Luna handed the receiver over to Rose. “Fix it so we can all talk. Some of her friends are in her room too.”
Rose pushed the speaker button and laid the phone back on the base. “Hello, everyone. Luna and I are on this end.”
“Patsy, Bess, Sarah, Otis, and Larry are here with me,” Molly said. “We’re all homesick for gossip, so talk to us. I’ve already told them about Dixie and the baby. We can’t wait to get home so we can get acquainted with them.”
“Patsy here,” a husky voice said, “what’s this about Paxton going back out to West Texas?”
“We had his going-away party last night,” Luna said. “It was fabulous.”
“Otis here,” a masculine voice said. “Hud’s going to be real lonesome out there by himself. Tag’s married, and now Paxton’s gone.”
“This is Sarah,” another feminine voice said. “Honey, you should spend some time with that poor old lonesome cowboy.”
“All right, enough about us,” Rose said. “Tell me and Luna about your travels.”
“It’s been wonderful, but we should’ve only booked the month-long vacation instead of the six-week one,” Molly said. “I’m ready to come home. Have you heard from Wilbur yet, Luna? I’ve been meanin’ to ask you what did y’all fight about this time, anyway?”
“Ain’t heard from him yet, and like you, I’m ready to go home. I love our niece, but I miss my friends and the trailer park,” Luna replied. “I’m getting a bus ticket for next Monday whether he calls or not. And we had a big blowup because he’s been flirting with a woman down at the grocery store. She can’t be a day over fifty, and I got jealous.”
“Good God,” Molly giggled, “Wilbur is eighty years old. What would a woman thirty years younger want with him?”
“Darlin’, they make something called Viagra now, and like Mr. Toby Keith sings about, he might not be as good as he once was, but believe me, he’s as good once as he ever was. The doctor said as long as his heart is good, he can have one of them little pills every day,” Luna told her.
“And you left him in her clutches? You think that was smart?” Molly asked.
“I’m testin’ him, and, honey, I counted the pills left in his Viagra bottle before I left. If there’s any gone when I get home, they ain’t never goin’ to find his or her bodies,” Luna said. “I’m sorry you wasn’t here to visit with me, but you could write me a letter every so often,” Luna told her.
“If you will, I will,” Molly said.
“It’s a deal. Isn’t it really late there?” Luna asked.
“It’s two o’clock in the morning,” Molly answered. “We just came home from dancing in a pub and having a late-night supper at an all-night café.”
“Well, hot damn!” Luna clapped her hands. “You might be old as dirt, but you’re finally livin’ just a little bit.”
“Oh, hush,” Molly said. “Good night to both of you.”
“Night,” Luna and Rose said in unison.
Rose ended the call and glanced over at Luna. “Do you really think that Uncle Wilbur was interested in that woman, or was he just trying to make you jealous?”
Luna shook her head. “Oh, he was interested all right. He’s always been a big flirt, but this time, he went too far.”
“How’s that?” Rose asked.
“She’s got a grandson livin’ with her. Kid must be about ten years old, and she needed a babysitter one day. Be damned, if Wilbur didn’t offer to keep the boy and then he bought him a BB gun with our money. That’s when we had the fight. I’m not a mean person when it comes to kids, but Wilbur should’ve talked to me as well as that kid’s mama about letting him have any kind of gun before he bought the damn thing,” Luna said.
“I might have been mad about that too.” Rose draped an arm around her aunt, and the two of them headed out of the room.
She went to her room and watched reruns of Longmire on the television. Branch Connally, the deputy sheriff in the western show, reminded her of Hud. Not as much in looks as in the way he walked, and his attitude. Suddenly, every incident from the time she saw Hud at the wedding out in West Texas passed through her mind at warp speed, only slowing down when she concentrated on special moments—like when Hud kissed her or tucked her hand into his. How could so much happen in such a short length of time?
In another few days everything would change again, because Aunt Luna had said she was going home, no matter what. To everything there is a season. She thought of those words, which her mother had spoken the only time she’d ever seen her stand and say anything in a Sunday morning service at the commune.
The episode ended and Rose realized that she had been staring at the screen but seeing or hearing very little. She hit the POWER button to turn off the television and just lay there, staring at the ceiling. Was this her season to be out of the army for good? Or was it just a short season to help her decide to be absolutely sure what she wanted to do with the rest of her life?
Her phone rang and, figuring it would be Hud, she answered without even looking at the caller ID. “Hello, I’m so glad you called.”
“You must’ve been thinking about me,” her mother said.
“I guess I was in a roundabout way. I’m glad to hear from you,” Rose said. “Mama, I don’t know what to do about reenlisting.”
“You’ve still got some time, so think about it some more, but you know what Granny Dee used to say—‘if you ain’t in peace, then it ain’t for you.’ If it don’t seem right in your heart, then don’t do it. Something that does bring you happiness will come along, but you’ve got to wait for it.”
“I’ve never been good at that waiting business.” Rose sighed. “What I’d like to do is use my skills in some way to help people, but how does what I know fit into that?”
“You never know, honey,” Echo said. “It will all be revealed to you in some way, and the way it makes you feel will be the right thing for you to do. Now, when are you coming to see me?”
“Depends on when Aunt Molly gets home,” she said.
“Well, just between me and you, I hope she cuts her trip short. Good night, my child. I’m so looking forward to seeing you, and so are your friends,” Echo said.
“Good night, Mama,” Rose said.
The room felt as if the walls were closing in on her, so she went back downstairs, thinking maybe she’d make herself a cup of hot chocolate. She found Luna watching old reruns of Gunsmoke on the television and crying. She sat down beside her and slung an arm around Luna’s shoulders. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Me and Wilbur watch this every night together.” She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. “I miss that old sumbitch. Why hasn’t he called and apologized to me for what he did?”
“He’ll call soon,” Rose assured her. “Mama called.”
“I’ve always loved Echo. She’s an old soul. I just wish she hadn’t fallen in love with Paul,” Luna sighed. “I’m sure she’s told you about how they met, hasn’t she?”
“He was raised out in the commune by his uncle who was the overseer there, and he worked in Harlan,” Rose answered. “Daddy was in the open-air market where she was selling produce for her grandpa, and he bought a watermelon from her. She says it was love at first sight.”
“It had to be, for her to put up with Paul,” Luna said. “He’s a tyrant, but she picks her battles. Most of them have always been about you.”
“I know that.” Rose nodded. “He’s a hard man, and it’s not easy livin’ with him, but he needs Mama to smooth out all those sharp edges. I’d hate to see what kind of man he’d be without her.”
“The military has been good for you.” Luna turned off the television. “I worried about you when you enlisted, but I got to admit, I admired your spunk in standing up to Paul the way you did.”
“I wanted to see more of the world.” Rose leaned down and gave Luna a kiss on the forehead, and started up to her room. “Good night.”
“Night, darlin’ girl,” Luna said.
Rose’s phone pinged as she climbed the stairs. She slipped it out of her hip pocket to find a text from Hud.
It was just a link to a song, “You Make It Easy,” by Jason Aldean. She smiled all through the lyrics and then sent back a heart emoji to him, and then she listened to it a dozen more times before she finally fell asleep with the phone on the pillow beside her.
* * *
Tuesday was one of those never-ending days for Hud. He and Tag worked all day long, plowing up fields to get ready for spring planting. His grandpa used to tell them that a ranch was only as good as its fences, and that they were supposed to be bull tight.
That evening, he flopped down on the sofa. He had been one of the first to complain about four grown men in a small house, but now he wished they were all back. Another of his grandpa’s sayings came to mind—“you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” He picked up his cell from the coffee table and sent a text to Paxton: How’s things?
He got one right back: Great to be here. Still adjusting. Lots of work.
He sent back one more: Call when you have time.
Paxton sent back a thumbs-up emoji.
Hud had felt like he’d lost a brother instead of a distant cousin when Maverick left to go help out his grandmother when she’d broken a hip. Maverick was only supposed to be gone a month or so, but things changed when the grandmother gave her ranch to him and Paxton. Hud couldn’t wish anything but the best for them, but he wasn’t used to an empty house, and he really didn’t like it. He missed the way Mav was always teasing, and the conversations he’d had with Paxton when Tag moved into the little cabin over on Longhorn Canyon. Living alone was downright lonely.
He fell asleep on the sofa and woke up after midnight with a kink in his neck. He stood up and rolled his head, stretched his arms upward, and went to the kitchen for a snack before he went on to bed. When he laid his phone on the counter, he noticed he had two messages. One was from Paxton saying that he’d be on a tractor all day tomorrow and would call him then. The other was from Rose, asking if he was going to make it to the square-dancing event with Aunt Luna.
He sent Rose a message: Yes, ma’am. Six thirty, right?
Then he fired one off to Paxton: Anytime tomorrow. I’ll be on a tractor too.
Hud ate a handful of chocolate cookies and drank a glass of milk, then went on to bed. He slept poorly the rest of the night, dreaming and waking up in a cold sweat, then going back to sleep and having another dream and waking up freezing. The next morning when the alarm went off, he felt more tired than he had when he’d gone to bed. He dragged himself to the kitchen, ate a bowl of cold cereal, and had three cups of coffee. Then he filled his thermos with four more cups and made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to eat at noon in the tractor.
Paxton called him before he had made the first long trip around the forty-acre field. “You on the tractor yet?”
“Yep,” Hud answered. “You seen Alana yet?”
“Nope, I still got two good legs, and I can run.” Paxton laughed. “So have you seen Rose since the party?”
“Nope, but we’re taking her aunt square-dancing tonight.” He braked when he saw Red running toward him. When he opened the tractor door, the dog used the step as a springboard, hopped across his lap, and sat in the passenger seat. “Had to stop and let Red in. Guess he wants to be a rancher.”
Paxton laughed. “Ducky’s little legs are so short, he’d have to get a ladder to get to the first step on a tractor. He’s pretty good at herdin’ cows, though. I can’t believe you’re goin’ square dancin’.”
“Iris didn’t take Ducky with her to the assisted living place?” Hud asked.
“Nope,” Paxton replied. “She gave him to Bridget and the cat Dolly to Laela. My granny is a wise woman. She knew that Bridget couldn’t take them two animals to Ireland with her, and she couldn’t leave them behind.” Paxton chuckled. “Mav and Bridget are so danged happy, it makes me want to settle down.”
“That’s a lot of happy.” Hud laughed.
“How about you?” Paxton asked. “Am I fixin’ to win that money and whiskey?”
“I’m not sure,” Hud told him. “I feel something for her that I’ve never felt with any other woman.”
“I could see that from the beginnin’, but here’s the problem as I see it. Like the rest of us four who’ve shared bunkhouses and ranches together, you never have seriously dated. You’ve had lots of one-night stands with bar bunnies, and some even went over into a whole weekend, but to really date? Not so much. Don’t you think you should do a little of that before you dive into a committed relationship?” Paxton asked.
“Maverick didn’t, and neither did Tag,” Hud argued.
“Maverick kind of knew Bridget from Ireland, and Tag had met Nikki when she came home with Emily that time,” Paxton reminded him.
“And I went to school with Rose, so I kind of know her,” Hud argued.
“Just be careful,” Paxton cautioned. “Since we’ve seen our older brothers so happy and settling down, it’s kind of given us both the fever. We need to let a little time pass so we’re sure of what we want to do. I’m going to the Wild Cowboy Bar this weekend. That’ll cure all these crazy feelings about living with one woman the rest of my life.”
“Maybe I should go to the Rusty Spur and see if it works for me,” Hud chuckled.
“We got to be strong,” Paxton said. “One of us can’t fold, or who’ll be there to support the other one?”
“You’re just afraid you’ll stumble and fall, and Alana will lasso you,” Hud told him.
“And I’ll lose a hundred dollars,” Paxton reminded him. “I hate to lose money. Got to go. Got a call coming in from Maverick.”
Hud put the phone in his shirt pocket. He didn’t like losing either, but for the same kind of happiness Tag had, he’d gladly fork over a hundred-dollar bill.
Chapter Twelve
Rose hadn’t done any square dancing since she left Kentucky, so she was a little nervous about it that night. Luna told her to just watch her and do what the caller said and the most important thing was to have fun.
“Wear a skirt, the fuller the better,” she said. “When me and Wilbur got all involved with it right after we moved to Alabama, I had a whole outfit made up, and one for Wilbur to match. We got pretty good at it.”
Rose found a gauze skirt with layers in her closet and paired it with a bright, turquoise knit shirt. “What about shoes?” she called down the staircase.
“Cowboy boots,” Aunt Luna yelled.
Aunt Luna was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs when Rose started down. “You look great, and not to worry. Y’all can even sit the first one out to get the hang of it, but you ain’t goin’ to be wallflowers all night. I want to see the two of you dance.”
“I’ll do my best,” Rose agreed just as the doorbell rang.
Luna grabbed her coat from the rack on the way to answer it, and then looked over her shoulder. “Our golden chariot is here. Let’s don’t keep Prince Charming waiting.” She opened the door and stepped out onto the porch.
“I don’t mind being Prince Charming.” Hud’s eyes twinkled when he saw Rose. “Especially when I get to escort Cinderella to the ball.” He slung an arm around Rose’s shoulders and pulled her against his side.
“If I’m Cinderella then I’ll have to be home before midnight,” Rose told him.
“Honey, the do-si-do stuff ends at ten,” Luna told her.
“And”—Hud walked Rose to the truck—“I figure that’ll give us time to get some ice cream and still get you home before midnight. If you lose a shoe, I’ll be by tomorrow to see if it fits you.”
“And if it does?” she asked.
“Then I’ll have to carry you off to my mansion on Canyon Creek, where you’ll be a princess forever and ever amen,” he replied.
“Lord, help my soul.” Aunt Luna threw a hand over her heart. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve heard in years
.”
Rose felt the heat start at her neck and work its way up to her cheeks. By the time Hud was in the driver’s seat, the temperature in the truck had jacked up at least ten degrees—maybe even a few more when she took a second look at him in his ironed jeans, pearl snap shirt the color of his eyes, and his polished black boots. Prince Charming didn’t have a thing on Hudson Baker that night!
When they arrived at the VFW, Rose glanced up at the clear night sky. Stars looked like diamonds lying on a bed of black velvet. A gentle breeze blew her hair to the side as they went from the truck to the building. They could hear lots of noise and the caller singsonging the dance steps before they even opened the door. The minute they were inside, Aunt Luna went over to a group of elderly gentlemen, said a few words, and in seconds she and one of them had joined a group that needed one more couple.
“We’re about to do a rip and snort,” Luna told Rose and Hud. “Y’all watch close and you can do it the next time around.”
“Yeah, right.” Rose grinned as she and Hud each took a chair along the wall. Before the dance set was half done, Rose was tapping her foot to the fiddle, banjo, and guitar music.
“Looks like you’re gettin’ into it,” Hud said.
“I’m trying to remember what he’s saying and how to do the steps, so I don’t embarrass you,” she said.
He leaned over and whispered softly in her ear, “You could stumble and fall right into my arms, and I wouldn’t care, as long as I can spend time with you. I was thinkin’ maybe we could go dancing at the Rusty Spur on Saturday night. I’m a little better at two-steppin’ than I am at square dancing, and besides I’d like to hold you close to me, not swing you out.”
His warm breath on the sensitive part of her neck sent shivers down her spine. She turned toward him so that her mouth was next to his ear. “I haven’t been to a honky-tonk in years.”
He whipped his head around and kissed her right there in public. “Then you’ll go with me?”
“Yes, Hud, I’d love to go.”
The first dance ended, and the dancers who’d been on the floor headed for the bar to get drinks. Aunt Luna winked at Rose when she passed her and nodded out to the floor at a group that was looking around for another couple.
Cowboy Courage: Includes a bonus novella Page 14
