“Did I hear someone say something in the background?” Shiloh asked.
“Rusty came in the back door and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the pasture with him, but I’d rather go shopping. I’ll see you in thirty,” Bonnie said.
“Hello to him. See you in thirty. Oh, and tell Rusty, the guys are watching the bull riding on television at Abby Joy’s if he wants to go over there.” Shiloh ended the call.
Bonnie turned around to find him so close that his warm breath tickled the side of her cheek. “You’re invited to Cooper’s to watch bull riding.”
All those damned moonshine bombs had to be the reason he affected her the way he did that morning. Sure, she’d had a little secret crush on him, but she’d never had to fight against the desire to take a step forward and kiss him. “I’m going shopping with my sisters.”
He brushed a sweet kiss across her cheek. “Thanks for the evening and the night.”
Her legs felt like they had no bones. Her pulse began to race, and her heart thumped against her ribs. “You can sweet-talk me, feed me breakfast, or get me drunk and I’m still not going to let you have this ranch unless you’re the highest bidder.”
He chuckled. “But I will keep trying until the very last second. Bring home a couple of steaks, and I’ll grill them for us tonight.”
“There are two in the fridge”—she waved over her shoulder—“that I bought in Claude last evening.”
“Y’all have fun,” he called out just as she slammed the door of her truck.
She gave him a thumbs-up sign.
“What in the hell have I done?” she moaned as she drove the short distance from the bunkhouse to the ranch house. “I haven’t been that drunk in years. It’s a wonder I didn’t do something totally stupid, like have sex with him.”
She took a quick shower and washed her hair, dried off in a hurry, and threw on a pair of clean jeans and a shirt. She usually let her hair dry naturally, but that afternoon she used a blow dryer before she whipped it up in a ponytail. Her phone rang just as she picked up her lipstick.
“Where are you?” she asked when she saw Abby Joy’s name pop up on the screen. “I thought y’all said thirty minutes. I’ve been ready for a while now.”
“We just passed the cemetery,” Abby Joy said.
“I’m headed out now. You don’t even have to honk.” She ended the call and hurriedly put on her lipstick.
She’d just picked up her purse when she remembered that she hadn’t fed the dogs, so she hurried back inside and filled their bowl with dry food. She thought her head would explode when she bent over and hoped that she’d remembered to refill the aspirin bottle that she carried in her purse. She took her time crossing the yard, but her head was still pounding when she got into the backseat of her sister’s van.
“You’re flushed like you’ve been runnin’ around in circles,” Shiloh said.
“I don’t think it’s from runnin’.” Abby Joy shook her head as she backed the van out of the driveway. “She wasn’t in church this morning, and she’s glowing. I heard someone say that she was at the Sugar Shack last night and got into a little catfight with Sandy Hamilton. I betcha they were arguing over some good-lookin’ cowboy, and our sister won. That look on her face”—Abby Joy looked up at her in the rearview—“tells me she brought that cowboy home with her, and the two of them had sex.”
Shiloh turned around in her seat as far as the seat belt would allow and stared at her youngest sister. “Is that true? Who was it? Is he still in the house? What is Rusty goin’ to think of that?” She fired off questions too fast for anyone to keep up with.
Bonnie shook her head and then grabbed it with both hands. “I don’t kiss and tell. No one is in the house or was last night. I don’t think I need Rusty’s permission to bring a man home if I want to. After all, in six months the ranch will belong to me, and he’ll be working for me if I decide to keep it.”
What was the matter with her anyway? She had no intentions of keeping the ranch. The moment it was in her hands, she planned to have a Realtor put a sign out beside the road announcing that it was for sale.
“What makes you think he’ll stick around? If you decide to stick around, you’d better be putting out some feelers for a new foreman,” Shiloh said.
While Bonnie was mulling that over in her head, Abby Joy spoke up. “You went home with someone, didn’t you? No one glows like you are right now if they haven’t had sex for the first time since Christmas.” She glanced up at her youngest sister in the rearview mirror again.
“Or unless they’re pregnant,” Shiloh said. “The both of you are glowing. I’m beginning to feel left out. Y’all are going to have babies that will grow up together, and my poor little children will be so much younger that they’ll get picked on by their older cousins.”
Bonnie wanted children someday, but not right now. She had some heavy decisions to make about her life, and a pregnancy at this point would complicate the hell out of things. Her upbringing had taught her that when she got ready to have kids she would settle down in one place. She damn sure wouldn’t jerk them out of school in the middle of a semester. Bonnie had lost count after twenty at how many schools she’d attended from kindergarten through graduation.
“You got something to tell us, little sister?” Abby Joy asked.
“I am not pregnant, and I’m glowing because I just got out of a hot shower, and y’all are making me blush,” Bonnie said.
“Good God!” Shiloh gasped. “Bonnie blushing? I didn’t think she had it in her to do that.”
“Don’t make me laugh.” Abby Joy giggled. “With this baby lyin’ heavy on my bladder, if I laugh too hard we’ll be turning around and goin’ back home to get me a pair of dry underwear.”
Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest. “Y’all are bad sisters today.”
“We wouldn’t be if you’d tell us who you went home with last night,” Shiloh told her.
“I left the Sugar Shack and came home. End of story,” Bonnie said.
“Well, dammit!” Shiloh sighed. “I wanted to hear a more exciting story than that on the way to the mall.”
“Three sassy sisters livin’ on a ranch, one got married and went away. Two sassy sisters livin’ on a ranch, one got married and went away. One sassy sister livin’ on a ranch, she’s all confused and don’t know what to do…” Bonnie said. “Is that story good enough for you?”
“Double dammit!” Abby Joy swore. “Now I’ve got that worm in my head about the little monkeys.”
“Good.” Bonnie smiled. “Serves y’all right. I hope that song haunts you all day.”
“Seriously,” Shiloh said, “have you given some thought to what you intend to do about the ranch.”
“Yes, but I’ve got a question for both of you.” Bonnie nodded. “Y’all fell in love with someone and left, so evidently, it isn’t hard to move off the ranch. But do you have any regrets now that time has passed? Both of you could have been in love and still put off leaving until the year was up. You could have even spent a night away at a time now and then, like Shiloh did when Waylon was hurt. As long as you didn’t actually move away, both of you could have still been in for a share of the ranch.”
“I don’t have a single regret,” Abby Joy answered without hesitation. “But then, I was in love with Cooper, and love trumps all the dirt in Texas in my books.”
“I don’t have regrets either,” Shiloh said. “Both of you know, I was having doubts about staying on the ranch anyway. Following the terms of that will made me feel like Ezra had control over my life, and even if I had half ownership with you, Bonnie, it was”—she paused—“I can’t explain the feeling, but I can tell you that when I made up my mind to leave, it felt like the chains dropped off my heart. Like Abby Joy, I was in love with Waylon, so that had a bearing on it, I’m sure, but I was relieved that Ezra wasn’t running my life anymore.”
“He really was an old sumbitch, wasn’t he?” Bonnie whispered. “Do you wonder wh
y he made his will the way he did? Why would he even care if we ever knew each other? I mean”—she took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh—“I’m glad we have gotten acquainted, but why?”
“Can’t answer that,” Abby Joy replied. “I’m glad I came to the funeral, and that y’all did too, but understanding why Ezra did anything he did is impossible, and I’ve tried.”
“Me too.” Shiloh nodded.
“Thanks for being honest.” Bonnie turned to look out the side window. She tried to imagine simply moving off the ranch and relinquishing all her rights to it to Rusty, but she didn’t want to leave him. They made a great team, and he needed her right now, here in the busy season.
* * *
Rusty knocked on the door of Cooper’s ranch house and then poked his head inside. “Where are y’all at?”
“In the living room,” Cooper called out. “Come on in. The bareback bronc riding is about to begin. Bull riding comes after that.”
Rusty carried a six-pack of cold beer through the kitchen and the foyer and into the living room where Cooper and Waylon were already stretched out in a couple of recliners. He twisted the top off two bottles and handed one to each of them. Then he sat down on the sofa, propped his boots on an oversize hassock, and uncapped a beer for himself.
“Heard you didn’t close down the Sugar Shack last night,” Cooper said. “You sick or something?”
“Nope, just got bored with it. Sandy was drunk.” Rusty took a long drink of his beer.
“Sandy’s always drunk. Woman can’t hold her liquor any better than she can a boyfriend.” Waylon muted the commercial.
“She’s clingy and thinks if you buy her a drink, you’re in love with her and about to propose.” Cooper nodded. “I told you not to ever get involved with her, Rusty.”
“I didn’t, but I can’t convince her of that,” he groaned.
Waylon hit the red button on the remote to turn the sound back on. “Damn, I wish I was still doin’ the rodeo rounds. I liked the sounds of the crowd, the thrill of the rides, all of it.”
“Marriage changes a cowboy,” Cooper said.
“Yep, it does,” Waylon agreed. “And when it comes down to the line, I’d rather be married as out there bustin’ up bones and spendin’ time in emergency rooms. Since I got that concussion a few weeks ago in the wreck, I’d be afraid to ride anyway. I don’t ever want to get to where I wouldn’t know Shiloh.”
“Wait until you’ve got a baby comin’ along.” Cooper combed back his dark hair with his fingertips. “That really changes everything. I sure enough feel my responsibility to keep healthy. I’m not even running for sheriff next election. I’m just going to ranch.”
The commercial ended and the bronc riding event started. All three guys yelled for their favorite contestant, who was trying to make it all the way to the National Professional Rodeo in Las Vegas in December.
Rusty slumped down on the sofa and watched one event after another, but his thoughts wandered back to the Malloy Ranch. Cooper had inherited the Lucky Seven from his grandparents. Waylon had started off with a small spread and renamed it the Wildflower Ranch. Then the elderly lady next door to his place died and left him her small acreage. When he and Shiloh got married, she doubled the size of their acreage by buying the adjoining ranch to the south.
Rusty loved living in the canyon. He’d put down roots at the Malloy Ranch. He finally belonged somewhere. About all he could do at this point was hope that when Bonnie sold the place, he was the high bidder and that a bank would back him.
Chapter Five
The next morning the window served as a picture frame for the most beautiful sunrise Bonnie had ever seen. She threw off the covers and stared out at the gorgeous sight for a long time before she finally got dressed and headed toward the kitchen. She was halfway down the hall when she got a whiff of cinnamon blended with the aroma of coffee.
“Good mornin’,” Rusty said. “I made cinnamon toast for breakfast. Looks like we’re goin’ to have a good day to get the hay raked and baled.”
Was this his new trick to get rid of her—be nice so she’d feel sorry for him and give him the ranch for a fraction of its price? Well, he was dead wrong, if that’s what he thought.
“So this is how we’re going to play it, is it?” She poured a cup of coffee and carried it to the table.
“Play what?” he asked. “I was hungry for cinnamon toast and we usually have breakfast together if we’re not fighting.”
“I was afraid things would be awkward between us after the bombs on Saturday night,” she answered.
“Why would things be weird?” Rusty set a whole cookie sheet full of cinnamon toast on the table and then poured himself a cup of coffee and took a seat.
His long legs brushed against hers under the table and heat spread through her body like she was standing next to a raging bonfire. He bowed his head to say grace. Lord have mercy! How was she supposed to keep a divine thought in her head while he said a short prayer with his leg touching hers?
“Amen,” he said, “and now let’s eat and talk about why you think we should act any different than we did before. We’re consenting adults and we both had a bit to drink. Now we’re ranchers and we’ve got work to do.”
No wonder Mama never remarried, Bonnie thought. Vivien’s words came back to her in a flash. Men are impossible to live with for any length of time. You just have a good time with ’em and then shove ’em out the door and go find another one. The thrill and excitement don’t last long. Ezra Malloy proved that to me, and I ain’t never forgot that lesson.
Bonnie had heard that speech so many times when she and her mother were together that it was branded on her brain. She might not agree with her mama, but it had been a long time since she’d talked to her, so she made a mental note to give Vivien a call later that day.
“I’m thinking about leaving. If you aren’t going to sell me the place when you inherit, I need to get some feelers out there for another job. Cooper already has a foreman, but he said he’d hire me as a hand, and so did Jackson.”
“No! You can’t do that!” Bonnie gasped.
“Yes, I can and yes, I will. No use in waiting around, and then bein’ jobless. Ranchers don’t need many hands in the dead of winter. It would be easier to get one now and get settled into a place by Christmas,” Rusty said.
Bonnie laid her toast down and picked up her coffee. If Rusty left, she’d be lost. She’d learned a lot in the last six months, but sweet Jesus, she couldn’t run the ranch without him, not even with the summer help arriving in the next few days.
“Please don’t do that,” she whispered.
“I like you,” he said, “a lot. When y’all first arrived here, I could see that you had spunk and determination. You’ve worked hard to learn this business. But with your decision to leave and sell out, it’s time for me to take my dogs and move on to another job.”
Bonnie set her coffee down and shook her finger at him. “You’re not taking the dogs. They belong on this ranch.”
“Those dogs were left to me in the will, so they’re mine,” Rusty told her. “Get serious. Whoever buys the place will bring in their own dogs, and they probably will fight with Vivien, Polly, and Martha. And, honey,” he dragged out the endearment to at least six syllables, “those dogs go with me. They’re mine.” He pushed back from the table. “I’m going out to the field to rake the hay. I’ll see you this evening.”
“Will you be here tomorrow?” she asked.
“Will you?” he shot over his shoulder as he settled his straw hat on his head and slammed the screen door.
Vivien’s drunk voice popped into her head again. Men! Can’t live with ’em, and it’s against the law to shoot ’em.
“Why is it against the law to shoot them?” Bonnie muttered as she picked up a second piece of toast. “We could have a season on them, say once every five years. One day only, women could buy a tag like when I hunted deer in Kentucky. Red tag could be shoot to kill for
cheaters and beaters. Blue tag could be a grazing shot for drunks and—”
Her mother’s special ring tone interrupted her. “Hello, Mama, I was going to call you after breakfast.”
“Great minds and all that crap,” Vivien chuckled. “So how are things there? Looks like you’re going to own a ranch before too many months, don’t it?”
“Not if I leave,” she said.
“Holy smokin’ shit!” Vivien gasped. “You just made me spew coffee all over the table. You’ve beat both your half-sisters out for the ranch. You’d be a fool to give up now. You deserve that place after the way Ezra did me and you.”
“I didn’t earn it, Mama, but if I’m honest with myself, Rusty really should have it. He put up with Ezra for years and took care of him when he was sick,” Bonnie said.
“You did earn it. You’ve done without things other girls had, and you’ve had to work for everything you needed—and so did I,” Vivien told her.
“Why’d you marry him?” Bonnie asked. “Did you love him? Was he charming? Did he make you feel good about yourself? What drew you two together?”
There was a long silence before Vivien answered. “I was in one of my phases when I thought I wanted to live in the wilds. Ezra was not charming. He was crude and downright salty, but he had a ranch, and at that time I didn’t want to go back to Texas or Kentucky. I wanted to settle down and have a family, and Ezra wanted a son. I didn’t love him, but we tolerated each other fairly well until you were born. I never went back to the ranch after I gave birth to you. He packed up all my personal things and had them shipped back to where my mother was living at the time. I left the hospital with you in my arms, a bus ticket, and a checkbook with a deposit equal to the prenup agreement, which was ten thousand dollars.”
“Did you know I had two half-sisters?” she asked.
“Of course, I did,” Vivien sighed. “He never mentioned them, but that’s a small community down there in the canyon, so I knew.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Bonnie could feel anger rising up from her toes. “I had a right to know that, don’t you think?”
Sunrise Ranch--A Daisies in the Canyon Novella Page 4