Toughest Cowboy in Texas Page 13

  “I can’t imagine going through those tough years without my dad. Thinking about losing him even now makes me so sad,” Brody said. “I should go and let you have your time alone.”

  “Stay.” She held on to his hand when he started to pull it away.

  They sat engulfed in their own memories for a long time before she finally said, “What happened to your grandpa?”

  “Heart attack. Doctor said he was gone instantly. Granny ran the ranch until this spring. Then she turned it over to us.”

  So much had happened between that last night out at Henry’s barn and that moment and she wanted to know everything. “Do you ever wish for one more hour with him to ask him important questions?”

  “Oh, Lila,” Brody sighed. “Him and my dad both. Daddy died in a tractor accident. I couldn’t talk fast enough if I had another hour with either of them, especially right now. After he was gone, I threw myself into the ranch work. That’s all I know or ever wanted to do anyway. My folks and Granny both had huge places with plenty to do, so I never had to worry about a paycheck.”

  “Lived with your folks all this time until you moved over to Hope Springs?”

  “I moved into the bunkhouse when Grandpa died. When Jace graduated from college, he moved into it with me,” he said.

  “So Jace went and you didn’t?”

  “He’s kind of felt guilty about that but Mama and I insisted. And he’s really smart when it comes to agriculture business. What did you do after you graduated from college?”

  “I took a job in Memphis for a couple of years, then moved over to Little Rock for a while and I’ve been in Panama City Beach since then.”

  The therapist told her that she moved so often because she was searching for happiness but until she found peace within herself, happiness would always be a step ahead of her.

  Happy, Texas. Maybe she wasn’t searching for the elusive euphoric happy but the place that was a tiny town in the panhandle of Texas.

  “Come home with me,” Brody finally said after several minutes of silence. “It’s my night to read bedtime stories to the kids and I don’t want to miss it. It’s the second Father’s Day without Adam and you of all people understand. But I don’t want to leave you.”

  “Not tonight, Brody. You go on and read to those babies. They need you.” She pushed away from him. “But for the record, I don’t want you to leave either.”

  He kissed her on the forehead and straightened up. “Good night, Lila.”

  “Night, Brody,” she said.

  Was Kasey right? Could Lila really have both sides?

  Brody sat in the middle of Rustin’s bed with Silas in his lap, Emma hugged up to his left side and Rustin leaning over his shoulder as he read Bedtime for Dogs. There were lots of pictures and only a few words on each page but it still took almost half an hour to get through the book. Rustin and Emma had dozens of questions about each page and Silas wanted to point to the dog and jabber about it.

  Finally, Kasey rescued him and put Silas into his crib, tucked Rustin in, and led Emma to her bedroom. While she got them settled, Brody went to the kitchen and popped the tops on two beers. He carried them to the living room and set Kasey’s on the coffee table.

  She plopped down on the other end of the sofa. “Thank you. I need this tonight. Father’s Day is tough on me. Even worse than Christmas and his birthday.” She took two long swallows before she set it aside. “I miss him so much, Brody.”

  “It doesn’t get any easier, does it?” Losing Lila was one thing but she was still alive and able to come back. Kasey’s loss was final, down to standing in front of a closed casket.

  “Hasn’t yet. After the initial shock wore off, I thought it would get better with the passing of time. It hasn’t,” she said. “Did you go see Grandpa and Daddy?”

  “I did,” he answered. “Lila was there at her father’s grave. We talked.”

  It wasn’t the first time that they’d held hands and talked for hours but in the past it had been either in the barn, under the willow tree, or in her bedroom. They’d talked about things that teenagers did in those days. Today had been different in so many ways and he’d used his words like Jace said. Not to banter or to tease, but emotionally.

  “Argued or talked?” she asked.

  “The latter. I can’t imagine what you’re going through but I know that I missed her horribly when she moved away. I’d finally given up on ever seeing her again when she came back to Happy.”

  “I knew that you had a crush on her, but I had no idea that you missed her like that,” Kasey said. “Does she know?”

  He shook his head. “There was chemistry between us back then that is still there but, Kasey—”

  “When you get past everything that’s keeping you two apart, there will be no more buts. However, you’ve got to work on all those things. Like talking to her. Like not keeping secrets from Mama. Like not caring what Mama or Granny thinks or anyone else for that matter. You have to let the past go and dwell on the future.”

  “That’s a lot to do in one summer,” he said.

  “Yes, it is. We can’t bring back the water that’s already flowed under the bridge, can we? If we could, Adam would still be with me and I’d be in Lawton where folks treated me like I had a brain instead of looking down on me like I’m nothing but your kid sister,” she sighed.

  “You miss that life, don’t you?” Brody asked.

  “Yes, I do sometimes. I wasn’t the odd Dawson kid with red hair who wasn’t as pretty as all the Dawson girl cousins or even as her older brothers. I wasn’t the only one who got married right out of high school. I was Kasey McKay who could organize a picnic or take care of the Fourth of July party at the recreation hall for the guys who stayed on base. And I was the woman in charge of ordering all the fireworks for the display,” she said.

  “And then Adam was gone and you had to move right back here,” he said.

  “Like Lila.” She nodded. “Only she’s come back where people remember her as that crazy kid who was always gettin’ into trouble, not the teacher with a responsible job. Neither of us knows who we are anymore. Difference is that she gets to leave at the end of summer. I’ve got nowhere to go and three kids who are better off on this ranch than anywhere else. What can I do? Flip burgers or check out customers at a grocery store?”

  Brody slid over next to her and put his arm around her. “Kasey Dawson McKay, this ranch is your army base. Without you, Jace and I would be lost. You’re our rock. And as of right now, you can do whatever you want for a ranch picnic and fireworks display on the Fourth of July. Just don’t leave us, darlin’ sister. We’d be runnin’ around like chickens with their heads cut off without you.”

  “I know you’re just sayin’ that to make me feel better, but thank you.” Kasey smiled, her eyes watery.

  “It’s the truth. Cross my heart. When someone wanders onto the ranch and steals your heart, we’ll have to hire five women to replace you,” Brody said. “And I’m not whistlin’ Dixie, sister.”

  “I don’t reckon you’ve got a thing to worry about there. It’d take a big man to sweep me off my feet and he’d have to love my kids. Not many men are willing to take on a ready-made family.”

  “You never know,” Brody said. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that life has a way of surprising you sometimes.”

  “Well, whatever comes our way—you, me, Lila—we’ll figure it out as we go.”

  “Of course we will.” He grinned. “Want to watch a movie? I’ll even let you pick it out.”

  “And you won’t bitch if it’s a romance?”

  “Not tonight,” he answered.

  He and Jace both had been protective of their little sister since the day their mama brought her home from the hospital. At three and five, they had no idea what to do with a girl baby but their mama said they had to watch out for her and they’d done their best. Now it was time for them to recognize that she wasn’t a kid anymore.

  “What if I’m not in
the mood for something all sweet and sappy but I want some kickass stuff?” she asked.

  “Then I might not snore.”

  “How about that old Blue Collar Comedy Tour? Would you snore through some redneck comedy?” she asked.

  “Never. If you’ll find it, I’ll make some popcorn and pour us a couple of Cokes,” he said.

  “Laughter might help.” She stood up and stretched, then opened the door to the place where the DVDs were stored.

  “Hey, did you ever watch this Lethal Weapon movie? Granny must have left it behind. It’s got Mel Gibson in it and he looks real young,” Kasey yelled.

  “Nope. Heard of it but never watched it. Want to trade redneck humor for kickass?”

  “I think I do. If we don’t like it, we can stop it and put in the other one.”

  Lethal Weapon.

  That was Lila in a nutshell. She could destroy a man’s heart or protect it, depending on how he treated her.

  Lila padded barefoot from the bathroom to the living room of her apartment. Wearing boxer shorts and a tank top, she got comfortable on the sofa and towel dried her long hair and then tossed the wet towel on the coffee table. Duke and Cora took it as an offering and proceeded to use it to climb up on the table to play a game of king of the mountain, knocking each other off the table.

  She got bored watching them and flipped through the old DVDs on the shelf below the television. Most of them needed to be tossed in the garbage but one with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover on the front caught her eye.

  “Lethal Weapon Four. The last one.” She put it into the player. “I remember this, Daddy. You and Mama sent me to bed early so you could watch it. I was in the sixth grade and I snuck out of my room and crawled on my hands and knees over to the cabinet. I peeked out around the side and saw some of it before Mama caught me and sent me back to my room.”

  The cats got tired of playing and flopped down on the edge of the towel they’d pulled from the table. She gathered both of them in her arms and laid them down beside her on the sofa. Her phone rang as the first scene of the movie started, so she hit pause. Duke grumbled in his sleep but he didn’t wake when she reached across him for her purse on the end table.

  “Hello, Mama,” she said.

  “Did you go to church tonight?”

  “I sure did. Are you checkin’ up on my soul?”

  “Did you go to the cemetery?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Daddy and I had a visit and then Brody Dawson showed up and we had a visit too,” she said. “But I imagine that you already knew that and that’s why you’re calling, right? Who told on me?”

  “It doesn’t matter who. What matters is that you stay away from him. He’s just flat out not the man for you,” Daisy fussed. “You’re lookin’ at another heartbreak. You went inside a shell and didn’t come out for years when we moved away all those years ago.”

  “I thought I kept my feelings hidden pretty good,” she said.

  “Honey, you don’t hide things from a mama. When you have kids, you’ll understand that,” Daisy said.

  “I can handle myself, Mama.” She quickly changed the subject. “Guess what I’m fixin’ to watch?”

  “Depends on where you’re going to watch it. Are we talkin’ about Henry’s old barn or television?”

  Lila sighed. “Lethal Weapon 4. You remember when you caught me…”

  Daisy giggled. “Yes, I do. That wasn’t long before your dad died. It was the last movie that we watched together. I’m glad that you went to see him today.”

  “First Father’s Day I’ve been able to do that since we moved away,” Lila said seriously. “I know you miss him, Mama, because I do.”

  There was a long, pregnant silence and then Daisy said, “Well, I’d best let you get to watchin’ the movie that you didn’t get to watch almost twenty years ago.”

  “I wish you were here to watch it with me,” Lila said softly.

  “Me too, honey. And if that café doesn’t sell by the middle of August, we’ll watch it together before you go back to Florida. I’ve decided to move back to Texas if it doesn’t have a buyer by the fifteenth of August.”

  “Seriously, Mama? You’d leave Aunt Tina and all those kids and grandkids?”

  “It wouldn’t be easy but I’m getting an antsy feelin’ since you’ve been there. Kind of like something is calling me back to my roots.”

  “The café is going to sell. I just know it will. But I’ll take this movie with me when I go and when you come down for Christmas, we’ll watch it then, okay?” She would love having her mother right there with her that evening. December seemed so far away. By then nine months would have passed since spring break when she saw Daisy last. Then it had only been a short three-day visit and Daisy and Aunt Tina had worked every day except Sunday while she was there.

  “It’s a date,” Daisy said. “Maybe I’ll buy the first three next time I see them on sale and we’ll have a marathon one day. Your dad would like that.”

  “Sounds good to me. Good night, Mama.”

  “’Night, kiddo.”

  Lila wasn’t five minutes into the movie when she said, “Good grief! Mel’s character is every bit as cocky as Brody Dawson used to be. Maybe those fifteen minutes I got of this movie is what made me like the bad boys.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Brody hadn’t planned to go with Kasey to Walmart but as she and the kids were leaving, Emma fell off the porch steps and scraped her knee. He couldn’t stand to see her cry and the only thing that she said would make it better was if he’d go with them and if she could have a purple bandage on the tiny little cut.

  When they all arrived at the store, Kasey situated Silas in the cart and then pointed to the side. “Emma, you hold on right here and don’t let go.”

  Emma crossed her arms over her chest and sucked in a lungful of air. “I want to go see the toys.”

  “Me too,” Rustin said.

  “You want to see toys or go for ice cream? We can’t do both,” Kasey said.

  “Ice cream,” Rustin said quickly.

  “Toys!” Emma pushed him and he fell on his fanny.

  Like a feisty little rooster, he popped to his feet, hands knotted into fists ready to fight until Brody got between them. “Okay, kids. No pushin’. No arguing. Give me half the list and I’ll take Emma with me, Kasey.”

  Kasey divided the list and handed half to him. “After that, you don’t deserve to get ice cream or go see the toys either.”

  “I want to go with Uncle Brody,” Rustin declared.

  Brody started to put Emma into her seat but she wiggled free of his arms and ran back to her mother.

  “I’m not a baby. I’ll go with Mama if I have to ride in the basket like Silas.”

  “Testy today, isn’t she?” Brody said.

  “Didn’t get her nap and everything Rustin does aggravates her today. I remember when you and Jace did the same to me,” Kasey said.

  “Okay, big girl, you’ve made your decision. Even if your legs get tired, you don’t get to ride in the cart,” Brody told her. “But if I look around and you’ve disappeared, there will be no ice cream or toys and I won’t read to you tonight.”

  “Granny Hope is reading to me tonight.” Emma stuck her nose in the air.

  “She won’t either. Remember what I told you. You got to listen to your uncles and granny but…”

  “Mama’s word is the law,” Emma sighed.

  “That’s right and both of you better behave.” Kasey gave her the mama look. “Now I’m taking Silas to the grocery section.”

  “No, no, no!” Silas screamed. “Want Memma.” He stretched out his hands and tears rolled down his cheeks.

  “Take them both and go on. He’ll settle down when they’re out of sight,” Kasey sighed. “It’s been a day.”

  Brody nodded and walked in the other direction. With Rustin telling him all about what kind of ice cream he was going to order and Emma butting in every chance she got to talk about Lila and the ice cream pa
rty they’d had with her. Brody made his way to the area where the things on his list were located. He’d put two bottles of tear-free baby shampoo in the cart and was looking for a special kind of kid’s toothpaste when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

  “There is my friend!” Emma pointed toward the end of the aisle.

  “Lila!” Rustin waved.

  Brody wondered how in the world perfect little demons could trade their horns in for haloes in a split second. It was pure magic and he’d like nothing better than to put it into a bottle to give to Kasey for her birthday.

  “Well, what a treat, gettin’ to see my favorite kids tonight.” Lila beamed.

  She parked her cart beside Brody’s and quickly hugged both of the children. “Hello, Brody. I saw Gracie and Paul back at the pharmacy. Guess everyone in Happy is out shopping tonight.”

  “Yep,” Rustin said. “And then we’re going for ice cream.”

  “And you’re going with us,” Emma declared.

  “I’m afraid I’ve got to get back to my kittens. Duke and Cora will miss me if I stay too long.”

  “I could go home with you and read those kittens bedtime stories if you’d go with us,” Brody said.

  “Uncle Brody reads a real good story,” Rustin piped up.

  “And they have strawberry ice cream,” Emma whispered.

  “I guess I could but are you sure, Brody? I wouldn’t want…”

  Kasey parked her cart beside Brody’s. “Hey, Lila, good to see you. I just bumped into Mama. If I’d known she was coming, I would have sent my list with her and saved a trip. You about ready, Brody?”