High Country Cowgirl

by Joanna Sims

  At least, that was his final verdict until he spotted that young man, the one with saucer-eyes for Bonita, heading toward their table once the band was into the third song. Gabe discovered that he was standing up; and then he discovered that he was standing beside Bonita’s chair, blocking the young man’s path and holding out his hand.

  “Would you like to dance?”

  Her eyebrows rose and the smile was slow to come to her mouth, but she put her hand into his and stood up.

  With his palm gently resting on the small of her back, Gabe followed Bonita out to the dance floor. Bobbi smiled broadly at them and waved her hand from the other side of the floor. The only saving grace of this situation was that the space was crowded with couples and there wasn’t much room to move. That suited him just fine because in the dance moves department, he had an empty shelf.

  “All I can do is sway,” Gabe said as Bonita stepped into his arms.

  She put one hand on his shoulder and held his hand with the other. “Just put your hand on my back and then we can sway together.”

  He had felt embarrassed to even try to dance with a woman, but his desire to keep Bonita to himself for the night had propelled him to do things he wouldn’t ordinarily do. Once he was holding her in his arms, the fragrant smell of her skin enticing his senses, he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t rushed her to the dance floor the minute the music started.

  “Thank you.” She smiled up at him shyly. “I don’t know what made you change your mind...”

  “You.” He wasn’t sure why he gave such a nakedly honest answer, but he did. “You changed my mind.”

  * * *

  After Bobbi and Bill said good-night, Bonita and Gabe walked down to the pasture to bring Val in for the night. The sky was clear and cloudless, with a three-quarter moon shining its yellow glow across the tops of the trees in the canyon. For Bonita, this short walk in the moonlight was the perfect ending to a perfectly wonderful evening.

  “That was the best night I have had in...” A few feet away from the front doorstep of the log cabin mansion, Bonita leaned back her head, extended her arms and spun around in a circle. “Ever!”

  With a tipsy giggle, she stopped spinning and nearly fell over instead. Gabe was there to catch her; she liked the feel of his warm, strong hands, so masculine and rough, on the cool skin of her arms.

  “Estoy un poco borracha.”

  “I think so,” he said, agreeing that she was a little drunk.

  “Hey!” She hit his arm affectionately. “You do understand Spanish.”

  “I understood that well enough.”

  “Aren’t you happy we came here?” At the front door, Bonita spun around to face her handsome cowboy escort. She’d had no idea how handsome Gabe truly was until tonight.

  He was standing with his hands in his pockets as if he were challenging himself not to touch her at this moment that so inclined itself to a good-night kiss. Of course, this hadn’t been a true date and he wasn’t really her escort.

  “We have an early morning tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll say good-night now.”

  “You always say that.”

  He smiled at her and seemed to be waiting for her to open the door so he could make his way back to the rig. “That’s because it’s always true.”

  She wasn’t quite ready to say good-night. When she said good-night, then the evening would be over and 3:00 a.m. was just around the corner.

  “Do you always tell the truth, cowboy?”

  A bemused expression flashed in his bright blue eyes. “More often than not.”

  “Do you want to kiss me?”

  For her, tipsy and light-headed, it seemed like he took an awfully long time to answer that simple question.

  “Yes. I do, Bonita.”

  Steadying herself by holding on to the lapels of Gabe’s suit jacket, she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. It was a short kiss, but a kiss nonetheless. Gabe looked as shocked by it as she felt. Bonita let go of his lapels.

  “Well, at least we got that out of the way.” She reached for the door and opened it. With one last glance at the seemingly confused cowboy, Bonita said good-night and closed the door.

  Inside, she leaned back against the door to steady herself. That champagne must have gone straight to her head, because she wasn’t some carefree coed on spring break in Daytona Beach.

  And yet, quite unexpectedly, she had just kissed a cowboy.

  * * *

  “Could we please not listen to this music right now? Please? I beg of you. If I hear one more country artist singing about one more country problem, I’m going to sincerely lose my mind.”

  According to the map on Bonita’s phone, they were only an hour away from Bozeman and then it would be a short thirty-minute trip to her family’s ranch. She had awakened at 3:00 a.m. and hit the snooze button twice before dragging herself out of the warm, comfy bed. That champagne had tasted so good going down, but it had left her with the worst hangover she had experienced in years. She had thankfully managed to fall asleep soon after they left Bobbi and Bill’s log cabin estate but had been rudely awakened by Blake Shelton.

  Gabe turned off the music and then the ride was quiet for several miles.

  “Bill gave me some bags of deer corn. I was thinking of giving a couple to your father if you think he’d like them.”

  “We both love to feed the deer. I can’t wait until we have babies.”

  “I’ll leave you a couple of bags, then.”

  After a pause, she asked suspiciously, “You aren’t going to use yours to lure the deer onto your property so you can shoot them, are you?”

  “It’s not hunting season.”

  “Well—that’s not an answer.”

  “I hunt, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  “I will never understand why someone would want to kill a beautiful living creature.”

  “There are only certain times of the year that we harvest,” he said instead of addressing her comment directly.

  “By harvesting, you mean killing.”

  He didn’t respond to that.

  “Look,” Bonita said, “we aren’t going to agree on this. I’m a vegetarian. So you and I are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I’ve decided to like you anyway.”

  That made him smile.

  After another couple mile markers in silence, Gabe asked, “So you don’t like country music?”

  “Now that we’re almost home, I can tell you how much I sincerely hate the genre. I didn’t want to mess with your driving mojo, but for goodness’ sake! I have country lyric earworms that are driving me insane. Last night, I dreamed I was singing with the Judds.”

  “It’s the only music I listen to.”

  “Trust me. I know.”

  “So I listen to country music and I hunt. That’s two strikes against me.”

  She looked at him and he looked back for a brief second before he put his eyes back on the road.

  “I intend to spend the rest of my life in Montana.”

  “I intend to move back to civilization as soon as possible.”

  “I’m a Republican.”

  “Okay, now that’s truly shocking,” she scoffed. “Please. We’re in Montana. You wear a cowboy hat. You drive a truck.”

  “Let’s put aside the blatant stereotyping for a minute. I bet you’re, what...a socialist?”

  “I am a progressive, thank you very much. I just happen to want to move our country forward instead of taking us back to the 1950s like some people!” By the end of her statement, she had raised her voice a little.

  In turn, Gabe raised his voice a notch. “You kissed me last night.”

  “I know that,” she snapped at him. “I was there!”

  Gabe paused for a split second and then he said, “I think w
e should go out.”

  She had been prepared to fire back at him, but he completely changed direction on her, catching her off guard.

  “You’re asking me out. On a date?” Perplexed, Bonita turned her body toward him. “You think I’m a tree-hugging elitist!”

  “And you think I’m a deer-murdering hillbilly.”

  That made her start laughing and when she laughed it made her headache worse. “Ow.” She held her head in her hands.

  Gabe was laughing now, too.

  “For some strange reason, I do seem to enjoy your company.” She leaned her head back on the headrest and smiled at him.

  “And I enjoy yours.” He glanced over at her with those clear, blue eyes that always struck a chord somewhere deep within her. “So go out with me.”

  Maybe it would do her some good to get out a little. It had been depressing moving to Bozeman with only managing her mother’s illness to keep her mind occupied.

  “Just as friends, though,” Bonita said after a moment of thought.

  “We’ll just be two friends hanging out in the same place.”

  He had a way of making her laugh, and she hadn’t felt like laughing all that much lately. “Okay.” She nodded with a small smile. “I’ll go out with you.”

  * * *

  She sent her father a text letting him know that they were pulling onto the winding driveway. George was standing just outside of the barn entrance, awaiting their arrival. Bonita was always so happy to see her father, and she was anxious to see her mother again. But there was a knot in her stomach as Gabe pulled up the stable. She had managed, for the most part, to leave all of the stress and demands of her mother’s illness behind for the last few days. And now that reprieve was over.

  “Mija!” George enveloped her in a bear hug and kissed her on each cheek.

  “We made it.” She hugged him tightly for a moment longer before letting him go.

  “Sir.” Gabe held out his hand to her father.

  “Thank you for bringing them home safely,” her father said, and Bonita could tell by the way he interacted with Gabe that the cowboy had his respect.

  Gabe gave a quick tip of his hat in response before he headed to the back of the rig to unload Val.

  George’s round face was beaming—he loved it when they acquired a new horse. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that Val was displaying some behaviors that would have to be remedied, probably with Gabe’s help.

  Val, in all his dappled-gray glory, was anxious to get out of the rig. Once he was free of the mobile stall, Val tossed his head, snorted and pawed at the ground.

  “Look at him!” George always accented his words with his hands. “He’s incredible!” Her father, in his excitement, came over to her and put his arm around her shoulders. “Look, mija. Your dream! He is here!”

  Once again, Bonita hugged her father. “Gracias, papá.”

  George kissed her on the forehead and then took the lead rope from Gabe. “What do you think of this horse, Gabe?” her father asked loudly.

  “I like him.”

  After Gabe took off the shipping boots one last time, George led Val over to one of the large pastures and let the Oldenburg free. Her mother’s horse, Jasmine, was in the adjacent pasture, so they would have a chance to get acquainted. The one thing that did make Bonita happy was the fact that Jasmine wouldn’t be alone any longer. It wasn’t natural for horses to live alone, and Jasmine needed an equine companion.

  “This is wonderful!” Her father threw up his hands with a wide smile. “This is her dream and I have made it come true!”

  Gabe was closing up the back of the rig out of earshot. “How is Mom?” Bonita asked.

  Her father’s smile faltered a bit. “Let’s talk in a minute.”

  Her heart seized. “Has something happened?”

  “In a minute.” He waved her off.

  George took a wad of cash out of his pocket and walked over to Gabe. He pressed the money into the cowboy’s hand with another thank-you.

  “Gabe is going to help us acclimate Jasmine to Mom’s wheelchair, Dad.”

  “Perfecto! This is a very big problem for us.” George then turned away with a wave. “Mija—I will see you inside. Your mother is so happy you’re home.”

  Bonita picked Tater up after she had some time to roam in a nearby patch of grass. “I am going to miss you so much.”

  Tater licked her on the nose and then gently bit the tip, which made her laugh.

  “Okay.” She handed Tater to Gabe. “Time to say goodbye.”

  She couldn’t have anticipated what it would have felt like to end the trip. She had begun the trip feeling suspicious of Gabe and his ability to handle a horse like Val. But she had been proved wrong on so many levels when it came to the cowboy. He was a kind man, talented, funny and smart. Over the last four days, they had begun a friendship. And she was going to miss him.

  “Well.” Gabe stood near the driver’s door of his rig. “We got him here safe.”

  “You did.”

  They stood together in an awkward moment—there seemed to be something to say, but neither of them knew what that was.

  “I’ll text you.” She finally broke the silence. “And we’ll set up a time. For Jasmine, I mean.”

  Gabe climbed behind the wheel, rolled down the window, and their eyes met. He tipped his hat to her. “I’m going out of town for another transport. As soon as I get back, I’ll be looking to cash in on that promise for dinner.”

  “And you’ll work with Jasmine.”

  “And I’ll work with Jasmine.”

  Bonita stood in the driveway watching him drive away. Inside, there was sadness, an odd sense of loss. Her adventure—one she hadn’t expected to have—was over. And now it was time to return to her duties as her mother’s advocate and her support system. It was a role she was honored to fill, but watching her mother lose her battle with a degenerative disease was also exhausting and sorrowful.

  With one last wave as Gabe disappeared from view, Bonita turned away from the days spent on the road with the cowboy and walked quickly toward the house, worried about her father’s evasive comments about her mother’s condition.

  Chapter Seven

  “Mom!” Bonita made a beeline for her mother, who was sitting in the great room that overlooked the pastures. It broke her heart to realize that not only were her mother’s days of riding over, but that she couldn’t get close to her beloved horse because of the wheelchair.

  “Mija!” There was a smile for her in her mother’s eyes, but ALS, which systematically destroyed the muscles in the body, had robbed Evelyn of her smile.

  The one word her mother said, my daughter in Spanish, had been spoken in nearly a whisper. Bonita knew that her mother was probably shouting it even to get that small sound out. Evelyn had a rare, aggressive form of ALS with a familial component that affected only 10 percent of patients with ALS. Evelyn’s grandmother and great-grandfather had also died from complications related to ALS; after predictive genetic testing, Bonita now knew that she had also inherited the gene. Inheriting the gene didn’t mean she would share the same fate as her mother, but it did mean that she could pass the gene down to any children.

  Bonita pressed her cheek to her mother’s, her eyes scanning her for signs of change. The disease was so aggressive that there were changes in her mother’s functioning day by day. She had been gone four days, and in that time, Evelyn’s voice seemed softer, her breathing seemed shallower, and she looked thinner.

  Bonita pulled a chair up next to her mother’s wheelchair and took Evelyn’s hand into hers.

  “I’ve missed you.” She kissed her mother’s hand.

  “I’ve missed you.”

  Bonita understood her mother’s words, but someone who didn’t know her wouldn’t have. As the muscles in her mother’s fac
e and mouth failed, her speech became slurred and slow, like a tape that was running on the wrong speed.

  Her mother’s eyes shifted to the field where Val was grazing. “He’s beautiful,” she said.

  Val was beautiful. But Bonita’s doubts about the decision to bring a show horse to the ranch, a horse that needed to be kept on a strict riding and training program, had only intensified. She knew that her father wanted to neutralize some of her sadness over her mother’s illness with a gift of her dream horse, but what her father didn’t realize was that the idea of riding while Evelyn was bound to her wheelchair felt like she was being insensitive to her mother. Bonita had told her father as much when he surprised her with Val, but he had refused to budge on the purchase. Either way, Val was coming to Montana.

  “Now you can show him,” Evelyn added.

  “Mom.” Bonita shook her head. “I’m not going to keep leaving. Going to get Val was one thing. Leaving every weekend to go to shows is another.”

  “You need to live your life.”

  “I am living my life, Mom.” She leaned down and kissed the back of her mother’s hand once more. “You are my life.”

  They sat together in silence, just enjoying each other’s company, until the nurse assigned to her mother in the afternoon returned from her lunch break.

  “It’s time for exercise, Evelyn.” Kim joined them in the great room.

  Bonita didn’t want to let go of her mother’s hand just yet, but having her mother’s arms and legs manually exercised was important. When her mother and father had first moved to the ranch, which seemed like a lifetime ago instead of only a year, her mother could walk. Yes, she had a limp and there had been weakness in her arm, but she’d been independent. Now, only a year later, Evelyn was completely dependent with only limited use of her right hand and arm.

  Bonita stood up and kissed her mother’s cheek. “I’m going to unpack and then I’ll come find you.”

  Evelyn used her right thumb to move her electric wheelchair. As her mother’s condition worsened, her father made changes to the house to accommodate Evelyn’s needs. Furniture had been rearranged and special equipment had been installed in a room on the first floor, which was now her mother’s suite.