Cowboy Courage: Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  “It was real nice to meet you, Miz Luna”—Hud tipped his hat toward her—“but you ladies need to get in out of the cold. Can I help with your baggage before I get going?”

  “Naw, honey, we can get that suitcase.” Luna looped her arm in Rose’s. “Besides, us girls has got some catchin’ up to do.”

  Rose glanced over her shoulder to see Hud practically jogging back to his truck. There went any possibility of Hud coming back around again. The old gal might be harmless, but she looked like she ate roadkill for breakfast. Rose hoped the sumbitch Wilbur decided to come take her home—wherever the hell that was—before a whole week ended.

  Chapter Three

  Aunt Luna hit the door talking and parked her big suitcase in the middle of the foyer. “I usually take that bedroom when I’m here.” She pointed to the room right across from the gift shop. “I quit doin’ them stairs when I got to be eighty. I guess Molly is gone on one of her vacations?”

  Rose nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Well, darlin’, I’m glad to help out wherever I can while I’m here. I can make a mean breakfast”—Luna headed for the kitchen—“but I ain’t worth my salt when it comes to any other meal.” She opened the refrigerator door and rolled her blue eyes. “We need to go to the grocery store.” She sighed. “Looks like I’ll be havin’ cold pizza and beer for my dinner.”

  “It could be cold pizza and warm beer,” Rose told her.

  Luna giggled. “I knew when you was a baby that you’d have a sense of humor. You had that certain sparkle in your eyes that said you was going to be a real corker.”

  “So you can really cook breakfast?” Rose changed the subject.

  “I can make biscuits that will melt in your mouth and sausage gravy that will make you slap your granny.” Luna put two slices of pizza on a paper towel, stuck them in the microwave, and turned it on. “And, honey, my hummingbird pancakes even make Molly sit up and take notice. She always lets me cook breakfast for the guests when I’m here.”

  Thank you, Jesus! Rose thought, then wanted to kick herself. Now Hud would have no reason to come to the B&B on Saturday morning.

  The microwave timer dinged and Luna removed the pizza, carried it to the table, and sat down. “You can get me and you both a beer, and we’ll talk about that cowboy. You sleepin’ with him?”

  Rose sputtered and stuttered. “No, ma’am, I am not!”

  “Too bad.” Luna clucked like an old hen gathering in her baby chicks. “We’ll damn sure have to work on that while I’m here. He looks like he’d be right fine in the sheets. If I hadn’t jumped over the broom with Wilbur all them years ago, I might just test out the waters for you.” She pointed toward the refrigerator. “Now where’s them beers? Maybe you just need to get a buzz on before you seduce him. That always helped me with Wilbur before we got out the broom.”

  Rose took two longneck bottles of Coors out of the fridge, twisted the tops off, and set them both on the table. “Broom? What’s this about a broom?”

  Luna took a long sip. “Me and Wilbur and your Granny Dee, none of us believed in none of that guv’ment crap about havin’ to buy a marriage license and get a preacher to marry us. But we wanted a ceremony, so we had one like they had in old days. We got a brand-new broom, tied us some ribbons on it, said some vows, and jumped over it. Then after it was over, we had a new broom to sweep the house with.”

  “That’s not legal.” Rose tipped up her beer and took a drink.

  “It damn sure is,” Luna argued. “And Wilbur best remember that when that woman down at the grocery store bats her eyes at him.” She patted her hip. “Me and Madam Derringer can take that sumbitch right out of commission if he ain’t faithful.”

  “You’ve got a gun?” Rose gasped.

  “Don’t go nowhere without Madam.” Luna patted her hip again. “Wouldn’t be safe to hitch a ride all the way from Alabama to Bowie without some protection.”

  Before Rose could get in a word of protest, Luna continued: “This pizza is great.” She polished off her second piece, turned up the beer to get the last drop, and then burped loud enough to rattle the walls. “We’ll have to remember to order it again while I’m here. Wilbur don’t like pizza, so we don’t get it often. I miss that old sumbitch, but he shouldn’t have been flirtin’ with that floozy down at the grocery store. He knows I’m jealous.”

  It can’t be too soon, Rose thought. If I had his phone number, I’d call him and offer to send him a plane ticket.

  * * *

  Hud had just finished unloading bags of feed and stacking them in the barn on the Canyon Creek ranch when he remembered that he still hadn’t bought a present for his sister’s birthday. His family was having a get-together the next evening, and he knew better than to show up without a gift. Fortunately, it was a couple of hours before the shop at the Rose Garden closed. After taking a quick shower, he pulled on a pair of worn jeans, a T-shirt from a Blake Shelton concert, and his work boots.

  He hopped in his truck and made it into town in record time. He pulled into a parking space right beside Rose’s bright red vehicle, picked up his cowboy hat from the passenger seat and settled it on his head, and then headed inside. The little bell above the door into the shop rang, but the place seemed to be empty.

  “Hello?” he called out.

  No answer.

  He was more than a little disappointed that Rose wasn’t behind the counter. Looking to kill a little time, he picked up several candles to sniff but couldn’t decide which one to buy, so he moved on down to a collection of small crystal vases. In the spring when the roses Justin had planted for her were blooming, she might like a pretty vase to put them in.

  “No.” He shook his head and went back to the candles. “Emily loves putting flowers in quart jars. She’s just not a crystal person.”

  He started to reach for a couple of vanilla-scented candles, heard footsteps out in the foyer, and turned too quickly. The whole glass display wobbled slightly. He grabbed the shelf and steadied it, heaved a sigh of relief that he hadn’t broken anything, and turned to face the door just as Rose entered the shop.

  “You came back?” She sounded surprised.

  “I forgot to buy Emily a present,” he stammered. “She likes candles so I thought…”

  “That’s is a lovely idea. I’ll be glad to put it in a gift bag, and get it all ready to give to her,” Rose said.

  “Is your aunt still here? Is she staying a while?” he asked.

  Rose was ringing up his purchases when a loud siren went off right outside. He fished his phone from his hip pocket and hit a speed-dial number, listened for a minute, and said, “I’ll have to come back tomorrow morning. I’m a volunteer fireman and we’ve got a house ablaze between here and Sunset.”

  She nodded. “I’ll put them under the counter for you.”

  “Thanks,” he said over his shoulder as he rushed outside.

  He drove ninety miles an hour to the site of the fire and wondered the whole time if every time he walked into Rose’s shop there would be a disaster. When he reached the site of the fire, he braked so hard that he left black streaks on the pavement. Smoke poured out of the windows of the old two-story house, and the blaze was already licking the dead grass around the place. The other volunteer firemen had just gotten the hoses hooked to the red fire hydrant on the corner.

  “Anyone in there?” Hud yelled as he ran toward the truck.

  “Don’t think so,” one of the other firemen answered. “It’s an old abandoned place. Hasn’t been lived in since I was a kid.”

  As Hud looked over to the burning house, he saw movement in one of the second-floor windows. Was it a person or just the flames playing tricks on him?

  He saw movement again. Yup, that was definitely a hand. A human hand and it was waving frantically from an upstairs window.

  He pointed toward the place and hollered over his shoulder, “I think I saw someone in there. I’m going in to see.”

  Hud knew it was a risk goi
ng into the house without his gear. But he was way ahead of any of the other men, and the fire was spreading too fast. He grabbed his handkerchief and held it to his mouth, ducking low as he made his way through the back door. Adrenaline rushed through his veins as he took the stairs two at a time. All the smoke made it near impossible to see. The sound of sobbing steered him toward the left, and as he rounded a corner, he found a woman in a heap with her body wrapped around a baby. She had one hand plastered to the window, and when she saw him, she handed him the baby.

  “Save my daughter,” she begged.

  He threw the woman over his shoulder, tucked the baby under his arm, and ran down the stairs and across the yard like he was sprinting for the goal line at a football game.

  An ambulance came rearing up to the house with the sirens blaring. Hud didn’t even slow down until he made it to the vehicle. The woman was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm and weeping uncontrollably, along with the now-screaming baby, as he handed her off to the EMT.

  “I’m going with them,” Hud said as he helped get them into the ambulance.

  “You’ll have to follow us,” the EMT said. “There’s not enough room in here for you.”

  “Then I’ll see you at the ER.” Hud sprinted to his truck and pulled out before the ambulance left. He could see the flashing lights in his rearview all the way to Bowie, and prayed that the poor baby wouldn’t be dead when he got there. Poor little thing didn’t have the lung capacity that an adult had. That it was screaming and crying was a good sign, but that didn’t mean its lungs weren’t damaged.

  The hospital was a fifteen-minute drive, but he and the ambulance made it in ten. Hud snagged a parking place not far from the emergency room door and was right there when the EMTs rolled the mother and baby through the doors. The mother had an oxygen mask on. The baby was still sobbing uncontrollably.

  He followed them right back into a cubicle. The EMT holding the baby handed her off to Hud, while he and the other guy got the woman onto a bed. A nurse came in and checked vitals, and by the time the doctor arrived, the mother’s eyes were fluttering open.

  “Where am I? Where’s my baby? Is she all right?” She tugged at the oxygen mask and tried to sit up but fell back on the bed in a heap. “I thought if I could get to the roof, we’d be all right, but I couldn’t find the attic door.”

  “Right here, ma’am.” Hud stepped forward with the child in his arms. “She appears to be fine, but the doctor is going to have to—” Before he could go on, the doctor pushed the curtain back.

  “Baby first. Lay her right here.” He motioned toward a small examination table in the corner.

  The baby continued to cry and had started to reach for her mother.

  “I’m so sorry, sweetheart, but this is necessary,” Hud whispered.

  “What happened?” the doctor said as he put the stethoscope on the baby’s chest.

  The EMT filled him in on what had happened. “From what the lady says, she got confused and was trying to find a way to get to the roof. The downstairs was in flames.”

  “She was lying on the floor and wrapped around the baby, trying to protect her,” Hud added.

  “Fire and smoke would cause panic.” The doctor nodded. “This baby looks to be fine. She probably needs a bath to get all these smoky-smelling clothes off her, but I think she can go home. Just keep an eye on her for a day or two.” He picked up the little girl, handed her back to Hud, and turned around to check the mother.

  “Please don’t keep me in here.” The woman coughed so hard that she threw up. The EMT was quick enough to grab a bag, and when she’d finished, he helped lay her back down.

  When she was settled again, the doctor told her: “You’re not going anywhere until tomorrow. Daddy will be fine with the baby for a night or two.”

  “I don’t have insurance or a job,” the woman moaned. “I can’t stay.”

  “Yes, you can. I’ll send in Robin. She can help you fill out paperwork to pay the bill, but you will stay at least one night.” The doctor left no room for argument.

  Hud opened his mouth to say that he wasn’t the baby’s father and that he’d never seen the woman before, but then he snapped it shut. The child had stopped crying and was looking right into his eyes, as if she was telling him that she was being quiet now—and so should he.

  “Get a room ready for”—he looked at her chart—“for Dixie. She’ll be here overnight. And get discharge papers ready for Sally,” the doctor said and then disappeared behind the curtain.

  “Yes, sir.” The nurse followed him.

  Both EMTs left right behind them.

  “What am I going to do?” Dixie said. Tears mixed with smoke rolled down her cheeks, leaving long black streaks. “Please don’t put her in foster care. I’ll never get her back.”

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  Dixie wiped her face, smearing the streaks into what looked like war paint. “We were just borrowing the house for the night, to get in out of the cold. We planned to be gone tomorrow. We didn’t set that fire, I promise. There was a mattress on the floor in one of the upstairs bedrooms, so we were sleeping on it. I woke up coughing and when I ran to the stairs, I saw flames, so I started hunting for an attic door to get to the roof. I couldn’t find it and I panicked. I heard sirens.” She coughed again, but she didn’t throw up. “I put my hand on the window, hopin’ someone would see that we were in there. Then you came. I don’t know you, but please help me.”

  “I can keep your baby overnight for you, or I can call someone to come get her for you,” Hud said. “Or I can call Social Services to help you out.”

  A fresh batch of tears began to roll down Dixie’s face. “Please don’t call Social Services. They’ll take Sally from me, since we don’t have somewhere to live.”

  “Hey, I hear you’re the hero today.” Hud’s sister-in-law, Nikki, pushed back the curtain. “Your brother is supposed to be the risk taker, not you. And what’s this beautiful baby’s name?” She reached over and touched the child’s forehead.

  “Sally,” Dixie answered. “You know this man?”

  “He’s my brother-in-law, and he saved your life,” Nikki said.

  “She doesn’t want me to call Social Services,” Hud whispered.

  “Then she better call a family member,” Nikki said.

  “I can call my mama down in Sweetwater,” Dixie said between coughing fits.

  Hud handed her his cell phone and she made the call. “Mama, I got as far as Bowie, but me and the baby were in a house that caught on fire. Can you come get me?”

  Hud couldn’t hear what was said on the other end, but it had to be bad news because her face fell, and even more tears left streaks down her dirty face. She didn’t say anything else but handed the phone back to him.

  “Is she coming?” he asked.

  Dixie shook her head.

  “I’ve got a sister who would help you out,” Hud said. “I can take Sally there.”

  “Thank you,” she muttered. “Just please don’t let them put her in the system. I won’t never get her out if you do.”

  “Emily will be glad to help,” Nikki said.

  “I know she will,” Hud said.

  “Okay then.” Nikki grinned. “I’ll holler at you when I get off work to see if you need anything.”

  “Her diaper bag…” Dixie started.

  “I’ve got some formula samples and diapers from the maternity ward that I can share with him.” Nikki patted Dixie’s arm. “You just get well.”

  Thank you, she mouthed.

  “We’re taking Dixie to her room now. I suggest you take the baby home and get her cleaned up and fed.” A nurse’s aide had popped into the cubicle. “You can come back tonight to see her.”

  With the baby in his arms, he followed Nikki down a hallway to the nursery. She pulled a tote bag out from under a cabinet and handed it to him. “This is what we give new mothers when they leave the hospital. It’ll do until you can get to the store to b
uy what you need, and will give you an idea of what to buy.”

  “Thanks.” He bent and kissed Nikki on the forehead.

  “Drive carefully,” Nikki warned. “I’d give you a car seat but we’re fresh out.”

  Obeying Nikki’s advice about not driving fast wasn’t difficult. Driving with one hand while trying to keep a squirming baby in his arms was a whole new experience for Hud. Thank goodness it wasn’t but a mile or two to the Rose Garden B&B, where he planned to pick up the candles he’d bought, and then take Sally on out to the ranch. He heaved a long sigh of relief when he parked in front of the place. He’d gotten this far, and he’d only be a minute or two in the B&B. He grabbed the tote bag, slung it over his shoulder, and held Sally as close to his body as he could to keep her warm.

  Aunt Luna met them at the door with Rose right behind her.

  “What on earth?” Rose asked.

  “Is that a baby?” Luna tiptoed so she could get a closer look.

  “Holy crap on a cracker!” Luna said. “What happened? You and that child both smell like you walked through hell.”

  Rose reached for the child, and Hud handed her over. Immediately, Sally began to chew on her hands. “She’s hungry. I hope there’s a bottle in that bag on your shoulder.”

  “Nikki gave it to me at the hospital.” He gave it to Luna. “Her mama is Dixie and she’s homeless and…” He went on to tell them the rest of what had happened.

  “Poor darlin’s,” Luna crooned. “Ain’t no need in takin’ her any farther. Me and Rose can help out. First thing we’re goin’ to do is get this little one a bath and get all this nasty old smoke off her, then we’ll feed her, and comfort her until her mama can come get her.”

  Hud looked over at Rose, expecting at least a little resistance to Luna’s idea.

  “That poor mama. I bet she’s terrified even now. First a fire and then having a stranger take her baby. We’re closer to the hospital than your ranch, so we can take her to see her mama more often, just in case Dixie has to stay longer than a day.” Rose hugged the baby closer to her chest when the poor little darling started to whimper. “Looks like she’s bonded with you, so here’s the deal—we’ll keep her but you have to stay here, too.”