Lone Star Cinderella

by Debra Clopton

  “But—”

  “Hey, no discussion. I brought you out here to show it to you. That’s it. And you’re lucky I did that.”

  Melody bit her tongue. The man was intent on reminding her that he didn’t want to have anything to do with this treasure. She was fuming as he hopped to the ground and held his arms up to her. “I can get down from here by myself,” she snapped, grabbing a tree branch to steady herself and proceeding to slip and slide down the rock.

  Seth watched her with a grimace, and she felt foolish for having not taken his helping hands. Especially when she could see her actions had him secretly wanting to laugh!

  Humiliated, she scooted past him and kept on walking. She’d show him that she could hike through the woods with the best of them. As a matter of fact, she’d be back out here tomorrow, and she was going to really start looking for the treasure. She’d show him all right. She should thank him for bringing her out here and showing her the way. But she didn’t. She wasn’t stupid, and if he didn’t want to hunt for the treasure that was his problem.

  “Are you mad at me?” he asked, falling into step beside her as she plowed back the way they’d come.

  “I hardly have the right to be mad at you. This is your property after all. Your map. Your treasure.”

  He was staring at her. She could tell even though she didn’t dare take her eyes off the path—at the rate she was going, to do so would be pure stupidity. But he was watching her, and she knew because the hair on the back of her neck was standing up. She glared back at him. “I can’t believe you brought me out here to yank my chain, to—to dangle the treasure hunt in front of my eyes. You never had any intention of looking for the treasure. Jerk!” She continued stomping uphill.

  “Melody, c’mon. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I was trying to show you how futile it would be. Please slow down. At this rate you could break your neck. There are all sorts of holes—”

  “I’m not going to step in a hole,” she barked. “You think I can’t even walk around out here by myself? Well, I can.”

  He chuckled. “Don’t laugh at me,” she warned, walking faster—stumbling.

  “Melody, I’m sorry I laughed. You just surprised me with your temper. And I never said you couldn’t hike. Would you hold up?”

  He apologized twice, but she was too mad to care. “You’re the one who said it was going to get dark soon. You know you’ve just laid out all the rules. Why is it that everyone in my life sets the rules that I’m supposed to follow? Everyone thinks that they can just tell me what I’m supposed to do and that little ole Melody will just do it! Well, look, buster, I can at least hike through the woods without someone telling me—” Melody halted in her tracks. What was she doing? What had she just said? Her hand clamped over her mouth, and she lifted mortified eyes to Seth.

  His expression was concerned. “You want to explain some of that?”

  She shook her head. What she wanted was for the earth to open and swallow her up.

  “At the risk of being one of those who tells you what to do…I think it might be a good idea.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Why don’t you come in?” Seth said when he pulled to a stop in front of his house.

  “I think I’ll go home. But thank you,” Melody said, reaching for the journal and the map. He’d been quiet the entire drive from the ravine—and so had she. But it didn’t take much to see that something was bothering him. Something was on his mind. She just wasn’t sure if it was treasure hunting or if he was thinking about her outburst. How had her emotions twisted like that? It was such an accusatory statement…somehow in her frustration at him over telling her she couldn’t hunt for treasure she’d brought her personal life into the mix.

  “Can I ask you a personal question?” he asked, his voice gentle, as if worried she’d have another temper tantrum.

  She wanted to crawl under a rock. She did not want to answer a personal question. Oh, how she wished he wouldn’t ask, but how could she say that? “I guess,” she said instead.

  “Do you have a boyfriend?”

  “A boyfriend?” Her heart lunged into her throat. Where had that come from?

  “Yeah, or someone who takes you out on occasion?”

  The wind was rushing in her ears, only the wind wasn’t blowing. Had she been right earlier? She’d thought her aloneness in the dating horizon was pretty obvious. It was mortifying.

  “No,” she said. “No boyfriend. Wh-why?”

  “If someone is bothering you, I’d like to help.”

  The words had her stopping in her tracks. “What?” The word came out in a squeak. This wasn’t about him wanting to ask her out—could she have been any more silly for that thought to cross her mind?

  “Look, I’ve tried to stay out of your business, but the phone calls yesterday and then your statement out there—I can’t stand by and let someone harass you. That’s just not the way I’m wired.”

  She was trembling and probably as red as the rose blooming in the flowerbed beside her. “No, I—I don’t need anything.” Need to hide, oh, yes—for years and years. Need to not shake and keep her eyes down because she couldn’t chance him looking into them and guessing what she’d been thinking. She reached for the journal. “I have to go.”

  He laid his hand over hers as her fingers curled around the journal. “Talking might help.”

  She shook her head and tugged at the journal, her eyes riveted to the strength in his hand. Her mind wondering what it would be like to feel that touch in a caress—stop. Foolish, foolish woman.

  She shook her head. She needed to go before she did something humiliating.

  His hand slid from hers and curled firmly around the journal. He slid it from her grasp. “I think I’ll keep this.”

  “What?” Now she looked at him.

  “I want to read the journal tonight and decide what I want to do.”

  “What you’re going to do? We’re going to look for the treasure. We have to.”

  “Melody, I don’t know if we are.”

  “But—” She was starting to sound like a broken record.

  “I’m going to think about this.”

  Melody had felt frustrated and controlled and foolish all of her life—why should she have thought now would be any different? But this was his property. His map. His choice. Looking at Seth she wanted to scream that he had no right to take this from her. She’d found the map. But she already had him thinking she was half-crazy—that could be why he needed to think about what to do with the map. “Okay,” she said, holding in her frustrations. “But please give it fair thought.” That said, she hurried to her car and drove away.

  “Cole, I’m telling you one last time to get on the phone, call Wyatt and tell him if he doesn’t call me I’m going to hunt him down.”

  “Hold on, Seth.” Cole’s rumbled laughter came across loud and clear on the other end of the phone line. “I already told him. He called yesterday from Greece.”

  “Greece!”

  “His partners needed him to fly over there to meet a client. He said to tell you to calm down. He’ll be back in town next week. But for now he said to chill and to stop worrying about keeping people off your property and out of your life.”

  Seth’s grip tightened. “He needs to mind his own business—”

  “He’s our big brother. You know how he is. Once he gets something in that head of his, he won’t let it go.”

  “What exactly is it he’s gotten into his head?”

  Cole groaned, which didn’t reassure Seth. Growing up, their big brother had thought it was his born duty as the firstborn to lead them whether they wanted to be led or not.

  “Look, Seth, you know as well as I do that he flies by the seat of his pants. When opportunity knocks he takes it.”

  “Yeah, so what are you saying?”

  “I think he met this Melody and he thought she was too sweet to pass up. Look, man, let her do her thing. From what he said she was a real sh
y case. He’s a marshmallow and couldn’t turn her away.”

  “I’ll say he didn’t turn her away! He moved her in, and now everything is in a mess.”

  “Relax, Seth—”

  “Cole, she found a treasure map,” he snapped.

  “Get outta here! For real?”

  Seth leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “For real. It was hidden behind a slat in the hall closet and there’s more. It’s proof that the campfire tales had merit. Grandma Jane documented that they took in a sick man, and before he died he gave them the directions to where he hid some saddlebags of gold coins in a cave in the ravine.”

  Cole laughed then let out a slow whistle as the news sank in. “Man, all those years when we were roaming that place dreaming of finding the treasure and proving the legend was true. So, what does this mean?”

  Seth grunted. “That my quiet country life could turn into a circus.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. We’re talking about a real live treasure hunt.”

  “Yeah, loonies, trespassers and jerks running amok thinking this is a green light for them.”

  “Now, just wait a stinkin’ minute. You were the leader as a boy when we would roam those hills for treasure. Where’s that kid now? I think that’s what me and Wyatt have been wondering about for a while now. What happened to you, man?”

  Seth rubbed his temple. “That went away with my stick horse and my pop gun.”

  “Yep, that’s what Wyatt’s talking about. You need to loosen up, and he thought this was the way to do it…he’ll be as blown away as me when he finds out about this treasure map. Now, tell me about this map and the woman.”

  A vision of Melody played across Seth’s mind. Knowing he’d let her down was eating at him, even though he’d warned her all along. But more than the treasure maps nagged at him, he had to know who had been on the end of those phone conversations that had upset her so much.

  “Seth, you there?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. Melody’s a real nice lady. Real quiet—most of the time. Honestly, she makes you want to give her whatever she asks for. Even take her on a treasure hunt.” It was the truth, and he knew it. He pushed out of his rolling desk chair so hard it shot back and hit the wall. He didn’t even glance at it as he strode to the window and stared out at the darkness. He saw the shadowy shapes of a group of deer hopping the fence between the barn and open ground as they headed toward the hills.

  “Then go for it. What are you waiting for? You and Melody might actually find something out there.”

  “And we might not. I don’t have the time to just go traipsing off into the woods on a wild-goose chase. This ranch is—”

  “Not going to fall apart if you take some time off. That’s why you have those cowboys working for you. Now tell me what the map says.”

  Disgruntled all the more, Seth snagged up the map and read the list. “So, what do you make of it? What would you think the ravine with the matching rocks is? South corner. That’s the start point. I took her out today and showed her the spot we used to camp at.”

  “That might be it. But that’s not really the south corner. Maybe he was talking about the ledge.”

  Seth had thought about that. “Yeah, could be that. But if he was sick, it’d be hard to manage.”

  “You’re right.” Cole chuckled. “See, you’re thinking about it. Come on, man, get with the program. This is fun. Dream a little. You know as well as I do that there was a time when you wanted to find a treasure map. Get out there and make your ancestors proud…at least give it a shot. And take Melody along. She sounds nice.”

  “She is. But something is going on with her. I’m not sure that she doesn’t have a boyfriend who’s giving her trouble. She told me she didn’t, but I overheard her on the phone and she was really upset. And I saw her before and after another phone call, and it wasn’t good. I think she’s scared.”

  “Not good. You think a boyfriend is harassing her?”

  “Can’t say for sure, but I’ve never seen her with anyone round town. But that doesn’t mean someone isn’t in the picture.”

  “Maybe you need to stick close and find out how you can help her.”

  Seth had thought about that. The entire day was filled with red flags on all kinds of problems. “Look, I’ll call you later. You going to make it up for the Fourth?”

  “Maaybe.” Cole dragged the word out. “I’ll have to let you know next week. I might not be able to get away.”

  “Heard that a million times.”

  “Hey, you’re the country boy, remember. Me, I’ve got places to be and people to see.”

  Seth hung up after saying goodbye, but he didn’t head to bed. Instead he sat down and flipped back through the journal he’d been reading, his thoughts fixated on Melody.

  Cole was right when he’d said they used to hunt for treasure. Seth remembered clearly how much dreaming they’d done about that treasure. It had been a long time since he’d been a kid, though. A long time since his thoughts had been on treasure hunting. Even now, it wasn’t the treasure he was thinking about. It was Melody, and what was going on that had her so distressed.

  How could a day so absolutely amazing and exciting end up so terribly? She was mad at Seth, mad at herself and mad at Ty…once again her brother had managed to put a spoiler on her day. Intruding when least expected.

  And Seth…what was the man’s problem? He was a domineering brute! A tease. He’d dangled that ravine in front of her like a carrot—knowingly getting her hopes up. He’d apologized for leading her on, but that didn’t change that he’d done it. Men. He was so clueless because he’d done it after he’d almost made her think he cared about her feelings. And after she’d almost been tempted to tell him about Ty…

  At their insistence, she’d never talked with anyone but her parents about her brother. Before her parents died in the car crash, they’d always said this was a family matter and it should be handled privately. True, they’d talked with various doctors of the rehab centers Ty had been in and out of but never, ever did they talk about it with friends. Though those close to them knew there was a problem, it was just an unspoken agreement that it was not a topic of discussion. But unlike her parents, Melody knew that opinions about Ty were aired. She heard the whispers at church or heard conversations dry up as she’d entered a room. It was tiring. And though she knew she wasn’t the only person out there with a drug-addicted family member it felt like she was. After attending Houston Community College in Katy and getting her degree, she went against what her parents wanted and took the job in Mule Hollow’s rural school. It had hurt her parents that she’d chosen to leave Katy but she’d had to.

  She’d had to distance herself from Ty. In doing so she’d hoped to never mention his name to anyone from Mule Hollow. No one even knew she had a brother…her heart clenched at the thought, but God forgive her she liked it that way. Though it hadn’t really helped with the strain she felt because of him at least she didn’t have to worry about people whispering behind her back. Ty put enough strain on her without having to live with everyone knowing what she was going through.

  So there it was. The truth. She was an accomplished history teacher who was pretending she was someone else. Someone who didn’t have a drug-addicted, alcoholic brother.

  And that was exactly the way she wanted to keep it.

  So why had she almost told Seth? Especially when he was the one who’d made her mad in the first place and ruined her day by causing her to think of Ty even out there in the boonies.

  Calm down, sister, she told herself and took a swig of chamomile tea—she hated the stuff but her mom had believed it calmed a person down. She wasn’t sure it did, but at this point she was willing to try anything.

  That had been yesterday after all, and she had research to do. She took another sip of tea and almost gagged—goodness, this stuff was gross! She gave up and set the cup down. It was time to get to work…work would calm her. Work was where she’d find answers, a
nd work was where she might be able to find some clue as to the identity of the man Seth’s ancestors had gotten the treasure map from. If she could figure that much out, maybe Seth’s curiosity would be roused more and he would agree to the treasure hunt.

  Because Melody had decided something important. Yesterday, she’d turned tail and quietly given up…like the good, passive little girl she’d been taught to be. But today she knew she couldn’t live with that. Nope. She couldn’t…she was on the trail of a piece of American history. Goodness, a fire was burning inside her and she knew no matter what she had to bring out the truth. She had been given a mission…and, by George, she was going see it through.

  Seth Turner was afraid the crazies would come if word of a treasure got out. And he was absolutely right, only, if he didn’t get on board he was about to find out that the first crazy was already here!

  Chapter Eight

  “Melody, girl—we need to talk,” Lacy Matlock called as soon as Melody climbed out of her car the next morning. As usual, the little church parking lot was bulging with cars and trucks. She scanned the group and found the one she was looking for. Seth was here. As she hurried toward her friend, she checked on the various clumps of people visiting on the lawn. When she saw him standing on the edge with a group of other cattlemen, her heart did an aggravating tumble. When his gaze caught hers and held, she suddenly found it hard to breathe!

  She looked away quickly—not exactly the powerhouse of determination she was shooting for.

  “How’ve you been?” Lacy asked, giving her an exuberant hug. Lacy was the local hairstylist who’d moved to town and helped bring the dusty, dying place into the wonderful, welcoming community that it was today. When Melody had come to teach at the school Mule Hollow shared with the small rural communities she’d had to live in Ranger, which was seventy miles away. There wasn’t anything to draw her to live in Mule Hollow. The schoolhouse was twenty miles from town and honestly back then the dead clapboard town was only a place cowboys could love. Sam’s Diner, Pete’s Feed and Seed, Prudy’s Garage and not much else…But that had all changed when Norma Sue, Esther Mae and Adela, the three older ladies who loved their little town, had come up with the plan to advertise for wives for all the cowboys. Why, Melody and the other schoolteachers had been so shocked to see the ad in the paper. And the next thing they knew, almost before the ink on the first ad was dry, Lacy had driven into town in her pink 1958 Cadillac convertible!