High-Riding Heroes

by Joey Light

  The child brightened and ran up the steps from the living room, into a hall, and up a wide sweep of staircase, the banister just calling for Victoria to slide down. She remembered doing that at home every time she thought the coast was clear…and getting caught more times than enough.

  Katie’s room was large, too, with windows opened to the front drive. Lacy curtains billowed in the breeze. Beneath a ton of stuffed animals stood a double bed with a ballerina spread and a canopy on top. A miniature table with chairs was set with tiny teacups and a pot. Raggedy Ann patiently waited for her playmate to return and join her. Toy boxes, overflowing to the ridiculous, lined the walls papered in Disney characters.

  Katie jumped on her bed and pushed a switch on a box nearby. Victoria recognized the voice. It was Wes singing “Hush Little Baby.” A surge of passion pushed through her heart. What a lucky little girl to have a father so attentive and loving. And his voice was beautiful. And the fact that he had actually taken the time to record this, to be sure his little girl had part of him even when he couldn’t be there, left her mind reeling. She had thought she was beginning to know this man. She hadn’t even pierced the surface.

  “When Daddy can’t be here at bedtime, I play this. It’s not as good as when he’s here though. Daddy has to work sometimes.” She was tapping the toes of her black patent leather shoes together.

  “All daddies have to work, Katie. But I know he’s here with you when he can be. He loves you very much.” Victoria sat on the bed beside the sweet little girl.

  “Does your daddy work all the time?” Katie asked, large eyes round and deep brown.

  Victoria picked up one of the stuffed animals, a fat fuzzy bear with black eyes and a sleepy smile. Hugging it to her without even realizing it, she told Katie, “My daddy is dead, sweetheart. He died when I was a little younger than you. So see, you’re a lucky little girl. Even though Daddy has to work, you can always see him later.”

  Mrs. Cooper watched from the doorway. It did her heart good to see Katie warming up to this woman. Wes had never mentioned her but she had seen the way her son looked at this one. And she liked her. Hope sprang in her aging heart. Maybe soon Katie would have a real family.

  “I don’t have a mommy.” The child was tiring and she laid her head back on the animals and stuffed a thumb in her mouth. “Would you be my mommy?” The child’s words nearly moved Victoria to tears.

  Mrs. Cooper saved Victoria from trying to come up with an answer to that one. “Come on, little one. Let’s show Victoria the rest of the house. We have guests to entertain and cookies to put faces on.”

  Katie made a move to take Grandma’s hand, but before she did, she reared up on her knees and threw both arms around Victoria’s neck and laid a sloppy, wet kiss on Victoria’s cheek. It knocked the wind out of her. Such an abandoned display of affection for a virtual stranger. This child missed her mother more than Wes could know. She made a mental note to talk to Wes about it, even though it was none of her business. How could a person be untouched by the situation after spending time with these people?

  And Grandma knew, Victoria thought as Mrs. Cooper took Katie’s hand and patted her on the shoulder at the same time. Victoria followed Mrs. Cooper and Katie on a short tour of the other rooms, one being Wes’s. She had only glanced in as they walked down the hall but that had been amusing. It was messy. Jeans hung from the bedpost; a dirty shirt was pitched across a chair.

  An ashtray on his nightstand was overflowing. The bed was made crisply, patchwork quilt serving as a spread. Victoria bet it wasn’t the work of J. Weston Cooper but that of his mother. He liked four pillows on his bed. She hid a smile and followed the pair in front of her. She smiled and turned in a circle, sending her skirt flying about. Skipping to catch up, she finished the tour of the house with them.

  Chapter Five

  After the tour of the house, they ended up in the kitchen. Katie hadn’t forgotten the gingerbread cookies and enlisted Victoria’s help in putting smiley faces on them. Aprons tied around their party clothes, the two females laughed as Victoria squeezed icing into the shape of large, wide-open eyes and Katie put freckles on her cookie face.

  Mrs. Cooper left them there to see to her guests, smiling over her shoulder as she went out.

  Later, Katie and Victoria went in search of Wes. They spotted him under a shade tree, hat thrown on the grass. Leaning back in a wooden lawn chair, he strummed his guitar and sang to the delight of several people who sat on the ground or lounges in a circle around him.

  The day was wearing on and the sun was setting low in the sky. Streaks of orange and gray rolled over the top of fields of ripe green grass, white fences dotting the landscape and surrounding grazing horses of all colors and sizes.

  Wes saw them coming. He almost tripped over the words of the song he had written recently. Catching himself but keeping his eyes on the two of them, he continued with what he thought pretty much explained his feelings.

  Cool spring breezes swirling around

  First grass rising through new-thawed ground

  Like the budding trees and the sun’s warm kiss

  There’s a lady who’s a part of this.

  Blue jeans, boots, and windswept hair

  Horses, trucks, and open air

  Strong when needed, yet fine and fair

  To my mind, she’s the finest kind of lady.

  He saw only Victoria…and his daughter. They were hand in hand, both females’ mouths going at the same time. And smiles, big smiles on their faces.

  “Daddy’s singing his new song.”

  Victoria stopped walking and listened…and watched as Wes sang the words directly to her.

  Victoria’s hair tossed with the wind; Katie’s pigtails bobbed at her shoulders. A warm surge of pride and passion moved through Wes.

  And it was then the thought struck him. Could his feelings, the ones that were growing bigger by leaps and bounds, be what they were for his daughter’s sake? Could he be thinking of how much better off Katie would be with a mother in residence…and that Victoria would be a good one? No, that was impossible. He had become hardened but was not yet granite.

  That disturbed him to the point where he tripped over his words and his fingers fumbled with the strings. He set the instrument aside. “Gentlemen, I see two beautiful women who need my immediate attention. I’ll see you all later.”

  He didn’t miss the admiring glances Victoria received from his friends. He didn’t miss the swell of emotion that rose in him. When had all this started? He didn’t know. Was he truly intrigued by Victoria for himself or for Katie? He wasn’t certain. But it was something he was going to take the time to explore. Victoria intrigued him, had interested him from day one. If all he had in mind was his daughter, he had better find out and be done with it.

  Victoria let go of Katie’s hand and watched as the girl flew to her father, to be lifted and put up on his shoulders. Wes let out a yell when she playfully covered his eyes with her small hands, and he pretended he was about to fall. Katie squealed, moved her hands up to his forehead, and hollered, “Horsey, Daddy, horsey.” Wes broke into a sloppy gallop and ran off across the yard with her. Victoria hadn’t missed the words of his beautiful song or the tone or the way he had looked at her. At her core, she felt the heat, in her stomach she sensed the flutter.

  Victoria wandered through the crowd talking and exchanging hellos with a lot of people. She ended up sitting on the sidelines of a volleyball game, watching. The watching lasted only ten minutes. Hiking her skirt up above her knees and tying it, she joined in. It had been years, but it came back soon enough. It was her turn to serve and she popped the ball across the net with a powerful bam.

  Dessert was being served now and in answer to the cook’s triangle most everyone went back to the tables to indulge in strawberry pie, butterscotch with graham cracker crust, and every kind of iced cake in the free world. Some people refused to get out of the pool long enough to eat and splashed and swam and jumped f
rom the diving board. She wished she had brought her bathing suit.

  The last time she had spotted Wes he was again surrounded by a crowd of people, Katie jumping around at his side. They seemed to seek him out. The people. And there were a lot of important people here. She heard talk about politics, schools, and the community as a whole.

  Popular. J. Weston Cooper was a popular man whose opinion was sought…and highly respected.

  Feeling masculine hands on her shoulders, she looked around to see him standing behind her.

  Wes saw she had strawberries and whipped cream on her lips. Sweet. Tempting. Inviting. Bending down, he removed them with his own mouth. The touch of her…No, he wasn’t interested in this lady because of Katie. It was all for him. Just him.

  “I didn’t think to tell you to bring a suit but we have plenty of extras in the house. Mom will show you if you ask her. Ummm. That’s good. Pass the pie.”

  All she could do was grin at him. It hadn’t even embarrassed her that he would kiss her in front of all these people, small a kiss as it was. A few minutes later, Katie wiggled up on the seat between them, swinging her little feet over the edge of the bench, grinning up at them.

  Late afternoon rolled into evening. The dance music changed from square dancing tunes to slow ballads. Full and sleepy, Victoria leaned her head on Wes’s shoulder and let him lead her across the dance floor. On his other shoulder rested his daughter’s tired little head. She was nearly asleep. Victoria was nearly in love. Her heart beat hard against her chest. The warm, loved, and protected feeling that enveloped her was so new and so long waited for. She had a lot of questions about all of this. But now was not the time for thinking. Just enjoying. She sighed and Wes pressed a kiss to her hair.

  The sweet music floated all around her. Beneath her cheek, Victoria could feel the soft cotton of Wes’s shirt smoothed over his hard shoulder, the muscles flowing as he moved. Wes brought his hand to the middle of her back and pressed her closer. She yearned to snuggle against him, wanted all of her body to be pressed against all of his body. Wanted him alone in some shadowy place…

  The hayride was announced for the children over a loudspeaker.

  Katie’s head came up wide awake and she grabbed her daddy around the neck. “Let’s go, Daddy, you promised.” Victoria snapped out of her daze and stepped back, smoothing her skirt.

  She didn’t miss Wes’s amused and happy stare.

  “That I did, Katie my girl,” he agreed readily and forced his gaze from Victoria back to his daughter.

  He held Victoria’s hand as they piled onto the wagon and soon they were all leaning back against bales of hay singing “Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” Victoria had never been happier in her life. Wes leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. Katie giggled and hid her face in her father’s shirt. Wes had hold of Katie’s hand and with the other closed his fingers over Victoria’s. Such a natural gesture. A sweet, spontaneous move. Victoria sighed inside to think she had missed all this. This was the way a man and a woman should feel. Between the mindless excitement should be the contented, kick-back-in-the-sunshine feeling.

  Later, they tiptoed through the darkened house and into Katie’s room. On her dresser, next to the small lamp Victoria turned on, was a picture of Wes and Katie and Katie’s mother. She was a beautiful woman. She turned to watch as Wes pulled Katie’s dress over her head and then, because she was so limp and sleepy, simply slid the stuffed animals aside and put her beneath the sheet in her underwear, pulled the ballerina spread up, and leaned forward to kiss her soft cheek. Then he sat back and for just a moment watched her as she slipped away with the sandman.

  So this was where he went off to every evening. Victoria’s heart swelled. He was such a good man. Gentle and thoughtful, rough and tumble.

  They left Katie sleeping and walked to the head of the stairs. Victoria couldn’t help it. It was just too good a

  banister and too good a curve at the end to resist. Gathering her skirts, she put a leg over and let go. It was a swift, highly polished ride to the bottom.

  She jumped, expertly, to the floor, laughing at having made at least fifteen miles per hour.

  She glanced back up and saw Wes standing there looking at her as if he’d never seen her before. “Come on. Surely you remember how,” she teased him.

  “I was a lot younger and healed much faster.”

  “You break horses, jump from tall buildings, and heaven only knows what else and you won’t slide down? I don’t believe it. Come on before someone catches us.”

  He hesitated only a moment. Climbing on and holding his booted feet up in the air, he came down faster and with a heavier thud than she did. Rubbing his posterior, he laughed. “Gets hot.”

  Without thinking, she batted at the back of his jeans. When he caught her wrist and held her hand against the label of his back pocket, she drew her breath in. Then he took that hand and brought it to his lips, to linger there. “Thank you. My daughter enjoyed your company. I did, too.”

  The hallway was dimly lit by turned-down electric candelabra. It was an eerie sort of yellow light that seemed to lock them in a haze. When she looked into his eyes, she thought that she had never felt this way before. Never.

  “Your daughter is a delight. You’ve done a good job with her.”

  “My folks have played a big part.”

  “Of course.” She quivered as he locked one arm around her waist and pulled her against him.

  “I know you feel it, too. You know what’s destined to happen between us.” His baritone voice flowed across her ears.

  “Oh, I think destined is the wrong word.” He had his fingers beneath her chin, forcing her to look directly at him. It was hard. Too much was eddying around in her mind. She was afraid they were caught up in the intimacy of a little girl’s bedtime, of acting like kids alone in the house, of…what?

  She didn’t know and, once again, didn’t trust herself to know. She backed away from his embrace.

  He glared down at her. “Maybe it is. But just the same we…”

  Putting a hand on his chest, she kept distance between them. “We, nothing at this point. Wes, I like you but…” The feel of him beneath her fingertips nearly took her resolve away.

  “You don’t want to,” he finished for her, dragging a hand through his hair and then hooking his thumbs in his belt to keep from pulling her to him in spite of her wishes.

  “It’s not that. I can’t even tell you what it is since I don’t know myself.”

  “You’re not going to have a choice. I feel…” He chuckled. “Hell, I don’t know what I feel but I will tell you this much. I’ve never had to ask a woman to…dammit. Let’s go.”

  She grabbed for his hand. “Wes. I promised myself that the next time I became involved with a man it would be that I was head over heels in love with the guy. And now I don’t even know if I would know love if I saw it.”

  “If you’re waiting for skyrockets and bombs bursting in air, I don’t think it really happens like that. It sort of sneaks up on you sometimes. Makes itself known in little ways. I think we’re both taking all this way too seriously. It’s late. Let me get you home before you make me go back up the steps and slide down again.”

  Relieved, she laughed and looked up the steps. “It’s tempting.”

  “Oh no, it isn’t,” he said as he guided her toward the door.

  After bidding good night to everyone, Victoria climbed into Wes’s pickup truck. After waves and promises to return again, they headed back out the gates.

  Leaning her head back on the seat, she sighed happily. “Where’s Katie’s mother?”

  Wes was silent a moment. Now his tone was different. Resentful. “Who knows? Who cares? She calls and comes by to see Katie once in a while. Other than that, I don’t know. And I don’t need to.”

  Victoria shook her head. “I don’t understand how a mother could leave a child like that.”

  He shrugged to ease the bitterness. “She didn’t exactl
y leave her. I told her she couldn’t have her. I explained that Katie belonged in a permanent home. She was headed off on the campaign trail with some slick politician. At least she had enough sense to realize I was right. She knows she’s free to come and go here as much as she pleases. She just doesn’t. I have custody, if that’s your question.” He yanked a cigarette out of the pack in his shirt pocket and flicked the lighter to the end of it. The cab of the truck was filled with smoke from his deep draws on the cigarette.

  “I wasn’t doubting that. I can see how much she loves you and it’s obvious you worship her. She is so uninhibited, so free. Her laughter just rolls out and her eyes sparkle.” She was remembering her own childhood. Rules, regulations…love but cool, cool love.

  “At first a lot of people were critical of my insisting on keeping her. Mother’s love and all that. My parents raised me and I like the way they care for her. She’s happy.” He scowled into the darkness.

  “Don’t be so defensive, Wes. Anyone can see she is. I think it’s wonderful. So many times the children are deprived of a father’s love and believe me I know it’s as important as a mother’s. Sharing is a wonderful answer. How long have you and Katie been back at the ranch?”

  “Six months. The divorce was final over a year ago. Her mother doesn’t come by nearly enough. Katie doesn’t understand.”

  In the darkness of the cab of the pickup truck, Victoria reached over and put her hand on his arm.

  “Someday she will. And maybe someday your wife will realize what she’s throwing away. A child couldn’t wish for a better environment. Bring her to work with you sometimes. I’ll keep her company for a while.”

  He braked for a stop light and turned in his seat. “I’d like that. She needs…my mother isn’t able to get out and play ball or run around in the fields…but you could.”

  “Green light,” she told him, because she was very close to leaning closer and kissing that very kissable mouth. He knew loneliness, too. She saw it in his eyes if only for a fleeting second.