Accidental Cowgirl

by Maggie McGinnis

“Any burns?” Decker asked.

  Kyla squinted and saw the paramedic shake his head. “I don’t know how in hell there aren’t any, but her skin’s all intact. She is one lucky lady.”

  “Decker, let me take a look at your legs.” Kyla heard the paramedic order.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Don’t go all hero on me.”

  “Roscoe hosed me down before I went in. I was out in a minute flat.”

  Kyla closed her eyes, too exhausted to keep them open. The oxygen hissed into the mask, dampening the sounds all around her. As if from inside a snow globe, she could hear the swish of the fire hoses, the crackling flames, the men shouting as they did their best to quell the burning pile of lumber that had been a stable a mere hour ago.

  Then she heard hooves. The sound exploded all around her, and then the shouting began.

  “Decker! Kyla! Oh, my Lord in Heaven!” Decker heard Ma holler as she came running. She crouched down and put her hands on Kyla’s face. “God, Decker. Is she okay?”

  Kyla opened her eyes and reached up to squeeze Ma’s hand as she nodded.

  Ma took Kyla’s face in both hands and looked into her eyes. “Oh, honey. I had three heart attacks when I saw you laying here.” She rubbed Kyla’s cheeks, perhaps in a vain attempt to clean off some soot, Kyla guessed. Then she turned to Decker. “Decker, my boy. Oh, Decker.” She pulled him into her arms with the strength of a much larger woman, and sobs racked her body.

  “It’s okay, Ma. Everybody’s okay. Everybody’s out. Shh.” Decker soothed his mother as she clung to him. “It’s okay this time. It’s okay.” He kept her close, hugging her tight until she finally sniffed loudly and loosened her grip.

  She pulled away from him just enough to look into his eyes, and then she put her hands on his cheeks. “You saved her, Decker. You saved her.”

  Decker nodded stiffly, looking like he hardly dared to believe it. He looked down at Kyla, then crouched back down near her head as she reached up to lift her oxygen mask from her mouth. She motioned weakly for him to lean down so she could whisper something to him. He shook his head, like he was refusing to hear her deathbed confession. Cripes, did she look that bad?

  He finally leaned down and put his ear close to her mouth, and she could feel his heartbeat against her arm, crazy-fast and uneven. She swallowed hard, trying to work some moisture into her throat. He started pulling away, eyes searching hers, but she pulled him back toward her.

  Finally, in a creaky, hoarse voice she barely recognized as her own, she whispered, “I want a refund.”

  * * *

  “Hey, Kismet.” Kyla leaned her crutches against Kismet’s temporary stall the next evening and pulled a carrot out of her pocket. “How are you doing, girl?” Kismet turned away from her hay and bumped her head against Kyla’s hand before reaching out to nibble the carrot. Kyla pet her nose and frowned. Despite a thorough rubdown, the poor horse still smelled like smoke. At least Kyla’d been able to get most of that horrible smell out of her own skin at the hospital yesterday.

  To think, two weeks ago she’d thought she’d never again get on a horse, and here she was hobbling on crutches to give treats to one she actually couldn’t imagine leaving here tomorrow. Cripes, Kismet had even put her in the hospital—twice!—but she still felt like she’d saddle up tomorrow, if it weren’t for the damn cast.

  Kismet bumped her hand again, and Kyla idly scratched the blaze on her nose. “So what’s the barn gossip this evening, girlie? Are you getting star treatment? Will you get to be the horse that carries the bride at the wedding?”

  Kyla frowned as she thought of Marcy and Decker exchanging vows, then felt a glimmer of a smile creep in. “Hey, Kismet, if I sneak you some extra carrots, could you maybe pretend you see a rattlesnake and throw Marcy right in a big ole mud puddle with her gown on?”

  “Bribing the horses again, Miss Bennett?” Kyla startled as once again, Decker snuck up on her. “How many times do we have to talk about this?”

  “Please tell me you didn’t hear that,” Kyla begged as she steadied herself against the stall door.

  Decker grinned. “Scout’s honor. I heard nothing.” Then he leaned close to Kismet’s ear. “Did she say Marcy’s best color is mud?”

  Kyla whacked Decker with the back of her hand. “Forget you heard that. I’m not usually the catty girl.”

  “But Marcy brings it out in you?”

  Kyla shrugged. “Sorry. I know you guys are practically married. I’ll try to be nice.”

  Decker’s eyebrows stitched to his hairline for a brief second. “Practically what? Who told you that?”

  Kyla’s heart gave the same little jump of hope it had in Roscoe’s truck, but she tamped it down before it could gain traction. “Decker, maybe you’re trying to be all mysterious and all, but it doesn’t take a mathematician to put two and two together.”

  Decker sighed as he looked down at her. “Do tell.”

  Kyla put up one finger. “One. The cowboy bar incident.” He looked like he was about to argue, but she put her finger to her lips. “Two. Miss Rodeo Princess showing up here in sparkles and heels and looking pretty cozy with you.”

  “Kyla, I’ve explained—”

  “Shh!” She put up a third finger. “Three. The nurses at the hospital were talking about you picking up her engagement ring at … Lerner’s, I think it was.” Her pinky went up. “Four. And this one’s really the kicker, actually, because the first two could be explained. But four. I heard you’ll be busy on October eighteenth.”

  She watched his eyes, but saw nothing but confusion and glimmers of annoyance as he put his hands in the air. “That date means nothing to me. What are you talking about?”

  “Decker, seriously. The jig is up.”

  Decker raised his eyebrows as he looked down at her, then at her crutches. “Should you be on your feet for this long?”

  “Why? You worried the blood is draining from my brain?”

  “I’m worried the blood hasn’t come back to your brain yet.” Without even asking permission, he leaned down and scooped her up, cradling her as he headed for the hay bales where they’d spent the night.

  “Decker!” She pushed against his chest, but he didn’t budge. This was a man scheduled to marry someone else in two months?

  “Relax. As much as I’m dying to kiss that smug little jig is up off your pretty little mouth right now, I’m a gentleman. I’m just bringing you over here to sit down before you collapse.”

  “I was hardly going to collapse, and your fiancée would hardly be amused if you kissed me,” she muttered as he settled her on the blankets, then coughed, to her chagrin. Apparently she could add smoke inhalation to her ever-growing list of things she needed to recover from. At least this one could be handled with breathing exercises and time.

  “Fine. You weren’t going to collapse.” He sat down beside her, keeping a safe distance, it looked like. “Kyla, I’m not engaged. I do not have a fiancée. I honestly have no clue what you’re talking about, except that I’m really afraid it has everything to do with Marcy.”

  “You have no clue … but you say her name in the same sentence?”

  “We’ve been over this! Multiple times! Why in the world are you under some delusion that I’m marrying that woman?”

  Kyla looked down at her lap, twisting her hands. “I saw your wedding invitation, Decker.”

  “You saw what?!”

  “The invitation. To your wedding. On October eighteenth.”

  “How did you see this?” Oh, Lord. He wasn’t denying it.

  “Marcy came to see me yesterday. She brought me a copy. Wasn’t that sweet?” Kyla hated her voice for the quiver she hadn’t been able to hide.

  Decker stood up, turning around to face her. “Marcy came to see you. Bearing a wedding invitation. Is she out of her friggin’ mind?”

  Kyla shrugged her shoulders slowly. “She seemed perfectly sane. Well, as sane as I guess she ever seems. I’m not sure I’m the best ju
dge at this point.”

  “I cannot believe this.” He started pacing. “Cannot believe this. The woman is certifiable. She actually showed you an invitation. To a wedding that will never happen. Un-friggin’-believable.”

  “Your colors are chocolate and gold. Did you know that?”

  “And let me guess. She told you she booked us at the Presbyterian church.”

  Kyla nodded. “Said it was tough to get it on short notice.”

  He stopped short and pointed at Kyla, making her shrink back into the hay bale. “Tell me you didn’t believe a word she said.”

  “Well”—Kyla shrugged slowly—“why wouldn’t I?”

  “Do you really, truly think I would do what I’ve done with you if there was someone else in my life? Really?”

  “Well, Decker, I think we’ve established that it wouldn’t be the first time it had happened to me.”

  He tensed his fingers and raked them through his hair. “I am not the cheating, lying, ass your fiancé was. And frankly, I resent that you’d put us in the same category.”

  “I didn’t want to, if it’s any consolation.”

  “Not really, no.”

  “I’m sorry, Decker, but at least a little of the fault is yours here. If I remember correctly—like I could ever forget—it wasn’t all that long ago you were accusing me of coming out here and trying to buy a family.”

  He winced and started pacing again. “I am dead sorry those words ever came out of my mouth, Kyla. I didn’t mean them. Really didn’t. That’s no excuse, I know. I didn’t deserve what you were trying to give. I know you were trying to help, but it hit me in all the wrong places, and at the time I was really pissed that you’d come up with a solution I’d been looking for all summer. So like an idiot, I threw words at you that I knew would hurt the most.”

  “Well, score. They worked.”

  “I know. And I’ll never be able to apologize enough for them.”

  “Well, you and Marcy make an excellent team in that regard.”

  “Marcy and I make no team whatsoever, in any regard.” He spun around. “And I’m about to prove it.”

  Chapter 35

  Decker pulled out his phone and found Marcy’s number, then put it on speaker as he came back to sit beside Kyla on the hay. She shrank back, but he pointed at the phone. “This ends now.”

  “Well, hiya, sweetie!” Marcy’s syrupy voice answered, making Decker cringe even as he saw Kyla’s eyebrows go sky-high. “Have your crazy guests left yet?”

  “Nope. Still here. Listen, Marcy. I heard a rumor around town, and I figure you’re just the girl to tell me what’s going on.”

  “Ooh. I love me a good rumor. What’d you hear?”

  “Well, you’re gonna love this one. Apparently some folks think the two of us are getting married. Can you believe it?” He clenched his fists, trying to keep his voice calm.

  There was dead silence on the other end, then a nervous tinkle of laughter. “Now, where did you hear that?”

  “Well, why don’t you tell me where you think I heard it?”

  More silence. “I was just trying to help you, Decker.”

  “Trying to help me? You were trying to help me?! How, pray tell, were you trying to help me?”

  “Honey, I just didn’t want you getting hurt. She’s bad news. I was just trying to scare her off a little.”

  “With a wedding invitation? Seriously? Are you completely nuts?”

  “You’re not getting the trying to help part.”

  “You’re damn right I’m not. You are way out of line here.”

  “But Decker, I love you. I’m just trying to protect you. You know how these city girls are.”

  “I do not need your protection, Marcy. And I don’t need your help. This little stunt you pulled was way beyond normal. It was downright cruel.”

  “It was just a joke, Decker. Just a sample I printed up to see how the colors worked.”

  “It isn’t funny, Marcy. You are way, way out of line. We are not engaged, we never have been engaged, and we never will be engaged. You get that, right?”

  There was a long silence on Marcy’s end. Then she cleared her throat delicately. “Fine. That’s fine. You know what? Go ahead and get your heart broken. Really. Go for it. Go nuts with this plain-Jane poser with her terrible hair, but eventually, you’ll get sick of her. You’ll wish you’d stayed with me. You will, Decker.”

  “Good-bye, Marcy.” He clicked off the phone. “Good riddance, Marcy.”

  Decker looked over at Kyla, and he’d be damned if she wasn’t shaking with laughter. What the hell was funny about any of this? He swore he’d never understand women. Any woman.

  “So you’re not engaged.”

  “Clearly I am not engaged.”

  “Huh.”

  “Huh? That’s all you have to say, after all that?”

  “You attract some crazy-ass women, you know.”

  He nodded slowly. “That I do. That I really, really do.”

  “She insulted my hair. And called me a poser. What does that even mean?”

  “I have no idea.” He stood up, shaking his head. “But you know what? I’m done talking about Marcy. And so are you.” He reached down for her hand, pulling her to her feet. “We are going for a ride.”

  Fifteen minutes later, he’d settled her in front of him on Chance, and they headed out of the barnyard, away from the smoky devastation that had been the stable. He put his arms around her and snuggled her in tight, and she sighed as she settled back against his chest.

  “So I have a question for you.” He spoke close to her ear. “How did Roscoe get you back here yesterday?”

  Kyla laughed out loud for the first time since the fire. Her throat still felt raspy and sore, but it felt damn good to laugh. “That crazy old man pulled me over and told me there was a tornado coming and I’d better get in his truck.”

  “He didn’t.”

  “Did.”

  “And you believed him?”

  Kyla half turned around. “Decker, seriously. Why wouldn’t I, by this point? Since I got to this little vacation paradise, I’ve seen a bear, gotten a concussion, broken my ankle, almost got struck by lightning, and, oh yes, got trapped in a burning barn. Does a tornado really sound all that odd, given that list?”

  Decker squeezed her hard. “I see what you mean.”

  She looked around as they rode, taking deep breaths of the cool, piney air. Within a few minutes, they crested a hill and Decker roped Chance to a halt. Kyla gasped as she took in the view. She could see the ranch below them and to the right, but when she looked left, a long valley spread below her, right down to the glistening, tiny lake.

  Decker dismounted, then reached up to help her down. “Hold on to Chance for a minute while I get a few things out.”

  Kyla leaned on his horse while Decker pulled items out of the saddlebag and arranged them on the other side of Chance, where she couldn’t see. When he was finished, he came back around and scooped her back up, making her giggle. “I feel like a southern belle when you do that.”

  Decker slapped Chance’s flank to send him off to graze, then settled Kyla ever so gently on a buffalo-plaid picnic blanket on the grass. He sat down on the other side of the blanket, elbows casually on his knees. “Like the view?”

  Kyla gazed down the valley. The meadow was a shade of green she’d never find in a crayon box, bordered by those dark green, almost-blue pines. Late-summer flowers were in bloom, dotting the grass with yellows and oranges. She sighed. “How could anyone not like the view?”

  “I always thought I’d build a house up here someday.” Decker sounded wistful.

  Kyla nodded. “I can see why. I can’t imagine there’s any better view on the whole ranch.”

  “There isn’t.”

  “Did you ever doodle a design? Imagine what the house would look like?”

  Decker smiled, then laid back on his folded hands. “A million times, depending mostly on my favorite TV shows at t
he time.”

  “That sounds dangerous.”

  “Oh, it was. For a while, Cole and I were watching old Brady Bunch reruns.”

  “No way. You designed a Brady house?”

  “You’d be surprised. That stuff is coming back. Have you looked at a furniture catalog lately?”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the birds and the breeze. Kyla leaned back on her elbows, soaking in the warm sunlight. Then Decker sat up, suddenly serious. He looked down the valley again, then back at her. After a long moment, he took a breath and let it out slowly. “Kyla, in the spirit of getting everything out into the open …”

  Uh-oh. She didn’t like where this was going.

  “I know there’s more to the Wes story than you told me.”

  Chapter 36

  Kyla’s chest clutched. Oh, no. “How’d you find out?”

  “Cole showed me the newspaper yesterday.”

  “So you know I was innocent.”

  Decker plucked a blade of grass and fiddled it between his fingers. “I never would have doubted it, sweetheart. But why didn’t you ever tell me?”

  His use of the endearment practically made Kyla melt. She shrugged slowly. “I don’t know, Decker. It’s not really a great item for polite conversation. And by the time I might have told you, you were so furious with me that it definitely wasn’t the right time.”

  He nodded slowly, thoughtful. “I’m not sure I can find the words to tell you how sorry I am about that, Kyla.” He leaned back toward her, resting on his elbow beside her. “I have had a hellish amount of garbage running around my brain for ten years, and it kind of came to a head coming back here.”

  “I can’t even imagine.”

  “Me neither, really. It’s almost surreal being back. I’ve spent so long convincing myself that I didn’t belong here that having the chance to be at Whisper Creek feels like, I don’t know, this Christmas gift that I’m afraid someone might yank away.” He shook his head. “Never mind. That sounds stupid.”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “I suppose by now you know about Emily.” He sat up slowly and turned away from her.