She couldn’t concentrate. The proposal she promised Jeffrey was simple enough, just a compilation of the arena’s financials and marketing plans. She had prepared hundreds over the years, but after thirty minutes her lack of focus made it impossible to fully delve into the task. Besides that, the barrel riding competition was starting and Tina was on the roster. Angela quickly finalized the proposal and sent it off to Jeffrey without even a read-through. Staring at the “message sent” notice across the screen, Angela bit her lip and frowned.
She turned off the lamp and hurried out of the office. The announcer called Tina’s name and Angela took off at a run. She hurried up the steel steps and stood behind Reed at the announcers stand.
Tina took her starting position and then commanded the horse into a full run. The crowd cheered for their hometown girl and Angela joined in.
“She looks great!” Angela leaned down and spoke into Reed’s ear over the crowd as Tina rounded the first barrel. “Sure does!” Reed patted Angela’s hand, glancing at her
over his shoulder. “When you getting out there?”
Angela laughed and shook her head. “I can’t remember the
last time I tried the barrels.”
“I do.” Reed rose and stood beside Angela, turning his
attention back to Tina as she finished the last turn. In the end
she placed eighth, but her time was good for a first go. Angela caught Tina’s eye as she and the horse pranced
toward the rear gates. There was no disappointment showing
on her face and Angela knew the girl was soaking up the cheers.
She kissed all of her fingertips at once and threw her arms wide
open to her “fans.”
Laughing, Angela blew Tina a kiss right back.
Turning again to Reed, Angela was surprised to realize he
had been looking at her, and not at Tina.
“You used to love the barrels,” Reed said with a sad smile
as the crowd calmed down and the next rider took her place.
“You used to ride Honey Bear. Remember?”
“Oh, I loved that horse,” Angela said. “Haven’t thought of
her in years. Butterfield was a good trail horse, and she will
always be my favorite, but Honey Bear was good on the barrels.
That horse loved to run. What happened to her?”
“She’s at Thornton Stables now, out to pasture. She missed
you when you left.” Reed said, looking away. “I always
wondered why you didn’t compete. You had good time.” “My father wouldn’t allow it.”
Angela turned away. Reed took his place back at the microphone and announced the next competitor. She hurried down the grated steel steps and at the bottom slammed into
Cole’s chest.
“Whoa.” He caught her arms to steady them both. His eyes
held nothing of what they had experienced just hours before.
She couldn’t say why that thought was so disturbing. Hadn’t
she wanted to forget about it?
“I have a surprise for you.” He gently squeezed her arms. “What is it?”
He said nothing, only turned her around to face a tall blond
man with big broad shoulders.
No. No. No!
“Hey there, little sister.”
“Michael.” Angela bit out the name. “What are you doing
here?”
“I just wanted to see how you are. It’s been a while.” He
stepped forward, his movements hesitant. “How are you?” “Fine.” She moved aside as people hurried past them.
“You?”
Michael nodded. “All right. I guess.”
Cole’s smile faded by degrees as he stood in the midst of
this uncomfortable reunion.
“Angela!” Tina hurried between them. “Did you see me? I
got eighth. Not twelfth, not last!”
“Congratulations!” Grateful for the interruption, Angela
wrapped her arms around Tina and squeezed. “You looked
great out there!”
Cole hugged Tina next and then he pushed her hat over
her eyes. “It won’t be long before you’ll be joining me at the
pro events! Wanna try the bronc next?”
“Sorry,” Tina laughed as she righted the hat. “Only insane
boys play with wild horses!”
“Touché,” Cole said, lifting his injured arm.
“Tina,” Angela said, “this is my brother, Michael. Michael,
this is Tina. She works at the arena.”
“You mean in addition to being a rodeo star?” Michael
winked and shook Tina’s hand.
“I keep the day job. You know…gotta keep it ‘real’,” Tina
beamed. “Do you live here? I haven’t seen you around.” “No.” Michael said. “I used to, though. Now I live in
Seattle.”
“I’m sorry about your Dad.”
“Thank you.”
“Why don’t you go find your Mom, Tina,” Angela said,
wishing she could cover her hands over eyes and shout at the
top of her lungs to break the tension. “I’m sure she’s looking
for you.”
“Oh yeah, I’m supposed to meet her at the concession
stand.”
As the girl waved goodbye and left, Cole smiled at brother
and sister. “Now that the minor is gone, who’s up for a drink
at The Water Hole?”
****
“Strange to be back,” Michael said as he and Angela took
their seats at The Water Hole bar and waited for the bartender
to notice them. Cole had been waylaid by some friends the
moment they had walked in.
“Strange is one way to put it.” Angela muttered. She had
been in this room dozens of times as a child. She wondered if
Michael also remembered coming here to find their father
slumped over a table, an empty bottle of whiskey at his elbow. The only light in the room came from covered candles in
the center of each table and neon signs on the walls. The talk
of townsfolk was broken only by the music playing over the
speakers and the occasional clatter of cue balls. Few frequented
the dance floor. It was late and most patrons were more
interested in slamming back a few more before closing time. “I never thanked you,” Angela said as she turned in her
seat. “For handling the details with Dad’s death.”
“I stopped speaking to him years ago,” Michael said,
drawing his attention to the napkin in front of him. “I just
thought you should know that.”
Despite the nerves and pretenses that existed between
them, or perhaps because of them, Angela wished she were ten
years old again. She wanted to sit beside her big brother, back
when she had looked up to and admired him. He had been the one to shoulder their father’s weight when they’d had to fetch him from the bar, hauling him back home to sleep off his drunken stupor. But reality was very different now and the torture in Michael’s eyes was that of an adult man with far too many regrets. She had hated him for running away to Seattle and leaving her alone with their father. While the hatred had
dulled over the years, the rift between them had not closed. “I didn’t stop it,” Michael said quietly, turning to her. His
eyes were so like her own: the color of swamp grass. She wasn’t prepared. First Cole, and now this. It had been
a long day. She shook her head and didn’t even try to hide the
briskness from her voice. “No, you didn’t stop it and you
couldn’t have. I won’t discuss it with you anymore. Drop it.
Please.”
Michael lifted
his brow. “Fine. It’s dropped.”
“It really is good to see you, Mike,” Angela sighed and
smiled.
“You too, kiddo.” His smile was forced, as hers had been,
but at least he had reciprocated her effort. “Now, you wanna
tell me what’s up with you and Cole?”
Angela looked at Cole. He laughed with some people she
recognized from around town. “He’s was Dad’s partner,” she
said as she turned back to Michael. “Now he’s mine.” “Michael Donnelly!” Having finished filling other orders,
Derek the bartender leaned over the bar to give Michael a
friendly punch on the shoulder. “What are you doing back
here? Decide to move back for good?”
“Nah, just come to see what trouble my sister’s been
getting into.”
“Ah, now. Angie don’t get into no trouble,” Derek smiled.
“She’s as straight as they come. We been trying to get her to
come out with us to the quarry, but she don’t want no part of
that.”
“Really, Derek?” Angela teased. “You haven’t asked me
since high school. And I didn’t go with you because I knew
you had your mind set on more than going for a swim.” “Of course he did.” This came from Ralph as he claimed
the stool on the other side of Angela. “Derek’s had a crush on
you since middle school.”
Angela let out a disbelieving snort. “I doubt that. I was
thinking more along the lines of him putting leeches in my
swim suit or calling the cops on me.” She aimed a sideways
glance at Derek and smiled. “You and Cole were a formidable
team.”
Derek set three fresh napkins on the bar. “Oh no, it’s true.
I had a horrible crush on you, but of course I couldn’t admit
to it. Heck, if I wasn’t married I’d probably still have that crush.
Anyway, all the good it did me. No one could get near you,
Ang. Between your big brother here and the fact that you only
had eyes for that one.” Derek jerked his chin toward Cole. Angela felt her face grow hot. “Well, luckily for me and for
Cole, childhood crushes don’t last.” But adult crushes are much
more dangerous. “A chardonnay, please.”
“Make it two. Hey guys!” Sophie set her arm around
Angela’s shoulders and leaned over the bar. “I like a girl who
knows how to have a little bit of class in a place like this. I
could learn a lot from you, in spite of the fact that you keep
awful company.” Sophie’s eyes shot daggers at Ralph. Ralph laughed and shook his head, standing. “You may
hate me, but at least you’re thinking of me.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. Ralph walked away and she took
the seat he vacated. “He’s such a toad. We dated a few times.
Three years ago.” She sipped her drink when it was given to
her. “Huge mistake, but it’s a small town. Slim pickins’.” Angela took her drink and glanced at her brother over the
rim. Michael quietly surveyed Sophie. He seemed a bit
frightened and it was all Angela could do to keep from
laughing.
“Sophie, you remember my brother, Michael.” Sophie squinted her eyes and pursed her lips. “Michael?”
Then, as if propelled by a loose spring in her stool, she
bounced up and came around to offer her hand as if she were
a princess greeting a suitor. “Wow, you look amazing! All
grown up and handsome, aren’t you?”
Michael practically squirmed beneath her intent star, but he
took her hand and held it for a few seconds, not quite sure what he was supposed to do with it. “Nice to see you, Sophie.
How have you been?”
“Drowning in this backwater town, as usual. What brings
you back?” Before he could answer she hooked her arm
around his and dragged him off his stool and onto the dance
floor.
Left alone, Angela went back to her drink, turning the stem
between her fingers. Cole still worked the crowd.
An older man in a blue baseball cap took the seat beside
her and ordered some water. Angela offered him a polite nod.
He smiled, his blue eyes nearly the same color as his cap. “He’d rather be over here talking with you,” the man said
offhandedly.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Cole.” The man gestured to the other side of the room
with his glass. “I can see it by the way he keeps glancing over
here.”
“I’m sorry,” Angela felt the irritation creep up, and she let
it come, “who are you?”
“Ah, sorry. Name’s Jack Atkinson.” He winked. “You
don’t remember me?”
“Jack.” Angela said, recalling his identity as she took a sip
of her wine. “You’re the vet. You used to take care of Doug
Jordan’s horses.”
“Still do, only they’re Cole’s now,” Jack said reflectively.
“Came to your rescue a time or two.”
A strange sensation settled over Angela. It might have been
due to exhaustion or the wine. She was tired, but acutely aware
of her surroundings. The music crooned on about a sexy
tractor. The other sounds of the bar were both muted and
intensified, a strange foggy humming surrounding it all. She
pushed her glass away, deciding she didn’t need any more wine. “Do you remember that prank Cole played on you at the
pond?” Jack asked.
Her thoughts instantly went to the kiss, but there were
other memories there. The pond sat on the border between
Starhorn Ranch and her father’s land. She and Cole had met
there by chance more than a few times.
Angela leaned onto the bar, smiling into Jack’s laughing
eyes. “Cole caught me skinny dipping and he tossed my clothes
into the tree branches. You came along later and got them
down for me. Thank goodness for muddy water.”
“I pulled his ear for that one. He didn’t hate you as much
as he wanted everyone – including himself – to think he did.”
Jack turned in his seat and looked across the room, peering at
Cole, the man who had grown from that nasty little boy. “His
daddy was a fine man, but Cole could have used a mother.
Shame she died so young.”
“I remember Celia.”
“The cancer took her quickly. Cole never really got over
the shock,” Jack said. “Neither did Doug.”
Angela had never before considered that Celia’s death was
the catalyst to Cole’s childhood behavior. It drove an
uncomfortable knot deep into her belly. “Well, in any event,
no harm done. He’s no longer stealing my clothes or sticking
carpenter ants down my shirt.”
“True, true,” Jack nodded in agreement. “But it’s hard to
forget, isn’t it? Maybe it makes you remember other things
you’ve tried to forget.”
His bright eyes peered into her.
“Excuse me.” She stood and pushed the stool back, the
legs scraping loudly on the hardwood floor. “I need to rescue
my brother.”
She pushed away and walked onto the dance floor, letting
the stool teeter in the wake.
Sophie and Michael danced to a song about a girl who
smashed her boyfriend’s truck a
fter discovering he had cheated
on her. Michael seemed to be enjoying himself, taking up the
chorus with Sophie and a few others on the dance floor. Angela eased between him and Sophie and took her
brother by the shoulders, noticing he was more than a little
drunk. “How much did you have?”
“Just two beers.”
“Geesh. How could a man as big as you be such a
lightweight?”
Angela said goodbye to Sophie and guided her brother off the dance floor. She looked back at the bar where she had been sitting. Jack wasn’t in sight. Cole watched her from across the
room, regarding her with a quiet questioning.
He excused himself and walk to her.
Stubble covered his jaw line, the blue of his eyes nearly
glowing in the muted light. Shadows deepened the valley
beneath his cheekbones.
“Cole.” She said his name as if for the first time, seeing all
facets of him at once. She might have said something that
could have made them both uncomfortable, but thankfully her
brother erupted into another terrible version of Carrie
Underwood’s “Right Now.” It was no longer the song playing
in the bar, but that didn’t seem to matter to him.
“He’s a bit drunk,” she explained to Cole.
“Seriously?” When he saw for himself that Angela was
indeed serious he lifted Michael’s arm over his own shoulders.
“All right, then, let’s get outta here. I’ll put him up in my spare
room tonight.”
Later, and after she had helped Cole deposit Michael into
the guest room, Angela wandered onto the front porch and sat
in the swing. The night was cool, the moon hidden behind
heavy clouds. The light from the fixture at the front door
barely reached her toes. She was content to sit in the darkness. Cole came outside a few minutes later. He gestured to the
seat beside Angela.
She slid over to give him room.
He sat and rested a hand on his knee. “Michael’s out.
Nadine’s already planning the lecture she’ll give him in the
morning.”
“Your dad and I used to sit here for hours,” Angela said.
“Sometimes we wouldn’t even talk. Just sit.”
Cole nodded and leaned back, taking her cue. They said
Heart of Grace (Return to Grace Trilogy #1) Page 12