Buy a Cowboy

by Cleo Kelly

  The events of the past week hit her and she felt faint.

  “Bonnie, don’t pass out on me.” Dick grabbed her arm.

  Todd pulled out a chair, and guided her gently to it.

  She clutched Dick’s arm. “I have one.”

  “What do you have?”

  “A ranch! Land! That’s the answer. If I can marry and provide a stable home, I can move away. Far away! It’s written in the divorce papers as a stipulation. I can move if I show stability and a way to provide for the kids. I have two homes now. Mom and Dad’s in Pennsylvania and Gram’s in Wyoming! I’m the sole heir!” She jumped up and strode around, suddenly inspired.

  “Bonnie, what are you talking about?” Todd tossed the cigarette out the door.

  “I have a ranch. You said a cowboy would work land, right? Cattle and horses. I can raise the kids there—if I’m married and show a stable home life.” She turned to Dick and kissed his startled face on both cheeks. “Buy me a cowboy, Dick. Make him a really good one. He has to marry me first, and I’ll deed him half rights to my ranch in Wyoming.” She grabbed her check and raced for the door suddenly empowered. “Buy me a cowboy” floated behind her as she bounced away from the startled men.

  1

  The white coffee mug was warm in his hands despite the fact the coffee was tepid. How had he gotten to this place? It had been over three weeks since Dick left him on the little spread in Wyoming. He had flown to Florida yesterday so he could meet the owner.

  People walked by the diner, busy with their lives.

  Baya looked at Dick again and wondered if this was one of his more infamous practical jokes. The little rodeo judge would get a lot of joy setting him up with this meeting, just to pull the rug out from under him. Todd said it was on the up and up, and he had never known Todd to lie, but Dick had been known to pull all kinds of people into his bizarre brand of humor.

  His thoughts returned to the valley he had been shown. Even if it was a joke that would backfire and make mockery of his dreams, it was worth the risk to get on the land. Old land already populated with fat beef. The herd was small, from what little he had seen, but the stock was good. He breathed a half laugh. He had been known to sell himself for less. Every rodeo bull he knew on first name basis had trounced him one time or another.

  “She’s not here,” Dick growled. “Why do women have to be late for everything? You’d think we had nothin’ better to do than wait for them.”

  Baya narrowed his eyes. Now was the perfect time to hit him with the punch line. If he knew Dick well, and he did, there were not enough riders around to laugh at his ultimate humiliation.

  A tall redhead was visible out the window as she walked down the street. She was a big woman, large boned, and brawny. Was this the one? On the corner across the street, a tired looking brunette waited for the light to change.

  He had no idea what she looked like, this person he was ready to sell his life to, the one who held the deed to the land in Wyoming. He had refused to question Dick when the man methodically asked if there was anything he wanted to know. But, the thought had been on his mind since he sobered up three weeks ago.

  Dick shifted in the padded seat of the booth. His frown was digging deeper into his weathered face.

  “What’s she look like, Dick?” He could have bitten off his tongue. The last thing he wanted was to let the old coot know he was curious, that he cared one way or the other. The milder painkiller the doctor had him on must have kicked in and affected his head. After weeks of keeping his mind strictly on the ranch, his first day in Florida had him running off at the mouth.

  Instead of wicked glee filling the face across from him, the old man’s features softened. The sharp gray eyes looked at him from under bushy white eyebrows. Something gentle struggled within the steely gaze before he looked away out the window.

  “If I weren’t married, I’d have her.” Since Dick wasn’t known for his faithfulness, the answer told him absolutely nothing.

  “I take it you already have.” He heard the disgust growl through his voice. Shifting in the seat, he cursed the medicine. If a thought went through his head it came out his mouth.

  Every inch of Dick’s frame was rigid with anger. His eyes flashed. “She’s not that kind. Wish we hadn’t had to leave her there by herself. But, we finished the job and the company sent us west.”

  Dick had been slyly taunting him ever since he agreed to this venture. For him to get huffed up now didn’t make sense.

  Baya glared back.

  The door to the diner opened with a jingle, and he glanced over the old rider’s head. The coffee cup stopped turning in his hands.

  Strength. Warmth. The woman glowed with both attributes. Stunning in dark blue jeans and white cotton shirt, she stood looking over the customers at the counter. The slenderness of her body fell away from straight shoulders to tuck into a waist he could have spanned with his hands.

  Dick slid out of the booth.

  She smiled and began moving toward them.

  The rodeo judge slipped his arm around her, and she bent to kiss his cheek. He turned her toward the man at the table.

  Baya managed to push out of the booth without tripping over the crutches or his bandaged feet.

  “Bonnie Gibbs, meet Baya McKnight. He’s willing to talk to you about the arrangement. He’s a little beat up. He lost out on the turn of a mean bull.” Dick’s smile had a bite to it. “He’s too big and too old to be a bull rider but he kept coming back for more abuse. Wouldn’t listen to us pros. Took a paunch gut doctor to tell him he can’t be wired back together again”

  The eyes looking up into his face were clear blue. The gaze was steady and candid. “Baya?” The voice was soft but held huskiness.

  He ducked his head with a self-mocking smile. “Benjamin the Third, Baya to avoid confusion.” They stood several moments, reading each other’s faces, before Dick cleared his throat.

  “You said to buy a cowboy. I found one already named for the job.” He smiled.

  “Dick!”

  “It’s all right, ma’am. I’ve known the old codger a long time. Nothing he can say bothers me.” He shifted his weight, moving away from the pain in his leg and beginning to wobble on the crutches.

  “Oh, please sit. You didn’t have to get up because of me. Sit. Sit.”

  She slipped into the booth in one easy slide.

  His limbs bent stiffly, twisting clumsily until he could maneuver the plastered leg under the table.

  Biting his lower lip, he kept from groaning as his battered body protested the move.

  “You wanted a cowboy and now you’re already griping about cowboy manners.” Dick snorted. “Wimmen, first they want, and then they wanna change. I’m leaving you two to hash out the details. I guess my job’s done?” The question hovered as he stood at the end of the booth watching them while his jaw knotted.

  Baya turned to warn him off and then stared as he recognized real concern in the weathered face.

  Dick barked, “I’ll have the truck outside in thirty minutes. Be there.” The jerk of his head could be interpreted as a nod before the man walked off.

  The pause grew into a heavy silence after he left.

  “Do you—”

  “Did you—”

  They both stopped.

  “You first,” she offered. “You’ll have the most questions.”

  “Did you really tell that man to buy a cowboy?”

  She worried her thumbnail with her front teeth but nodded.

  He waited, just looking at her.

  Clearing her throat she took a deep breath. “I needed a cowboy. He is always talking about rodeo riders who have a dream. They all seem to have the same one, to own a pretty little ranch. Seems they all want to live away from the cities and be free.”

  Since most of the riders rode to avoid ranching, he was pretty sure Dick had been romanticizing her with fairytales. Dick lived in a condo in Atlanta, and he had been a three time all—around bronc buste
r when he wasn’t wrangling a construction crew somewhere. Baya stared suspiciously, as he looked her over again. She was too pretty to need to advertise for a husband, but he’d come too far now to turn back. If this wasn’t a joke, he needed to get to the real reason she had Dick shopping for a husband.

  “You’re good looking. Why didn’t you just marry up with someone local?” his deep voice growled with distrust. If she and Dick were playing him…

  She straightened in her seat. “Am I to consider that a compliment or a curse?”

  His stare faltered. Prissy, was she? He looked at the long flow of waving blonde-streaked hair, the arched eyebrows and fierce glare. Full lips and the golden glow of a smooth tan gave her warmth. Fine lines fanned away from sapphire blue eyes as she narrowed her gaze and lifted her chin in unspoken defiance.

  Amusement replaced the anger in his soul.

  “You are very pretty.” He gentled his voice.

  “I’m thirty-four.” She gave a crooked wry grin as she acknowledged the softening in him.

  Through the dullness of his medications, intrigue nudged him.

  “I have three children and a ranch in Wyoming that I have no idea what to do with.”

  “The ranch or the children?” He took another sip of coffee to shut up the hole in his face.

  “Both.” Shadows gathered in her eyes.

  They stared at each other quietly.

  He wondered what she actually saw when she looked at his face. Straight brown hair, so dark it looked black. A strong nose he was proud to claim had not yet been broken, one of the few places on his body that had avoided that state. His mustache needed trimming, but until his right arm was out of the cast, he wasn’t about to attempt the job.

  He looked into her face again as he ran a hand over his stubbly cheeks and shifted uncomfortably under her steady gaze. Maybe he’d go to a barber; he might need a haircut, anyway. He moved restlessly, wishing he didn’t look so bruised and banged up.

  Ready Up had made a mess of him, such a mess he’d been told he would never ride the bulls again. It hadn’t been just bones that broke this time. He was done riding, without ever winning the gold buckle, without ever making the big bucks. If he looked at it logically, every dime he ever made had gone to repair the bones he broke, the muscles he tore. He was left with just the moment of glory and the rush of conquest that ended with an eight-second ride.

  “Tell me why.”

  She bit her lip then took a deep breath. “I think I’ll order tea,” she stalled.

  He raised a hand, and the little black-haired waitress hurried over. “She’d like a glass of tea.”

  “Cup. With cream and sugar.”

  “Could you please bring the lady a cup of hot tea with cream and sugar. Just fill me up again.” He nudged the coffee mug toward her.

  “We have some really great pie.” The waitress suggested as she assessed the cowboy from beneath her eyelashes.

  He raised his eyebrows in a question to the woman across from him.

  A polite smile flitted over Bonnie’s face in answer. “What’s good?” she asked.

  “This is Florida, ma’am. Try the key lime pie.”

  “Sounds good. We’ll have two.” She smiled at the waitress and a dimple appeared in one cheek.

  “Could be I prefer apple,” his tiger growl rumbled.

  “This is Florida. When in Rome…” The woman might be pretty but she had a bossy streak.

  The waitress left to get the pie.

  His gaze honed in on the blonde, sitting primly with her hands folded neatly in her lap. “You drink hot tea and issue orders right sharp. You’re a Yankee.”

  “Yes,” she agreed, after a long moment.

  “Is that why you are not married?” In his head, out his mouth. He was embarrassing himself here.

  A frown gathered between her eyebrows, and the lips drooped a little with a sad twist. “What did Dick tell you?”

  “I was sitting in a bar.” Baya saw her back stiffen again. “I kept hearing someone mentioning my name. Finally, I narrowed it down to a table where Dick was roaring on about his issues with ‘buy a cowboy.’ I thought he was talking about me so I limped on over and asked why he kept yelling my name. The little man stared at me with his mouth hanging open.”

  She sat even straighter.

  “Everyone at the table started laughing, and he shoved out a chair with his boot and told me to sit down. After he sent everyone away, he told me the task he was given. You told him you needed a husband, a cowboy husband who knew how to ranch and liked children. He sweetened the pot by saying you had a twelve-hundred-acre ranch in the Wyoming Mountains that came with the deal, and I would be given half ownership of it. Before I knew what I was doing, or had sobered up, we were driving up to see your place.

  “It is a sweet place. A place I would have picked if I had a choice. Dick said I could stay long enough to heal up and see if I would consider the deal. So I agreed to talk to you.

  “Why marriage?” He continued watching her.

  Bonnie was studying him until the last question. Her lashes lowered, and her slender fingers traced the markings on the table. The waitress brought the pie and tea then, and with the distraction, she took a deep breath and fiddled with the pie before looking up at him. “What did you think would make a woman put the clause in?”

  “I figured you were ugly as sin.”

  She chuckled. “Men don’t want to deal with the children. Three kids are deterrents. Sometimes I am thankful the kids drive away would-be suitors. Because I am divorced, married men think I am lonely and in need of a bed partner.” The white teeth worried her lower lip and her cheeks flooded with color.. “I believe in God. That His standards were set in place to help man. I live by those standards in a world that lives for self-satisfaction. It’s not the popular lifestyle. But it’s mine.” She skittered a glance at him. “What do you believe about God?”

  “When a bull is trying hard to kill you, you get real personal with God.” The thought settled into his head, begging for more consideration. He’d always believed, but he’d not really done much about it. Later. He’d delve into that idea later.

  She put sugar and milk in her tea and stirred slowly.

  He still had more questions than answers, but waited because he sensed she was organizing her thoughts. He had to wait while she ate a piece of pie and sipped some of the tea. With a sigh, she put down her fork and picked up the teacup.

  “I’ve been divorced three years, and I’ve been broke most of that time. When Dick hired me on as the token woman for the construction crew I was barely getting by. Even so, there was always some jerk trying to put moves on me.”

  She looked up suddenly. The disgust in her voice changed to concern.

  “Does this sound conceited?”

  He shook his head. The more she talked, the more intrigued he became.

  “Dick says I whine too much.”

  Baya could hear the man’s voice saying it, but watching her, he had trouble seeing how Dick could be his grumpy old self around her. “Well Ed, the ex, is always taking me to court. He’s tried to prove that I am an unfit parent. That I am not capable of feeding the kids. That I cannot control the kids. And so on and so forth. I go to court at least three times a year—the last episode was over the amount of income tax I get back from the IRS.”

  He nodded because he could see something was expected of him.

  She ate another bite of pie, sipped a little more tea, and continued. “My parents played the lottery and they won a little money. They were so thrilled.” She leaned forward, intent on making him understand.

  “So they took my grandparents on a trip to Hawaii. My grandparents owned the ranch in Wyoming. My grandmother married Carl after her first husband, my paternal grandfather, died. She lived with him in Wyoming ever since, and we only saw them now and then. They must have had a great time on their trip. But they never came back. They were on flight 1274, the plane that went down over the Pacif
ic Ocean.”

  Her hands shook as she lifted the teacup to her mouth.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She smiled, the first true smile, which lit her eyes and warmed her face. “Thank you. I miss them so much. Well, that left me the sole heir of the property in the west and a little bungalow where I grew up in Pennsylvania. My kids are amazing, bright and creative. They are my world, but they haven’t adjusted to the divorce well. I need help with them. Placing them in a coal-mining town isn’t going to help when I have to work all day. If I worked the ranch, I would be at home. There would be plenty of space between them and the nearest neighbors. I might be able to raise them right. But there are complications.”

  “The ex?”

  She nodded. “I haven’t told the children we inherited the Wyoming property. They’ve never been there. If I told them, they would tell him, and he’d have me in court trying to dispense with it and get money for himself. Also, the only way I can leave the state is if I am married. The courts would look on my life as being more stable than his and most likely award me out of state custody.”

  He thought about that as he washed down another piece of pie with hot coffee. “What about the Pennsylvania property?”

  “I was thinking about moving there. But he already said he didn’t want me to move there with the children. So why not move to Wyoming instead?”

  Baya shared the grin and waved the waitress over to refill his cup. He ate more of the pie and sipped the fresh coffee. “You are formidable. However, you could hire someone to run the ranch.”

  “That wouldn’t stop Ed from going to court to try to make money off it. With Ed, it is a case of what is Ed’s is Ed’s. What is mine is Ed’s. What is the children’s is also Ed’s. His selfish greed is what ruined the marriage. As I said before, it would make the courts look favorably on the move if I had a stable home life. It would stop Ed from acquiring it if my husband owned half of it. Besides....”

  She was tracing the table again. He realized she was trying to still her trembling fingers. “I want men to leave me alone. I need someone. But how do you weed out the bad ones from the good ones? Why not just make an arrangement, half the ranch for half the work? You know what you are getting going in. This way there are no surprises.”