Along Came a Cowboy

by Christine Lynxwiler

  Jack follows me to the kitchen where our food waits. A glance backward tells me that Jenn is using this opportunity to introduce Dirk to Cocoa and Shadow. I have to admit, right now in his khakis and T-shirt, he looks pretty harmless.

  When I turn back around, Jack is watching me, amusement dancing in his brown eyes. “Would we be able to relax more today if I hired a PI to follow Jenn and Dirk around and keep an eye on them? I’m afraid you’re going to get a crick in your neck.”

  I slug him on the shoulder. “Very funny.”

  He lifts the lid on the picnic basket and takes a deep breath. “Mmm. Smells like fried chicken.”

  “You got it.” I pick the basket up off the table. “Not the healthiest of meals, but a picnic must. If you can get the cooler, we’ll be on our way.” Jack takes the handle of the rolling cooler and follows me back to the living room.

  Jenn and Dirk grab the blankets, and the four of us make our way out the door, loaded down with our picnic supplies. We put our things in the bed of the pickup next to an assortment of sporting equipment. I see a football, soccer ball, baseball, and a couple of gloves.

  “I wasn’t sure what to bring.” Jack opens the passenger door for me. “I thought we might want to play some games or something.”

  As I climb inside the truck, I see Dirk has opened the back passenger door for Jenn. Thank goodness for crew cabs. There’s no way I would’ve let her ride in a car alone with Dirk. The two of them climb in the back, and we’re on our way.

  Jack turns on the radio and pulls out onto the main highway into bumper-to-bumper traffic. “Not something you see every day around here,” he says as he leans forward to check out the long line of cars.

  “Yep. Only traffic jam we have all year.” I twist around to glance at Dirk and Jenn, who are carrying on a conversation in low voices. Jack looks at me and grins. “There’s a mirror in that visor,” he whispers.

  “Don’t be silly.” But my neck is a little sore by the time we finally make it to the Lake Oriole sign and turn down the lake road. Jack pays the volunteer Lion’s Club parking attendant, and just as we pull into a space, “The Star Spangled Banner” begins blaring from my purse.

  Jack raises a brow. “Wow. Just because you wore green today doesn’t mean you’re not patriotic.”

  “I’m one of those people who likes to coordinate ringtones with holidays. Got a problem with that?” I snap, suddenly irritated with myself for not dressing in classic red, white, and blue. I flip the phone open without waiting for his answer.

  “Rachel?” Lark’s voice on the other end is a little staticky. All the trees around must interfere with the cell tower.

  “Hey.” I jump out of the truck and walk around a little to try to get a better signal.

  “We’ve got a spot saved near the Shady Grove Idol stage. If you want to sit with us, look for the lime green blanket.”

  “Okay, we’ll find you. Thanks for letting us know.”

  I flip the phone shut and stuff it back in my bag.

  Dirk is in the back of the truck handing things down to Jenn. Jack walks over to me. “Everything okay?”

  I nod. “Do you mind if we sit with Lark and Craig?”

  Jack holds up the picnic basket. “It depends. Do we have to share your fried chicken with them?”

  “No, honey, they’ll have their own food,” I say. My face flushes as I realize what I just said.

  “So I’m your honey?” Jack asks next to my ear as we make our way through the crowd.

  I walk faster. “I don’t know where that came from.”

  He lengthens his stride to catch up with me. “You know what the Bible says, ‘Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.’ ”

  I keep walking, but I’m afraid he’s right. My mind is taking things slow and easy, but my heart is rushing ahead.

  I spot Lark waving to us from a little rise in the grassy area ahead. “Here we are, Lark,” I yell, relieved to have a reason to end this conversation.

  She walks to meet us. “Hey. Glad you found us in this crowd.”

  “In all this red, white, and blue, green stands out,” Jack says, keeping his gaze fixed on me.

  “Yup, it sure does.” Clueless, Lark nods toward the bright blanket on the hill. “That’s why we brought it.”

  “Speaking of blankets, is there room for ours?” I ask, still pointedly ignoring Jack.

  “Yes. Plenty. We spread out so we could condense when y’all got here and still have enough room.”

  I turn to motion to Jenn and Dirk, who are lagging a little behind, on purpose I’m sure. And bump right into Jack.

  The gold specks in his brown eyes sparkle in the sunshine. “Am I making you nervous?”

  “No more than usual,” I shoot back.

  He frowns. “For real? Because I’m trying really hard.”

  I laugh and slug him. “You’re hopeless, you know that?” His dimples flash. “That would make me your hopeless honey, right?”

  Before I can respond, he takes the picnic basket on up the hill.

  Lark smiles. “I didn’t catch all of that, but it looks like things are going great.”

  I shrug. “We’ll see. I still have the same issues. So that hasn’t changed.”

  She glances up the hill. “Yeah, we all have issues, I guess.”

  For the first time, I notice a grumpy-looking Sheila sitting beside Craig. “So Sheila came with you.” I try to keep my voice even. I’m still a little suspicious of the unemployed waitress, no matter how pure Lark thinks her intentions are.

  “Yep. We thought it would do her good to get out of the house for a little while.”

  It flits through my mind that Lark doesn’t completely trust Sheila. That would make it difficult to leave her at home alone. So I’m guessing Sheila came whether she wanted to or not.

  Nevertheless, I smile and wave to her when we approach. She lifts a hand then picks up a paperback lying facedown on the blanket, pointedly and effectively cutting off any further conversation.

  An hour later, Jack wipes his mouth and puts down a chicken bone. “That was delicious.” He holds up the chicken pan. “Does anyone want more?”

  “Now that he’s full, he’s feeling generous,” Craig quips. “You’re one to talk. I saw the size of that piece of apple pie you had, man.” Jack pushes to his feet. “Dirk, you want to give me a hand, and we’ll take this picnic stuff back to the truck?”

  Dirk looks reluctant to leave Jenn, but he stands. “Sure.” “I might as well help, too, since y’all have eaten all the good food,” Craig grumbles.

  “We’ll leave our blankets here for Sheila to watch Shady Grove Idol and head on over to the field,” Lark says. “Meet us there.” She touches my shirt. “Look for Rachel. Her green should be easy to see.”

  Jack leans toward me as he walks by. “That’s what I like about you. You stand out in a crowd.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  I watch him walk away. I’ve been practicing resisting him, really I have. I thought practice makes perfect. Shouldn’t it be getting easier?

  Ten minutes later, we’ve left Sheila with her nose in her book, and Jenn and Lark are trying to find a duck with a prize on the bottom.

  I look up and see Jack scanning the crowd. The noise around me recedes, and he’s all I can see. In my whole adult life, I’ve never felt like this before. Why now? Why this summer, when Jenn is here and things are so complicated?

  I don’t even realize I’ve lifted my hand, but when I look, I’m holding it in the air. Jack waves in answer and walks toward me, with Craig and Dirk beside him.

  “Dr. Donovan! I saw you on TV.” Mike Harris is one of my less tactful patients, and right now he looks like the cat that swallowed the canary. “I’m so happy that you’ve found a man that I don’t care if you did go to Chez Pierre on the city’s dime.” Even in the blistering heat beneath layers of sunblock, I feel my face turn red.

  Jack’s coming up fast, and I just want to end this conversatio
n. “Thanks. But we weren’t there on city business.”

  “Oh, I know that. I’m just glad you finally found someone.” He gives a little wave toward Jack who nods.

  Thankfully, at that moment, somebody with a bullhorn announces that it’s time for a little flag football. “Mike, I’ve got to run.”

  “Oh sure.” He moves on into the crowd, and I hear him telling someone that his chiropractor is here with her boyfriend.

  “What was that about?” Jack and I walk behind Jenn and Dirk toward the football area. I’m pretty sure that if we weren’t behind them, they’d be holding hands.

  “Oh, just more aftermath of Blair outing our relationship on TV. I hoped people had forgotten, but apparently our appearance here together is only going to fuel the flames.”

  Jack stops and turns me toward him. My breath catches for a minute as he looks me in the eye. “Listen. The way I see it, we have two choices. We can either let Blair ruin what has the potential to be a wonderful day or we can let it go. I know which one gets my vote.”

  I know he’s right. I so enjoyed seeing Blair get her comeuppance at the coffee shop the other night. Why let her win today? And it does have the potential to be a wonderful day. Perfect, almost. “Okay. No more worrying from me.” I glance at Jenn and Dirk, her hand firmly in his. “At least no more worrying about what people think about us.”

  Football is really not my sport, but I enjoy watching from the sidelines. With that in mind, I volunteer for the job of holding on to all the spare flags. So as people check in to play the game, they come to me for a flag.

  “Could I have one of those?”

  I turn to see Sheila standing beside me. The last person I would have expected to want to play football today. “Do you really think that’s a good idea? I know it’s just flag football, but sometimes it can be a little rough. I thought you were watching the singing contest.” I see Lark looking at us from the huddle. She would kill me if I allowed the woman who is going to give birth to her child play football on one of the hottest days of the year.

  “I’ll be really careful.” I can tell Sheila doesn’t want to let this drop.

  But I’m not going to drop it either. I soften my voice. “Sheila, I really don’t think you should. Hasn’t your doctor told you that you should refrain from certain activities?”

  She takes a step back. “Oh yeah, I guess so. I just didn’t think. . .” she trails off. “You’re probably right. It might not be a good idea.” Once again, I see Lark glancing in our direction.

  Sheila shrugs and walks back toward the Shady Grove Idol crowd.

  Within minutes Jenn makes the winning touchdown, and Jack and Dirk lift her to their shoulders amid cheers. When they reach me, they put her down.

  She touches my shoulder to catch her balance. “Aunt Rachel, we’re going to go sign up for the canoe race, okay?” The football game has left Jenn’s face flushed. She looks so radiant. I can see from the admiring glances coming from Dirk that I’m not the only one who notices.

  “That’s fine. We’ll meet you at the boat launch. Why don’t you stop by the blanket first and get some water out of the cooler?”

  They hurry off, laughing and arguing which of them is the better football player.

  Jack waits for me as I finish getting all the returned flags back into their box. “So you let them go with no one on their tail. Are you finally becoming a fan of Dirk’s?”

  “Fan is a definite overstatement. But since you and my parents think he’s a trustworthy guy, I figure I can at least let them go sign us up for the race.” Right? They are in a very crowded public place after all.

  I turn to see if I can still see them, and Jack takes my hand and tugs me back around. “No peeking. Once the baby chick has flown, you have to let it go.”

  Baby chick? If he only knew. I’m seized by a completely illogical desire to lead him over to a shade tree and tell him the whole sordid truth about my past and Jenn’s parentage. He strikes me as a man who can take almost anything in stride. I think that strength is one of the things that draws me to him. He feels as steady as a rock yet as flexible as a river.

  He pulls me a little closer, and I can see the concern in his eyes. “You okay?”

  “Overheated, I think.” The sun is surely baking my brain for me to be having such crazy thoughts.

  “Let’s go get you some water.” He releases me but not my hand, and I follow him up the hill.

  As we walk up toward the contest, I recognize a patient’s daughter onstage, belting out “God Bless America.” Jack looks over at me. “Wow. She’s got a great set of pipes.”

  “Rachel!”

  I look down into my mother’s face. “Mom! Dad! I didn’t know y’all were here.”

  Dad motions for us to join them on their blanket. “Actually, we were just going to get Rachel a drink.”

  Mom smiles and pulls a bottle of water from their cooler. “Have a seat.”

  I take the bottle from her, but inwardly I’m marveling at how much friendlier they are to me when Jack is around. Is that my imagination? Or do they like him better than me?

  I try to think positively. Maybe he just serves as a buffer, and that’s why it’s easier with him around.

  I sink down beside Mom and look up at the stage. “Think she’ll win?”

  She nods. “We think she’s the best candidate for the national anthem at the rodeo. Hopefully the judges will agree with us.”

  “Who’s judging?” I would never want that job. I can’t imagine having to dash anyone’s hopes of being a singer, even if it’s just for a small town event. I sure hope there isn’t a Simon Cowell in one of the judge’s seats today.

  “I know Blair Winchester is one of them.” Dad narrows his eyes. “She’s probably going to show the less talented ones on one of her reality segments.”

  Obviously he still hasn’t gotten completely over his anger from her accusations against Jack and me. I quietly congratulate myself for not making the obvious comparison between Blair and the famous AI judge. Well, at least not out loud.

  “We’re about to compete in the canoe race with Jennifer and Dirk if y’all want to come watch,” Jack says.

  Mom looks at Dad. “Oh, Alton, that sounds like fun.”

  He nods. “We’ll be over to cheer you on.”

  When the girl finishes and the crowd breaks into wild applause, Jack and I head toward the boat dock. In the distance, I see Jenn and Dirk waiting for us, along with a crowd of other racers. “So you think it’s okay for them to be holding hands?” I ask when we’re still a good ways away.

  Jack looks at me thoughtfully then down at our own entwined hands. “I think so. They seem like they’re not going to push the boundaries.”

  I glance at them again. They really are good kids. “I think you’re right.”

  “I never thought about it, but I guess these are the kinds of things parents have to talk over and decide.” He shakes his head. “Every detail is important.”

  “Scary prospect, huh?” “It is, but I still think I might be up to the challenge someday.” He squeezes my hand. “With the right person.”

  Whoa. Have I lost my mind? I’m letting this wonderful, amazing man mentally plan a future with me. This man who has already told me that honesty means so much to him.

  The race hasn’t started yet, but my canoe is already sunk.

  “Are we sure about this?” I ask Jack as I fasten my life jacket.

  He shrugs. “Too late to be having doubts. We’re already committed.”

  Why does everything seem to have a double meaning today? I glance at the four-man canoe. Two heats have already been completed, and we’re in the third and final one. Guess there’s no putting it off. “Who rides where?”

  Dirk steps up. “I’ve been watching the other teams get in their canoes—the big guy needs to sit in the back.” He grins at Jack. “That’s you, boss.”

  Jack salutes, and we all laugh.

  “And I’ll take the front.�
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  I look at Jenn. “I guess that leaves us in the middle.”

  “Okay.” She double-checks her life jacket and steps in, climbing into the seat behind the front one.

  Jack and I exchange an amused look at her obvious hurry to get the seat closest to Dirk.

  Jack holds out his hand to help me in. “Ready?” “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  After I’m settled in my seat, Jenn twists around. “Look. Up on the bank.”

  I follow her direction and see Lark, Craig, and my parents all waving. Beside them, Victoria and Adam, as well as Allie’s mom and Katie and Miranda are waving, too.

  “We’re here to cheer you on, shugah,” Victoria calls and pushes her sunglasses on top of her head.

  Over the loudspeaker, a familiar voice announces that contestants can paddle around and warm up a little. The contest will begin shortly. Blair is pulling double duty today, having left her post as Shady Grove Idol judge to come over and be the announcer of the canoe race. I’m trying just to tune out her voice.

  Jack climbs in and gets settled; then Dirk jumps in the front.

  I twist in my seat to look at Jack. “Captain, do you have any instructions for your crew?”

  He laughs. “Y’all have been in canoes as much as I have. But I’ve never raced one, so I’m not sure I have much of a strategy. How about we just row together in rhythm as hard as we can?”

  “Sounds like a plan to me.” Dirk seems to have finally lost some of his shyness. “I think our other plan should be to try not to tip over.”

  “Good idea.” I definitely don’t want to end up in the lake. We paddle around for a little while with Jack directing us, until I think we have the hang of it. “This is not as comfortable as being in a saddle, but it’s kind of fun.”

  “You took the words right out of my mouth,” Jack says, just as Blair calls us over to the starting line.

  She counts down with enthusiasm. “Five—four—three—two—one—go!”

  We set off, rowing with all our might. Our competition is a team of volunteer firemen and a group of teachers from the elementary school.