by A. J. Pine
“Well, you’ll always be Daisy Jo to us. That’s what your mama called you,” Hope said. “I came for pancakes and crispy bacon and a side order of biscuits and gravy. And what are you doing in town? Coming back for good?”
“I don’t know yet. Molly is decidin’ if she really wants to leave. I’m decidin’ if I want to return. It’s a test. What do you want, Valerie?”
“For Molly to stay and you to go,” Valerie said without a hint of a smile.
“Well, some things never change, but I was talkin’ about food,” Daisy said.
“I’ll have the big country breakfast with three eggs,” Valerie answered.
Daisy propped her hands on the table and leaned in until her nose was only inches from Valerie’s. “Just for your information, I’m not in the market for a husband, a significant other, a boyfriend, or even someone to date, so if you’re seeing someone, he is totally safe.”
“That is enough,” Hope said. “Good God, y’all are both well past fifty years old and you’re actin’ like a couple of teenagers. Get over it, Valerie! And, Daisy Jo, you stop bein’ bitchy.”
“Mama!” Valerie gasped.
“Hope!” Daisy’s voice went high and squeaky.
“We’ll have those orders right out.” Lila looped her arm in Daisy’s and led her to the kitchen. “What just happened?”
“She accused me of trying to seduce Mitch Dawson in high school and she’s never gotten over it and neither have I.”
Lila bit back a giggle. “So that’s why she didn’t want me and Brody to date. Because you were still mad at his dad.”
“Maybe.” Daisy poured pancake batter on the grill. “But I didn’t want you dating Brody either. I’d rather see you in a convent as married to a Dawson.”
“Why?” Lila asked.
“They all think they are only a notch below God and the angels and you’d spend your whole life tryin’ to be what they want you to be rather than who you are. We’ve got a whole week to have this conversation. Take this to them and if Valerie asks, I did not poison her eggs but I might next time.”
“Well, you sure flunked this test with flying colors.” Lila smiled.
“Or I passed it. I’m not moving back here and it didn’t take a week to make me figure it out,” Daisy said.
“I’m surprised that you stayed as long as you did with the kind of anger you two have,” Lila said.
Daisy shook a spoon at her. “Don’t get me started.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Lila picked up the orders and got the heck out of the kitchen.
Chapter Thirteen
Someday when Lila had daughters, she might understand her mother but that Wednesday evening, she was glad to see Daisy drive off to church and leave her alone. Working with Daisy was a whole different thing than vacationing with her a couple of times a year. Or maybe it was simply that when they were both back in Happy that Daisy reverted to the mother of a teenager rather than treating Lila like she was a grown woman.
“Which is understandable,” Lila told Duke and Cora that evening. “This wild streak inside me is hard to keep reined in when I’m here, so I’m not surprised that she thinks she can run my life like she used to.”
Cora bit Duke’s ear, so he latched on to her tail and the fight was on. Black and white fur all mixed together made Lila laugh but she needed to get outside to clear her head.
A few minutes later she was headed out toward the canyon with intentions of riding through it without getting sidetracked. But when she reached the lane back onto Henry’s old place, she slowed down and turned into it. She told herself it was because she wanted to see that big white mama cat, but the voice in her head said that she was lying.
That same niggling voice said that she shouldn’t go into the barn when she saw Brody’s truck parked in the shadows of a big oak tree, but she didn’t listen that time either. She parked beside the barn doors and hung her helmet on the handlebars.
The white cat came out immediately when Lila sat down on a bale of hay and she stroked its pretty fur from head to the tip of its tail. “So are we here alone? Did someone leave that truck and go off with a friend? Too bad you can’t talk.”
“I’d trade places with that critter.” Brody’s voice came down from the loft.
“I saw your truck. How long have you been here?”
“I decided to swing by after replacing fence posts all day. Join me.”
Without hesitation, she left the cat and started up the ladder toward his voice. He reached down to help her from the top rung into the loft and sent a shot of pure unadulterated fire through her body. She noticed the quilt spread out over the loose hay in the corner.
“I wasn’t expectin’ anyone, but I have to admit I was hopin’ you might feel the vibes of me wanting you to come out here tonight.” He kept her hand in his and led her to the quilt. “Sit with me.”
She let him pull her down onto the quilt and a soft breeze fluttered her ponytail. She’d been in this same spot more than one time.
“Remember all the times when we used to spend time here?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah,” she whispered. “How many other women have been here with you on this same quilt since I left?”
His free hand covered his heart. “I’m hurt that you’d even think I’d let another woman look at our quilt.”
She giggled. “This isn’t really that same old quilt that you kept in your truck, is it?”
“It really is the same one—our quilt.” He nodded. “And, honey, no other woman has even laid eyes on it. This is my secret place where I come when I’m lonely and want to think.”
She’d never thought so much about what Brody went through when she left. She’d always figured that he’d gotten over her within a week and moved on to someone else. “What do you think about?”
“Everything,” he said. “Important decisions have been made sittin’ right here but mostly I think about you, Lila.”
“What are you battling with tonight?” she asked.
“It’s not the breath you take but the moments that take your breath away,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about that phrase all day. And I realized that just about every breathtaking memory in my life involves you.”
She turned toward him and let her soul sink into those blue eyes. His dark lashes fluttered and then rested on high cheekbones. And then his lips found hers in a long, passionate kiss that raised the heat at least ten degrees. His tongue touched her lower lip and she opened her mouth to allow him entrance. That kiss led to more, each one getting hotter than the last.
Just when she was ready to start unsnapping his shirt, his phone rang loudly, breaking the mood. He ignored the first five rings. Then within a second, it started again.
“Dammit!” he said as he fished it out of his shirt pocket. “This had better be good, Jace.”
He listened for a minute and then hung up. “Our prize bull and two heifers are out on the road. I have to go help get them corralled. Will you wait here for me?”
“I could go help,” she said.
He hesitated half a second as if he was weighing the idea and then he nodded. “I’d like that but only if you’ll come back here with me when we get done.”
She planted a kiss on his cheek. “Want to take the cycle?”
“It would scare them half to death. Jace is bringing the old farm truck. They know that sound. We just need to get them roped and tied to the back. I’m sorry we got interrupted.”
She patted him on the knee. “Ranchin’ is a twenty-four-hour job, Brody. I understand that. Let’s go get the cattle off the road.”
He held her hand and she kept pace with his long legs as they left the barn. The moonlight silhouetted an old bull and two cows grazing on the grass beside the road. That old adage about the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence flashed through Lila’s mind.
“Hey, Lila.” Jace grinned.
“Jace.” She nodded.
One of the heifers suddenly raised
her head and bawled, then trotted off toward town. The other one headed in the other direction. The bull sauntered to the back of the truck as if he understood exactly what he was supposed to do. Jace quickly wrapped a rope around his neck and tied him to the truck.
“I’ll turn around the one going toward town,” Lila said over her shoulder as she jogged in that direction.
“I’ll keep the one headed in the right direction toward the ranch,” Brody yelled.
Lila managed to get ahead of the cow and take a stance right in the middle of the road. The heifer lowered her head, eyed Lila, and started to charge but Lila waved both arms and yelled. The cow stopped in her tracks and simply turned around and began to run back the other way with Lila right behind her.
She caught up with Brody near the lane going back to the ranch and found that the problem with the fence was right beside the cattle guard. “It’s a wonder only two got out. I see a dozen or more,” she said breathlessly.
“Hey.” Jace’s voice carried through the darkness. “I came back for the truck. I got Sundance in the corral. I can get this fence fixed in no time.”
“I’ll stay and help,” Brody said quickly.
Jace bumped shoulders with him. “I’ve got this. You want to use the truck to take Lila back to wherever y’all were?”
Lila could see that Brody was battling with the decision—stay and help where he was needed or go with her. “I can walk back to the barn and get my cycle. I know the way.”
Brody reached over and took her hand in his. “Thanks, Jace. I’ll be home in a little while.”
“See you at breakfast. First one to the kitchen gets the coffee going.” Jace waved him away.
“Well, that was fun,” Lila said. “But honestly, Brody, I can go back alone or else stay and help y’all fix the fence.”
“Jace has got it and I want to spend time with you,” he said.
“But it’s not easy for you to let him, is it? Tough cowboy that you are, you think you’ve got to take charge of everything,” she said.
Brody gently squeezed her hand. “You know me too well.”
“Right back atcha, cowboy,” she said.
The sky was filled with twinkling stars surrounding a moon with darkness on one side and light on the other. Lila felt as if that was her life that evening. Light flowing around her in the present and darkness where the future was concerned. Maybe, she thought, she should concentrate on the present and not worry about what the future holds.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Brody said when they turned to go down the lane leading back to the old barn.
“Just enjoying the moment,” she said softly.
He stopped, dropped her hand, and tucked his knuckles under her chin. She tiptoed to meet him part of the way when he bent to kiss her. Like always, her knees went weak, her palms resting on his chest became clammy, and her pulse raced.
“I’m enjoying the moment too,” he said when the kiss ended. “Would you go to the Dawson family reunion at my folks’ ranch with me on Saturday?”
She cocked her head to one side. Had she heard him right?
“Brody, going to the Hope Springs thing for Independence Day is one thing. Everyone in the whole county is invited to that. The Dawson family reunion is personal.”
Valerie might really get out the gun if she showed up with Brody, but then if they were going to test the waters of the future, they’d both better stop thinking about her or Hope or even Daisy.
“I’ll introduce you to my whole family.” He squeezed her hand.
“Are you sure about this?” Lord have mercy! The Dawson family reunion with Valerie and Hope both there—Lila might as well sign her own death warrant and pick out her burial clothes.
“Never more sure about anything in my life, Lila. Please,” Brody whispered.
A star shot across what was left of the moon, leaving a trail of brilliance in its wake. Was that her sign? She and Brody had hoped to see a falling star many times when they were teenagers and God saw fit to throw one through the sky that night. It had to be an omen.
“Okay.” She nodded.
“Thank you.” He leaned over and brushed a soft kiss across her cheek. “I’ll knock on your door at six-thirty.”
“If you change your mind—” she said.
“I won’t.” That time he stopped the words with a steamy string of hot kisses.
When she finally drew away, she said, “I would have floated all the way to the clouds if you had invited me to your family reunion when we were in high school.”
“I’m not that kid anymore,” Brody said as he took her hand in his again and began to walk the rest of the way to the barn. “I want to go forward, not backward.”
“Sounds good to me.” She stopped at the bike. “I should be going.”
“Come inside for just a little while with me.” His heart was about to float right out of his chest and he couldn’t bear to let her leave—just another hour, maybe two so that he could hold on to the feeling.
She looped her arm in his and he led the way back inside the barn, and let her go ahead of him on the ladder. When they were in the loft, he pulled her down to rest in his arms as he stretched out on the quilt.
“I was a fool,” he said. “You know what they say about not missing the water until the well runs dry.”
“What happened after the well went dry?” she asked.
“I tried to get you out of my mind with hard work. So what kind of girl were you after you left?”
“I turned into a quiet nerd in college.”
“That’s hard to imagine,” he chuckled.
“Mama said that no one knew I was Lila Harris, that crazy kid from Happy, Texas, who caused all kinds of trouble. She said I could be anyone I wanted to be, so I became the quiet Dee Harris and molded myself to fit into the character that she was,” she said. “I made excellent grades, graduated with honors, and had my pick of teaching jobs.”
“And the Harley?” he asked.
“I didn’t get it until last year. Every so often that Lila girl would surface and want to go on a ride with her daddy down through the canyon. I bought it so that she’d be quiet and leave Dee alone.”
“I can’t imagine anyone ever keepin’ Lila quiet and I sure don’t see you as Dee.”
Lila nodded. “Brody, in six weeks, I’m going back to Florida. I don’t know if I’ll stay there for another year or move to another state, but wherever I am, it’ll most likely be far away from this part of the world. Are you sure you want to start something with no future?”
“So you like teaching better than runnin’ a café?”
She rolled over and propped up like him, her face just inches from his. “What do you think?”
“There’s schools all around us,” he said. “Lila, I can’t imagine why you’d want to hide yourself in another person. You’re beautiful, witty, fun, and we were just kids who did crazy things. We never hurt anyone with our shenanigans.”
“And Lila was also the poor girl who lived in the back of her mother’s café that no one asked to proms or family reunions or even to a rodeo.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Brody was a fool who didn’t listen to his heart but he won’t make the same mistake twice. Let’s give it the six weeks and see where it goes. What have we got to lose other than time? And when summer is done…”
“We can wave good-bye without tears this time,” she said.
If he had a lucky bone left in him, maybe there would be no good-byes. “What are you thinkin’ right now?”
“Something that your smart little sister said,” she answered.
“And that would be?”
“That we might be able to have both the inner child and the responsible adult if we want,” she said.
“So maybe you could be responsible for everyone else and be my wild child?” Her lips called to him. His body ached for her. But that night shouldn’t be about sex. He needed to show her that he was willing to court her properly, and tha
t was more than sneaking into and out of her bedroom for a fast roll in the hay.
She flipped over on her back. “This business of being both is confusing. What if I forget who I am at your family reunion?”
He traced the outline of her lips with his forefinger. “Might liven things up.”
“You sure?” Her mouth tingled from his touch.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered as he leaned down and kissed her softly.
She wiggled around until her head rested on his chest. “You know what I missed most when we left?”
“Me?”
“Well, there was that, but I missed the smell of hay and hot summer nights.”
“I missed you, Lila. Everything about you. Your wet hair hanging down your naked back when we went skinny-dippin’. Your wit and the way you never let me get away with anything,” he said. “I missed holding you and not just for the sex. I flat out craved even half an hour with you nearly every evening. No matter how much I tried to lose myself in work, it never eased the pain.”
“I think you were the reason I invented Dee Harris. If I changed it all, the heartache of leaving Happy and you wouldn’t kill me. If I was someone else, a studious girl with no background or memories, I had no reason to hurt.” She yawned.
Lying there with her in his arms and not saying anything else should have been awkward, but all the words in the dictionary were useless. Nothing could begin to describe the peace in his heart and soul. He pulled her closer to his side, not caring that the night was hot or that the only thing they were doing was enjoying being close.
She mumbled something and then her body went limp when she fell asleep.
He smoothed her hair, drew her closer to his side, and closed his eyes, hoping that she believed in second chances.
Lila awoke with a start. She squirmed out of Brody’s arms and sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees.
“Good mornin’,” Brody yawned. “Did you sleep well in this five-star hotel?”
“Yes, I did. What time is it?”
Thank God it was still dark. Hopefully, still early enough that her mother was still at the church affair or else she’d gone to one of her friends’ houses to catch up on the gossip.
