Big Chance Cowboy

by Teri Anne Stanley

  * * *

  They lay together afterward in the dappled sunlight, her head on his chest, which was full to bursting. He realized, as he listened to her tell him about the park she envisioned, that he’d miss this place. This town he’d hated since he’d landed here as an angry kid had slipped under his skin. Not only had he reconnected with his sister and Granddad, been able to help them a few times, to rejoin his family. Talbott and Jake and all those damned dogs had invited themselves into his life and into his plans, and Lizzie was edging her way into his heart.

  This was not what was supposed to happen. He was selling the ranch, giving Emma the money, and getting away from anyone who might need him before he could disappoint them again.

  The vague sense of uneasiness that was never far from his gut asserted itself, and its bigger, meaner sibling, panic, stood at the threshold, waiting to crush him.

  Chapter 25

  “I guess we should get dressed before the bugs eat us,” Lizzie said, reluctantly sitting up and reaching for her things. Was there anything less sexy than trying to put on a wet bra? She managed to get the straps straightened out and the girls adjusted in a semi-decent fashion. She’d thought about skipping the bra, but her shirt was too see-through. With her luck, she’d get pulled over heading back to town or caught by her mother on her way into the house.

  Adam didn’t answer as he turned his jeans right side out.

  Lizzie wouldn’t change the past hour—not even the soggy clothes—for anything in the universe, but something felt off now. She knew Adam wasn’t here for good, and he was only passing time with her, but she usually felt connected to him when they were together. Even though she was dressed, she still felt naked.

  She needed to keep this relationship in perspective, if that was even possible. Probably not. She was likely going to get her heart ripped out when he left, but damn it, she didn’t see any way to stop that from happening. No point in backing away from him now.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, because he wasn’t even looking at her right now.

  “Huh? Sure,” he said, jamming his feet into his pants. He seemed to snap out of whatever mood he was in and asked, “What do you still need pictures of?”

  Refusing to get sucked into old habits, like, playing Freak Out Until You Figure Out What Dean’s Mad About, she said, “I want to get some shots of the creek and the meadow from both directions…from the fence toward the creek and back. I can use a satellite map to be more specific, but a person’s-eye view will help Dad when we work on the proposal.”

  “How’s your dad doing?” Adam asked.

  “Not bad right now,” Lizzie said. Especially since he had the Mill Creek project to work on. She didn’t dare voice her hope, because God knew she’d jinx it, but he seemed to have a spring in his step now that he had an opportunity to apply all the information he’d gathered in a lifetime of wanting to tell everyone about the gold rush days of Big Chance, Texas.

  “What does Joe have to say about it?”

  “Oh!” She turned to him. “I didn’t tell you, did I?”

  “No…” He waited for her to talk. That was one of the things she loved about him. He listened to her, and he didn’t tell her how to fix things or how she should do them differently, though he did ask pertinent questions that made her want to tell him even more.

  “The mayor, the town council, and the county planning board met the other day. Joe gave them a brief rundown of what I’m thinking, and they all loved it! It turns out there are grants to help pay for infrastructure and equipment and stuff. I’m taking pictures to add to my formal plan so we can come up with numbers.”

  “That’s great,” he said. “You just…decided to do this thing, and you’re doing it.” He shook his head…in admiration, she realized.

  This idea, which had felt abstract and hypothetical, even as she pitched it, was suddenly crystal clear and possible. She nodded, confident in the knowledge that she could do this. “Yeah. We’re getting closer to making this a reality.”

  “What’s next?”

  “We have to figure out how to buy the place. The county will file some notices about abandoned property, that sort of thing.” She didn’t want to go into how frustrated she was over her failure to find an owner. There were enough post-sex endorphins running through her bloodstream that she wasn’t about to wreck her own buzz.

  “I’m sure you’ll be able to manage it,” Adam assured.

  “How’s it going at your place?” she asked. “Things are easing up a little at Dad’s office, so I can come out to work with D-Day later.” And to see you some more, she almost said, but she wasn’t quite that confident yet.

  He shook his head. “The dog’s fine.” He hesitated before looking away and admitting, “He’s turning out to be a great dog. If you can’t find someone to take him, I guess I can hang on to him for a while if you want.”

  Lizzie’s heart, already overflowing, nearly burst. Adam liked D-Day. Of course, she’d kind of known that for a while, but to hear him acknowledge that fact and use “him” instead of “it” was huge. Then he blew her away completely.

  Before she could frame a response, he cleared his throat and said, “So, anyway, for a man who never had more than two nickels to rub together, Granddad sure had a lot of crap stored in weird places all over the property, but we’re getting it cleaned up.”

  Reality crash-landed in the middle of her post-sex glow and optimism as she was reminded about the other reason she had for spending time with Adam. “Well, your place looks great. I’m sure we’ll get some calls soon.” As soon as I start actively trying to find some interest. “How’s Marcus after his fall?”

  His mouth twisted into a grimace.

  “Uh-oh. Not good?”

  With a shake of his head, he said, “I don’t know. I can tell he’s hurting, but he pushes himself too hard.”

  “And takes too many painkillers?”

  Adam frowned. “I can’t judge him for needing something strong. He’s a physical wreck. Hell, I’ve got a pharmacy’s worth of shit in my medicine cabinet, too. Of course, I hardly ever take any of it, because it doesn’t work for me. But if it works for him?” He held out his hands in a gesture of surrender. “We do whatever we can to get through.”

  Lizzie needed to qualify her comment. “I didn’t mean to sound harsh. I can’t imagine what he’s going through—what you all deal with. But you said he fell the other night because he’d taken too much of something.”

  Adam nodded. “Yeah. He scared me, but he’d worn himself out working around the ranch, topped with the trip to town, so he misjudged.” He chuckled. “He’ll be okay. He works too hard to be healthy to wreck himself.”

  Lizzie hoped he was right.

  Adam went on, “And Jake’s decided he needs a dog to help him find his way around.”

  “Is that a thing?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I don’t see why not. His specific condition is kind of unusual, but I think he could get a kind of reverse-tracking dog. One that could find the way home if Jake got turned around.”

  “That’s cool!”

  The way he rolled his eyes said he wasn’t convinced.

  “Don’t you think it’s a good idea?”

  “I think it’s a good idea for Jake to have some help.”

  “But…?”

  “It’s kind of a rush job.”

  Of course. Because as soon as Adam sold the farm, he was leaving.

  She wasn’t enough to keep him here; she’d never harbored any illusions about that. But she realized she’d hoped that getting involved with dogs again might change his plans. Apparently not.

  Maybe wherever he went after he left here, he’d find some dogs to work with. And some peace. A break from the demons that seemed to chase him almost everywhere he went.

  She finished taking photos, and they walk
ed back to their vehicles.

  He held her hand to help her over a fallen log and didn’t let go. Her fingers, intertwined with his, felt right. So damned right that her throat got tight.

  Why couldn’t he be happy here in Big Chance? What was out there in the big world that he couldn’t get here?

  Chapter 26

  “Watch this, Granddad,” Adam said. “Get the light, D-Day.” The dog rose, looked around Emma’s little living room, and trotted to the switches by the door. He rose onto his hind legs and pushed them with his nose until the lamp next to Granddad’s chair came on. “Pretty cool, huh?” he asked, giving D-Day a congratulatory rub on the head.

  Granddad sniffed. “What’d you waste time teaching it that for?”

  “Ahh…you know. Sometimes I have nightmares. If the light’s on when I wake up, I come out of it faster.”

  Granddad rolled his eyes, unimpressed. With the dog’s abilities, or with Adam’s nightmares? Adam tried to convince himself it didn’t matter either way.

  When she left for her doctor appointment, Mrs. King had told Adam that Granddad was having a good day. But he didn’t seem interested in anything Adam tried to talk to him about, just stared off into space, at least until D-Day nudged Granddad’s hand for a pet.

  Two more weeks had passed since the day Adam met Lizzie out at the Mill Creek place, and his anxiety attacks had resumed. He’d thrown himself into work, hoping that when he got the albatross of a ranch from around his neck, he’d feel some peace.

  He and Lizzie managed to spend a few hours together every day—sometimes naked, sometimes not—but even then, he felt the edges of his serenity crinkle.

  The silver lining of this was that he was able to work with D-Day, managing to hang onto enough sanity to show the dog what to do when that rubber band of fear tightened around his lungs. Usually, just having the dog asking to be petted was enough to anchor him in the moment and allow him to find his center again.

  Nighttime, however, was as bad as it had been right after he’d come from the Afghanistan. The dreams varied. Sometimes his team was with him in Big Chance, clearing the high school, and sometimes he was with Granddad or Lizzie, stranded in the desert.

  It was time to move on. He tried not to pressure Lizzie, but he needed her to sell the damned ranch. All she said when he asked about it was that she’d spoken to a few people and would follow up with them.

  And he had to tell Emma what he was doing, because she was starting to talk about having Christmas at the ranch this winter. He’d talk to her today, he decided. She was due home from work in a few minutes.

  “Turn on Judge Judy,” Granddad said, searching for the remote.

  Adam fetched it from beneath the footrest of the recliner and found the right channel. Could he teach D-Day to change channels? He’d have to get a remote with giant buttons, but it was possible, he supposed.

  As Judge Judy was about to rule on the case of the tenant with the cannabis farm, the front door opened, admitting Emma and a blast of summer heat.

  “Phew!” she said, crossing the room and flopping on the couch next to Adam. “It’s miserable out there, even for Texas.”

  “How was work?” Adam asked.

  Emma shrugged. “Boring. Sold a hammer to Mrs. Davis. That’s the fifth one this month. She keeps losing them.”

  “What’s she hammering?”

  “I have no idea,” Emma said, “but I hear she’s kind of a hoarder. I bet she’s got more than five hammers under all that junk.”

  That gave him a perfect segue. “Speaking of junk—”

  “Oh! That reminds me,” Emma interrupted. “Do you still have all those plastic water bottles in the barn?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I said I’d bring them to town this weekend. Charley Chance—you know, Joe Chance’s sister? Well she’s doing a community enrichment thing. Getting a bunch of trouble-making teenagers to work with senior citizens to make…bird feeders or something…out of plastic water bottles.”

  “Oh. Great. But I—”

  “And I also told her that you’ve got puppies that are going to be needing a new home soon. Couple more weeks, right? I hope it’s okay that I told her about them. She said she was thinking about getting a dog.”

  “They’re seven weeks old now, so soon,” Adam said. “Lizzie’s been taking Loretta out with her, starting to get them used to being away from their mom.” Jake would be bummed; he’d gotten pretty attached to the dogs, but there was no way they were keeping them. They weren’t going to have a place to live soon if everything went according to plan. “So about the ranch—”

  “You know who I saw the other day at the grocery store?”

  “No, who?” Adam asked and decided he’d try to talk to his sister about selling her childhood home another day.

  * * *

  Lizzie went over some paperwork in the den with Loretta snoozing at her feet. Mom had reluctantly allowed the dog in the house, mostly because Loretta was very ladylike and nothing at all like D-Day. Or at least nothing like old D-Day. New D-Day, Adam’s right-hand dog, was nearly unrecognizable from the out-of-control pup he’d been at the beginning of the summer. Lizzie rarely even worked with him anymore, since it was clear Adam would be keeping the dog. She still went out to the ranch to visit the dogs almost daily. And maybe she went because she and Adam almost always found an opportunity to be alone.

  This morning, they were making out in the barn when Jake and the dogs barged in. “Oh, there’s Loretta!” Lizzie said, pretending that she’d been looking for the mother dog. “I, um, I wanted to see if I could bring her to town with me for a couple of hours.”

  Adam smirked, but she’d thought that Jake believed her, because he agreed and said, “That’s a great idea.” But then she’d caught him high-fiving Adam when they thought she wasn’t looking.

  Lizzie blinked to try to clear her head and focus on the bids she’d gotten to demolish the old barn and fill in the basement from hell at the Mill Creek farm. As soon as the county seized it for auction, she wanted to be ready to start work.

  Dad was across the room, clicking through something on his laptop. He was deep into the plans for what they’d tentatively dubbed the Vanhook Historical and Recreation Park.

  “I think I found something,” Dad said now.

  “What?” Lizzie needed to stretch her legs anyway, so she rose to look over his shoulder. “What’s that?”

  He was looking at a PDF of some sort of receipt.

  “I talked Joe Chance into getting those old files scanned and inventoried. You know, the stuff that got wet during the courthouse fire and then sat in the school basement for years?”

  “No.”

  Dad said, “Back in…well, it might have been after you graduated high school, now that I think about it. Right about the time the old mayor got himself in trouble for taking bribes. Anyway, a few years ago, the courthouse got a new sprinkler system, which immediately malfunctioned. Probably because that idiot Babcock gave the contract to one of his half-baked cronies and pocketed most of the money.”

  Lizzie was immediately on alert.

  “The Babcocks owned that property, you know,” Dad said.

  Yeah. She knew.

  “That sprinkler accident got every damned piece of paper in that basement wet. They moved everything to the old middle school for storage to dry out, but by the time the sprinklers were fixed, there was a new administration, and it seems everyone forgot about all that paperwork, which never got entered into the computer.”

  “Okay, so what’s this?”

  “A lot of stuff that didn’t make it onto the computer.”

  “Is there something about the farm in here?”

  Dad squinted at the computer screen. “Yep. Looks like a bill of sale. From Robert Michael Babcock III to Robert Michael Babcock IV.”

  �
�That’s Mitch Babcock,” Lizzie said. “The fourth. I remember, because in middle school, he tried to get everyone to call him Quatro.”

  “It looks like the old man sold it to the kid for a dollar.”

  “Why would he do that?” she asked.

  “Because of all the fraud charges. If he sold the land to the son, it would stay in the family and couldn’t be sold off to pay the dad’s debts.”

  “So it’s been sitting there, and Mitch has never even had to pay taxes on it, because it wasn’t registered with the county. Joe said he thought Mitch’s family had sold the farm, but he couldn’t find a record of the buyer. I can’t believe no one bothered to figure out all this stuff until now. What municipality doesn’t do everything it can to collect taxes?”

  Dad raised an eyebrow at her. “Really? The mayor before Joe Chance was a drunk named Billy Bob Wells. The only thing he ever did in office was fall down the front steps, break his leg, and sue the county for damages. Joe’s done more in his nine months in office than the past six mayors combined.”

  “Okay,” Lizzie mused. “So Mitch Babcock appears to be the owner of the Mill Creek farm. Does anyone know how to find him? Where did his family go after they left Chance County?”

  “Houston,” Mom said from the doorway. “At least that’s what Faye Straub told me.”

  “So we need to see if Mitch is still there.” Lizzie sat back down at her computer.

  “You won’t find him there,” Mom said.

  “How do you know this?” Lizzie asked.

  Mom pursed her lips. “I don’t want to gossip,” she began.

  Lizzie and Dad just waited.

  Mom continued, “But Faye’s sister Joyce was friends with the wife, and she said that things went terribly downhill after they left Big Chance. The father drank himself to death, the mother died of cancer a couple of years later, and that boy of theirs never quite got his act together. Faye says he moved back to the area a few weeks ago and is living in a trailer his cousin’s family owns out on Route 15.”