My One and Only Cowboy

by A. J. Pine

  She made her way out of the booth, sidestepped around him, and headed toward the kitchen. The decision to not go back to Florida for the new teaching year was made in that instant. She would reopen her employment files at the college and teach in central Pennsylvania, as badly as she hated the winters there, before she taught with Clancy as her principal for another year.

  “Then this is good-bye?” he asked on his way across the floor.

  “Exactly.” Run, Clancy, run. The fire is on the way.

  “Just remember I tried, Daisy,” he called out as he slammed the door.

  Lila pushed through the swinging doors to the kitchen and popped her hands on her hips. “What were you thinkin’?”

  “Keepin’ you from a life of misery,” Daisy shot back. “What did you tell Clancy? He loves you and he’d do right by you.”

  “Oh, like he’s doing right by his current girlfriend?” Lila said through gritted teeth. “I can’t imagine how she’d feel if she knew he was only going to propose to her if I wouldn’t take him back.”

  Daisy’s brows drew down into a solid line. “He said that?”

  Her mama just got a glimpse into the real world. Not every man out there was like Billy Harris who adored his family and who let them be a part of the decisions.

  “Pretty much. You talk about Brody’s family feeling like they are above me socially, well Clancy is a thousand times worse.” Lila propped a hip on a bar stool. “What’d he tell you?”

  “That you had commitment issues, whatever that means. You kids talk a different language than we did at your age,” she sighed.

  “He’s right,” Lila said. “I do have trouble giving my heart to someone.”

  Daisy searched in her purse for her phone. “I’m going to call him and give him a piece of my mind. I’m so sorry that I even talked to him.”

  Lila took the purse from her hands. “Remember what you’ve always told me?”

  “About what?” Daisy’s dark brows drew into a tight line.

  “Anyone who stirs in a shit pile…” Lila got tickled.

  Daisy finished the old saying. “Has to lick the spoon.”

  Arms around each other’s shoulders, they laughed so hard that tears ran down their cheeks. Finally, Lila wiped her mother’s face and then her own with a bar rag.

  “Everything works out as it should, Mama. Ignoring him is the best thing we can do. This helped me decide that I’m definitely not going back to Florida, though. I’ll take a job wherever I can find it next year,” Lila said. “I can’t work with him after this.”

  “Come to central Pennsylvania. I promise I’ll…,” Daisy started.

  Lila crossed the room in a couple of long strides. “You’re the mother. If you didn’t meddle and worry, I’d call the undertaker.”

  Daisy wrapped Lila in her arms. “Thanks for not being mad at me. Now get on back out there. I hear truck tires on the gravel.”

  “And if it’s Brody?”

  “I don’t want to see Clancy again but…”

  Lila handed Daisy the towel. “When you were my age, you had a ten-year-old daughter. And your mother didn’t run your life.”

  “She tried,” Daisy said, “but I was every bit as stubborn as you. She didn’t want me to buy this café or put an apartment behind it.”

  Lila waved over her shoulder and she went back out to the dining room. “Well, hello, Brody Dawson. Haven’t seen you in days.”

  She could almost hear Daisy’s sighs.

  “We good?” he asked.

  “We are very good.” Two bridges had been burned but she was very interested in rebuilding one of them.

  Brody had come back to check on her. That meant more than a Sunday date, the Dawson reunion, or the Fourth of July party. Not caring that Paul and Fred were on their way into the café, she walked right up to him and wrapped her arms around him.

  “Want to talk about anything?” He drew her close.

  “Not a thing. I just want you to hold me for a minute so that I know you’re really here,” she said.

  “I’m here for you always, Lila,” he whispered. “As long as you need.”

  The door opened again and two of Daisy’s old friends, Laura and Teresa, rushed inside from the blistering heat with Fred and Paul right behind them.

  “Well, hello, Brody,” Laura said.

  Lila stepped back away from him. “Hello. What can I get y’all?”

  “Ladies.” Brody nodded toward them and turned back toward Lila. “I’ll see you Saturday night, right?”

  “I’ll be ready.” Lila beamed. “Don’t work too hard.”

  He rounded the end of the counter and kissed her on the cheek.

  “Does Valerie know about this?” Laura raised a dark brown eyebrow that matched her hair—all but that inch of gray roots shining at the part, anyway.

  “Lord, she’s going to have a hissy,” Teresa whispered. Laura’s opposite, she was tall and thin with dyed red hair cropped at chin length and a face so full of wrinkles that it looked like a road map of Dallas.

  Drying her hands on her apron, Daisy pushed back the swinging doors and motioned them back into the kitchen. “Good enough for her, the way she’s acted toward me and Lila. Not that I’m for my girl going out with Brody but Valerie don’t get to call the shots. Y’all come on in here and we’ll make us a batch of sweet potato fries to nibble on while we have a visit.”

  Lila carried two glasses of sweet tea to Fred and Paul’s booth. “A big order of fries?”

  “Sounds good, sweetheart,” Fred said. “It’s my turn to buy, so make the ticket out to me. He’s wishy-washy like an old woman. Changes his mind all the time.”

  “And you’re one of them DOC people,” Paul shot back at him.

  “OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder. Get it right, old man,” Fred said.

  “Only someone who had it would know how to spell it,” Paul joked. “And does Valerie and Hope know that you and Brody are makin’ out in public?”

  “Why would you ask that?” Lila asked.

  “Because we need to know whether we should warn the volunteer fire department,” Fred teased. “Those two women are going to burst into flames when they hear what we just now saw.”

  Paul lowered his voice and his eyes shifted around the café. “I heard that you might be going to the Dawson family reunion. That true?”

  “Might be.” Lila patted him on the shoulder.

  Lila listened to their banter and yelled the order through the window rather than pinning it up. She’d barely gotten that done when her phone rang. Seeing Brody’s picture put a smile on her face.

  “Hello,” she said.

  “Just thought I’d let you know that I did tell my family that you’re my date for the family reunion and for the Fourth of July picnic at Hope Springs. There’s no surprises,” he said.

  “Tell that to Laura and Teresa. I’m not sure they believe their eyes,” she laughed. “What do I hear in the background?”

  “George Strait and I are enjoying the morning now that Conrad has driven out of Happy,” he answered.

  “Clancy, not Conrad,” she said. “But that doesn’t matter. He’s gone. And I think that is ‘Check Yes or No’ playing. Am I right?”

  “If I gave you a note with the words ‘will you be my girlfriend’ and there were two boxes at the bottom with yes by one and no by the other, which would you check?” he asked.

  “Well, I checked no when Clancy handed me the note today. I haven’t gotten one from you yet, so I don’t know. Maybe you’ll have to write the note and see which box I check,” she answered. “Order is up. Got to go.”

  “Maybe I will write that note,” he said.

  Brody let out a whoosh of air that he didn’t even know he was holding until he put the phone back in his pocket. It rang immediately and he jerked it out, hoping that he’d hear her say that she’d check yes on that childish note.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Come on to the springs. Sundance is b
elly deep in the water and refuses to get out,” Jace said.

  Brody parked the truck and one of the high school boys he’d hired for the summer came running over. “Glad to see you with the wire. We strung the last of what we had.”

  “Got to go get that pesky bull out of Hope Springs. Wouldn’t happen to have a rope, would you?”

  “Sure thing, Mr. Dawson.” He removed his keys and tossed them at Brody. “Take my truck. Rope is behind the seat. The clutch is a little tight so you got to stomp it real good. We’ll get this unloaded and keep on workin’.”

  “Mr. Dawson. If that don’t make me feel old,” Brody complained as he started the ten-year-old vehicle, jammed it into gear, and took off across the bumpy pasture toward the springs.

  Jace was sitting at the edge of the water when he parked the truck. Boots were set off to one side and his jeans were soaked all the way to the waist. “There ain’t no coaxin’ or cussin’ him out of there.”

  Brody grabbed the rope and headed that way. “How’d he get out of the corral?”

  “I have no idea but I’m ready to put him in a steel pen with no gate,” Jace groaned. “I might as well go on out there and rope him since I’m already wet.”

  Brody handed him one end of the rope and kicked off his boots. “I’ll go this time. It’s so damned hot that I’ll enjoy the cold water.”

  “Kasey called. Who was the citified feller who came to see Lila?” Jace wrapped the rope around his broad palm twice.

  “Don’t know much other than she put him packin’.” Brody waded out into the water and sucked air when the bull kicked backward and drenched him from the neck down. “You sorry sucker. You want to act like a rodeo bull, then I’ll ride you out of this water.”

  Sundance shook his head and bawled.

  “Feelin’ feisty, are you,” Jace laughed.

  “Yes, I am.” Brody slipped the rope around the bull’s neck.

  “Hey, I was talkin’ to Sundance, not you. He’s already mad. Just push and let me get him tied to the truck and he’ll come out of there.”

  “I’m going to teach him a lesson.” Brody mounted his back, holding on to the rope with one hand.

  Sundance went completely wild. His back feet shot toward the sky and his nose went straight down into the water. He snorted, slung water and bull snot everywhere as his hind legs hit the water with a splash. Twisting his head toward his tail one way and then reversing the process, he tried to shake Brody off.

  “Hey, we could use him for rodeo stock,” Jace hollered as he removed his phone from his shirt pocket and started recording.

  Brody hung on, getting angrier by the minute as he watched Jace film him rather than checking the time to see if he’d managed eight seconds. Then suddenly, the bull’s back legs reached for the sun and his head went into the water again. His hide and Brody’s jeans were sopping wet, so there was no way Brody could hang on another minute. He slipped into the cold water and his straw hat floated down the stream.

  “Guess your family jewels is a bit cold now too,” Jace laughed.

  “Delete that video,” Brody panted.

  “Okay,” Jace said, and hit a few keys. “Deleted.”

  “Thank you.”

  “But I did send it to Lila before I deleted it.”

  “You…” Brody shook his fist at Jace and ran toward his brother.

  Sundance, now rid of the burden on his back, walked out of the water, his head held high as he strutted off toward the pickup truck and stopped at the rear.

  Brody had Jace in a headlock when he realized that Sundance was staring at them. “Would you look at that crazy fool? He’s waiting for us to tie him to the back of the truck and lead him back to the corral.”

  Jace wiggled free and plopped down on the grassy bank. “Why shouldn’t I send that to Lila?”

  “You didn’t see that guy, Jace. He was everything that she probably needs in her life. All spruced up.” Brody fell down beside him, flopping onto his back. “She deserves better than a crazy old rancher who gets mad and rides a bull out of icy-cold water.”

  “Maybe so, but she put him goin’, didn’t she?” Jace lay back beside his brother. “If that bull moves an inch, I swear this is when he goes to the market to be made into bologna.”

  “That don’t mean she can’t reconsider. He looked at her like she was…Well, he looked at her like I feel when she’s in my sight. Like there’s no one else.”

  “She loved you first and you know what they say about first loves. Let’s get this old cuss back to the corral.” Jace stood up and offered a hand to his brother.

  “Thanks, brother.”

  “Just helpin’ my elders,” Jace teased.

  “Hey, I’m not old yet.” Brody slid into the truck seat.

  “You’ll always be older than me,” Jace said as he headed toward the back of the truck.

  Brody grabbed his phone from where he’d tossed it onto the passenger seat and found a message from Lila: Call me.

  She answered on the first ring. “What was that all about? I was afraid you’d drowned when you went into the water like that. I swear it was worse than the fear in my heart when you rode at the bull riding and fell off.”

  “You care!” he chuckled.

  “I don’t want you dead. And I bet you and that bull both will have to warm up for a long time before…” She paused for a breath.

  “Before what?” he asked.

  “Call me later when your HDTs are thawed.”

  “HDTs?” he asked.

  “Hangin’ down things,” she said as she hung up.

  The screen went dark and he roared with laughter.

  “What’s so funny?” Jace asked.

  “Nothing.” Brody had no intention of sharing the moment. “You going to drive or ride on the tailgate and keep him moving?”

  “I’ll tailgate and then we’re going to the house to get cleaned up. Mama says we’re supposed to be over at her place at six to start helping get things ready for the reunion. I’m steering clear of her. She’ll be fuming or trying to lay a guilt trip on you. I don’t want to hear either one,” Jace said. “And for a man who’s about to get strung up by his mama, you sure got a happy expression on your face.”

  “I’m doin’ now what I should’ve done in high school. I just hope it’s not too late.” Brody got inside the truck and started driving slowly back to the barn.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The pile of clothing grew on Lila’s bed as she tried on outfit after outfit. Who would have thought that she’d have so much trouble picking out an outfit for a family reunion? Jeans and a shirt should do fine but thinking about a first official date with Brody had her insides twisted into a knot. She was checking her reflection in the mirror when Daisy pushed her way into the room. She handed a cup of chamomile tea to Lila and then sat down in the rocking chair.

  “Thought that might calm your nerves,” Daisy said. “This is not a date with the governor. It’s just Brody Dawson.”

  Lila set the cup on the dresser. “Thanks, Mama, but I’d be less nervous if it was the governor. Does this look all right? Is it too short?”

  The bright red sundress left her shoulders bare. The waist fit snug and the skirt lay in gentle folds, stopping at the top of her knees. She’d shaved her legs, put a few curls in her long, black hair, and applied a minimum of makeup.

  She was every bit as nervous as she had been when she dressed for her first date with Brody twelve years ago. Her mother had brought her a cup of tea that night, too, and then held her while she wept when he didn’t show up. She glared at the tea, refusing to take a sip for fear it would jinx the whole night.

  “You look beautiful. But, honey, I’m sure the almighty Dawsons wouldn’t take too well to you comin’ to their affair in your bare feet, so you better find a pair of shoes to match that dress. Or, you could just blow this silly notion off and go to dinner with Laura, Teresa, and me,” Daisy said.

  Lila slipped her feet into a pair of leather
sandals and groaned. “Molly was right—I really should have gotten my hair trimmed and my nails done. My toes look horrible and I don’t even have time to do them myself now.”

  “Wear cowboy boots. Those fancy ones I bought you for Christmas a couple of years ago. They’ve got that red inlay in the front,” Daisy suggested.

  “Oooh, good idea.” Lila pulled the boots from the closet and shoved her feet down in them.

  “Now that completes the outfit,” Daisy said. “Wipe off that light colored lipstick and put on clear red. It’s on my dresser.”

  Lila checked the mirror. Daisy was right. The outfit called for red lipstick.

  “I hate to see your heart broken again, but I guess you’ve always had to learn your lessons the hard way,” Daisy said. “It’s tough on a mama to see her kid hurting.”

  “Sometimes the only way to get past the pain is to wade through it to the other side.” Lila raised her voice as she crossed the hall. “Right now I’m standing right in the middle of the river, not knowing what to do. Behind me is the past. Ahead is the future and the water is rising.”

  “That sounds like something your father would have said,” Daisy said. “Now you’re ready. I hear his truck driving up. I’m going to play the mama card even if you aren’t a teenager. You will not go rushing out there to meet him and if he honks rather than coming to the door like a real date should, then I’m going to shoot the tires out of his truck.”

  “That’s a step up.” Lila extended a hand and pulled her mother to her feet. “You would have shot him, not the tires, when I was younger.”

  Daisy led the way down the hall to the living room. “The mama of a grown daughter can only do so much.”

  The phone rang at the same time that Brody knocked on the door. “You answer that and I’ll get the door,” Daisy ordered.

  Lila grabbed the phone and said, “Happy Café. Lila speaking.” Lila held up a finger to give her a moment. “Yes, ma’am, we are interested in selling the café. You heard right and I’ll be glad to see you tomorrow morning at ten-thirty. Bye now.”