“I’m starving.” Natalie unlocked the door and charged inside, tossing the keys on the dinette and grabbing a bag of chips from the counter. They’d made a munchie run along the way to Elko. “What are we wearing to the concert tonight?”
“Before you get lost in appearance minutiae, you should hydrate and eat something meaningful.” Lily took the keys and started the RV to get the air conditioner blasting. And then she tossed the postcard Conner had given her on the center console before moving to the kitchen area. Lily had yet to see the pair of young women drink any water or eat anything with redeeming qualities.
“You sound like my mother.” Pepper grinned. It was an expression that asked for forgiveness of all sin and promised to love forevermore. She must have gotten away with murder in school. She probably still did. She accepted the bottle of water Lily gave her.
“Mothers know everything.” Lily’s throat threatened to close as she plucked the potato chip bag from Natalie’s hands and tried to hand her a wide can of plain, unsalted nuts, but her grip slipped. Luckily, Natalie caught it. “Where is this concert and what are we wearing?”
“Such a no-brainer.” Pepper swigged some water, fluffing her swooping brown bangs. “Outdoor concert. Backstage passes. We’re wearing boots and very little else.”
“Woop-woop,” Natalie said around a mouthful of almonds. “Are you coming with us?”
“Oh...” Pepper capped her water, managing to look cute as a button and sheepish at the same time. “Big E only gave us two backstage passes. Are you okay with staying behind, Lily?”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.” She was, after all, not part of Pepper’s inner circle.
Pepper and Natalie took their places at the dinette, predictably losing themselves in their cell phones.
Lily sank into the passenger seat and picked up the postcard Conner had purchased, balancing the edges in her palms. She stared at the woman in the photograph who held a shotgun like she knew which was the business end and who needed it pointed in their direction. She looked capable in her buckskin breeches and frizzy braids. And the upward tilt to her chin... Here was a woman who challenged the world to bring it on. The caption on the back read: Taking names. Kicking butt. Clark’s OK Corral.
Lily took the pen in the console cubby, slowly and carefully addressing the back. And then she wrote: I did the right thing. The woman on the flip side would approve. She tucked the postcard into the cubby with the pen.
“You and Conner are so sweet together.” Pepper’s fingers danced across her cell phone screen.
“Oh, we’re not together.”
Pepper would hear none of it. “He adores you. I can see it in his eyes.”
Irresponsibly, Lily’s heart beat faster.
“Woop-woop,” Natalie chimed in, fingers moving just as swiftly as her friend’s.
“Let’s not do this,” Lily cautioned to anyone who would listen.
Not that anyone listened.
“You’ll see. Tonight.” Pepper winked at Lily so hard her false eyelash went cockeyed. She tried to press it back on her eyelid without success. “You’ll get to know Conner better while we’re at the concert.”
“Don’t.” Lily was too old for matchmaking games. “I just got out of a serious relationship. I’m not looking for love.” Lily was surprised at how steady her voice sounded, at how there was no threat of tears, no shame pressing on her chest. She had indeed done the right thing. “You know who I’d like to get to know better? I’d like to learn more about you and the Blackwells.” Before Conner returned. That seemed a safer topic than her commando cowboy.
“I don’t really know the Blackwells other than Grandma Dot and Big E.” Pepper peeled off the false eyelash, scooted out of the dinette and headed toward the bedroom in back. “I mean, I know their son and his wife died, and that Big E raised his five grandsons after he and Dot divorced, but this will only be my second time in Falcon Creek.” She dug in her suitcase, tugging a large travel case free and examining the contents.
Pepper doesn’t know the Blackwells?
The ruse of being a cousin of the groom suddenly seemed pointless. Lily opened her mouth to set the record straight when Pepper cut her off.
“Did Ken tell you nothing about me?” The young bride’s rummaging produced a new eyelash and a small tube of adhesive. “I’m a whiz at math and I just finished my first four years at UNLV. I’m going to be a dentist. Do you know dentists make their own hours? Best career ever.”
“You want to put your fingers in someone else’s mouth on the daily?” Natalie shivered. “I’ll stick to interior design.”
“I have two words for you, Nat—lucrative freedom.” Pepper gave her friend a one-eyelash scowl. “And I won’t have to be on call, like real doctors.”
“Dentists are real doctors,” Natalie said before Lily could.
“Whatever.” Pepper opened the door to the bathroom and disappeared inside. “I’m so glad you came, Lily. Aren’t you? Family has a loose definition nowadays, but I knew from the moment I saw you that we’d be close.”
The urge to set the record straight drove Lily to her feet. “About that...”
“Lots of miles to cover, ladies.” Conner climbed in and shut the door behind him. “Giddyap.”
“Give me thirty seconds to put my lash back on.” Pepper bumped into the lavatory’s wall. “It’s impossible to put one on in a moving vehicle.”
“Lashes aren’t her forte,” Natalie explained with a private grin accented by two firmly placed false eyelashes. Blink-blink.
“Natalie, time her.” Conner got behind the wheel. “Thirty seconds.”
“On it.” Natalie tapped an instruction into her phone.
“Don’t rush me or I’ll glue my eyelid shut.” Pepper didn’t gush. Not even a little. This eyelash thing was super important to her.
“Tick-tock.” Conner managed to look at Lily like a mischievous eight-year-old without so much as a smile. “You okay?”
Lily nodded automatically, even if it wasn’t quite true. The moment to do the right thing with Pepper had passed. She couldn’t embrace independence without her family’s blessing. And Grandma Dot was going to hate her.
She took her seat and slid on her sunglasses.
Pepper shrieked. “I dropped it. Restart the timer.”
“There are no do-overs.” Conner drummed his fingers on the dash.
Natalie scooted out of her seat. “Can I take your picture, Pep?”
“No!” Pepper wailed and shut the bathroom door.
“Everyone has a breaking point.” Conner stopped his finger drumming. “I was wondering where hers was.”
“She’s not a bridezilla.” Lily realized Conner had been out of sight for nearly twenty minutes and he was chipper...for Conner anyway. She held out her hand for his phone, which he gave up without a qualm. She opened it and methodically navigated the menu. “Nothing?”
“Nada,” he said, as if there would never be anything.
“Then why are you so happy?”
He leaned across the space between them to whisper, “Those girls fired a hundred rounds and never hit the target once.” The twinkle was back in his eyes. “Correction. They did hit a target. One of them hit your bull’s-eye.”
“Woop-woop,” Lily murmured, earning Conner’s slow smile.
CHAPTER SIX
“LADIES, WE’RE ALMOST THERE.” Conner drove the motor home down a dirt road with an hour to spare before the outdoor concert began, thinking he was ready for some fresh air.
There were thousands of people heading toward the remote field and makeshift stage in the middle of the barren high plains. The going was slow but faster than the conversation in the RV.
Pepper and Natalie were in Big E’s bedroom changing clothes. Their reply to Conner was muffled. Lily had her arms crossed and her stocking feet on the dash. Her
new cowboy boots were on the floorboards. She’d been quiet for much of the afternoon’s drive. Was she thinking about the future? Or the past?
It was her recent past that should have been his only concern. And her immediate future—staying with him on the road to Montana. The more he learned about Lily, the more he wanted to take her under his wing, although not financially. He couldn’t afford to do so, even temporarily.
“How long have those two been back there?” he asked Lily. “It only took you five minutes to get ready this morning after your shower.”
“I’m low-maintenance. No makeup. No fancy hairstyle.” Her brow furrowed, revealing her dissatisfaction with that fact. “I mean, toddlers can scribble better on a page than I can on my face. Why bother?”
“Good thing you have a pretty face.” She didn’t need makeup, not with those classic cheekbones and big, bright blue eyes.
Lily’s feet dropped to the floorboards, along with that furrow. “Thank you?”
“You’re welcome.” He’d shocked the city girl. Conner felt like smiling. But more important, her reaction told him that her fiancé had been stingy with the compliments.
Conner slowed for another concert checkpoint, grabbing the VIP parking pass and showing it to security before taking a more direct route to the makeshift stage ahead. They ended up in an area where motor homes were parked like wagons. There were several such circles, and tent cities had sprouted around them.
Conner opened his window and flagged down a man standing near a vacant spot in a motor-home caravan, a space marked off with orange cones. “Can we park there?”
The middle-aged man sauntered closer, gesturing to their rig with his can of beer. “You must pass muster. I’m Bert. Who goes there?”
“Um...” Conner flashed Lily a questioning look before facing the parking attendant once more. “Conner and Lily. We come in peace?”
Bert nodded, smoothing his bright red Hawaiian shirt over his gut. “And peace shall get you this spot. There’ll be no partying after the concert. This here’s a mellow circle. We’ve all got security’s phone number on speed dial.”
“We’ll be no trouble,” Conner assured him.
“That’s the secret phrase. You may pass.” Bert moseyed over to collect the cones.
“Jeez.” Lily picked up the postcard from the OK Corral and flipped it over and back. “We’ve had to pass through more layers of security than the time I went to Burning Man.”
Conner pulled into the open spot and shut the motor home off. “Ladies, we’re here.”
Squealing, his two young charges burst out of the bedroom wearing flouncy blouses, denim skirts and boots. Their hair was teased higher than a brand-new bolero. And their makeup... Somewhere there was a raccoon missing the black around its eyes.
“Chance Blackwell!” Pepper boogied toward the door. “He’s extra man. He’s extra everything.”
“Woop-woop.” Natalie followed her.
“Make good choices,” Lily called after them, grinning at Conner as she reiterated his mother’s advice.
He snorted. “Or at the very least, don’t fall prey to country-music stars with extra everything.” Or Big E would have his hide.
“Wait. Chance Blackwell?” She put her hands over her ears and then made a sound like an explosion, floating her hands outward. “I’m related to Chance Blackwell, the famous country singer?”
“Yes. Come on, Lily. Don’t get starstruck. There’s work to do.” He got out and began setting up the motor home’s outdoor space. He spread a green outdoor rug and extended the tan awning.
“Why are you arranging all this out here?” Lily sat on the bottom step of the motor home and put on a lightweight jacket. They were in the high plains now and the temperature was dropping.
On the other side of their circle, crowds of people passed, heading for the concert proper.
“Sometimes guests come back from events early.” He’d learned to be prepared. “You can chip in anytime.”
She got to her feet. “I thought I was a guest.”
He was on to her. She thought she couldn’t help, given those fine motor skills she angsted over. “Blackwells always pitch in.” He nodded to a storage locker in front of the rear wheel well. “Dig out some tables and chairs from storage, will you?”
It took her a few tries, but she unlatched the cargo hold and took out two folding chairs. “We’re not going to the concert? It could be super fun.” The way she said those last two words was odd, like they meant something else and he should have understood.
“This won’t be your last opportunity to see Chance sing. He and his wife, Katie, have a house on the ranch. Besides, we’ll be able to hear things just fine from here.” He assembled the portable firepit. “Taking in the show from a safe distance away. No one to crowd your space or spill their beer on you.”
“You sound like Rudy.” Lily slid two side tables from the storage compartment.
“As if you wouldn’t turn down a pair of earplugs if you sat up close.” He tsked. “We’re old enough to know those concerts destroy our hearing and young enough to want to protect it for the future.”
“Did you just call me old? I’m not even thirty.” Lily put her hands on her hips. If she was going for an offended vibe, she failed. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
“Do you really want to go?” He could probably slip a note to Chance’s people through security and get her in.
“No, I...” She sat down in a chair. “Concerts lost their appeal to me a long time ago.”
That wasn’t surprising. Lily may call herself an adventure tour guide, but she was down-to-earth. Settled, even. He’d thought about it on the drive. Even though Lily made her living from outdoor excursions, she didn’t act like a thrill seeker. They’d driven on the highway near the Las Vegas Strip. Lily hadn’t said a word about wanting to experience the skyscraper rides. She had no interest in firing guns. Concerts weren’t her thing.
The sun was setting slowly behind the Sierras, painting the clouds pink against the deepening purple sky. Conner sat, enjoying the view, one that included Lily. Gone was the furrow, the worry, the regret over her choice to flee her own wedding. She wasn’t going back.
He drew a deep breath, feeling his own tension about his duties and his double bonus slip away.
A small airplane buzzed the venue, circling. It landed to the west, kicking up clouds of dust.
Lily shaded her eyes to watch. “The true VIPs have arrived.”
“Planes always bring trouble.” Bert sat in a fancy chaise longue next door, drinking beer. “That’s why I’ve vetted every motor home here. You let me know if anyone makes a fuss. My wife and her friends will return exhausted. No one disturbs my honey’s beauty sleep.”
Lily thanked Bert for watching out for them, sliding Conner a sly grin.
“Come on.” Conner locked up the motor home. “Unless you want barbecued potato chips for dinner, we need to pick up food. I saw a few catering trucks when we came in and I need sustenance for tonight’s long haul.”
“Hey.” She caught his eye. “Aren’t we staying the night?”
“Yes, but concerts like this are tame until the after-party. I’ll be sitting outside later with Bert.”
“Guarding the castle.” Lily chuckled.
“Exactly.” They waded upstream through the excited concertgoers. Conner grabbed her hand. “Stay close.”
A few minutes later Lily dug in her heels, stopping to stare at a bungee trampoline. A teenage girl wore a harness in the contraption. The operator pulled her down low, stretching the bungee straps, and then released her, shooting her into the air. The teen shrieked and laughed and rebounded.
“Those are so much fun,” Lily said wistfully, poking holes in Conner’s theory about her maturing past being a thrill seeker. “I love to fly.”
“You wa
nt to take a turn?” Conner asked, hoping she’d say no.
“It’s such a rush.” She spoke as if she didn’t hear him.
Conner realized he still held her hand. He couldn’t just let go in the midst of a conversation. And he couldn’t give it a censorious shake.
“But now I know better.” She gazed up at him in a way that stole his breath. “I can get a safe rush from roller coasters, waterslides and river rapids.”
“River rapids are safe?”
“Relatively.” She nudged him with her shoulder, a gentle admonishment not to worry. “I don’t need the adrenaline rush of skydiving or bungee jumping from a bridge. Been there. Done that.”
“Thank heavens.” He wouldn’t have been able to have kept up.
“Big E implied the Blackwells were adventurous.”
Conner smirked. “Can’t say as I’ve ever seen a Blackwell bungee jump off a bridge.”
Lily made to pull her hand away.
Tightening his grip, Conner rushed to put her mind at ease. “They’re cowboys, not thrill seekers. When I think of the Blackwells, I think of a family that faces whatever life brings, head-on.”
“They don’t back down,” Lily said slowly.
“That’s right.” He tugged her toward food.
They reached a circle of catering trucks as the small plane took off again.
Conner purchased a brisket, mashed potatoes and coleslaw at one food truck. At another he bought an assortment of cookies. The only thing Lily asked for was plain tortillas from a taco truck.
“I hope Pepper isn’t dieting to get in her wedding dress.” Lily smiled ruefully. “Me? I was so nervous, I don’t think I ate all week. Do we have to wait for them to get back to have dinner? I’m famished.”
“I’m not waiting.” That wasn’t quite true. When they got back, he put off eating until he’d started a fire in the portable firepit.
Lily dug into her food as if making up for the past week of fasting. She shoveled brisket, potatoes and slaw into tortillas, messy in her execution. She ate three. Conner couldn’t stop smiling. He did so appreciate a woman who didn’t hide her appetite.
Montana Welcome (The Blackwell Sisters) Page 7