by Heidi Hormel
She came back to the truck with three bags filled with dog paraphernalia, which she was pretty sure she’d been overcharged for. She opened the door to put the loot in the truck.
“My God, woman, did you buy the whole store?” Danny asked as she shoved the bags in.
She stiffened. “I wanted to make sure she had everything she needed.”
He rooted in the bags. “A pink rhinestone collar? Lem carries these?”
“Obviously he carries them. Where else would I have gotten it?”
“Well, take it back. I’m not walking a dog with that kind of collar. The one she has just needs to be cleaned up.”
“Excuse me?” She couldn’t believe what he’d just said. He’d insulted her... She was pretty sure he had.
“I am not putting this collar,” he said as he dived into the bags again, “or this leash on Mama. It’s not right. She’s a ranch dog.”
“A ranch dog? You live in a tiny apartment, in a tiny town, not on a ranch.”
“I’m not using these.” He got out of the truck, lifted down the dog and tied her to the door handle so she was in the shade. Then he strode toward the store. She followed him.
“Danny, the collar and leash are fine. She’s a girl.”
“She’s a ranch dog, and she doesn’t need rhinestones.” He didn’t slow down. She continued after him and back into the store.
“Lem,” Danny yelled. “What the hell are you selling? I want a real collar and leash.”
“You know the rules,” the tall, skinny and stooped Lem said. “No returns.”
“That’s BS. There are returns when you’re selling us crap.” Danny glared at the man.
Clover had already guessed she’d been taken advantage of. But she felt it only fair since she was guilty of hitting the dog. Somehow getting gouged made her feel better about that. Like she was paying her dues. “I like the leash and collar.” There was that, too.
“Of course you do. You’re from New York City,” Danny said, as if she’d come from Sodom or Gomorrah.
“They’re girlie. And I’ve spent more of life in Texas than New York.”
“They’re ridiculous.”
“Not man enough to walk a dog sporting a few rhinestones?” she jeered, smiling at the image of him. He was not going to return the darned leash and collar.
“I was man enough for you, darlin’.” His tone said exactly what that implied.
She blushed, wanting to smack him because she could see the speculation in Lem’s eyes. She did not want to be one of Danny Leigh’s women. “That was when you were a bull rider. What are you now? Mayor of a dying town, living off your fading fame.” She’d gone too far. She knew it even as the mean words came out. She opened her mouth to apologize or maybe to suck the words back in.
The dog woofed as she came waddling and limping in. She went over to Danny, stretched up and grabbed the leash and collar from his hands, which had fallen to his sides with her ugly words.
Danny seemed to awaken and tried to pull them back. “No,” he said. The dog growled and yanked the collar and leash to her, showing teeth.
“Hell’s bells, Mayor. That your dog?”
“Just a stray,” Danny said. “A bitch who doesn’t know what she wants, apparently.”
Clover sucked in her breath. Even in their worst teenage fights, Danny had never called her that.
Chapter Three
A call to his sister Jessie had gotten Danny no help and no sympathy for mama dog. His sister had her own child to deal with, her horse therapy program and a husband adjusting to a new job and baby. Jessie had a lot of choice words. Next he tried Lavonda, the sister closest to his age. She said that Cat, her cat, had nixed the idea. Danny told her that he didn’t see how a property could function with just a cat to keep the stock in line. Lavonda reminded him who Cat was—an overweight Siamese mix who had a miniature donkey at her beck and call. When she asked him about Clover, he ignored the question.
Mama had made herself at home in a pile of not-so-clean clothes that had missed the hamper. So far she’d been quiet, probably tuckered out. He’d find her a new home soon because even if the original owners came forward, he wasn’t giving her up to them. It was obvious they didn’t care. His landlord would eventually hear what Danny had in his rooms, and the lease had been clear. No animals. One of those rules he’d figured wouldn’t matter because Danny had never planned to stay. It had just been a place to put his gear between competitions. After becoming mayor and retiring from bull riding, he hadn’t had time to find a better place. On the other hand, his tiny apartment was convenient to the diner and the rooms were easy for him to clean with his meager housekeeping skills. The rent was cheap, too, freeing up money for his business.
He’d bought properties, purchased more or less as favors to the owners who couldn’t keep up with the repairs. The buildings had been sliding toward neglect, so he’d fixed them up, rented them back to the owners at a reasonable price and come up with a grander scheme than just living off rental income and handyman work.
Danny had wanted to buy warehouse properties near to the depot, some of them already broken up into small apartments. He’d also been able to purchase a half dozen buildings on and just behind Miner’s Gulch that needed TLC. He’d transform some of them into good housing at a good price. With his ties to bull riding, sisters nearby and friends in Tucson, he’d entice new families to move to Angel Crossing. The town was literally dying, the population aging every day. His homes wouldn’t be fancy, but they’d be affordable for couples just starting out. He’d mix in a few more expensive options so that the town didn’t get segregated into the haves and have-nots, as he’d seen in many places. After all was said and done, he’d make a little money and the town would be better.
He looked at Mama sleeping peacefully. Maybe he should see about recruiting a vet.
Losing the auction had been a blow to his long-term strategy. He couldn’t understand what Clover, or rather her father, wanted to do with the property. He’d searched online for her and found out that she was working for her dad now. He needed to do more checking. He had a vague memory of someone, somewhere in town saying that a New York City company had bought other properties.
He couldn’t find anything on Van Camp Worldwide’s website about a plan for Arizona. “Why would she buy those old warehouses by the tracks?” he asked the sleeping dog. “They’ll have to tear them down. That’s what I wanted to do. It was the only way to build anything that would appeal to first-time home buyers. I might have been able to reuse bits and pieces of the interior. Or if I could have found a group of artists, I thought about studios and living spaces. Guess I won’t get to do either.”
Mama sighed heavily and wiggled her brows before burrowing further into the clothing.
“I’m going to Jim’s,” he told the dog. He deserved a beer for the day he’d had. A little uncomplicated loving and attention would have been nice, too. Not happening as long as he lived in Angel Crossing. The downside of a small town was that if he made a move on anyone and it didn’t work out, he’d have to see her day after day. It had definitely put a damper on his love life.
* * *
“DO YOU REALLY do karaoke on Tuesdays?” Danny asked. He couldn’t believe the wood-paneled, domestic-beer-serving tavern ran anything that appealed to someone under the age of 70. He’d seen the sign before but hadn’t wanted to ask.
“Country-western only,” said Anita, the owner, who’d gotten the place from a former husband.
“Anyone any good?”
“Nah, but that don’t stop them.” She stared hard at Danny before going on. “Hear your high school sweetheart’s in Angel Crossing.”
The gossip nearly had it right. He didn’t even wonder about the speed of the stories that flew around town. “She and I dated over a summer wh
en I was with the junior rodeo.”
“Makes sense. Couldn’t imagine how someone like her went to your high school. She was the rodeo queen or something?”
“Miss Steer Princess,” he corrected automatically.
“Huh,” Anita said before strolling off.
Danny wondered exactly what of that conversation would be shared. By the time he heard about him and Clover next week, they would have run away as teens to get married in Vegas only to be stopped by a gun-toting daddy. He smiled into his beer. Maybe the story wouldn’t be quite that clichéd.
“Mayor,” Irvin Miller said as he clapped Danny on the back and sat on the bar stool next to him.
“Mayor,” echoed his wife, Loretta. The two dressed alike and even the gray in their hair matched. If you saw one, you always saw the other. Anita served the couple without asking for their order. They always got the same drink: Coors Light draft in a mug that had not been stored in the freezer.
Irvin turned again to Danny after a sip of beer. “We heard that a big company out of New York City is buying up the town.”
“The old warehouse buildings by the depot. They were falling down and behind on taxes. It’ll be good to see it taken care of.”
“It’s not just that property. They’ve bought others and got plans.”
“I thought I remembered someone saying that a New York buyer had gotten a couple of places. And what’s wrong with having a plan? Angel Crossing could use a little revitalizing,” Danny said.
Loretta broke in. “I was at the town hall talking with Pru and she showed me what those Easterners want to do—turn our little metropolis into a resort called Rico Pueblo.”
“Resort?” Danny asked. “What the heck is Rico Pueblo?”
Irvin went on. “This VCW company owns a good third of the town already, according to Pru. The plans, though, came in with your lady friend.”
“Lady friend? Clover?”
“Yep,” Loretta said. “Her. She brought them in and told Pru that her daddy’s company wanted to improve Angel Crossing. Pru said your lady friend is asking the town council—” of which Loretta and Irvin were longtime members “—to rezone everything within two blocks of Miner’s Gulch into something she’s calling an entertainment zone. Everything will have to look a certain way, so they’ll tear down almost everything there and rebuild it. Businesses only, though, and that fit into ‘an integrated theme highlighting the Western ethos.’ We had to look it up and we still don’t understand what it means.”
“How are they going to get that many businesses? What about everyone already living here or the shops already there?”
Irvin took up the conversation. “Seems that they want to make something like Tombstone or Disneyland but fancier. No showdowns at noon and no saloon girls.”
“You’d mention the girls,” Loretta said.
Danny couldn’t imagine any company wanting to do that with Angel Crossing, but...the land was cheap, and it was within easy driving distance of Tucson and its airport. Was that really why Clover was here?
Irvin added after another sip of beer, “Pru said it’ll mean businesses and people will have to move. Not so sure about that.”
Maybe the Millers had it wrong about the company taking over the town and driving everyone out. It wouldn’t be the first time the couple had gotten only half of a story. “See you, folks,” Danny said as he quickly finished his beer and left. He’d just go and see Clover. Find out firsthand what she and VCW meant to do with Angel Crossing.
* * *
CLOVER SAT ON her front porch, looking out over the mountains as the sun made its finale. The streaks of purple tonight were a shade she should tell her mother about—not that her mother would care to hear from her. Still, it’d make a beautiful basis for a line of clothing. She sipped at her icy-cold glass of victory beer. She’d gotten another property they needed for this phase and submitted the concept plan to the clerk at the town hall. She’d wanted to wait, preferring not to tip the company’s hand for fear of driving up the other properties’ prices, but the timeline was tight. To get everything approved by the town, the county and the state in time, the process needed to start now. Actually, it should have started two months ago, but her brother had dropped the ball on that one.
The Rico Pueblo concept of “culturally appropriate” entertainment and retail mixed with residences would transform the town and its economy. There would be jobs and money coming in. It would change Angel Crossing, and for the better—obviously—because right now there wasn’t much to recommend the place. Faded facades, uneven sidewalks, potholes on the main street and homes with peeling paint and sagging roofs. She could see the revitalized “downtown” with meandering side streets radiating out to climb into the rugged terrain of the mountains. The residential area would be a combination of time-share rentals and housing managed by VCW. Then in additional phases there would be homes owned by individuals. This was the first project of its kind the company had tried. If they could iron out the kinks, this type of planned community could be used throughout the country. She already had ideas for at least six more venues. She just needed to make the numbers work here.
She nodded to a man walking a dog, which made her think of Mama and her own part in that sad story. Then Danny strolled up the road, stopping to talk with the dog walker. Of course. Because her evening had been going too well. She studied the changes between sixteen-year-old Danny and nearly thirty-year-old Danny—none of which were bad. He’d grown into his height, his shoulders filling out and his gait gaining confidence. Unlike many bull riders she’d seen over the years, he didn’t have any hitch in his step or even a visible scar. How had he ridden and won all of those years and come out unscathed? Because he was Danny Leigh.
He turned his head to her almost as if she’d called his name. He smiled. Her heart beat a little faster, just as it always had. Darn it. She was a grown woman, not a naive girl. More important, she had only one reason for being here and that was Rico Pueblo, not reliving a summer love affair.
Her eyes hadn’t left Danny, though. He lifted his hat in greeting and stumbled on an uneven bit of street. He righted himself easily, his smile never wavering. If she’d been her vain, beauty-queen self, she would have imagined that she’d made him stumble. Ha!
“Hello, Clover. I heard you were renting Dead Man’s Cottage.”
“That’s very funny.”
He came closer. “Really. That’s what it’s called. The first four owners were hung—one by mistake, the other three for stealing horses or silver.”
“Colorful,” Clover said, hoping alone at night she wouldn’t imagine feeling or seeing the ghosts of the men. “How’s Mama?”
“She’s settling in. I’ve got feelers out for a new home for her. It won’t be long until my landlord figures out that I’ve got a dog. But that’s not why I’m here.”
“Oh?” He was on the narrow porch now, standing over her. She was not intimidated nor interested. She was an MBA-toting businesswoman on her way to running an international corporation.
“I was speaking to Loretta and Irvin Miller. They’re on town council, and they told me something intriguing.”
“Did they?” She’d hoped her plans would be ignored a little longer, but she was prepared for this situation. She’d studied the town and her father’s venture, laying out every scenario and contingency.
“What are you up to? They said you want to tear down the town and rebuild it but restrict what and who can go where.”
“Is that what I’m doing?”
“Fine. What Van Camp Worldwide is doing. Since your last name is Van Camp, I’d say it was you, too.”
“I submitted a concept plan.” She didn’t need to tell him anything until she was ready.
“Are you trying to ruin my town because I dumped you?”
She couldn�
�t stop the laugh. “I have an MBA from one of the best business schools in the US. I’m in line to become CFO of VCW. Why would I care about a teenage fling?” He stared at her, as if he was expecting her to really answer his question. “You actually believe that? That you dumped me? You must have very different memories than I do.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and didn’t blink. “I know I didn’t call you after that last show. I know you asked about me.”
He sounded triumphant. She checked his denim-blue eyes for mischief. Not an iota of levity. He was dead serious. “I was eighteen when we parted ways and on my way to Milan then college,” she said, not adding that she’d nearly given up on college to stay with him. She’d been a stupid-in-love girl then. “I never thought about you until I was assigned to come to Angel Crossing.”
“I know the ‘first time’ for a girl is a big deal.”
Dear Lord. She definitely remembered their first time. It hadn’t been a magical moment and was a memory she’d rather forget. They both had been nervous and inexperienced. The disappointment had been epic. “It must have been a big deal for you, too, since you told anyone who would listen.” She sounded snippier than she’d planned. She must still feel a little resentment. Who would have known?
“I apologize for that. My mama taught me better,” he said, dropping his arms and dipping his head.
She’d accept his meager apology. “Thank you. It’s a little late, though.”
“I’d have said it sooner, but my buddies kept ragging on me that a college girl who’d been to Italy wouldn’t be interested in a cowboy who was still in high school.”
She shrugged and took a sip of beer. He might be right but she still would have liked to have heard from him. To know that she wasn’t just some stupid, macho, cowboy conquest. “Would you like a beer?”
Danny hesitated, his blue eyes darkening to something akin to the brightening of a morning sky. “Thank you.”
She indicated that he should sit and went in to get him a beer from her limited stock. She’d invited him to have a drink because it was polite. There might be a little bit of the old chemistry. The tingly spark was just an echo of what they’d felt, that intense connection that happened only with a first love. He’d been her first love before he’d been her first lover. She smiled as she thought of their first and only time. His hands had been shaking so badly she’d had to unzip her own jeans.
