Cowboy Courage: Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  She made it to the liquor store in Bowie five minutes before they closed, then managed to check into a hotel without crying. When she got up to her room, she slid down the back of the door, drew her knees up to her chest, and let it all out in wracking sobs. She’d been a complete fool to think that Hud could ever love her. That “out of sight, out of mind” saying had definitely been true. She’d been gone six days, and he was already shacked up with another woman.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The hangover the next morning was far worse than the one she’d had when she and her aunt had had the wake for a man neither of them even knew. Just the air conditioner clicking on sent sharp pains shooting through her head. With a night and half a bottle of whiskey behind her, she couldn’t get that vision of the spare bedroom going dark out of her head. Hot tears ran down her cheeks and soaked the hotel pillow. She needed to eat, yet the thought of putting food in her mouth made her gag.

  Still, she couldn’t wallow in self-pity any longer. So, you’ve been played, she told herself. Just suck it up and get on with your life. But she’d have to face Hud first.

  She made herself get out of the bed, take a shower, get dressed in clean jeans and a shirt, and go to the hotel dining room for breakfast. When she’d downed two cups of coffee, and taken two aspirin, she had a waffle and a plate of scrambled eggs. Her head still pounded, but at least she could stand a little bit of light.

  When she turned on her phone, she saw fifty-two messages—several from Aunt Luna, a couple from Molly, and forty-one from Hud.

  She read Aunt Luna’s first. She and Echo were worried about her, since she hadn’t texted them to say she’d arrived in Sunset. Luna threatened to call Highway Patrol in every state of her route if Rose didn’t respond ASAP. Aunt Molly’s messages were both dated after midnight the night before. She too was worried and had even called Hud to see if maybe Rose had stopped out there and forgot to message.

  Rose sent Luna a text saying that she’d gotten in late and gone to a hotel in Bowie, that she was fine, and she’d call her sometime tomorrow. Then she sent Molly one that said all was under control.

  She didn’t want to talk to Hud or read whatever messages he’d sent. She cried every time she thought about him, and she sure didn’t want to see him. She tossed her phone over on the bed and picked up the morning paper, and right there on the front page was a big bold headline: COWBOY SHOWS COURAGE SECOND TIME.

  The picture wasn’t sharp, but there was no doubt it was Hudson Baker, carrying a little boy with a kitten clutched in his arms out of a burning trailer house. The story said that on Monday evening, a trailer had caught on fire in southern Montague County, and Hudson Baker of the Sunset Volunteer Fire Department had been a hero for the second time in only a few weeks. Little Lucas Swisher and his mother had gotten safely out of the trailer, but Lucas had run back inside to get his kitten. Fireman Baker had dashed in to bring the child to safety seconds before the trailer had exploded.

  Millie Swisher, the little boy’s mother, told firemen that her husband, Josh, was coming home the next day from a six-month deployment to Kuwait, and that they’d planned to move to Oklahoma. The story went on for another three or four inches, praising the firemen and their ability to put the blaze out quickly, even though it had spread to the mesquite trees that surrounded the trailer.

  “He used to be my courageous cowboy,” she muttered.

  She sucked in a lungful of air and picked up her phone, expecting to read a message from Hud that told her he had found a new woman. Sorry, Cactus Rose, but I’m not ready for a lifetime commitment.

  Instead, the messages told her that he wished she was there, that he’d put out a fire that night, that he brought the woman and her son and his kitten to the ranch until her husband arrived home the next day—which would be today.

  Her brain was totally scrambled as she tried to sort through the emotions. While she was still holding her phone, it rang and startled her so badly that she threw the thing halfway across the room. She stared at it as if it were a fire-breathing dragon until it went to voice mail.

  His deep drawl came through so clear that she could’ve sworn he was sitting beside her on the bed. “Rose, darlin’, where are you? Luna has called three times this morning, and Molly has called twice. They said you left Kentucky before noon on Sunday. You should have been here by now. Please, please call me. I’m worried out of my mind.”

  She continued to stare at the phone. How could he be worried when he’d gone to bed with another woman the night before? Seconds passed, and then minutes, before she crossed the room and picked up her phone, which now had a long crack down the face.

  “Good God!” She fell back on the bed when she realized what had really happened. The woman had been giving Hud a thank-you hug for saving her child’s life, like any good Texas lady would do. She and the little boy were sleeping in the guest room, and the mother had turned off the light, and Hud had gone on to his room at the end of the hall.

  She checked the timing of the messages and saw that the one had come in right after she’d seen the lights go out. It said: I’m lying here in bed wishing you were next to me. I miss you so much.

  If only she had read her messages instead of letting stupid imagined scenarios color her judgment, she might not have a hangover this morning. But oh, no! She’d let her own insecurities and worry about her past get in the way and had jumped to the wrong conclusions.

  She called him without even thinking about what she’d say. He answered on the first ring. “Are you all right? What happened? Talk to me, darlin’.”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “I’d rather tell you in person, alone with just the two of us in the room. Has your company left yet?”

  “Yes,” he answered. “I’ll be waiting with open arms whenever you can get here.”

  You may not want to hug me when I tell you what I have to say, she thought as she ended the call.

  * * *

  Hud paced the floor in the living room for fifteen minutes. When the fifteen minutes had passed, he put on his coat and went outside to wait for her. The sky was completely gray, as if it could either rain or drop a foot of snow at any minute. Could that be an omen? Was he about to have his heart broken by the same girl twice? Once, when she moved away, and now when she went back to the commune?

  He heard the car before he saw it and didn’t even realize he was holding his breath until she got out of the vehicle and started toward him. It all came out in a whoosh, leaving a cloud of vapor like a huge puff of cigarette smoke in the cold air. True to his word, Hud opened his arms.

  She stopped at the bottom step and looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. “I don’t think I deserve a hug until you hear me out, and then you can decide. Can we go inside where it’s warm? I’m freezing, and I have one helluva hangover.”

  “Of course.” He nodded as he opened the door for her. “Why do you have a hangover?”

  “It’s a long story, but if we’re ever to have a relationship, I have to start out on an honest foot,” she told him.

  “What have you done so bad that you had to tie one on before you could tell me? Had a fling with someone at the commune?” He followed her into the living room, wondering the whole time if he could forgive her if that was the case.

  “No, never!” She slumped down on the sofa. “I didn’t trust you. That’s my big sin. I judged you without even giving you a chance to explain, and I’m so sorry, Hud.”

  “Go on.” He sat down beside her and took her hand in his.

  She told him about every detail of the previous day—how she’d planned to surprise him and what had happened when she arrived at the ranch. “I turned my phone off at noon yesterday. I didn’t want to be tempted to answer it while I was driving, and I wanted to surprise you.”

  “Whew!” He wiped his forehead. “I thought you were going to tell me you’d found another guy at the commune, and you were going back there. This ain’t nothing, honey, but a misunderstanding.” He move
d closer to her, raised her chin with the back of his hand, and looked deeply into her bloodshot eyes. “Darlin’, as long as we’re honest with each other, we’ll be fine.”

  Her arms snaked up around his neck and tugged his lips down to hers in a steamy, hot kiss. “Just hold me, Hud. I want your face to be the last thing I see every night and the first thing I see every morning.”

  “I think I can manage that just fine.” He scooped her up like a bride, carried her down the hall into his bedroom, and kicked the door shut with his heel.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Rose stood in the middle of the little garage apartment and closed her eyes. She wanted to feel like this was the right place and not just take it because it was convenient. Molly said that Nikki had lived here for several years before she moved into a cabin over on Longhorn Canyon.

  The apartment had a tiny living room, a galley kitchen barely big enough to be called a kitchen, and a bedroom. She could buy a small table to work on, set it right there in the kitchen, and it would be just fine, but it didn’t feel right. Maybe she had too much of Luna in her and not enough Molly. Emotional versus practicality. Mind over matter. She had never even considered her heart when she made her decisions before, but now it seemed to be the most important thing. Evidently, Luna had made more of an impact on her than she realized.

  Rose tried to imagine furniture put here and there, but it still didn’t seem like the right place for her. She walked out, went down the stairs, and returned the keys to the sweet little lady who owned it.

  “Do you like it?” the woman asked.

  “Very much, but I’ve got another one to look at. I’ll call you this evening and let you know one way or another,” Rose said.

  Two apartments later, and none of the three felt right. Why couldn’t that third time is the charm thing work for her that day? She drove to the Dairy Queen and ordered an ice-cream cone, sat in a booth with a notepad, and wrote down the pros and cons of each place.

  She was down to the cone part of the ice-cream cone when her phone rang. Thinking it was Hud, and he’d have some insight into which place she should rent, she answered it without even looking at the caller ID.

  “I’ve looked at three apartments and I don’t like any of them.” She almost groaned.

  “Good,” a female voice said. “This is Emily. My brother dropped by today and said that you were looking at apartments. I’ve got one more for you to check out before you decide. If you’ll drive out here to Longhorn Canyon, I’ll be glad to show it to you.”

  “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Rose slid out of the booth, dumped the rest of her ice cream in the trash on her way out, and sent up a silent prayer that this place would be the right one. It had been dark when she and Luna had gone to Emily’s house for Paxton’s going-away party. She wasn’t sure how to get there in the daylight, so she called Emily when she turned into the lane leading up to the house.

  Emily answered on the first ring. “I’m sitting at the ranch house in a red car. Just follow me. The path might get a little bumpy, so we’ll go slow.”

  “I see you. See you there.” Rose ended the call and tossed the phone over on the passenger seat. She began to wonder if Emily was teasing her when they drove past a huge barn, and a mile down the road, she still hadn’t seen an apartment of any kind. The trees in this area were small and gnarly, not at all like the sugar maples, sweet birch, poplars, and beautiful magnolias in Kentucky. The land didn’t have hills and hollers, but somehow it felt the same.

  The road curved to the left and Emily pulled up in front of a rustic cabin. She got out of her car and stood beside it. Rose turned off the engine, opened her car door, and sat staring at the cabin. Wagging his tail so hard that it was a blur, Red came from the porch to greet her.

  “He was just a pup when he showed up over on my brothers’ ranch, and in those days, Tag lived here in the cabin, so Red thinks both places are his home,” Emily explained. “The door is always open, but I have the key right here. We’ve never charged rent because only family and very close friends have lived in it, so it’s yours if you want it. I thought it might be a nice quiet place for you to work.” She pointed to her right. “That barbed wire fence separates our ranch from my brothers’. If you were standing on top of the cabin, you could be able to see Hud’s house. It’s less than a quarter mile as the crow flies, but if you’re driving, it’s maybe three miles.”

  “Can I go inside now?” Rose asked.

  “Of course!” Emily handed off the key and started back to her car.

  “Aren’t you going in with me?” she asked.

  “Nope.” Emily smiled. “You need to see it and get a feel for it without anyone around. I will tell you that it’s got a reputation, though. Justin and I lived in it before we married. Levi and Claire met here, and Tag and Nikki lived here. We all believe that the place has magical love powers, and it is pretty close to Valentine’s Day, so you might get a double dose of Cupid’s power.”

  “Aunt Luna would love that story.” Rose smiled. “Thank you so much, but I don’t expect miracles.”

  “Neither did I.” Emily laughed as she got into her car. “Call me when you decide.”

  Rose nodded as she walked up on the porch. When she swung the door open she was surprised to see that the cabin was furnished. She reached for the light switch, but there wasn’t one. Surely she wouldn’t have to work by candlelight, would she? Then she remembered how the lights got turned on in the place where she and her folks had lived in Louisiana and looked up. Sure enough, there was a string hanging from a bare bulb in the middle of the living area. She crossed the floor, tiptoed just slightly, and got a grip on the wooden spool hanging from the string. When she tugged on it, she had light.

  A sturdy coffee table with dents and dings sat in front of a well-worn brown sofa with a quilt thrown over the back of it. Red bounded inside and sniffed around the fireplace and then looked up at her.

  “I bet you’re used to having a blaze in it, aren’t you?” Rose asked.

  He wagged his tail, jumped up on the sofa, and went to sleep.

  She took a couple more steps and saw four mismatched chairs pushed up under an old wooden table with another light bulb above it. A tiny kitchen area was against the far wall. A king-size bed over to the side was covered with a lovely quilt. She went to the refrigerator and opened it to find a six-pack of beer and a withered apple, but the freezer was packed with roasts, steaks, and even a package of frozen burritos. Dishes were stacked in the upper cabinets, which had no doors, and the lower ones held a few pots and pans, along with a pretty good stock of canned goods.

  She left the cabin, went outside, and looked around. The only noises she heard were a few birds chirping and a squirrel fussing at her from the top of a scrub oak. The place took the best parts of the commune—the sweet freedom and the peace of being away from the world—and set it right down in the middle of a Texas ranch where none of the rules and laws imposed on the folks at the commune applied.

  She noticed firewood stacked up at the west end of the place and figured maybe she’d start a fire to ward off the chill. She picked up her phone and called Emily.

  “So, how do you like it?” Emily asked without any preamble.

  “It’s perfect, but I really have to pay rent. There’s electricity and gas and someone has to put wood out there for the fireplace,” Rose told her.

  “No, ma’am,” Emily protested. “The utilities are tied in with the ranch, and we’d have no idea how much to charge for them. The wood is just the by-product of when we clear the land. We all have fireplaces, so the guys keep us stocked. Have you even seen the bathroom?”

  “No, but I’ll go look at it now.” Rose carried her phone with her.

  “Oh, my!” she gasped when she opened the door to the tiniest bathroom she’d ever seen in life. The toilet and wall-hung sink were on one wall, and a narrow shower on the other.

  “Still want to live there?” Emily giggled. “You shoul
d have seen me in that shower with my height and size.”

  “Of course I want to live here.” Rose told her about how much work she’d gotten done that morning. “I was just surprised. The cabin is small but roomy—I love it here.”

  “The bathroom was the one thing I hated, and I wanted you to see it before you said yes,” Emily said.

  “Do I sign a contract?” Rose asked.

  “Of course not,” Emily told her. “We’re almost family. When you move out, just leave it like it is right now for the next folks.”

  “Thank you seems like so little, but it’s coming from my heart.” Rose could hardly believe her good fortune and couldn’t wait to send pictures to Molly, Luna, and her mother. She could already hear Luna giggling and saying that there wouldn’t be room for Rose and Hud both in that itty-bitty shower.

  “Hud is here, and champing at the bit to know if you like the place,” Emily said. “Want to talk to him?”

  “Just tell him to come be my first visitor,” Rose replied.

  * * *

  Emily had told Hud she was going to offer the cabin to Rose, and he’d been antsy about it all morning as he plowed up the final field, getting it ready to plant alfalfa for a hay crop. He’d been afraid to get his hopes up.

  “I thought she was moving in with you,” Tag said as Hud started for the door.

  “I took your advice and decided it might be too early.” Hud settled his black cowboy hat on his head. “She needs time to adjust to her decision not to reenlist. Besides”—he smiled—“I still know how to jump a barbed wire fence.”

  He jogged out to his truck and drove down the rutted lane to the old cabin and parked behind Rose’s new car. The brittle winter grass crunched under his boots as he started toward the porch. The cold north wind had picked up and practically blew his hat off. He reached up to hold it down and noticed a movement in his peripheral vision. He whipped around, and there was his Rose.