Billion Dollar Cowboy

by Carolyn Brown

  It only took ten minutes to get back to the ranch but it felt like ten hours by the time he parked the truck. She jumped out and stormed to the backyard. She gathered up her gardening tools from the shed and carried them to the first flower bed.

  “Dammit!” she swore as she started the tedious job of pruning the crape myrtles from the bottom.

  “Coffee?” Colton asked a few minutes later.

  She whipped around to find him three feet behind her with two mugs of steaming coffee in his hands. Being careful not to touch his hand, she took one and sipped it.

  “Now tell me what is really wrong with you,” he said.

  “Nothing is wrong with me. Too bad you don’t see it that way.”

  Colton nodded toward a garden bench. “Sit with me, please.”

  She laid her pruning shears down and felt like she was in Roxie’s shoes, sitting across the table from the social worker and the principal.

  At least Colton had the good sense to sit on the other end of the bench and not crowd her. A monarch butterfly as big as the palm of her hand lit between them, its wings flipping up and down.

  “I run from arguments,” he said bluntly. “That’s been part of my commitment issues. I hate to fight.”

  “How’d you ever get through school?”

  “Not that kind of fighting. I did my share of that and just like Roxie, if I broke the rules, I paid the price.”

  She sipped her coffee. She had the same problem. She was like the butterfly. The minute she smelled emotional danger, she took flight without looking back.

  “Why?” she asked.

  Colton sighed and looked at the butterfly instead of her. “I was ten when my folks were killed. Granny says that they were passionate in their love as well as their arguments. But the last thing I heard before they dropped me at Aunt Maudie’s house while they went out to dinner was another fight.”

  She wasn’t sure that she understood what that had to do with today.

  “That night it was over whether to have more children and my mother said that just one kid was enough responsibility for her. My father wanted a house full and she didn’t. I’m not so sure I can explain this.”

  “Keep talking,” she said. That’s what the therapist had said when she’d said the same words to him on the first visit. Besides, Colton looked absolutely miserable and her heart went out to him as much as it had to Roxie when the girl had looked up at her in the teacher’s lounge.

  He stretched his long legs out and crossed one boot over the other, raked his fingers through his hair, and finally looked at her. Their eyes locked and she could see pain all the way to the inner parts of his soul.

  “Fighting means separation, and since no two people can ever be together without arguments then it stands to reason that commitment will bring nothing but separation. Does that make sense?”

  “Perfectly. But why did you ask me to stay if that’s the way you feel?”

  Colton blinked and looked away.

  She understood on a depth that couldn’t be explained.

  “We’ve been burned pretty bad, haven’t we?” she asked.

  His head bobbed up and down. “I don’t know what you are mad about, but believe me, I feel it when there’s anger in the air. It would be easier if you were vocal, but you retreat into your shell just like I do. That’s not a good thing, Laura.”

  “Well, thank you, Dr. Nelson,” she said.

  The butterfly spread its wings and flew away.

  Colton started to stand but she reached over and put a hand on his leg. “Don’t you leave me with all this inside me or I’ll explode.”

  He settled back into his corner of the bench.

  The butterfly came back and settled on his knee.

  She took a sip of her coffee and said, “I never knew my father and I never heard my mother fight with anyone. To me, any relationship is headed for disaster because there has to come a time when the other party disappears. Why even start something that is only going to end in heartache? If my mother couldn’t even love me enough to fight for her life and stop smoking and drinking, then how could anyone else?”

  ***

  It hit Colton like a class-five tornado.

  It wasn’t Janet’s leaving or Roxie’s fight that had set her off but what he’d said about the blood and DNA. If only a person had the means to erase what they’d said like a teacher removing things from a blackboard.

  “Guess we make quite the pair,” he said.

  “I have trust issues because of my past,” she said. “You have commitment issues and relate them all to arguments. That doesn’t make for much of a relationship outside of the hot bedroom sheets.”

  “You also have trouble spitting out your problems and keep everything bottled up inside of you,” he said.

  “And you can’t say what you really feel?”

  “What you are really upset about is what I said about Roxie not being able to change what she is by birth and nature. You didn’t pitch a hissy in the truck about that. You just puffed up like a bullfrog.”

  “I did not!”

  “So what are the rules?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Like you said, Colton, you can’t change what you come from,” she said softly.

  “No, but if you work at it, you can change what you become.”

  Was he talking to himself or to her? He wondered.

  He leaned across the space and brushed a light kiss across her lips. “I’m leaving now. We both need to think before we talk any more. See you this evening. Rusty and I are going over to Sherman this morning to pick up a load of barbed wire. After supper, maybe we’ll take a walk?”

  “I’ll look forward to it.”

  ***

  The sweetness of the kiss didn’t surprise her as much as the fact that the monarch wasn’t spooked and stayed on his pant leg halfway across the yard.

  Evidently Maudie had gotten the news via phone call from Colton because she was on the phone with the social worker at noon when Laura finished the yard work and went inside for dinner. Maudie held up a finger, said a few more words, and then snapped her phone shut.

  She looked at Laura and asked, “Hungry?”

  “Starving,” Laura answered.

  “It’s just me and you today. Andy has gone to the bank. Rusty and Colton are still drooling over tractors trying to decide which one to buy. I swear that boy still pinches pennies even though he could buy ten of those tractors and not put a dent in his bank account.”

  “What about Roxie?” Laura made a sandwich and dipped a bowl of soup from the Crock-Pot on the buffet.

  “I got the story from Colton, from the principal, and from the social worker. They were all impressed with you, wanted to know if you had counselor training,” Maudie said.

  “Not me! I was just trained by the orneriest sister God ever put on the face of the earth. Most of the time it turned out that whatever trouble she was in, she’d brought on herself. But Roxie’s put up with enough, Maudie.”

  “Thanks for stepping in for her. She’s come out of her shell since you came to the ranch. It’ll mean a lot to her that you took up for her. She’ll still have some punishment when she gets home because that’s the rules, but I appreciate what you did. Now, let’s talk about what’s going on the rest of the week. Tomorrow night you’ve got that dinner in Gainesville.”

  Laura groaned. “I thought all the party stuff was over.”

  “Just one more this month. It’s the North Texas Angus Association dinner. They have a social evening several times a year for the members and their spouses or girlfriends. It’s not like that thing in Dallas. The men folks wear jeans and no ties. The ladies dress in anything from fancy jeans and boots to cute little dresses, depending on how much sag and bag they’ve got. So don’t worry about it.”

  “Then I don’t have t
o go to Tressa’s or shop anymore?” Laura asked.

  “You can wear what you had on that first time you went to church and look just fine,” Maudie answered. “I hear you and Colton had a fight. Did you talk it out yet?”

  “Neither of us are much on talking it out but we’re trying. I bottle things up and have trust problems. He bottles things up and has commitment problems. But what does it matter? This is all a farce anyway, isn’t it?” Laura asked.

  “Is it? From the way he looks at you, I kind of thought you’d moved into reality. But that is y’all’s business. The yard is looking very nice. I told Colton when we moved into this big old place that the backyard had potential. Guess you’re bringing that out as much as you are Roxie’s potential.”

  “Thank you,” Laura tucked her chin down and blushed.

  Janet called right after lunch. She’d landed in Amarillo, drove home, unpacked, and gone to a meeting.

  “Been a busy girl, haven’t you?” Laura laughed.

  “I’ve got something to say and I mean it with my whole heart. And I don’t want you to butt in one time while I’m talking or I’ll start crying.”

  There was a long, pregnant pause.

  “Well?” Janet snapped.

  “You told me not to butt in. I’m listening,” Laura said.

  “Okay, number one. Don’t you dare try to scam Colton. He’s in love with you. He might not know it and it might take him a long time to figure it out because he’s not a man that loves easily but give him time.”

  “Number two?” Laura asked.

  “I told you not to butt in! Number two. I don’t want you to move back here. I want to learn this business of standing on my own two feet and I want to be as strong and as brave as you are. I won’t do it if I can run to you with every problem like I have my whole life. And I want your promise if I stumble that you’ll make me get back up and try again but that you won’t help me financially.”

  Another pause.

  “Well?” Janet said again.

  “I’m crying. Give me a minute to blow my nose.”

  “Do you promise?”

  “Yes, I do,” Laura said. “Is there a number three? Do I need to bring the box of tissues from the bathroom or is this one going to do?”

  “There is a number three. I met a man at the meetings. He’s got the same problems I have but he’s been clean for two years, three months, and sixteen days now. He’s a good man and he’s asked me out a dozen times. I didn’t have the courage to say yes until I saw you with Colton. We are going to dinner tonight.”

  Laura gasped.

  “His name is James Radford and he’s a lawyer. He lives in Amarillo. He lost everything with his addiction problems but he’s slowly getting back on his feet. He had a ranch north of Hereford. His wife left him and his two grown kids won’t talk to him. He’s fifteen years older than I am and that’s all I know.”

  Laura inhaled deeply. “Why this man?”

  “Because he looks at me like Colton looks at you and there’s a flutter in my heart when he does and if you can overcome our past, so can I. I’m scared out of my mind, sister, but I’m giddy just thinking about going out with him.”

  More tears flooded Laura’s face. “Truth is that I’m scared out of my mind too.”

  “I didn’t hear that. My wings aren’t quite ready to fly out of the nest, and until they are I need you to be the strong one just a little longer. I had a wonderful weekend. I even liked that church service that Roxie conned us into. It was all better than any therapy session I’ve ever been to. I love you, Laura.”

  “Me too,” Laura choked out.

  She threw herself back on the bed, grabbed a pillow, and sobbed into it for several minutes. Lord, what a morning!

  ***

  Laura was sitting on the porch when the school bus pulled up into the front yard and Roxie got out. She walked like her boots were filled with concrete and slumped down in the rocking chair next to Laura as if a full-grown Angus bull rested on her shoulders.

  “Does she have the gallows built?” she whispered.

  “I didn’t see a rope and she left the guillotine in the barn.” Laura smiled.

  “Thank you for standing up for me,” Roxie said. “Rosalee was playing all sweet and innocent until you got there. The social worker didn’t believe a word of what I said and everything that Rosalee said.”

  “Why?”

  “You know.”

  Laura smiled and patted Roxie on the shoulder. “She did look pretty pitiful with that hangdog look and that black eye. What did Dillon say about the whole thing?”

  “He said that he should’ve been the one to take care of it. She’s been talkin’ smack about me for a whole week and texting everyone all weekend about how she was going to get me sent away so she could have Dillon.”

  “So tell me what do you and Dillon do when you break up?” Laura asked.

  “You know!”

  “I really don’t.”

  “We text and we talk on the phone and we say we’re sorry and then we kiss a lot,” she said. “Isn’t that what you did when you broke up with your boyfriends?”

  “I didn’t have a cell phone,” Laura said.

  “I knew it! You are old!”

  Maudie came out on the porch, sat down on the swing, and looked at Roxie. “What have you got to say? Are you aware that if Laura hadn’t gotten the straight story things could be very different right now? You promised if you could live with me that you’d stay out of trouble.”

  “I got tired of her smart mouth. And I did start the fight so I’ll take whatever punishment here at home that I have to. I got three weeks in-school suspension for fighting. But at least Rosalee isn’t in the room with me. It turned out that she’s been living with her older sister because she got in trouble for bullying down in Louisiana. Her sister came to the school and checked her out. She’s going back to Louisiana to her momma’s house.”

  “How did you find that out? Weren’t you in suspension?” Maudie asked.

  “Heard it on the bus on the way home.”

  “You are grounded for a week. You can’t go anywhere next weekend except to church. That includes going out with Dillon. You can keep your cell phone and your computer and I don’t care if you text or talk to him, but you can’t go out with him. And next time, you block that first hit and then wipe up the school yard with anyone who bullies you. But you do not start a fight. Do you understand me?” Maudie asked.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Roxie said.

  “Good, then that’s enough talk about it. Come on upstairs and let me clean up that scratch properly. Never know what a voodoo witch might have under her claws,” Maudie said.

  Laura didn’t know whether to giggle or cry again. Both emotions were so close to the surface that she was afraid to try out either one. So she dug her cell phone from out of her shirt pocket and sent her first text message to Colton.

  Talk?

  In seconds her phone dinged and she looked down to see: When and where?

  She typed in: Snow cones at the school yard after supper.

  The message back said: Yes!

  Chapter 21

  Cool night air blowing through open pickup windows, flashes of lightning, and rolling thunder all blended together for something so amazing that Laura didn’t have a sane thought in her head.

  “How did we get in the backseat? I don’t remember crawling over here,” she gasped.

  Lightning lit up his sweaty ripped abdomen.

  He pulled her lips back to his for another kiss that left them both panting even harder. “Where there is a will there is a way.”

  “That was amazing,” she whispered.

  His hands left her back and cupped her bottom tighter to his naked body. “What do you think they put in those snow cones?”

  “I don’t k
now but they’d best not put it in teenagers’ snow cones or there’ll be a raft of new babies next year,” she answered.

  Lightning split the sky again and hit an oak tree across the street from the school yard with enough force to shear a limb off like a machete slicing through soft butter.

  She jumped and covered her eyes.

  “Think we’d better put on our clothes and go home?” he asked.

  “Not until we talk,” she answered.

  “We could talk in our apartment, Laura.”

  Our apartment.

  He’d said our, not my, not the, but our.

  She wiggled free and reached for her bra hanging on the rearview mirror. When she had it and her underpants on, she climbed over into the front seat and finished dressing.

  “Have to be dressed to talk, do you?” he asked. “We have sex naked. Why can’t we talk naked?”

  “Lightning could strike twice in one place. It’s rare that it does but I’m not taking chances that big.”

  “Why?”

  “And I don’t want Maudie and Roxie to find us fried and naked.”

  They’d barely gotten dressed when a police car rolled up beside the truck. An officer got out with a flashlight half the size of a ball bat and shined it inside.

  “Colton Nelson, is that you?”

  “Howdy, Randall. What are you doing out in this kind of weather?” Colton asked.

  Did the man know everyone in the whole northern part of the state? He was on first name terms with the principal at Roxie’s school and he’d spoken to everyone at the ranch party like long lost friends.

  “Old man Witherly called 911. Said a tree got zapped and he could see a truck in the school yard and the people in it had been killed with lightning. Thought I’d best come take a look.” Randall chuckled.

  “Laura and I were out for a snow cone when the lightning started,” Colton said.

  Rain started falling in huge drops that sent dust devils floating up around the truck. Randall grabbed his hat and nodded. “Y’all might ought to go home. Looks like we’re in for a toad strangler.”

  “Hope so. We can use the rain,” Colton told him and hurriedly hit the button to roll up the windows. “Guess we’ll be talking at home.”