One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas)

by Carolyn Brown

  “Then it was at the same time Mama had her affair with the old boyfriend,” Leah whispered.

  “I don’t know about all that. I only remember it because he shut the door and no one found me, so I won the game.”

  * * *

  She was the last one to board the plane taking her back to Burnt Boot. She had a window seat beside a small guy wearing a three-piece suit and a hundred-dollar haircut. He nodded and she did the same, and then she spent the rest of the flight looking at the clouds and thinking about Rhett. Something deep inside her said she was doing the right thing. That same feeling told her that even if she had to live in a tent on the banks of the Red River and eat nothing but catfish and bologna sandwiches, she’d be happier than living in the house on River Bend and wondering what life would have been like with Rhett.

  He hasn’t proposed, and you’re fantasizing about living with him, her new alter ego asked.

  I’m not giving him up, she answered.

  There’s no going back.

  That’s what makes this such a difficult thing, Leah argued. But it’s the right thing. I don’t want to run River Bend. I don’t want to be a part of this feud anymore. I want to live a peaceful, happy life without all the tension. I want what I saw when Rhett took me over to Ringgold to meet part of his family.

  When the plane descended onto the DFW runway, her chest tightened and her hands went clammy. Rhett was waiting. He’d said he would be there, and she could trust him with her life. That tingle inside her said that he was already there. Everything was going to work out exactly like it was supposed to because Rhett had come to take her home.

  Chapter 13

  She turned on her phone as she headed for the baggage claim area and found that she had three missed calls from Rhett. She quickly hit the button to call him, hoping he wasn’t stuck in Dallas traffic.

  “Are you on the ground?” he asked.

  “I’m in baggage claim.”

  “I’ll be sitting on the bench in front of the doors when you come outside,” he said.

  “Thank you, Rhett.”

  “No thanks necessary. I’m glad you are home.”

  As luck would have it, her suitcase was the last one to appear on the conveyor belt. She quickly grabbed it before she had to wait another five minutes for it to roll around again. She stopped a few feet back from the door and scanned the area. There he was, waiting patiently and staring at the doors. Her pulse raced and she forgot to exhale for so long that she got a little dizzy.

  He looked up and saw her, waved, and stood up, shaking the legs of his jeans down over his boot tops. Today he was dressed up, wearing his best boots, jeans that had been starched and creased, and a green-and-yellow plaid Western shirt with the sleeves rolled up right above his elbows.

  Sex on a stick, Eve’s voice inside her head said with a giggle.

  You got that right. Leah smiled.

  She pushed her way through the revolving doors, out of the cool air and into the sweltering hot Texas summer heat. Rhett met her, hugged her, and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Welcome home to Texas, Leah. Ain’t nothin’ like it at this time of year.” He laced his fingers with hers. “I borrowed Sawyer’s truck. Didn’t think we could manage luggage on the cycle.” He opened the truck door for her and then shoved her suitcase into the backseat.

  “I appreciate this, Rhett,” she said and then noticed a bouquet of pink mimosa blooms mixed with greenery and baby’s breath. It happened to be her all-time favorite flower, and one that nobody had ever given her. As a child, she’d told herself that when her true prince came along, she would know he was the one because he would give her a bouquet of mimosas like the ones from the tree below her bedroom window on River Bend.

  She picked up the bouquet and slid into the passenger’s seat, not even minding the heat. Rhett hurried around the back of the truck and quickly got inside, turning the air conditioner on high right after he started the engine.

  “It’s lovely. How did you know I liked mimosas?” she asked.

  “You are a mimosa, Leah. You are delicate, but inside you are wild and free. You are sunshine to everyone around you, and there are many layers to you as a woman, like there are many little petals on the mimosa bloom. I expect it will take a lifetime to see all the layers,” he said.

  Her eyes misted. “That’s pretty romantic for a biker cowboy.”

  “I was speakin’ from my own heart and tellin’ it the way I see it.” He opened a small cooler, brought out a plastic container with a cupcake inside, and handed it to her. “It’s your welcome-home cake. I had to keep it on ice so it wouldn’t melt.”

  She put the bouquet in her lap and took the chocolate cupcake. When she popped the top off, the smell of chocolate filled the cab of the truck.

  “I hope I’m right and you aren’t a red rose lady,” he said.

  “Mimosas and chocolate cake—my two secret delights. How on earth did you find mimosas at this time of year?” she asked.

  “I went into a flower shop and asked for them. The lady said they only used them as fillers for wedding bouquets and she had a few left. Must have been an omen. I’m glad you like them,” he answered. “So the mimosas and chocolates are secrets?”

  “Most folks have figured out the chocolate, but no one knows about the mimosas,” she said.

  “Then that can be our secret.”

  She stuck her finger in the icing and held it out toward him. “You should have the first bite for giving up your fishing to come down here to get me.”

  He gripped her wrist, and his mouth closed around her forefinger. His tongue licked away every bit of the icing, and all the air left her lungs. Heat shot through her like she had a full-out drip of pure Tennessee whiskey flowing through her body.

  Then he popped her finger from his mouth and returned the favor, scooping up an inch of frosting on his finger and offering it to her. She took a deep breath and grabbed his wrist. His eyes went wide as she cleaned every bit of that chocolate from his finger, working her tongue around to make sure nothing was left behind.

  “Sweet Jesus,” he mumbled.

  She opened her lips enough to slide his finger out and then kissed his wrist before she let it go. “That is some fine chocolate, and I do know good chocolate.”

  “You are not a sweet little angel, Leah Brennan. You might come off as a pampered rose, but, darlin’, you are a wild and free mimosa bloom for sure.”

  “I’d say that we match pretty good then, wouldn’t you?”

  “I never was accused of being an angel.” He laughed as he backed the truck out of the parking spot.

  * * *

  Rhett’s finger burned and then it tingled. Hell, it might never be the same.

  “Share this with me. I didn’t even realize I was hungry until I smelled the chocolate.” She pinched off a bite and held it close to his mouth. “And speaking of sharing, tell me the story of the horns on the cycle and the tat while we drive.”

  “No, ma’am. This is our second date. That’s a third-date story, remember?” He opened up wide enough that she had no excuse to put her fingers in his mouth again. “Good,” he said, chewing.

  “It’s not good. It’s excellent. It will hold me until we get out of the traffic, but then I’m buying supper for us to repay you for all this,” she said.

  “No, ma’am, you are not. I’d love to take you to supper at the restaurant of your choice, but my mama would come after me with a switch if I let a lady pay on a date,” he said.

  “You’re afraid of your mama? I wouldn’t think you’d be afraid of a hungry grizzly bear.” She polished off the last of the cupcake.

  “Honey, my mama puts fear in the hungry grizzly bear,” he told her.

  “No wonder you’re still single at nearly thirty.”

  “You got it.” He grinned. “So what do you have a hankering for?”

  “Are we still talking about food?”

  He slid a long look toward her, and their eyes locke
d. “That’s up to you, Leah.”

  She sighed. “I want a big, fat hamburger with double meat, an order of fries to dip in ketchup, and a tall glass of sweet tea.”

  “Then I know the place to go.” He blinked and looked back at the highway stretching ahead of him.

  “You said you had something to tell me about Burnt Boot or the feud when we talked this morning.” She looked out the side window.

  He nodded. “It can’t be proven, but last night, for the sake of the story we’ll say the Brennans intercepted a bit of information saying that Naomi Gallagher was afraid the Brennans might blow up the septic tank to her house, so she’d called a company to have it pumped. I’m thinking she let the news out on purpose, so that Mavis would know it was empty, and therefore, she wouldn’t blow it up in retaliation.”

  “That sounds like the two of them,” Leah said.

  “Your family must have paid someone to do the dirty—and I do mean dirty—deed. Instead of putting what was in the septic tank into the truck’s holding tank, they let it flow out all around the main house, trapping Naomi, Betsy, Tanner, and Tyrell in the house. Story has it that the company called Naomi and said they’d had some kind of trouble, and it would be real late when they got there. So it was after everyone had gone to bed when it all happened.”

  “Why didn’t they call out for help?”

  “I guess their computers, cell phones, and even the landline was down until right after church.”

  “Quaid.” She smiled.

  “What about Quaid?”

  “He’s a computer genius. When he finished college, he was recruited to work for one of those alphabet sections of the government, but he turned them down. This serves them right for blowing up our school the way they did. It’s a stroke of genius. I’m glad Betsy was stuck in there. She’s such a bitch.”

  “The claws have come out,” Rhett said.

  “When it comes to Betsy, they stay out.”

  “Oh, and the Gallaghers made a donation to the church sizable enough that they’ve hired Angelina’s fiancé as the new youth director. They gave him a three-year contract. Mavis looked pretty upset about it when we were leaving church this morning,” Rhett said.

  “Granny will be so worked up, she won’t even know I’m home for a week. My cousin Quaid should have been given that position years ago,” she said.

  “That’s what I heard from Sawyer and Jill. I overheard one of the Brennan cowboys saying that now the Gallaghers have the law and God both in their pockets.” Rhett chuckled.

  Leah’s eyes widened as big as silver dollars. “Granny is meaner than the law or God.”

  “And yet you’ve cut your vacation short to come home to face off with her when she’s in this mood. You sure you don’t want to come live in the bunkhouse on Fiddle Creek until she gets in a better mood?” Rhett asked.

  “I don’t move in with a man after only knowing him eleven days and before I’ve been on a third date with him,” she said.

  He tapped the clock on the dash. “Eleven days, one hour, and eleven minutes. That extra time should make a difference.”

  The glorious beauty of her laughter filled the truck and put a smile on his face.

  “So you think that’s funny?”

  “You make me laugh, Rhett. I like that.”

  “And no one else makes you laugh?”

  “Not like you do. Why do things have to be so complicated when it comes to families?” She wiped her eyes with the napkin that had come with the cupcake.

  He turned off an exit ramp into Gainesville. “Some things can’t be explained. Ever eaten at Five Guys?”

  She clapped her hands together. “I love their burgers. There’s one not far from the condo in Florida where I stayed with Honey and Kinsey last year. This is perfect, Rhett.” A frown suddenly covered her face.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You know me so well after only eleven days, it’s scary,” she answered.

  “I told you it’s that extra hour and minutes that make the difference.” He covered her hand with his. “Leah, all love and relationships are dangerous. That’s what makes them exciting, but it also teaches both parties that they can trust each other in times of danger.”

  “The path ahead of me looks pretty dangerous, all right.” She nodded.

  “Sometimes you’ve got to get a machete and hack your way through the kudzu to make your own path in life.”

  “You ever do that?”

  He leaned across the console and kissed her on the cheek. “Yes, I have. Now let’s go get a burger.”

  She left her mimosas on the seat and hoped the heat didn’t wilt them. She looked at them one last time and smiled. In her imagination, the bouquet morphed into a machete, ready to hack down the kudzu and create a path for her.

  Chapter 14

  The burger shop was booming, with only one table left, and it was at the back, close to the soda pop dispenser. While they stood in line, someone claimed that spot too, leaving Leah and Rhett with two choices—wait for a table or take it to go.

  “What do you think?” Rhett asked.

  “We’re parked under a shade tree and the whole bed is empty,” she said.

  “Brazen lady, aren’t you?” Rhett grinned.

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “You offered to share supper with me in a bed, and it’s only our second date.”

  Her green eyes twinkled long before the smile materialized. “I guess I did. Are you going to take me up on it, or are we going to wait for a table in here?”

  “Oh, honey, I’d never refuse the offer of going to bed with you.”

  “Rhett O’Donnell, you are the devil reincarnated,” she whispered.

  They moved up in line. “I never have been accused of havin’ a halo or wings.”

  She started to ask him if anyone had ever accused him of being sexy but clamped her mouth shut when Tanner and Betsy Gallagher pushed through the doors and lined up right behind them.

  “What are you doing back in Texas? I thought you were on vacation in the big city,” Tanner said.

  “I was.” She nodded.

  He took a step forward and whispered, “Did you like the roses I sent? I’ve missed you so much, and I’m glad you are back home.”

  Betsy slapped him on the shoulder. “Speak up and stop whispering. Anyone sees you making eyes at a Brennan, they’ll tell Granny. What are you saying to her?”

  “That I wouldn’t have liked spending a whole week in a big city either,” Tanner answered.

  Rhett turned around and said, “What brings y’all out of Burnt Boot today?”

  “Granny sent us on a mission,” Tanner answered. “And y’all?”

  “Rhett was kind enough to pick me up at the airport,” Leah said. She hoped their mission didn’t have anything to do with blowing up septic tanks or spreading any more shit in Burnt Boot.

  “I thought you went with Honey and Kinsey,” Betsy said.

  “I did, but I decided to come home early.”

  “Are you crazy? If I had a week in New York City, you can damn sure bet I wouldn’t come home early,” Betsy said. “You hear about what your Granny did?”

  “I heard that your septic company made a big mistake,” Leah said.

  “Mistake, my ass. When we got ahold of them, they told us this big story about how we’d rescheduled, but we didn’t. You Brennans did this and you can bet your sorry ass we will get even,” Betsy said.

  “If you had a scrap of evidence that my family had anything to do with that mistake, you’d already have Orville out on River Bend flashing his gun and cuffs,” Leah said.

  “We don’t have to prove jack shit. We know, and you will pay for it,” Betsy said.

  “And then you will after that,” Leah said. “Don’t you ever get tired of this feuding?”

  “Not when I’ve had to smell shit for half a day, until the family came home from church and shoveled us out and fixed the electricity. I won’t be tired of it until I get eve
n, so watch your back, Leah Brennan.”

  “Is that a threat?” Rhett asked.

  “I’d call it a promise,” Betsy said.

  “Next,” the cashier said as she looked up at Rhett and Leah.

  “I’ll have a burger with lettuce, tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, dill pickles, and mustard, and I want a big order of fries and a large drink,” Leah said.

  “Double that and add cheese to mine,” Rhett said as he turned to face Tanner and Betsy. “It’s your turn. I’d say it was nice seein’ y’all, but I’d be lyin’.”

  “Same here,” Betsy growled.

  Rhett and Leah moved down the pathway made by stacked bags of potatoes to the drink machine and filled their cups. Then they went back to stand beside the door until their number was called.

  Leah was sipping on a diet cola when Rhett nudged her shoulder and said, “I bet you’re ready to get away from the Gallaghers. Want to wait in the bed of the truck while I pick it up?”

  “I’d love to,” she answered.

  She glanced over her shoulder before she walked out the door and Tanner blew her a kiss. Once outside, she crawled over the side, into the truck bed, and braced her back under the rear window. Her stomach growled, but she wasn’t sure if it was real hunger or maybe just pure, old anxiety. There was no way that Tanner and Betsy could have known they were in the burger joint, so that was coincidence, but was Tanner crazy, flirting with her like that? Naomi would kill him for that after what had happened, unless she really was in on the whole thing.

  * * *

  Rhett picked up the brown paper sacks, and carried the whole load out to the truck. He handed it over the side to Leah and let down the tailgate to make getting up in the back a whole lot easier.

  She opened a bag and blew on the hot fries before she popped one into her mouth. She chewed while she removed the paper from her hamburger and bit into it, making appreciative noises like she’d done with the cupcake.

  “Pretty good, huh?” he said.

  “Fantastic,” she answered.

  “Imagine running into Gallaghers in there.”

  She nodded. “They’re like cockroaches. They’re everywhere.”