Special Cowboy Menage Collection

by Morgan Ashbury

  He waited until Mary Lou stopped on the other side of the counter in front of them, poured coffee into a fresh cup for Harry, and topped up Billy’s.

  “The usual, Harry?” the busy waitress asked him.

  “Please.”

  Most people who came into Sadie’s had a usual. Billy knew that Harry’s was three link sausages, scrambled eggs, and toast. Mary Lou nodded, then made her way down the counter to serve a couple of other newcomers.

  Business was brisk but never hurried at Sadie’s.

  “Saturday night?” Harry reminded him, his tone quiet.

  “It’s not gentlemanly to kiss and tell,” Billy said.

  “Aw, come on, Billy. Have a heart. Me and Phyllis have been together for nearly thirty years. I love that woman, and I never even look much when another one walks by. The least you could do is tell me a little bit about your exploits.”

  “Exploits?”

  “Rumor has it you left The Powder Keg over in Laramie Saturday night after your gig in the company of not one, but two spectacular looking blondes. And you were nowhere to be found yesterday, which implies you didn’t sleep in your own bed. This isn’t the first time you’ve scored a double, either, the rumor mill claims. Come on, Billy, give me something here.”

  Billy knew Harry was mostly just teasing him, though he didn’t doubt the man would appreciate a couple of details. To satisfy his audience of one he gave what he hoped sounded like a lustful sigh. “Mandy and Candy, bless their frisky little hearts. Yes, the rumors you heard were true.”

  “I knew it! And?”

  How much to tell? Billy set his cup down, his insouciance one of his most recognized trademarks.

  Or it had been since coming to Branchton, Wyoming, six months before. He’d found his niche, too, which was really saying something. Mother would be shocked to see how well I fit into the role of all-around handyman and local Lothario.

  Considering some of the reasons for his being the topic of conversation so often, he wouldn’t be telling his mother about that part of his time in Branchton any time soon. He couldn’t hold back his smile as he thought of the wild time he’d enjoyed over the weekend.

  “I can tell you only that I enjoyed one of the most memorable nights of my life Saturday night.”

  “Wow. My Phyllis is enough woman for me. I can’t even imagine…um…entertaining two ladies at the same time.”

  Harry’s voice dropped to a mere whisper. Billy really didn’t like to kiss and tell. Sometimes, it was tough staying in character. He leaned forward and gave him just one tidbit more.

  “It takes balance, timing, and stamina.”

  “Oh, man. I think I’m going to start a Billy Woods fan club.” He took a sip from his coffee cup. “At least now I understand why Frank, over at the Broken Axel, won’t hire your band. I’m amazed he lets you work the bar Wednesday and Thursday nights.”

  “Never seems to happen when I’m just slinging beer. Only happens when I’m behind the drums. Must be the way I handle my sticks.”

  Mary Lou plunked a plate down in front of each of them as the bell over the café’s door jingled. The scent of jasmine followed the woman into the place, and with his peripheral vision, he watched as other diners checked her out.

  Billy took the opportunity to admire the tall, sleek form of Veronica Ferris as she walked over to one of the tables beside the window, just behind him. He didn’t preen, nor did he hunch his shoulders. He lived so far off her radar, he doubted she even knew he existed. To her, Billy figured he was just one more hick taking up a stool in this modest café.

  “She ever catch you and the guys playing a gig?” Harry asked, obviously referring to Veronica.

  Billy chuckled. “Are you kidding? Ms. Ferris wouldn’t be caught dead in any of the great establishments where John and Phil and I entertain.”

  Veronica was nice to look at, all Monday chic, and could have taken a seat at any of the finer bistros in any major city in the world, fitting right in. Billy had heard several of the locals comment on her ‘highfalutin' ways’. Frank once bet him two hundred the lady would never step foot inside The Axel.

  That had been shortly after Billy arrived in Branchton and begun his stint as bartender at the local saloon, which not-so-coincidentally happened to be about a week after Ms. Ferris arranged to transfer to the Hopkins-Wyoming Bank in beautiful downtown Branchton.

  “She is a snooty bit of goods,” Harry agreed. “Nice enough when she’s at the bank, on duty. But outside those walls? I’m surprised she’s let down her guard enough to have coffee with Miss Annie.”

  Harry’s voice took on a softer tone when he spoke of the other woman. While most of the locals treated Veronica as if she was a prissy visiting great-aunt, Annie Rutherford had pretty much become the entire community’s baby sister.

  The two women made themselves comfortable, turning their coffee mugs over on their placemats for when Mary Lou made her way to them. Though the differences between them seemed too numerous to name, they did have a few things in common, coming from back East being the major one. Billy wondered at the speed with which the sophisticated Veronica had latched onto Branchton’s newest business owner. But careful reconnoitering on his part had told him exactly how she’d done it. He gave her credit. She was a clever one.

  But was she clever enough?

  Billy bet she wasn’t. Only time would tell if his bet would turn out to be an example of the canny use of insight, or a bust. Things had been motoring along at a steady, nothing’s-happening pace for the last few months.

  That was going to change sooner, rather than later. Billy casually turned his head, blinked as if just seeing the women seated at the table behind him. Then he winked at Annie.

  “Good morning there, Annie. You look all fresh and chipper today. Good morning to you, too, Ms. Ferris.”

  Veronica only nodded and offered him a polite smile. Annie’s greeting was friendlier, more genuine, and took in Harry, as well.

  “Hey, Billy, how are you? Hi, Harry. How’s Phyllis?”

  “Just great, Miss Annie. Oh, she said she was going to pop in to the store today, on account of it being your one-year anniversary in business and all.”

  “I’ll look forward to seeing her.”

  Like himself and the snooty Ms. Ferris, Annie was a former New Yorker. Billy figured her blush came from a combination of shyness and still not being used to the familiar ways of the people in this town.

  He turned himself back around and appeared to focus on eating his breakfast. He ate slowly, as if he had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. Harry also devoted his attention to his food, which Billy appreciated because it allowed him to listen closely to the conversation between Annie and Veronica. Not that he expected to learn anything significant, because she was too careful and too cagey for that. But you just never knew, so it paid to pay attention.

  Fifteen minutes later, the only thing he had learned was that Mrs. Bishop had baked a cake for Annie and that she’d accepted an offer from Jesse Conrad and Grant Douglas to take riding lessons— though why it would take two men to teach the woman how to ride was beyond him.

  The women were fixing to leave to begin their respective business days, so Billy paid for his food, gave Mary Lou a wink and a dollar tip, and left the café.

  He had two lawn mowers and one toaster to fix in his motorcycle repair shop. Good thing he wasn’t counting on his jack–of-all-trade dollars to keep body and soul together. Just as he neared his place, his right thigh vibrated.

  He stepped through the door then opened his cell phone.

  “Yo.”

  “He’s out. Yesterday mid-morning. Tried to call you but there was no answer.”

  Billy blushed. He’d forgotten his cell phone when he went to Laramie Saturday night. He’d have to make sure he didn’t forget it again. The voice on the other end didn’t sound overly annoyed, though. Besides, Billy was the boss.

  “We knew he was getting out Sunday. He recover it yet
?”

  “No. His buddy Squirrel picked him up. After a burger stop, they drove to his mom’s. Right now, it looks like he’s on his way into New York City. I’ll let you know if it seems he’s moving to recover it. Personally, I don’t think he will. Smarter to let the statute of limitations run out.”

  “Smarter isn’t his style,” Billy said. “Keep on him, and keep me informed.”

  Billy shut the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. Yep, things were going to start hopping soon. And he was good and ready for it.

  Chapter Six

  Nothing could have prepared Annie for Monday. It seemed everyone who’d ever stepped foot inside her store and lived in the Branchton area made a special point of coming in to wish her a happy anniversary.

  All through the morning, she did her best to be gracious and patient. For the most part, her customers made that easy. Yet inside, she shivered with anticipation.

  As she’d been getting ready to leave Jesse’s house Sunday afternoon he whispered, “Monday after six”. Those three words had been nearly enough to short-circuit her brain. She hoped her conversation with Mrs. Bishop, as that kind woman had driven her home, hadn’t suffered unduly.

  Jesse’s parting words and the sly, sexy look he’d given her had kept her in a state of anticipation ever since. She had never experienced anything like the raw sexual hunger she’d tasted Sunday afternoon with Jesse and Grant. She wanted to sample that again. Hell, she wanted to gorge on both those sexy cowboys until she walked with a limp and could no longer see straight.

  She could easily have lived the rest of her life never knowing this kind of craving, but now that she’d tasted them, now that she knew she was capable of such hot sexual arousal, she wanted more.

  “Why just look at that nice healthy glow in your cheeks, Annie Rutherford. I think living in Wyoming agrees with you!”

  Annie felt her cheeks color even more as she met the open, sunny smile of Phyllis Gray. Short and plump with a happy face and short, curly red hair, Phyllis always reminded Annie of a younger Mrs. Claus.

  “Hello, Phyllis. I saw Harry at Sadie’s Café this morning. He said I could expect a visit from you today.”

  “That man of mine does love his Monday mornings at Sadie’s. Well, land sakes, look at all these flowers! I’d say you’ve been visited by a lot of folks today.” Phyllis laughed, then handed over her own bouquet of posies.

  “Thank you so much! Everyone has been so kind. I’ve never seen so many flowers in one place before.”

  “Oh, that’s only on account of no one’s passed on since you’ve been here in Branchton.”

  Annie laughed even as she set this latest bouquet into a jar and added water. “I think next year I’m going to have to have a special anniversary sale.” She put Phyllis’s flowers on the counter.

  “That’s a fine idea. But to tell you the truth, coming into this place always feels like a sale day since you took over. Old Mr. Cuthbertson never was very pleasant to deal with. I ask you, why own a store if you don’t like people? It got so if a body needed something he sold, why, you were just as likely to get one of the men folk to drive you on out to the Walmart in Laramie. But since you took over, we just come right in, never have to think twice about it. Coming in here feels just like visiting with a friend.”

  “That’s so sweet! Thank you. Would you like a glass of iced tea?” Annie always kept a pitcher of iced tea on hand to serve her customers.

  One of the things she learned during her brief stint as a store clerk in Queens was that customers appreciated the little things. Despite the warnings of hard times from Mr. Cuthbertson when she met him at the lawyer’s office to get the keys, business had been good this past year.

  “Thank you, no. I have to be on my way. Have an appointment to have my hair done. Lisa Cantrell does it from her home these days. You know Lisa? She and her husband have a ranch about ten minutes out. You can see it right from the road. It’s the place right before you get to the Conrad place.”

  “I think I saw it yesterday. Frame house with pretty yellow shutters?”

  “That’s the one. I heard you spent some time out there yesterday. At the Conrad place, that is.”

  And there it was, the same note of speculative interest she’d heard from just about everyone who’d dropped by today.

  She’d come very close to confessing the full truth of her activities the day before to Veronica this morning over breakfast. Though she didn’t consider them to be as close as she thought Veronica sometimes did, the other woman was about her own age and came from the same geographical area of the country. Truthfully, she supposed Veronica was the closest thing she’d ever had to a best friend. Jim hadn’t encouraged her to socialize much.

  But at the last moment, she changed her mind. She wanted to keep the miracle of attracting two handsome hunks to herself. So she ended up giving Veronica an abridged version of the truth, and had been repeating that story about every half hour or so since. What she shared with one and all formed a part of the truth, just not all of it. Maybe she was guilty of lying by omission, but who could blame her?

  “I did! What a surprise! Jesse and Grant thought that in honor of my one year anniversary, and thereby becoming a ‘real Wyomingite’, they’d teach me how to ride a horse. When they found out I’d never even been up close to one before, they took me for a short ride with them, first just to make sure I didn’t have any height or allergy issues.”

  “Well, for goodness sakes! I didn’t know you’d never been up close to a horse before. Those boys are just the sweetest things, aren’t they? You know, they’ve been close as brothers all their lives, even before poor Jesse was orphaned as a teen when his folks were killed by that drunk driver over near Cheyenne. Thick as thieves, the two of them, and if one got himself into mischief, there was the other one right alongside. Well, good for them offering their services that a way. What did you think of your first ride?”

  Annie did her best not to laugh or blush. “I liked it a lot.”

  “Bet you’re eager to get mounted up again!”

  Oh, my. If things kept up in this vein she was going to have to close early today. She didn’t know how much more she could take. Swallowing her laughter and her embarrassment, she said, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”

  “Well, I always figured new experiences kept a body limbered up and young. Now, since I’m here, I was wondering if you got in any of that embroidery thread we talked about the last time I was in?”

  Annie had to send away for the thread and pay retail because so far, she didn’t have enough demand for it to qualify her orders for wholesale pricing. Embroidery thread was one of the handful of items she sold at cost as a service to her customers. That didn’t bother her. She was able to make a living with a small profit on everything else, and that was all she cared about.

  “It came in first thing this morning, Phyllis, and I just managed to set it out.” She accompanied the woman over to the corner of the store that held all the sewing notions, and listened politely while Phyllis went on about her twin grandsons, now eight and living in Utah.

  After she rang up the sale, and waved Phyllis off, Annie took the opportunity to sit down on the stool behind the counter. Both hands cupped her face, as if by touch she could tone down her blush. She looked at the clock. It wasn’t even noon yet. She had hours to go before she could close her store and drive out for her ‘riding lesson’.

  She only hoped she could get through the rest of the day with her dignity intact.

  * * * *

  “This has been the longest damn day,” Grant said to Jesse when he arrived at his friend’s ranch around five-thirty.

  “Tell me about it. I went out chasing after those stray cows that got through the fencing on the north pasture and I didn’t think I’d get back here in time.”

  “You going to shower?” Grant laughed, because his friend looked as if he’d put in a long hard day on the range.

  “Yeah, heading there now. Ju
st wanted to wait for you to get here first.”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Nope. I didn’t want the lady to arrive with neither of us in sight is all.”

  “You’re worried she’s going to change her mind?”

  “Maybe a little. That was kind of a jarring interruption yesterday. I was afraid the combination of Mrs. Bishop and the preacher’s wife might have seemed like an omen of some sort to her. Maybe given her second thoughts.”

  “I started to think that way, too. Then I decided I wasn’t giving Annie enough credit.” In fact, Grant had thought of little else once he returned home Sunday evening. If the three of them had started to make out spontaneously, or if he and Jesse had taken advantage of Annie’s hormones, then he supposed they would have cause to worry the lady might change her mind.

  But as much as they lit her fires yesterday, as well as their own, he knew Annie had made a conscious decision to start an affair with them.

  At least he hoped so.

  Jesse headed into the house to take a quick shower. Restless, Grant left the porch steps and walked toward the corral.

  At odd moments, he noticed how still everything was here. When he and Jesse combined their businesses a couple of years ago, they chose to have just one base of operations—at the Douglas homestead. As Jesse had pointed out at the time, it made sense to have their crew combined and in one location, and since Grant’s father had recently built a new bunk house, the choice of where seemed obvious.

  Still, it didn’t take much to look back over time and to remember the years before Brian and Beth Conrad had been killed. The quiet here, the lack of activity, just felt wrong. It felt as if the ranch was in limbo.

  The sound of a car coming down the drive pulled Grant out of the past. Annie’s ten-year-old Buick slowly approached. He began to walk toward the porch at the same moment Jesse emerged from the house. His hair still looked damp, and he buttoned his jeans as he walked. Grant looked at his watch. Showered and dressed in under five minutes. Well, when a man was motivated….