Claiming Her Cowboy

by Tina Radcliffe

  “Watch out for poison ivy. Some of the boys already have the itches. Miss Lucy says she’s real allergic to poison ivy. So we should go see the general if we get allergic, not her.”

  Jack picked up a long stick near the edge of the woods and tapped it on the ground, testing its sturdiness. Then he began to strip the bark.

  “What’s that for?” Dub asked.

  “To keep us out of the poison ivy.”

  “What’s poison ivy look like?”

  “It looks like a plant.”

  “But Mr. Jack, the woods have lots of plants.”

  “You’re right, Dub. Which is why we have to be extra careful. It’s a tricky plant.”

  “How will we know?”

  “Poison ivy has three leaves.” Jack stopped and glanced around as they walked deeper into the dense brush. “Wow, there’s a lot of poison ivy in these woods.” He crouched down to inspect the brush. “See?” Jack nodded toward the foliage and used the stick to point out the three-leaf configuration. “This is what I’m talking about.”

  When Dub reached out a hand toward the plant, Jack’s arm shot out to hold him back. “You can’t touch. At all. It has oil that gets on your clothes and your skin and causes all sorts of itchy problems.” Jack stood. “We’ll stay on the trail. But don’t touch anything that looks like this.”

  “Three. Three. Three,” Dub repeated as he headed down the trail. Then he stopped and glanced around. “You hear that noise?”

  “July in Oklahoma means singing bugs.” Jack reluctantly grinned. One more thing he’d nearly forgotten. “Those are the cicadas. They sing in the daytime, and the katydids sing at night.”

  Dub’s amused laughter rang out. “Singing bugs.”

  At the end of the trail, the underbrush thinned and finally separated to reveal two outhouses on the right and a bubbly tree-lined creek straight ahead.

  Jack entered one outhouse door and Dub the other. When they emerged, Jack pointed to the water. “Let’s wash in the creek.”

  Dub dipped his hands in the water and swished them around. Then he stood and stepped back, eyes wide. “I saw something move in there.” Excitement laced his voice, and he splashed his hands in the water again. “Maybe it was a fish.”

  Jack stepped closer and knelt on the muddy shale stones of the creek bank. “Pollywogs.”

  “What’s a pollywog?”

  “Those are baby frogs. Little swimmers.”

  Again, Dub laughed at this new word. Fascinated, he knelt at the creek’s edge, scooting close to Jack, eyes on the water for long minutes. When he started to slip forward, Jack grabbed a handful of T-shirt and pulled him back.

  Dub turned, eyes wide. “I almost fell in.”

  “I know. You have to be careful.” Jack stood. “Ready to go?”

  “Uh-huh. But don’t you want your breakfast?”

  “What?”

  Dub pulled off his backpack and brought out a plastic bag with toast and bacon and offered it to Jack.

  “Where’d this come from?”

  “I asked the cook to save some for you, and he did.”

  “Dub, thank you.” Jack stared at the little guy in wonder, touched by the gesture. “Come on. Let’s find a chair.”

  “A chair?”

  “Yeah. See those tree stumps. We can sit there.”

  “Poison ivy?”

  “It’s safe.” Jack sat and pulled the bacon from the bag. “Want some?”

  “Yeth, please.”

  Jack handed the bag to Dub.

  “It sure is pretty out here, isn’t it Mr. Jack?” Dub chewed slowly, savoring the bacon. His little feet tapped on the long grass that grew around the stump as he glanced around.

  “Yeah, Dub, it is.” Jack’s gaze followed Dub’s. Mature trees lined the creek, shading the frothy water from the sun’s rays. The creek wound through the fingers of a willow whose roots were embedded in the bank and covered in moss before the stream moved over fallen logs at a leisurely pace. As the water passed over rock and shale, a tinkling song reached out to those who listened.

  The song of the creek settled between Jack and Dub as they ate.

  “Do you like kids, Mr. Jack?”

  “Huh?” Jack turned to Dub. “Where did that come from?”

  “I was just wondering. Stewie said you look sorta like you don’t like kids.”

  “What?”

  “’Cause you don’t smile.”

  “I don’t smile?” Jack pondered the words. “I guess I think a lot.”

  “What do you think about?”

  “Everything. Too much of everything.”

  “Do you have a mom and dad?”

  Jack nodded.

  “Sisters and brothers?”

  “I used to have a brother. He was a lot like you. Smart and happy and he talked all the time. I liked to listen to him talk.” Jack swallowed back emotion that threatened. Emotion he thought he’d buried long ago.

  “What happened to him?” Dub asked.

  “He died.”

  Dub was silent for minutes, then he slid off the stump and walked over and placed a hand on Jack’s arm. “Don’t be sad,” he said solemnly. “I’m your buddy. You have me.”

  “I, ah... Thanks, Dub.”

  “Maybe you can meet my sisters.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’ll ask Miss Lucy. Maybe you can take us for ice cream, too.”

  “Maybe.” Jack smiled.

  “When can I ride Grace?”

  “Kid, you segue faster than a trader on Wall Street.”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind. Do you have boots?”

  “Boots? No. I have sneakers. Miss Lucy calls them tennis shoes, but I don’t know how to play tennis.”

  “We need to get you a pair of boots like mine before you can ride Grace.” Jack glanced at Dub’s sneakers. “Can I see one?”

  Dub frowned. “You want to see my shoe?”

  “Yeah.”

  Dub slipped off a sneaker and offered it to Jack.

  “Size twelve.” He handed the shoe back. “Now, where’s that scavenger hunt list?”

  Dub fished a damp and crumpled paper from his pocket and handed it over. Jack chuckled and smoothed the sheet on his leg.

  “Okay, here’s what we have to find. A heart-shaped stone. A snakeskin. A feather. Tree bark. A pine cone. A green leaf and a dry brown leaf. Seeds. A stick shaped like a letter. Oh, and something red.”

  The sound of campers marching through the woods interrupted their conversation. Jack recognized one of the voices. Lucy. He feigned deep concentration with the list.

  “Mr. Harris, how lovely of you to get up at the crack of noon,” she called out.

  “I don’t have a watch, so I don’t know what time it is,” he returned without looking up.

  “I did try to wake you, but you threw a shoe in my general direction.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that. Nothing personal. I’m not responsible for my actions when I’m asleep.”

  “I’ll make note of that sad story. In the meantime, Dub can probably teach you how to tell time by looking at the sun. Right, Dub?”

  “Yeth, Miss Lucy.”

  Jack grudgingly met her gaze as she breezed past with two boys at her heels.

  “You’ll have to get moving if you want to win.” She smiled indulgently at him. “Early bird catches the worm,” she taunted.

  “Nope. There isn’t a single worm on the list,” he muttered.

  “That’s Stewie and Henry,” Dub said.

  “Those boys with her? Miss Lucy has two buddies?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Figures. Overachiever.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “It means that we better get going.” Jack shoved the
rest of the toast in his mouth and held up the empty plastic bag. “Here. You hold this for our scavenger hunt stuff.”

  “Okay.”

  “We’re going to find everything on that list, Dub.”

  “We have to do it faster than Miss Lucy.”

  “Yeah. We will. Don’t worry. I have a long history of winning.”

  “I dunno. She’s good.”

  “Miss Lucy might be good, but Mr. Jack is better.” He offered Dub a fist bump, and the little guy grinned as he touched his small fist to Jack’s big one.

  Jack pointed to an area to the right. “Look. A red leaf.”

  “I see it. I see it.” Dub grabbed the leaf and put it in the bag, grinning.

  “Now what?”

  “We’re going to unexplored territory. Where Miss Lucy hasn’t been.”

  “Huh?”

  “We’re crossing that creek, Dub.”

  Dub blinked. “It’s cold and deep, and very, very scary.”

  “You’re going to ride on my back.”

  “But you’ll get cold.”

  “It’s already at least eighty-five degrees. I don’t mind a little cold water.”

  “What if we fall?” Dub looked at him, his lower lip trembling. “I don’t how to swim.”

  Jack crouched down and met the boy’s wide blue eyes. “Do you trust me?”

  Dub sucked in his lips and nodded.

  “Okay, then climb on my back.” Jack grunted as Dub hopped on and clung tightly. “Hold on tight, buddy.”

  When Jack splashed through the shallow creek to the other side, Dub started to giggle. Jack splashed harder, stomping through the water, inciting more laughter. His heart swelled with something he hadn’t felt in years. Pure joy.

  “There you go.” He eased the boy down to the ground. “Now you find a piece of tree bark and I’ll find that heart-shaped stone.”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Jack.”

  Jack chuckled, then suddenly paused as reality set in. His little buddy was beginning to grow on him.

  That couldn’t be a good thing. Could it?

  * * *

  Lucy stood very still watching Jack Harris.

  He was stretched on the ground beneath the shade of a redbud tree with a ball cap over his eyes. His head rested on a rolled-up sleeping bag, and his arms were crossed over his broad chest.

  Ugh. Why did the man look so good? They’d been out here for two days now, and lack of hygiene was already evident on everyone except him. There was no doubt that she looked appalling, and smelled like eau de insect repellent and Oklahoma dirt, as well.

  Lucy pushed her Stetson from her head until it hung by the leather cord down her back. She finger combed her hair, tucking it behind her ears, pretending that the preening would make a difference.

  “Jack?”

  He slowly raised the visor of the cap from his face and eyed her with suspicion. “Yes, Drill Sergeant?”

  “Why aren’t you napping in your tent?”

  “My tent doesn’t like me.” He dropped the cap over his face.

  “I see.” She crossed her arms and bit her lip, hoping for a natural opening to the next topic on her mind.

  “Was there something else?” he mumbled.

  “Um, yes, actually. I want to talk to you about Dub.”

  “Am I in trouble again?”

  “You tell me.”

  Jack offered a dramatic sigh and sat up.

  “Dub says you agreed to go for ice cream with him and his sisters, and that you’re going to let him ride Grace.”

  “I believe the operative word I used was maybe.”

  “There’s something you need to understand. While children pretend to understand maybe, the reality is that there is no ‘maybe’ in a child’s vocabulary,” Lucy said. “There is only ‘you promised’ and ‘you lied.’”

  Jack blinked and frowned. “Oh.”

  “Yes. Oh. So I trust you will follow through and keep your promises.”

  “I can do that.” He nodded. “By the way, don’t forget to pencil me in.”

  Panic tap-danced in her stomach at his words. “Pencil you in for what?” She stared blankly at him.

  “Remember what Rue said? Walk a mile in your shoes. I’d like to spend the day with you in your office.”

  “I can provide you with any number of ranch financials or paperwork you want to review. Transparent is my middle name.”

  “No. I want to spend the day understanding what the director does.”

  Lucy took a calming breath, imagining Jack in her itty-bitty messy office. She wouldn’t be able to breathe with him that close. “Is that necessary?”

  “I think so.”

  “Fine,” Lucy muttered. Which meant that she’d find a way to prevent that from ever happening in her lifetime. She turned on her heel. “But for now, you might want to head over to the field. We’re dividing up into teams for softball.”

  “Seriously? We’ve been going nonstop since what I believe was 6:00 a.m. I don’t have a watch, so I’m not sure.” He paused. “First there was the scavenger hunt, followed immediately by the hike from—”

  Lucy cleared her throat loudly and swung back to face him. “Language, Mr. Harris.”

  “What? The hike from my nightmares.”

  “You’re a big-shot attorney. I bet you usually work from dawn to dusk. So what’s with the whining about long hours?”

  “Yeah, I do—at a desk, with an ergonomic chair, and climate-controlled air.”

  “What kind of attorney are you anyhow?”

  “An extremely boring one. Contract law.”

  “Quite lucrative, I imagine.”

  “Imagine away,” he said as he adjusted his ball cap. “Just remember that I’m not Mr. Lucrative anymore.”

  Her eyes rounded, and she gestured wildly with her hands. “You didn’t think I was assessing your financial worth, did you?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  Lucy choked. “Oh, my, my, my. That ego of yours is so enormous, it’s a wonder you can stand upright.”

  “Okay, sorry. I might have jumped to conclusions based on past experiences.”

  “You think?” She shook her head. “All I was getting at was that you invested years and money in your career and climbed the corporate ladder only to give it away?”

  “I still own a walkup in the city and have a gym membership that doesn’t expire for twenty-four months.”

  She laughed. “That’s a long way to go for aerobics.”

  “True. When clearly I can get the same thing here for free, right?”

  “Right. So what’s the plan?”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “Eventually you’re going realize that Big Heart Ranch is not a shady fly-by-night outfit. So what’s the plan after that?”

  “There is no plan. I’m here to help my aunt,” he said.

  “No plan?”

  “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you’re big into plans, Madame Director, but I’m trying to leave my options open. Go with the flow.”

  “When will you go with the flow back to New York?”

  “In a rush to get rid of me?”

  “You city folk all get tired of playing cowboy and eventually head back to wherever you came from. I’ve seen it enough times.”

  “No bitterness there,” Jack muttered.

  Lucy stared at him. “What did you say?”

  “Sounds like you’ve had some history with temporary cowboys.”

  “We’re talking about you. Not me.”

  Jack stood and dusted off his pants. “My ticket is open-ended.”

  Lucy ignored the comment. “So, you and Dub have really bonded, haven’t you?”

  He turned around and stared at her. “Ha
ve we?”

  “It certainly seems that way.”

  “You gave me an assignment, and I take my assignments very seriously.”

  “An assignment.”

  “Was that the wrong answer? Lucy, Dub is my buddy. What else do you want?”

  “I want you to be very careful.” Lucy said the words softly as Dub approached them with a grin on his face and a blue ribbon pinned to his chest.

  She addressed the little boy. “Congratulations again, Dub. You did a great job with the scavenger hunt.”

  “Not just me. Mr. Jack, too. We hunted on the other side of the creek. It’s a secret.” He began to giggle, hands over his mouth.

  Lucy glanced from Dub to Jack. Though Jack’s face remained impassive, his eyes sparkled with amusement at Dub’s words. The man could run, but he couldn’t hide from what was happening to him.

  “Can I have the treasures we collected, Miss Lucy?”

  “Absolutely, but keep that snakeskin in the plastic bag, okay?” Again she looked between them. “You two were the only ones who found the snakeskin.”

  “We’re real good. Right, Dub?” Jack said.

  Dub nodded and approached Jack. “Here, Mr. Jack, this is for you.” Dub opened his hand, where the heart-shaped stone rested in his small palm.

  With a broad smile, Jack took the stone from Dub’s little hand. “Thanks, buddy.”

  Lucy’s heart melted. Oh, this wasn’t good. Not at all. What was she thinking? Dub was falling for Jack Harris. Soon he’d be tired of Oklahoma and back to his life in New York. And little Dub would be left with a broken heart.

  Jack stared at the stone, a tender expression on his face. He slowly lifted his eyes, and his gaze met hers. When Lucy’s stomach did a little flip-flop, she knew she was in trouble. Dub wasn’t the only one who might be falling for the temporary cowboy.

  Chapter Six

  “Come on, Maxwell. Bases are loaded. This is your chance,” Jack said from behind home plate. “Look sharp.”

  “Jack, don’t coach her. She’s on the opposite team!” Rue Butterfield called out from the pitcher’s mound.

  “Coach! In his dreams. The man is trying to rattle me,” Lucy said as she warmed up, swinging the bat in an arc with a fierce deliberation. She turned and glared at him before lowering the brim of her red-team ball cap and getting back into position.