The Cowboy and the Cop

by Christine Wenger

  “Thanks for listening.” She hit the defogger on her dash to clear the steam from her windshield. “A lot of hot air in here!”

  “I saw you with the state police study guide. Is that what you really want? The state police?”

  “I hope so. I need to move to a bigger department where I’m not the only woman.”

  Sheesh. Was it possible that the tax auction was just this morning when Luke had caught her reading the study guide? What a long day. The man must be exhausted.

  “There’s the Happy Tea Pot now,” Amber said. “Every time I see that big, flowered teapot sporting a big smile on the sign, I smile, too. It cheers me up when I’m down.”

  “Are you down a lot?”

  Amber made a left turn to park behind the Happy Tea Pot. “Not really. Only when my family gets to me—mostly my brothers. Well, my father, too. I don’t trust them to stay out of trouble, because they seem to get a rush living on the fringe of criminal behavior.”

  “Your brothers have always lived on the fringe. Maybe they should try riding bulls. They can get their adrenaline rush legally.”

  “No, thanks. I want them legal, not dead,” she said. “Um, not that I want you dead, Luke. Oh, darn. You know what I mean.”

  It was time to change the subject.

  She laughed. “Ready to make a run for it in the rain? Oh, wait. You love the rain.”

  “I do. It makes things grow, and it makes me feel alive. Don’t you agree?”

  “It just makes me feel wet.” She grinned. “If I want to feel alive, I’ll take a bath or a shower in the bathroom with scented soap.”

  Luke shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  Amber pointed. “There’s the door. When you’re done singing in the rain, come upstairs. I’ll greet you with a fluffy towel, the kind you find in a bathroom.”

  Then it dawned on her. “Hey, do you have any clothes? I don’t remember seeing—”

  “My gear bag is on the floor of the back seat. So, don’t worry. I won’t be naked.”

  Her face was about to combust. “I didn’t mean that. I meant that I could find you some sweats or something. You don’t have to wear a towel, though you could if you’d like. Or you could walk around naked, if that’s what you bull riders do.”

  She hoped that he thought she was flirting instead of feeling...nervous. It had been so long since she’d been this infatuated with a man—and that man was Luke. Now her infatuation was living and breathing and going to stay with her for a while. She had to calm down. She was acting like a rookie at love when actually she’d had a couple of relationships.

  But she’d had no relationship with Luke, yet he was the one she’d always wanted. Maybe by spending time with him, she would finally get him out of her system. Maybe Luke would buck himself off that pedestal she had him on. Then she could move on and find a guy she could settle down with.

  * * *

  THIS HAS BEEN a wild day, Luke thought as he walked up the stairs to Amber’s apartment. If anyone had ever told him that he’d be the official owner of the Beaumont Ranch, that the property would be in such a mess, that he’d eat barbecue among the car parts and canning jars at the Chapmans’, that he’d visit his father in rehab and that he’d be staying with Amber Chapman, he would have laughed.

  Yeah. What a day! And there was more to go. He knocked on the door of Amber’s apartment and stood there, waiting, with his gear bag in hand, not quite believing that he was imposing on her like this.

  He could have easily pitched a tent in the rain or even slept in his pickup. He could have cleared a spot in the barn with some version of clean hay, but the roof leaked so much, he’d be better outside.

  In his early days of bull riding and driving from event to event, he and his traveling buddies slept wherever they landed, which was mostly in the car.

  Amber opened the door and, as promised, she met him with a big towel.

  “Thanks.”

  He took it and dried his hair. He should probably take his wet clothes off and put on something dry.

  “Come in. I’ll show you around,” Amber said.

  Her place was warm and inviting, and her couch with the stripes and matching pillows looked just as inviting. Suddenly he felt dead on his feet.

  “The bathroom is down the hall on the right. You might want to shower or change or whatever.”

  “That sounds great, Amber.”

  “You’ll see shampoo and liquid soap. If you can’t find something you need, just yell. My house is your house. Don’t ask, just help yourself.”

  He looked at her sparkling grass-green eyes and smiled. Amber was hot, and he couldn’t wait to see her out of that uniform...and...uh—

  Amber Chapman? What was he thinking?

  He liked her loyalty to Beaumont, and liked her loyalty to her crazy family. He liked how she cared enough for his father to give him several chances and to get him into rehab. He liked how she was willing to roll up her sleeves and help him fix up the ranch.

  Amber Chapman was quite a woman, but he’d never thought of her as hot...until now.

  “I think I’ll take you up on that shower.”

  “Be my guest. Would you like something to eat? I can make you a ham-and-cheese sandwich on rye. Or if you want something sweet, I have chocolate-chip cookies.”

  “Did you make them?”

  “I did, and they are divine.”

  “Homemade chocolate-chip cookies are my downfall,” Luke said, already drooling.

  “Then get ready to fall down.”

  His cell phone rang. “It’s Reed. I have to take this.”

  Amber nodded and disappeared into the back of the apartment. Her bedroom, maybe.

  “Hey, Reed. What’s up?”

  “Bro, there’re ten truckloads of cattle, a handful of bulls, and a lot of rodeo stock headed your way from Charlie G’s Livestock. Oh, and a half dozen horses. And there’s paperwork on everything. The Beaumont Ranch will come alive again.”

  “And what about Charlie Gorwecki? Is he retiring?”

  “He sure is. Lucky us. Perfect timing, isn’t it?” Luke could hear the excitement in Reed’s voice.

  “When does the stock arrive, Reed?”

  “Sometime tomorrow.”

  Luke whistled low. “I really appreciate what you’re doing, but the barn is pretty much shot. I’ll have to find another place for the horses to board or I can throw up something temporary for shelter.”

  “Do what you gotta do, bro. There will be more money coming your way. Jesse won the Galveston event.”

  “Incredible. Congratulate him for me. And thanks, partner. Thanks to you both.”

  “One for all—”

  “And all for one!” Luke finished.

  Things were moving fast. Maybe too fast. But if Charlie Gorwecki was retiring and selling out, Luke was glad to have first dibs on his stock, and it was prime Oklahoma stock since Charlie lived in Osage County.

  Luke walked down the hallway, found the bathroom and hit the light. He was surprised to find a shower curtain painted with cowboy boots, dozens of them, with different logos and designs.

  It made him laugh. So did the matching toothbrush holder and other accessories.

  He stripped down, turned on the tap, stepped in and let the water sluice down on him. It wasn’t rain, but it’d do. He lathered up with coconut-melon shampoo and mango-watermelon bath gel and thought he smelled like a fruit salad.

  No wonder whenever he was around Amber, she smelled so delicious.

  He pulled out a rolled-up towel from a basket on a shelf, shook it out and dried off for the second time in several minutes. Riffling through his gear bag, he found a pair of sweatpants, underwear and a T-shirt. He could sleep in that.

 
He ran a comb through his hair and reminded himself to get a haircut before the arena announcers and commentators made comments about his “long, wavy hair” like they had before, as if that made him a lesser bull rider.

  He picked up his wet clothes and towels, and made his way to the kitchen where Amber and chocolate-chip cookies should be waiting.

  As much as he liked the cookies, he was looking forward to talking with Amber again. She was a woman he could talk to.

  Although she could be way too serious, she was a smart woman, and he liked that. And he liked how she loved Beaumont and how she wanted to better herself by working toward a new job. And then there was the fact that Amber appreciated how hard he worked, but she wasn’t phony or overwhelming, like the stampede of buckle bunnies he inevitably had to deal with.

  Amber was sitting at her kitchen table, going through her mail. Looking up, she smiled. He liked how she smiled, too. It lit up her whole face.

  “Oh, your clothes. You can put them in the laundry room.” She pointed to an open door on the other side of the kitchen. “There’s a basket in there. Or you can put them in the washing machine if you need to do them.”

  “Thanks, Amber.”

  Luke walked to the laundry room and, from the doorway, tossed his clothes into an empty basket.

  “And there’s soap on the—”

  He held out his hand to stop her. “I’m good. Thanks.”

  “Stop being so nice, Luke!”

  “I am nice. But so are you.”

  “I know, but quit thanking me. Okay. Let’s clear the air. Won’t you sit, please?”

  “Stop being so nice, Amber!” Laughing, he sat next to her. He didn’t have to wait long before she pushed the plate of cookies toward him. “Are these all mine?”

  “They can be. And if you ever want more, there’s the cookie jar.” A jar in the shape of a green cowboy boot sat on the counter next to a window with lace curtains.

  “Milk, coffee or tea?” she asked, standing. “I’ll get the first one, you help yourself after that.”

  “Milk, please,” he said then snapped his fingers. “Darn. Forget I said ‘please.’ I meant to say, ‘Fetch me milk, woman!’”

  “Watch that kind of talk, cowboy,” She laughed. “Remember that I have a gun...and handcuffs.”

  “Promises...promises.”

  She pushed her chair away from the table and he noticed that, along with a pink T-shirt from a breast cancer walk and run, she was wearing a pair of beige shorts. Her legs were nice to look at—tanned and strong—and she was barefoot.

  If Amber looked good in cop clothes, she looked even better in street clothes.

  It was strange thinking of Amber as a potential date. She was just an old acquaintance from high school. Although he knew everyone he went to school with, Amber had never been on his radar. She was just...there. He’d never thought to ask her out back then, but what about now?

  “Amber, are you dating anyone? Should I watch my back if your boyfriend finds out that I’m staying with you?”

  She hesitated. “I don’t have a boyfriend. Your back is safe.”

  Now what should I say?

  She placed a tall glass of milk in front of him. “Help yourself, Luke.”

  He reached for a cookie and sunk his teeth into the best chocolate-chip cookie he’d ever had.

  “Geez, Amber, is there anything you can’t do? You can bake. That’s all you need!”

  She laughed and sat down. “And I can even cook, too. Um, there have been boyfriends, but we never went the distance. I guess I can be a bit intimidating.”

  He met her gaze. “I don’t think that. I think you just know what needs to be done, and you speak your mind. You spoke your mind to me at the autographing, and here I am. You also have a good heart, Amber. You do, and that means everything. And that’s coming from my gut.”

  Dammit. Tears pooled in her spring-green eyes. He was making her cry. “Aw...don’t cry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

  She dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. “They’re good tears.”

  “My mother used to say that.”

  Amber nodded. “And you have good memories of your mother?”

  “Absolutely. And she loved the ranch. One of the reasons we are fixing it up is to honor her memory.”

  She put her hand over his.

  He liked that. Friendship. That’s what it was.

  He patted her hand and she quickly removed it. “Amber, why did you become a cop?”

  “You’d laugh if I told you.”

  “Bet I wouldn’t.”

  She hesitated, as if thinking where to start. “As you know, my father was a moonshiner. I say was, because he swears that he isn’t doing it anymore. Anyway, law-enforcement officers were always stopping by the house to catch him moonshining and with hot car parts. Most of the time, they weren’t disappointed, but my father could talk his way out of anything. A case of ’shine here...a bribe there...a whitewall tire here. Every time they came I was scared out of my wits. And what followed was the argument between my folks because my mother hated it as much as I did. I wanted to be a cop to make my father stop.”

  He nodded. “Any regrets?”

  “That I probably didn’t make my father stop, after all, and now he has my brothers mixed up in everything.”

  He nodded. “I saw that stockpile of jars.”

  She drummed her fingers on the table. “It was hard to miss. Something’s up. And I hate the fact that they are lying to me, but I’ll catch them sooner or later.”

  They made small talk and Luke wiped out the dish of cookies. “Your couch is calling to me.” He yawned. “Would you mind if I said good-night now?”

  “Heavens! It’s one in the morning! You’ve had a long, long day.” She jumped up. “Let me get you some pillows and blankets.”

  “Thanks.” Then he realized what he’d said. “I mean, get me some pillows and blankets, woman!”

  She chuckled. “Come and help me, cowboy.”

  Another thing he liked about Amber was joking with her.

  Tomorrow was going to be another busy day and he hoped that they could spend more time together.

  But this relationship would have to stay purely platonic. He didn’t have any time to spend on a long-term liaison. He needed to concentrate on fixing up the ranch until the PBR started back up in a couple of months. Then he was going to go for another World Finals win in November. That would be his second and would put him among the elite riders.

  He’d never had any luck with a serious relationship. Or maybe, as Amber had said, he couldn’t find anyone he could go the distance with.

  Could he go the distance with Amber?

  Chapter Eight

  Amber couldn’t sleep. It was hard to believe that the number-one bull rider in the world was spending the night on her couch.

  He was one of those Beaumonts.

  She was one of those Chapmans.

  If there had been train tracks going through town, she would have been born, and grown up, on “the other side” of them.

  He’d grown up in the most historical home and land in the tri-county area.

  She’d grown up surrounded by a junkyard.

  Amber didn’t know why she was thinking about the differences between Luke and herself; she ought to be thinking about what they had in common.

  High school. The same town. Only he’d left. Of course, they both liked bull riding. Oh, and they both wanted to see the Beaumont Ranch fixed up. Luke wanted it restored to honor the memory of his mother and his ancestors, and she wanted it restored because of its tourist value and because it employed a good part of the town.

  At about five in the morning, she tossed on a robe and went out to the kitchen to start the coffee. O
f course, the first thing her eyes settled on was the sight of Luke stretched across her couch. Sometime during the night the blankets had dropped on the floor and one of his legs was hanging off the couch. His T-shirt was off, and his sweats hung low on his flat stomach.

  What a gorgeous hunk of a man!

  Amber forced herself to concentrate on making coffee, but all she wanted to do was to take a seat in the living room and look at Luke until her eyes dried up like a beached trout.

  He groaned and moved around in his sleep until he got comfortable. Amber hurried over to his side, picked up the blankets and gently covered him. It was like covering a work of art.

  “Thanks, Amber,” he mumbled.

  She jumped. “No problem, cowboy. Now go back to sleep.”

  “I can’t. Long day. Gotta...get...up.” Two minutes later he started snoring.

  Amber finished fixing the coffee then turned it on. Soon it started dripping and the delicious aroma permeated the air.

  “Woman, how about some bacon and eggs and home fries with onions?”

  “Sure, cowboy!” Amber’s voice rang out. “Cereal and milk coming right up. A banana is optional.”

  “Cereal? For a hardworking man? The least you could do is throw in a chocolate-chip cookie.”

  “I can do that.”

  “What the hell time is it?” he asked.

  “Five fifteen in the morning.”

  “You get up this early?”

  “My sleep clock is all crazy due to the shifts I work. I guess I had enough sleep.”

  “I might as well get an early start on the day. Over ten stock trucks will be arriving at the ranch sometime today.” He rubbed his face to wake up. “The Beaumonts will be back in business. And Big Dan Beaumont will be miserable.”

  “Wow! Several trucks. That’s great about the stock, Luke! And don’t worry about your father. He’ll come around.”

  “Hope you’re right.” Luke folded the blankets and set them and the pillows on a neat pile on the couch. “Excuse me while I get dressed and tidy up,” he said, heading for the bathroom with his bag.

  Amber fussed with a bright, flowery tablecloth and added matching napkins. She set out bowls, milk, bananas, and poured coffee. As she was setting out the silverware, she stopped, thinking.