

  “You know what?” he said, holding her door open as she slid into the seat.

  “What?”

  “I think Stanley might have a metal detector. I seem to recall him talking about taking it up as a hobby some years ago but haven’t heard anything since. Let’s swing through town and ask him.”

  “But that would mean him and App might be suspicious.”

  He twisted the ignition key and listened as the truck fired to life before looking at her. “I think that would be just fine.”

  Her eyes widened. “I don’t believe you just said that.”

  “Yeah, me either, but today is a new day.”

  They didn’t say anything for a couple of heartbeats, just looked at each other.

  “Yes, it is,” she said finally. “Let’s go find a treasure.”

  He already had and he knew it. They were halfway to town before either of them spoke.

  “Your grandmother was a strong woman.”

  He didn’t have to ask which one she was talking about. “Yeah, she was. I’ve been thinking about her. How she wrote those journals documenting the history so carefully. So richly. She sounded like she enjoyed her life. Even though it must have been hard.”

  He nodded but didn’t say anything, too curious as to where her thoughts were going.

  “And yet she had this whole other thing going on at the same time. What happened to her? I never asked that?”

  “She died of a fever. Grandpa Mason was about fifteen, I think.”

  “That would correlate to when the journals stopped being written. About 1888. I wonder if she hid the journal and the treasure map right before she died or if that was the hiding place for it all those years. You know, to keep prying eyes off of it.” She smiled. “You get your desire for privacy from way back.”

  He hitched his brow. “Seems that way. But I’ve been wondering the same thing about the hidden journal. Honestly, and sadly, the stories passed down weren’t about Jane. She was a good mother and a hard worker who obviously loved her family to strive so hard to keep them together. Despite the fact that she had a husband with a gambling problem. And a problem giving up on what proved to be a wild-goose chase for him.”

  Melody turned in her seat, and he glanced at her as town came into view on the horizon. Its brightly colored buildings stood out in the early morning sunlight. “So, Oakley, as far you know, died a few years later.”

  Seth had to come clean. “Yeah, he did and…he loved campfire stories and always told one about saddlebags of gold being buried on the land. The story has been passed down through the ages as his favorite.”

  Melody stared at him. “You knew this all along?”

  He creased his forehead and nodded. “I didn’t tell you because we didn’t really believe the story. From what we’ve always believed, he was the king of tall tales and this was just one of those tales.”

  “What about his son Mason? He worked so hard beside your grandmother and obviously passed these stories down to his son…Oakley must have been loved by both your grandmother and Mason. There’s nothing in either journal to dispute that. She doesn’t say anything in them that is detrimental to him.”

  “He was a loser, but he must have been a heck of a guy,” Seth said. “Wyatt takes after him, on the likable side. He’s not a gambler although he tends to be great in the courtroom because of his ability to bluff his way out of most situations.”

  Melody chuckled. “I can see that about him. I liked him very much.”

  “The feeling was mutual.”

  She took a deep breath. “It was almost as if he looked at me and knew what I needed even before I did. I really needed to be out there.”

  Seth reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “He’s like that.”

  “So,” she said, plopping her hands on her thighs. “If Oakley was as likable as Wyatt, we both know why his son and his wife adored him despite his shortcomings. They both knew he had dreams of better days for them.”

  “You might be right about that. I guess we’ll never know.”

  “That’s what I hate about researching history, coming to a brick wall and not being able to continue the story.”

  Seth pulled up in front of Sam’s. As usual, Applegate’s and Stanley’s trucks were sitting out front, and he could see them in the window of the diner bent over their checker game. “What about our story?” he said, reaching for her arm when she’d already opened her door.

  “I—” she placed her hand over his “—I need time. My emotions are knotted up and—”

  “It’s okay. I get it.” And he did. Everything had happened so fast and furious and he knew she had to be torn up inside despite the brave front she was putting on for him. “We’ll move slow.”

  She nodded. “Thank you. I’d like that.”

  He touched her cheek, loving the feel of her skin against his fingertips. He cocked his head toward the diner. “Let’s go stir up some help.”

  “Or trouble,” Melody said, lightly.

  Seth grinned. “I think that sounds like fun.” And he did.

  “Shor, I got a metal detector,” Stanley said, pausing as he dipped a handful of sunflower seeds from the five-pound bag sitting on the edge of the table.

  “You got a treasure?” Applegate turned his hearing aid up as Stanley and Sam stared at Melody and Seth.

  Melody wasn’t certain how to answer the question. Sure, it had been Seth’s idea to come ask if Stanley owned a metal detector but did he really want to expose the possibility of a treasure on his land? He’d been so against it before. She glanced at him, letting him give whatever answer he wanted.

  “Yes, I do,” he said, draping his arm around her waist and tugging her close. His eyes captured hers and sent her heart thudding. He was talking about her, and everyone knew it. He’d said he loved her. Her, unremarkable as she was, it was so hard to believe. Not only had it been such a short time but because she was not the type of woman she’d envisioned him with. She was not the Susan Worth-type…beautiful, playful, remarkable…and yet she wasn’t so sure about that anymore. She felt differently since meeting Seth. Since coming to terms with her life, with Ty. With letting go. She felt renewed—and that was remarkable.

  Maybe remarkable was a state of mind.

  “How would you fellas like to see a cave?” he asked.

  “You ain’t josh’n us?” Sam asked, slapping a dishrag over his shoulder.

  “Nope. Me and Melody found a cave. And we found it because she discovered a treasure map hidden in the stagecoach house.”

  Stanley and App stood up so fast they sent sunflower seeds and checkers flying.

  “Well, what are ya waitin’ on?” App called, shooing them toward the door. “You don’t ask a question like that to a herd of bored ole codgers like us and then dawdle.”

  Melody jumped out of their way, right into Seth’s arms as he backed out of the stampede toward the door. She stared up at him and he grinned. “What’d I tell you about the crazies and loonies coming at the mere mention of a treasure?”

  Melody’s heart warmed with affection. “Oh, but they’re such adorable loonies,” she said, looking up at Seth and feeling so happy, so right.

  Outside Sam could be heard excitedly telling some hungry would-be patron that the diner was closed for business. He had a treasure hunt to tend to.

  “I think that’s our cue,” Seth said. “Are you with me?”

  She nodded. “Oh, yes, I’m definitely with you.”

  “Don’t touch anything,” Norma Sue said, barking orders to the small troupe of eager treasure hunters they’d picked up as they walked out of the diner. Norma Sue and Esther Mae had been coming in for coffee when they were all climbing into Seth’s and Applegate’s trucks. Not to
be left behind, the two ladies had immediately hopped into the backseat of Seth’s Dodge.

  They’d stopped at Stanley’s, where he’d proudly shown them his top-of-the-line, something-or-other gold-standard metal detector. Melody couldn’t remember the name brand that he spouted off but it must have really meant something to folks in the know. All she could say was he was really adorable showing it off, and she really hoped it was as good as it was supposed to be.

  Seth had parked as close as he could get to the cave, and then he’d led the way down the ravine toward the cave. And now here they were.

  “We ain’t touchin’ nothin’,” App said, shining his flashlight about the interior room.

  Sam held the lantern high, and everyone gasped over the whole golden light effect. Melody felt oddly disconnected. She’d been so thrilled about the entire idea of the treasure hunt when she’d first found the map, but nothing had unfolded the way she’d expected a treasure hunt to unfold. She wasn’t the person she’d been when she’d started this journey.

  “Turn that thing on,” Esther Mae said, eyeing the metal detector.

  “Stand back,” Stanley warned, puffing his chest out as he flipped the switch. “If thar’s treasure buried in here, this baby’ll find it.”

  “Even if we don’t find a treasure this has been some kind of fun,” Norma Sue said. “You know I can’t believe y’all had all this goin’ on, and we didn’t know anything about it.”

  Applegate grunted. “Y’all was on yor boat trip.”

  “So I guess you’re going to tell me and Esther Mae that you boys knew about this?”

  Sam looked at her. “We didn’t know about this.” He indicated the cave. “But we knew something more important was goin’ on.”

  Melody smiled at Seth and he winked. “They knew the day after you told me you weren’t leaving the property that I was caught, hook, line and sinker.”

  “Yep. We knew it, all right,” Stanley called over his shoulder as he moved about the room.

  Melody wrapped her arms around Seth’s waist and hugged him. She wanted to kiss him so much. To tell him she loved him but not with a room full of people. And not before she had time to talk to him about something that she knew she had to say.