Billion Dollar Cowboy

by Carolyn Brown

  An hour later she was curled up beside him in bed. He toyed with her blond hair with one hand. The other had found a place to rest under her nightshirt between her breast and waist.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “About?”

  “You know.”

  She kissed his nipple. “Words, Colton.”

  “I’m sorry that I said that about Roxie and her background. If that was the truth I’d be in big trouble too. I’d let my temper get away from me and wouldn’t be fit to be in a relationship. Is that enough words?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry that I fired-up mad about it. I was so worried about Roxie and then there was the issue with Janet. Oh, she called me when she got home.”

  She went on to tell him what all Janet had said and tears flowed down her cheeks just telling the story.

  He wiped them away with his fingertips and kissed both eyelids.

  “Not that I want to keep enabling her but it’s like the end of an era and I like being needed,” she said.

  “I need you,” he whispered softly.

  She propped up on an elbow. “Colton Nelson, you are a rich cowboy. You don’t need anything.”

  He pulled her over on top of his body and wrapped his arms tightly around her. “Want and need are two different things. I can buy anything I want, but there are things I need that evidently are not up for sale and you are one of those things.”

  He didn’t say he loved her, but then she’d heard those words before and they were meaningless without the actions to back them up. She settled her face in the crook of his neck and wondered if need wasn’t just as important as love when the dust settled.

  ***

  Colton laced his fingers in Laura’s and opened the door to the banquet room at the Denison Country Club. Tables, covered with white cloths, were set with silver and napkins but no dinnerware. Evidently, the caterers intended to bring the food to the table because she didn’t see a buffet anywhere.

  “Have I told you that you are beautiful tonight?” he asked.

  “Three times since we left home and that was less than twenty minutes ago,” she answered.

  He’d thought she was drop-dead gorgeous in Dallas, stunning at the ranch party, and downright beautiful in her sundress and boots at church that first Sunday. But that night she wore tight-fitting jeans and a shirt in shades of blue that matched her eyes. Her hair floated on her shoulders and he had the urge to weave it around his fingertips to feel the silky softness. Yes, sir, that night she was a rancher’s wife and more beautiful than she’d ever been before.

  A tall dark cowboy with a drink in one hand clapped Colton on the shoulder and said, “Great party on Saturday. Man, I never knew an old barn could be transformed like that! I told my girls about it and they whined all day Sunday. Lily said that it wasn’t fair that you got a wife when she wants a mother. Gabby said that a mommy was all she wanted for her birthday at the end of summer.”

  Colton shook hands with him. “Honey, you’ll remember Mason Harper. He’s the brave soul that danced with your sister.”

  “Lovely girl,” Mason said. “I didn’t know she was your sister.”

  “Don’t hog the fiancée. I haven’t gotten to meet her yet.” Another cowboy joined the group. “I was in Wyoming looking at cattle over the weekend. Just got home this morning. Didn’t think I was going to make it to the dinner here for a while. I’m Greg Adams. My ranch is over near Ravenna, not far from Ambrose.”

  “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Laura said.

  “Before the night is over, you’ll have to meet my grandmother, Clarice. She’s my date tonight. Be thankful that Mason didn’t bring those two demon princesses of his to the party,” Greg said.

  Mason grinned. “Don’t look at me, Miz Laura. Greg is being nice. What one of them can’t think of to get into trouble, the other one can, and believe me, there is strength in numbers. Right now it’s this thing of wanting a mommy for their birthday. Ain’t a woman alive who’d take on the job of mothering Lily and Gabby. Those two want a mommy, but there ain’t a mommy out there who’d want them.”

  “Come on now.” Laura laughed.

  “He’s tellin’ the truth,” Greg said. “I love ’em like nieces but those two could tear up a John Deere tractor with a feather.”

  “And put it back together with the same feather.” Colton chuckled.

  “Hey, I thought Lucas would be home by now,” Mason changed the subject.

  Colton hugged Laura tighter to his side and said, “Greg, Mason, Lucas, and I all joined the Red River Angus Association at the same time. Lucas owns a spread over between Savoy and Ector. He’s in the National Guard and his unit got sent to Kuwait,” he explained.

  “I thought it was supposed to be for only six months,” Greg said.

  “His foreman Wyatt told Rusty last week at the feed store that they’d extended his time. He’ll be there until Christmas.”

  “Man, that’s tough. I’d hate to be away from my ranch that long,” Mason said. “Y’all best hit the bar if you want a drink before dinner. They’ll be hollerin’ for us to find our places in about ten minutes.”

  “It was good meeting y’all,” Laura said.

  With a hand on the small of her back, Colton guided Laura to the bar. She ordered a longneck Coors and he nodded that he’d have the same.

  “How many are in this club?” she asked.

  “You mean the NTAA or the country club?”

  “The first one. Are you a member of the country club?”

  “Not me. Greg and Mason are, though, and several of the older ranchers keep a membership. I don’t play golf and I can’t see driving almost twenty miles to go swimming. There are about fifteen of us in the NTAA. Do you want a membership in the country club?”

  “Hell, no!” she said without hesitation.

  ***

  It was too good to be true.

  They’d gotten through a blowup, had awesome makeup sex after a long talk, and things had seemed so right when she’d gone to sleep in his arms the night before. But there was a brick in her chest that evening as they left the Angus party and that always meant danger.

  The moon hung above the treetops like a beaconing light guiding them home. Stars were diamonds twinkling brightly around it. The night air was warm but not scorching summer hot yet. Everything was perfect and yet nothing was right. Laura Baker did not belong in this world of country clubs and billionaire spa days.

  Like Colton said so prophetically, blood cannot be changed.

  “When my mother was as quiet as you are, a storm was on the way,” Colton said.

  “I’m not your mother.”

  “Do I detect a little anger in those words? We promised to be honest and not keep our feelings inside. What’s eating at you?”

  “I don’t belong in your high-dollar world.”

  “Neither do I, but it’s only a high-dollar world a few days a year. The rest of the time I get to be a rough old cowboy rancher.”

  He parked in front of the house and turned to face her. “There’s the thing in Dallas and the NTAA dinner, the summer party, and the fall cattle sale. Christmas is just family, I promise.”

  She counted on her fingers. “Four a year and three of them in the summer, right?”

  “That’s right. Kind of like eating an elephant. You do it a bite at a time and it’s not so overwhelming. The Angus party is one evening, the ranch party a day and evening, and the Dallas affair a weekend. After that it’s over until fall, thank God!”

  “And the sale?”

  “Now that’s a big thing. We do have a dance and a dinner after the sale to thank everyone for coming, but believe me, we don’t drape the whole barn in that filmy stuff.” He laughed.

  His laughter set everything back up straight in her world. Could she really, really stay at the ran
ch and enter into the real world? He had not said that he loved her. Would his need be enough to sustain her through the coming years and would it turn into love someday?

  He tipped up her chin and kissed her passionately. “I still feel out of place among so many rich people. But, honey, with you by my side it sure makes it easier. I feel like I’ve got something none of them can ever have when I walk into those parties with you on my arm. As long as we are together, we’ll show all these rich cats how it’s done.”

  As long as we are together.

  Janet said that when they were kids. Janet needed her and now she didn’t. What happened when Colton didn’t need her anymore?

  Laura’s soul came close to leaving her body when Rusty knocked on the truck window right over Colton’s left shoulder.

  She jumped straight up off the seat and banged her leg on the dash.

  Colton whipped around when Rusty swung the door open. “What?”

  “Sorry to interrupt but I’ve got a cow down and I need Laura,” Rusty said.

  “Do I have time to change clothes?” Laura asked.

  “No, ma’am. If we don’t get that calf out pretty soon, we’re going to lose her and the baby.”

  “Hop in the back,” Colton said. “I’ll drive down to the barn.”

  “She’s not in the barn. She’s out by the pond,” Rusty said as he crawled into the backseat.

  Laura hoped he didn’t see the two purple dots on the seat that she’d left behind the night before when she and Colton had stormy sex back there. Colton had licked the snow cone juice from her fingers but two drops had gotten away from him before he could slurp them up.

  ***

  Wednesday morning she and Colton both overslept and didn’t see Roxie before she went to school. Laura missed having breakfast with Roxie and made sure she was sitting on the porch that evening when the school bus pulled up in the yard.

  Thursday morning, they awoke early and had wonderful good morning darlin’ sex before they shared the shower. Laura had never shared a shower with a man before and loved the way their wet, soapy body parts kept bumping into each other.

  Friday, Laura opened her eyes, checked the clock to see that she’d awakened thirty minutes early, and rolled over to snuggle up against Colton’s back but he wasn’t there. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and sat up, listening for the noise of the shower. She could hear Sally singing out in the hallway but there was no sound of water running.

  She slung her legs over his side of the bed and saw the note lying on the nightstand. “Breakfast meeting of NTAA in Sherman. Rusty and I’ll be back around nine.” A heart and the letter C followed the words.

  Did that mean “love, Colton”? She threw herself backwards on the bed. She loved the sex, loved his family, loved the ranch—hell, if she was honest she loved him—but until he said the words, she had made up her mind that she was not staying one day past her contracted month. They could tell the world whatever the hell they wanted when she was gone. They could make Colton look like the poor billion-dollar cowboy who’d been jilted, or they could say that he figured out she was running a scam on him. She didn’t give a damn what news they put out; she wasn’t staying without hearing the words spoken right out loud!

  She stared at the ring on her finger. It didn’t feel so foreign anymore and it had to be a very good imitation because it still sparkled beautifully, especially when the sun rays hit it.

  She wanted to replace it with a nice wide gold band. It didn’t have to be soon. She wasn’t pushing for a marriage, but she wanted the whole nine yards, not just a remnant at the end of the bolt. And after thinking about it all week, need wasn’t enough. She needed food to survive. She needed a roof of some kind to protect her from the elements. But it wasn’t the same as love and if Colton wasn’t willing to give her his whole heart then she’d go on down the road.

  Yes, there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth, but she was not settling for need. It made a fine secondary character in the book of love, but only love could have the title of hero.

  She was on her way to the bathroom when the ringtone on her cell phone said that Janet was calling. She raced to the jeans she’d tossed beside the bed and answered after the fourth ring.

  “Did I interrupt something really nice?” Janet asked.

  “Hell, no! He’s gone to an Angus meeting. What are you doing up at this hour?”

  “I had to call and tell you all about my date. I would’ve called that night but I’ve been hugging myself and singing ever since. I don’t know if you are aware but in the GA program, I promised not to get involved with anyone for a year and so did James. We’re going to be adults and go real slow and honor that promise that we both made but I just know that he is the one,” Janet singsonged.

  “I’m proud of you for sticking to the rules, but how can you be so sure?”

  “It’s in my heart just like it’s in yours about Colton. I’m not saying that I’m going to rush into anything. We realize we’ve got to be careful, but it’s real, Laura. And I feel good about it and there’s something responsible about doing things the right way. You figured out that you were in love with Colton pretty early in your relationship, didn’t you? I’m going to be happy, Laura. You be happy too.”

  ***

  Colton sat at the middle of a long table and tried to pay attention to Thomas Corley, president of the NTAA and his former boss. They were discussing whether they should annex Lamar County into their organization. Two ranchers who specialized in Angus cattle had approached them with a desire to join. Colton had never heard of either of them but when the vote was put to the members, he raised his hand to allow that county to merge with them.

  He used to look forward to the monthly breakfast meeting at the waffle house with the guys. He loved talking cattle, ranching, hay, fencing, and weather with them, but that morning he wished he was on the Circle 6 having breakfast with Laura.

  “Then it is agreed that we will annex Lamar County and any Angus rancher in that area to be a member of the NTAA,” Thomas said. “If there is no more new business, we’ll adjourn until next month and enjoy our meal.”

  Colton’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out to find a text from Laura that said: Good morning.

  He held the phone in his lap and sent back: Me 2.

  Immediately the next one popped up: Cow on the road. Later.

  He groaned.

  Rusty elbowed him. “What’s the matter with you?”

  “Just heard from Laura. There’s a heifer on the road. She must’ve broke through that old portion of fence we still have to replace. Those posts have been there since the second day of creation,” he said.

  “Laura will take care of it. She’ll have the cow back and the fence fixed before you finish your pancakes.” Rusty chuckled.

  Colton had no doubt that she’d take care of business. She could probably run the ranch as good as he could. Andy had no idea what a bang-up job he’d done the day he had hired the woman for his assistant. These days, though, since the fiscal year had ended, she spent more and more time on the ranch and less in the office.

  Colton had been looking forward to sexy flirting via text messages. Since the argument on Monday, they’d kept the phones hot enough to burst into flames. Their messages had gotten so hot that he was glad for good sturdy zippers on his blue jeans. Now Laura was out dealing with a pesky cow and a busted fence. She wouldn’t have time to read his messages much less carry on a hot conversation with him. He turned his attention to Rusty and Mason Harper, who was sitting across the table from him.

  “So tell me, now that the ladies aren’t around, how did you ever land a woman like Laura? All I hear is good things about her,” Mason asked.

  “Pure luck. She’s my financial advisor and best friend’s cousin. He hired her as his assistant. You’ll find someone someday,” Colton said.


  “I don’t really want another wife. I had one like Laura, a perfect woman who was a good mother and who could run the ranch standing on her head and cross-eyed. It’s the girls who want a mommy and they come with a price tag with wife written on it rather than dollar signs,” Mason said.

  “Oh, don’t let that price tag fool you.” Rusty chuckled. “It has dollar signs on it as well as the wife writin’.”

  That netted them several hearty “Amens” from down the table.

  “So how do you know so much about price tags?” Greg asked Rusty.

  “Once upon a time I got close enough to see one. Scared me into being a bachelor for the rest of my life,” he answered.

  Since the big argument Colton had a feeling that Laura was waiting for him to say that he loved her, but that price tag waving around with those words on it scared him as bad as the one Rusty talked about. The price of giving his whole heart to any woman, including Laura, and promising to love her through the bad times as well as the good times until death parted them… it took a lot of faith and Colton wasn’t sure he had nearly enough.

  Chapter 22

  The whole congregation sang “Rock of Ages” and Colton leaned down and whispered softly into Laura’s ear, “What color panties are you wearing?”

  She almost dropped the hymnbook and high color filled her cheeks. “Maudie will crucify you.”

  “It’s her day to sing in the choir. She can’t hear me,” he said between the words of the old gospel hymn.

  “We’re in church,” she reminded him.

  “So?”

  What is good for the goose is good for the gander. They were her Aunt Dotty’s words and she most likely stole them right out of Proverbs as much as she read the Bible. Laura didn’t care if they’d come from those love story magazines that Aunt Dotty kept hidden under the towels in the bathroom closet. It fit that morning and she was determined to teach Colton Nelson a lesson.

  “What color are yours?” she asked.