To Tame A Cowgirl

by Roni Adams

  “Yep.” Cord’s eyes were closed but that obviously didn’t stop him from listening.

  Her father hadn’t felt she was good enough to run the ranch and Cord didn’t think she was good enough to go to the livestock show alone. Sara stared back at her sister, hating that she made sense. Her pride was stung. She let her breath out, but refused to look at Buck. “Yeah, okay. I don’t want it all on my head I suppose.”

  Buck snorted. “If I go, she can always blame me.”

  Sara nodded and tried to grin. It wouldn’t be that bad. She and Buck used to have a ball when her father let them go with him. Of course, that was back when Cord did all the work and she and Buck were free to party all week. This time would be different. Plus, the tension between her and Buck in the last two weeks made her nervous about spending an entire week alone with him.

  The door opened again and Diane walked in. The hospital room was the largest private room they had, but it was getting more than crowded.

  “How is he?” Diane whispered.

  “He is still here, you don’t have to ask them how I am.” Cord snapped, but his eyes remained closed.

  Diane rolled her eyes and Sara touched her arm as she walked past. “I’m out of here, you two can fuss over the patient. I’ got work to do.”

  Buck watched Diane touch Cord’s arm. “I’m going to go too. Is there anything you want Flo to bring when she and Sam come up tonight?”

  “Actually, yes. Ask Sam to bring my laptop. If I can sit up tomorrow, I need to get some spreadsheets worked on.”

  Buck shook his head but Susan gave a brief nod. “Okay Cord, I’ll see if I can catch him.”

  “No—wait.” Cord opened his eyes and winced. “If someone could convince them...not to come back up tonight, that would be even better. I just want...to get some sleep.”

  Buck moved to the bed. “I’ll tell her that they gave you something to make you sleep. I can’t promise she won’t come anyway. You scared ten years out of her.”

  Cord’s eyes met Buck’s and he swallowed hard. The accident had woke them all up out of the bickering. Everyone had thought the same thing, how close they came to losing him. The doctors said he was a lucky man to be alive. For Buck, he was ashamed at the animosity he’d felt towards his older brother in the past two weeks. His parents would have been furious. And to think that Sara was caught in the middle too, they’d have skinned him alive. Sara had been the light of his parents lives. They’d loved all the Sampson daughters, but his mother had a special place in her heart for the rough around the edges cowgirl.

  Leaving Diane in the room with Cord, the other three stepped out into the hospital hall.

  “Can you drive Buck back?” Susan asked. “I want to stay in town and talk to Brad over at the community theatre?”

  “That’s fine. We need to talk about the trip anyway,” Sara agreed. “Unless you had somewhere else you had to go?”

  She turned to Buck, and, for a second, their eyes connected. He stared back for a moment and then realized what he was seeing. She was scared of this trip, nervous about going with him. Well, he planned to make sure she had the time of her life, and they’d deal with whatever they had to when they got back home. With all she’d been dealing with this week—including his stupid poker bet and subsequent kiss—she deserved to get away and have some fun.

  Buck dropped his arm across Sara’s shoulders in as casual a move as he could. “I’ll even buy you a coffee and some pie at the diner.”

  Sara grinned. “If you’re buying, I think I’m pretty hungry.” She slid her hand along her stomach. “Yep, I’m thinking I could go for a late lunch.”

  “Okay then, I’ll see you guys later.” Susan left them in the parking lot with a wave and climbed behind the wheel of her sports car.

  Buck stared at Sara’s truck for a minute. “Is that thing leaking oil now?” He bent down and reached under the truck then straightened and looked at her. “You know, someday it’s going to leave you at the side of the road and you’re just going to have to walk away.”

  “I know.” She shrugged and headed to the driver’s door.

  He put his hand out. “Let me drive.”

  “Chicken?” She lifted a challenging eyebrow but tossed him the keys without arguing.

  ****

  The rain dripped off the brim of Sara’s hat as she reached the back door. She shivered as another drop slipped down the back of her long duster. “Freakin’-A,” she muttered. It was coming down way too hard and bouncing off the dry ground. They needed the rain, just not like this. A nice, slow, steady ground drenching is what they needed, not this downpour.

  Satan, her bull with the personality disorder, had picked this morning to get ornery again. She’d just spent two hours dealing with him—no one else would go near him anymore. Finally it had come down to who was meaner, her or the bull. Today, the bull had retreated. “Someday, you miserable thing, you’re going to push me too far, and you’re gonna get a bullet!” she had warned him as he glared from behind his fence. He almost appeared to be laughing at how mud soaked and wet she was.

  She shrugged out of her long coat and left it piled on the floor. She pressed her mud-covered hand to the wall and yanked on her boot. They wouldn’t budge. “Son of a—”

  “Watch that mouth, girly,” Flo scolded. She grabbed a thick towel off the basket of laundry sitting on the floor and ambled towards the doorway. “Look at you,” she fussed. “Can’t you leave that dang bull alone for one day? Mud everywhere. Give me those wet things right now before you catch your death.” She held out the towel. “Ain’t you and Buck leaving in like half an hour?”

  Sara glared, but did as she was told, knowing Flo wasn’t about to let her traipse mud through the kitchen to the back stairs. The housekeeper’s hand moved to Sara’s wet flannel shirt and helped unbutton it.

  “I’m not seven, Flo,” she grumbled, slapping the dark hand away. “I can take my own damn shirt off.”

  She unzipped her wet jeans and yanked her shirt out. Then, wiggling and shimmying, she managed to get the wet denim off her legs. She kicked them away as she pushed the shirt off her shoulders and reached for the towel. She wrapped the blue terrycloth around her shoulders and wiped at her face with the ends as she stepped into the kitchen.

  “You’re gonna pay for the way you run around without a bra on, little girl. You wait, you’ll see. When you’re as old as me, they’ll be hanging down to your waist.”

  “What a sight that would be.”

  Sara’s head jerked up to find Buck leaning against the door, a grin splitting his face. She scowled and pulled the ends of the towel tight across her front. His gaze lowered to her bare legs.

  “Did you get a good look?” she spat out.

  “Actually, not as much as I would have liked, maybe if you opened up that towel a bit...”

  Sara’s bare feet slapped on the kitchen floor as she stormed past him. “When hell freezes over, Beauford.”

  She raced up the back stairs, Buck’s chuckle ringing in her ears.

  Flo came out of the laundry room. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. I didn’t raise you to be no peeping Tom.”

  Buck grinned. “I’m a red blooded male. You can’t deny me a peek every now and then.”

  She slapped her wrinkled hands on her ample hips. “You listen to me, boy, and you hear me good.” She pinned him with a glare. “You mind your manners and watch yourself with her this week.”

  Buck sauntered across the room to kiss her cheek. “No worries about me, Ma’am. I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”

  Flo nodded. “I made some snacks and hot coffee for the road, and don’t forget that little cooler there. If she doesn’t have her Pepsi, she’ll be as ornery as an ol’ polecat.”

  She bustled around the kitchen, thrusting enough food to last them a month into bags. Buck started to remind her that it was only a couple hours drive, and they could easily stop and grab a burger, but he knew it would fall on deaf ears.


  “Cord coming home tomorrow?” he asked, grabbing a handful of cookies out of the jar.

  “Yep. Diane and Teddy will go pick him up. I opened up that old guest room off the den. Since he can’t do steps at all—and you know he’ll be trying to get over here to the office anyway—we figured the best place for him was here.”

  “Didn’t that used to be your room?” Buck leaned a hip against the counter. The water rushed through the pipes upstairs and he fought down the urge to picture Sara naked and soapy under the shower.

  Flo smiled as she folded towels. “Yep, seems like a million years ago. That’s where I stayed before Sam and I were married.”

  “Sam told me it’s coming up on fifty years for you two. We should have a party.” Buck brushed the cookie crumbs off on his jeans and moved to the refrigerator for a Coke. He wanted to get on the road, not so much because he was in a hurry to get there, he just wanted to get off the ranch before some issue cropped up that would prevent the trip.

  “Oh go on, we don’t need no party. Sam and me, we’re simple folks. We’ll celebrate just the two of us. Maybe go to supper somewhere in town or something.”

  “I’m sure, knowing you two, there’ll be more to the celebration than just dinner.”

  Flo cackled and Buck grinned.

  “What’s so funny?” Sara bounced down the backstairs. Dressed in newer looking jeans and a short sleeve sweater, she looked almost dressed up—at least for her.

  “You look very nice, honey,” Flo said. “Is that the sweater you got in town the other day?”

  Buck loved the way the sweater outlined her breasts.

  Sara pulled a face and looked down at her chest. “Yeah, Susan thought I needed some new things for the trip. I don’t know though, it’s kind of fussy isn’t it?”

  Flo shook her head. “It looks nice, feminine for a change. Now, you two better hit the road.” She waved her hands in the air as if to shoo them. “It’s going to be a long drive with all this rain. Don’t you worry about anything round here.“ She picked up the last bag of snacks. “Everything will be just fine.”

  Several minutes later, they passed through the Double B arches. Buck glanced at Sara but she stared straight ahead. He felt good about this trip. They were going to have fun. Even though he wasn’t going to talk about the Will and all that, he was going to try to convince her not to race into a marriage with Cord. He wasn’t going to do that, though, by crossing any lines. This week was all about their friendship, being buddies and hanging out together.

  The windshield wipers couldn’t keep up with the stream of water that constantly hammered the window. Sara could barely make out the arches as they passed through them on the way off the property. If anyone other than Buck had been driving, she might have been nervous, but she had complete confidence in his ability to handle the truck even as it fishtailed through the standing water on the road. She opened up one of the magazines she’d brought with her and flipped through it. The atmosphere in the truck felt strained. She reached over to turn up the radio as Toby Keith came on, hoping the country singer with an attitude would lighten the mood.

  An hour into the trip she glance over to Buck. “Want me to drive for a bit?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m fine. Would you grab me a can of Coke though?”

  Sara set her magazine aside and turned to reach behind them to the cooler in the backseat. She’d just closed the lid when the truck lurched. Tossed into Buck’s side, he swore as he struggled to keep the truck on the road. Her gaze darted outside the truck, trying to figure out what had happened.

  Buck cursed again. The truck stopped and he cut the engine.

  “What the hell happened?” She brushed back her hair and sat back in her seat.

  “We blew a tire.” He glanced up through the windshield at the pouring rain and grimaced. “This oughta be fun.”

  Sara set the can of pop in the cup holder. “Why don’t we sit here a while and see if the rain lets up?”

  “I’m not waiting here like a sitting duck for some idiot to sideswipe my new truck.”

  Sara rolled her eyes, but recognized the truth of his words. It was difficult to see and anyone could hit them.

  With a sigh of resignation, Buck turned up the collar on his denim jacket and opened the door. She turned to watch him through the back window as he opened the tool compartment and hauled out the spare and jack. I can’t just sit here. She shrugged her jacket on and pushed open the truck door, wincing as her boots sunk into the thick mud.

  Buck had put out his emergency flares and was squatted next to the front driver’s side tire. With his back to the traffic and the rain coming down he was in a very dangerous spot and she shivered, hoping the tire change would go fast.

  “Get back in the truck,” he yelled, glancing over. “You don’t need to stand out here in the rain.”

  “I couldn’t just sit there—thought I could help.”

  “That’s stupid, it’ll only take a second, go on back in the cab.”

  Sara stuck her hands deep in her jacket and glanced up the highway again. She wasn’t going to sit in the truck while he was out here completely vulnerable. Cars whizzed past, but most gave them a wide rein.

  He started to let the truck down when a car came flying up the highway, too fast and way too close. The driver wasn’t slowing down or moving out wide like the others had.

  “Buck!”

  Chapter Eight

  “Son of a Bitch,” Buck swore, leaping out of the way.

  Sara’s heart was in her throat as the car whizzed so close past them that it clipped the rearview mirror on the truck. For a long second she just tried to breathe. Buck ran back to the side of the truck and quickly got it off the jack.

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  Sara climbed inside, but in her mind, she kept seeing the car coming. Right before her eyes, Buck could have been killed. She couldn’t even imagine her life without him. She shivered trying to rid herself of the thought.

  “Thanks,” he mumbled.

  “Anytime,” she muttered,.

  “Look at all the mud, damn it.”

  She let her breath out and adjusted her seat belt. “We should’ve taken my truck. It wouldn’t have mattered.”

  Buck glanced at her. “Yours? We might’ve gotten killed in that heap.”

  Thankful he was still around to banter with, Sara stuck her tongue out. “At least I got four good tires.”

  ****

  By the time they’d checked into the hotel, picked up the show information and unpacked, Buck was more than ready for a drink and dinner.

  Standing at the bar, he looked around to see if they knew anyone else yet. “I heard that guy from Oklahoma was coming. What was his place called again?”

  Sara shook her head. “I don’t remember—Circle something or other, maybe it was the Rocking something?” She shrugged and picked up her beer as soon as the bartender delivered them.

  Buck took a long drink when two hands suddenly slid around his waist and settled on his belt buckle. He frowned and glanced at Sara wondering what to do. The person pressed up against his back—undoubtedly a female. Her perfume was musky and incredibly potent. What the hell was going on?

  “Hmm, I wonder if what’s behind that buckle is half as big,” a low, familiar voice purred in his ear.

  Buck grinned and dropped his gaze to the hands at his waist. The long slender fingers spread wide and red nails walked down his thigh.

  “Ohh, I bet you give a girl a good, hard ride don’t you, cowboy?”

  Buck grabbed the hands that were about to get even more familiar with him and pulled the woman around in front. “Charli Boyd. Someday...”

  The long-legged redhead’s bright blue eyes danced with mischief and she leaned forward towards his mouth, pausing at the last second.

  “Promises, promises, Weston. You’re all talk.” She kissed him soundly before turning to hug Sara. “Daddy didn’t tell me you guys were coming. Where’s Cord?
”

  “Did you come down here looking for him?” Buck signaled the bartender. “Jack straight up,” he ordered for their friend.

  “Well, not exactly, but I figured if he was here and I was here...” She winked at Buck. “Well you know.”

  “You’d give him a heart attack and you know it.” Buck laughed.

  Charli shoved a mass of deep russet curls over her shoulder. “You underestimate your big brother. I like the quiet type. You know what they say about deep waters and all...”

  “You scare the crap out of Cord.”

  Charli winked at Sara before turning back to him. “I don’t scare you though, do I, big guy? What do you say, is this the week you finally give in and show me what you got under that buckle?”

  Buck hated that his face flushed, hated it more that Charli noticed and laughed.

  She picked up her shot of whiskey and held it up. “What are we drinking to?”

  Sara lifted her beer glass. “To old friends and good times.”

  Charli nodded and draped her arm around Sara’s shoulder. “And don’t forget hot cowboys.” She let her gaze drift up and down Buck.

  He shook his head in amusement. He’d known Charli since they were kids. She’d been a wild child from the time she was born and hadn’t changed as she grew up. If Charli was around, there was a party. Last Buck heard, she had been in France studying culinary arts and more than likely a lot more than that. Charli’s romantic conquests were legendary. It didn’t matter if they were cowboys or the prince of some small kingdom, they all fell for the long-legged vixen.

  Charlie swayed to the beat of the music as the song changed from a slow ballad to a faster pace. “Come on you two, dance with me,” she demanded.

  Sara frowned. “The three of us?”

  Charli grinned. Mentally Buck counted the three beats before her smart mouth retort.

  “I like my threesomes to be much more private than that, honey.”

  Buck could not be held responsible for the image that flashed into his mind as the two women laughed. He shook his head. Nope he better not go there or the buckle Charli was so obsessed with was going to pop clear off.