Toughest Cowboy in Texas Read online

  She dried her hands and stopped at the vending machine for more junk food and two bottles of cold soda pop to keep them going until lunch.

  “Hey, I told you that I bought breakfast,” he said.

  “We have to keep up our strength.”

  “And why would we need to do that?”

  When he smiled like that, her heart kicked in an extra beat and her pulse raced. “Because you have to drive all the way to Monroe and I get real bitchy when I’m hungry. I don’t want you to throw me out on the side of the road. And I promised you food for payment if you would drive.”

  He corralled the kittens back into the cage and shut the door, picked it up, and headed toward the truck. “Gettin’ to spend time with you is double payment, darlin’. But I am glad you remembered to get us something to drink.”

  “I saw a sign back there that says there’s a truck stop ahead about five miles. We should fill the gas tank there,” she said. “And who knows, we might even find a silver trailer for sale.”

  He resituated the carrier in the backseat. “Remember when we used to sneak away from everyone else and take my old beat-up truck down through the canyon?”

  She crawled into the passenger seat and tossed her stash on the console. “And we’d stop at one of those lanes back to a ranch, eat corn chips, drink root beers if we couldn’t get real beer, and then make out on that quilt.” She ripped open the bag and took a handful out before she handed it to Brody as he drove.

  “You do remember.”

  “Of course I do,” she said.

  At the gas station, Brody was almost finished filling the tank when a silver trailer showed up. A much bigger truck than hers was pulling it and an old guy got out.

  “Want me to ask the driver if he’ll sell it?” Brody asked.

  “If he’ll take twenty dollars for it, we’ll call it an omen and see if my truck can move it down the road. If we bog down, then it’s a sign that we should stop right here in this place and find jobs,” she teased.

  Brody grinned and hollered over the top of the truck. “I’ll gladly buy that trailer from you. How much would you take for it?”

  “My wife would skin me alive if I sold this thing. It’s her pride and joy.” The fellow smiled. “She likes to go see the grandkids but she needs her space when it comes nighttime.” He lowered his voice. “And sometimes even in the daytime when they get rowdy. Why would you want this old dinosaur anyway?”

  “My woman over there.” Brody nodded toward Lila, who was only a few feet away. “She’s wantin’ an adventure and we only got a hundred dollars to spend on it.”

  The guy chuckled. “Son, if me and Mama was your age and we had a few dollars, we’d go rent a cheap hotel, get us a bottle of Tennessee whiskey, and have an adventure that would be a memory maker.”

  “Well, thanks for the advice,” Brody said.

  “Anytime. You kids be careful wherever you’re movin’ to,” he said.

  “Yes, sir,” Brody said as he got into the truck. “I tried, sweetheart. Maybe the next feller will be ready to sell.”

  Lila giggled. “What did you offer him?”

  “I offered a hundred but I would have given him two hundred,” he teased.

  She crawled over the console and settled into his lap. “It was too big anyway. You could hide from me in that thing. I want one so small that we can’t cuss Duke and Cora without spittin’ cat hair out of our mouths. But I appreciate you offerin’ him more than the twenty dollars I was willin’ to pay.”

  “I’d give him everything I’ve got to make you happy.” Brody cupped her butt in his hands and leaned in for a kiss.

  Happy? The town? Her state of mind? What would it take to make her happy? Being with Brody the rest of her life would be a good start and it looked like he was willing to work at a long-distance relationship. Things would be different this time. They’d call every day, text several times, even Skype, so why was her heart so heavy?

  Because you want more than that, right? The voice in her head that morning sounded a lot like Kasey.

  Yes, I do, she agreed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The sun was still high in the sky when they reached Monroe that evening. She picked out a hotel that was pet friendly and got them a room on the ground floor with an outside door. He nosed the truck into the slot reserved for room 131 and grabbed the kittens while she got a small suitcase from the backseat.

  She tossed the room key across the top of the truck. “What do you need?”

  “Just that duffel bag,” he answered.

  “I’ll bring it with me. Maybe we’ll get something delivered for supper. I’ve had all the riding I want for one day.”

  “I’m fine with that. I’m ready to stretch these old bones out and rest for the evening.” He unlocked the door and stood aside to let her go inside first.

  “Thirty is not old,” she said.

  “Tell that to my bones,” he said as he kicked the door shut with the heel of his boot and dropped the key beside the television.

  She set down the suitcase and duffel bag, then took the carrier from him. “I’ll put them in the bathroom while I run out and get the bag with their supplies in it. Then we can turn them loose and decide what we want to order. The places that deliver are usually listed in the folder on the desk.”

  It took only a few minutes but when she returned, Brody was singing in the shower. The time had come for her to make a very important decision. Tomorrow morning when they left Monroe, they would turn north to the job interview. Or she could tell Brody to drive west and take Molly up on that job offer to do waitress work at the café. Molly said that she could live in the apartment indefinitely, so she’d have a place to live and a job that paid as well as teaching.

  She was reminded of an old country song that her dad used to play called “Old Country.” She could imagine the whine of the fiddle as the song talked about a country boy comin’ to town and the city girl waiting for him in a motel. Humming the melody, she flipped through a folder on the dresser and found a fried chicken place that delivered. She ran a finger down the menu and called in a family order for four. She had fifteen minutes until it arrived, so she unzipped her suitcase and took out a pair of pajama pants and a faded nightshirt.

  The bathroom door opened and two fur babies barreled out, one walking sideways with her tail fluffed out and her back arched as if she were hunting full-grown mountain lions. Duke slunk out like a miniature sleek black panther, belly low to the ground and growling as he attacked the dark green bed skirt.

  “Mean critters, aren’t they?” Brody leaned on the doorjamb.

  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Forgive me, Lord, if that’s blasphemy but he looks like sex on a stick standing there with nothing but a towel slung around his hips. Lord, even the angels’ wings would be seared from this kind of heat.

  “If they were as mean as they think they are, they’d give old Sundance a run for his money,” she said, unable to take her eyes off him. Her tongue flicked out and moistened her dry, hot lips. He took a step forward and she did the same; then the world stopped turning and they were on the bed. The towel got lost and it was as if he snapped his fingers and her clothing fell off. His hands were everywhere but then so were hers. She wrapped her long legs around him and guided him into her. And soon they forgot all about time and circumstances.

  “Sweet Lord,” Brody groaned afterward.

  “Yep.” Lila rolled to the side and laid her head on his chest. “Your heart is still pounding.”

  “So is yours,” he panted. “That was intense but it’s what I’ve thought about all day.”

  “And just think, the night is young,” she said.

  A hard knock on the door brought them back to reality. “Who…”

  “Fried chicken.” She grinned.

  He rolled off the bed and jerked his jeans up over his fine-looking butt, made sure the cats weren’t near the door, and cracked it open.

  “Delivery for Lila Harris. I need
a signature if you want to leave it on the charge card.”

  “How much?” Brody reached for his wallet.

  “Twenty-one oh two,” the kid said.

  Brody handed him a five and twenty through the door. “Keep the change and thanks.”

  He felt something brush against his bare foot and looked down as Duke headed out the door. He grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and quickly shoved him into the bathroom.

  The kid handed him the sack and pointed toward the corner. “Best watch that white one too. It’s sneakin’ out.”

  “Thanks,” Brody said, and quickly shut the door.

  “I was supposed to pay for the food.” Lila wrapped the sheet around her body like a toga.

  “You paid for the room. This smells wonderful.” He let Duke out of the bathroom and the kitten went straight to Lila, sat down on the tail of her sheet, and whined.

  “No chicken for you, Mr. Bad Boy. You tried to get outside. I saw that stunt. You would have probably told me that it was Cora’s idea, wouldn’t you?”

  “Kind of like a couple of other kids I could name but I won’t. The bad boy who always let the blame fall on the girl.” Brody set about taking the food out of the bag and putting it on the table. Then he pulled his shirt on and held one of the chairs for her.

  “I liked the view better without the shirt,” she said.

  “Mama would kick my butt from here all the way home if I came to the table bare-chested with a lady present,” he said.

  “Lady? After what we just did?” she teased.

  “My lady no matter where we are or what we just did,” he said with a smile. “You still like the thigh and wings?”

  “Do you remember everything about me?”

  “Yes, darlin’, I do.” He put two pieces of chicken on a paper plate and handed it to her. “And you like potato salad but not coleslaw and fries with ketchup. You like corn chips better than potato chips and root beer better than cola but if you have a choice you’d rather have a longneck beer.”

  “Good grief,” she exclaimed.

  “I’ve lain awake many nights reliving the past. But not once were we sittin’ in a hotel or were you wearing a sheet while we ate fried chicken with our fingers.”

  “Oh, really! Well, I had that vision lots of times.”

  He straightened up enough to brush a kiss across her lips. “They say out of sight, out of mind. Promise me that won’t happen.”

  “I promise,” she said seriously.

  Lila slept like a baby until about two-thirty in the morning. She awoke to find Duke and Cora both sleeping on the foot of the bed. She eased out of bed without disturbing either the cats or Brody, pulled a wing-back chair over to the window, and cracked the curtains enough that she could see out.

  A half-moon hung in the sky, one side brightly lit and the other side dark—exactly the way she felt as she faced the idea of two pathways, come time to leave. Only a little way on their journey tomorrow there would be a ramp pointing them from Interstate 20 toward Little Rock. That would take her to the job interview. But if she told Brody to go on straight ahead, she’d be making the decision to leave her way of life behind and walk into territory that she was running from just days before.

  Which side is the light one and which one is dark? Daddy, you could pop into my head and give me some advice, she thought, but there was nothing to help her out.

  It might spook the devil out of Brody if she told him to forget about turning north and take her to Happy. Right now he was all for this long-distance relationship thing. Maybe he needed time and space to be ready to take it from a visit every couple of weeks to something more permanent.

  At four o’clock she fell asleep in the chair and awoke with a knot in her neck when Brody kissed her on the forehead. “Good mornin’,” she said.

  “Mornin’. Did I snore?”

  “No, I just had a lot of thinkin’ to do,” she said honestly.

  “Want to talk about it?” he asked.

  She shook her head. Tell me you love me and we might have something to talk about but right now it’s probably best if I go to Conway and we give this a year.

  “Are we ready to get on the road, then?”

  “Soon as I get the cats in the carrier and get a shower. There’s not a silver travel trailer out there that’s better than this hotel. You want to just stay here for a year?” she teased.

  “Yes, I do, but I don’t reckon that’s an option, is it?”

  She smiled and shook her head. “No, but you can’t blame the wild child for wishin’.”

  “Or me neither.”

  “Well, now that we know we have to check out, then let’s go down to the dining room and have some of that free breakfast they’re offering.”

  Just give me a sign, Lord. It’s still not too late for me to change my mind. I’ll drag my feet right up until the time to put my name on the contract but he’s got to make a move here.

  “Aha, hot breakfast. This is great,” Brody said when they reached the dining area. “Should we take a piece of bacon back to the children?”

  “I’m sure they’d love it,” she said.

  I don’t want to talk about food. I want you to tell me that you won’t skitter like a Texas jackrabbit if I spring the news on you that I’m going to Happy.

  “Are you okay? Are you worried about this job thing? Honey, I’m sure this interview is just a formality. They’ve already called your past employers and gotten good recommendations.” He heaped a plate with food and carried it to a small table for two.

  It wasn’t what she wanted to hear but was probably what she needed. She’d asked for a sign and she’d gotten one. It pointed north in a very definite way, whether she liked it or not. She poured batter into the waffle iron. Two minutes later she removed it, dumped a container of yogurt on the top, and then covered that with fresh strawberries.

  “Never seen anyone eat a waffle like that,” he said.

  “I don’t like syrup, so I improvise,” she said. “I’ll come to Amarillo for fall break and Thanksgiving but Christmas always belongs to Mama unless I can talk her into coming to Happy.”

  “That was a change of subject.” He grinned. “But I like that you’re plannin’ to come home. I’ve been scared that you’d forget all about me after we say good-bye at the airport.”

  “Not a chance, cowboy,” she said.

  He’d said “come home.” Was that a sign? Or was the sign the fact that she didn’t want to ever say good-bye to him again?

  They finished breakfast and went back to the room to get packed and ready for the next four-hour leg of the journey to Conway. The cats carried on with pitiful meows when they had to go back into the cage. The bags were packed and in the truck and she’d made a call to the office to tell the day clerk that she’d left the key in the room. There was nothing to do but get in the truck and make that turn. Brody started the engine and got back out on the highway.

  She gripped her clammy palms in her lap. She didn’t want to go to Conway, not even to check out the place and interview for the job. Waitress work at the café sounded so much better. But you worked so hard to be a teacher. You love your job, her mind argued with her heart.

  He caught the exit back onto Highway 20 and pointed to the big sign that said their turnoff was a mile and a half up the road.

  Her breath came in short bursts and her heart thumped so hard that any minute it was going to break through her ribs and fall out on the floor of the truck. Visualizing kissing him good-bye at the airport didn’t help at all. It might be risky and stupid but she had to listen to her heart and not her mind.

  He slowed down and she touched him on the arm. “Keep going, Brody. I can’t go to Arkansas. I want to go home and I never want to tell you good-bye again. I can’t live with a long-distance relationship. I want it all and if that terrifies the bejesus out of you, then you’ll just have to be scared,” she said.

  He braked and pulled over to the side of the highway. When he turned
to her, there were tears in his eyes. “I love you, Lila. Plain and simple, I love you so much that I can’t bear life without you.”

  “You love me?” She brushed away the tear that made a path down his cheek.

  “I always have,” he whispered. “I was afraid to say it for fear that you wouldn’t say it back and my heart would…”

  “I can’t remember when I didn’t love you, Brody Dawson,” she said.

  “Then let’s go home, darlin’.”

  “I’m ready.”

  Brody put the truck in gear and started down the road, then pulled off at the next ramp and parked beside an old vacant service station. He got out of the vehicle, circled around the front of it, and opened her door. “May I have this dance, ma’am?”

  She put her hand in his as Dolly Parton sang “Rockin’ Years” on the radio. “How did you know this would be comin’ on right now?”

  “I didn’t care what came on as long as I could hold you, but this is a sign for both of us. I need to kiss you. It’s important that you know that I love you and that I’ll stand by you forever just like the song says.” He took her into his arms and danced with her in the hot morning sun with nothing around them but a couple of vintage gas pumps and a building with no windows.

  She laid her head on his chest and looped her arms around his neck. “I love you, cowboy.”

  “I love you, Lila, and I’ll never get tired of saying it.”

  When the song ended, he kissed her tenderly. “I’m glad we won’t get home until tomorrow because I want this day with you and only you.”

  Two hours later, they reached Shreveport and a few minutes past that he pulled over again right near the Texas line. He stopped the truck and got out.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Not one thing,” he said.

  He opened her door and held out his hand. “Would you please get out?”

  “Why?”