“Damn woman.” Dewar flopped back down.
Haley wiggled down into her bedroll. “Good night, Dewar.”
Chapter 25
Purgatory.
Neither heaven nor hell but the limbo of hanging between awaiting the fate of a decision of a higher being as to whether snatched up into everlasting glory or slapped into the flames of hell.
Haley had never believed a place existed like that, not until they were getting very close to the end of the drive. She awoke that morning to the sounds of men’s voices in the living room and kitchen of the trailer house, to cattle milling about outside and a little gray donkey staring right at her.
She could swear that he was crossing his legs. Not one little pile was on the floor, but he looked miserable. She quickly crawled out of bed and he followed her to the door. When she opened it he bailed outside and romped through the wet grass. He was back in his own world, his cows around him, and everything was right with no clouds in the sky.
It was in that moment that she wondered where her world was and the word purgatory came to mind. Nothing about her or what she did belonged in Dewar’s world. And yet, she had changed since she left Dallas, and she wasn’t totally sure that she belonged in that world anymore either.
“I’ll be okay when I get back into my normal routine.” She went back to her bedroom, folded the edges of the tarp over her sleeping bag, rolled the whole thing up tight, and expertly tied the knots to secure it. A knock on her doorjamb sounded as foreign as the room looked to her that morning.
“This is your wake-up call, M-m-miz Haley,” Buddy said.
She smiled at him. “I’m awake. Breakfast ready?”
“D-d-dex… I mean Coosie says it will be soon.” He grinned. “D-d-did you sleep okay in your little bedroom?”
“Like a baby,” she lied.
She wasn’t announcing that she’d have rather been outside listening to their snores floating across the campsite on the cool spring night breezes or that she had missed seeing the stars twinkling above her as she fell asleep. She couldn’t even come to grips with the idea, much less put it into words.
They were on the trail again by the time the sun was fully up that morning. The rain had left everything a muddy mess, but it also brought a clean smell to the air. Eeyore had glued himself to her side most of the morning, leaving for only a few minutes at a time to check on the cows.
“Coosie,” she got his attention. “I was wondering why Buddy only stutters on certain words?”
“His grandparents raised him after his momma and daddy died. Near as the therapist can figure that’s the reason,” Coosie said.
“I don’t understand. Does he still see a therapist?”
Coosie shook his head. “That was back in our army days. She thought she could help him but nothing helped. He stutters on D, M, V, and R. Daddy. Momma. Vera. Richard.”
“His mother was Vera and his dad Richard?”
“That’s right. I don’t even hear the stutter anymore. And the ladies think it’s cute.”
“What ladies?” she asked.
“Our Saturday night ladies. We usually pick out a bar that’s got some dancing going on for our Saturday nights,” Coosie explained.
“Didn’t either one of you ever want to settle down and raise a family?”
“Oh, we might someday,” Coosie said.
“You got a woman in mind?”
Coosie pointed a finger at her. He tried to look serious but she could see the grin playing at the corners of his mouth. “I ain’t sayin’ I do or I don’t.”
The wind picked up after dinner, whistling across the flat land as if it was romping and playing like a bunch of children on recess. Haley held the reins tightly in one hand and her hat on with the other. Poor little Eeyore’s ears lay flat back against his head making his big, long face look even more ill-proportioned. The cows ducked their heads and followed the longhorn bull, but they bitched at him the whole afternoon.
A forest of wind turbines stood over to the east, lined up one after the other, the enormous blades whipping around generating electricity for dozens of farms. She wished for a turbine in the soul that could generate a good mood or settle the uneasiness about the unrest in her heart, but such things didn’t exist.
They passed through a gate into a freshly plowed field. The wind whipped the black dirt around into tiny dust devils about belly high on Apache. High enough that particles filtered up to her face and nose and she started sneezing.
Coosie flopped a red bandana to the side of the wagon. She wrapped the reins around the saddle horn and quickly reached for it with that hand.
“Put it on like this.” Coosie showed her how to fold it into a triangle and tie it around her head.
She jerked her hat off, shoved it under her knee, and held it there tightly while she followed his instructions using both hands. When she finished, she slapped her hat back on and retrieved the reins.
“Wow! I did it,” she said from under the bandana. “Not that it means anything to most people, but it does to me. I can ride with no hands, keep my hat secure, and tie a bandana around my head. I may be a cowgirl yet.”
***
Dewar sat down on the edge of her bed that night after everyone was asleep. Stars twinkled in the dark sky and the quarter moon dangled among them as if it were a Christmas ornament on a tree.
His forefinger traveled down her arm to her hand. He clasped it loosely in his, the feel of her soft skin against his calluses like silk against burlap. “You looked like Annie Oakley out there today with that bandana on your face. I should’ve told you to tie one around your neck in case of dust storms.”
“I thought they were just to make you cowboys look tough,” she said.
“Well, there is that too. I missed you last night. We were actually closer than we usually are, but—” He paused.
“But there was a wall between us, right?”
“I didn’t like it, Haley.”
She leaned into his shoulder. “Me either.”
He let go of her hand and slung his arm around her, drawing her even closer. She fit well there and things were right inside his heart and soul when there were no walls between them.
“Next week at this time we’ll be back in Texas,” he said.
“The world can sure change in a month, can’t it?”
Dewar squeezed her tighter. He didn’t plan on falling for a Dallas executive, but he had, and in such a short time. However, as he and the rangy longhorn headed up the drive that day he did some calculating. If he’d been dating Haley, going out even twice a week and spending a total of four hours each time on the date, that would be eight hours a week. He’d been with her twenty-four hours a day for twenty-five days. That added up to six hundred hours. Divide that by four to get how many dates it would represent and he came up with one hundred and fifty. Then divide that by two and he would have been seeing her regularly for seventy-five weeks, which was a year and a half.
When a man thought of it in those terms, it wasn’t strange at all that he’d fallen for her. She was smart, determined, and she’d make a fine woman to ride the river with, as Grandpa O’Malley often said about the women his brothers had married.
“What are you thinking about?” Haley asked.
“You.”
“Good answer. Now what were you thinking about me?”
“How far you’ve come since you fell off the horse on that first day,” he said.
“Darlin’, I did not fall off that horse. I would have had to get on him to fall off him and that never happened. I slipped in horse shit and fell before I ever got mounted.”
“Are we arguing?”
“No, but I wish we were.”
“Why?”
She leaned back slightly so she could see his face. “Because the first big fight is going to either make or break us.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “You really think so?”
She shifted her position so that she was sitting i
n his lap. “I do. Want to say something really stupid so we can see.”
“Not tonight. I missed holding you and kissing you last night, and besides, I’m a lover, not a fighter,” he said.
“That’s what I’m afraid of. If you fight as passionately as you love, the fights could be hellacious.”
He strung kisses from her neck to her eyelids and back to capture her lips in a kiss that proved that he did indeed know his way around the lover business. When he broke away he whispered, “But just think about how passionate the making up will be after we fight.”
“Whew!” She wiped at her forehead.
“I’d give half my kingdom for an old trailer to appear out of the dirt right now,” he said.
“I’d give half of mine for it to rise up from the earth like a mesquite tree,” she whispered back.
“But here we are camped in the middle of a pasture without even a chigger, weed, or a wildflower,” he said.
“I’ll just keep my thoughts on that hotel room in Dodge City. You reckon the cowboys that ran the cattle up through here got antsy to see things come to an end?”
“I can’t believe you just used the word reckon. You’ve been keeping company with Coosie too long. But to answer your questions, I imagine they were very antsy that last week or two. Time was nearing when they’d have a paycheck and they could hit the saloons. Reminds me, we should see the Boot Hill Museum and have a drink at the Long Branch Saloon while we’re in Dodge.”
She cupped his face in her hands. “Darlin’, I would rather spend every minute with you in bed. I can have a drink at any number of bars in Dallas.”
Dewar hugged her tightly. “If we don’t get some sleep, we won’t have the energy for that kind of romp. So good night, Haley! See you in the morning.”
***
The next day was Thursday and if all went as well as it had been going, they’d bring the cattle into Dodge City on Sunday afternoon. Dewar awoke that morning, stretched, and looked over at Haley, who was already sitting up, watching Coosie and Buddy put breakfast together.
The constant wind blew the aroma of bacon and coffee right to him and his stomach growled so loudly that Haley turned to look his way.
“Hungry,” he said.
“Sounds like it.”
He pushed back the sleeping bag that he’d used as a cover rather than crawling inside and zipping it, put on his boots, and poured two cups of coffee. He carried one back to Haley and sat down on the edge of her bed.
“Whoa! What’s going on here?” Sawyer asked. “Man takes coffee to a woman before she ever gets out of bed means something, don’t it?”
“Means that he’s a nice man,” Haley said.
Finn looked over at Sawyer. “What’s the matter? You missin’ your woman this morning?”
Sawyer’s nods were emphatic. “You are damn right, I’m missing her. She’s probably shopping for just the right lacy underwear for when I get home. I bet it’s black and…”
“Shut up!” Rhett said.
Sawyer laughed loudly. “Why? You wishin’ you had a girlfriend thinking about nothing but you when you get home?”
“How do you know she’s not thinking about anything else? Maybe she’s thinking about her job or her friends,” Haley said.
Sawyer shook his head. “I’m an O’Donnell. When we fall in love with a woman, they never think about anything else.”
“That don’t hold water, Sawyer. You weren’t thinking about her when you joined this trail drive. You were thinking about being out here for days on end playing cowboy. You were all excited about riding a horse for a whole month and eating campfire food at night. So don’t give me that load of bullshit about never thinking about anything else,” Haley said.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “I said our women don’t think of anything else, not that we don’t.”
“That’s not fair then. If she’s that besotted with you, then you should have stayed home with her and kept her happy,” Haley argued.
“You should have been a lawyer,” Coosie said. “Now you kids stop your bitchin’ and fightin’ and come eat breakfast. We’re headin’ out in half an hour and there’s no snacking. Dinner ain’t until noon.”
All morning Dewar wondered if Haley thought about him as much as he did her during the day when he rode point and she brought up the rear. Did she ever imagine him riding naked? He imagined such things all the time.
He looked over at the longhorn who was eyeing him suspiciously. “Don’t look at me like that. You’ve got a bunch of cows following you. Don’t tell me you never think about them.”
The longhorn shook his big horns and trotted on up ahead.
“Just what I thought. Male is male, no matter what the species,” Dewar said.
Sawyer rode up beside him. “Who are you talkin’ to?”
“Myself. And that means we need to get this ride done and go home. When a fellow starts expecting a damn longhorn to answer him, it’s time to go home,” Dewar said.
“You got a thing for Haley?”
“What makes you ask that?”
“You took her coffee this morning.”
“Last week I handed Buddy a cup of coffee. You didn’t ask me if I had a thing for him,” Dewar said.
“You going to answer me?” Sawyer asked.
“Don’t know yet. We’ve got a date when we get back to Texas. We’ll see how that goes before I make any rash statements.”
“It won’t work,” Sawyer said.
Dewar looked over at him.
“You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl. Kiss her good-bye at the end and cut your losses, cousin. She’s pretty but she’d wither up and grow bitter on a ranch.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Dewar said.
“Get yourself a country girl like I got waitin’ on me. Grew up on the ranch next door and we been datin’ for two years. She’s a keeper.”
“Congratulations.”
“Just sayin’, man. Just sayin’.” Sawyer turned his palomino horse around and headed back to his post.
“You think he’s full of shit?” Dewar asked his horse.
Stallone raised his head and snorted.
“I thought so.” Dewar laughed.
Chapter 26
On Friday morning the wind kicked up again and the bandanas were jerked up to keep out the dust. Dewar rode to the back of the trail to make sure that Haley had her face covered. Her strange aqua-colored eyes looked huge when that’s all he could see. She rode with one hand and held her old straw hat on with the other.
“Pretty damn good cowgirl, ain’t she?” Coosie yelled from under his bandana.
Dewar nodded and turned around. When he passed Finn he made a motion for him to pull up for a minute.
“Something wrong?” Dewar asked.
Finn pulled his blue bandana down so he could talk. “You serious about that woman?”
“Why are you askin’?”
“Just wonderin’. Seems like in the past couple of days you been ridin’ to the back a little more than usual. I don’t think it’s to steal sweets from the wagon.”
“And if I was?”
“I’d say you was a smart man. She’ll do to ride the river with, man. I didn’t think she was worth a damn when she first joined the drive, but she’s done good, especially for a city girl.”
“What about that old sayin’ about takin’ the girl out of the city but you can’t get the city out of the girl?” Dewar asked.
“Hey, that girl is an exception. You’d do well to ask her out when we get home,” Finn said.
“I already did.”
“Smart move. Let me know how that turns out.” Finn pulled the bandana back up and rode off to bring a straggler back to the herd.
When night came the wind had ceased and they were stopping in a pasture with a working windmill and a big, round galvanized watering tank. The cattle lined up around the tank for their first water of the day. Eeyore waited his turn, c
hecking the trees around them for any varmints that might be eyeballing his herd.
As she brushed Apache’s dapple-gray hair, she unfocused her eyes and pretended that the tank was a hot tub. The grass around it was hard wood and the trees beyond that were a steamy spa where she’d sit a while after an hour-long massage.
Two more nights on the trail and she could have all of it. When she got home, she’d make an appointment for a whole day at the spa complete with a massage, a facial, and mani-pedi. It actually was not an option. It was a pure necessity before she donned her power suit and high heels and walked back into the conference room.
She couldn’t go in there with her hair in braids, no makeup, and freckles shining across her nose.
“Oh, no!” she whispered.
She’d completely forgotten what the sun did to the freckles scattered across her nose when she spent too much time without sunblock. She had a small compact mirror in her purse tucked in the bottom of the saddlebags, but she hadn’t taken it out in days. She wondered just how much damage the wind and sun had done to her face.
One look at her arms told her that she now had a farmer’s tan. Brown below her shirtsleeves and white as the driven snow above them. Would Collette, her masseuse, know how to take care of that issue?
Coosie said that Sunday afternoon the boys were going to hit a bar or two and she could do whatever she wanted. Join them or stay in her room. Then the next day, on Monday, they were sleeping late and doing some sightseeing. On Tuesday morning bright and early the plane would be there to take them home.
Haley was determined that she was not going to the office her first day back in Dallas. Her father could have a fit for all she cared. It was going to take a whole day at the spa to make her presentable. If Carl Levy didn’t like it he could fire her because she was not backing down.
The next morning she awoke earlier than everyone else and picked up her notebook. The end was in sight and the contestants would be both grouchy and giddy. They needed something really big right there on the last two days to draw in the viewers. She tapped the pencil against the paper and tried to think, but nothing materialized. She rubbed her forehead and still nothing.
Carolyn Brown - [Spikes & Spurs 07] Page 23
