The Forgotten Cowboy

by Kara Lennox

  A loud bell ringing put a blessed end to the uncomfortable conversation. “Fish up!” That announcement came from Milton Chatsworth, Anne’s father, a retired attorney and now Cottonwood’s mayor. Normally staid and dignified, he always got a little crazy at his own fish fry, donning a tall chef’s hat and flipping bass filets on the grill with the grace of a ballet dancer.

  Several people jumped up and grabbed plates, eager to get the one of the first filets to come off the grill.

  “Let’s eat!” Willow suggested brightly. “I’m starved.”

  “I’m not a big fish fan,” Marianne said, pulling a face.

  “Oh, but I bet you’ve never tried Milton Chatsworth’s grilled bass,” Cal said. “It will melt in your mouth. But I think Milton will make a steak or a hamburger if you’d prefer.”

  “Well, I guess I could try the fish,” Marianne said, and Willow relaxed. This was going to be okay. No big, embarrassing scene. Later, when they were alone, she would tell Cal that she wanted to move in with him. And marry him. She wasn’t sure in what order he’d intended those two events to occur, though. Maybe he was right. Maybe they should sit down with pen and paper and map out a few things.

  She relaxed a bit more. The idea of making concrete plans for the future always made her breathe easier.

  SOMEHOW, THEY’D ended up at a table with Willow’s parents. Cal felt awkward with them, but he was determined to do whatever was necessary to make peace with them. Willow was trying, too, talking animatedly about their business, prompting him to tell funny animal stories. Her mother tried to be polite, and her father didn’t do much except occasionally grunt in Cal’s direction. But it was a start. He would like to get along with his future in-laws.

  He reminded himself not to get carried away. Willow had not agreed to anything yet. She hadn’t even signed the partnership papers. She was a skittish thing, like a young filly finding her legs. She didn’t like to be pushed.

  But the two of them being married, having a partnership in every sense of the word, was the only choice that made any sense. Cal felt confident Willow would come to that conclusion on her own, if he just let her be.

  “I’m going back for seconds,” Cal announced, working his long legs free of the picnic table. “Can I get anyone anything? Willow?”

  “No, thanks, I’m saving room for Deborah Chatsworth’s killer brownies,” Willow said. Her mother demurred also.

  “You can get me another beer,” Dave said gruffly.

  “Sure thing.” Well, that was progress. At least the man was speaking to Cal. As he stood, Anne approached with a manila folder.

  “Willow. I didn’t want to forget this in all the confusion. The kids made you a get-well card, just before they all left. And I have some pictures, too, of the rodeo, since you missed the whole thing.”

  Cal lingered a moment, wanting to see the homemade card—or rather, see the pleasure Willow would take in it. But Dave had asked him to get him a beer, and at this delicate stage in the negotiations, he didn’t want to neglect the request.

  He went in search of more fish, potato salad and beer. Willow could show him the card later and take pleasure in it all over again, he reasoned.

  When he returned a few minutes later with a groaning plate and two bottles of beer, Willow was still oohing and ah-ing over the thick stack of pictures.

  “Oh, there’s Mason. He looks so cute in those chaps.” She flipped to the next picture. “Shannon won the blue ribbon in barrel racing?” Next picture. “Oh, that’s a really nice picture of Wade. Look at that grin on his face.”

  Willow went on in this fashion for a few more pictures. Cal just stared, holding on to both bottles of beer. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “You gonna drink both those?” Dave asked irritably.

  “Hmm? Oh, sorry.” Cal handed the beer to Dave, his gaze never leaving Willow.

  And she was looking quizzically at him now. “Cal? You look like you swallowed a june bug.”

  He took a long swallow of beer to avoid having to say anything. It tasted bitter to him. When he set his beer on the table, he found everyone staring at him.

  “Don’t let me interrupt you,” he said, nodding toward the stack of photos. “Let’s see the next one. Who’s that, Willow?”

  “It’s—it’s—” Understanding dawned. She stacked the pictures neatly and laid them down. “Excuse me, I have to…go….” She bolted from the table.

  “What just happened?” Anne asked, bewildered.

  “The pictures,” Marianne said softly. “She recognized every single face.”

  Anne and Dave nodded in understanding. But Cal was already setting off to follow Willow. He wanted an explanation, and he wanted it now.

  She walked briskly, but not fast enough that Cal had any trouble catching up with her. “Willow, come back here and talk to me.”

  She headed resolutely past the manicured shrubs that defined the Chatsworths’ backyard. She was making for the lake, where a huge pontoon boat was docked. “Give me a few minutes, please, Cal.”

  “So you can figure out how to put a positive spin on the fact you’ve been lying to me?” He caught her by the arm and whirled her around. “How long have you been faking? Or was it a con job from the beginning?”

  She looked down at her feet. “No, it was real. I started to improve a little last week. But I didn’t know I was really and truly on my way to recovery until two days ago.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Cal was less angry now, more confused. He released her arm. “I would have been so happy for you.”

  “I know.” She turned and resumed walking. He followed her all the way down the long wooden dock. She stood at the end, so close to the edge it made him nervous, staring out at the moonlit lake. The music from the party was muffled by the wind in the trees.

  The breeze caught a lock of Willow’s hair and draped it over her face. Cal smoothed it back for her, tucking it behind her ear. “Talk to me. Why couldn’t you trust me with the truth?”

  She sighed, and it sounded as if she were fighting a huge weight pressing down on her. “If I’d admitted I was better, it would have changed everything. And I liked things the way they were.”

  Now he got it. “Are you telling me you don’t want to go to medical school?”

  “I can’t answer yes or no to that.”

  Okay, he didn’t get it. “Explain.”

  “I’ve always been positive about what I wanted to do with my life. But recently, I’ve discovered there are other possibilities out there. Areas of my life I’ve been neglecting. Going to med school means giving up something else.”

  “We all have to make choices,” he said gruffly.

  “Yes, and I’ve made mine. I want to stay with you and be a partner in your business. I don’t want to be selfish anymore. I want to honor my commitments to you and support you in your goals. But I knew a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me. They would push me in another direction. I suspect you’d be one of them.”

  Cal was thunderstruck. She would choose him over becoming a doctor? No way. For once in her life, Willow was letting her emotions dictate her decisions, instead of her intellect. And if ever there was a time for her to use that analytical brain of hers, this was it.

  “Could you still go to med school if you wanted to?” he asked, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might knock him over. “You never called and told them you weren’t going to show up, right?”

  “No. I procrastinated, which is very unlike me.”

  “You procrastinated because you didn’t want to let go of that dream. Now you don’t have to.”

  “But I don’t think I want that dream anymore.”

  “You don’t think you want it. But you’re not sure. If you don’t find out for sure, you’ll always wonder.”

  She took both his hands in hers, a determined look on her face. “Cal, listen to what I’m saying. No one can ever be sure they’re making the right decision. But sometimes you just
have to decide. Well, I’m deciding. I want you. I choose you. I love you. I want to be your partner, your wife.”

  Cal just stared at her, every ounce of his blood awash in pure anguish. Here was everything he ever wanted out of life standing in front of him. All he had to do was fold her into his arms, kiss her, tell her he loved her and set a date for the wedding. Here it was, within reach, a sparkling prize of a lifetime.

  But did he want to be Willow’s consolation prize? Did he want to live the rest of his life with her doubts and regrets? Her destiny was to be a doctor. He’d seen that in her from the time she was sixteen. Her judgment might be momentarily clouded, but sooner or later she would come to her senses and realize she could not throw that future away. Not after everything she’d been through to get where she was. Not when fate was giving her yet one more chance to realize her dreams.

  What was that stupid saying? If you love something, set it free….

  “I won’t marry you, Willow. Furthermore, you’re fired.”

  A quick succession of emotions flashed across Willow’s face—shock, bewilderment, anger. She settled on anger.

  “You can’t fire me!” She gave him a little shove. “I’m your partner!”

  “You haven’t signed the partnership agreement yet, and neither have I. Gee, Willow, do you think there might have been a reason you procrastinated about that, too?”

  “I was going to sign it.”

  “Yeah, well, now you’re not going to sign it.”

  “You need me.”

  “I’ll get along fine without you.” That was a lie, and it took all Cal’s willpower not to contradict what he’d just said and beg her to stay. He would be lost without her. “Now, why don’t I take you back to Nana’s? You’ve got some packing to do.”

  “I knew it. You see why I didn’t tell you I was better? You’re forcing me to make the decision you think I should make.”

  “It’s the right decision. It’s for your own good.”

  “My own—Ohhhh, you sound just like my parents when they told me I couldn’t go to Stanford. Don’t you think I know what’s good for me?”

  “Apparently not.”

  “Cal, you’re being a complete jerk.”

  “I’ve been called worse.”

  “Oh, yeah? Well, give me a few moments. I bet I can come up with some real creative insults you’ve never heard before.”

  “Now you’re just being childish.”

  “Childish? You want to see childish?” And with one mighty shove to the center of his chest, she knocked him into the lake.

  By the time he sputtered to the surface, Willow was sashaying up the dock. “I will find my own ride home, thank you very much.”

  Cal heaved himself back onto the dock and started to give chase. But his best ostrich-skin boots were filled with water, and he had to yank them off, empty them and struggle back into them with wet socks before he could follow Willow.

  By then, it was too late.

  “Did you see—” Before he could even finish the question, half a dozen people pointed toward the house.

  Anne stopped him at the French doors. “You can’t walk into my parents’ house and drip water all over their white carpet. They’ll never speak to you again. Me, either, probably, if I don’t stop you. Anyway, she’s gone. She left with her parents about thirty seconds ago. What on earth did you do to make her so mad?”

  “Not much. Just fired her and told her I wouldn’t marry her.”

  “Is that all?”

  Jeff Hardison and his wife, Allison, had wandered over and overheard the last part of this exchange. They looked at him, dripping wet, then at each other.

  Jeff shook his head. “Anne, what is it about your parents’ fish fries that makes people go crazy?”

  Anne shrugged. “Mad fish disease?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Wow, that was brutal,” said Penny Adams, one of Willow’s fellow med school students, referring to the anatomy test they’d just taken. As they filed out of a cavernous lecture hall, Willow privately thought the test had been a breeze.

  Willow had had no difficulties with her curriculum so far, though she’d only been in school a month. She kept busy, especially since she’d taken a part-time job in the medical library to help with her living expenses. But she found that her memory was as sharp as ever. So long as she kept up with her studying, she had no trouble with tests.

  “You want to go get a coffee at Starbucks?” Penny asked.

  “Sure.” It was a fine afternoon in early October, still warm but with just a hint of freshness in the breeze that spoke of autumn. A perfect day.

  Cottonwood’s annual Autumn Daze Festival was this weekend. For the first time in years, Willow would miss it.

  Willow shouldn’t have had a care in the world. She had the evening off, nothing pressing to do academically. She was moving forward on her goal chart, demonstrably closer to her dream. She had a new group of friends, a cute little garage apartment and a cat that had adopted her.

  But she carried a constant heaviness in her chest.

  Cal. It all boiled down to Cal.

  She had accomplished some amazing feats in her life. She’d gotten into medical school despite astounding odds. Yet she seemed to remember the failures, the disasters, most clearly. And Cal was one of her disasters. She’d blown it with him not once, but twice. Three times, if she counted making love to him without even knowing his name.

  She could have simply not moved to Dallas, not attended medical school. That would have shown him that she was serious about making her own decisions, that she knew her own mind better than he did. But he’d left her in such a temper, she had packed up her things the very night they’d parted, throwing clothes and shoes into boxes and suitcases as she’d tried to explain everything to Nana.

  Which was exactly as Cal had intended, she realized later. He’d intentionally made her angry so she would see only one choice available.

  Once she’d calmed down, she could have left med school and returned to Cottonwood. Again, once Cal saw she was serious about her choices…

  Only one problem. She did not want to leave medical school. She’d realized from day one here that this was where she belonged. Reading about infectious diseases, brushing shoulders with the accomplished physicians who made up the staff here at UT Southwestern, had rekindled her passion for the medical profession.

  She was meant to become a doctor. That was clearer than ever now. Cal was right, she’d been wrong.

  But she could not deny that she was also supposed to be with Cal.

  If she could just boil down the sticky dilemma to a logistical problem, her analytical brain would have seized on it and come up with a solution. But the whole Cal thing was so muddled up with emotions, she couldn’t even get her brain to function when she thought about him. She would either get maudlin and cry, or she would get angry at the high-handed way he’d forced her to make a certain choice.

  Penny had recruited a couple more friends to have coffee with them. They sat in cushy chairs at Starbucks, sipping lattes and frappucinos and mulling over the test that had so flummoxed everyone but Willow, apparently.

  Willow leafed through a Morning News someone had left behind, though she was still fully involved in the conversation. She was getting better at multi-tasking.

  “I still say it was dirty pool, showing autopsy photos just after lunch,” Penny said. “I was so nauseated, I had trouble telling a lung from a liver.” She stole a section of newspaper from Willow and snapped it open, rattling the pages irritably.

  Chad Baker peered over Penny’s shoulder. “Hey, the State Fair’s going on this week.”

  “Oh, I’ve never been to the fair,” said Devi, a beautiful woman from India who was enamored with all things Texas.

  “Texas has the best State Fair in the country,” Chad declared proudly, as only a native Texan could. “We should go. My mom can get us free tickets.”

  “Well, that settles it,” Penny s
aid. “Willow, are you in? You’ve probably been loads of times, I guess, since you live so close.”

  “Actually, no, I’ve never been.”

  Chad gasped dramatically. “Then you’re going. No arguments.”

  Willow bristled. She didn’t like to be told what to do, even if the idea itself was appealing. “I really can’t afford—” She stopped. Something in Penny’s section of paper caught her eye. She snatched it away, staring in total disbelief.

  Cal Chandler, “The Animal Analyst,” will demonstrate his unique horse-training techniques…. Apparently he was going to warm up the crowd before the big auction of prize-winning steers at the livestock arena.

  “Oh, my gosh, what a brilliant idea,” Willow murmured.

  “Great!” Penny said. She didn’t realize Willow’s comment had nothing to do with going to the fair.

  Willow was amazed and delighted that Cal had somehow finagled his way into the State Fair. If he put on a good show—and he would—he would get loads of business off one appearance.

  And he’d thought of it himself. With a pang, she realized Cal didn’t need her, after all. He was pursuing his dream just fine without her, as she was pursuing hers.

  She wondered if he was as lonely as she was.

  LATER, AS WILLOW and her friends cleared the entrance gates to the fairgrounds, she talked them into going to watch Cal.

  “Why are you so interested in this guy?” Penny wanted to know. Willow had never confided her sad romantic past to her new friends.

  “He’s from my hometown,” Willow hedged. “Just wait ’til you see what he can do. He can take the wildest, meanest mustang you ever saw and have it following him around like a puppy dog in about ten minutes.”

  “And did he at any time have you following him around like a puppy dog?” Penny asked perceptively.

  Willow’s silence pretty much answered the question.

  The fair’s livestock arena wasn’t crowded when they got there. Seating for the event was confined to two sections on one side. “Wow, look at all the jewelry,” Penny breathed as they made their way through the sparse crowd, scouting out four seats together.