Carolyn Brown - [Spikes & Spurs 07]

by Cowboy Seeks Bride

  “Not just every man on the trail gets to go to the bathroom with me,” she said to the donkey as she looked for a secluded spot and checked for spiders and snakes before she dropped her jeans.

  Eeyore stood watch ten feet from her. The creek barely moved. Cows lined the edge with some wandering right out into the ankle-deep water.

  Haley finished and joined Eeyore, slung an arm around his gray neck, and hugged him. “I wanted a bath tonight, but look at that water. Evidently they didn’t get the rain we did or the creek would be running beautiful.”

  She sighed and scratched the donkey’s ears before going back to camp. When she emerged from the trees the cowboys were gathering around the supper pot, plates in hand.

  “What smells so good?” she asked.

  “Quail that Rhett shot today with some dumplings and potatoes thrown in the pot,” Coosie said. “We’re gettin’ thin on supplies so I’m going make a trip into Kingfisher soon as we eat. That’s why I didn’t unhitch the horses yet. Way I figure it is we’re only about a mile from town and Walmart shouldn’t be far from any place I come out on the road. If anyone is in need of something, make me a list.”

  Haley dipped up a plate full of food and sat down on her bed. “Thank you to whoever fixed my bedroll.”

  “That would be Dewar. That old donkey follows you around like a dog,” Finn said with a motion toward the herd.

  Eeyore hung back with the cows, but he kept a steady eye on Haley.

  “Never had a dog, so I wouldn’t know,” she said.

  “Never?” Sawyer asked.

  “No, or cat or anything that had fur. Only time I got to play with kittens or puppies was when Momma took me to Louisiana to visit our relatives,” Haley said between bites.

  “Why?” Sawyer asked.

  “Daddy is allergic to dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, and any fur-bearing animal like horses and cows. He never went to Louisiana with us because all Momma’s folks have animals. They live out of town near the bayou and there’s dogs and cats everywhere on the sugar plantation.”

  Coosie hefted himself up into the buckboard. “Anyone got a list? I’m leavin’ in two minutes. Soon as I get this rig turned around and headed west.”

  “I need a roll of toilet paper,” Haley said.

  Coosie was gracious enough not to chuckle.

  “I want a big old fat chocolate candy bar. I’m not even particular about what kind. I didn’t realize I was addicted to a candy bar in the middle of the afternoon until we started this trail run. Lord, I miss ’em,” Rhett said.

  Buddy raised his hand. “M-m-me too. I want a candy bar.”

  Coosie pulled a piece of paper from his pocket along with the stub of a pencil and wrote down those items. “TP for Haley. Candy for Rhett and Buddy. Anything else? Speak up or hold your peace because this is the last trip I’ll make for a whole week.”

  Finn held up a hand like a little boy in kindergarten and said, “Twenty-two shorts. One box will do fine.”

  Coosie looked at Sawyer and then at Dewar.

  “Beer. I want a beer. If you got two six-packs we could all have one and draw straws as to who got the others,” Sawyer said.

  Dewar wanted lots of things but they all had to do with Haley. A dozen bright red roses would be a good starter. “I expect you’d best just buy us all a candy bar and maybe toss in a big bag of pretzels or peanuts to go with the beer.”

  Coosie added that to his list and flicked the reins against the horses, turning the wagon toward the west and the road leading into Kingfisher.

  “Why is he taking the wagon? Couldn’t he bring back what he needs on a packhorse?” Haley asked.

  “It would take three or more packhorses. He might as well take the wagon and load it up to suit himself,” Dewar explained.

  Haley looked around at the five cowboys left. “Are y’all in agreement that you aren’t running me off after ten days has passed?”

  Dewar cut his dark green eyes around at her. “Why are you asking that?”

  “Well, if I’ve proved up my ability to keep up then I’d like to get to know y’all better. I thought maybe we could swap stories.”

  “What if we ain’t got stories?” Finn asked.

  Haley looked him right in the blue eyes without blinking. “You are the quietest one of the bunch. You were in the army and you were a sniper. Your smile is tight and I wouldn’t play poker with you. I’d say you’ve got stories.”

  Finn set his plate down. A grin turned up the corners of his mouth but just slightly. “You are driven by your job and demand the same dedication that you give. You’ve had a recent upset in your personal life that bleeds over into your business life and that confuses you.”

  Haley sputtered, “How did you know that?”

  Finn shrugged. “I can read people too. And FYI, I wouldn’t play poker with you, either.”

  “Speaking of playing poker,” Sawyer said.

  Haley threw up a hand. “Whoa! I want more out of psychoanalyst Finn here.”

  Finn finished his coffee and tossed the grounds left at the bottom onto the ground. “You’re proving something to your father, probably that you can do this job even though he should have sent one of the men from the reality committee. You are mad at him for letting someone else sway his thinking. The only thing that would put a wedge between you two is something personal and it’s got you in a twist. Which means it’s probably got to do with a marriage, a divorce, or an engagement. How close am I? You’ve mentioned your mother being a force to deal with so it could be that your father had an affair and/or is thinking of leaving your mother. If you take her side then you could be without a job so you have to prove that you are mean and tough.”

  Haley’s laughter echoed out through the flatlands and Eeyore trotted over to the edge of the campsite to make sure she was all right.

  “So?” Dewar asked.

  Using the back of her hand, she wiped at the tears, glad that she wasn’t wearing her usual mascara and eyeliner. “Part right. Mostly wrong.”

  “Explain?” Dewar’s eyebrows shot up.

  “Okay, you did real well right up to the time you brought Momma into the picture, Finn. I was engaged to Joel, who wormed his way from a minor player in a Hollywood television station to my father’s right-hand man. I thought I loved him and then one day about six months ago I woke up to realize that I didn’t. So I ended it. Daddy did not like it one bit. I think Joel was relieved and had come to the same conclusion I had, so it was a friendly breakup, but he played up the part of the hurt ex to Daddy and now they are big buddies and I’m the one sleeping on the ground and taking baths in creeks.”

  Sawyer smiled. “And your momma?”

  “She told me to follow my heart and not think I had to marry Joel to please my father. And honey, if Daddy ever cheats on Momma, he’d best get ready to like the feel of swamp water all around him. She’s Cajun and she wouldn’t bat an eye at giving him a water burial and putting a curse on his soul for all eternity to boot,” Haley said.

  “So which one are you like?” Sawyer asked.

  “My mother,” Haley said without a moment’s hesitation.

  “But you went into the media business like your father?”

  “I like what I do. At least I did until Daddy hired Joel.”

  Dewar raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

  “He’s egotistical, thinks his way is the only way, and since he lived in Holly-damn-wood, he thinks he knows all about the film industry and I’m just a country bumpkin.”

  “That man ever seen you run off a bunch of cattle rustlers single-handed?” Finn asked.

  Dewar chuckled.

  She pointed a long, slender finger at him. “Don’t you laugh at me. Wait until you meet him. You’ll think I was being nice.”

  “What does your mother do?” Sawyer asked.

  “My mother is the head of the accounting department for the whole conglomerate. She has a staff of dozens and her word is the law. If she says we don’t buy out
this company, Daddy listens to her. She’s got a head for business. He’s got a head for making a business work. They are a team.”

  “Hey, your donkey must’ve decided we weren’t killing you. He’s gone back to the cows.” Sawyer pointed in that direction.

  “You see what he did to that coyote? You’d better think twice before you attempt to kill me.” She laughed. “Now it’s your turn to get under the spotlight, Finn. What made you decide to be a sniper?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Then who did?”

  He sighed. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

  Sawyer poked him on the arm. “It might do you some good.”

  “Okay,” he inhaled deeply and started, “I’ve always been good with a gun.” He hesitated for a full minute before he went on. “I went into the army right after high school to get away from the ranch. Swore when I saw the place in my rearview mirror that it was the last time I’d feed cattle in the cold winter or bale hay in the hot summertime. First time on the shooting range they thought I’d cheated some way so they pulled me out of my bunk in the middle of the night, gave me night vision glasses, and made me shoot again. I did even better and with that many soldiers surrounding me, they knew I didn’t cheat.”

  “Go on,” Sawyer said.

  “So they put me through the psych evaluation and I passed that with no red flags. They put me with a spotter and trained us, sent us over there, and we did our jobs. Trouble is when you come home, it’s still there and it’s not easy to forget.”

  “Kind of like Haley having to work with Joel, right? When she goes back to Dallas, Joel will be there,” Sawyer said.

  “Little more intense,” Finn said.

  Haley refilled her coffee cup. “I’d say a hell of a lot more intense. What you’re going through makes my situation look like a drop of rainwater in the ocean.”

  “Thank you,” Finn said. “They gave us a target and we worked well together. We had a ninety-eight percent effective rate and they offered both of us the moon and half the stars to reenlist.”

  “What was his name?” Haley asked.

  “Who? My spotter?”

  “Yes, what was his name? Do you ever go see him and talk about what all went on?”

  “No, and it wasn’t a him. It was a her and her name is Callie.”

  “A girl?” Sawyer’s eyes popped wide open.

  Finn looked his way. “A pretty woman with black hair and dark brown eyes.”

  “Go on,” Sawyer said.

  “Nothing there. I was in love over there but not with her.”

  Dewar inched over closer to Haley and whispered, “Want to take a walk down to the river?”

  “Not now. Finn needs to talk.”

  “Might as well tell the whole story,” Dewar said.

  Finn opened up and told them about the young woman he’d been in love with and how she’d refused to come to the States with him. “And then she was killed,” he ended his story.

  “I’m so sorry,” Haley said sincerely.

  Sawyer patted his shoulder. “Man, that’s a tough break.”

  “Too bad, m-m-man,” Buddy stammered.

  Rhett slowly shook his head from side to side. “I’m sorry, Finn. That’s just not right. Us O’Donnells are a passionate lot and when we fall, we fall hard and usually only one time in our life, so that’s plain old wrong.”

  Finn’s smile was still tight but his blue eyes weren’t as haunted. “You know, it does help to talk about it.”

  “I want to know why you came back to ranching.” Haley said.

  “I needed peace,” Finn told her.

  They heard Coosie fussing at the horses and saw the light bobbing up and down from the dangling kerosene lantern long before the wagon pulled into the center of the campsite. Buddy jumped up to help Coosie unhitch the horses, brush them down, and turn them out to the thick green pasture.

  Haley could hardly believe that more than two hours had passed since he left or that her heart felt lighter than it had in months. She wondered if talking lifted a brick from Finn’s heart too. Did the cowboy group session do him as much good as it had done her? She hurried back to her bed, found her notebook, and started writing. The contestants should have one evening when they all bare their souls.

  Dewar sat down beside her. “What are you doing?”

  “I got an idea for the show.”

  “Is that all you think about?” he asked grumpily.

  “Right now it’s what I’m thinking about.” She kept writing.

  He got up and went over to the wagon where Coosie was untying the flap on one side. She should say something, but she had to get this brilliant idea on paper. It was one that she’d fight for when they started putting the details into the day-by-day planning for the show. Every contestant should keep one thing about themselves a total secret until the night they told all. Maybe at the halfway mark into the season would be a good time, so it would be a great teaser for all the viewers.

  She looked up when she closed her book to find Buddy leaning on a tree only a few feet away.

  “D-d-dewar likes you,” Buddy said softly.

  “I like him too. I like all of you. I didn’t at first. I only liked you, Buddy, but now I do.” She smiled.

  “But D-d-dewar likes you m-m-more than that,” he spit out in a hurry.

  “What makes you think that?”

  She’d gladly sit through the stammering for an answer.

  “I just know,” he said and walked away.

  All of the cowboys, including Dewar, had gathered around the wagon. Coosie handed Sawyer a bag and Dewar a six-pack of beer. He pulled one free of the plastic tab and handed it to Rhett and kept on until there were only two left. Sawyer gave Dewar two candy bars from the bag and he tucked them into his shirt pocket.

  He carried them over to Haley’s bed and sat down on the tarp. “It’s not champagne and roses, but here you go.”

  He pulled the tab on a beer and handed it to her, then fished the two candy bars from his pocket. “You choose first?”

  They were both Snickers.

  She deliberately brushed her fingers against his palm when she picked one up. “This is even better than champagne and roses. I never thought I’d look forward to beer and chocolate.”

  “Never miss the water till the well runs dry,” he said.

  “That is true in more than beer and candy.” She tore into the candy with her teeth, afraid to set the beer down for fear she’d knock it over, and she wasn’t wasting one drop.

  Chapter 13

  A quarter moon hung in the sky and stars danced all around it. The night air had turned chilly when the sun took its warmth away. They were in flat country again where trees were scarce and the land stretched out on all sides to meet the blue sky. A few scrub oaks and willow trees lined the edges of Little Turkey Creek, and the spring rains had given the creek enough water to make it flow along gently as if it had nowhere to go and all summer to get there. Even though it wasn’t even lukewarm, after the guys were all asleep Haley stripped down naked and eased herself into the water.

  She held her breath until she got used to the water and then quickly bathed, shaved her legs by the light of the moon, and washed her hair. She’d gotten out of the water, shivered as she dried off on her shirt, and had clean underwear in her hand when Eeyore snorted.

  She jumped and tried to cover herself with the shirt.

  Dewar chuckled and stepped out from behind a tree.

  “Good evening. You are beautiful in the moonlight.”

  “How long have you been there?” she gasped.

  “Let’s just say your guard donkey didn’t tell on me for a long time. It’s pretty sexy watching a woman wash her hair in the creek by moonlight.”

  “Any woman or this woman?” she asked.

  He pushed away from the tree and walked toward her. “I’m talking about you, Haley.”

  His voice was deep and husky, want and desire coating every word. He scooped h
er up like a bride and carried her back into the shadows of the trees, sat down on a quilt with her in his lap, and brushed her damp hair away from her neck. He started a string of hot, passionate kisses right below her earlobe. The next one landed on her eyelids, and then his lips found hers in a scorching clash that tightened every nerve in her body. The heat surrounding them warmed her quickly and fried every sane cell in her brain. One moment she was sitting on the quilt with Dewar kissing her, the next they were lying down. Like magic he flipped the edge of the quilt and they were encased in it like it was their own private cocoon.

  The kisses grew hotter and more demanding as his hands roamed her body. She arched against him, felt stiff denim in places where she wanted bare skin, and without breaking the sizzling kisses, she undressed him. One shirt button at a time, taking time to run her hands over his broad muscular chest before she unbuckled his belt, unzipped his jeans, and released an erection that throbbed in her hand.

  “Your hands feel like cool silk against me,” he murmured in her ear.

  “And this,” she squeezed, “feels like hardened steel.”

  She flipped over until she was on top and then rose up, a knee on each side of his body. She guided him inside and then put a hand behind her on his thigh and started a slow motion.

  “God, Haley…” he groaned.

  “Even though I like the idea of you thinking I’m a god or goddess, I’m not, darlin’,” she said.

  His hands circled her waist. “Right now you couldn’t convince me of that.”

  “Do you like this?” she asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said.

  She bent forward to taste his lips and he rolled to one side with her, taking over the thrusts and turning up the heat level of the kisses from sizzling to searing. She opened her eyes and the stars were like lightning bugs dancing around the moon.

  “Dewar, this is spectacular,” she whispered.

  “And so are you.” His face had a full day’s dark growth on it, just enough scruff to tickle her cheeks, and then he whispered, “You are so sexy I can’t keep my eyes off you in the day and I dream about you at night.”