Cash yelled across the din again, “That’s my girl. She’s right, Maddie. This is damn fine dressin’.”
Dalton, one of Ace’s younger brothers, joined Maddie and Gemma at their table. “I hear you are giving Trace Coleman a run for his money. Did he think he could just waltz into the rodeo scene and steal the whole show?”
Gemma smiled. “He’s not all that egotistical, but I’m going to win.”
“That sounds pretty egotistical to me.” Dalton grinned.
Gemma slapped him on the arm and kept eating.
He grabbed his bicep and pretended to grimace. “She hit me. She’s mean, Maddie.”
Maddie smiled. “Children, you are supposed to behave at Sunday dinner. After dinner you can go out to the horse barn and duke it out, but be nice at the dinner table. I’m finished, so I’m going to go cut the pies and get out the ice cream for the cobbler.”
“Need some help?” Dalton asked.
Maddie stood up and laid a hand on Dalton’s shoulder. “Thank you, but Ace came over before church this morning and helped get the ice cream ready. We made it by his momma’s recipe using peaches instead of bananas since they’re in season right now.”
“Does Trace Coleman raise horses or just cattle out there in the Panhandle?” Dalton turned back to look at Gemma.
“I have no idea and I’m tired of hearing about, talking about, or listening to people discuss Trace Coleman. I’m the one who is home.”
“Yes, ma’am. Guess you got a soft spot where that rough old bronc rider is concerned.”
“He’s just a cowboy like all of you,” she said.
Maddie sat back down in her chair. “When she wins the title and the money in Vegas she’s going to buy her own piece of land. I’ve got one picked out between us and Henrietta that she’s going to fall in love with the minute she sees it.”
“I’ll pick out my own land when I win!” Gemma exclaimed.
“Well, it just now went on the market and I told Willard Dean that you might be interested so he’s holding it until you win. I haven’t got a problem with you fallin’ for that cowboy, Gemma, but you will live around here when you settle down.”
“And if I don’t?” Gemma asked.
“Marry Dalton,” Maddie said.
“That could be arranged.” Dalton grinned. “I’ve always had a thing for older women.”
“Ouch!” Gemma grabbed her heart as if he’d stabbed her.
“Want me to drop down on my knee right now? That way I’d get the woman and the ranch I’ve been wanting to buy for over a year. I went out to Willard’s yesterday and gave him a bid, but he said he was under a verbal contract until December. You win. You buy the ranch and marry me and we’ll live happily ever after.”
“You are crazy.” Gemma laughed.
“Hey, Dewar, how long are you going to let your sister live in your house?” Dalton yelled above the noise.
“Until I find a wife. They say no house is big enough for two women.” Dewar laughed.
“That settles it.” Gemma laughed. “I can be there until hell freezes over because Dewar is one of those bad boys. He’s not husband material.”
“Oh, finish your dinner,” Maddie grumbled. “Granny’s been talking about you coming home all week so we can play and sing. But put this in your pipe, young lady: you are not getting married to a cowboy who lives that far away. I’ll sabotage the whole thing if I have to. Dalton, don’t take your offer of marriage off the table before December.”
“Ain’t got a woman in mind right now and I’ll gladly marry Gemma to get Willard’s place. Then when she dies I’ll still be young enough to get me a trophy wife to strut around Montague County with.” He laughed.
“Good Lord! You are planning my marriage and my funeral all at one time.” Gemma groaned.
“Well, you are the older woman. You are at least five or six years older than me so you should die before me,” Dalton said. “Maddie, did you say there was peach cobbler to go with that ice cream? I was thinking of another helping of chicken and dressin’, but if there is cobbler, I’m holding out for dessert.”
“There’s pecan pie and peach cobbler. And when is Colleen getting here anyway? I know you made that cobbler and ice cream special for her, Momma.” Gemma pointed to the bowl in front of Maddie.
“Colleen called at midmorning and said they were running late. Something about packing up the carnival this morning. Anyway, she’ll be here in a few more minutes. She said twelve thirty at the latest but not to hold dinner for her,” Maddie answered and held a spoonful of ice cream toward Gemma. “Taste this. It’s always better after it sets up. Just think, you could have this every summer if you marry Dalton, because his momma has the recipe.”
Gemma had no choice but to open her mouth. “Y’all are crazy. I’m not engaged to Trace Coleman. He hasn’t even mentioned marriage, so wiggle around in that seat, Momma, and get your panties out of that wad they’re in.”
Before Maddie could scold her, Colleen and Blaze rushed inside the house.
“We’re here! And Dewar, if you ate all my ice cream, I’m going to whip you all over this yard,” Colleen said.
“Can I sell tickets to the show?” Austin asked.
Colleen stopped long enough to hug her and headed straight for the kitchen.
Gemma pushed back her chair and followed Colleen into the kitchen. “You look good, girl.”
Colleen gave her a quick hug on the run. “So do you! I’m starving. I’ll catch the rest of you later, but if I don’t eat I’ll faint plumb away. That man out there didn’t give me anything but cold funnel cakes for breakfast this morning.”
“She’s not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And where is Trace Coleman? I heard he might be here,” Blaze called out.
“He’s not here and Gemma is going to marry Dalton and buy Willard Dean’s ranch,” Maddie said.
The whole dining room went silent.
“Maddie is teasing,” Dalton said. “I couldn’t marry Gemma. Lord, that would be like marryin’ up with my older sister.”
“I can see I’ve missed something.” Blaze headed for the kitchen. “Hey, don’t you eat all that dressin’, woman. I’ve been waitin’ a whole week to get at your momma’s chicken and dressin’.”
Colleen slung her natural burgundy-colored hair over her shoulder and grinned at her husband. “You’d better hurry up then. And if any of the rest of you want some more dressin’, you’d best shove your way to the buffet because when this man gets started, there won’t be anything left.”
Gemma went back to the dining room and touched her sister-in-law, Liz, on the shoulder. “You done eating?”
Liz stood up. “Sure am.”
“Let’s go on outside and tune up the Dobro and fiddle, then,” Gemma said.
“I’m ready.” She pushed back an empty ice cream bowl.
Leaving the air-conditioning for outside was like stepping from a freezer into a bake oven. By the time she and Liz reached the shade tree where the chairs were set up with the instruments, Gemma’s thin cotton blouse hung limp and stuck to her sweaty body.
“It’s too hot to play out here. The instruments shouldn’t even be sitting in this heat. We need to take this inside,” Gemma said.
“Maddie says we’re playing outside and Granny has looked forward to it all week. And we only brought the instruments out just before you drove up. It’s hot, but it’s coming out of the cool into it that is a bitch. You’ll adjust. Besides, you can’t tell me you haven’t been hot this month, but I got to tell you, Maddie is going to be cussin’ mad if there’s something serious going on with that Trace Coleman. She’s working an angle to get you to buy a ranch close to Ringgold so you’ll be tied to the area. She says she’s not losing you.”
Gemma sighed.
“Pretty obvious, wasn’t she, with all that talk about marrying Dalton? If he was any other cowboy but Dalton Riley, he would have been embarrassed to the bone, but he played along with the
joke pretty damn good.” Liz laughed.
Gemma picked up the Dobro and sat down. Her thighs stuck to the metal chair with a fine layer of sweat as she strummed down across the strings, made adjustments to tune the instrument, and strummed again.
Liz positioned her fiddle on her shoulder and ran the bow down the strings, made an adjustment, and tried again. “She’s been like a cat in hot water ever since you told her about being drugged and sleeping in Trace’s trailer. He’s got a reputation like Blaze had, you know?”
“For what? Being a good bronc buster and bull rider?”
Liz sat down beside Gemma. “No, for womanizing. How is he in bed?”
Gemma blushed. “Reputation don’t always tell the truth.”
“You aren’t going to answer me, are you?”
“Y’all girls gettin’ it all ready?” Granny joined them.
“Saved by the bell.” Liz laughed.
Granny chose the mandolin that afternoon and ran through a few chords on it with Liz and Gemma following her lead. Raylen joined them next and picked up a second violin.
“Okay, before they all get here give me some ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’” Granny said.
“You always ask for that.” Liz grinned.
“And I always will. Someday one of you is going to make a mistake and I’ll declare one of you the best fiddler in the state, but I got to hear it every time so I can be sure it’s still a tie.”
Granny pointed at Gemma. “And you come sit by me while they’re fiddlin’.”
Gemma moved down two chairs and fast fiddling music drifted out across the whole ranch.
Granny patted her on the shoulder. “I told Maddie to let you make your own decisions about where you might settle down and who you will marry or else she’ll regret the whole thing in years to come.”
“It’s not serious, Granny,” Gemma said. “Momma doesn’t need to be trying to buy a ranch for me or worrying about me getting married. I swear, she’s got wedding bells on the brain.”
“Honey, she’s been scared out of her mind about this new feller. She says she hears it in your voice and she ain’t wantin’ both of her daughters to run off to the Panhandle. I ain’t never seen her act like this neither.”
“I don’t know what she thinks she’s hearing, but all I’ve got on my mind is winning this bronc busting event in Vegas,” Gemma said.
Before the song ended the yard had filled up with folks—some picking up instruments, some sitting on quilts. Some leaning against the trees.
Granny yelled out, “Bill Bailey,” and they all started playing at the same time.
When they finished she handed off the mandolin to Raylen who laid his fiddle to one side and fell in behind the rest of the musicians as they played “Red River Valley.” Gemma handed the Dobro to Colleen and sat down on the quilt. Rachel backed up and sat down in her lap. She hugged the little dark-haired girl, loving the smell of baby shampoo and sweaty kid all mixed up together.
“Hey, everyone, we’re here. Don’t start gossip without me.” Pearl waved from the truck. She and Wil each carried a wiggling toddler son with dark hair and more energy than a class-five tornado. They set them down on the edge of the quilt and both boys made a beeline for Rachel, grabbed her by the hands, and pulled.
She left Gemma’s lap and led them to Austin.
“Star?” she said.
“After a while. You and the boys go play in the sandbox.” Austin pointed toward the play area with a sandbox and swing set under the shade of a big pecan tree.
The three kids scampered off to the sandbox and the bright-colored toys sitting along the side.
Liz laid down her fiddle and joined the group on the quilt. She poked Gemma on the leg. “Confession time. Pretend I’m your priest and we’re in two little dark rooms. Now tell me all about Trace Coleman. Has Maddie got something to really worry about?”
“I’m not Catholic, and if you’re a priest, I’m St. Peter.” Gemma laughed.
“I don’t care who is what!” Pearl exclaimed. “What are y’all talkin’ about? What’d I miss? I knew we should’ve told Momma that we couldn’t meet her for Sunday dinner in Bowie. I missed something good, didn’t I?”
“Oh, yeah, you did,” Colleen joined them. “They can play without me. I wouldn’t miss this gossip session for the world. Momma is ready to crucify you.”
“I thought you weren’t going to let any cowboys ruin your game,” Pearl said.
Colleen smiled. “Looks like one is about to do just that, and he lives right out by Claude, so if she hooks up with him she’ll be close to me in the winters. Momma might hate the idea, but I love it.”
“Talk!” Pearl pointed at Gemma.
Liz pointed at Gemma. “Maddie is going to put a chastity belt on you and send you to a convent on a deserted island.”
Gemma put up both palms defensively. “Y’all stop it! He’s my biggest competition. So Liz, your fortune-telling is still in question, and Colleen, don’t get your hopes up that I’ll be living in Goodnight, Texas, when the dust settles in Vegas. Don’t you think if this was really all that serious that he would have invited me to go home with him?”
A short burst of laughter came from Austin’s corner. “Honey, you aren’t fooling me! I’d bet dollars to fool’s gold that it is serious as hell. Why didn’t you invite him here?”
“Because Momma would have a heart attack.”
Maddie laid the Dobro on the chair and started out across the lawn.
“Huh-oh,” Liz muttered.
Maddie settled down right in the middle of all six young women, and Granny drug up a chair at the edge.
“I heard my name,” Maddie said.
“I said that you’d have had a heart attack if I invited Trace Coleman home with me for a week,” Gemma said honestly.
Maddie pointed her finger. “Gemma Irene O’Donnell!”
“I don’t know why everyone keeps pointing at me today,” Gemma said. “I couldn’t wait to get home, but now I wish I would’ve stayed on the dude ranch this week.”
Liz spread her arms out. “Move back, everyone. I’ve been in this family a whole year and I didn’t even know Gemma had a second name. Hell is about to rain brimstone down upon us all.”
“Why did you tell Willard I might buy his ranch? And why were you going on about me marrying Dalton?” Gemma asked.
“She’s right, Maddie. You want her to settle right here in Ringgold and you’re going about it all wrong,” Granny said.
“You don’t get a vote in this,” Maddie told her mother.
Granny laughed. “Hey, I might have done some manipulation in my day, but it didn’t involve buying a damned ranch. Besides, I knew Cash O’Donnell was the man for you. I was right, too. You love Cash and you’ve got five beautiful children. He’s a damn good father.”
Maddie started to point but dropped her hand. “I don’t want you to move away from Ringgold.”
“Momma, don’t be looking at wedding dresses just yet. I think there’s something about a proposal and there ain’t been one yet,” Gemma said.
“Hmmmph!” Maddie snorted. “Your lips are saying one thing. Your eyes say another.”
Granny touched her daughter on the shoulder. “Maddie, don’t worry about how many chickens you got to feed until they hatch.”
The music stopped and Rye smiled at Austin. She stood up and he slipped an arm around her waist. “Hey, everyone, gather around. We’ve got some news.”
Gemma could have kissed her older brother for choosing that moment to make his announcement.
Rye took a deep breath. “Rachel will have a baby sister or brother next March. Right now she says she wants a brother like Jesse and John, but we’ll be real happy with whatever we get.”
It went from quiet to full-blown noise in less than two seconds. Everyone, including Maddie, was busy hugging Rye and Austin when Gemma’s phone buzzed in her hip pocket. Trace Calling showed up on the screen, so she carried it away from the noise a
nd sat down in Grandpa’s rocking chair on the front porch.
Trace’s voice was even deeper over the phone, and she wished she was lying beside him in his bed.
“I miss you. Are you okay?”
“I keep tellin’ you I’m tough, but my momma is trying to force me into buying a ranch in Ringgold. I wish I’d stayed on at the dude ranch.”
Trace chuckled. “I don’t hear music. I thought y’all were playing music this afternoon.”
“Austin and Rye just announced that they are having another baby in March so they’re getting all the attention, thank God!”
“Call me if things get too hot and we’ll go to Dodge City early.”
“Will do,” she said.
***
Trace pulled into the yard in front of his house on the Coleman ranch just as Teamer came out onto the porch. He shaded his eyes with his hand and then waved at Trace. “Come on in out of the heat, son. Sunday Supper is near to bein’ ready, and the boys are washin’ up. Thought I was going to have to come get you.”
Trace turned Sugar loose and she took off like a streak toward Teamer. He scooped her up while her legs were still churning and got a face full of doggy licks for his welcome.
“That old cowboy ought to leave you here with me when he goes off on his trips. Goodness only knows he don’t take care of you right while you’re out there on the road,” Teamer crooned.
“She’s spoiled rotten.” Trace laid a hand on his uncle’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Trace, I got something to say but not tonight. We are goin’ to talk about this ranch while you are home, so you might as well get ready for it, son.”
Trace chuckled. It was good to be home, and his uncle could talk and he’d listen. That didn’t mean he’d obey.
“I’m hungry. I missed Louis’s cookin’.”
Teamer was tall and lanky, sinewy but strong-looking, had a mop of gray hair that always needed trimming, and clear blue eyes that could cut steel when he was angry. “Hey, boys, he’s here. Time to put it on the table.”
Trace smelled grilled steaks when he followed Teamer into the house. “Louis did do the cooking tonight, huh?”
Louis carried a platter piled high with steaks into the dining room and set them on the table. He was a short, stocky cowboy with bowed legs and a spare tire around his middle right above his belt. His face was as round as his body and his thick gray hair cut close to his head.
Just a Cowboy and His Baby (Spikes & Spurs) Page 19
