Tonight, even in the cold December breeze, she imagined she was taking off in a plane from Los Angeles, full of glory after her father beat the pants off all the other cowboys and won every gold buckle up for grabs. In fact, in years to come, every time she was on her galloping horse, the sensation of flying away into the night to or from some magical destination was one that never got old and would never leave her. She would always silently wish for the day when her flight of fancy would become a reality. Even at this early age, Dani was fascinated by stories and pictures of places she could only dream about, and her parents were already well aware that she was destined to be a traveler. Not a week went by without Caleb and Jackie discussing how it was only a matter of time before their daughter was off to see the world, and tomorrow morning her six-year-old dreams would become a reality.
“It’s the Devil’s Creek Monster! Come on! He’s right behind us!” hollered Trey.
Even though none of the riders could see each other, the race to the lights turned out to be the same in that, not only were each of the gallant explorers always trying to be the first back to the barn, but each tried to make the race a scary one for the others as they sped through the darkness. There were always outlaws, Indians, coyotes, the Devil’s Creek Monster, or some other form of evil chasing them in the shadows, but somehow they always managed to outrun the trouble and get back to the house by the skin of their teeth.
At the moment, as usual, they were all a little scared something really could be after them and were hoping to get home as quickly as possible, but the race was also frightening in its own right. Their hopes soared as the lights of the corral came into view when they reached the top of one of the rolling hills on their way to the house, only to be dashed again as the lights disappeared when they rode down the other side and were plunged back into total darkness. Each time the lights re-emerged from the black of night, however, they were much closer to home, once again giving the heroes hope they might make it alive after all.
They roared past the area known as the Campground on their way to the house and, after what seemed like an eternity, Dani, then Trey, and finally Stephanie raced through the open gate behind the house and dismounted by the barn. Just a little over an hour after starting back, all three riders and ponies were safely home.
“I win again!” said Dani proudly as she led Tiny Tim through the open barn door.
“You got lucky,” sneered Stephanie.
“You did!” agreed Trey as he and Stephanie followed Dani to the stalls. “We’ll see how it goes…
“Where have you kids been?” Jackie Harrison demanded from the back porch of the house.
“Hi, Momma,” said Trey. “We’ll be right in; we just have to finish putting the horses up.”
“All right,” Jackie replied, “but you kids need to stop staying out this late after dark. I’ve told you time and time again.”
“We’re sorry,” yelled Stephanie, “but we had so much fun. We’ll tell you about it in a minute!”
“Hurry up and get in here,” Jackie ordered. “Your dad’s waiting. Dinner is almost ready and I’m sure all of you need a good scrubbing.”
Even though Dani enjoyed a clear advantage over her brother and sister when it came to the amount of time it took to put their horses up for the night, Trey wasn’t too far behind when he left Stephanie in the barn and sprinted up to the house. Running up to the back porch, he roared, “Yeah, Momma, we had fun. There were outlaws and Indians out there today.”
He wasn’t in a hurry to get up to the house so much because he was hungry or even to tell his mother about their day as he was trying to block his younger sister from tattling on him about saying “titty.” The rest of the night would not go well if his mother were to hear that bit of news.
He didn’t need to worry. By the time he got in the house, Dani was already talking about tomorrow morning and all the exciting adventures her trip to Los Angeles would bring. She had completely forgotten about telling her mother what Trey had said.
Chapter 3
“There Are Better Things Ahead Than
Any We Leave Behind”
―C.S. Lewis
Childress, Texas
Dani held the reins in her left hand as she wiped sweat from her brow with her right. She had been riding the property for a couple of hours now, and both she and her horse knew it was about time to get back to the house to cool off. The ends of her long blonde hair waved against her back as a gentle breeze picked up. She glanced up at the hot sun sitting in a cloudless blue sky above her, then sighed as she surveyed her surroundings one last time. She was almost eighteen, and ready to leave home and see the world.
She squinted as she tried to make out Titty Mountain off to the west, then turned to look north, where she could see a small dust cloud following a distant car down the road. Continuing her sweeping survey, she stared at the top of the tall trees that used to be the Campground. Finally, she turned south and took a deep breath. Almost ready to go.
The cold months had given way to spring just a few weeks before, and now the gnarly, brown brush grass that painted the ranch a lifeless color every winter had morphed into a beautiful shade of green as far as the eye could see. The thought was not lost on her that all the new growth on the property was new life and, for her, a new life was just days away. She rubbed her horse’s neck. “Well, Peanut, looks like this will be our last ride for a while, so let’s make it a good one. What do you say?”
As if on cue, her horse flipped his head back and whinnied, letting Dani know he was ready to race home. Dani kicked him in the sides as she yelled, “Yeah!” and off the two went toward the house and barn, with Peanut kicking up clods of Texas clay behind him as he ran. As soon as her horse found his stride, Dani closed her eyes, let go of the reins and held her arms out to her sides like she used to do when she was a little girl riding her Shetland pony. She let her imagination run rampant, pretending she was on a jet flying over a large mountain range on her way to another exotic location she had never seen before. This time, however, her dream was within reach. She was close to leaving her family, ranch, and childhood behind. She remembered when she’d gone on her first real adventure with her father.
Their trip to Los Angeles years before hadn’t ended in glory or gold buckles, but Caleb finished sixth in the standings. There were a million different memories she could recall about the two-week trip, all of which still brought a smile to her face whenever they crossed her mind, number one being how her father never once showed any disappointment about not winning a gold belt buckle.
On their way back to Texas, Dani sat in the front seat. “Daddy, how come you’re not sad that you didn’t win a gold buckle?” she asked.
He smiled down at her. “The other guys wanted it more than I did,” he told her, his familiar grin lighting up his face, “and I’m just happy I gave it my best shot. Now my rodeo days are over, and it’s time to go home and spend the next phase of my life being a rancher, husband, and father. How can anybody not be happy about that?”
Her mind jolted back to the present as Peanut slipped slightly going down one of the gentle slopes leading to the house, but not once did Dani touch the horse with her hands. She wanted to savor every second of this ride, but Peanut covered the mile run quickly and soon Dani found herself back behind the house. She dismounted and led her horse into the barn. After securing Peanut in his stall, she made her way to the back door. The sound of the Bee Gees singing “How Deep Is Your Love” drifted from her sister’s open bedroom window.
As soon as Dani walked in the house, she yelled over the music, “Stephanie, did it come? Did you get it?”
“Yes,” replied her sister from the rear of the house after the music was turned down. “Finally!” she added as she walked into the living room wearing pink pajamas and carrying an opened letter. Stephanie wore no make-up, her long blonde hair was in a ruffled pony tail and, by all appearances, had just gotten out of bed. She was a year younger than Dani b
ut had always been very close to her sister, which was the main reason Dani turned to her whenever she needed someone for an illicit favor, like today.
“Good thing it finally came,” said Stephanie. “I was beginning to think I might have to pretend to be sick for another week or so.”
“You’re being dramatic,” Dani said unsympathetically. “You only skipped school yesterday and today.”
“Yeah, well, yesterday,” Stephanie retorted, waving the envelope in the air, “and this just happens to be the last week of school and I had to lie to Momma by telling her I was sick, so you owe me big for this.”
“I know…I know, we talked about that.” Dani stalked over and took the envelope from her sister. “How much is it?” she said, pulling the bill out. “Is it bad?”
“If you mean bad by saying it’s probably the biggest phone bill in the world, yes. It’s bad. It’s the biggest phone bill I’ve ever seen!” Stephanie laughed. “Momma and Daddy would have killed you for sure if I hadn’t hijacked it.”
Dani’s eyes widened as she gazed at the bill. “Wow, I can’t believe this. Eight hundred seventy-five dollars! Whew!” She gave her sister a big hug. “Thanks to you, Momma and Daddy will never know about this.”
“Are you sure?” asked Stephanie, her face doubtful. “What if Momma and Daddy look over the checking account?”
“Please! You know I’ve done this a few times and I’ve never gotten caught, right?” Dani didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm. “You tell me the last time they ever paid any attention to the checkbook.”
“Okay, you have a point.” Stephanie looked a little less concerned. “But what if the phone company doesn’t take the check because you signed Daddy’s name and it doesn’t match?”
“Don’t be silly, little sis.” Dani walked into the kitchen, opened a drawer and pulled out her parents’ checkbook. She held it up triumphantly as she added, “I can sign Daddy’s name better than he can.” She took a seat at the kitchen table. “Besides, neither one of them has signed one of my report cards for over two years. I’ve signed every one of them.”
“Really?” asked Stephanie, sitting next to her sister. “You’ve never gotten caught?”
Dani gave Stephanie a devilish grin before answering, “Never. And you know Daddy can’t care about what he doesn’t know about.”
Stephanie’s tone turned serious. “You know I love you, Dani, but do you know what the difference is between you and me?”
Dani opened the checkbook. “What might that be?”
“All my life I’ve played by the rules,” said Stephanie. “And I probably always will. You, on the other hand, believe it’s okay to do pretty much whatever you want whenever you want. Rules everyone else has to follow don’t apply to you; at least it seems that way.”
“I don’t know about that,” Dani said, shaking her head.
“No, really, I’m being serious,” said Stephanie. “Look, for one, on your last day of high school, you had to meet with the principal because you decided you didn’t have to attend classes as often as the rest of us.”
Dani giggled. “So? Principal Cartwright told me I was going to have to take summer school and I said I couldn’t.”
“So what happened?” asked Stephanie.
“I won,” answered Dani with a grin. “I talked him into not counting me absent all those times.”
“See what I mean,” Stephanie asserted. “You think that’s normal because you do it all the time. I would never be able to get away with that.”
“Get away with what?” asked Dani. “My grades are all good, so why should I spend all my time sitting in a boring class listening to the same old boring stuff over and over if I don’t need to?”
“You don’t understand what I’m saying.” Stephanie shifted her weight to get more comfortable in her seat. “This phone bill is another example. You knew all along you were talking to Brandon way too much, but you didn’t care. You just figured that if you had enough time, you would come up with a way to get out of what turned into a very expensive problem.”
“I did it, too,” said Dani proudly.
Aggravation laced Stephanie’s tone of voice as she answered, stomping her foot. “By talking me into skipping two days of school so I could intercept a phone bill and you could forge Daddy’s name on it. Geez, Dani, you think that’s normal but, believe me, it’s not!”
“Okay, Stephanie, what is normal?” asked Dani. “Go ahead, tell me what you think normal is.”
The question caught Stephanie off guard. She thought for a moment before saying, “Well, I think normal is having a good husband who has a good job, a house, a family…you know, normal stuff.”
“Normal is boring.” Dani scowled, creating wrinkles on her forehead.
Stephanie watched her sister write out a check for the amount due before she said, “Well, it may be normal to you, but you’re going to have to stop talking to Brandon so much. All those long-distance calls add up fast. There’s no way you can keep doing this without eventually getting caught.”
“Now, don’t you worry, little sister,” said Dani, licking the flap of the envelope and closing it. “I won’t have to worry about this after this weekend.” She put the envelope down on the table, reached over and grabbed her sister’s hands, and squealed, “Brandon’s coming to cousin Jimmy’s wedding Saturday!”
“Really?” screamed Stephanie. “You’re finally going to get to see him again?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Dani as she exhaled deeply. “I can’t wait. Obviously, we’ve been talking on the phone a lot.” She scrunched her shoulders as she added in an excited whisper. “Saturday we finally get to be with each other again!”
“That is so exciting!” Stephanie clutched her sister’s hands. “I can’t believe how famous he’s getting…and you’re dating him.”
“I know,” gushed Dani. “He grew up right here in Childress and now he’s got another number one hit.” She giggled before she added, “I used to think he was such a dork for carrying his guitar around with him everywhere he went, but now he’s rich and famous…and I think I love him.”
Stephanie leaned over and gave her sister a happy hug, then sat back in her seat and bit her lower lip for a moment before asking, in a much more serious tone, “But what are you going to do after the wedding? He’s still going to be touring all over the country and you’re still going to live here. How are you not going to have a huge phone bill to worry about any more?”
Dani leaned in close and whispered as if there were other people in the room she didn’t want to hear. “I may not be coming back.”
“What?” yelled Stephanie. “What do you mean? Where would you go? What would you do? What are you going to tell Momma and Daddy?”
“Shhhh, don’t be so worried,” Dani admonished. “I’ve been talking to Brandon about that and he wants to take off and go wherever we want as soon as the reception is over. Looks like he’s got a couple weeks before his next show.” Dani winked at her sister as she added softly, “We’ve talked about Hawaii. I think he’s serious, too.”
Stephanie seemed to shrink an inch as she asked slowly, “My word, Dani, Hawaii? What are you going to do out there?”
“I don’t know for sure…see the ocean, probably,” said Dani with a laugh. “But this is my chance to finally leave this one-horse town…in style, too.”
“Do Momma and Daddy know?” asked Stephanie, a worried frown creasing her face.
Dani looked at her sister seriously as she said, “Don’t worry, Stephanie, Momma and Daddy will be all right. I’ll tell them when I get the chance.”
There was anger in Stephanie’s voice as she said, “See, Dani, you just proved everything I just told you.” She continued with tears in her eyes. “You get to do whatever you want whenever you want. It’s not fair. And what about you and me? When are we going to see each other again?”
Dani took her sister’s hands in hers and smiled. “As soon as I get back, which shouldn’t be more th
an a couple of weeks.”
Stephanie took a deep breath, squeezed Dani’s hands and said with a pout, “This is awful! The next year is going to be horrible. It’ll be horrible; you’ll be gone…and you might never come back.”
“You’ll have Momma and Daddy,” said Dani cheerfully.
“Oh, please!” said Stephanie dejectedly. “Daddy is too busy with his cows and Momma is always at work. How am I supposed to have a bunch of great memories from high school time if I’m doing everything by myself?”
“Oh, stop it, Stephanie.” Dani gently slapped her sister’s hand. “I haven’t even left yet, and you’re already doom and gloom. Sounds to me like you’re the one who’s not going to be any fun around here.”
“Well…” Stephanie scowled. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do once you’re gone.”
“You know, you don’t look so pretty when you’re pouting,” quipped Dani as she stood from the table. She walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a Coke as she added, “You’re going to be fine.” She popped the tab on the soda and grinned at her sister before finishing, “I’ll bet you’ll be really busy with every boy in school ’cause they’re going to be chasing you all over God’s creation just as soon as word gets out that I’m not around to run them all off anymore.”
Stephanie sat up in her chair and smiled. “You really think so?”
Dani took a long sip from her cola before answering, “Of course. Johnnie Maxwell seems like a pretty nice guy…he’s cute, too.”
“Not him!” said Stephanie with an embarrassed squeal.
“Why not?” asked Dani.
Stephanie’s mood brightened considerably, but she shrugged before saying with a laugh, “Because he’s such a…such a…a creeper. He’s way too shy and all he ever does is follow me around school.”
“I think he’s cute. Maybe he’s just afraid to talk to you,” suggested Dani with a wink. “That’s not so bad. Everybody knows he likes you.”
“I don’t know…” said Stephanie. She opened her mouth to offer more on the subject but was interrupted by the wall phone ringing.
Roped & Tied Page 4
