Cam began viewing the video and Billie tore her attention from him only to see Doreen’s eyes on her. She tilted her head to the side and gave them a speculative look as she smiled in a way that caused alarm bells to begin jangling in Billie’s head.
“I think I’ll have the roasted chicken with mashed potatoes,” Doreen said, but Billie knew that food wasn’t what was on the lady’s mind. She didn’t say anything, though, because she spotted someone she knew sitting across the room, grabbed the cellphone and photographs from her son, and scurried away to show them off.
“I’m not sure what all the excitement is about if that’s the level of activity those babies can produce,” Cam said. “Sleeping, eating, and burping.”
“Sadly, they won’t be able to ride a horse by themselves for at least a couple of weeks,” Billie responded, making Brian and Kyndra laugh and earning a wry grin from Cam.
Any plans they’d had for a quiet dinner never materialized as two people with an interest in photography came up to talk to Billie; Doreen flitted back to their table to take a few bites of her food, then dashed away again, cellphone in hand to show off her grandbabies. Some kids from the church youth group came up to invite Brian and Kyndra to a volleyball game the next evening.
“It’s like eating dinner in a fishbowl,” Cam said when they had finally finished and were standing on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Brian and Kyndra wandered away to look in shop windows.
“Small town life,” Billie responded. “I’ve already figured that out and I’ve never lived in a small town before.”
Cam gave her a steady look. “This is the way it is. Might as well enjoy it since it’ll probably be the only time you’ll ever live in a place like this for any length of time.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Not much work for a photographer in a little Arizona town unless it’s a tourist destination. You know, like in Tombstone where people can get their pictures taken at the re-creation of the OK Corral or in period costume. Doesn’t sound like that would fit in with the exciting career of a wildlife photographer.”
There was something about his tone that bothered Billie, but she couldn’t quite decide what it was. “Do you think I wouldn’t like a small town if it couldn’t support me as a photographer?” she asked cautiously.
“I don’t know. You wouldn’t have any reason to stay, would you? Unless you changed jobs again.”
“I don’t plan to change jobs again.” Frustrated since they’d already had this pointless discussion, her hands clenched at her sides. “I told you. I love what I’m doing now. I don’t plan to make any changes.”
“Yes,” he said in a quiet tone. “You did tell me that.”
Before Billie could respond, Doreen rode by on her motorcycle and gave them a cheery wave. “See you at home,” she called out.
To change the subject, Billie asked, “Why does she ride a motorcycle? She’s not like any of the biker chicks I’ve met.”
“You spend a lot of time hanging around with biker chicks?”
“Not anymore, but it was part of the job when I worked in my Uncle Brad’s Harley store.”
“Another job?” Cam asked dryly.
Billie answered with a defensive little shrug. “Part-time when I was in high school. I’ve worked somewhere at something since I was sixteen. That was just one of my jobs. There are four kids in my family and we’re not rich. We all went to work the minute we turned sixteen.” She wasn’t sure how they’d come back to the subject of her many jobs and why it seemed to bother him so much. She couldn’t seem to say anything right and was reaching the point where she didn’t care, either. What she had hoped would be a fun evening had turned first strange, and then uncomfortable.
“Hey,” Brian called out, hurrying back to them with Kyndra in tow.
Glad for the diversion, Billie turned around. “What?”
“It looks like they’re going to have a concert over at the band shell at the park.” He pointed across the street where some people were passing by, instruments in hand. “Let’s go.”
Confused, Billie asked. “I hadn’t heard anything about it.”
“It’s just happening now,” Kyndra said. “They do this in the summer. Somebody calls someone else and they call somebody and pretty soon everybody comes.”
“It’s the Lucky Break version of a flash mob,” Cam said. “Want to go?”
Billie looked at him. His face had lost the tenseness it had held a few minutes ago. She didn’t know the reason for his mood, or for his sudden change, but decided to question it later. After all, this evening had started out as a way to help Brian and Kyndra and they both seemed eager to go.
“Sure,” she answered. “Sounds like fun.” A sudden gust of wind had her scanning the sky. “It looks like rain, though.”
Cam laughed. “It’s June in Arizona. We’re not going to get any rain. The monsoon won’t start for at least two weeks. Are you stalling?”
“Of course not.”
He grinned as if he’d succeeded in getting a rise out of her, then pointed in the direction they needed to go. A crowd was already gathering at the park, but they managed to find places to sit on a low wall near the bandstand.
Billie was surprised to discover that she knew several people who were opening their instrument cases and tuning up. Even Jess Carter seemed to have left the Muleshoe, and his duties of directing people to Cam’s whereabouts, to play the trumpet he was pulling from a beat-up case. He looked up, grinned and waved. Billie waved back. Cam growled.
The crowd parted and the three Fina brothers stepped up. Billie’s mouth dropped open when she saw that they were each carrying a violin case. The instruments looked as small as baby rattles in the men’s outsized hands when they removed them from their cases, tuned them up, then tucked them under their chins to begin playing.
After several minutes of preparation, the band seemed ready to begin. Mr. Weiner, of all people stepped up and whipped out a band master’s baton. She was pleased to see that he wasn’t in his Tyrolean costume tonight but dressed in slacks and a short-sleeved golf shirt. It just showed, she marveled, that people in Lucky Break could be normal if they really tried. He rapped his baton on his music stand, and began leading the group in a lively rendition of a tune Billie didn’t recognize.
“It’s beautiful,” Billie said in astonishment. “How often do they do this?”
“Several times every summer, and it’s been going on for years. That’s another good thing about living in a small town, everyone knows what everyone else is good at, who plays an instrument . . . .”
“And how well,” Kyndra added, wincing as someone hit a sour note.
A few wrong notes didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s enjoyment of the evening, and neither did the wind that suddenly kicked up, causing dust devils to swirl through the crowd. Billie glanced at the sky again, noting the build up of clouds. She hoped Cam was right about the rain.
Many couples jumped up and began dancing. Even Zoe and Red Franklin seemed to have put aside their differences long enough to dance together.
“Are they . . . waltzing?” Billie asked.
“Hard to tell with that dress she’s wearing,” Cam answered. “They have to hold each other’s fingertips to make room for the skirt.”
As the Franklins moved around the impromptu dance area, other people scooted out of their way.
“She’s like an ocean liner setting out to sea.”
“Don’t give her any idea. An ocean theme might be her next costume.”
They fell silent, enjoying the music and the spectacle. Billie gave Cam a sidelong glance. Either she was going to have to pass him a note saying, ‘Ask me to dance’, or she was going to have to take the initiative. “Do you want to dance?”
He answered with a wry look. “Never learned how. I was too busy working.”
“Then it’s time you learned.” She hopped to her feet and held out her hands with an eager smile.
Sl
owly, Cam stood up. “You think you can teach me?”
“I’ve taught some of the most rhythm-challenged people you can imagine,” she said. She thought about the smooth, easy way he moved when he was riding a horse, or shoeing one, or simply walking across the yard from the barn to the house.
He paused. “Because one of your jobs was as a ballroom dance instructor, right?”
“No, as a big sister.”
“What?”
There it was again, that tone she didn’t like, that called her work history into question. She didn’t understand why it was such a huge stumbling block to him. She lifted her chin. “I was talking about teaching my three younger brothers to dance. Do you want to learn or not?”
He stood and held out his hands. “I’m all yours.”
Her heart did a weird little flip, but she forced herself to be businesslike, showing him where to place his hands, guiding his feet into a rhythm that kept up with the tempo, and trying to avoid the enthusiastic movements of their fellow dancers. It was a little more difficult to ignore the knowing glances of some of the people around them. She knew Cam was noticing and wondered how he felt about it.
“You do realize people are going to be gossiping about us,” she finally said.
“Another hazard of small town life. Does it bother you?”
He stopped dancing, but before he could ask her anything more, the wind swirled around them, and the sky opened up. Rain came down first in fat drops, and then in a rush. Everyone made a mad dash for cover. The musicians hastily put away their instruments and joined the mass exodus.
“I guess the concert’s over.” Cam scooped up Billie’s hand and started to run. He was moving so fast, even her long legs could barely keep up with him. Brian and Kyndra were right behind them. In spite of their dash through the rain, they were soaked by the time they reached the car. They tumbled inside, laughing.
“This has been great, boss,” Brian said. “The best date we’ve ever been on.”
Billie looked over her shoulder to see Kyndra take Brian’s hand and smile at him in agreement.
Turning back to fasten her seatbelt, Billie met Cam’s eyes. He smiled, a slow, sweet smile that had her heart doing a slow roll in her chest. “I couldn’t agree more,” he said, then started the car.
* * *
Hours later, Billie sat on her porch, her chair propped on its two back legs, her ankles crossed and feet resting on the railing. There was no way she could sleep. She was too keyed up from the evening. After they’d taken Kyndra home, Brian had floated back to the car on a cloud of happiness and settled into a silence broken only by occasional blissful sighs. Cam and Billie had exchanged smiles, but neither of them had spoken except to say goodnight.
Billie had changed clothes and gone into her bathroom/darkroom to develop some of the pictures she’d taken recently, realizing once again that there were far more shots of Cam than of anything else. She’d taken pictures of him with the sorry-looking cattle he’d purchased and turned into his renovated pasture. She loved studying them, concentrating on Cam’s expression of steady determination as if he could rescue these cows by sheer force of will. She had a shot of him examining one of the heifers who, though weak and underweight herself, appeared ready to give birth soon.
Finally Billie had forced herself to put the photos down and come out to the porch to think.
The rain-washed breeze swept over her, giving her a welcome break from her darkroom. Too bad it couldn’t sweep away her troubled thoughts.
It was pretty obvious that she was falling in love with Cam. That should be a happy, wonderful realization, but it filled her with dread. And how could she pursue the career she knew was right for her and stay here on the Muleshoe with Cam? And did he even feel the same way about her? His frequent comments about her work history made her think he didn’t. The way he smiled at her, indulged her need to be part of everything on the ranch, helped her, included her, made her think he did.
He was a strong man, strong in his work ethic, in his opinions – especially of her, and strong in his feelings. But she didn’t know what they were.
* * *
Loud thumping startled her out of a sound sleep and she sat up groggily. Someone was at the door. Grabbing her robe and shoving her arms into the sleeves, she stumbled toward the door, snatching it open just as Cam was raising his hand to knock again.
“What? What is it?” she asked, shoving her tangled hair out of her eyes.
“You said you wanted to see everything,” he told her. “Come on if you want to see the birth of a calf who may or may not live.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Cam whirled away from her and leapt from the porch, hurrying to the barn. Billie didn’t waste any time. Wide awake now, she raced back inside and scrambled into her clothes. She swept her hair into a ponytail and secured it tightly. This was one time she didn’t want her hair falling in her face or flying free, getting in the way. She grabbed her camera and followed Cam to the barn.
When she got inside, Billie was immediately struck by the earthy smells of the barn. They weren’t unpleasant ones, but a mixture of Arizona dust, and of hay and straw that eddied in the light breeze from the open door.
She saw that he was kneeling beside the cow who was down in the hay, its eyes rolling in pain and terror. It made low sounds of distress that caused Billie’s heart to clench. Automatically, she swung the camera up and began taking photographs of the suffering animal.
Cam glanced up. “Did you say something?”
“No.”
“Your lips were moving. Were you talking to yourself?”
“If you must know I was praying for that cow. She looks and sounds like she’s in a lot of pain.”
One corner of Cam’s mouth kicked up. “Heifer.”
“What?”
“She’s a heifer, and yeah, she’s in a lot of pain. I think this is her first calf.” Reaching over, he pulled down her bottom lip to expose her teeth. “She’s about three years old, see?”
Billie had no idea what she was looking at, but she nodded. Standing, she took several pictures, then moved in close while trying to stay out of Cam’s way.
“How did you know she was going to have her calf tonight? You didn’t say anything about it earlier.”
“I didn’t know.” Cam nodded toward a pink and blue device sitting on a shelf.
“A baby monitor?” she asked on a laugh, then turned and took a shot of it.
Cam shrugged. “Hey, it works. When I heard her bawling, I knew it was time. She’s so weak, though, I’m afraid she might not make it, or that both she and her calf will die. Even if they both live, they may not thrive.”
Saddened, Billie shook her head and fell silent. “This is a tough business,” she said after a moment.
“What is?” Cam knelt and placed his hands on the heifer’s extended belly, keeping them in place for several seconds, then moving them to a new position.
“Feeding the nation’s hunger for beef. I never gave it a minute’s thought until a few weeks ago. For a cattle rancher, a million different things can go wrong at any time.”
“Yeah, and they’re usually expensive things, too.”
“Like losing a cow and calf you just bought?”
“Yup.” Cam stood and began rolling up his sleeves. “So I need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Give her some help. The calf doesn’t seem to be in the right position to be born. They’re supposed to come out forehooves first, head tucked down. I think this one is sideways.”
Billie gulped. That sounded awful. “Do you want me to go call some bovine obstetrics specialist?” She had a mental picture of a doctor rolling up in a fully equipped calf-delivery room. “Or the vet that was here the first day I came, um . . . ?”
“Don Parkey.” Cam shook his head. “Nah, that’s exactly what I mean about expensive. I’ve helped deliver a few calves in my time. I think I can handle t
his.” Grabbing a bar of soap off a shelf, he went to the outside faucet and scrubbed his hands and arms.
It suddenly dawned on Billie that he would have to assist the heifer by putting his hand inside and turning the calf manually. “Oh,” she said in a small voice.
“Are you squeamish?” Cam asked as he came back inside.
She resented the amusement she could hear in his voice. “Certainly . . . not,” she responded, but she had to pause to gulp down air. “I . . . refuse to be squeamish about this. I’m a professional photographer. I . . . I . . . I’ve been on tough assignments.”
“This is a cow giving birth, Billie. You must have seen things like this before on one of your wildlife shoots.”
“Somehow this is different than watching an eagle swoop down on a squirrel monkey.” She held up her hand and gave a self-confident little wave, which might have come off better if her hands hadn’t then fallen limply to her sides. “I can handle this, no problem. I’m strong, and . . . .” There was a small stool nearby. She sank onto it and placed her head between her knees. As she squeezed her eyes shut and breathed deeply for several minutes before she said, “I’ll be right with you, but could you please explain how you got the barn to spin like this?”
Cam chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, city girl. I’m all done.”
Billie turned her head and opened one eye to peek at him. He was wiping his arms and hands on a towel. He went back out and washed again.
When he returned, Cam watched the heifer for a few seconds and said, “I think she’ll be able to handle this on her own now. It won’t be long.” He came over and crouched down in front of her. “You’re the one I’m worried about now. Not that your current shade of green isn’t becoming. Compliments your eyes.”
His face was full of warmth and amusement but she knew he wasn’t making fun of her.
Here To Stay (Welcome to Lucky Break, Arizona!) Page 10
