Single In The Saddle

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “Some of the ranchers have ’em, too,” Big Clyde said. “Like on the Fourth of July.”

  “Yeah, the ones where there’s a married couple running the place,” Andy said, with a significant glance at Daphne.

  “That makes things real nice when a couple’s running things,” Ramon agreed.

  “Well, unless they get divorced,” Ty said.

  Jasper grabbed a newspaper and whacked Ty on top of the head.

  Daphne swallowed a bite of sandwich. “Listen, guys, I get the hint. But your boss is not the least bit interested in a wife.”

  “He sure was worried about you gettin’ back from town safe, yesterday, ma’am,” Big Clyde said. “He was so busy lookin’ for you, he got hisself bucked off.”

  Daphne was impressed with such a long speech from Big Clyde, not to mention the interesting information about Stony.

  “And the night before that, when we was playin’ cards, he kept bringin’ up your name,” Andy said. “Couldn’t keep his mind on the game. I won about ten bucks off him ‘cause he was so woolly-headed.”

  “I keep tellin’ Daphne to give this some time,” Jasper said. “He’ll come around.”

  Big Clyde gazed thoughtfully around the living room. “Did you feng shui the whole house?”

  “I’ve worked on most of it,” Daphne said. “This room, the kitchen, my room. Not Stony’s room, though.”

  “Well, there you go.” Big Clyde put down his plate. “Time to move some furniture. Come on, boys.”

  Daphne leaped up in alarm. “Wait a minute. I don’t know if we should just go in there and—”

  “We won’t hurt nothin’,” Andy said, already halfway down the hall. “Just get the chi movin’, like you did in the bunkhouse. Come on, Ty.”

  “The boss ain’t gonna like this,” Ty said, but he was already on his feet.

  “This time I agree with you, Ty,” Daphne said.

  “He can always put it back, señorita,” Ramon said over his shoulder as he headed after the others.

  Jasper glanced at her and grinned. “You’d better get in there and tell ‘em what to do. They’re liable to get that chi movin’ in the wrong direction.”

  “Guess I might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb,” Daphne muttered, as she put down her plate and started toward Stony’s bedroom.

  Half an hour later, Stony’s four-poster was angled against one corn of the room and his dresser angled against another. Daphne watched in amusement as Ramon and Andy made up the bed and fluffed the pillows. She had to admit the room looked better already.

  “He needs flowers,” Big Clyde said. He left the room and soon returned with a bouquet from the living room. He positioned it carefully on the top of the dresser and stood back, arms crossed, to judge the effect. “Good.”

  Ramon walked to the doorway and surveyed the room from that vantage point. “It still needs something else, like the curtains you made for us. You got anything like that?”

  She did. Not knowing if she’d ever have the chance to use it, she’d bought an extra-large lace tablecloth on sale, thinking how beautiful it would look draped over the tall posters of the bed. Yet she felt a little shy about trundling the lace out in front of everyone.

  Big Clyde edged over beside her. “You need somethin’ like my spurs, too,” he said in an undertone.

  She remembered how he’d allowed himself to be vulnerable in front of her and decided she might as well trust these guys with her tender feelings. “All right, I do have something. Wait here and I’ll get it. I’ll need some help hanging it, anyway.”

  Moments later she came back with the lace. “I want to hang this from the bedposts to make a canopy.”

  “That’s real pretty, ma‘am,” Andy said. “But I have to tell you, seein’ as how you can kick a guy clear into next week, I thought you’d go in for silk things with dragons on’em.”

  “Sometimes that’s nice, too,” Daphne said with a smile. One of these days she would explain everything to these cowboys, but now didn’t seem like the time. “Now, if four of you will each take a comer and lift it up over the bedposts, I think it will just hang there.”

  Even if she’d had a camera, she wouldn’t have emberrassed the cowboys by taking their picture. But she would have loved to capture the moment when Big Clyde, Andy, Ramon and Ty lifted the lacy material and gracefully draped it over the tall bedposts. It was a tableau she wouldn’t soon forge

  From her pocket, she withdrew two lavender sachets tied with ribbons that she’d been keeping in her suitcase to freshen her clothes. Fastening the ribbons together, she hung the twin sachets over a central finial on the headboard. Then she glanced at Big Clyde, who nodded his approval.

  Andy grinned as he looked around the room. “If that don’t get his chi movin’, I don’t know what will.”

  “And now we’d better get our butts movin’ if we expect to finish that fountain,” Jasper said. “Everybody rinse your plate and then come on outside.”

  “Thanks for rearranging the room, guys,” Daphne said, giving them all a smile.

  Ramon winked at her. “Maybe we’ll have potlucks around here yet.”

  With one last look at the bedroom, Daphne followed the men down the hall. With a vision of the canopied four-poster lodged in her mind, she wasn’t dreaming of potluck dinners.

  An hour later Jasper came to stand beside her while Big Clyde lifted the motor down into the pool and connected it to the pipe going up inside the falls. “Is that motor big enough for the job?” Jasper asked.

  “I got the biggest one they had. I thought nothing would be worse than having some wimpy little trickle of water coming down the rocks.”

  Jasper nodded. “Yep. Don’t want no puny-lookin’ waterfall, that’s for sure.”

  “By the way, I appreciate you telling the men to go along with the feng shui stuff. You probably don’t believe in it.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Went over to that part of the world when I was in the navy. I’m not one to say my way is right and another is wrong.” He gazed at her. “As for the boys, they would do about anything you asked ‘em to do. They feel plumb responsible for you, after what we done.” His eyes twinkled. “Besides, you was the cream of the crop, so a’course we was all bound to like you. We picked you out of a big stack.”

  “Lots of women wrote to Stony?” She’d always wondered.

  Jasper chuckled. “So many that I’m never tellin’ him. He’d get hisself a swelled head.”

  “A hundred?”

  “More like three hundred. We spent hours down at the bunkhouse goin‘ through ’em, and nearly killed ourselves slippin’ everything outa sight when Stony would show up.”

  “My goodness.” The news that she’d been chosen out of a large field made Daphne feel better, even if Stony hadn’t been the one doing the choosing.

  “Now, back to this-here waterfall motor, we gotta plug it in somewheres.”

  Fortunately Daphne had thought of that. “For now, we’ll just use a heavy-duty extension cord and run it inside the house. Maybe later it can be wired up in a fancier way, but I want to make sure the water’s running by the time Stony gets home.”

  Jasper glanced up at the sun. “Then we’d better get that cord and start fillin’ this hole with the hose. That boy usually gets bored with town after a few hours and hankers to be back home at the Roughstock.”

  “He really does love it here, doesn’t he?”

  The old cowboy nodded. “He sure appears to.”

  “And from what he’s told me, he owes you a big debt for making his dream come true. He said he couldn’t have done it without you.”

  Jasper flushed with pleasure. “It ain’t true, but it’s nice to hear. Stony can do anything, once he puts his mind to it. I mighta made things a little easier for him, but he’d have this ranch with or without me. Once he latches on to an idea, you can’t shake him loose.” He grinned. “That’s what earned him all the prize money on them bulls. He had an idea he was
gonna ride ’em to the buzzer, and that was that. Them bulls was outgunned.”

  Daphne smiled at that, but she couldn’t help thinking that Stony’s stubbornness might be a liability as well as an asset. After all, he’d held on to his ideas about love and marriage for a very long time.

  “If you’ll get the hose, I’ll get the cord,” Jasper said. “I can hardly wait to see ol’ Stony’s face when he gets home.”

  CURIOSITY BROUGHT STONY home a little sooner than he’d anticipated. He’d thought about staying in town until well past bedtime, just so he wouldn’t be tempted to grab Daphne again and try to seduce her. She wanted more than he was capable of giving, so there was no point in getting himself worked up for nothing. He’d been a fool to try anything the night before, and he was determined not to make that mistake again. The best defense was to stay away from her.

  That didn’t explain the little pot of African violets he’d bought, but he’d seen the damned things and remembered from her letters that she loved violets. He’d thought of the two flower arrangements he’d been a part of destroying, and how nice this little pot would look in her room.

  In fact, the whole time he was in town, whether he was prowling the aisles of the hardware store or arranging for a delivery from the feed store, his mind was either on Daphne or on the ranch and what sort of craziness was happening there today. He should have put a stop to the whole feng shui thing a long time ago, but he hadn’t had the heart. Besides, with the loyalty Jasper and the men seemed to feel for Daphne, he might not be wise to lay down an ultimatum that would force them to choose between the boss and the lady.

  His concern about the ranch made him hurry through the list he’d brought, and by midafternoon he’d run out of errands. He’d even spent some time under a shady tree installing the new water pump on his truck. Uriless he wanted to stop in at the bar or just park the truck and take a snooze, he had nothing to do except go home. Home was where he wanted to be, anyway, so he pointed the truck toward the Roughstock and stepped on the gas.

  Deciding to make a detour by the bunkhouse before he faced whatever was going on in his front yard, he pulled up in front of the structure and groaned. Not only was the door bright red, but it had some sort of weed and flower wreath on it, and Christmas was months away. It looked like a dormitory for sweet young maidens, or not so sweet, considering the red door. It definitely didn’t look like a bunkhouse where five Texas cowhands lived.

  Almost afraid of what he’d find, he climbed down from the truck and opened the red door. Sure enough, red bandanna curtains hung café-style at the windows, and more red bandannas were draped over the nightstands and chests of drawers scattered around the bunkhouse. He couldn’t figure out why Big Clyde’s fancy spurs were tied onto his headboard like that, but if he sat up real quick he’d find himself scalped.

  Additional weed-and-flower bouquets tacked on the walls and tucked inside somebody’s old pair of boots just made him shake his head. Couldn’t even have a card game on the table without moving the centerpiece. What was his ranch coming to? Next thing he knew Daphne would probably want to color-coordinate the saddle blankets and paint flowers on the shovels they used to muck out the barn.

  Through the open windows came the sounds of the ruckus going on over at his house while they put together Daphne’s waterfall. With a sigh, he left the bunkhouse, closing the red door behind him. That red was going to be a hard color to cover up, once Daphne left the ranch. He couldn’t believe the boys would want to leave their bunkhouse looking like that once they weren’t trying to impress Daphne with their love of interior decorating.

  A shout of “Here he comes” greeted him as he pulled up in front of what used to be his front yard. Piles of dirt were everywhere, and the pond was much bigger than he’d anticipated. Of course he’d been careful not to think about this too much. But whenever thoughts of the project snuck up on him, he’d pictured the pond as being about the size of a bathtub. The reality was considerably bigger. The rocks for the waterfall rose on the far side of the pond, but no water was cascading down at the moment. The people were sure rushing around, though.

  Ty pulled a hose out of the pond and shut off the nozzle while Andy and Ramon patted dirt around a couple of bedraggled bushes they must have dug up somewhere on the property, because Stony had never seen anything like that in the nursery in town. Jasper and Big Clyde were gesturing and talking in loud voices about something. Daphne was nowhere in sight, but the front door was open and an orange cord trailed from the edge of the pond, up the steps and across the porch to disappear inside.

  Stony got out of the truck and walked toward the pond. The dog trotted over to greet him and he patted her absently, but his focus was on the structure in front of him. He nudged his hat back with his thumb and peered down to the bottom. “There’s a hell of a lot of water in there,” he called across to Jasper.

  “It took a hair more’n we thought it would,” Jasper called back. “But Daphne bought a good strong motor. Should move that water just fine.”

  Daphne came to the door and waved to Stony. “You’re gonna love this!” She popped back inside, and the motor at the bottom of the pond began to hum.

  Thumbs through his belt loops, Stony faced the opening where the water was supposed to come out. “I don’t think it’s—”

  The water gushed out, shooting completely over the pond and hitting Stony in the face with enough force to knock off his hat. Sputtering and yelling, he backed up and tripped over the dog, who was also trying to scurry away from the water. He landed on his butt in the mud being quickly formed by the shooting water.

  The cascade of water ceased and he just sat there, soaking wet, and stared at the waterfall while his men killed themselves laughing. As a final insult, his dog shook herself right in front of him. Any place the waterfall had missed, the dog took care of.

  Daphne hurried toward him, her face red as a beet. “I’m sorry. I had no idea it would do that. The motor must be too powerful.”

  Stony gazed up at her. “Good guess.”

  “You’re covered with mud.”

  “No kidding.”

  “Can I...can I help you with anything?” She looked like she was trying not to laugh.

  “Why, no, I can’t think of a thing.”

  “Then I think I’ll... go over and talk to the boys.”

  “You do that.”

  He sat there and watched her go into a huddle with his men, who as they talked with her kept glancing back at him with grins on their faces. He had the feeling that during the few hours that he’d been in town, she’d taken over more than his front yard and the decoration of the bunkhouse. She had those cowboys in the palm of her hand, and there was no telling what mischief they’d been up to.

  Jasper’s mustache twitched as he kept waving a piece of paper that looked like it could be instructions for the pump. Finally Andy took off his boots and socks, handed his hat off to Ramon and stripped off his T-shirt. Then he waded carefully into the pond, letting out a whoop of reaction as the cold water hit his heated body.

  The water came up to his waist at the deepest part. “Here goes!” he called. Holding his nose, he sank out of sight. After what seemed like a very long time, he burst to the surface again. “I did it!”

  “Did what?” Stony asked. He might as well get in on this little party.

  “Adjusted the valve so it comes out slower. Go ahead, ma’am. Fire her up again.”

  Daphne started toward the house.

  “Hold it!” Stony scrambled to his feet. “How do you know which way you adjusted it? You may have it set to hit my truck!”

  Big Clyde glanced at the truck. “Could use a wash, boss.” Then he favored Stony with his big gap-toothed grin.

  “Oh, what the hell,” Stony said as he retrieved his hat. “Let ‘er gush.” He walked over to his men. “So how do you boys like your boudoir? Shall I order up a pot of tea for y’all this afternoon? Maybe a few little finger sandwiches?”

  He
glanced around at the men, who all looked like they were about to bust a gut keeping their laughter inside. Dammit, they were holding out on him about something. “Okay,” he said slowly. “I’m guessing the froufrou bunkhouse and the gushing fountain aren’t the only surprises in store for me. What else have you boys been up to?”

  He didn’t know if he ever would have gotten an answer out of them, because at that moment the waterfall roared to life, spewing out of the rocks and leaping ten feet across the pond to rain directly on his truck. With a sigh he remembered he’d left the windows down.

  “Well, boss,” Andy said from his position in the middle of the pond, “there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is I musta turned that valve the wrong way, after all.”

  “Yeah, and what’s the good news?”

  “We just feng shuied your truck!”

  13

  “DAMMIT, JASPER, but we shouldn’t be wasting water like this.” Stony watched as the geyser was shut off again and Andy submerged to adjust the valve once more.

  “That’s a fact,” Jasper agreed. “We didn’t count on no waste, though, and if we drain the pool now well waste what we already put in there. And we need to get that pump workin’ right or we’ll have a slimy swamp, just like Ty said.”

  Stony had to concede Jasper’s point. The project had gone too far to stop it now.

  Big Clyde came over to Stony and cleared his throat. “Uh.boss?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I know you think this is foolishness.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Big Clyde took a deep breath. “I don’t.”

  Stony glanced up sharply into the big man’s face. “You don’t? You’re the soul of logic around here! This feng shui is the most illogical bunch of nonsense I’ve ever come across!”

  Big Clyde shuffled his size sixteen boots. “Daphne, she explained it to me, boss. It’s about—” He paused and gazed off into space, obviously struggling to express himself. “It’s about movin’ things around. You can’t leave things the same. They get...what’s that word, Ramon?”