Cherished Love (Cherished Cowboys 1)

by Charlene Bright

  What Tommy did have going for him was a sharp mind and a gentle heart. Wade was a tough kid, always had been, but wasn’t going to be chosen for a mental decathlon. He did, however, share the same kind spirit. So it was, after Wade stepped into the melee of two of the town’s troublemakers picking a fight with Tommy, that the two became fast friends and formed an alliance. Wade would keep Tommy from the nurse’s office; Tommy would keep Wade out of the principal’s office.

  And Colton, who was just as popular and kind-hearted as his best friend, had taken to Tommy immediately. Colton’s mother, Angela, had been a school teacher before he was born, and their move to Cherish had originally been to escape the cities. As it turned out, Charles Tisdale had a knack for looking over a horse, for telling important details about them, and a perfect demeanor for training them. In the passage of three or four years, he’d bought out the Akers family’s horse ranch and their Lazy A brand and was in the horse-trading business. That meant Colton knew horses, too. And he wasn’t as smart as Tommy, but was still one of the top students. He had his eyes set on running a horse business. The three boys complemented each other like puzzle pieces.

  Tommy looked up to Wade and Colton so much that he was hungry to learn about horses and rodeos. Wade’s raw experience, having participated in the local events since he was four years old (Wade wasn’t riding bulls back then, of course, but he did ride a sheep in the Mutton Bustin’ competition when he was ten), and Colton’s knowledge of horses kept Tommy in a constant state of excitement. So soon the three of them were palling around, getting into the kinds of mischief that teen boys will, and generally running the show at Cherish High School.

  * * *

  For almost two weeks, Wade had kept his promise to Colton—with the one exception at Kitty’s Café—and avoided Mallory. He focused on healing his body and his tenuous friendship with Colton. Ever since graduation, the two best friends had had a very strained relationship. Anytime Wade came for a visit to Cherish, he would stop by and say hello to his old friend, but the two seemed to be hanging on to that little thread out of obligation to an inseparable threesome of teenagers—or out of fear. Their talks stayed on the surface, old pals, but no longer confidantes. Wade knew that one way to break that last string was to start up something with Colton’s little sister.

  And he knew Colton was right. He would be heartache for a soft woman like Mallory. He chided himself when thoughts of the sunlight shining in her dark hair snagged him. He knew that the reason she entered his mind on occasion was because it had been no secret that Mallory had had a crush on Wade all through high school. He couldn’t help but let the thoughts tickle his ego. But an ego boost was not a good reason to date a girl, not as his age, and especially not the one girl who could end the friendship he wanted to rebuild.

  Wade shook his head free of thoughts of Mallory while he walked into the Walmart in Deer Run to pick up some items for his mama. He grabbed a buggy and pulled the folded list out of his pocket, pausing for a moment to admire the curly handwriting of his mother. She had tried to teach him to write cursive, with little success, when he was in the third grade. He didn’t need to study, he had begged her; he was going to be a rodeo star and he didn’t need to have good penmanship to do that.

  He was in the dairy section opening cartons of eggs to look for cracked ones, like his mama had taught, when a sweet voice nearly caused him to drop them.

  “Funny how with the size of Cherish, the only time I get to see you is when we’re in another town altogether.”

  He turned toward her and caught his breath when he saw the thin linen, spaghetti strap sun dress. Her skin glowed in it and her tan legs looked gorgeous from the short hem to the simple brown sandals.

  “Oh, h-hey, M-Mallory,” he stuttered.

  His appreciation was not lost on her. She smiled but felt like dancing in her mind.

  “You know, you really should get the brown ones. They taste so much better.”

  He stared for a moment before she pointed to the eggs.

  “Oh, yeah…really?” he said looking down at the cartons in front of him. “How come?”

  “Well, I’ve never really noticed a difference,” she admitted, “but that’s what my grandma always said.”

  He nodded and put the white eggs back on the shelf.

  “Hey!” she suddenly said, surprised. “You got the contraption off!”

  He grinned and held his injured arm up. “Yep, just a cast now.”

  “I bet you’re happy about that!”

  He nodded, his smile widening. “You don’t even know the half of it.”

  “You know, Wade, we haven’t had a chance to catch up.” She couldn’t believe how easy her words were coming out. She sure didn’t feel at total ease on the inside. “I’d love to hear more about your life on the road. I’ve been thinking about volunteering with the town historian. I think it would be fun to get the story of Cherish’s resident rodeo star. Cindy’s dad would probably be ecstatic if I deliver him such a human piece for the paper.”

  He should say thanks, but no thanks, he knew. He should politely excuse himself and hurry home. He should do a thousand things instead of what he was about to do.…

  “Well, how about we go get a cup of coffee right now? Take advantage of the time outside Cherish when we’re not under such scrutiny?”

  Mallory’s heart fluttered. “What about your eggs?”

  Wade shrugged. “I’ll do the shopping after.”

  And so against his better judgement, against what his gut was saying, Wade and Mallory spent the next couple of hours in Java Cabana, just down the road. And repeated it four more times over the next week and a half.

  * * *

  Mallory and Wade were standing outside the coffee shop, reading the sign: DEATH IN FAMILY. CLOSED. Mallory crossed her arms and shivered. The light sprinkle had turned into a downpour and water dripped from the ends of her hair and her nose. Wade instinctively put his uninjured arm around her and steered her to his mom’s Lexus.

  “I’ve got a couple of towels in the car,” he said, his mouth close to her ear so she could hear him against the rain and the thunder that had just begun.

  He opened the driver’s side door and helped her get in and crawl past the steering wheel and into the passenger seat. Then he joined her and shut the door to the falling rain and the noise of the thunderstorm. He turned and reached behind the seat with his left hand, pulled out the towels, and handed one to her. “I’d be glad to drive you to your car so you can head home, but I’m a little worried about you driving home in this.”

  Mallory started to protest that she could take care of herself but thought about spending some time with Wade in the car in the middle of a storm and bit off her words. “Yeah,” she murmured, rubbing the towel through her hair.

  Wade was rubbing the towel down his arms. He leaned forward and looked up through the windshield. “It might be best if we can find some cover and wait out the worse of it.”

  She watched him rub the towel down his chest and abs and legs. “Yeah,” she repeated, continuing to dry her own body.

  She didn’t notice him look over at her from the corner of his eyes, watching her rub the towel along her breasts and stomach. His stomach—and his jeans—tightened. He looked away and dropped the towel into his lap. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.…

  He put the key into the ignition and started up the car, turning the cool air to a mixture of warm and cool. He turned on the wipers and pulled out a few seconds later. He drove to the bridge over the river that ran all the way to Cherish and pulled down to a grassy area under it, next to the river. She handed her towel back to him and he threw both behind the seat and turned off the motor. The sound of the rain was a little more distant now that they had a roof over the vehicle, but the thunder continued to burst the silence.

  He looked over and noticed she was still shivering. He turned the air to a slightly warmer temperature and hesitated a second before reaching his right arm
out to her and pulling her to his side. The cast and the console between them made it a bit awkward, but neither seemed to mind. He rubbed her arms with his left hand and cursed himself for having thrown the towel back over the seat as he felt desire burn through his jeans.

  Mallory leaned further into his embrace until her forehead was under his jaw. She longed to reach up and trace his chin and touch his lips.

  Wade’s breath quickened and he stopped rubbing her arms and pulled back to look into her face. She frowned slightly and he couldn’t resist her lips any longer. His arm tightened as he pulled her closer and leaned into her lips, a gentle kiss at first.

  Mallory’s stomach tingled and she felt heat spread along her hips and thighs. She moved further onto the console and put her arm around his neck, pushing her soft breasts into his chest.

  A soft groan escaped his lips and he crushed her to him, his lips pressing harder, his tongue slipping between her teeth.

  Her mind exploded and she moved her hand down his stomach. Before she could reach his zipper, he grabbed her hand and held it. He pulled back and looked at her. Her eyes implored him not to stop.

  “Backseat,” he whispered gruffly. She moved over to the passenger side and they opened their doors and climbed out, getting into the more roomy backseat.

  He had barely gotten his door shut, when she moved to her knees and toward him. His hand went behind her head and his lips sought hers again, picking up where they had left off. Her hands were on his back, pulling him even closer while his left hand slid up her shirt, his knuckles brushing the soft breast. He put his fingers around her side and moved his thumb to her nipple, caressing it through her bra. She pulled her arms back and grabbed her shirt, pulling it over her head.

  He put his hand back just under her breast and moved his fingers up under the bra. Her head went back and she moaned, arching her breasts toward him. He reached behind her and discovered he could still quickly unfasten a bra, even with his left hand. He pulled the straps down and her bra dropped to the floor.

  Mallory repositioned herself, sitting back on her butt, stretching her legs out around his waist, and lay back.

  Wade caught his breath, taking in the beauty of her smooth neck, her small, light nipples, the curve of her stomach. He leaned forward and began kissing her neck, moving toward her breasts.

  Mallory pulled her arm under him and reached for the tight bulge behind his zipper. She raked the fingers of her other hand down his back and around his side, teasing him by putting them inside his waistband and moving them toward her other hand that was massaging him, getting him dangerously close to exploding.

  A sharp rap at the window caused them both to freeze. A muffled voice came from the outline of a police officer. “Okay, you two. Let’s take that inside.”

  They had barely noticed the storm had nearly passed. They looked back at each other and Wade lowered his forehead to hers, breathing out deeply. They both laughed and she reached for her shirt.

  * * *

  A soft touch. Soft touch.

  “Stop it, Wade!”

  Mallory woke up sitting at her kitchen table. No one was in the room but herself; a black horsefly buzzed noisily, drifting between the kitchen window and the ceiling fan, the window open and the fan slowly churning the mid-afternoon air.

  She rubbed her nose; apparently the fly had decided to investigate her slow, shallow breathing and had landed there on her cheek. She was in a daze. She had been working through the horse ranch’s budget and finances, and despite her normal ardor for such detail, she must have dozed off.

  Clearing the cobwebs from her mind, she checked the time on her iPhone; it was closing in on five, and Colton would be home in a half hour. She was thinking of what she might fix for dinner and so began to clear the forms and documents, getting them back in order.

  She was proud of her brother, of what they had built together in the past two years, and was so glad to see he was prospering so well.

  She had the materials all together and took the box back out to the Explorer. The office was still a mess, so she didn’t want to lose the work she’d done, so she was going to keep it in the truck for now. As she left the house and headed for the Ford, her mind turned to her dream, her waking state. Why had her mind turned to the broken-wing cowboy again? She had almost forgotten why she wanted to visit the newspaper office, and suddenly a thought had crossed her mind.…

  Deep in thought she didn’t notice the man in front of her until she collided with what felt like a human wall. A strong hand reached out to steady her and she gasped as she looked up and saw melting brown eyes laughing down at her. “Wade!”

  She tried to step back and put some distance between them, but his hands tightened on her shoulders, keeping her so close she was sure he could hear her frantic heartbeat as her body reacted to being so close to him. “What are you doing here? Colton isn’t here right now.…”

  He quirked an eyebrow at her. “Thanks for reminding me. I hadn’t seen his truck, so figured he wasn’t. But I thought it would be rude to leave and not say hello.”

  Mallory reddened, this time in embarrassment. She pulled from his grasp, gently, and moved past him toward the Explorer’s rear gate. She put the box down, retrieved the key from her jeans’ front pocket, and unlocked the glass-top door. As she put the box in the back, she turned over her shoulder. “I was just getting ready to fix dinner. You’re welcome to stay and eat with us, though I don’t rightly know when Colton will be back.”

  Wade grinned at her, and her face flushed, remembering the storm the other day.

  She wanted to put her arm around his neck but as they hadn’t really talked about what happened, she decided to follow his lead and play it cool. As they walked back to the house, she asked about his parents. “Your mom and dad about ready for their big trip? Where was it you said they were going?”

  “They’re headed to Devil’s Tower and Mount Rushmore. The RV is about ready and they plan on packing in with Rex and Traylor, as well as the dogs.”

  Rex, a paint gelding, and Traylor, his mother’s roan trail pony, had been in the family for years. The dogs were Ace and Trixie, a couple of old bird dogs they had picked up a couple of years ago, and that his dad was going to use to hunt ducks and geese. One season in a duck blind, and Raymond was done hunting, but the dogs were part of the family now.

  “I came over to talk to Colton. I’ve been thinking of putting together a team for calf roping—Horns and Heels. I figured he would be able to steer me toward a good pair.”

  Team roping required coordination and speed, and a good pair for competitions could generate quite a bit of revenue. Mallory was happy to see Wade thinking more like a businessman than a bull-riding, buckle-bunny-chasing horn-dog that his reputation said he was. Her smile was genuine.

  * * *

  The tears in their eyes were partially from the laughter, partly from the pain, but mostly from the onions she was chopping for the tomato sauce, when Colton walked in.

  Kicking dust from his boots, then removing them, placing them in the boot box at the mudroom door, Colton was surprised to hear laughter and voices from the kitchen. He’d seen the Lexus Wade had been driving parked in the front, but missed Mallory’s by the back gate to the house’s pleasant yard.

  “Well, doesn’t this feel like home?” Colton queried, walking into the open cooking area, from behind the two. They were standing alongside the island cutting board, and he was stunned by how natural they looked together, his brunette sister, her head tossing in laughter, and the big blond cowboy beside her, feeding fresh carrot slivers to her, grinning like a big dope.

  Like a couple of conspirators caught in commiseration, they separated. Wade circumnavigated the island, tossing the unneeded carrot tops and tomato stems into the garbage disposal, and wiping the tears from his eyes.

  Mallory instinctively moved to the center of the cooking surface and shook the saucepan quickly, coating the fresh vegetables with the o
il, coating and covering them in saucy goodness.

  “Hey, Colton!”

  Wade nodded slightly, looked at Mallory, and smiled a crooked little smile of knowing.

  “Welcome back, big brother,” she said.

  There was an uncomfortable moment of silence, with the three looking to each other, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. Colton didn’t know where to begin, while Mallory wasn’t sure how to explain, and Wade, well, he was just wondering if the other two were about to explode.

  His grin widened, and he stifled a laugh. She did, too.

  Suddenly, they all were laughing and talking at the same time, and the duo had become a trio again. Old times.

  * * *

  The meal, a simple spaghetti recipe alongside a garden salad with wheat-bread toasted croutons was paired with that fine American liquor of choice, Budweiser. Still, it was ample and satisfying. When they finished, the table was cleared quickly, the dishes piled into the kitchen’s dishwasher, and they moved deeper into the house, through the short, dark hall, into the family room, decorated with the history and closeness of two generations of Tisdale tradition.

  Books on bookshelves dominated large parts of each wall, and an expansive and ornate wall clock hung, loudly ticking, above the room’s ancient entertainment unit. While Mallory poured a red wine for each, Wade plopped into one of the classic armchairs, and Colton pulled an actual vinyl album from the rack beside the record player. Wade raised an eyebrow, resting his wounded arm uncomfortably high on the chair’s wing.

  “Is that Elvis?”

  Colton nodded, putting the black disk on the spindle, and turning the unit on. The vacuum tubes popped as the amplifier kicked. Wade closed his eyes, as the King began “Jailhouse Rock.”

  * * *

  May 15, 2004

  “Turn it up, Wade!”

  They were tearing down 287, the road toward the rodeo grounds. The three guys were having the time of their lives, and this Chevy was moving. Wade’s slate-blue, beat-up pickup was doing more than ninety miles an hour, and Elvis Presley was still rocking, despite having been dead for years. The turnoff was coming up, so Wade nodded to Colton in the passenger seat, who did the honors of cranking the King, as Wade slowed and put the Chevy down the side road, throwing gravel, and getting that satisfying sliding motion that let them know how really fast they were going.