Reunited with the Bull Rider

by Christine Wenger

  “I’ll take you to your brothers’ game.” Callie was just about to say no when Reed added, “They’re open to the public, right?”

  “You know they are.”

  “Meet you there.”

  “But you can’t drive, Reed.”

  “Oh. That’s right.” He rubbed his chin. “If it’s not too much trouble, would you pick me up?”

  “You’re... You...you are incorrigible!” She stared at him without blinking. “And this will not, I repeat not, be a date.”

  Her constant rejection would have made any other man give up on her, but there was a reason for it, and he didn’t think that it all had to do with him.

  When the occasion presented itself, he was going to find out what had made her so vehemently against dating him.

  While the others were huddled around a monitor of some sort, Reed went into the study to retrieve his wallet. At the same time, Callie’s cell phone, which she’d left on Big Dan’s desk, rang and she hurried to answer it.

  “Hi, Mom. I was just going to call you. How are you feeling?...Uh-huh. Feeling well enough to go to the twins’ baseball game?” She paused. “Okay, great! I’ll meet you at the high school then...Yes, save an extra seat...Yes, um, it’s for Reed Beaumont...No, Mom, it’s nothing like that. He just wanted to go...I don’t know why—he just does—so just save another seat if you get there before I do.”

  Callie clicked her cell phone off and slipped it into her purse.

  “Callie, I couldn’t help but overhearing... Is your mother doing okay?”

  She took a deep breath and then let it out.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry, but it sounded like you were worried. I know the feeling. My father has me worried most of the time.”

  He gave a half-hearted smile. “I remember your mother from when she was our school nurse in grammar school. I remember how she was always making sure that everyone had all their shots, and she always sent get-well cards when we had to stay home with one of those childhood diseases. I got them all—measles, mumps and chicken pox—and I received several more cards from her.”

  “Mom has breast cancer again. She’s doing chemo. Doc Lansing feels that she’ll beat it this time, too. But I’m scared, Reed. The chemo is hitting her hard this time. She always hates to lose her hair, so she has a bunch of wigs. She’d have to be really bad before she missed one of the twins’ games. She went to all of them—football, baseball and basketball—unless she was horribly ill. Mom and I were so grateful when they got football scholarships. I couldn’t afford to send them to college.” She took a deep breath and looked at Reed. “What is it about you that makes me just spill my guts? I usually keep my life to myself.”

  “Maybe I’m a good listener.”

  “I think that’s probably true.”

  Reed reached out to take Callie’s hand but then changed his mind. He thought that she wouldn’t welcome the contact. “Or maybe you’re just feeling overwhelmed. I mean, just look at this mess. I feel like I should help you more, not only just answering my fan mail.”

  “I hired on for this job, Reed. It means everything to me. With the Beaumont account, I’ll be in more demand and I can provide for my family more.

  “Good for you.” Reed knew how she felt, being able to help her family, and admired her to no end. He’d had the same feelings when he was able to help save his family’s ranch from both the auction block and Hurricane Daphne. Well, actually, the Daphne work continued.

  “Hey! Hey, bull rider, Reed! Are you ready to begin again?” Arnie’s usually thin voice was exceptionally loud. “Let’s get going, please.”

  Callie smiled. “Cowboy up, Reed. The cooking show must go on.”

  He was reluctant to leave her when they’d had a good conversation going. “I’m making grilled ham and cheese on a tortilla with fresh salsa. If I don’t burn everything, we can eat what I make. So, how about dining with me before the game?”

  Callie looked like she knew when she was beat. “Okay, cowboy. I’ll dine with you.”

  Finally!

  Reed chuckled. “Can we call it a date?”

  “No!”

  “I’m going to keep asking you, Callie. From what I can tell, you seem to need a little fun in your life.”

  Her usually lush lips transformed into a thin white line. “And you’re just the cowboy to provide the fun, huh?”

  “I can try.”

  “You can try, but you won’t get far.”

  Reed winked. “We’ll see about that.”

  * * *

  ABOUT AN HOUR LATER, just when she was getting into designing a spreadsheet, Callie’s cell phone rang. She saw that it was Big Dan’s probation officer, Matty Matthews. Matty had been two years ahead of her in high school and was coached her brothers in basketball.

  “Matty Matthews? This is Callie Wainright. Which one of my brothers got hurt this time?”

  He chuckled. “Neither. They are both alive and kicking, but I have a favor to ask you.”

  She sat and tried to calm her thumping heart. “Name it.”

  “Big Dan isn’t concentrating on his rehab, Callie. He’s too damn distracted. He needs someone to take care of depositing his Social Security check. I’d do it, but office rules state we can’t take money from probationers. Oh, and Big Dan also wants someone to take periodic pictures of the ranch so he can see the progress made, but actually, Callie, I think he just wants someone to talk to him about the outside world—mostly about what his boys are doing. I have over a hundred probationers on my roster. I can’t be at Dan’s beck and call.”

  “I’m sure Reed’s going to feel like he should have this responsibility if he could drive, but until then, I’d be glad to help out.” She wrote diligently on a notebook page: deposit Social Sec check, talk, take pictures of ranch, etc.

  “Oh...and, Callie?”

  “Yes, Matty?”

  “Could you possibly get Reed to come up and see him, please? He’s at the Beaumont County Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Facility. He needs company. Big Dan is about to go ballistic.”

  “I’m sure that Reed has been meaning to see Big Dan, but there’s been a lot of going on lately. I’ll be sure to pass along your message.”

  Soon after they hung up, Callie realized she had just become the personal assistant to Big Dan Beaumont.

  Callie was ready to explode with happiness. With the extra income, she could pay more money on her mortgage, keep up with monthly insurance premiums and add an extra payment on medical bills for her whole family and herself. Maybe she could even save for a new car.

  And get a bachelor’s degree.

  That had always been her dream. “Maybe someday, it’ll be my turn,” she mumbled to herself.

  Until then, she was going to work as hard as possible to do a great job for the Beaumont family, and to keep Reed, his charming demeanor, killer good looks and quirky sense of humor at bay.

  She had to focus intently if she wanted to expand her business and keep it growing.

  And Reed couldn’t help her unless he stayed away from her completely.

  Chapter Four

  “Callie, everyone’s gone and dinner’s ready!” Reed yelled from the kitchen.

  She got up from Big Dan’s chair and walked into the kitchen. The table was set with a lone votive candle, two glasses of what looked like iced tea, and the ham and cheese tortillas.

  “Looks good, Reed. How does it taste?”

  “It’s not bad at all,” Reed said. “It’s better warm and all gooey. If it gets cold, it tastes like concrete, so I microwaved this for thirty seconds in a paper towel. We’ll have to eat fast before they turn.”

  Laughing, Callie took a seat opposite Reed at the huge dark table. The table had at least fourteen matching, high-backed chairs. This was a table for a large family, a family that li
ked to entertain. That was the Beaumonts. Their dinner parties were legendary, as were their rodeos and bull-riding events at the arena at the front of their property.

  A stab of jealousy went through Callie whenever she saw a family working, playing and going to church together. Her mother had tried to be both parents, but her health hadn’t let her. So Callie had stepped in, raised her brothers and held her mother’s hand through chemo.

  Her mother had loved the annual Beaumont rodeo and barbecue. Just about the whole town turned out for a weekend of fun. Sometimes, her mother was too weak to go, but she put on her wig, and Callie wheeled her to the event.

  Luckily, Hurricane Daphne had spared the arena—mostly—and the first rodeo since Valerie Lynn had died had been held last year with Luke leading the charge,

  Her mother had been well enough to attend, so they’d all squished together in Callie’s ancient car and headed for the Beaumont ranch. Her mother had put on her wig and Callie had wheeled her to the event.

  Callie had convinced herself that she should talk to Reed, but there were always so many people around him all the time, she’d never had the opportunity. If the conditions had been right, she might have even worked up the courage, or maybe not.

  Callie’d told herself she wasn’t afraid of how Reed might react to her, not at all; she’d just wanted the right time to approach him. She’d thought that, after all these years, she should just work up the courage to pull him away from his entourage and fans and ask him for a private moment.

  She took a bite of Reed’s creation. “It’s pretty good, Reed.” She took another bite and knew he was right. It was turning into concrete.

  “Callie, I still wish you had come with me when we graduated. We could have seen the world together.”

  She shook her head. “How would we have seen the world, Reed? One day at each bull-riding event, before we had to drive to the next one, isn’t seeing the world, Reed. It’s zigzagging across the country.” She put the tortilla down. “Why do you want to rehash this? I wasn’t ready to leave Beaumont, that’s all. Besides, I had responsibilities at home.”

  “Don’t you ever have fun anymore? Do a little boot scootin’? Throw back some cold ones? Run away with a cowboy?” He winked.

  Her mouth went dry, and she reached for her water glass. If he only knew how many times she wished that she’d run away with him.

  “I know you’re joking, but thanks, anyway. I have a company to run and clients who aren’t Beaumonts to tend to.” Callie sipped some water.

  “Would you like me to heat up your tortilla?” Reed asked.

  “Don’t move. I can do it myself.”

  “But you’re my guest.”

  “But you’re injured and I’m not your guest. I work here.”

  She slid her plate into the microwave and waited for ten seconds. That ought to revive it. She normally wouldn’t bother, but she was hungry, and she had a football game to watch.

  She might as well explain more. “I knew you were hurt when I wouldn’t go with you, but put yourself in my place. I had to stay here and work. You know that my father was a gambler—is a gambler. The whole town knows it still. We were evicted out of every house we rented because Mom was sick and couldn’t work. If you recall, I was working at the diner as a waitress after school. That was our only money coming in. My brothers were too young to work then.” She paused for a breath. “Please don’t think I’m whining, Reed, or complaining. I’m just stating fact.

  “I understand,” he said solemnly. “Go on. You never told me this.”

  “One of my graduation presents was yet another eviction for nonpayment of rent—all the rent. My hours at Beaumont Pizza were cut back because the state fair was on and business was slow. My other graduation present was my father running off to Tahiti with Tish Holcomb. The story goes that they met on a gambling cruise. Yes, my father, Melvin Wainright, managed to get on a cruise to Tahiti while his wife, my poor mother, was having chemo for breast cancer. He left her. Left us.”

  “Where’s he now?”

  “According to one of his friends, he’s still in Tahiti with Tish. Apparently she hasn’t run out of money yet.”

  “I’m so sorry, Callie. I knew you were dealing with most of that. You never told me the details.”

  “I was too embarrassed. Believe me, Reed. I would have given anything to go with you, but I couldn’t leave. My twin brothers were seven at the time and Mom was too sick to corral them. It fell to me. I was exhausted most of the time, and was way out of my element, but I did it.”

  “No wonder you couldn’t leave.”

  “I wanted to. Oh, how I wanted to. I just couldn’t.”

  “I just wanted to spend my life with you, Callie. I just knew you were the one, and I figured that we could make it work somehow.”

  “If I had gone with you, where would we have lived? In your pickup truck? Where would we have settled down?”

  “When I started winning, I could have towed a trailer.”

  Callie sighed. “How would I have known that you would have started winning? It would have been a gamble, Reed, and even though my father is a gambler, I am not.”

  “I never had any doubt.”

  “And I had nothing but doubts.” She looked into his deep blue eyes. “Reed, after all those evictions, I have to have a home. A permanent one. I bought the house that we are living in on Elm Street. It’s mine. Well, it’s the bank’s, but since I bought it, we haven’t been evicted—ever. I need a permanent place in which to live. It’s important to me.”

  He was silent, as if he was mulling over what she’d just said.

  He put his hand over hers. “Callie, I really wish you had explained all this before. I wouldn’t have spent ten years trying to convince myself that I hated you.”

  Her heart pounded faster. She needed to get away from his blue eyes, away from the magnificent ranch that had seen its own share of sorrow and away from the sad smile on Reed’s face.

  * * *

  AS REED FOLDED himself into Callie’s SUV, he stole a glance at her.

  Dammit! He had to be the most selfish cowboy on the face of the planet.

  Why hadn’t she told him? He would have understood much better than the “I just have obligations” speech. Or would he have? At the age of eighteen, with his fresh PBR card in his hand, a list of events and a new pickup for his graduation, he’d been geared up and invincible.

  Everything had been perfect, except that he’d wanted Callie by his side, always.

  Maybe she’d been right by not going with him. Life was tough on the road and there was little time for sightseeing. He spent most of his time in arena after arena, at various fairgrounds and even parking lots.

  In between, he would ride practice bulls at the ranches of his fellow riders, at the practice arenas of stock contractors and wherever else he was invited.

  He trained, signed autographs, did whatever his advertisers wanted him to do, and he partied with his fellow riders.

  In retrospect, Callie would have been bored. He was never bored. He spent every free moment he had working out and becoming a better bull rider. He’d wanted to prove to Callie how wrong she was by not going with him.

  He was never without female admirers, and he dated frequently, but none of them were Callie.

  She turned into Beaumont High’s parking lot and they got out of her SUV. Kickoff was about to start, so they stopped on the sidelines of the football field to watch.

  The other team got the ball, so Callie motioned for him to follow her to the bleachers. She took them to the second row. Mrs. Wainright was there, wearing a glittery red-rhinestone baseball cap.

  Callie and Reed slid in next to her.

  “Hi, Reed. It’s been a long time.” She lifted her hand to shake his. Her grip was weak and he was careful not to squeeze her hand hard at all. Sadly, she
looked thin and frail, not at all like the vigorous and healthy woman that he remembered.

  He felt bad for Callie and the boys, too. When a loved one went through a sickness, everyone went through it.

  “Yes, Mrs. Wainright. It has been a long time.” He didn’t know what to say next, but she helped him out.

  “Reed, I think you’re old enough to call me Connie.” She smiled, still gripping his hand.

  “Okay, um, uh... Con... I mean Mrs. Wainright.” He laughed. “You know, I just can’t call you Connie. You’ll always be Mrs. Wainright, school nurse. With you, we couldn’t get away with anything!”

  “Damn straight.” She laughed but the effort seemed to pain her. She shifted on the bleacher seat. “And you and your pals tried everything in the book to get out of school. Too bad you didn’t put that energy into your work.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Wa-in-right,” Reed answered in a child’s singsong voice.

  Connie laughed until she began to cough. She pulled out a bottle of water from a tote bag, opened the cap and took a couple of sips.

  “There’s Joe and John.” Callie jumped up, cupped her mouth with her hands, and yelled to them. “Yeah... Wainrights! Go, Bobcats, go! Yeah, team!”

  Reed knew that the Beaumont Bobcats were well known in the Oklahoma high school circuit for their basketball, football and rodeo teams.

  “Callie, are your brothers on the rodeo team, too?”

  “No. That’s one thing that they never had an interest in. Probably because we don’t own a ranch and they haven’t been exposed to horses and bulls and cattle and the like. Thank goodness.” She waved her hand in front of her face like a fan. Then she whispered to herself, “Yes, thank goodness. I can’t afford any more insurance bills, and I don’t want them hurt. I worry about you getting hurt all the time, too, Reed.” She pointed to his knee. “Know what I mean?”

  “It’s nice to know that you worry about me.”