by Becky McGraw
“Yeah, I thought we’d practice some, it’s been a while, and you’re probably rusty,” Karlie told her with a snort.
“Hah, the only rusty thing about me is…” my hair, she finished silently, but then realized she couldn’t say that anymore. “A certain body part,” she improvised quickly with a laugh.
“Well, we’ll go out while you’re here and see if we can remedy that situation too…c’mon, sis, we need to catch up,” Karlie wheedled in that voice that drove Katie nuts.
Katie looked down at the box of tissues and half empty bag of cookies, and snorted, “I guess so…I think I’m shopped out, and cried out…and we could use the practice probably. I’ll go pick up Laramie and head that way.”
Karlie whooped loudly, and Katie held the phone away from her ear and laughed, then told her, “That whoop is almost as bad as your snort…I’ll be there in a few hours.”
“See ya then,” her sister said happily then hung up the phone. Maybe she could feel out some job prospects, while she was there too. Katie threw down her phone on the bed and cleaned up the trailer, so everything was secure, then went to load the bike in the truck and hook up the trailer again.
CHAPTER THREE
It was late afternoon when she pulled up in front of the big farm house at the Double B, and she drove straight back toward the barn, so she could park her trailer there and unload Laramie. Karlie came running out of the barn and helped guide her park the trailer under a tree, then ran up to the truck door and swung it open. “Took you long enough!” she said with a chortle.
Cassie Matthews came out of the barn and walked over to them with a smile. When Katie got out of the truck and stepped into the sun, both her sister and Cassie gasped and their eyebrows hit their hairlines.
Karlie’s hand flew to her lips and she asked breathlessly, “Holy, shit, Kate…what the hell have you done to yourself?”
Katie fluffed her hair and stepped aside so she could shut the door, and then stood facing her now un-identical twin sister. “Definitely not boring anymore, huh?” she said self-consciously.
“Holy, crap!” her sister said then fingered her new straight blond hair, as her eyes moved down over her halter top, to her shorts, then she gasped in horror, “Fuck, you got a tattoo?”
Katie shrugged then stepped forward and hugged her stiffly. “It was time for us to become individuals, so this is my attempt.”
“You went waaay overboard, Katie,” Karlie told her angrily and took a step back to look at her again. “Those clothes…Jesus, you’re gonna give somebody a heart attack!”
“I’m channeling my inner biker chick, sis…the look goes with my new bike,” she said with a wry grin.
“I’m the wild child, sis…this is so not you,” Karlie told her quietly.
“Well, I’m tired of being boring…and in your shadow. I’m figuring out who I am, and it’s a process,” Katie replied defensively. “Let’s drop the subject, okay? I need to unload Laramie, and get my bike unloaded.”
Karlie walked to the bed of the truck and looked at the bike. “That’s a good way to get yourself killed, Katie,” she said then shook her head. “You don’t have to do all this,” Karlie told her then stepped away from the truck and asked, “What the hell brought all this on?”
Katie ignored her and walked to the back of the trailer and slid the latch, then opened it wide, before she put down the ramp. Crawling inside, she moved up front in the second bay and unclipped the lead rope. Moving around the post she got in front of Laramie and scratched his nose, then leaned into his shoulder to get him moving backward, talking softly to him. After she had him out she handed the rope to her sister and then closed the trailer doors.
“You didn’t answer me Katie—what the hell started all this?” Karlie demanded with a hand on her hip.
“Ask Tommy Tucker, sis…I’m not going there, but I’m not going back either. This is the new me, accept it…or not.” Katie told her firmly, then snatched the rope from her to lead Laramie toward the barn. “Where should I stall him?” she asked with a frustrated sigh.
Maybe she shouldn’t have come to here, Katie thought, if her sister was going to grill her, and make her feel like shit. This is so not what she needed right now, that was for sure. Her new found confidence had been thoroughly squashed, thanks to her sister.
Karlie walked around her stiffly and opened a stall door halfway down the aisle, then stood back.
Katie led Laramie into the stall then asked, “Where’s the feed and hay?”
“I’ll get some,” Karlie said angrily, then walked off to a door down the way and went inside. She came back out with a bucket of feed and a flake of hay, then stomped into the stall and dumped it in the feed bin, and walked out again, then came back with a hose and filled up the water bucket, without saying another word. When she was done, Karlie coiled the hose back up, then walked out of the barn toward the house.
“Just give her a little bit to get herself together, Katie,” Cassie said sympathetically, walking up to the stall door, then added with a huge grin, “I think you look fantastic,” and her eyes traveled down Katie’s legs. “I need me some of those boots…those are hot. Luke would like ‘em.”
Katie felt her cheeks flush and she smiled. “Thanks…I thought they were pretty too,” she said then looked down at the stiletto leather boots with the metal studs.
“Karlie does too, she’s just in shock, she’ll get used to it,” she said with a hoot.
Wade Roberts picked that minute to walk his horse in the back of the barn and down the aisle. When he glanced up, he stopped short and put a hand to his chest, and his mouth flapped a few times, then his face got red and he said, “Lord have mercy, you trying to give me a heart attack? Jesus, Karlie, what the hell did you do to yourself?”
“Katie,” she said simply.
Wade took a step back and his face got even redder as he tipped his hat back and whistled. “That’s even worse…wow,” he said shaking his head.
Blood rushed up Katie’s neck and she folded her arms across her chest. “You got something to say?”
“You look…” he looked around the barn then said hesitantly in a gruff whisper, “Unbelievably hot. Don’t tell Jess I said that or she’ll have my hide.” With a chuckle, he asked, “What’s with the change?”
“Tired of being part of a matched set, and someone told me recently I was boring, so I decided I needed a change.”
“You? Boring? What fucking moron said that?” he snorted, and his lips twisted as he said, “Must not know you very well.”
“Obviously not…but it was time for a change anyway,” she told him then walked over and gave him a brief hug. “How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been better, and I’ve been worse…one day at a time, you know?” he said and shook his dark head. “You’ve gotta meet Angel,” he told her and grinned proudly.
“I hear she’s beautiful,” she told him with a wide grin, then added, “And she has her daddy wrapped around her little pinkie.”
“Right on both counts…she’s amazing,” Katie saw him look up and over her shoulder, then he added, “Her mama is too,” and he waked around her, then down the aisle to where she saw Jess Sparks standing on the doorstep with Angel in her arms.
She turned to go back inside, but he stopped her, and gave them both a hug, then leaned down and kissed Jess, before he dropped a kiss on Angel’s dark hair. “I’ll see you later, Kate…” he said over his shoulder then gave her a quick wink and went inside the bunkhouse with them.
“Wow…” she said and shook her head at the change in him.
She heard Cassie chuckle, then she said, “Yeah, that’s everyone’s reaction. He’s pretty much bowled over by both of them, and it’s good to see.”
Katie dropped her chin to her chest and sighed. “Yeah, it is…looks like everyone is getting paired off except me, huh?” she said with a forced laugh.
“Hang in there, kiddo, it’ll happen…you just can’t force it…or s
ettle,” Cassie told her with concern in her voice.
“That’s why I left the Rockin’ D,” she told Cassie quietly, then hesitated a moment to add, “Tommy doesn’t have room in his life for another female…he’s still hung up on his late wife, and Dixie takes up the rest of the space. That little girl is hell on wheels, and spoiled rotten.” Katie looked up when she heard a little gasp then a squeak and she saw a flash of blond hair and hot pink run out of the barn door.
Cassie sucked in a breath then said, “Oh, shit—I forgot Dixie was here…” then took off running after her, with Katie hobbling right behind her in the high heeled boots.
Cassie had her in a bear hug, sitting in the field by the time Katie got there. Dixie was crying and trying to get out of her hold, but Cassie wasn’t letting her get away. “Settle down, sugar…she didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Yes, she did…she hates me!” Dixie wailed and kept fighting.
Cassie kissed the top of her head, and held her tighter, whispering soft things near her ear. Katie walked up then wobbled as she tried to sit down beside them. Maybe these boots weren’t such a good idea after all, she thought, as she finally got settled.
“I don’t hate you, Dixie…far from it, darlin’,” Katie told her softly.
Dixie sniffled against Cassie then cast belligerent blue eyes her way and asked, “Then why are you so mean to me?”
“How am I mean to you?” she asked wanting the little girl to list her offenses, so she knew why Dixie thought that.
“You punished me from riding in my golf cart,” the little girl said and stuck out her bottom lip.
“Okay, you know why I did that?” Katie asked her in a frustrated tone and watched Dixie shake her blond curls then snuggle closer to Cassie. “I did that because I didn’t want the mama of that calf you were chasing to hurt you…didn’t you see her running behind the golf cart?”
“No…” Dixie admitted then sniffled again.
“She was chasing the golf cart and could have butted it and pushed it over. You could have gotten hurt. I did that because I care about you, not to be mean…and I punished you from riding the cart for the rest of the day, so you’d remember not to do that again.”
“You wouldn’t show me how to rope,” she pouted.
“I showed you how roping is done with my demonstration, and I gave you riding lessons. I told you I’d show you more, once you got a little more stable riding your pony…I’m sure with a few more lessons, we’d have been there. Again, I didn’t want you to get hurt, because I care about you…I didn’t do it to be mean. If you got on that pony with a rope trying to throw it over a calf, you could have fallen and gotten stomped either by the pony or the calf.”
“You wouldn’t let me help with training the cutting horses,” Dixie accused with a trembling lip.
“Nope, I sure wouldn’t, because I had to work three that day, and I didn’t have time to work with you too. The schedule that day was really packed, and I was cutting the prospects back to two, and had to focus. I didn’t do it to be mean, darlin’, I was just doing the job your daddy pays me to do. I’m sorry if you thought I was being mean.”
Dixie sat up straighter in Cassie’s arms, and she loosened them a little bit. “But you were mean to my daddy too…” she tossed and threw up her stubborn little chin.
“I was angry at him, and at you, because you didn’t tell him the whole truth did you?” Katie said sternly and pinned her with an intense look.
Dixie dropped her eyes to her hands and twisted them in her lap, then admitted, “No ma’am…I was mad too.”
“It’s okay to be mad, sugar, but it’s not okay to lie, ever. You understand?” After she nodded, Katie continued, “If you lie, people will never know when to believe you, or when you’re telling the truth, got that?”
“Yeah,” she said mildly then looked up at Katie and said sincerely, “I’m sorry, Miss Katie…daddy was so sad and worried when you left…I felt bad.”
Tommy was worried about her? Sad that she left? Sure he’d shown up in Dallas with those god awful roses, and his weak ass apology, but she had no idea he’d been worried about her. Why the hell would he be? She was a grown woman, and had carted her horse around the country by herself for years. Katie looked back at Dixie, then she opened her arms and said, “Come here, baby.”
Dixie scrambled out of Cassie’s lap then hesitantly crawled over to her and scooted into her lap, then slid her skinny arms around Katie and squeezed. “I really am sorry, Miss Katie…you still mad at me?”
Katie hugged her, then kissed her blond curls. “No, we’re good now, just don’t chase cows anymore, deal?” she told her with a watery chuckle, then added, “Or lie to your daddy.”
Looking up at her with watery blue eyes, Dixie nodded then said, “Deal…no more chasing or lying…got it. Now will you come back to the ranch? I hate seeing daddy sad, he likes you a lot.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, darlin’. I’m probably gonna hang around Bowie with my sister. We have a rodeo next weekend we’ve got to practice for, did she tell you?” Katie asked her with a soft smile.
With a gasp, Dixie scrambled out of her lap and stood up, with excitement dancing in her eyes. “Can I go watch ya’ll?”
“That’s up to your daddy, you’ll have to ask him. Karlie and I are going to be practicing this week though, so we can win the money,” Katie told her with a grin, then asked, “How long are you going to be here?”
“All week, probably…Karlie is going to show me how to rope and ride better,” she said then dropped her eyes. “But I won’t learn to rope, if you think I shouldn’t,” Dixie offered contritely.
“I can focus on helping her, and between us, we’ll have you roping like a champ before the end of the week,” Katie told her with a wink. “You can watch us practice too…and take riding lessons from Cassie,” she said looking over at the tall blond who was leaning back on her arms watching them.
She nodded and grinned, then told Dixie, “I have the perfect pony for you to ride, you’ll love him. There’ll be other kids here during the lessons too, so you can make some new friends.”
Dixie squealed then threw her arms around Katie and squeezed her neck. “Thank you, and I’m glad you’re not mad at me anymore…please don’t be mad at daddy either…it was my fault.”
“That’s a little more complicated, sweetheart. Your daddy and I just don’t see eye to eye on some things, and I think it’s better if we just face the fact that isn’t gonna change. But I’ll be glad to see you, if you come to visit us again out here, okay?”
“Yes, that would be great…when I’m not going to school, that is,” she said and looked down again.
“Of course, school comes first…but when you’re out on break, we’ll be here and you’re welcome to come out.”
Tilting her head to the side, Dixie studied her for a minute then said, “I liked your hair better red…blond looks good, but you don’t look like you anymore. You and Karlie are supposed to look alike, you’re twins.” With another hug, Dixie took off running toward the house.
Out of the mouths of babes, Katie thought, and twirled the end of her hair around her finger. Maybe she had been hasty going with the heavy highlights. She’d just been so mad, and so desperate to be an individual, she probably took it overboard. Katie would give it a few days and see if it grew on her…if not, she’d visit a salon again, maybe in Henrietta.
“Sheesh, you weren’t kidding when you said she’s a handful…” Cassie said shaking her head.
“She’s a good kid, she just needs a little direction…reminds me of someone else I know, when she was a kid.”
“She sure as hell does, now that you mention it,” Cassie hooted then slapped her thigh, before she got up and brushed off her behind. “I better go check on Bella, it’s about dinner time for her.”