Cowboy Courage: Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  She dried her hair and twisted it up into a pile of curls on top of her head, slipped on underwear, and then put on a long-sleeved, dark blue dress. Her feet still hurt from the night of dancing, and combat boots or even her one pair of dress boots didn’t look right with the Sunday dress, so she went downstairs in her bare feet to get her flats. She passed Hud on the bottom step where he was putting on his shirt.

  “First time I ever got dressed one piece of clothing at a time on the stairs,” he told her.

  “Lots of firsts last night and this morning,” she said. “Maybe I should mark them all on the calendar so we won’t forget.”

  “Honey, everything about last night and this morning is branded into my brain. No way I’ll ever lose these memories.” He reached out and brought her to him for another hard kiss.

  “Mine too,” she told him as she pulled away and went for her shoes—and the doughnuts.

  They were in the truck and headed toward Sunset when Hud’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his hip pocket and answered it, “Good mornin’, brother. I’ll take over the feeding chores—”

  Hud’s eyes went wide and he glanced up in the rearview mirror. “Holy smokin’ hell! Yes, yes, yes, we’re going to have to outrun it. Meet you and Nikki in the cellar.”

  “What?” Rose asked.

  “Turn around and look behind us,” Hud told her.

  “Is that what I think it is?” she asked.

  “It’s a tornado and it’s coming right through Bowie. Tag says that there’s another one on the ground at Park Springs coming toward Sunset. The closest shelter is the storm cellar at the ranch.” He talked faster than the speedometer, which kept climbing all the way to ninety miles an hour.

  The storm behind them was still visible when they went through Sunset and made the turn to head to the ranch, but now Rose could see the second one out her window. It was swirling with a long, wide tail that was busy throwing all kinds of debris around. Hud made the final turn into the lane to the ranch on two wheels and gunned it all the way to the house. He slammed on the brakes and came to a long, greasy stop.

  “Go run around to the back of the house,” he said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Rose didn’t need to be told twice. She stepped out into an eerie quietness where everything had a slightly green cast. It all changed when she reached the porch and started around the house. Suddenly, it sounded like a freight train was coming right at her. She froze for a second, and then she was flying. She landed hard on Hud’s shoulder with her arms and legs flopping in the hard wind like a rag doll. She saw a piece of sheet metal blow past her head, and then a child’s teddy bear brushed her cheek.

  All she could do was hang on until he set her down at the top of a set of narrow stairs, and she rushed down into a cellar. Red bounded over to her and raised up on his hind legs, putting his paws on her stomach. Hud came right in behind her, pulled the door down, pushed the dog back into the cellar, and grabbed her by the shoulders.

  “Are you hurt? Did anything hit you?” He checked her face, and her arms, and scanned the rest of her body.

  “I’m fine,” she told him. “I think a teddy bear went past me, but it was all so fast.”

  “Glad y’all made it, but that was way too close of a call. We were worried that you’d be right in the eye of it. Didn’t you check the weather this morning?” Tag let out a big lungful of air as he sat down beside Nikki.

  “Didn’t even think about the weather,” Hud said. “We were just coming out here so I could get ready for church when you called. I hope we don’t get too much damage.”

  “We’ll be lucky if we’ve got houses when we get out of here,” Nikki said. “I expect that as soon as it’s over I’d better call the hospital and see if I’m needed.”

  “And me and Tag will be out with the fire department, taking care of downed trees and electrical lines,” Hud said.

  “I’m a translator, if anyone needs one,” Rose offered.

  “If you’re serious, you can come with me,” Nikki said. “We have a huge Mexican population around here. It would be good to have someone who speaks Spanish on hand.”

  “I’d be glad to help.” Rose slumped down into a metal folding chair. “That was scary.”

  “Tornados always are,” Hud yelled above the noise of debris hitting the sheet metal covering the door to the cellar.

  In some ways, it seemed like they’d been in the small underground place forever, and yet it was really less than fifteen minutes. Everything went strangely quiet after the storm had passed through, and then the first drops of rain began to ping on the cellar door.

  Tag raised the door, and Red ran out ahead of everyone else. He made a beeline for the back porch and yipped for someone to hurry up and let him inside. Tag and Nikki went out next, and Tag called out that the house was still standing, but there were lots of shingles strewn about the ground.

  Hud and Rose were the last ones to leave, and he closed the cellar door behind him. He pointed to a huge tree, now down with its roots sticking up every which way. “Looks like we’ll be cuttin’ up that one for firewood.”

  Rose ran toward the porch and let the dog inside. She followed him with Nikki right behind her. Nikki was making a call on her phone before she even made it through the utility room and into the kitchen.

  She listened for a few seconds, ended the call, and turned to Rose. “It’s all hands on deck, so don’t even take your coat off.”

  Hud and Tag came in, shed their coats, and both of them looked up at the ceiling. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t have leaks,” Tag said.

  “Rose and I are going to the hospital.” Nikki stopped long enough to give Tag a quick peck on the lips and then ran out toward a truck.

  “See you later,” Rose said as she followed her and got into a vehicle pretty similar to Hud’s.

  On the way to Sunset, she and Nikki saw a lot of barn roofs that had been torn off. They made it up to the turnoff for Bowie, and that’s where the real destruction began to show its ugly face. A house would be flattened and the two on either side of it would only have a few shingles blown off their roofs. A convenience store had no outside walls, and yet bottles of wine were still sitting intact on the shelves. The bare trees were covered in wet paper and clothing, and Rose even saw a teddy bear like the one that had swiped past her face.

  She held her breath when they got near the Rose Garden Bed-and-Breakfast, and let it out in a long whoosh when she saw the damage. “Sweet Jesus and all the angels in heaven,” she whispered. The place was still standing, but shingles were missing and the porch swing was tangled up in the oak tree in the front yard. Aunt Molly’s car was wrapped around a pecan tree across the street.

  “Do you need to stop and check the inside?” Nikki asked.

  “Not in this rain. I can check on it later,” she answered. “But I do need to call my aunt.”

  Molly answered on the first ring. “We’re just about to go out for an early supper. What’s up?”

  Rose explained what had happened in as few words as she could. “We’re lucky, Aunt Molly. The house beside the B&B was flattened and all of the ones across the street have massive damage.”

  “Yes, we are, and if anyone needs a place to sleep, you give them a room free of charge,” Molly said. “I think I should come home. Me and the Fab Five are getting bored and homesick. I’m going to talk to them, and we’ll book the first flight we can get.”

  “I can’t even come and get you,” Rose told her.

  “Not to worry. A car and a porch swing can be replaced. I’m just glad the B&B is still standing,” Molly said. “Where were you when it hit? Are you hurt? Did you go to the basement?”

  “Hud and I were on the way to church,” Rose said. “We barely made it to his ranch and into the cellar when all hell broke loose. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”

  “Where are you right now?” Molly asked.

  “In the car with Nikki. I’m going to help out at the h
ospital,” she replied.

  “That’s good. I’ll be home in two days, tops, maybe even late tomorrow night,” Molly told her. “And don’t worry about anything. God works in mysterious ways.”

  “What did she say?” Nikki asked as she parked her car in the employee part of the hospital parking lot.

  “That God works in mysterious ways. I thought there would be crying and gnashing of teeth, but she was pretty cool about it.” Rose filled her in on the rest of the conversation.

  “I want to grow up to be just like her and the Fab Five. Nothing fazes them, and they usually make a big joke about things we’d have a meltdown over.” Nikki picked up her purse and headed toward the emergency room entrance.

  They walked into chaos—people in the waiting room, the emergency room cubicles full, and a receptionist who didn’t speak a word of Spanish. Nikki went to get a visitor’s badge for Rose, while Rose got straight to work translating for the beleaguered staff.

  Her phone pinged with a message from Hud: Have you seen the B&B? Are you OK?

  She sent back one: Yes. It’s still standing, and Aunt Molly is coming home. I’m fine.

  Nikki returned with a clip-on badge, then led her back to a cubicle where a little boy had gotten separated from his parents during the storm. She sat down beside him, took his hand in hers, and translated his French for the doctor.

  “He’s from Haiti and he’s five years old,” Rose said. “Is it all right if I go out into the waiting room and see if I can locate his mother?”

  “Sure it is,” the doctor said. “I need her permission to treat him.”

  Rose hurried down the hall, busted through the double doors, and called out in French about the little boy looking for his mama. With tears in her eyes, a small woman pushed her way through the crowd, asking if her son was all right. Rose took her by the hand and led her back to the cubicle where Nikki, the doctor, and the little boy waited. The child opened his arms and his mother went right to him.

  “Now they need you back in the waiting area,” Nikki said. “You are a godsend today, Rose.”

  “Glad to help out,” she said.

  And I thought my skills were so limited, she thought as she ran down the short hallway.

  Chapter Sixteen

  How can the sun shine on so much devastation? Rose wondered as she stood in the yard of the B&B and stared at all the destruction around it.

  Hud put his arm around her waist and pulled her close to his side. “Are you all right?”

  “Do you realize that if we’d left for church thirty minutes later, we could have been killed?” She shook her head, still in disbelief.

  “Darlin’, we can’t do anything about the damage around us, but we can go see what’s been damaged inside.” He dropped his arm and took her hand.

  She stopped inside the door and looked around at the mess. Evidently a tornado shook things up as much as an earthquake, because there was glass all over the floor of the shop, and poor old Chester was sitting on top of the credenza howling at them.

  “He’s either blaming us or trying to convince us that he didn’t cause all this,” Rose said as she went from room to room, checking the windows and ceiling for water leaks. In some rooms, lamps and chairs were turned over. In others, everything was intact.

  “We can get this cleaned up in no time,” Hud said.

  “Not until I call Aunt Molly.” She pulled her phone from her hip pocket.

  “What’s the damage?” Molly asked.

  “Glass everywhere. The shop is a mess, but we can clean it up. The walls and windows look all right. You’ll probably need a new roof, but other than that, it’s not too bad. I expected a few broken windows at least.”

  “How’s Chester?”

  “Following me around like he’s afraid I’m going to blame him for all this,” Rose said.

  “Don’t touch a single thing. I’ll call the insurance company to come do an estimate. And don’t let anyone stay there tonight, either. If they were to get cut or hurt, I’d be liable. I want you to lock Chester in whatever bedroom isn’t damaged and you go stay with Nikki or Emily,” Molly told her. “And tell Hud to go on and turn off the electricity and the water, just as a precaution.”

  She went into her bedroom to find the only thing out of place was the small wooden box she kept on the dresser, which was on the floor. Chester hopped up on the bed and finally stopped yowling.

  “Poor old boy.” Hud sat down beside him and scratched his ears. “Did you think the end of the world had come?”

  Chester started to purr and curled up on a pillow.

  “Looks like he’ll be content in this room.” Rose went to the closet and put a couple of changes of clothing into a tote bag. “I’ll need to bring up his litter pan and his food and water.”

  “I can do that while you pack, and you can stay with me, Rose,” he said.

  “Thank you. I was going to ask Emily, but I’d rather stay with you.” She opened a drawer and removed what she needed. Then she picked up the little wooden box and put it in the bag. Thinking about her prized possessions being in that box brought to mind the pile of socks behind the sofa.

  “You stay right here,” she told Chester as she shut the door behind her. She met Hud coming up the stairs and said, “Be right back. Don’t let him out of the room, or we’ll have to chase him down.”

  She gingerly made her way around all the mess until she got to the sofa. Pulling it out, she discovered that the pile of socks hadn’t been disturbed. She gathered them all up in her arms and carried them up to her bedroom. Hud must’ve heard her because he had the door open. With one eye on the cat, and the other eyebrow raised, he asked, “What’s that all about?”

  “This is his comfort stuff. If he’s got to be locked in one room, he should have his things around him.” She tossed them on the bed.

  “You could take him to the ranch with us,” Hud suggested.

  “I’m afraid he and Red wouldn’t get along,” she said. “And besides, Aunt Molly brought him to the B&B when he was just a baby. He’s never even been outside. The trip alone would traumatize him. But thanks for the offer.”

  Chester hopped up and rolled around in the socks, purring the whole time. After a few seconds, he chose a white one and carried it back to the pillow and curled up around it.

  “See, he’s happy here,” she said.

  “Thinking of that was pretty sweet,” Hud said.

  “There was this little boy in the emergency room,” she whispered, “who held on to a ratty old teddy bear. To him that toy was his last link to the way his life had been. I think all the noise terrified old Chester, and he needs his stash of socks to remind him that everything will be all right.”

  “I feel so sorry for the folks who’ve lost their homes and possessions, but I’m glad we didn’t have any deaths.” Hud picked up her suitcase and gently closed the door behind them as they left. He set the baggage down at the bottom of the steps. “I’m going down to the basement to turn off the electricity and water. Maybe you’d better wait on the porch. It’s going to get dark real soon, and there’s lots of glass on the floor.”

  She stood in the middle of the foyer and looked around. A tornado truly was a weird thing when it could shake a house like an earthquake and not break a window. The sun peeked out from behind closed doors every so often, and provided a little bit of light in the house, but that was gone in a flash.

  “I thought you’d be outside,” Hud said when he was back in the foyer.

  “I was trying to figure this tornado thing out.” She removed a yellow coat from the rack as they went outside and tossed it the backseat of his truck on top of her suitcase. A small giggle escaped as she did so. “That coat reminds me so much of…”

  “Luna coming to the police station?” He finished the sentence for her.

  “I shouldn’t be laughing when we’re surrounded by such horrible destruction,” she said.

  He tipped up her chin for a long kiss. “Probably not
, but I get tickled every time I think about Luna blasting into that police station.”

  “Maybe we’ve got that memory to help us get us through this mess.” She shivered in spite of his arms around her.

  “I’ve heard them called an act of God, but right now we need to get you out of this cold wind.” He helped her get settled in the passenger seat.

  Her phone rang before he could even get the engine started. She removed her hospital badge from the pocket of her jacket and answered it.

  “Hello, Aunt Molly,” she said.

  “Is Chester all right?” Molly asked.

  “He’s fine. I put him in my bedroom. I’m staying with Hud tonight, but something is strange about the B&B. No windows are broken and yet it looks like the house was shaken—almost like an earthquake.”

  Molly chuckled. “That’s a tornado for you. They’re bat-crap crazy. The Fab Five and I are at the airport. We’ll be home tomorrow evening. Got a couple of layovers, but if we make all our flights, we’ll be there by suppertime. Long as you and Chester are all right, everything is good. They’re calling for us to board now. See you soon.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow night then?”

  “Yes, you will,” Molly said.

  Hud started the engine and headed out of town.

  He made the turn to go toward the ranch and laid a hand on her shoulder. “It’s been a long day, and I’m starving. While you take a shower, I’ll hustle us up some food.”

  “Thank you, again, for everything.” She covered a second yawn with her hand. “I felt so sorry for those folks in the hospital. I wished I could do more.”

  He parked the truck, and she got out without waiting for him. Red met her on the porch and followed the two of them into the house.

  “Nikki said you were a big help, and she was going to yell at you again if they needed someone with your skill set.”

  “I’m always glad to volunteer.” Rose set the computer case on the floor inside the door and took the bag from him. “I’ll only be a few minutes, and then I’ll help you cook, but you’ll have to tell me what to do.”

  “I’m just going to heat up a can of chili and make us Frito chili pies. They’ll taste pretty good on a cold night like this,” he said. “And there’s rocky road ice cream for dessert.”