The Cowboy and the Cop

by Christine Wenger

  He liked how Amber’s eyes lit up after he said this. She was just about as happy as he was, and that did his soul good.

  It puzzled him as to how much he cared about making her happy. Before she showed up at the autographing at the Oklahoma City arena, he hadn’t thought about Amber that much.

  But he hadn’t forgotten her, like he had some of his other classmates. He’d always remember her crying as she’d walked home from the prom. Undoubtedly, Amber blamed him for what had happened, and he didn’t have the heart to tell her that her date, Crazy Kenny Fowler, was the one who had spread the story that he’d been bribed with Chapman moonshine to take her to the prom, and then had gotten insulting and vulgar about Amber.

  That just wasn’t the cowboy way. Not that Kenny cared.

  But Luke cared back then. Maybe he still did.

  He said his goodbyes to Jesse and told him to call back when he had more details. “One more thing, Jess.” Luke sighed. “I am just about to visit Dad here at the rehab place. I am going to update him as to the Beaumont property. You think I should tell him about the stock?”

  “That’s up to you, big brother. He’s going to find out eventually, if he hasn’t already. Small town.”

  “Yeah.” Luke hated to shake up his father, especially when he was in rehab. He didn’t want to give him any excuse to start drinking again, but that was a hopeless goal. “Later, bro.”

  “Sorry, Amber, but that was my brother, Jesse. He said that Reed scored big money at the Tucson bull riding, and he’s taking stock in trade.”

  Amber gave him a thumbs-up. “So, there will be cattle dotting the hills again?”

  “There will be!”

  * * *

  AMBER COULD TELL just when Luke realized where they were and what they were doing. It was like all the air left the place and went somewhere else.

  The twinkle left Luke’s eyes and his smile was forced.

  “Here we are in the residents’ housing. Room 4009. Are you okay?” Amber asked him when the color left his face.

  “I’m okay. I just have to switch gears now and visit the old man. I hate the thought of catching him up to date. This isn’t going to be pretty. Maybe you shouldn’t go in with me and wait in the lobby like you suggested.”

  Amber smiled widely and knocked on the door.

  “Come in! Come in! About time I got some visitors.” Big Dan Beaumont’s voice invaded every nook and corner of the rehab facility.

  The door swung open, and Amber shifted on her feet. “I was just about to go to the lobby and wait, Mr. Beaumont, so you can visit with Luke in private.”

  She looked at Luke and noticed the shock on his face. Like she’d told him before, Big Dan was a shadow of his former self. His gray hair stuck out in every direction, and he was hunched over as if he didn’t have any bones in his body. That’s what drinking and not caring about anything or anyone could do to someone.

  No. That wasn’t true. According to Big Dan’s probation officer, he desperately loved and missed his deceased wife, Valerie Lynn, who died two years ago, and he didn’t want to live without her.

  “Get in here, Sergeant. You know more about me than I do,” Dan shouted. “Come in!”

  Luke turned to Amber. “C’mon, Amber. My father has spoken.”

  “And they heard him over in Plainville, too,” Amber whispered.

  Luke chuckled. “Let’s go into your room, Dad.”

  “This isn’t my room. I live on Main Street in an apartment building that someone else owns and is full of us old folks,” he snapped.

  “Then let’s go into that room,” Luke pointed. “The one that has your name on the nameplate.”

  “Okay.”

  They all took a chair by a small round table in front of a window. There was also a small fridge and a microwave in the room, a hospital-type bed, a dresser and a TV on a corner cabinet.

  “This is a far cry from how the ranch used to be, Dad. How long do you have to stay in here?”

  “Until I’m cured, I guess,” he said. “Wait. I’m wrong. I’ll never be cured. I’ll always be an alcoholic—at least that’s what they tell me.”

  “You’re hearing what they’re saying, Mr. Beaumont? That’s fabulous. Do you believe it?” Amber asked.

  “Call me Big Dan.” He sniffed. “And I’m not powerless over alcohol. I can quit anytime I want. I just don’t want to.”

  “Then, Dad, you’re going to stay in here for a long time.” Luke let out a deep breath. “And I have something to tell you, but I don’t want you to have any setbacks.”

  “You mean that you bought the ranch out from under me?”

  “I didn’t. I mean that—” Luke’s eyes grew wide. “How did you know?”

  “Small town,” he and Amber said in unison. They all laughed, and that cleared the air.

  “Dad, all of us boys chipped in and bought the ranch. It’s still yours, but there’s just some auction rule that it has to go in the bidder’s name. That was me. I was the bidder because Reed and Jesse are riding another circuit while the PBR is on break. I took the break off.”

  “You should have stayed riding. You know my wishes. I wanted the ranch to stay as it was.”

  “Yeah. You wanted the place to go to ruin while you’re drinking and fighting and making a damn fool out of yourself. You’re getting arrested now, Dad.”

  Amber stayed silent. She really wished she had insisted and waited in the lobby. This was a family affair. Too bad that Luke’s truck hadn’t started. He wouldn’t have needed her for rides. Then again, she liked being with him, liked his company.

  Maybe her brother wouldn’t be able to fix the truck, and she could continue giving Luke rides. Too bad Ronnie could fix anything. Her other brothers had nicknamed him “Wrench Hands.”

  Big Dan pounded a fist on the table, and it made Amber jump. “I wanted the ranch to stay the same as it was when Valerie Lynn died.”

  “But it’s way beyond that. It’s a big mess from Hurricane Daphne. And you know that Mom loved the history of that ranch. The old pictures, all the historic maps that were on the walls—gone! Water damage. The art that was priceless. Gone! The chair that Mom liked to sit in and crochet, mice were living in it and in the drawers. Kids have been partying in there.”

  Big Dan had a pained look on his face.

  “But above all, the entrance sign with the five B’s on it? That’s down, Dad. And that represented our home. It represented the best upbringing a kid could have—all us kids. We want it back. I mean, I know we can’t go back, but maybe our kids could experience what we had.”

  That last sentence surprised Dan, but it shocked Luke.

  Luke stood and looked out the window. “Your neighbors brought some stock back today. They took care of things when you didn’t. And Reed just called. He won on a bounty bull and was negotiating for stock to buy. The ranch is going to be restored with or without your approval, and I’m going to reemploy our workers that you didn’t care about.”

  Another pound on the table. “I don’t approve.”

  “It’s out of your hands, Dad. Reed, Jesse and I own it now,” Luke said softly, evenly. “And it’ll be our money that’ll fix it up.”

  “Get out of here, Luke. I’m tired. Goodbye, Sergeant Chapman.”

  They both stood to leave. Amber offered her hand to shake his and Dan stood and took it. His hand was limp and clammy.

  Luke offered his hand, too. Dan turned away. Luke let his hand drop at his side. “Okay. Let’s get going, Amber. I think I’ve said all I’ve come to say.”

  Big Dan whirled around and put his hands on his hips. “I’ve got one more thing to say.”

  Luke looked like he had just gone eight seconds with an eighteen-hundred-pound Brahma bull. “Say it, Dad.”

  “Are
you two in cahoots together? I mean, Sergeant Chapman arrests me and puts me in here so I can’t get out and stop you, and you go and buy the place out from under me, and I can’t get out and stop you.”

  Now, that was offensive! Amber was just about to say something when Luke took her hand.

  “Cahoots? Amber and I are friends, yes. And do we both want what’s best for the ranch and for the town? Yes. But are we in cahoots? No.”

  “We’ll see,” said Big Dan.

  Amber’s heart was racing. She’d been accused of many things, but not trying to take a man’s ranch from him with his son.

  “There’s nothing to see, Mr. Beaumont,” Amber said. “There’s nothing—”

  “Forget it, Amber,” Luke said. “Let’s head out. It’s been a long day and I have to make up my camp outside since the ranch is full of black mold.”

  “There’re hotels in town,” his father snapped.

  “I’d rather be home, Dad. After such a long time on the road, there’s nothing like being home, but you wouldn’t get that.”

  Dan leaned toward them. “I can get that. I’m not stupid.”

  “Well, then, for heaven’s sake, that’s why I want to be home, Dad. I’m sick of hotels, and I like camping, you know that. Besides, kids are partying in the house. I’ll get rid of them.” Luke took his hat off and raked his fingers through his hair. He was clearly frustrated.

  Amber didn’t know why his father was questioning Luke about pitching a tent on the property, but judging by the slight nudge he gave her, he wanted to leave. “Amber, are you ready to go?”

  She faintly heard her name, but she was already in the hall and headed for the lobby to get the hell out of the place. Big Dan could be a pain in the butt to deal with when he was drunk, but he was in rare form when he was sober.

  Amber had an empty feeling in her heart for Luke. She vowed to work herself to the bone to help the town...or was it Luke she wanted to help?

  Chapter Seven

  It was really pouring when they left the rehab center, and Amber ran to her car to avoid the majority of it. As she unlocked the doors, she realized that Luke wasn’t with her.

  In between her wipers clearing the windows, she saw Luke looking up at the sky and grinning as if he was taking a shower. He had taken his hat off and turned in a quick circle. Amber half expected him to start dancing.

  Whatever he was doing, he certainly wasn’t in a hurry to get out of the rain.

  Finally he opened the passenger door and slid inside on the leather seats, which luckily were rainproof, mostly.

  “Glad you have leather seats,” he said.

  “Just what I was thinking.”

  “I needed that!” He wiped his face with a shirtsleeve.

  It must be something to do with washing away the stress after meeting with his father, Amber thought. Or maybe he just liked rain.

  “Luke, you can’t pitch a tent in this.”

  “You’re probably right. I guess I should go to a hotel tonight. Would you mind dropping me somewhere?”

  “I don’t mind in the least. How about the Beaumont Inn or the Beaumont House?”

  “Doesn’t matter to me. Whichever one is the closest to the ranch.”

  They didn’t say much of anything on the way to the inn. Since Luke had had a tough time with his father, he was probably processing it all.

  When she got to the Beaumont Inn, it was raining harder than before. At least they had a portico.

  Just as soon as Luke went in, he came out. “No room in the inn. The manager called over to the Beaumont House for me, and they are full, too.”

  “Wonder what’s going on?”

  “Freshman orientation and a band competition at the university. The manager said there isn’t a room in the tri-county area.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Back to the tent idea,” Luke said.

  “You can’t, Luke. You’d be swimming.”

  “I’d offer you my father’s house, but you’d probably have to sleep on car parts. Or under the motor that’s hanging in the dining room.” She swore under her breath. “Maybe they are going to make a coffee table out of it. And here I thought if they’d clean the place up, my mother might come home to stay. But that’s just wishful thinking.”

  “Did they ever divorce?” Luke asked.

  “No. She still loves him. She keeps hoping that he’ll change.” She paused. “It would be nice if one of my brothers would move out and get his own place, but they’re tied to Dad’s coveralls.”

  Luke turned his hat around in a circle. “I don’t have any close friends that I can mooch off of. I didn’t really keep in touch. My loss.”

  “You didn’t even keep in touch with Kenny Fowler?” she teased.

  “No way in hell, but I did hear he’d moved to one of the Carolinas.”

  “The Southern one, but that isn’t far enough away from me.”

  “I hear you.”

  “Listen, Luke. You’re going to have to stay with me.” A shot of electricity went through her, and she felt like a giddy teenager doing something sneaky for which she was going to be caught.

  “You don’t need me underfoot,” he said. “I’ll sleep in my pickup.”

  Amber laughed. “A bull riding star sleeping in his truck? It’s not even a rock-star bus. Let’s face it, if anyone found out that’s what the town of Beaumont was doing to a local treasure, we’d be drummed out of Oklahoma.”

  “Treasure? After what we paid to bail out the ranch, I couldn’t even buy you a drink.”

  She realized that she still had her uniform on. No drinking for her. Alcohol wasn’t her drug of choice, anyway—pizza was—and then Smokin’ Sammy’s and the fried chicken place out on the Old Post Road, in that exact order.

  Amber shook her head. She had to get fit or the state police wouldn’t take her. And what happened to Marco’s Fit-nasium? She kept thinking that she’d join, but never did.

  “So, are you going to accept my invitation, Luke? As I see it, you don’t have a choice and neither do I. Stay as long as you’d like. After working all day on your ranch, you’re going to need a shower and a place to sleep. I have a comfortable couch.”

  “Thanks. For now, it makes sense. I accept your invitation, and will be out of your hair as soon as I fix up a bedroom and a bathroom at the ranch.”

  That was that. She’d just invited Luke to stay at her place and he’d accepted. When word got out that she was living with Luke, the gossip would rain like...rain!

  As far as the town knew, she’d never dated much. None of the men she’d ever met could hold a candle to her long-term crush, Luke Beaumont.

  Darn him!

  Luke had put the town of Beaumont on the map. Now all he had to do was to put the Beaumont Ranch back on the tourist trail with the other historical landmarks and the town would thrive again.

  If she had to give Luke Beaumont a place to stay, it would mean nothing to her. She’d be leaving Beaumont, and so would he.

  “I live over the Happy Tea Pot and China Shop,” she said. “It’s a fairly new tearoom and store in the middle of Main Street. It sounds pretty girly, doesn’t it?”

  He chuckled. “Am I going to feel like a bull in a china shop?”

  Amber laughed. “Not really. Out back, behind the shop, there’s a separate door and staircase that goes to my apartment. You never have to feel like a bull in a china shop—that is, unless it reminds you of your job.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him lean over and stare at her. “A lot of people wouldn’t agree with you. They think that bull riding isn’t a job, that it’s a hobby.”

  “You work hard. You jog, lift weights, you ride practice bulls and you even do yoga, so—”

  “How do you know I d
o yoga?”

  For heaven’s sake, she sounded like a buckle bunny. “Um, well... I saw you around town in high school, but you had to continue to train to get where you are. I think that the commentators on TV mentioned the yoga.”

  Luke touched her arm and she almost jumped through the roof of her car. She didn’t expect the contact, but she liked it.

  “Thanks for realizing how hard I work. Sometimes I wonder why I do it and don’t work the ranch full-time.”

  “Do you love riding?”

  “I do, but it doesn’t leave me time to develop relationships with all the traveling I do, and one-night stands are not for me.”

  “I guess you have to take the good with the bad, and hope for more good. A lot of people don’t like their jobs,” Amber said.

  “What about you? Do you like your job?”

  “Sometimes. Most of the time. I wish I wasn’t the only woman in a small department because I get what I call the ‘girly’ assignments—the things the captain doesn’t want to give the guys. You see, he saves them for the real cop work. That’s what I think, anyway.”

  “What do you mean?” Luke asked.

  Amber took a deep breath and dumped what she’d been stewing over some eight years.

  “I get a lot of traffic duty, like today. On one occasion, I stayed here and covered while the whole department, all five of them, went on a road trip to pick up a parole absconder in Comanche County. I could have done that alone. The man was short of ninety years old and was in a wheelchair! I get the petit larcenies. They get the robberies. Oh, and one of my perpetual duties is to enter or look up information on our computer systems, because they whine and claim that they are too old to learn computer skills and it takes me half the time, so I got the assignment. That kind of thing.”

  “That stinks.”

  “I’ve volunteered to train them yet again, watch as they work the various systems, but instead they just want me to do it for them. I’ve given up complaining, except now I’ve switched to whining.”

  “You’re not whining. I asked you about it.”

  She felt like a chip fell off one of her shoulders and crumbled into dirt.