One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas)

by Carolyn Brown

  “Sounds like a fine name to me. Does she carry apples in her purse?” he drawled softly, moving from her neck to her earlobe.

  Leah shivered. “You might be the only one who’ll ever meet her, Rhett. She doesn’t play by the rules and her apples grow all yearlong on a special tree.”

  “Oh, really? I think I like Miz Eve.”

  “She likes you too. She says that you’re charming.”

  “I’d rather be sexy, but I’ll take charming if that’s what she likes.”

  “I’d probably give you half-and-half,” she whispered when his lips kissed her eyelids shut.

  “I don’t take cream in my coffee.”

  “Half sexy, half charming, half wild.”

  “That’s a lot of halves for one old dirt rancher.”

  Leah looped both arms around his neck. “I do believe the rancher is strong enough to handle an extra helping of half-and-half. But, Rhett, please be patient with me and Eve. She and I are getting to know each other, and I have a feeling that we will definitely argue at times.”

  “Oh, honey, I intend to be very nice to both of you, and I am a very patient man,” he whispered.

  * * *

  It was nearing midnight when he walked her to her truck and penned her against the door with an arm on each side. “Don’t forget me up there in that big old city,” he said in a low voice.

  “As if that could happen.” She smiled.

  His lips lowered to hers, and she rolled up onto her toes to meet him. One kiss led to another until Leah had to break away or else clear out a spot in the bed of her truck to satisfy the cravings in her body.

  “Good night, Rhett. Thanks for the most wonderful evening I’ve ever spent,” she said.

  “Of all time?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Of all time.”

  He kissed her again, passionately, lingering, making her wish she weren’t leaving Burnt Boot for even a minute.

  “You will think about me once in a while, won’t you?” he asked.

  “Every day, probably several times a day,” she answered.

  “Will you call me before and after you get on the plane?”

  Another nod. “Why?”

  “I want to know that you and Eve are safe. I’ve just now found you both. I don’t want to lose you.” He planted a soft, sweet kiss on her forehead and opened the truck door for her.

  She started the engine and watched the taillights of his cycle get smaller and smaller as cold air filled the truck. It helped cool her body, but it did very little for her insides that were close to melting. She put it in reverse and had her foot on the gas pedal when a truck pulled in right behind her blocking her way. She stomped the brake and wondered if Honey or Kinsey had been sent to spy on her.

  “Well, shit fire!” she swore when she realized it was Tanner Gallagher getting out of the vehicle.

  He tapped on the window, and she hit the button to roll it down. “What are you doing out this late, Tanner?”

  He leaned his elbows on the window and propped his chin on his fists. “I might ask you the same thing. Everyone knows Mavis gave you strict orders about that motorcycle cowboy.”

  “I’m a grown woman. I told you before, I can make up my own mind about who I see or don’t.”

  He leaned in farther, and she caught a whiff of whiskey and expensive shaving lotion mixed together. “Tanner, I’m flattered that you’re paying attention to me, but this isn’t going to work.”

  “I thought we had an understanding and you’d call me on the phone I gave you,” he said.

  “I can’t, Tanner. I can’t start something that has no future,” she answered.

  “And there’s one with Rhett? If you’re going to get kicked out for seeing him, why not get kicked out for seeing me?” he argued.

  “Are you ready to face Naomi for talking to me? Rhett took me to an O’Donnell family gathering. Can you do that?” she asked.

  “Darlin’, I will escort you to Sunday dinner on Wild Horse if you say the word,” he whispered seductively and brushed a kiss across her cheek.

  Not his low drawl, his handsome looks, nor his kiss did one thing to excite her. All she felt was fear that someone might see them even talking and the news would make the feud even worse.

  “My God, Tanner. This is a Gallagher game. The only way you’d be so brazen is if Naomi was plotting to tear apart the Brennan family from the inside. Admit it. You are using me,” she said.

  “I’m not admitting anything, and I’m not giving up on us.” Tanner grinned.

  “There is no us. There never was an us. It was only an attraction between a couple of kids.”

  “I’m still not giving up, and I get what I want,” he said. “I hear you’re leaving tomorrow for your annual trip with Honey and Kinsey. What if I show up in New York City?”

  “Don’t, Tanner. Just flat out don’t.”

  “Don’t tell me not to do something. It makes me determined to do it,” he said softly. “Have a good time, Leah, and remember, darlin’, you never get over your first love, and I was yours.” He blew a kiss her way as he backed away from the truck.

  Chapter 9

  From the window of the thirtieth floor of their hotel overlooking Times Square, Leah watched the sun slowly sink. The bright orange, purple, pink, yellow, and lilac hues were so surreal as the New York skyline settled into dusk that she sighed and wished for the thousandth time that she’d been given the talent of art rather than singing. Honey could pick up a watercolor pad and make that sunset come to life with a few strokes, but Honey couldn’t carry a tune in a milk bucket with a lid on the top. Right then, Leah would have gladly traded with her.

  The sight calmed her as much as was possible since the very thought of talking to Rhett via Skype in a few minutes made her pulse race.

  Honey came out of the bathroom, dressed and with her makeup all perfect. “Hey, girl, you’d better put that laptop away and get dressed. We’ve got a taxi ordered. It’ll be here in ten minutes, and our reservations at the restaurant are in half an hour.”

  “I’m not going. I’ll order up room service. I’m going to sit right here in front of this window and watch the different views of the city as the light changes,” Leah said.

  “We didn’t come all this way to sit in a hotel room,” Honey said.

  Honey had inherited her dark hair from Mavis and her blue eyes from her mother, which was another thing that Leah had always envied her for having. Leah had always felt downright dowdy next to Honey, with her exotic looks, and Kinsey, with her height and sassy attitude.

  Kinsey came out of the bathroom, sat down on the sofa, and gazed out at the view. “I love this place. We should come here every single year instead of just when it’s my turn to choose. And, Leah, poutin’ does not look good on you. Get dressed and brush your hair. God, I wish I had your complexion. You can go without a drop of makeup and look stunning.”

  “I’m not pouting,” Leah protested.

  “Yes, you are. I heard that Granny waited up for you last night and she says you can’t have that new cowboy toy over on Fiddle Creek. Don’t get your under-britches in a wad over it. She’s put him off-limits for all of us,” Honey said.

  “Even me,” Kinsey said. The total opposite of Honey, she had long, blond hair flowing down over her well-tanned shoulders, compliments of her own private tanning bed. Her brown eyes danced with excitement, but then, Kinsey loved to party and they were so far from Burnt Boot that whatever happened in New York City stayed there.

  “She said you can’t chase him either? I figured she would put both of you out there to seduce him, to prove to me that she was right about him being a horrible person,” Leah said.

  “Yes, even me, and Granny has never told me I couldn’t see someone. She practically threw me in bed with Sawyer when she was trying to break him and Jill up last spring,” Kinsey said.

  “Well, that was the famous pig war era and now we’re in the shit war battles. God I hate that name,” Honey s
aid. “This time around, it’s more serious. Granny don’t like Rhett O’Donnell and, by damn, she’s not having him in the family.”

  “I didn’t say anything about marrying the man,” Leah said.

  “Kissin’ leads to sex and y’all were goin’ at it hot and heavy in the school yard last night, from what I heard this morning before we left town. Sex has the possibility of leading to marriage. Come on, Honey, they won’t hold our reservations. Want us to bring you something back to the hotel? Maybe something fancy?” Kinsey asked.

  “No, I can order room service,” Leah answered.

  “And talk to Rhett while you eat it, right? Darlin’ Cousin, you are about to get into more shit than you did when the Gallaghers blew up the school.” Honey laughed.

  Kinsey opened the door. “Did y’all know there’s a meeting tonight at River Bend? What do you bet something happens while we’re gone?”

  “I’m not losing my money. I won’t wait up for either of you,” Leah answered.

  She heard them laughing as they left. She’d already sent a text telling Rhett that they had arrived and settled in for the week. He’d replied that he’d be at the bar until closing but maybe they could Skype after he got home that evening.

  Leah opened her email account to find one from Wanda at the Burnt Boot school informing her of the newest development. With the Brennans and the Gallaghers both entering the school, they’d decided to make it as fair as possible; they would put all the fourth-grade students’ names in a jar, shake it up, and draw out a child for each of the three teachers, repeating the process until all the names were gone. That way there could be no screaming from either feuding family that there had been discrimination.

  She groaned when she got that news. “So I’ll be teaching both—probably doing less teaching than settling arguments among the boys and listening to the girls whine. I might need some of your sass, Eve.”

  There was a message from her dad, telling her to have a good time and to be sure and take in at least one play, and more than a dozen emails from various sites where she’d bought school supplies. They were offering all kinds of discounts on bulletin board art, stickers, and crayons.

  She deleted most of them and clicked over to her Facebook page. It was then that she got the bright idea of finding her mother. Lots of people did it that way. They made a sign and held it in front of them, and two weeks later, they posted that they’d found their sibling, their birth mother, their long-lost cousin, or sometimes even their cat.

  Since she didn’t have a sign, she opted to type in “Eden Wright Brennan,” but nothing came up that resembled her mother, so she dropped the last name. An Eden Wright Massey flashed on the screen the minute she hit the button, and there was no denying that was her mother. Right there in front of her eyes—older but still with thick, blond hair and green eyes—was a picture of what Leah would look like when she was in her mid-fifties. On the left side, it said that she lived in Abilene, Texas, and that she was a high school English teacher. According to the profile, she was married, and from the pictures, Leah figured out that her mother must have lived on a ranch in some capacity, that she wore reading glasses, and that her husband still owned a motorcycle. There were no pictures of children or grandchildren. Did that mean Leah and Declan were her only kids?

  “Wow! I wonder why I never even thought about searching for her before now,” Leah whispered. But she couldn’t make herself hit the message button—not yet, not until she had time to think about it.

  * * *

  An ill wind had blown in Burnt Boot all week, and when rumors spread like a Texas wildfire, the folks flocked to the bar. The parking lot was already half-full when Rhett opened the doors. It was well after nine when things slowed down enough that he could step outside for a minute and call Leah.

  “I’m so sorry that I’m just now calling,” he said. “But it’s crazy here. The Gallaghers are guarding Wild Horse twenty-four hours a day and plotting about something. The same with the Brennans. Something is about to blow even worse than the school did.”

  “Good for business, isn’t it?” Leah said. “So no Skype tonight?”

  “I don’t think so, but it’s sure good to hear your voice. Am I talking to Leah or Eve?” He chuckled.

  “This would be Leah, but Eve did come out to play a while ago. I found my mother with a couple of clicks on the Internet,” she said.

  “You didn’t know where she was?” Rhett asked.

  “She left when I was four. I wondered about her a few times but knew better than to go investigating. Granny would have had a heart attack,” Leah said.

  “She didn’t like her?” Rhett asked.

  “That would be the understatement of the century,” Leah said.

  “So what are you going to do about it now that you’re a grown woman?”

  “Eve wants me to send her a private message, but I’m scared,” she answered.

  Hearing her voice created delicious little quivers down in his insides. “Are you and Eve arguing? Who’s winning?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Tell me about your mama. How old were you when she left?”

  “I’ve only got a few clear memories. One is of her and Granny fighting, but the others are good ones. I think I loved her very much. I asked Granny about her yesterday, and she told me her side of the story—Mama cheated on Daddy, and Granny paid her to leave without me and Declan. That’s the short story, anyway.”

  “What’s your mama’s name?”

  “Eden.”

  He laughed out loud. “So that’s where you got the Eve. Very good choice of a name for this new woman you’ve found living in your body.”

  “Thank you. I thought so,” she said.

  “I could listen to your voice all night, darlin’. I love the softness of it, but I’d better get back inside. What’s on your agenda for tomorrow?” he asked.

  “We’re doing a bus tour of the city, going downtown to do some serious shopping in the afternoon, and then tomorrow evening, we’re taking in a Broadway play. Call me when you have a chance. It doesn’t matter where I am, I’ll answer,” she said.

  “I miss you,” he whispered.

  “Me too, Rhett.”

  He took one more big gulp of fresh air before he went back into the smoky bar. Leah was two people in one. She was a fragile teacup made of the best china, filled to the brim with Jack Daniel’s whiskey. He could easily fall in love with both Leah and Eve.

  * * *

  Mavis Brennan passed the pitcher of sweet tea around the table, so her son and two grandsons could refill their glasses. She’d heard that Naomi had a fear that Mavis would retaliate by blowing up her septic tank to the main house on Wild Horse, so she was having it pumped out as soon as possible.

  Mavis had considered it, but if a Brennan did that, there could be dead bodies when the shit settled. Mavis didn’t want Naomi dead; she wanted her to suffer humiliation.

  “The wheels are set in motion, and it cost me a pretty penny to get it done. Y’all don’t need to know how or who, but I will tell you this much.” Mavis went on to tell them that, when morning came, the main house on Wild Horse would be surrounded with what came out of the septic tank.

  “I’ll show her that two can play in this shit war,” Mavis said.

  “Granny,” Quaid said seriously, “you’re not thinking about technology—cell phones, laptops, for that matter, the computer that they use in their office. They can call out for help the minute the smell hits their noses.”

  “I didn’t think of that!” Mavis groaned. “What are we going to do? I want her to be imprisoned until after church on Sunday, so everyone will know that she has been served justice.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Quaid said. “Leave that part in my hands. Her electricity, Internet, and phones will be out of order from midnight until noon on Sunday.”

  “How can you do that?” Russell asked.

  “Like Granny said, I can tell you what, but not the how. A
nd since it’s only twelve hours, it’s not likely they can trace it or throw me in jail.” Quaid smiled.

  “And the whole time it’s going down, we’ll be at the bar, right?” Declan said.

  “I’ll be playing canasta with Polly and Gladys that night, right here at my kitchen table.” Mavis smiled.

  “And I’ll have an ironclad alibi.” Russell nodded.

  “Then it’s a go,” Quaid said.

  “If it’s all in place, I’m going down to the bar and seeing if that pretty girl from across the river wants to dance,” Declan said.

  Quaid stood up. “Me too. I reckon the front Gallagher pew in church will be empty come Sunday morning.”

  “Let’s hope to hell it is,” Mavis said.

  She couldn’t tell a soul what was about to happen, but she wanted to talk to someone. She’d tried Leah earlier but she wasn’t answering her phone. Mavis picked up the house phone and called Gladys.

  “Out of sight, out of mind,” she quipped.

  “What?” Gladys said.

  “I was talking to myself. Remember what we used to hear when we were kids about out of sight, out of mind?”

  “Of course I do,” Gladys said.

  “Well, it works. A week in the big city and that cowboy you’ve got on Fiddle Creek will be out of Leah’s mind.”

  “But will she be out of his mind? Seems like I heard something about absence makes the heart grow fonder too. And that wild cowboy is one hardworking rancher. You’d do well to look past his hair and motorcycle. If I were sixty years younger, I’d be chasin’ him,” Gladys fussed at her.

  “Dammit, woman! You are supposed to be on my side. Your kin married into the Brennans. That makes you shirttail kin.”

  “I might be inclined to lean more toward you than the Gallaghers, but I’m not in anybody’s pocket,” Gladys declared. “Not even in the shit war.”

  “I hate that name. If I’d known—” She stopped dead before revealing anything else.

  “Hey, y’all started all this by burning down the Gallaghers’ school.”

  Mavis giggled like a little girl. “I’m not saying another word without my lawyer.”