Cowboy Billionaire's Second Chance

by Anna Rose Hill

  “I am an attorney under retainer representing the Hamiltons,” she replied, her voice icy calm. “You should really consult Mr. Gladstone before making calls like this.”

  “I ain’t gonna call that fool,” he snapped. “I don’t need him telling me what to do or not do.”

  “But you can call me and hassle me. How did you get this number?”

  “I ain’t telling you that,” he retorted. “But let me say that little gals have no business becoming lawyers. Get married and have babies, and stop messing in my business.”

  “I am considering this call as harassment, Mr. Parnell,” she said coldly, shaking inside. “Do you really want me to get a protection order?”

  “You ain’t gonna do squat. Now I’m telling you, you stay away from the Hamilton place, and you, you mind your Ps and Qs around me. Tell me in front of people that I’m slandering. Why, I ought to sue you.”

  “Please try,” she replied. “Now after I hang up, I am heading to the police station to report a menacing call from a man who is harassing my clients. I am feeling threatened, Mr. Parnell, do you know what that means?”

  “I don’t much care. Now you do what I tell you if you know what’s good for you.”

  “It means that once the protection order is in place,” she continued, feeling sweat from her anger pour down her back, “should you contact me in any form, I will have you arrested. Do you understand, sir?”

  “You don’t have the gumption.”

  “I am hanging up now, and you will be notified by the courts that the protection order is in place. I will also invite your attorney to the hearing, so he will know what exactly is happening. Good bye, sir.”

  “Don’t you dare hang up on me, young lady!”

  Addie clicked off, realizing how badly she trembled. She set the phone down, and clasped her hands together, breathing so deeply she almost hyperventilated. Muttering under her breath, she wished she had pressed the record button on her phone, and recorded the whole thing. I will if he dares to call back.

  Parnell didn’t, and gradually calm filled her mind. The weird feeling of near hyperventilation passed, but it took much longer for the butterflies in her stomach to fly away. Taking a look at her schedule, which amounted to nothing much at all, Addie shoved her cell into her purse, and walked out of her office.

  Honey Creek didn’t have its own police department as such, but did have the sheriff’s department offices mixed in with the courthouse. That building was a six block walk from her own, and as she headed there, she started to think it was time to drive to work. Yet, despite the uncomfortable heat, it gave Addie time to think as well as greet people she saw. Many honked and waved as they drove past, and their friendliness soothed her frazzled nerves.

  The town may be small, but the sheriff’s department had undertaken security precautions as big city police departments had. She hit a button that buzzed inside, and waited until a deputy in a dark brown uniform arrived to let her in. “How can I help you, ma’am?”

  “I need to file a protection order.”

  “Okay, come with me, and walk through the metal detector.”

  She set her purse on the table for the deputy to scan, and walked through. He handed her purse to her, then opened another door for her. “If you’ll have a seat, ma’am, I’ll be right with you.”

  Addie obeyed him, and glanced around the modern sheriff’s office with deputies working at desks and computers, talking on telephones. Straight ahead of her was the office of the sheriff himself, the door closed. The emblem of the department was embossed on it in gold.

  The deputy returned, and sat down. “What seems to be the problem?”

  Addie explained her position as the Hamilton brothers’ attorney, and how Parnell called to harass her and tell her to mind her own business. The deputy took notes, filled out a form, and asked her to sign it. After she did so, he said, “You’ll have to tell your story to the judge, ma’am. That’ll be at eight in the morning in courtroom three just next door.”

  Addie smiled. “Thank you so much.”

  “You’re very welcome, ma’am, and good luck.”

  Leaving the department, Addie plucked her cell from her purse, and clicked the number Gladstone had called from. “John Gladstone.”

  “Addie Baker here, Mr. Gladstone.”

  “Miss Baker, hello. What can I do for you?”

  “I filed an order of protection against your client, sir,” she said, walking down the sidewalk toward her building. “I’m calling to invite you to the hearing.”

  Parnell’s attorney said nothing for a few moments, then asked, “May I ask what happened?”

  “He called to harass me, Mr. Gladstone,” Addie answered. “Told me to mind my own business, get married and have babies. And that I’d better listen to him if I knew what was good for me.”

  “Surely that was nothing to file a protection order over.”

  “As some of his phrasing made me feel threatened, I did. The hearing is at eight tomorrow morning if you’re interested in attending.”

  “That’s a long drive for a ten minute hearing.”

  “Your decision of course. But I might suggest you have a chat with your client, Mr. Gladstone. Remind him of how much trouble he can get into by calling me and making threats. That goes for the Hamiltons as well. Should he harass them again, I will file another protection order on their behalf.”

  “Again? You mean he’s already done so?”

  “Yes. After church yesterday morning. I was there and not just witnessed it, I informed him he skated perilously close to a slander lawsuit.”

  A great sigh came down the air waves from Odessa. “I’ll have a talk with him, Miss Baker.”

  “Thank you.”

  Feeling better, Addie returned to her office, and began the search for her missing brother-in-law.

  “Come on, Callie, we’re going to be late.”

  Addie rushed to put the rice casserole she had made into a covered container, added a large spoon, and looked around as Callie carried Gus into the kitchen.

  “Sorry, sorry,” Callie replied, grabbing the baby’s travel bag with extra diapers, wipes, pacifiers and led the way out the door.

  As Gus’s infant seat was already in Callie’s car, they loaded everything in the old Chevy, and Callie drove them to the church grounds. The potluck picnic had been planned for weeks, and Addie knew Travis and his brothers would be there. She hadn’t spoken to him since the previous Sunday. Now her nerves escalated at the prospect of running into him.

  Maybe he’ll be at the far end with Colton and Brady. There will be a lot of people there.

  Whether by accident or a conniving design at matchmaking, the potluck’s organizer, Josie Atkins, gushed over Gus, then asked Addie, “Will you help Travis at the grills? He desperately needs it.”

  Addie glanced at the large circle of grills that smoked, and gave off that heady, wonderful scent that only a barbecue can offer. Travis flipped burgers, and turned hot dogs, and it was clear he needed the assistance. Yet, before she could beg off, and ask Josie to find someone else, she had taken Callie to a group of mothers with young children.

  Heaving a sigh, Addie walked across the grass toward Travis. “I heard you need help.”

  He turned, a spatula in one hand and a tongs in the other, his brow hiked in surprise. “I sure do. Which would you prefer? Hot dogs and brats or hamburgers?”

  “I’ll take the dogs and brats,” Addie replied with a small grin. “I don’t think I can ruin those.”

  “Then you’ll need these.” Travis handed her the tongs, and smiled. “How’ve you been?”

  “Doing okay,” she said, turning the hot dogs on the grill, feeling warmth from both the grills and his friendly reception of her. “Found my dead beat brother-in-law.”

  Chapter 15

  “Dead beat?”

  Travis wiped sweat from his brow with his sleeve and replaced his hat, eyeing Addie sidelong. “I know he ran off with some gal,
but how can you call him a dead beat?”

  “Being a guy,” she answered, “you may have another name for someone who refuses to pay his child support.”

  “No, I think that’s an appropriate title,” he said, “and in my opinion, a man who refuses to man up to his paternal obligations isn’t a man at all.”

  Addie laughed, and Travis enjoyed hearing it. In fact, he had missed it, and her, all week. “Well, he tried to cover his tracks, but I found him.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Working for a land surveying outfit in Oklahoma. I filed a suit to garnish his wages.”

  “I imagine Callie wouldn’t be in the financial fix she’s in had he started paying right away.”

  “Well, yes, she would,” Addie admitted. “It’s only a few hundred a month, not enough for her to live on. But it’s enough to cover diapers and baby formula.”

  “Callie is lucky to have you on her side.”

  He met her eyes through the wafting smoke of the grills, his chest aching with all the words he hadn’t said, all the feelings he refused to admit he possessed, the realization that he had missed seeing her. I’d be lucky to have her on my side.

  “He wasn’t that hard to find,” Addie said, “in fact, he wasn’t trying all that hard to hide from Callie. I guess he thought she wouldn’t pursue child support, and it was I who persuaded her.”

  Folks with paper plates in hand, many of them kids, passed by the grills. After taking buns from a nearby table, Travis and Addie smiled and gave them their preference of meat choices. Though he wasn’t about to complain, Travis wondered who it was who sent Addie to help him.

  Probably Josie. She’s always something of a nosy old biddy. Maybe she’s trying to push us together after hearing how we hired her as our lawyer.

  For a time, there were few opportunities for private conversation, yet Travis enjoyed Addie’s company, listened to her light banter with those who arrived to get a hot dog or a bratwurst. A break in the flow came as folks sat in the grass to eat, or at the few picnic tables. Most of the meat had been cooked, and lay in aluminum pans, covered in foil.

  “Want a hamburger?” he asked Addie.

  “No, I think I’ll have a brat,” she replied, heading for the bun table with a paper plate, and then over to the potato salad, the tea and chips.

  Putting a hamburger, one of the few remaining, on a plate, Travis gestured toward a tall tree with shade under its spread branches. “Colton, Brady and Riley are over there. Care to join us?”

  She smiled, and he wondered if there was still any hope at all after the way he blundered last Sunday. “Sure. Be there in a few.”

  As he collected his own side dishes from among the many at the tables, he ambled over to the oak tree. Riley ran to him, chatting excitedly about Addie giving her a hot dog. “I hope you ate it all,” Travis replied gravely. “It was an awful big dog.”

  “I did,” Riley replied, then pointed. “There’s Miss Baker now.”

  “Why don’t you go see if you can carry her tea for her?”

  Riley galloped off across the sprawling lawn. Travis sat cross-legged on the grass, his own tea beside him, his plate in his hand. As Riley proudly carried Addie’s tea, Addie looked down at her as the two spoke.

  “You making nice with Addie now?” Colton asked, lying on his back with his head propped upon the oak’s trunk, his hat half covering his face.

  “I asked her to sit with us.”

  “The rumor mill is in full swing, boys,” Brady commented, also lying down but on his side, his head propped on his elbow. He busily chewed on a stem of grass. “It seems our very lovely lawyer slapped a restraining order on our old friend. Pow! Right in the kisser.”

  Travis glanced from Addie to Brady. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Ask her.”

  “Sit right by Daddy, Miss Baker,” Riley suggested, carefully setting her tea in the grass between Travis and Brady.

  “That sounds nice, thank you, Riley.”

  “You’re welcome. Daddy, can I go play over there?”

  “Stay where I can see you.”

  “Okay.”

  Riley rushed off to a gang of kids who appeared to be engaged in some sort of chasing game involving a rock, and whoever had the rock was ‘it.’ Addie sat gracefully on the grass, and Travis admired the sleek fall of her hair, the beautiful lines of her face. She took a bite of her bratwurst, as Travis spoke around the hamburger in his mouth.

  “You slapped ole Parnell, Addie?”

  She eyed him in surprise, then chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand. After swallowing, she replied, “With a protection order, yes.”

  Colton laughed aloud. “I bet that went over well. What prompted that, Addie?”

  “His phone call to hassle me,” she said, drinking from her cup. “Made vague threats, told me women should be kept barefoot and pregnant, said I should mind my own business and it’s because of me that you are causing him problems.”

  “Oh, brother,” Brady snorted. “That’s just like him.”

  “Have you heard from him since?” Travis asked.

  “Not a peep. But I also called his attorney and suggested he keep his client muzzled.”

  “Cool,” Brady said. “We haven’t heard anything from him, either.”

  “If you do, let me know.” Addie forked potato salad into her mouth. “I’ll get another order on your behalf.”

  “I’m guessing his attorney made an impression,” Travis commented. “Now he knows better than to make things worse.”

  “Let’s hope so. We don’t need more problems, or Parnell constantly making a nuisance of himself.”

  “Addie,” Travis said, catching her eye, “I apologize that you’re getting hassled like that. You don’t deserve it.”

  She shrugged. “It happens. He’s trying to intimidate me into going away. If I do, then you guys are up a creek without a paddle, and that’s where he wants you.”

  “He never did know how to play well with others,” Colton said, then yawned. “Brady ole buddy, how about we collect your kid and head for home? I could use an afternoon nap.”

  Glancing around the vicinity, Travis saw other folks packing up and heading for cars. Josie Atkins collected the leftover meat into a cooler while several other people gathered up the trash bags. Riley loped toward them while parents called for the kids she had played with. His mouth went dry, forcing him to wet it with tea, as he thought about asking Addie to go for a drive with him.

  “Come on, kiddo,” Brady said, getting up. “Your very lazy uncle Colton needs his nap.”

  “Why?” Riley asked. “I thought naps were for babies.”

  “That is so very true, child, and Colton is a baby,” Brady said, grinning. “He’s even named for one.”

  Colton grumbled his way to his feet, then picked Riley up and set her on his shoulders. She shrieked laughter, and seized him around his throat with her small hands. “Whoa, loosen up there, you want to strangle me?”

  Addie laughed as Brady tipped her a wink, and the three of them crossed the grass to the parking lot. Travis met her eyes, and an awkward moment seemed to slam between them. Addie looked away first.

  “I’m sorry I ran out last week,” she said, her voice low. “I’m not usually that rude.”

  “I think I gave you good cause.”

  She took a deep breath. “I am also truly sorry for causing you such grief all those years ago. And you know I still have feelings for you.”

  Feeling hope quash his nervousness, Travis dared to think that maybe, just maybe, things would work out this time. He knew he still loved her, and he’d had a week to think about forgiveness and second chances.

  Then Addie spoke again. “I hurt you once, Travis, and I never want to do that again. So I think we need to stay emotionally ... away from one another. Things should stay professional between us.”

  He stared at his empty plate, thinking that she had just done what she didn’t want to do – she hurt him again. Gr
abbing his courage, he took a deep breath. “Let’s go for a ride. Not on horses; in my truck. Let’s just talk.”

  He recognized the reservation in her eyes, and suspected she’d say no, give some excuse.

  But she nodded. “Okay. I’ll tell Callie to go home without me.”

  Travis stood, then held his hand down to her to assist her up. He walked beside her toward the rapidly emptying parking lot, tossing their empty plates and cups into the trash. Addie told her sister goodbye, and Callie carried Gus toward the car.

  Travis looked at Addie as he opened the passenger door of his truck.

  “How about we drive up to that overlook?” he suggested.

  “I haven’t been there in so long,” Addie answered, smiling up at him.

  “Me, either.”

  Driving them both out of town and toward the Davis Mountains, Travis gathered his courage again. “I want you back in my life, Addie.”

  When she said nothing, he flicked a quick glance at her face, and found she was looking at him with an odd expression. “I mean it.”

  “But you can’t trust me,” she reminded him, her voice quavering slightly. “You said so. And I’m torn here. I’m all mixed up in my head, whether to go or stay.”

  “You don’t have to be,” he told her. “You belong here whether you see it or not. You are loved, by my brothers, by the town. Things can be different now. You have family here.”

  Addie stared out through the windshield, her face naked and vulnerable. “Family,” she said quietly, shaking her head sadly. She sighed. “My parents never loved Callie and me. That was a big part of why I wanted out of here back then. All the memories of needing love and approval, but not getting it.”

  “That’s why you stayed so much at our house.”

  “Your folks offered what mine denied.”

  Travis drove on, thinking. He followed the two-lane blacktop that led to the higher elevations, and the overlook. “Colton has been talking of forgiveness lately. I need to forgive, as do you.”

  “I know.” Addie rubbed her face with both hands, and took a deep breath. “I haven’t tried very hard to forgive them. I should. All I can think about is their cold indifference when I said I was leaving to go to college.”