Billion Dollar Cowboy

by Carolyn Brown

  “It’s a wonder I’m not, but I hated their fighting,” he said.

  “They fought about where they were going to college because your dad wanted to go to Oklahoma State University and she wanted to go to Midwestern over in Gainesville. They loved each other, I’m sure of it, but they could never agree and both of them were so bullheaded it wasn’t even funny.”

  Colton inhaled deeply. “I’m afraid that all marriages will wind up like that. And I’d rather be a bachelor and leave everything I’ve got to Roxie as take a chance on going through that.”

  “Didn’t you hear me? I said your folks fought when they dated. How many fights have you and Laura had?”

  “I don’t think we’re dating except in a make-believe world.”

  Maudie frowned. “The night your folks were killed, did you hear the argument?”

  “The folks on the far end of the block heard it,” Colton answered. “It was about another baby. Daddy wanted more kids. Momma didn’t and she was very loudly telling him that all he had to do was make a child but she had to take care of it.”

  Maudie sighed. “They’d been fighting about that for years. He always wanted a houseful of children but she wanted something more than a bunch of wild kids running around her legs.”

  “And Momma?” he asked.

  “She wanted a career and to live in the city.”

  “Why’d they ever get married?”

  “Honey, they were passionate. They might have fought like banty roosters but they loved just as passionately. Never doubt that they both loved you.”

  Colton ran his fingers through his dark hair. “Now I’m more confused than ever. If Laura and I don’t argue, does that mean we aren’t passionate?”

  “You think too much. Let go of the past and listen to your heart. And it’s not sissy to talk about your feelings. Happiness starts with you, Colton, and to be happy, you’ve got to open up your heart. Happiness starts down deep in here.” Maudie touched her chest with her fist. “When you find someone who truly makes you happy, then hang on for dear life.”

  “That sounds like experience talking,” Colton said.

  Maudie nodded. “It is, but that’s in the past that I’ve let go of. I’m happy now with my life.”

  Andy followed Rusty into the dining room and said, “Y’all leave us any food?”

  “We ain’t even started yet and it’s leftovers from last night,” Maudie answered.

  “I’d eat raw armadillo right now, I’m so hungry,” Rusty said. “Them women left yet?”

  “They’re having a day to themselves at the pool,” Colton answered. “They’ll be leaving tomorrow morning. We’ll all have supper tonight with the preacher and Cynthia.”

  Rusty rolled his eyes.

  Andy Joe’s blue eyes twinkled and a smile covered his face. “We ain’t got nothing to worry about from now on. Roxie says that Cynthia has seen the light and is going for the title of preacher’s wife.”

  “Well, praise the lord,” Rusty said.

  On her way out of the dining room, Maudie bent down and whispered in Colton’s ear, “My regrets about the past have nothing to do with you. You are the best part of my life.”

  ***

  Every one of the nine chairs was filled at the table that evening. Laura was seated to Colton’s right with Cynthia beside her and Roger next in line beside her. During dessert and coffee, Cynthia leaned over and whispered, “Did it take a long time for you to know you were in love with Colton or did it happen on the first date?”

  “Why? Do you think you are in love with Roger?” Laura skirted the question.

  “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking. I never have believed in love at first sight. But then it wouldn’t be first sight since he’s been preachin’ at our church for a year and I see him every Sunday.” Cynthia continued to keep her voice low. “He kissed me good night after the dance.”

  “And?” Laura asked.

  “My toenails curled. He’s a preacher, for God’s sake, Laura!”

  “He’s also a man who evidently knows how to kiss.”

  “He asked me on a real date for tomorrow night. We’re going to dinner and seeing a movie over in Sherman.”

  “Have fun.”

  “You don’t think I’m crazy?”

  Laura patted her on the arm. “Honey, you don’t ask a crazy person that question.”

  Cynthia giggled. “Did you know that Colton was rich when you went to work for him?”

  “I did and it didn’t make bit of difference to me how much money he had or didn’t have.”

  Cynthia nodded. “That’s why he fell in love with you. All the rest of the women were chasin’ him for his money.”

  “What are you two whispering about?” Roger asked.

  “The future,” Laura said quickly.

  Janet and Cynthia had both mentioned that Colton was in love with her that very same day. Apparently, he was playing his role better than she was because no one had said that she was head over heels in love with him. And yet, the truth of the matter was that she was no longer pretending.

  “And the past,” Cynthia came in right behind her.

  Roger slipped an arm around the back of Cynthia’s chair. “Well, I rather like the present, right here and right now.”

  “Too bad y’all can’t stay around for a game of Monopoly. We’re partnering up and Roxie and I are going to whip the newly engaged couple,” Janet said.

  “Sounds like fun but we’ve got church at seven. Roger is preaching on the love chapter in Corinthians,” Cynthia beamed. “You should come hear it and play Monopoly afterwards.”

  “Will you two come back and play if we do?” Roxie asked.

  Laura bit back a groan. She didn’t want to play Monopoly with her cheating sister and she sure didn’t want to sit still and listen to any preaching about love. She was having a hard enough time sorting out her own heart and mind without listening to the well-known chapter about love not being selfish.

  Besides, that wasn’t exactly right. When a person fell in love they were selfish. They wanted the other person to love them more than they wanted anything else in the world and they’d do anything to get and keep that love for themselves. That was selfish served up on a silver platter.

  “Sure we will,” Roger said. “But only if Cynthia can be my partner.”

  “Then we’ll all be there,” Roxie said.

  “Since when do you make decisions for us?” Andy asked.

  “You going to tell the preacher you don’t want to hear his sermon about love?” Roxie asked.

  Andy blushed. “I was plannin’ on going to church this evening anyway, but you ain’t got the right to tell me what to do. Me and Rusty are going to team up and whip your butts at Monopoly.”

  Roxie’s eyes twinkled. “Now we got the four teams to play—me and Janet, Colton and Laura, Rusty and Andy, and Cynthia and Roger.”

  “What about me?” Maudie asked.

  “You are the banker and the ref,” Roxie said.

  “You’ve got school tomorrow morning, young lady. If the game isn’t over at ten o’clock then you’ll bow out and I will be Janet’s partner,” Maudie said.

  “Oh, me and Janet will whip all of you long before ten!” Roxie said.

  ***

  The Circle 6 crew took up a whole pew that evening and sure enough Roger preached from Corinthians about the qualities that love brought into people’s lives. He started off by saying that after the party the day before and watching Laura and Colton work as a team that he’d been inspired to go back and read that chapter before he went to sleep.

  Laura wanted to stand to her feet and disagree with him. She and Colton weren’t the inspiration for his sermon. He’d read that chapter because he and Cynthia had found each other and love was on his mind. Was that why fate had brought La
ura to the Circle 6? Not to find her own true love but to cause Cynthia and Roger to find happiness?

  If it was, then Lady Fate really, truly was a first-class bitch.

  “Is he talking to us or trying to relay a message to Cynthia?” she whispered to Colton.

  He laid his hand on hers and squeezed. “You believe that love is all those things?”

  “I believe that love is something that two people work at every day, not something that falls out of the heaven.”

  Colton squeezed her hand again.

  Chapter 20

  Janet hugged Laura tightly and whispered, “This is the real thing, sister. Don’t blow it. And for your information, I did not cheat last night at Monopoly. Roxie and I won fair and square and it felt damn good.”

  Then she hugged Colton. “Take good care of her, cowboy. She might be the best thing that God ever put on this earth.”

  Then she was behind the wheel of her rental car and driving away.

  Tears streamed down Laura’s face. For the first time in their lives, Janet’s pathway was leading in a different direction than Laura’s. This had to be the way it felt when a child went away to college. It was long past time for Janet to spread her own wings and learn to take care of herself, but it hurt not to be needed anymore.

  You’ll always need each other. You are family. You’ve just stepped up to a higher place—one called adulthood, her conscience said in a rough voice.

  Colton hugged Laura close to his side and kissed her on the forehead. “She’ll be back. We have the cattle sale in the fall with a party then and there’s Christmas. Don’t cry.”

  Before she could remind him that she’d probably be gone long before fall now that her debt was paid, his cell phone rang. He fished it out of his shirt pocket and listened for a few seconds before shoving it back into his pocket.

  All Laura heard was, “Hello,” and “I’ll be right there.”

  “Problem?” she asked.

  “Big one. Roxie’s in trouble at school. Evidently Granny is in that area over by Bonham where the cell phone service is spotty and I told them I’d come. The social worker is already there.”

  Laura’s blood ran cold, like ice water shooting through her veins. “What did she do—kill someone?”

  Colton started toward the truck. “Guess she tried to. She and Rosalee got into it.”

  Laura followed. “I’m going too.”

  “No need. I’ll smooth it over and probably barely beat Granny there. Soon as the social worker finds her, she’ll stop whatever she’s doing and get on over to the school.”

  Laura opened the passenger door. “I don’t care who is there. If the social worker has been called in, it’s serious and she’ll need all of us. They can’t take her away from the ranch for this, can they? That rotten Rosalee has been askin’ for this for weeks.”

  Colton started the truck and headed down the lane. “I told Granny, you don’t change a leopard’s spots, not even with all the love in the world. Roxie is a sweet kid but she’s got her momma’s blood and worse yet, her daddy’s DNA. We can’t knock that out of her even if we want to, and I’ll fight the system to my last dollar to keep that kid on the ranch.”

  The tears dried up instantly. Anger like she’d never known before settled in their place and she stared out the side window at the world speeding past in a blur. She’d known it was too good to be true but she’d think it all through later. Right then Roxie needed her and it didn’t matter whose blood or DNA she had, Laura was going to be there for her.

  Colton parked in the school parking lot and she was out of the truck before he could turn off the engine. So what if he had to scramble to catch up with her! After that comment he deserved to be left in the dust.

  He grabbed for her hand. “What’s your hurry?”

  She pulled it away and shoved it into the pocket of her jeans.

  He opened the door for her and she didn’t even break stride as she headed down the hall. When she reached the door marked Principal she swung it open and plowed right in with Colton two steps behind her.

  “We are here about Roxie,” she said.

  “Where’s Maudie?” the secretary asked.

  “She’ll be along but I want to see Roxie now.”

  “And you are?”

  “I’m Laura Nelson.”

  Colton stepped inside the office and the school secretary looked around Laura at him. “This is your new fiancée, right? Sorry I missed the party on Saturday. We had a family reunion over in Whitewright. Roxie is in the lounge with the social worker. We have to call her when the problem involves fighting, stealing, or such. Roxie might not be in the system but well… you know. You understand, don’t you, Colton?”

  “Which way is the lounge?” Laura asked.

  Colton pointed to a door behind them. “We probably ought to wait for Granny since she’s in charge of Roxie.”

  “I’m not waiting for anyone,” Laura declared.

  The principal and the social worker were sitting on one side of an eight-foot table with Roxie and another girl across from them. Laura’s heart stopped racing when she saw that Roxie wasn’t bleeding or holding a broken arm. She had a scratch across her cheek but it was superficial. It looked like the other girl would have a black eye for a week or two. Both of them looked like they’d tried to pull each other’s hair out.

  “I’m Laura Nelson,” she said.

  “Colton, where is Maudie?” the principal asked.

  “On her way, I’m sure. What happened?”

  “She tried to kill me,” the other girl whined.

  “Oh, shut up, Rosalee! You’ve been askin’ for it ever since you got here,” Roxie snapped.

  “Roxie,” the social worker said.

  Laura sat down beside Roxie and put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned forward and looked at Rosalee. “You want to tell them or should I?”

  Rosalee shrugged. “I didn’t do nothing. She just came at me with her fists and started hittin’ on me. I was takin’ up for myself when I scratched her and pulled her hair.”

  “Voodoo doll?” Laura asked.

  Rosalee dropped her head and blushed. “That was a joke.”

  “With a pin shoved through the heart? Don’t sound like a joke to me. Cheating in class to try to steal her boyfriend?”

  Rosalee glared at Laura. “He don’t belong with her. She’s white trash. He deserves someone better than that. And I told her so this mornin’ when she got off the bus…” She clamped a hand over her mouth.

  “So you antagonized Roxie, did you?” the social worker asked. “Why didn’t you tell the principal, Roxie?”

  “I’m not a tattletale,” Roxie answered.

  “Well, my work is done. This is your job, Sam.” The social worker looked at the principal.

  “Then you aren’t going to take me away from Aunt Maudie?” Roxie asked nervously.

  “No, I am not. But whatever punishment the principal hands out you’d best follow it to the letter, young lady. And Rosalee, next time you taunt her, remember that she’s got a mean right hook.” The social worker picked up her file and walked out the door.

  “You want me to take her home, Sam?” Colton asked.

  He shook his head. “School rules say that fighting gets a person in-school suspension for three weeks. That will finish up the summer session for her. She’ll be in a cubicle all day every day with her studies in front of her. If she finishes before the day is out, she’d best have a book to read because if she falls asleep, that day doesn’t count. Go on back to class, Roxie.”

  “What about Rosalee?” Laura asked.

  “We have a no tolerance rule for bullying. She will get six weeks of in-school suspension. That means when school starts back the first of September, she’ll owe us three more weeks before she gets to attend normal classes again. We�
�re waiting on her sister to get here to discuss it and that’s all I’m saying. Privacy laws,” Sam said.

  “Then you don’t need us anymore?” Colton asked.

  “No, I don’t,” Sam said.

  Colton’s phone rang before they reached the truck and he told Maudie what had happened, laughed a couple of times, and put the phone back. He whistled as he opened the passenger door for Laura. He settled into his seat and started the engine.

  “What is so funny?” she asked.

  “Granny said that she would have decked that kid for Roxie if she’d heard her say that. She also said that Roxie was going to be in trouble when she got home,” Colton explained.

  “Why would she be in trouble?”

  “For throwing the first hit. Granny’s rule says that you can’t start a fight but you sure better not run from one. Roxie should have waited for Rosalee to start the fight. Now she’ll get a lecture or grounded for a week for starting it.”

  “That’s bullshit!”

  “What would you do different?” Colton asked.

  “Not a thing because…” She stopped and stared out the window.

  “Spit it out,” Colton said.

  “Because I wanted a mother like Maudie. One who loved us like she does Roxie. So I wouldn’t do a thing different but, hell, I don’t know how to explain it. And if I’m honest, that’s not the only reason I’m mad.”

  “The real reason you want to chew up fence posts is because Janet left, isn’t it?”

  She glared at him.

  He hit the steering wheel with both hands. “What? It wasn’t me that started a fight and got in trouble with the principal. And I told you Janet would be back in the middle of the summer.”

  She jerked her head around to look out the side window and clamped her mouth shut.

  Roxie has more on the ball than you do. She will stand up and fight for what she wants. You are planning to run from it, that hateful voice inside her head shouted.

  I’m not running. I’m leaving because my bloodline and DNA would never be good enough for him, she argued silently.