“Sorry,” Jimmy said. “We’ll have to hurry from one end of the concourse to the other to catch our plane.”
“Well, then we’ll simply have to make the most of the time we have, won’t we? I might even change your mind by the time we get to Atlanta. How about if we just get off there and blow off the rest of the trip? I love shopping in the South. Maybe we could look at china patterns? You are going to propose soon, you know?” She smiled as sweetly as if she were discussing what wine they’d have with dessert.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
The flight attendant went through the motions as she showed them what to do in case of an emergency. Jodie wondered if the situation she and Jimmy were in could be considered an emergency. Could she toss Deanna out on the tarmac and declare it an act of saving grace? Surely Jimmy wasn’t really attracted to a conniving witch like that. But then maybe he was. He didn’t seem affected by Jodie’s kisses so maybe her alter ego sitting there in a baby blue suit that cost as much as a good Lowline heifer was what really appealed to him. Maybe he liked the way syrup dripped from her feminine little lips when she informed him that they were about to be engaged.
“Now where were we?” Deanna asked when the lady was finished showing them how to use their seats as flotation devices.
Jodie envisioned the blue suit soaking wet and Deanna’s hair hanging limp in her face. Would Jimmy like her so much then?
“Oh, yes,” she said. “We were discussing china patterns. I’m thinking maybe we should have it custom designed. Something embossed with a C in the middle and a D on one side with a J on the other. That would symbolize our union but let us remain true to our own identities, don’t you think?”
“I think you better be joking, Deanna. I have not nor do I intend to propose to you,” Jimmy said bluntly.
“Oh, don’t be difficult,” she snapped. “What do you intend to do, marry this bull riding thing that doesn’t know if she’s a woman or a man?”
Jodie had heard enough. She reached over and removed Deanna’s hand from Jimmy’s leg, holding it up in the air only a moment before she dropped it like so much dirty laundry. “I do believe you are trespassing on my property, darlin’,” she said just as sugary sweet as she could manage.
Deanna slid her a ‘go-to-hell’ look that should have chilled her to the bone. “What makes you think it’s your property?”
Jodie was amused. She’d get him out of this but he’d owe her big time. No more grouchy moods. “Because we got married yesterday. Didn’t you get your invitation?”
Deanna turned pale and immediately checked for rings. “You are lyin’. Neither of you are wearing a ring.”
“That’s right. We’re having our plain gold bands engraved. They won’t be ready for a week or two,” Jodie lied.
“Does your grandmother know about this?” Deanna turned on him. Her face turned from sticky sweet to mean and hateful in a split second.
“I’m twenty-six years old. In the state of Oklahoma the legal age without parental consent is twenty-one,” Jimmy said.
“They’ll crucify you. You better enroll in a college class called Poor 101 because you have no idea how to live like you are about to,” she told him.
“Aren’t you going to wish us happiness?” Jodie taunted.
“No, I’m going to wish you misery and hope that before the week is out he figures out what a mistake he’s made. But rest assured it’s over between us, darlin’. Bobby Jack is meeting me in New York. I’d hoped I could call him and tell him that I’d had a change of heart. But I will have a wedding and I will choose china patterns this week. You can be the groom of the century or you can take a back seat to Bobby Jack.”
“Good luck,” Jimmy said.
Deanna waved at the attendant. “Please seat me somewhere else. I can’t bear to spend two hours with these abominable people. They nauseate me.”
“But madam, there are no more first class seats. We have lots of room in coach but we’re full in this section,” he said.
She was on her feet and headed to the back of the plane in moments. “I’ll ride coach before I sit here.”
Jodie tried to pull her hand away before it went up in flames but Jimmy held it tightly.
“What brought all that on?” He grinned.
“Thought I’d get you out of a planned marriage. You can always go back there and tell her you’ve had a change of heart,” she said.
“Then we aren’t really married?” he teased. For the second time in his life Jodie had come to his rescue. He rather liked this time even better than the last.
“No, and you don’t have to enroll in Poor 101,” she said.
“Yes, I do. My expense account was shut down this morning. That’s why I was in a grouchy mood. I’m not poor by any means but I won’t have the kind of money I’m used to spending on trips.”
“I thought the PBR was financing our trip,” she said.
“I’m freelance. I’ve got contacts but not an expense account from any of them. I take it off my taxes at the end of the year and repay the corporation out of my earnings. So far I haven’t had a year in the red but some of them have been slim. Did I tell you I finished the book while we were home?”
Home? Where did that come from? Great God, have I made up my mind and decided that square mile of dirt is home?
The word didn’t get past Jodie but she decided to let it rest until she had time to think about it. “No, you didn’t. I would have thought that would make you happy rather than grouchy.”
“It was the telephone conversation I had with Cathy that made me cranky,” he admitted. Sitting there, holding her hand in his, he wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to tell her that he had indeed found his home, that being able to write so well had proven it. But he didn’t want to spoil the moment. He didn’t want to lose hold on her just when he’d discovered his true feelings for the woman.
“What?” Jodie relaxed her arm and kept her hand in his even though the touch was playing havoc with her thinking ability.
“It’s a long story,” he said.
“We’ve got two hours unless Miss Blue Ice comes back. I don’t reckon she’d want to hear it.”
“She probably already knows. I’ve got a feeling Cathy put her on this plane and she’s got no intentions of going to New York. She was here to show me the difference in the two of you and what I’m throwing away if I don’t go back to San Antonio right now,” he said and then he told her the rest of the story.
When the plane landed Deanna appeared as if by magic by Jimmy’s side before he could even stand up. “I have been on the phone with your mother and grandmother as well as Cathy. Turn your cell phone on because they are trying to call you. You better talk fast and furious because you are in big trouble.”
Jodie stood up and stretched like a lazy panther, working the kinks from her neck where she’d fallen asleep after listening to Jimmy’s tale. “I don’t think so, honey. I’m the teacher at Poor 101 and I think he’ll be a fantastic student.”
“Go to hell,” Deanna hissed and stomped off the plane.
“You don’t have to come to my defense, you know. I really can take care of myself,” he said.
“But it’s so much fun. Especially after the way she baited me about bull riding and looked down on me. I’m actually not taking up for you but getting a little revenge,” Jodie said.
“So you are ten feet tall and bullet-proof?”
“Today I am. And let me tell you something, honey. If I thought for one minute you weren’t man enough to take care of yourself, I wouldn’t be traveling with you. You are a damn good writer and you’ll make it fine on your own without anyone shoving money in your bank account. I don’t keep company with wimps. Never have and don’t plan on starting now. I’m hungry. Let’s go find something fast and cheap.”
Jimmy’s heart swelled and his soul soared. She believed in him. Someone as tough and brassy as Jodie Cahill had just paid him the biggest compliment he’d ever
had.
The first place they passed on their way to their next flight was Taco Bell. She declared she could eat a half dozen tacos and an order of beans. “So we’re going to do the cheap hotels and bologna sandwiches when we get back to Florida?”
He picked up the tray with their orders and carried them to the nearest table. “Guess so.”
“Hmmm, you think you’ll get fat eating like that?”
“Tacos?”
“No, bologna sandwiches and Wal-Mart brand chips?”
“I might. You going to divorce me if I outgrow my britches?” he teased.
“No, I betcha there’s still some bibbed overalls in your grandpa’s closet you could wear. When are you starting your next book?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Did you get a good advance on this one?”
“I thought so. If I lived at the ranch and was careful it might pay the bills for a year. That’s saying that I didn’t take a bull rider to dinner at fancy restaurants real often,” he said.
“How many books could you write in a year if you had the time to stay with it?”
“Two, maybe three,” he said.
“Do you enjoy writing novels or traveling around doing freelance work for newspapers and magazines?”
“I didn’t realize it but I really liked staying at the old house these past few days and writing. I don’t think my grandfather would appreciate that somehow. He didn’t want my dad to be anything but a rancher. The picture in the box of mementos that Kay gave me was of me in jeans and a Western shirt. I think he got his mind set that the little boy in the picture would grow up to be a rancher like him, but I’m not.”
“Your life is not about what your grandmother and mother want. It’s also not about what Ratch wanted. It’s your choice, Jimmy. My folks wanted me to go to college like my sisters. I hated it. What’s that old saying . . .” she paused for a minute.
“To thine own self be true?” he asked.
“That’s it,” she said and went back to eating.
Chapter Fifteen
“Welcome to Dade City—Proud Heritage—Promising Future.” Jodie read the brick rectangular sign as they drove into the town. “Dade City, population 6,188, my kind of town.”
“Why is it your kind of town? And what’s the name of the rodeo tonight?” Jimmy asked.
“It’s the Pasco County Fair and Championship Rodeo. It’s my kind of town because it’s about the size of Sulphur. I like small towns where everyone knows what everyone else is doing and they only read the local weekly paper to see who got caught. We only spend one night here and then it’s on to your kind of town. Davie is right next to Ft. Lauderdale. Big and impersonal. Aha, there’s a motel. Let’s stop and, no, it’s already got a NO VACANCY sign in the window.”
“And what makes a big town my kind of town? Thank God we’re not stopping there,” Jimmy said.
“Why? Already squeamish about where you lay your little head at night? Tassels on your shoes and nutritious food makes it your kind of town.”
He set his jaw and kept driving.
She pointed to the next motel on the highway. “Right there. Try that one.”
He pulled in and she bailed out. In a few minutes she was back at the door she’d left wide open. “They’ve got one room left. Called all over town but everything is booked solid with the rodeo going on. You want it or do we drive all night after the rodeo is over?”
He handed her the credit card and hoped it had two beds. He’d rather drive all night than sleep on the floor of a motel where he could already hear the theme song from “The Twilight Zone” playing in his head. Or was that the music from Psycho? Or worse yet had orange shag carpet that smelled like forty years of dirty feet.
She came back with an old-fashioned key with a big chunk of plastic on the ring. The room number had been embossed in gold at one time. Now it was barely visible.
She stuck her head inside the truck and told him, “Number Twenty, all the way to the end,” and then jogged down the length of the small motel.
He parked the truck right in front of the room where she’d already gone inside. By the time he unloaded a couple of suitcases and his laptop she was coming out of the bathroom. It wasn’t the Hilton or the Hyatt Regency but it looked comfortable enough for one night.
“Which bed do you want?” she asked.
He looked at both of them. Twins in every way. Stiff bedspreads in a profusion of colorful swirls in some kind of material NASA considered using for the space program, guaranteed to hold its shape and color under a nuclear attack. The flat pillows didn’t fare so well. Too many rodeo bronc riders had tumbled their big heads down on them. One bed was beside the heating unit under the window covered with matching drapes that bagged open in the middle and one on the side where the dressing area/bathroom was located.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Then I’ll take the one by the bathroom,” she said.
They’d shared a trailer not much bigger but it did have a door between the bedroom and living area. There was very little size difference but that was before and now he didn’t look forward to sleeping in a bed right beside hers.
But that could be a blessing, his conscience said. If she talks in her sleep or snores or both I might find something I hate. Absolutely abhor to the point that I’ll be glad to take her back to Cahill ranch and get rid of her in six weeks. This whole thing with keeping the expense account down could be my salvation. Besides who’s to say that she won’t be a nice person at all when she doesn’t have all the comforts of my high-end expense account?
She carried in one suitcase and a grocery bag of food they’d bought in the first grocery store she spotted after they left the airport.
He didn’t think for one minute a change of venue was going to turn her into a shrew. She could probably sleep in a two-man pup tent with a shovel to use when necessity called and not complain.
“In forty-five minutes we’ve got to be at the rodeo arena. No time to eat until afterward so I’m having yogurt and a banana. We’ve got Pringles, peanut butter crackers, Club crackers, cheese in a can, and apples. You want something?” she asked.
He cut his eyes around at her. “You’re eating healthy food?”
“There ain’t no double bacon cheeseburgers in this bag, darlin’. I’m eating whatever will keep body and soul together until after the judging tonight. Then I’ll find a place that serves something greasy.”
There went his dimples, she thought. How could I have ever thought those were wrinkles?
“I’ll pass. Maybe when we get back to the room tonight I’ll make a smoothie,” he said.
She wolfed down two containers of yogurt and a couple of bananas, then went to work in front of the mirror. He set up his computer and began to hunt medium-priced hotels in or near Davie for the next two nights. He completely lost track of time as he flipped from one place to the other seeing which was closest to the Bergeron rodeo grounds.
“Hey, how big is your pride?” she asked right behind him.
He stiffened to keep from jumping. “Too big. Why?”
“I’ve got an idea about the next six weeks but you’re going to have to swallow some of that male ego of yours before I put it into play,” she told him.
He closed the computer and stood up, really looking at her. She wore a new outfit, evidently one she’d gotten while they were in Sulphur. Tight black jeans with a hot pink Western-cut shirt and a lighter pink fringed leather jacket, fitted to the waist where a gold belt buckle gleamed. She held a hat the same color as her shirt with a band of gold filigree. His mind went completely blank. She’d asked him something about his pride but he couldn’t remember what it was.
“So?” she asked.
“What?”
“You must have been enthralled by whatever you were looking up on that computer. I asked if we’re a team yet?”
“No, you didn’t. You said something about my ego and pride,” he remembered.
�
�Well, are we a team? Are we friends?”
“Yes, to both.”
“Okay, then, don’t go getting all macho on me in the next ten minutes.”
He looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand beside the bed. They had fifteen minutes before it was time to go. His face held a quizzical look when he looked back at her. She had a cell phone to her ear.
“Hello, Irene, this is Jodie Cahill. Is the man still in the office?”
Jimmy retrieved his jacket from a garment bag and listened at the same time.
“Hello. Yes, things are going fine but I’ve got an idea for the rest of the trip I’d like to run past you. You got the schedule right there in front of you, right?”
She waited a minute. “Okay, tomorrow night we need to be in Davie, Florida. You with me? What I want is motel rooms added in as part of my judging. You can give them a lower rate on my judging fee but I want a motel room in each town from now on. They’ll be getting a deal because they can comp out the rooms through the local chamber in most cases and get my judging for half price, and I’ll be getting a good deal because I won’t have to look for a room in every town.”
She listened again.
“It doesn’t have to be five stars or even four but I don’t want roaches or rats. The closer to the rodeo grounds the better in every case. Just get me a room with two beds, fridge, and microwave, if it’s available, when we’re in the same place for more than one night. Think you could take care of that for me?”
He couldn’t believe she had that much clout. But then he realized the buckle she wore was the gold one she’d earned when she won the Nationals. That made her a bit of a celebrity.
“Thank you. No, I don’t need the whole itinerary right now. Send it as Irene makes the plans to . . . just a minute”—she handed him the phone—“Tell Irene your email address.”
He rattled off the address and gave the phone back to Jodie.
To Hope Page 16