To Commit Read online

  “Time to eat again. Sustenance to hold us until we get back to the Island.” She rested her eyes on the naked trees waiting for spring to come and touch them with green buds. She loved spring, loved the rebirth of the trees, the baby kittens who showed up somewhere in the woodpile next to the smokehouse every year about that time, and even that wonderful feeling inside her heart telling her another dead season had passed. But she loved winter, too, with the naked trees and brisk winds.

  “Mmmmm.” He made grateful noises when he opened a chicken salad sandwich and a bottle of pure well water from the Inn. The Sulphur water made his nose itch just smelling it, and when he actually put it in his mouth just to prove to her he was big and man enough to do so, he thought he’d knock a toenail off from shivering.

  Stella told him that in the old days people came from miles and miles around to draw the water into containers to take home since it was supposed to cure everything from ingrown toenails to baldness. And they also arrived from everywhere to bath in the water, thinking it could wipe out all kinds of illnesses.

  He had said he’d take his chances with penicillin pills and she laughed, that low, husky, sexy way that sent his senses reeling.

  “Just enough calories to get us back home, and then it looks like supper might be a draw since I haven’t tuckered you plumb out yet,” she said.

  He nodded and finished his sandwich, took a big red apple out of the sack and bit into it. “It’s peaceful up here? Are you really going to get married again some day?”

  She jerked her head around to look at him. Now why did he have to ask a stupid question like that and spoil everything? She started to ignore him but answered before she thought. “Are you? Have you not found someone you trust with your babies?”

  “Nope.” He grinned.

  She wanted to shoot him. Just who took care of those babies? He probably had a nanny who cared for them, who they ran to when they had boo-boos on their knees, who saw them take their first step and held them while they cried when they cut their teeth. When Stella had children she wouldn’t leave them with another woman. She’d be condemned to a barbed wire fence on the back forty acres of hell before she ever left her children.

  “What’s so funny?” She snapped.

  He continued to grin. “My babies.”

  She glared at him wordlessly, then turned her back and furiously ate an apple. How dare he act like something as precious as a child could be a laughing matter. This day was a mistake after all. Rance Harper was a mistake.

  “My babies are Melanie and Grace,” he finally said.

  Something squeezed her heart so bad her chest ached: two daughters.

  “They’re both alley cats. I rescued them from the horse stables when their mother died. One is black and white and one is orange. I had to feed them with one of those little tiny bottles and special milk I got from our vet. Until their eyes opened I even had to get up in the middle of the night. By the time they could lap out of a saucer, I thought I’d taken on the care of real babies. They sleep with me and I spoil them as rotten as if they were real kids. Did you really think I had children?”

  “Yes, I did.” She admitted, the heaviness rising from her chest and leaving a song in its place.

  “So are you going to answer me about getting married again now that we have my paternity straightened out?”

  “When you answer me. But then, I heard why you won’t remarry when you were at the inn with that hiker family. Something like once bit, twice shy. And no tall blondes. So I assume your ex-wife was a tall blond. Self-proclaimed bachelor who intends to climb the Pearly Gates without a woman dragging along on his coat tails. Did I remember it all right?”

  Rance held up his hands in defence. “Yes, you remembered it just fine. Bill was protecting me from that little dark haired vampire. Okay, truth is, I haven’t remarried because I’m scared to death of commitment like I told you before. Your turn.”

  “Because no man can offer what I want, like I told you before,” she said.

  “And that’s one of those lifetime things?”

  “Yep. The very thing that scares the devil out of you and all the male species. That sends ya’ll flying back to your trucks so fast you’d think you had sprouted wings. All I have to do is mention that phrase and you’ll leave nothing in your wake but a fear of ever returning.”

  “Whew. You do speak your mind. You’re not interested in money and power?”

  “Nope. That’s the last thing I want.” She stared out over the country side.

  From the angle he sat he could see her blue eyes floating in tears, but she was stubborn enough not to let even one spill over the dam. Part of him knew he should be the one to change the subject. To say, ‘Hey, let’s talk about something lighter. Like where are we going for supper?’ But another part wanted to know the whole answer so he waited.

  “So if you can’t start out a relationship with a lifetime thing then you don’t even want to begin it?” He asked again.

  “I want it all, Rance. Every smidgen bit of it. I want a commitment and every little tiny thing that goes with it. I want someone I can trust. Someone I can believe. Someone who won’t walk into our home five years after we’re married and say ‘I want a divorce because you are a hindrance to my career.’ I want someone who comes home every night and I don’t even have to ask if I’m the best thing that happened to him that day. I want to see it in his eyes when he takes his boots off at the door. I want to wake up every morning with something inside me that knows this is real and permanent. I want a baby nine months after I get married and at least three more after that. One every year until there’s four of them in the house. I want it all! Do you understand? No, you couldn’t possibly understand. Because you’re a man and to understand you’d have to feel with your heart and open up your soul. In essence what I want, Rance, is really that lifetime thing. Something to last through all eternity, and I haven’t found a man yet who’s got a lifetime thing to offer.”

  He whistled through his teeth. “Whew! Guess I really asked for that, didn’t I?”

  “You laid down and begged for it,” she said shortly. “I guess I really crawled up on my soap box and let you have it, didn’t I?”

  “Stepped right up and spoke your mind. I’ll have to ponder over what you said a few days.”

  “You do that Rance,” she told him. “And if there’s an old ugly cowboy that you know who’ll fit that kind of bill, kick him over the fence and I might take a shine to him.”

  Stella dressed in the electric blue silk pants suit she bought at Sak’s in Dallas, and brushed her hair until it was shiny. She slapped a little bit of makeup on her face and noticed that she’d gotten a bit sunburned that day. At least it waited to rain until they gotten back to the Inn. A hard, driving rain complete with thunder and lightening hit not fifteen minutes after she was safe inside. Even yet, a fine drizzle still fell outside so she picked up an umbrella standing in an old pickling crock beside her bedroom door before she started downstairs.

  She’d just opened her bedroom door when the telephone rang. Holding the umbrella in one hand, she grabbed the phone and answered, “Hello, Brannon Inn.”

  “Well, well, who squatted in your oatmeal this morning?” Her mother laughed. “And what’s this I hear about you wandering all over the park with some dark haired stranger? Is your mother the last to know when you’ve found a feller after all this time? And I just heard talk in town that Joel was panting around your back door.”

  “Mercy!” Stella exclaimed. “So many questions. So little time. I’m about to go to dinner with that dark haired stranger. His name is Rance Harper and he’s not my feller. He was a boarder and now he is my neighbor. He bought the old Morgan ranch next door. And Joel can pant until his tongue dries out. I’m not interested in him or anything he’s got.”

  “Well, have a good time. I’ll be over tomorrow afternoon for a full report, so don’t forget any details. And I’ll call Maggie to bring the gun. I think the words w
hich fell from your lips when you came home was, ‘If I ever look at another good-looking, dark haired man with brown eyes, just shoot me between the eyes, roll me up in a quilt and throw me in a bar ditch.’ And we wouldn’t want to disregard your wishes,” her mother said.

  “You leave Maggie out of this,” Stella scolded. “Please tell me she and Lauren didn’t beat a path down here just to give me a lecture?”

  “Maggie and Lauren are already on the way. But I haven’t called your brother, yet, but if you’re in a fighting mood that means you must like this feller. I might ought to call a family pow-wow before we shoot you. What time tomorrow would be good for the family gathering?”

  “Not until supper time.” She intoned with a heavy sigh.

  “I’ll bring your favorite chicken salad. The one with cool whip and I’ll even bake a loaf of fresh rye bread. We’ll pick up ice cream at Braums for dessert. You make the coffee. Have a nice evening, my daughter. Where is this knight in shining armor from?”

  “Grapevine, Texas, and no more questions. Goodbye, Mother.” She hung up the phone.

  She stole glances at Rance while he drove through Sulphur and west to Davis. His jeans were starched to perfection, and there was a tuft of dark hair peeking out the top of his pale gray western shirt. She could practically see herself in the toes of his boots and she had the insane desire to scoot right across the wide bench seat and snuggle up close to him. But after that tirade on Bromide Hill, he’d probably wreck the truck trying to crawl out the door to get away from her. As a matter of fact, as quiet as he’d been she would probably never hear from him again after tonight.

  “Turn right at the red light.” She told him in the middle of downtown Davis and he snapped his head around to look at her. “It’s that little restaurant on your right in the stone building.”

  “Right here?” he asked. “I thought we were going to some fancy steak house.”

  She pointed to the only lit up building on that side of the street, the one just past the car wash. “We’re going right there. And when you’ve tasted their food, you won’t be disappointed. Trust me?”

  “Yes, ma’am, your wish is my pure Texas desire.” He nosed his truck into a parking place between an old beat up Ford Maverick and a big white Caddy.

  “Hi, Stella, where you been girl? Haven’t seen you in months. Must be keepin’ you busy at the Inn.” A waitress called from behind the long counter of The Main Street Restaurant.

  Rance tried to take in the place with a quick glance around the surroundings, but it was impossible. Every square inch of wall space was covered with old memorabilia. Farm equipment, old baking tins, movie posters, even a big, faded picture of the Declaration of Independence, and posters of movie stars. Stella herded him into a booth, tossing her purse in one side and sliding in beside it. The waitress brought menus and water in tall, red plastic glasses. One of those old paper napkin dispensers, salt and pepper shakers and a bottle of hot sauce were to his right. He hadn’t seen a place like this in years.

  “So what looks good?” She peeped over the top of her menu to find her mother and sister walking in the front door. Her mother frowned and nudged Maggie. They sat down at a booth in the front of the restaurant.

  “What do you suggest?” He asked.

  “Oh, I like their T-bones, salad with honey mustard dressing, maybe some red beans and fried okra on the side and a nice big baked potato with sour cream and butter. Then we can ask if there’s any coconut cream pie left. It goes fast.”

  “If that’s what you like, then I’ll have the same thing. Make my steak rare.”

  The waitress appeared. “Regular, right? And double?”

  Stella nodded. “That’s right.”

  The waitress disappeared into the kitchen and Stella sipped at the water. “My mother and sister just walked in the door and are sitting in a front booth. I haven’t seen my sister in two months because she lives in Kansas. Would you mind?”

  He slid out of the booth and waited for her. “Let’s go talk to them.”

  “You don’t have to go.”

  “But I want to.” He slipped his arm around her waist and she shivered. Her mother would never, ever hush about Rance now.

  She leaned down and hugged her sister. “Hi! I didn’t know you’d be here this early. Momma said you were on the way, but I thought it might be late.”

  “Oh, no. Lauren has a date with some pimply faced kid and heaven help us if we were a minute late,” Maggie said.

  “This is Rance Harper.” Stella introduced him and immediately saw her mother’s disapproval and a look from her sister. There would definitely be a lecture tomorrow night. “Rance, this is my mother, Lucy Brannon and my sister, Maggie.”

  Rance shook hands with them both. “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”

  Lucy smiled tightly and Maggie mumbled the right words.

  Yes, sir, it would be the deluxe lecture. She deliberately switched places with him when they returned to their booth. Rance could deal with the frown on her mother’s face. She wasn’t about to spoil her steak with her mother’s discouraging leers.

  The waitress brought their dinner and stopped long enough to talk to Stella a few minutes then she was off to visit with another customer. They’d no more than cut the first bite of steak when Stella felt a warm hand on her shoulder and revulsion when she looked up to see Joel sliding into the booth beside her. He picked up a cherry tomato from the edge of her salad and popped it into his mouth.

  He nodded toward Rance. “So hi, honey. Who’s this? A cousin?”

  “This is Rance Harper, and no, he is not my cousin. He’s the man you met at the Inn a few weeks ago. We are having dinner and we don’t want a third wheel,” Stella said bluntly.

  “My, my testy, ain’t we, sweetheart. I didn’t recognize Lance. Well, old Joel will just wait his turn. Just don’t let Lance get too close to my merchandise.” He kissed her on the cheek and went back to the front of the restaurant to sit with her mother and sister.

  “Didn’t know I’d moved in on someone else’s merchandise,” Rance said.

  “I’m not. We’re not. It’s a figment of his overactive imagination. I’ve told him I’m not interested. He’s just got a big ego and can’t bear to have it deflated.”

  “Good enough. This is a great place, Stella. Do you know everyone in the whole county?”

  “Pretty close.”

  “Anyone ever tell you that if you cut your hair a little you’d look somewhat like her?” He pointed to a picture of Marilyn Monroe sitting on a bar stool at the Hollywood Diner.

  “Then you need glasses,” she said with a giggle. “But I’ll play along. Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Elvis, who’s right beside her?”

  “Ah, shucks. I just knew you’d say I looked like James Dean, not Elvis.”

  “With all that black hair and those eyes? James Dean had lighter hair.”

  “But don’t you think my nose is like his?” Rance stopped eating and tilted his head to the side so she could see his profile.”

  “About like my legs are like Marilyn Monroe’s,” she said.

  “Well, show them to me and we’ll compare,” he teased.

  “In your dreams, cowboy.”

  They drove to the top of Bromide Hill on the way back to the Inn but she still couldn’t drag up the nerve to slide across the seat and sit close to him. She berated herself for being prudish and even childish. Grown up women in today’s world didn’t act like this, but she still didn’t make a move. Merciful heavens, she didn’t dare. If she touched him, she’d roll over on her back and it would all be over but the afterglow.

  “Doesn’t take nearly so long to drive here as to walk.” He commented as they drove back toward the main road.

  “No.” She watched a star fall from the heavens. She had a wish coming. What would she wish for? One of those ugly cowboys who had a lifetime thing hiding down in his soul?

  “Did you see that star?”

  She
cocked her head to one side and looked even more like Marilyn Monroe in the pale moonlight. “Yes, I did, and I saw it before you so it’s my wish.”

  “What are you going to wish for?” He asked.

  “What do you think I’d wish for?”

  “No fair answering a question with a question.”

  “I shall wish for one of those ugly cowboys to ride to Sulphur, Oklahoma on a big white horse and bring me a lifetime thing,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Does he have to be ugly?”

  “Probably. Handsome cowboys don’t want lifetime things,” she said.

  When Rance nosed his truck into the yard at Brannon Inn someone stood up from the porch swing. Stella thought at first it was Lauren and was worried that maybe she’d had a bad experience with her date. Then she realized the girl was dark haired and entirely too short to be her niece. She felt Rance stiffened and she squinted but still didn’t recognize the lady.

  “Damn!” Rance swore under his breath. “You said the Inn was vacant for the whole weekend.”

  “It is.”

  “Then what is she doing here?” He asked.

  “Who is she?” Stella asked.

  Rance was still mumbling when he got out of the truck and walked around to open the door for her.

  The girl stepped off the porch. “Hi. Got a room for the night for a weary hiker?”

  “Jewel?” Stella suddenly remembered.

  “Miss Branscum, how are you? And helllllo, Rance. I didn’t know you were here for the weekend. Didn’t see any lights but figured you’d be home after a while. Miss Branscum, I’d like a room for the night.”

  “We’re booked solid,” Rance said. “No vacancy at the Inn tonight.”

  “Oh?” Jewel raised an eyebrow. “We are booked solid. Who is we? I don’t see any cars.”

  “Folks are out until late,” Stella lied. “Besides this isn’t a motel or a hotel. People stay here by reservation only.”

  “Imagine that. Well, guess I better get on down the road toward Sulphur. I’ll be at the motel there. Want to come along Rance? We could do an instant replay of our last time.” She edged over to him and looped her arm through his.