Picking Up the Pieces

by Carolina Mac

  Jack nodded. “Uh huh.” He took a big bite of his toast.

  “Uh huh…what?”

  “She wants you back.”

  I hopped off my chair and paced between the table and the fridge. “No, she doesn’t. She was the one who cheated on me, remember?”

  “Course, I remember. Rowdy Butler—your big competition in steer roping. But all the rodeo girls cheat with Rowdy Butler. It’s a thing and it doesn’t mean anything.”

  “I was going to marry Linda Loudon,” I said. “I couldn’t marry a cheater.”

  “Has she been seeing anybody since y’all broke up?”

  I shrugged and poured myself a fresh coffee. My first one had gone cold—like my heart. “Don’t know. I didn’t keep track of her.”

  “You should call her.”

  “I’m not calling her. I can’t trust her.”

  “Could have been a mistake she regrets.” Jack stuffed more toast into his mouth.

  “Maybe so. Don’t matter to me anymore.”

  “Yeah, I can see how much it don’t matter, Logy. You’re a mess.” He offered me the last piece of toast, thick with peanut butter and I almost gagged.

  “Let’s get the chores done.” I put the dishes in the sink and screwed the lid on the peanut butter jar. “We have to pick up Clay from the hospital.”

  Preston Hospital.

  CLAY was dressed and sitting in the guest chair in his room when we got there, but he hadn’t been released by Doctor Knowles. While we waited we checked in at the ICU nurses’ station and asked about Buster.

  “He’s conscious now,” said Sharon Cunningham—a girl Jacky had known since high school, “and his vital signs are improving. He was a long time without food or water, so he’s weak. Good thing you found him when you did, Jack. His mother is grateful.”

  Jack nodded. “Can I see him for a minute?”

  “I guess so. Don’t see what harm it would do. I’ll show you where he is.”

  I followed along behind Jack and Sharon, hoping I wouldn’t be kicked out, but Preston was a small town and most everybody knew us McKenna boys.

  Buster had been cleaned up considerably since Jacky found him in the weeds and most of the stink surrounding him like a cloud of pig shit, had vanished.

  “Hey, Buster,” said Jack. “You must have tripped and fallen down after Micky Swain gave you a ride home.”

  “Guess so. Don’t remember much about it. Sorry about taking Presto, Logan. Got kinda forced into it.”

  “Not buying it, Buster. You threatened us ahead of time. I think you meant to do it.”

  “Yeah, maybe I did. Feel bad about it now. Mama said y’all treated her good while I was knocked out and I thank y’all for that… after I was such a shit to y’all.”

  “Sheriff Tucker will be in to talk to you, Buster,” I said. “Be best if you told him the whole truth.”

  Buster eyed the bed rails. “Guess I got nowhere to run, Logan. I’ll have to talk to old Tucker when he gets here.”

  “How much money were they paying you to help steal Presto?” I asked.

  “They said it depended on how much ransom they got from y’all. My share could be like two or three thousand.”

  “Generous of them.”

  “Guess I won’t be getting paid now,” said Buster.

  “You guessed right.”

  Broken Spur Roadhouse.

  CLAY wanted to stop into the roadhouse on the way home from Preston. After eating hospital food, he was hungry for one of Miss Jane’s supreme burgers—the ones that came with onion rings on top.

  Ricki sat us down at a table, gave us menus and smiled at me the way she always did. She’d been waiting for years for me to ask her out and it was never going to happen.

  We didn’t have time to open our menus before Carson Wagoner was on us, giving us a good calling down. “I heard you were bothering Paul Silverstone when he was at home minding his own,” Carson snarled at me. “Just a little warning, boys. Y’all keep out of my business if y’all don’t want all hell coming down on y’all.”

  I stood up for more leverage and looked down at her. “When you go to trial, Miss Carson, I will be right there testifying against you and your husband and all of your tribe of crooks and there will be nobody in your business and in your face more than me.”

  “You’ll be sorry, Logan McKenna. I’ll make you sorry you messed with me.”

  “Uh huh. You go ahead and do that.”

  She stomped away and headed for the ladies’ room.

  Jack chuckled when I sat down. “Don’t think she likes you much, Logy. You got her all riled up.”

  “Not her I’m worried about,” I said. “I think Micky Swain is the one we should be watching. He’s in the background, but he’s the one calling the shots.”

  “You think so?” asked Clay.

  “I thought it was mostly Carson, but now that I’ve seen her and Micky together a couple of times, I think Micky is the head of that family of thieves.”

  “Do you think Sheriff Tucker talked to Silverstone?”

  “Don’t know, but we’ve done our part. Next will be the trials.”

  “Will they all be tried together or separately?” asked Jack.

  “I’ll phone the county DA’s office and see if I can get information. We’re bound to be on the witness list.”

  “Especially, Clay,” said Jack. “He’s the one who got shot along with Bonnie Sue.”

  “Harper is looking at hard time for shooting a cop,” said Clay, “I was just collateral damage. Hope the red-haired bitch never gets out of jail.”

  “She’ll need a good lawyer,” said Jacky, “and that will cost a heap of money.”

  “She didn’t have the bail money,” I said, “she’ll have to take a public defender.”

  “Hope she gets one that ain’t any damned good,” said Jack.

  McKenna Ranch.

  CLAY was settled on the sofa with a can of ginger ale next to him when I went into my office to get some work done. My cell rang and I could see who the caller was. I didn’t want to answer, but being polite and well brought up, I did anyway.

  “Hello, Fiona.”

  “Are you feeling better today, Logan?”

  “Not much better, thanks. There’s too much going on right now. Too many people in the hospital and too much trouble for me and my brothers, and a lot of unfinished business swirling around me.”

  “You’re upset. I can hear it in your voice. Would it help if I came out to the ranch and cooked y’all dinner?”

  “No, please don’t. I need some down time. We just got Clay home from the hospital again this morning.”

  “All right, I’ll leave you for now, but we need to have another talk as soon as you’re up to it.”

  “Another talk won’t change things, Fiona. I’m not ready for a relationship.”

  Not with you.

  “I’ll give you some time.”

  I ended the call and groaned. “She’s not giving up.” The phone rang again, and I grabbed it intending to throw it across the room. Then I saw the heart on the screen.

  My heart thumped in my chest and I could barely speak her name. “Linda?”

  “Hi, Logan. So nice to see you last night. I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Would it be all right if I drove out to your ranch and talked to you for a bit?”

  “Umm… I don’t know, Linda. Don’t you think it’s a waste of time?”

  “Not a waste of my time, Logan. I’m the one who was in the wrong and I want to make it up to you.”

  “What if that’s not possible?”

  “What if it is possible, Logan?”

  I took a couple of deep breaths and didn’t answer.

  “We need to talk in person. Would you let me come to the ranch and see you?”

  “I’ve got a lot of work today. I’m so far behind. Can you come tonight around seven-thirty?”

  “Sure. I’ll see you then.”

  I ran out of my office, thro
ugh the kitchen and onto the porch hollering for Jacky boy. “Jacky, come quick.”

  He ran from the corral to the house and stopped in front of me, all out of breath. “What? Did something happen to Clay?”

  “Help me clean the house. Linda’s coming tonight.”

  “Jeeze, Logy, you scared the crap out of me.”

  BY seven o’clock the house had never smelled cleaner. Clay laid on the sofa most of the time watching us with a grin on his face and we cleaned around him.

  “The kitchen counter is bare,” said Jack. “Has it ever been bare before?”

  “I don’t think so, not in recent memory,” I said. “The kitchen looks amazing.”

  “Do we have time for a cold one before Miss Linda gets here?” asked Jacky.

  “I could use one to calm me down.” I took two Lone Stars from the fridge and handed one to Jack. “Where should we have this private talk?”

  Jack winked at me. “In your bedroom?”

  “Horrible idea, then I would take her back for sure.”

  “Are you sure that’s why she’s coming? Did she mention getting back together?”

  “She said she was in the wrong and wanted to make it up to me, or something like that.”

  “Uh huh. Sounds like she wants to start over,” said Jack.

  “Do I want to start over?”

  Jack shrugged. “The only way you’ll find out is to talk to her. She’s right about that.”

  “I’m freaking out.”

  “That’s plain to see,” said Jack. “When she gets here why don’t you take a walk down the lane or something like that.”

  “Uh huh. A walk down the lane would be okay.”

  “I hear her truck,” said Jack. “What’s she driving now?”

  “No idea. Something big enough to pull her horse trailer?”

  Jack pointed at the door. “Go out and be nice.”

  My hands were sweating, and I felt like I’d blown right through my deodorant. My clean shirt was soaked through and I didn’t have time to change. Damn it. I chugged what was left of my beer and strode through the screen door onto the porch.

  Linda hopped out of her truck—a new blue one with a picture of a horse on the driver’s door. She was wearing jeans and a Wrangler t-shirt, her hair down long around her shoulders. She smiled and took my breath away.

  “Hi, Linda.” I walked down the three steps to meet her and she gave me a hug I wasn’t expecting.

  “Mmm… you smell nice, Logan. I love that cologne.”

  It’s Clay’s.

  “Would you like a drink?” I managed to ask.

  “No thanks, I’m fine.”

  “The boys are in the house so maybe we should talk out here. Do you want to take a walk down the lane?”

  “Sure. How’s Clay? I heard he was shot by the crazy woman who shot Bonnie Sue Dempster.”

  “He’s in a lot of pain and he has to rest. He was standing next to Bonnie Sue when it happened.”

  “That’s terrible. You’ll have to tell me the whole story. Everybody was talking about how those people stole one of your Daddy’s bulls.”

  “Uh huh. A story we’re not quite done with.” Linda walked along beside me and I had an urge to take her hand like I’d always done but thought better of it.

  Better not to touch her.

  The cattle were bawling in the next field, but other than that the warm, fragrant spring air was silent. A gorgeous April evening in Texas.

  Linda broke the awkward silence between us. “I realize I’ve apologized for hurting you many times, Logan, but the fact is, I hurt myself by my stupid unthinking move and ruined my future.” She stopped walking and turned to face me. “You are my future, Logan, and you always have been.”

  I looked into her blue eyes and felt sorry for her. My feelings for her always got in the way of clear thinking. Should I let myself be taken in by those blue eyes again?

  “I don’t know what to say, Linda. Can you give me time to sort it out? With everything that has been going on with losing Daddy, and Presto being stolen and then Clay getting shot, I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment.”

  “Take all the time you need, Logan, and if I can help you through this terrible time in your life, I’d be pleased if you would let me. I have a lot to make up for.”

  “I’m a mess right now, Linda.”

  “Can I help you as a friend?”

  “I’ve never thought of you on those terms,” I said. “I loved you with my whole heart and…” I turned away and broke a branch off the tree I was standing next to. “I just don’t know.”

  Linda turned to go back towards the house. “You’re afraid to take another chance on me, Logan and I understand that. I’m not going to pressure you. Think about it and if we can get together for a coffee or a beer, that’s enough of a start for me. I have no interest in anyone else. I was dumb and immature, and I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past year.”

  I changed the subject. “I’m coaching two guys and trying to improve their skills in steer roping. They’ll be entering one of the rodeos coming up soon. Maybe I’ll see you there.”

  Linda smiled. “Are you coming out of retirement?”

  “The thought crossed my mind. I’ll see how my students do first. Now that we’ve started our bull operation, I don’t have a lot of time to practice.”

  “Your Daddy would have been so proud of you, Logan. I know I am.”

  She hurried on ahead of me and when I caught up to her beside her truck I could see she was crying.

  “You shouldn’t drive if you’re upset, Linda. Let’s have a beer on the porch before you go.”

  She nodded her head and swiped at her eyes. “Sure, I’d like that. I’d like to see Jack and Clay too. I feel bad for Clay being shot by that horrible woman.”

  I pointed to the porch steps and ran inside to grab a couple of beers. Jack gave me a questioning look and I said, “Why don’t you and Clay come out on the porch and have a beer with Linda and me?”

  Jack nodded his head and I whispered, “Please?”

  “Okay, sure. Let me get Clay.”

  The boys came out, sat in the rockers and the tension was immediately eased. Linda chatted to both of them while I drank my beer and thought about what she wanted.

  Could I do it? Could I forget about Rowdy Butler and seeing Linda in his arms behind his horse trailer?

  I chugged the rest of my beer and was almost sure I wanted to give her a second chance.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Thursday, April 23rd.

  McKenna Ranch.

  CLAY was up in time for breakfast and a little of his color had returned. The new antibiotics were working. He took his meds with a glass of orange juice and looked me in the eye. “You know you love her, Logy. Shouldn’t you give her another chance?”

  “What if she cheats on me again, Clay. I don’t think I would live through it.”

  “Can you live your whole life without her?” asked Jacky. “Would that be better than taking a chance on her?”

  “No. She’s my first thought in the morning and my last thought at night. I miss her every day.”

  “You have to work it out in your own mind,” said Clay, “and decide for yourself. We can’t help you sort it out.”

  “Is she competing this season?” asked Jacky.

  “She’s practicing now.”

  “You’re bound to run into her on the circuit when your guys get started.”

  I nodded. “I thought about that. She wants to begin as friends and just hang out with me.”

  “Why don’t you agree to that and let nature take her own course,” said Clay. “Take your time. I don’t want her hurting you again. It’s taken you a year to get over the first mess she made.”

  “She said her mistake ruined her life too.”

  “Course it did, and it was her mistake and not yours. You’re a down-to-earth stable guy who loved her. Everybody knows Rowdy Butler is wild as they come. Any girl he fools aroun
d with is just that—another notch on his belt.”

  I broke out in a cold sweat talking about Linda. “I’d better get ready for Rip and Chuck. They’ll be here for their session in ten minutes.”

  CHUCK and Rip were excited that they were going to compete in a few weeks, and they vowed to work harder. They were both good kids and getting better with every practice. I was looking forward to the rodeo as much as they were.

  After two hours of grueling practice, I walked them back to their pickup and we talked about the guys they would be up against in their event. They’d just driven out the lane when a loud rumble cut through the air and a big black Harley rolled down the laneway.

  Micky Swain stopped beside me, straddling his bike with the engine sputtering and popping. “Just dropped in to have a word with you, McKenna.”

  “Say what you came to say.”

  “Stay out of my business and watch how you talk to my woman. Messing with me and Carson is something y’all don’t want to do.”

  I nodded and didn’t favor him with a reply.

  “I’d hate to see your pretty poster-boy face all messed up, McKenna, but that’s what will happen if you don’t listen to what I’m telling you.”

  “I’m listening,” I said.

  Jack came stomping down the porch steps ready to get into it and I held up my hand. “Mr. Swain was just leaving.”

  Swain made a big swooping circle with his Fat Boy and zoomed out the laneway onto the road.

  “What did he want?” asked Jack.

  “Delivering a threat. He warned me to stay out of his and Carson’s business.”

  “We should tell Sheriff Tucker.”

  “Yeah, we should, and I also want to talk to the DA’s office and find out the scoop on the trials. Let’s get ready for a little trip to Preston.”

  County DA’s Office. Preston.

  JACK and I both argued against it, but Clay insisted on coming with us to Preston. He was moving slow, but he swore he was feeling a lot better since the new meds had kicked in.

  We left him at the hospital entrance to visit Bonnie Sue while we went looking for information on the trials.

  Mrs. Greene, my second grade teacher was now working as the receptionist in the DA’s office and she helped us out a lot. She seemed to know everything that was going on or where to find it the answers.