“I love it,” she said, glancing at Wyatt. “Is this where you went to church growing up?”
“All my life. See that second window? I threw a baseball through that when I was nine. I thought my mother was going to kill me. She’d already told me that I needed to stop throwing the ball to Cole so close to the church because he might miss one. And he did. The ball tipped his glove and crashed through the window.”
Amanda could just see them standing there. She knew without being told that Cole had idolized his big brother and Wyatt had probably taken his role as older brother seriously, even at that young age.
“You didn’t listen,” she guessed. His look said he’d been in hot water.
“You better believe I did the next time, though. I had to save up my own money to repay my parents for repairing the window. Plus, every Saturday for a month I had to weed the flower beds. I hated weeding then and more than ever now.”
She laughed. “Your parents knew that, didn’t they?”
“Oh, yeah. They got my attention.”
Amanda laughed as she got out of the SUV. No sooner had she gotten the wheelchair unloaded from the chair rack on the back of the vehicle than they were spotted. Then surrounded. Poor Wyatt had more help getting out of the vehicle than he wanted, but he was pretty good at hiding his feelings. She, however, could tell that all the attention bothered him. She still didn’t have a clue what had changed his mind, but she was glad they were here.
Norma Sue was the first to come barreling across the lawn with her husband, Roy Don, in tow. Wyatt filled her in on that tidbit as they came. The same with Esther Mae and her husband, Hank.
“It’s a pure miracle that you got this man out of his house,” Norma Sue said, practically tackling Wyatt to give him a hardy hug.
Esther Mae was right behind her. “We are so glad you came,” she said, pushing Norma Sue out of the way and getting her own hug. She had on a lime-green hat with red daisies clustered all about its brim, and when she engulfed Wyatt the brim whacked him in the nose.
“Like your hat, Esther Mae.” He chuckled, meeting Amanda’s gaze over Esther’s shoulder. It looked as if his head was going to get squeezed right off.
“Don’t smother him, Esther Mae,” Norma Sue huffed.
“I’m not doing anything you didn’t do,” she snapped, finishing off with one more squeeze that caused the hem of her dress to dance right along with the daisies. “When do you get out of that?” she asked as she pulled away and straightened her hat.
It wasn’t exactly the question Amanda had hoped Wyatt would get the minute he ventured out. She was afraid it wouldn’t help the situation, but to her pleasant surprise, Wyatt didn’t seem bothered. Instead he gave Esther Mae a gentle, almost flirtatious smile that had Amanda enjoying his interaction with the two older ladies.
“This next week is the goal, so says my boss.” He gave Amanda a warm glance.
The charm in that glance and the way his voice dipped low on the last words sent a shiver of attraction racing through Amanda. Her heart lifted even more. Wyatt’s sudden turnaround had given her own hard morning a turnaround. To her surprise, the sting of tears ambushed her. She looked down quickly and blinked them away. She’d been doing so well. Why now? Why were these emotions raging forward now, here? She could not cry in front of all these people.
Especially Wyatt.
She couldn’t answer questions about what was wrong with her and she certainly didn’t want Wyatt asking her what was wrong. Was it that her emotions were just so close to the surface that being happy for Wyatt’s attitude adjustment was enough to set them off? That was all she could figure.
Wyatt caught sight of her staring and hiked a brow, ever so subtly. Immediately she realized that she’d been staring at him. She yanked her eyes from him and focused on what Norma Sue was saying.
“…your parents loved each other, too, and don’t you ever forget it.” Norma Sue patted his shoulder.
“They’d be mighty proud of you.”
Amanda couldn’t help but look at him. His jaw jerked ever so slightly and he tensed up on his left side. As quick as that, he was suddenly in jeopardy of pushing himself into a spasm…all because something about that statement bothered him.
“Me and Esther Mae are singing the special in the choir this morning, so we have to head on in, too. See y’all later.”
Esther Mae gaped at him, her big green eyes wide. “I still can’t get over how great you look, Wyatt. Why, you’re the picture of health.” She grinned. “I think Amanda must be good for you.” With that she spun and hurried after Norma Sue into the church.
Amanda’s cheeks warmed.
“You know Esther Mae is right,” Roy Don said, turning his attention on Wyatt as the ladies walked off. “If you were sitting in the pew and I didn’t know any better I’d never a thought you couldn’t walk—not saying you can’t. But you know what I mean. It’s a pure act of God Himself that you’re sitting here. There’s no doubt about it.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Hank agreed. “God don’t just let everybody fall out of the sky and live to tell about it.”
Wyatt’s eyes darkened and he didn’t look happy at all. Amanda braced for stormy weather.
“Well, fellas,” he drawled. “You two sure know how to make a man feel good.”
Both older men grinned. “We’re glad we could help,” Roy Don said. “Your daddy would want us to keep you knowing from where your blessings come.”
“Yes, sir, he would,” Wyatt said gruffly as they followed their wives into the church.
Amanda looked down at Wyatt as they went up the ramp. “Have you already thought about that?”
“You mean about how my dad would want me to know that God saved me for something?”
“Yes.”
“Every single day since the crash,” he said quietly, then drove through the doorway.
Chapter Ten
Babies. Meeting Lacy the day before should have prepared her for seeing other women who were expecting, but it didn’t. There were pregnant women everywhere! Lacy gave both of them a big hug the minute they entered, then introduced Amanda to her husband, Clint. Obviously Clint and Wyatt knew each other well because they launched into a conversation immediately while Lacy began introducing her to the women as they passed by heading for their pews.
Thankfully there was so much going on that no one seemed to notice that she didn’t ask the usual questions like “When are you due?” or “Is it going to be a boy or a girl?” She was able to smile, and she tried really hard to mean it. Meeting Lacy the day before she’d been able to focus on their conversation and not Lacy’s pregnant state, but today it wasn’t so easy. They were all so happy. She understood their joy completely.
She was relieved when Seth motioned to them from his pew to come join them.
“I never expected to turn around and see y’all here,” he said, his disbelief apparent.
“Thought I’d see if I could shake things up a bit.” Wyatt gave him a handshake.
Seth bent forward and grinned. “It’s good to see you haven’t lost your touch.”
Amanda crowded into a pew next to Seth while Wyatt parked himself at the end of the pew. Melody, Susan and Cole all greeted them just as a cowboy stepped up to the mic and got the music started. From the choir Norma Sue and Esther Mae—surrounded by cowboys—smiled and she got the uncomfortable feeling they were grinning too big as their eyes kept going from her to Wyatt.
No sooner, it seemed, was the music over than the visiting preacher stood up and gave a sermon that ended almost before it had begun. The man told a joke—and not even a very good one—then he talked about an article he’d read in a popular magazine about some folks who’d done a good deed. Then it was over.
“We didn’t pay him fer that, did we?” A tall, skinny, older man boomed in disgust as they were leaving. His thin face was rippled with frown lines.
Melody whispered to Amanda, “That’s Applegate Thornton. He’s h
ard of hearing and ornery but a total marshmallow. He’s always looking out for Mule Hollow. I knew he wasn’t going to be happy about this.”
Seth stopped to talk. “Applegate, there’s no need for you to get upset about this. I’m sure there are plenty of churches across the country who might like a five-minute sermon. We just aren’t one of them.”
“That’s the surefire truth,” a plump, balding man standing next to Applegate grumbled. “App, ole hypocrite, ya know good and well you got your moments when that’d be fine by you, too.”
Melody leaned in close. “And that is Stanley Orr, Applegate’s GBFF.”
“What does that stand for?” she whispered. She could text message with the best of them, but those initials didn’t compute to her.
Melody chuckled. “That stands for grumpy best friend forever. Remember I teach middle school.”
Amanda bit back a laugh, totally picturing the two as “grumpy best friends forever”! While she and Melody were whispering, Applegate gave his GBFF a glare that would fry bacon it was so hot and a comeback—
“I ain’t no hypocrite! Shor I might want ta go fishin’ early ever once in a while, but I still expect a message. Even if it is a short one. That right thar was a touchy-feely piece of hogwash. That’s what that was.”
Amanda had to agree. There hadn’t been one sincere thing in the sermon that spoke of being a word from God. But she wasn’t worried about that, she was worried about the two old men as Seth, Cole and even Wyatt began to try and calm them down. “Are they okay?” she asked softly.
“Yes,” Susan said, sidestepping the guys to stand beside Amanda and Melody. “They just get excited and they talk to each other like that all the time.”
“They like to harass each other.” Melody shook her head. “They can get pretty funny sometimes.”
From behind her she heard Wyatt chuckle. It was a low rumble that made her want to smile. The sound of him chuckling and to see the way he’d relaxed were total reassurance that she’d done the right thing in trying to convince him to come to church. She still wasn’t sure what had changed his mind, but she was giving all the credit to God.
“You hang around long enough and you’ll see App and Stanley a lot. They’re down at Sam’s every morning playing checkers. They pretty much keep everyone in line and they can come up with some of the funniest things.”
“Whatever you say. I’d have to see it to believe it,” Amanda said. Her gaze was drawn to Wyatt. He was smiling and at ease as he got involved with the conversation. It was wonderful to see him this way. She was so glad he’d chosen to come with her.
Where had the man who’d been so adamant about not going to church in a wheelchair gone? This guy was the life of the party—and totally unknown to her.
“You’ve helped him already,” Melody said about thirty minutes later.
She and Wyatt had gone back to Seth and Melody’s for lunch along with Cole and Susan. She was in the kitchen with Melody and Susan helping get lunch ready to serve.
Melody was a pretty brunette with violet eyes whose color and intelligence were accentuated by her purple glasses. Amanda could totally see her as the middle school history teacher that she was. “The fact that you got him to come to church in the wheelchair was amazing.”
“And he actually smiled a couple of times,” Susan said as she chopped tomatoes up for the salad. She was tall, blonde and beautiful—not at all what Amanda pictured as the local veterinarian when they’d met. But she was, and according to Wyatt her work was well-respected.
Amanda liked both women a lot. She still had a hard time looking at them and believing that one was married to a Turner brother and the other was about to be married to a Turner brother all because Wyatt had set them up. Wyatt Turner did not look like a cupid or a matchmaker. And he most definitely didn’t look like a romantic, but that was exactly what he was in her eyes. She wondered why he didn’t have a special woman in his life. Or maybe he did back in Dallas. What did she know?
Remembering the sound of his husky chuckle caused her pulse to skitter just thinking about it. That was a dangerous thing and she knew it. Today had been an awakening on many levels and she was seeing danger signals. The more he came out of his shell the more trouble she could have with these unwanted feelings of attraction.
“I’ve only been here this past week and a half, but I think he’s doing better because he sees we are making progress.” Eleven days she’d known Wyatt. It seemed longer. “I’m surprising him tomorrow with a walker.”
“Oh, Seth is going to be ecstatic,” Melody gasped.
“Cole, too. Oh, Amanda, you are amazing,” Susan said. “I’m telling you, getting him out of that chair is going to bring out a whole new side to him. If you think the change over the last few days is something, this is going to blow you away.”
Amanda could believe that. She already was, truth be told.
Chapter Eleven
Wyatt studied Amanda as she drove them back home. He was glad he’d gone to church. But he’d been thinking about Amanda most of the time. Maybe what she said about God having a reason for placing him in this chair was true. Maybe. But how did she view the fact that she’d lost her leg? Had this been the reason her fiancé had broken off their engagement? The idea had hit him not long after she’d jogged past him. It had plagued him all through church, when he had to pretend to everyone that he was great—he was great from the standpoint of what she’d done for his physical therapy. But from the standpoint of how he’d behaved from day one of meeting Amanda until now, he was about as shamed as a man could get. And he had been trying to figure out the best way of going about giving her an apology.
“Why didn’t you tell me about your leg?” Not exactly tactful but it got things moving. It wasn’t as if he could get any more sorry than she probably already thought he was.
She turned her head. “You saw me this morning?”
“If you don’t want to talk about it I understand….” He paused and decided to open up and lay it on the line. “But, look, I owe you. I needed everything you threw at me yesterday. And today was good for me. I’m glad you opened my eyes and got me there in this wheelchair. It was a good perspective for me to see. I don’t know why you haven’t told me about your leg, but I can make an educated guess.”
She looked at him apologetically. “I meant to tell you. But you’d already fired me once for looking too young. I didn’t think my having only one leg would give you any confidence in me.”
They crossed the cattle guard and stopped in front of the house. She didn’t have to say that she’d thought he’d look at her handicap as a negative. He felt sick. “Honestly, I probably would have done that then. But now that I’ve seen you in action, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been thinking that either way. But I can’t change it. All I can do is tell you I’m sorry now.”
“I feel like I should have said something. Don’t apologize.”
He touched her arm. “Amanda, I’m about to get out of this chair because of you and I’m grateful for all you’re doing for me—I owe you that since I haven’t been the best patient. You weren’t the only one. My brothers knew, besides. It was on your résumé.”
She looked as if she hated admitting this even more. “Yes. But I assumed they were waiting on me.”
“I said something to them. They told me they didn’t want to give me any other reason not to let you stay. So they kept quiet. They laughed and said it was my fault for being so pigheaded. I have to agree.”
“I’ve had tougher, believe me.”
It was his turn to be skeptical. “No kidding?”
“Kids can be tough when they are adjusting to loss of a limb. I understood.” She turned the ignition off and their eyes held.
The silence cocooned them in the vehicle and Wyatt felt transfixed by the understanding and forgiveness in her eyes. “You’re a good woman, Amanda.” He was startled when her eyes suddenly grew bright with tears. He reacted by reaching to touch her arm again,
but she blinked hard, opened her door and was gone. He got out slowly and waited while she unloaded the motorized wheelchair from the ramp. He told himself to remember this was strictly a business relationship and he would not cross the line.
“I think you’ll be happy to know that this is your last ride in this thing,” she said, too brightly. “You are moving on to the next step as soon as you drive into the house. Starting then, you will be on your walker.”
“That’s great.” He figured he should have been elated. But all he could think about as he drove up the ramp and into the house was Amanda and what she was hiding behind that too-bright smile of hers. Why had she almost cried when he told her she was a good woman? Did she think she wasn’t?
Did she think the engagement ending meant she wasn’t a good woman? Questions swirled in his brain.
Had she been told she wasn’t?
He wheeled the chair around, ready to ask and find out. Strictly business, cowboy, the voice in his head warned.
She glanced at him and immediately disappeared inside the workout room. When she returned a few moments later she carried the walker over and set it down in front of him.
“Let’s try this out.”
He stared up at her, contemplating the right move.
“Well, don’t look so excited,” she said. Her serious eyes seemed to beseech him not to continue with where his thoughts were going…he’d seen that look before. From people who’d sworn to tell the truth and had just realized they were about to be asked questions that would pry into an area of their life they didn’t want to talk about.
Cowboy for Keeps Page 9
