One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas)

by Carolyn Brown

  “And so are the Brennans, which is why I want to be away from them both before they swallow me up in their feuding and bigness.”

  * * *

  Rhett circled the parking lot in the small shopping plaza until he found a spot close to the barbecue place and snagged it. “I haven’t had supper. Have you?”

  “No, I have not, and I’m starving. Is this a date?” If he said yes, it was a third date, and by damn, she was going to find out the story behind the horns and the tat.

  “It can be. Why? Does magic happen on a third date?” He opened the door and rushed around to help her out.

  “You have to tell me about the tat and the horns on your cycle, which reminds me—I didn’t see it or your new truck.”

  “I can’t think of a better time for a third date than the night that we become roomies. The cycle is in the shed out back of our new place and the truck didn’t arrive today. It should be here by the end of the week, but Gladys is still letting me use the old work truck from Fiddle Creek as long as I’m working for them.” Rhett ushered her inside with his hand on the small of her back.

  Since the dinner rush had already passed, they were seated quickly. Rhett ordered a pulled pork sandwich and Leah followed his lead, ordering the same thing only changing her drink to a diet cola rather than sweet tea.

  “Now about those horns,” she said as they waited on their orders.

  “I was going to be a bull rider. From the time I was too little to ride anything but an old tire hung from a tree on a rope, I was going to ride bulls. And I did, made a few dollars to sock away toward my ranch. Ever been to the Resistol Rodeo down near Dallas?”

  She nodded. “Many times. Daddy and Declan love rodeos, and I got dragged along or tagged along, depending on my age and my mood.”

  “I was twenty-two that summer and fresh out of college, full of piss and vinegar, and ready to get right into my rodeo career. I was practicing my bull riding on some of my cousin’s rodeo stock up at Ringgold. The bull I was on was a mean old devil, and I knew if I could stay on his back eight seconds, I was a shoo-in for the big tour that year. I climbed on his back, got the ropes right, and nodded for them to open the gate. He snorted and came out of the shoot like a bat out of hell. Three seconds in, he threw me into the dirt, came back around, caught me with those big horns, and threw me up in the air, then stomped me when I landed the second time,” he said.

  “Good grief, Rhett! It’s a wonder you weren’t killed.”

  “He busted me up pretty good, messed up my neck and several of my vertebrae, broke my wrist, and gave me a damn fine concussion. I was on the ground, unconscious, when he started at me again and my cousin Rye dropped him in his tracks.”

  “How?” Leah asked.

  “A bullet right between the eyes. His horns are on my cycle and when I got out of the neck brace and got the cast off my wrist, I got the tat on my arm. It’s to remind me every day to be thankful that I’m alive. To remember that when one door closes, another one opens, and not to take a damn thing that comes into my life for granted,” he said.

  “That’s poetic and romantic,” she said. “Why is it a third-date story?”

  “I don’t want a woman to go out with me a second time out of pity. I want to woo them with my charm.”

  She covered his hand with hers. “I don’t think many women would pity you.”

  “Well, I’m not taking any chances,” he said.

  “I have a question,” she said.

  “About the horns.”

  “No, about the visit you had on Wild Horse yesterday.”

  “Ask away,” he said.

  “What happened?”

  “I had dinner and escaped.”

  “Escaped?”

  The waitress brought their food and drinks and asked, “Anything else?”

  “Not right now,” Rhett said.

  She went on to take orders from a couple sitting at a table on the other side of the room, and Leah repeated the question. “Escaped?”

  “That’s what it felt like. I felt trapped at that place with Betsy on one side and Naomi on the other. Then there was the meeting with Polly and Gladys, and I didn’t know if they were going to toss me off Fiddle Creek or what,” he said.

  Leah removed the top bun from her sandwich and poured barbecue sauce on the meat. “Is that when Polly offered to sell you her ranch? Are you going to change the name?”

  “Yes and no. I like the name fine. Had no idea its real name was Double Shot Ranch, but I like it, and she’s even going to let me keep the brand. We have to do some paperwork, but as of the first day of September, the ranch is mine.”

  “Did Betsy make a move on you?”

  “No, she made several, and then she kissed me, and it did not create sparks like it does when you kiss me,” he said.

  Leah could feel anger and jealousy mixing in her veins, and it wasn’t a pretty feeling. Just one time, fate could be kind enough to give her a chance to knock that redhead square on her ass. She was seething already when she looked up and there was Tanner Gallagher coming right at their table. He was dressed in his Sunday best. Starched and creased jeans, boots polished to a shine, belt buckle gleaming in the dim light, and a pale blue shirt with pearl snaps. Bad luck followed her around like a hungry puppy.

  “Dammit! I swear he’s stalking me.”

  “Who?” Rhett asked.

  Tanner’s eyes were glued on Leah, and his smile was wide, and it looked sincere and genuine—but then a wolf in sheep’s clothing didn’t look too dangerous either, now did it? He laid a hand on Leah’s shoulder and said softly, “Leah, darlin’, I thought that was your truck out there in the parking lot. I went to the bar, hoping you would be there. I overheard Honey talking about you moving away from River Bend. I was heartbroken that you didn’t call me to help you. I drove out to Polly’s, but you weren’t there. Imagine my surprise to see your truck sitting right outside the very place I was coming in to have some supper.”

  Leah shrugged his hand away.

  “We’re having dinner here, Tanner,” Rhett said.

  Tanner barely glanced his way before dropping down on one knee. The red velvet box appeared in his hand as if it came from thin air. He popped it open to reveal a diamond half the size of Rhett’s thumbnail that sparkled like a lit up crystal chandelier.

  Lord, have mercy! That thing was the gaudiest damn ring she’d ever seen. Sure it was sparkly and glittered in the light, but a woman would be afraid of being mugged if she wore the thing. What was he trying to prove anyway, showing up with a ring like that?

  “I’m tired of playing games, Leah. I want you to know how serious I am and how much I love you. Will you marry me? We can have a long engagement and get married next summer, after your school year is over. And I can help move you to Wild Horse tonight. You deserve so much more than that little house of Polly’s,” he said.

  When she didn’t answer, he went on. “We’ll have a honeymoon on an island that caters to our style of life, since I know you like the beach. And I’ll build you a proper home between now and then, that we can come home to after our honeymoon. Until then, Granny says you can have a room at the main house.”

  “Are you crazy?” Leah asked.

  “Crazy in love with you, and I don’t want you to make the mistake of your life with this hippie cowboy.” Tanner continued to grin like he expected her to throw her arms around him and say that she would marry him. Well, it would snow a foot in hell when she did that, even if he proposed in a very private place with a ring the right size for a teacher.

  “No. The answer is no,” she said. “Now get up and go away.”

  Tanner snapped the box shut, the noise causing several people to look their way. When he stood up, he bent and kissed Leah on the forehead. “This is only the first proposal. I have lots more, and I will use them all. You’ve seen the ring, and you know I mean what I say. I will never give up.”

  “Tanner, the answer will never be yes,” she said.
/>   “It might be next week or next month. You’ll get tired of slumming someday, but don’t wait too long.”

  She wiped the kiss away with the back of her hand. “Forever doesn’t have a deadline, and I’m not slumming. I’m living my life the way I want to live it.”

  “My forever has a deadline, and it’s Halloween, darlin’,” Tanner said.

  “Why Halloween?” Rhett asked.

  “That gives her a little more than two months to figure out that you can’t begin to give her what I can. She’ll get tired of living in poverty,” Tanner said.

  He swaggered out of the café and blew her a kiss as he went out the door.

  “Rhett, I’m so sorry.” Leah blushed.

  “You have no reason to apologize. He’s rattling your cage and trying to keep the feud alive. Nothing much has happened in the past couple of weeks,” Rhett said. “If he can entice you away from Double Shot Ranch with a ring, then it would start some more crap. I got to admit, that was one honkin’ big-ass diamond.”

  Leah rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “Someday we’ll look back on this and think it’s funny, but right now I’m so angry I can’t even think about that day. I can’t imagine why you aren’t mad.”

  “I wish you would have told him yes.” Rhett bit into his sandwich.

  Leah slapped the table so hard that the salt and pepper shakers rattled together. “Why? So you’d be rid of me?”

  “No, so I could watch that fool backpedal. He probably has that ring on a ninety-day deal. He’s put up the money for it with the deal that if you don’t say yes and he returns it, the jeweler will give him his money back. You are a pawn in the feud. I’m surprised that Mavis hasn’t shoved Declan or Quaid at Betsy to show Naomi she can play the same game,” Rhett said. “Hey, put beer on that list and maybe a bottle of Jack if we can hit a liquor store before they close.”

  Leave it to a man to think about beer at a time like this. She picked up her drink and downed half of it before she came up for air. “I don’t want you to think that I’m measuring you or what you have by him and Wild Horse.”

  “I don’t. I’m me and that’s all I am or ever will be. And believe me, even if I could afford a ring like that, I wouldn’t, because it’s not you, Leah. You aren’t a gaudy, flashy woman,” he said.

  “What kind of woman am I?” she asked.

  “My kind.” He grinned.

  Chapter 25

  The week went by in a blur. Rhett was up at five every morning, let Dammit out, peeked in on Leah, and wished they had more time together. For the next three hours, he and Dammit were outside, learning where everything was located on Double Shot until eight, when he drove to Fiddle Creek and worked until the afternoon. Then he came home long enough to take a quick shower, change clothes, and kiss Leah as she graded papers at the card table and go to the bar. By the time he got home at near midnight, she was sleeping.

  Tempers were running as hot as the temperature outside on Saturday night. It had been days since it had rained. The last threat of it they’d even seen had been on Monday, when Leah had moved into the house. That storm had moved around them, and they hadn’t seen so much as a drop of rain. The thermometer didn’t drop below ninety that week, not even at night, and the days were triple digits.

  Then there was the fact that the Gallaghers had not retaliated for the last stunt the Brennans pulled, and they were getting nowhere with getting Leah to move onto Wild Horse. Tension in the air at the bar that night said there was something underfoot, and Rhett hoped it wasn’t something to do with Leah.

  “Hey,” Jill said when they had a lull in business, “I want you and Leah to know that I fussed at Aunt Polly for leaving y’all with nothing in the house but your bedroom furniture.”

  “Know what she said?” Sawyer propped a hip on a tall stool beside the beer machine. “She said that y’all needed the experience of finding your own things, that it would make you closer and give you something to do and talk about. I told Jill we should go back to the bunkhouse and strip it down to nothing so we could do the same thing.”

  “And I told him that we didn’t have time for that. I’m so glad this is our last barroom duty. Now we can concentrate on the ranch and store,” Jill said.

  “Is it really? I thought we had one more week, or at least Monday night since Rosalie isn’t taking it until the first day in September,” Rhett said.

  “No, she says it won’t be open Monday so she can take inventory, and then Tuesday night it’s all hers. I hear she’s got a daughter who’ll be doing relief work for her,” Sawyer said. “And I talked to our cousin Lawson, and he’ll be here by Wednesday evening. We’re going to miss you.”

  “Lawson will do you a good job.” Rhett nodded.

  “I know, but we’re going to miss you and Dammit,” Jill said. “The cats whined for the first three days he wasn’t there.”

  “Get a dog.” Rhett grinned.

  “We’ve got ranch dogs already,” Jill said.

  “A ranch dog is different than a pet. They can be both, but you got to train them,” Rhett told her.

  “Hey, we need two pitchers of beer and four cheeseburger baskets,” Tanner said.

  Sawyer slapped four pieces of meat on the grill. Rhett took two pitchers from under the bar and filled them. Jill took the money and made the change.

  “I hear the bar will be closed Monday and when it opens on Tuesday, it’ll have a new owner,” Tanner said.

  “That’s right. And I hear that Rosalie is tougher than Polly ever was, so y’all best not start anything in here,” Jill told him.

  “Where’s Leah tonight?” Tanner asked.

  “That wouldn’t be a bit of your business,” Jill said.

  Tanner picked up the two pitchers. “I’m going to marry her, so I expect it is my business.”

  “Can’t marry someone that isn’t willing,” Rhett said.

  “She’ll be willin’ real soon. Livin’ in poverty isn’t her style. She’ll figure it out real soon, so get ready for a broken heart. I’ll miss seeing you in here, Jill.” Tanner nodded her way.

  * * *

  Leah finished up her papers and got her lesson plans ready for the next week. The first week of school was always the week from hell, but this one had been even worse, with Gallagher and Brennan kids leery of each other and the other kids not knowing which side to take.

  She thought about going to the bar, but that would have required getting cleaned up and she was very comfortable in her faded chambray shirt and cutoff jean shorts. She was sitting on the porch with Dammit right beside her when she saw headlights coming done the lane. Her heart did one of those familiar leaps that said Rhett was nearby and her pulse quickened.

  The big, black truck parked right behind her red one and sat there several minutes. The hair on Dammit’s back stiffened, and he lowered his head. A low growl emitted from his throat, and his whole body quivered.

  She looped an arm around his neck and said, “It’s okay, boy. Remember he got the new truck a couple of days ago. You’ll have to get used to him coming home in it rather than the old Fiddle Creek work truck.”

  The truck door opened, and the moonlight lit up a blond-haired cowboy, not a dark-haired one. Dammit growled again and stood at attention, ready to leap.

  “Stay,” she said softly. “I’ll get rid of him, and if I can’t, then I’ll call you.”

  “Leah, darlin’, when did you get a big dog like that?” Tanner asked.

  His boots crunched on the gravel and Dammit growled again.

  “It’s okay, boy. He’s made of hot air and belt buckles. Nothing to be afraid of with him,” Leah whispered.

  “Well?” Tanner asked.

  “Dammit belongs to Rhett, but he and I are pretty good friends. He’s telling me he’d like to tear your ears off and have them for a midnight snack, but I’m keeping him at bay long enough for you to get off Double Shot Ranch.”

  “I want to talk to you, Leah, and I’d like to do it without yel
ling.”

  What in the hell did she have to do to make him back off and leave her alone? She had enough on her plate without adding an extra cowboy. There was the adjustment of the new job, getting used to living in a very different house with Rhett and yet seeing him even less than she had before, and trying to decide what to do about her mother.

  “Stay right here,” she whispered to Dammit as she stood up.

  She met Tanner halfway across the yard, both of them lit up by the headlights on his truck. “For the very last time, Tanner, I want you to leave me alone.”

  He reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. “What about our history?”

  She shrugged it off. “There is no history. I had a crush on you when we were only kids, but I’m over it, and this thing isn’t going to happen. This is a game. You want me because you can’t have me and women always fall at your feet when you pay them any kind of attention. But once you conquer them, you throw them in the ditch like trash.”

  “Not this time.” He grabbed her by both shoulders and dragged her into his embrace, his lips bearing down on hers fiercely.

  She wiggled, but he held on tighter, his mouth grinding against hers and his tongue forcing its way into her mouth. She kicked him in shins, but he hung on tighter, like a bulldog in a fighting ring. Finally, she landed a good right hook to his chin, and his head popped backwards.

  “You’ll change your mind after a couple of nights with me. And, Leah, don’t you ever hit me again,” Tanner growled as he grabbed for her again.

  She ran back a few steps and yelled, “Dammit!”

  Tanner laughed and went for her. “Never knew you to cuss.”

  “Dammit!” she said again.

  The dog howled and bailed off the porch. By the time Tanner realized she wasn’t cussing, he barely had time to make it to his truck and close the door. He rolled down the window and hollered, “Leah, this was your last chance. No more waiting until Halloween. It’s over between us. And you will regret this, believe me, you will.”

  She whistled for Dammit to stop trying to jump inside the window and the dog returned to sit in front of her. “I hope it’s over, Tanner. I really do.”