One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas)

by Carolyn Brown

  “Thank goodness,” he murmured as he wrapped a towel around his body, “Jill and Sawyer are willing to share their bathroom with me. I sure wasn’t in the mood to run a tub of water tonight in my bathroom.”

  He pulled his wet hair back into a ponytail and seriously considered getting it buzzed off the next week.

  “What do you think, Dammit? Ponytail or buzz cut?” he asked his dog as he crossed the living room floor.

  The old hound looked up from the sofa and yipped, his tail beating out a tune on the cushions and both cats crouching to spring on it.

  “Ponytail it is, then. Are you sure?” Rhett stopped long enough to scratch his ears.

  Another yip and both of Jill’s cats jumped at the same time. Dammit growled at them, and they retreated to the corner of the sofa. There were some things that a dog did not tolerate, and clawing his tail was one of them.

  “So you think Leah likes my ponytail, do you? You think maybe she’s got a wild streak down under all that sweetness?” Rhett asked.

  Dammit’s tail did double time.

  “The tail has spoken. I’ll leave it alone. See you later tonight. Guard the place and don’t let any varmints in the door.” He scratched the dog’s ears again and headed outside into the blistering-hot summer heat.

  He made it to the bar a few minutes before six, parked his truck beside Sawyer’s, and hated to step outside in the heat. The thermometer on the porch post had read 110 degrees when he left the bunkhouse. He inhaled deeply to get one more lungful of cool air and slung open the door. Music and smoke met him head-on when he entered the bar.

  “I thought they outlawed smoking in public places,” he said.

  “Not in Burnt Boot, but I hear it might happen before the end of this year.” Jill smiled. “It’ll be busy tonight, so you man the drinks. I’ll take care of money and Sawyer can cook.”

  “I’ll help him when I’m not drawing beer or pouring whiskey.” Rhett quickly scanned the few people already in the bar but didn’t see Leah, or any Brennans for that matter.

  “This is Saturday night. It’s a hell of a lot different than any weeknight,” Sawyer said. “And with this heat, there will be tempers flaring. Gladys said that she heard there’s gossip about something going down with the feud, so that’ll bring in more people.”

  Rhett rolled up his sleeves and slung a bar rag over his shoulder. “At least it’s cool in here. I swear those boys and I were about to melt plumb away out there in the heat today. Now tell me why the feud has anything to do with the bar.”

  Jill removed pitchers from the dishwasher and refilled it. “Because this is more than a place to get a beer and dance. It’s the local gossip place. Think of the church, the general store, and the bar as Switzerland. Those are the three places that the feud has to be left at the door.”

  Sawyer took three heads of lettuce from the small refrigerator in the corner. He plopped them down hard on a cutting board and pulled their cores out, filled them with water at the bar sink, and then turned them over to drain.

  “What’s that all about?” Rhett asked.

  “I’ll put them in plastic bags and back into the fridge. That keeps the lettuce crispy. This place has a reputation for the best bacon cheeseburgers in the whole state,” Sawyer explained.

  The sound of truck engines out in the parking lot and doors slamming preceded a dozen Brennan cowboys into the bar. One stopped at the bar and the rest went back to push two tables together to claim the far corner as Brennan territory.

  “We need twenty cups and four pitchers of Coors,” the cowboy said.

  “Little thirsty, are you?” Rhett smiled.

  “Whole lot thirsty and got a lot of talkin’ to do. I’m Declan, and we’re all from River Bend.”

  Rhett set two full pitchers on the bar and went back to fill two more. “Pleased to meet y’all. I’m Rhett from Fiddle Creek.”

  “We’ve heard about you. Leah says the Gallaghers don’t like you too much,” Declan said.

  “Wouldn’t know about that and could care less about it,” Rhett said.

  “Just so we’re straight. The Brennans don’t like you either. And this is your only warning to stay away from the Brennan women.”

  “Same answer. Don’t care much if you do or don’t like me,” Rhett said.

  “Why are you being so rude? And why does he have to stay away from the Brennan women?” Jill asked.

  “He’s not Burnt Boot material, much less River Bend material,” Declan said.

  “What kind of material is that? He’s my cousin and no one ever told me I wasn’t Burnt Boot material,” Sawyer asked.

  Hot air pushed Gallaghers into the bar before Declan could answer. He picked up two pitchers and headed to the back. When he returned for the rest of his order, he brought a couple of Brennans with him. Rhett wondered if it was for protection from the Gallaghers or to show him a force that said he should listen to their warnings about staying away from their womenfolk.

  “Four pitchers of Coors.” Tanner hiked a hip on a bar stool and ignored the Brennans. “And a dozen bacon cheeseburger baskets. Double meat and cheese. And two pitchers of margaritas and one of piña coladas.”

  “Yep.” Rhett repeated back the order.

  Jill made change for the bills Tanner handed her. “Remember to keep it civil, Tanner. Watch your mouth and don’t start anything, or I’ll take out the shotgun that’s right here at my knees.”

  Tanner laughed out loud. “I do like a woman with spunk. See y’all later. And holler right loud when the burgers are done.”

  “What happened that they are all up in arms about you, Rhett?” Jill asked.

  “Tanner Gallagher has a thing for Leah. It’s in his eyes every time he looks at her. I expect that would really set off the feud, so he’s not doing anything about the attraction. I’m damn sure not interested in being mixed up in their battles, so they don’t have to worry about me.”

  “If you’re talking to Leah, you’re already mixed up in it.” Sawyer set six red plastic baskets with burgers and fries in each on the bar and yelled, “Tanner Gallagher.”

  Leah slipped inside and Rhett’s heart threw in an extra beat. She looked beautiful in those tight jeans, boots, and an orange tank top tucked down behind a belt with a big rhinestone buckle. Tanner gave her the once-over as he crossed the floor and stacked baskets of burgers up his arm like a seasoned waiter. Rhett almost felt sorry for the guy. There sat the woman he loved, and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it because of the family feud.

  “I’ll be back for the rest,” Tanner said.

  “Bring someone with you. The others are almost finished,” Sawyer said.

  “What can I get you, Miz Leah?” Rhett’s eyes were drawn to hers. His hands itched to run the back of his knuckles down her cheekbones before he kissed those full lips.

  “I’d like a burger basket. No onions and double fries. A plain Coke this time around, but afterwards I’ll want a double shot of Jack.” Leah smiled.

  “You got it,” Rhett said as he filled a red plastic cup with ice and drew up a Coke. “Been busy today?”

  She took a sip. “Yes, I have. I went to the school and took down all my old bulletin board stuff, put up new, arranged the seats, and got ready for the new school year.”

  “What grade do you teach?”

  “Fourth,” Leah said.

  He shook his head. “Who’d have thought about a town this small having three schools?”

  “Crazy, isn’t it? But our private school has more kids than the Burnt Boot public school,” Leah said.

  “Tanner Gallagher, last three,” Sawyer yelled above the jukebox.

  Tanner came to the bar to claim them, and this time, he looked at Leah in the mirror above the grill and said, “Hot today, ain’t it?”

  “Sure is.” Leah nodded at him, but neither of them ever looked directly at each other.

  Was the man crazy or just plain stupid? Leah had been right there in front of him his whole life
and the only thing holding them apart was a crazy feud? If that had been Rhett, he would have told the feud to go straight to hell and he’d have gone after the woman he loved.

  The next time the door opened, several couples made their way to the bar stools. A woman hopped up on the one right next to Leah and asked, “You from around here?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Burgers any good?”

  “Best in Texas,” Leah answered.

  “Then give us a dozen of your biggest, best baskets,” the woman told Jill. “We heard this was a good place to get some supper, dance awhile, and have a few beers.”

  “Where y’all from?”

  “Up around Terral, Oklahoma. We’re out ridin’ our motorcycles for the weekend. We rode down to the Fort Worth Stockyards this morning and we’re on our way home. Thought we’d stop by here and have some fun and then go on home when it gets a little cooler.”

  “Have fun?” Leah asked.

  “Hell, yeah, but not as much fun as we’ll have here. We love to dance,” the woman said. “Hey, bartender, we’ll have six pitchers of beer.”

  “Who’s your designated driver?” Leah laughed.

  “Honey, we don’t need one. Ain’t a one amongst us that can’t hold their liquor. You here to flirt with the bartender?” the woman asked Leah.

  Leah blushed. “No, ma’am.”

  “You crazy. I don’t see a weddin’ ring, and he’s one hot-lookin’ cowboy.”

  Rhett pulled up pitchers of beer and strained his ears to hear the conversation. It had been years since he’d seen a woman blush. He liked it—a lot.

  The woman cackled. “Darlin’, I’m over sixty, and once you hit that magical age, you can say anything you want and get into anyone’s business, and everyone chalks it up to bein’ old. You have a good time tonight. Tell that sexy cook to holler out ‘Williams’ when our burgers are done.”

  * * *

  Leah took her burger basket and Coke back to the Brennan table and sat down beside Honey, making sure her chair was in a position that allowed her to catch glimpses of both Tanner and Rhett.

  Honey pilfered a French fry and popped it in her mouth. “You’d best stop flirting with Rhett. Granny says he’s trouble. He’s a sexy hunk, darlin’ Cousin, but I wouldn’t go against Granny for a night in a five-star hotel with Adam Levine.”

  “Why does Granny think he’s trouble?” Leah asked.

  “It’s the motorcycle and the ponytail,” Kinsey answered while Honey stole another fry.

  “So? He’s a rancher,” Leah said.

  “She’s made her decision, Leah. Neither Kinsey nor I would take her on in a real battle, and you’re not as tough as either one of us,” Honey said.

  “He’s Sawyer’s cousin and she didn’t have a bit of problem with either of y’all tryin’ to run him to ground,” Leah argued.

  “That had a purpose. If we took Sawyer out of the picture, then Jill might have hooked up with Quaid, and we would have inherited Fiddle Creek and all those wonderful water rights with her.”

  “Then maybe I’ll go after Tanner Gallagher,” Leah whispered.

  “Good God almighty damn.” Honey’s eyes came close to popping out of her head and rolling across the dance floor like marbles. “She’ll put your sorry ass in a convent. What’s gotten into you, anyway? You’ve always been the good child.”

  “It’s this hot Texas sun that’s fryin’ the good sense right out of her head, Honey. She needs a vacation to New York City to shop. It’s a good thing we’ve got one planned here pretty soon,” Kinsey said.

  Honey sighed. “In some ways, I’m glad we’re going to New York City. In other ways, I’m going to miss lying out there on all that pretty white sand at the beach.”

  Kinsey sipped at her beer. “Our sweet cousin needs to spend time in retail therapy, not frying more brain cells. Y’all can thank me later for choosing a spot for our annual girl’s week away from Burnt Boot that has air-conditioned shopping on the agenda every single day.”

  “Maybe enough of my brain cells got fried that the good girl is about to go bad,” Leah said.

  “You can be as badass as you want, Cousin, but it had best not be with a Gallagher or with Rhett or with Granny. Rhett’s not the settlin’ type. Granny said so and she’s never wrong.”

  “Granny hasn’t even met him,” Leah argued.

  “Like Honey said, you don’t argue with Granny,” Kinsey said.

  Leah pushed her burger toward Honey. “Help me eat this. I’m not as hungry as I thought I was. And why isn’t Rhett the settlin’ type?”

  “If you hadn’t had your head stuck in the classroom all these years, you’d know what to look for, trust me. That man is a player. He’ll sweet-talk you into bed, and then you’ll never hear from him again. It’s a game with a cowboy like him.” Honey picked up the burger and took a bite.

  “What if I don’t want to settle down? What if I only want a romp in the sheets with him or maybe with him and Tanner both? Not at the same time, but maybe a few times with Rhett and then a few times with Tanner, to see which one I like best?” Leah asked.

  “How much Jack did you drink before you left home?” Honey gasped.

  Leah motioned toward her lips. “You’ve got lettuce between your two front teeth.”

  Honey grabbed her purse from the floor beside her chair, found a small compact, and checked her reflection. Even in the dim light and the smoke-filled bar, she could easily see the bit of green stuck there. She flicked it out with a fingernail and ran her tongue over perfectly even teeth.

  “All gone,” Leah said. “Look who walked in the door. Isn’t that the lawyer that you’ve been seeing, Kinsey? And who is that with him?”

  “That would be my date for tonight.” Honey blew her a kiss as she and Kinsey hurried across the floor, and Leah watched the four of them head on out of the bar.

  Leah left the rest of her food on the table and claimed a bar stool as far away from the door as possible. Since Rhett had roared into town on that big cycle, she’d felt like a big storm was approaching. She’d even dreamed of a tornado the night before. It had come up from the southeast and the funnel cloud had set down right in Burnt Boot. When it moved across the river, it had taken the school where she taught with it, leaving nothing but the foundation of the frame building. Burnt Boot had seen some ice storms that broke down trees and power lines. It had lived though some ferocious wind, lightning, and thunderstorms, but in its history, not one tornado had touched down there.

  Rhett moved from one end of the bar to the other and waited for the jukebox to go quiet before he spoke. His drawl created a stirring deep inside her that she’d never even felt when Tanner was around. She was almost thirty, had taught for six years, and had had two serious relationships in her life.

  “What can I get you?” he asked.

  “Double shot of whiskey,” she answered.

  He picked up the square Jack Daniel’s bottle. “So you ready for a ride on my cycle?”

  “I’m not so sure that’s a smart thing for me to do,” she answered.

  “When you figure out whether it is or not, you give me a call.” He reached across the bar and wrote his cell phone number on the palm of her hand. “Night or day, I’ll take you for a ride.”

  The first guitar notes of Luke Bryan’s “Drunk on You” rattled out of the jukebox and people filled the dance floor. Leah shut her eyes and imagined riding that motorcycle, her arms around Rhett, her blond hair blowing behind her, and that song playing in her ears. The ache to do it rather than dream about it was so real that it brought tears to her eyes. She didn’t want to be the good child, but the mold had been set and she didn’t have a clue how to break free from it.

  * * *

  Luke’s song was stuck in his head until the bar closed that night. On the way home, he slipped the CD into the player in his truck and listened to the song twice more. Dammit met him at the door, but the two cats weren’t anywhere in sight. Jill and Sawyer’s bedro
om door was shut. The cats had most likely deserted poor old Dammit to sleep on the foot of their bed.

  “Come on, boy. I’m going to have a bath and soak this cigarette smoke off my hide. You can sit beside the tub and talk to me,” Rhett said.

  Other than the fact that he didn’t have a shower in his bathroom, the setup in the house was perfect for privacy. A big center room with a kitchen toward the back took up more than half of the space. At one time, bunk beds had lined the walls and the place had probably been home to twenty men or more. Now, there was a big living area that was a perfect division between his part of the house and the newlyweds’ room.

  “They’re not very good friends to desert you like this. But then they have to stay in the house all day and you get to go out and run around with me all day on the ranch.” He grinned. “You’re going to like Leah when you meet her. What’s that? What if she doesn’t like you?”

  Dammit’s tail set up a thumping noise on the bare bathroom floor.

  “No such chance. She’s going to fall in love with you before she ever even gives in and goes for a ride on my cycle. You are a real chick magnet.” Rhett laughed.

  Chapter 3

  Leah sat beside Quaid and Honey in church the next morning, but she didn’t hear a thing that the preacher said until he wound down his sermon and reminded them that the Sadie Hawkins Festival was on the calendar, like always, for the fourth Saturday in August.

  “The festival will start with breakfast in the school cafeteria—all-you-can-eat pancakes and sausage for only four dollars each for adults and two dollars for the kids. The money goes to the public school library this year to buy books. We’ll rope off two blocks of Main Street for the vendors and the carnival, and at three o’clock sharp, we’ll have the Sadie Hawkins race. Y’all should be learning to walk around in your bare feet the next couple of weeks, because there are no shoes or boots allowed in this race. And the committee is working on a new rule to add to the race, so be sure to read the fine print when you sign up for it,” he said.