Hard Loving Cowboy

by A. J. Pine

  Lucy squawked her approval, and Walker narrowed his eyes at the animal.

  “And I’ll put her outside until I’m done,” Jenna added.

  He leaned over and kissed his aunt on the cheek. “Thank you. I probably don’t say that enough to you.”

  He heard her breath catch, but she smiled.

  “Happy one hundred days, Walker.”

  And with that he made his way back to his room where he practically face-planted into his pillow.

  He heard the rain start up again outside. He assumed if Jack or Luke wasn’t calling him to take care of the animals that they were doing their part to get them all indoors. Or maybe his ringer was off. He’d check later, but he’d left his phone on the side of the bathroom sink and he wasn’t about to leave the sanctuary of his bed to find out.

  He closed his eyes and thought of Violet, of how she’d kissed him the day they met and how he’d just kissed her in the rain. Maybe carpentry wasn’t the only thing he wanted just for himself. Maybe he wanted Violet, too. But that would mean letting her know who he really was, and how would she look at him then? He wasn’t sure he was ready to cross that bridge into reality just yet. So he drifted off to thoughts of a life where his mother didn’t die, where his father never lost his way, and where there were no demons at the bottom of a flask.

  Maybe if he thought hard enough, that life could be true.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Olivia wasn’t exaggerating when she said the front desk went bananas when the weather took a turn. When it rained, it poured. Literally. And yesterday’s storm had brought with it road-trippers who’d decided to call it a day and needed a place to sleep.

  She’d only mistakenly double-booked a room twice, which surprised her. She’d figured it had more to do with how distracted she was after Walker—half-naked and covered in mud—kissed her right there with the whole town watching.

  “What the hell was that?” Lily had asked when Violet returned from walking Dixie.

  “Tell us everything,” Olivia had added.

  But the sky had opened up again and patrons had filed in one after the soaking other until the bed-and-breakfast was booked solid. It was already Friday afternoon, and Violet still hadn’t had a chance to process Walker’s kiss or to reconcile it with his completely opposite behavior since she’d seen him on Sunday night.

  Without exactly saying the words, she’d initiated the whole Where is this going? discussion even though it—meaning their relationship—really had nowhere to go. She’d figured he needed some space to think, so she’d played the avoiding game just as well as he had. But…the kiss. He’d turned her knees straight to jelly and then sauntered away like it was the most normal thing to do—and then had gone straight back to acting like she didn’t exist. Despite the expiration date on whatever their label was, he at least owed her an explanation for yesterday, right?

  “Hey,” Olivia said as Violet set out the white and red wineglasses along the table in the common room. “How’s it going?”

  Violet glanced up at her new friend and employer. “Tonight we have a Riesling, which is a sweet, floral white, and also a zinfandel, which is one of the sweeter reds. Sometimes I like to pair sweet with dry, but I’m in the mood for symmetry tonight. Does that sound weird?”

  Olivia joined Violet, placing the tasting glasses along the other side of the table. She gave Violet a pointed look.

  “You know that’s not what I’m talking about,” the other woman said.

  Violet winced. “Yeah. I know.”

  “Not gonna lie. But that was one of the sexiest kisses I’ve ever seen.” Olivia sighed. “I’m gonna have to talk to Cash about kissing me in the rain.”

  “Honestly,” Violet said. “I’m not really sure what that was.” She wasn’t lying, even if her words were only half-true. It wasn’t a shock for her to be kissing Walker in the general sense, but it was a shock to not hear from him all week and then receive such an unexpected greeting. She’d been the one to initiate the conversation about how real things were getting between them on Sunday night, and he’d been the one to leave without really letting her know how he felt. So she’d given him space.

  What a difference a few days and a little rain made.

  She laughed softly.

  “Did I miss a joke?” Olivia asked.

  Violet laughed again and then shook her head. “I was just remembering something funny.” Like how Violet first introduced herself to Walker, much in the same unexpected way.

  Olivia narrowed her eyes. “I can tell you’re not quite ready to discuss”—she made air quotes—“the Walker incident. So I’m gonna steer this in another direction. I heard a rumor that you actually studied music in school and not any of this wine stuff.”

  Violet’s eyes narrowed this time. “Did you really hear a rumor, or did Sheriff Hawkins run a background check on me to make sure you weren’t hiring a convicted felon?”

  Olivia held up her hands in surrender. “Okay. Guilty. I saw your transcript. You were a year away from graduating. Not that I don’t love having you to help out around here, but did you quit school for your mom?”

  Violet’s eyes pricked with tears, and her cheeks grew hot.

  “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry,” Olivia said. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sticking my nose into all of your business, and we’ve only known each other a few weeks. I totally invaded your privacy. Please forget I asked.”

  Violet laughed. “No, it’s okay. I don’t mind talking about it. I’m just not used to a place like Oak Bluff—everyone knowing everyone else. Everyone knowing about everyone else.”

  Olivia sat down on the bench and gestured for Violet to sit across from her, so she did.

  “I know,” Olivia whispered. “I’ve been here only a few months and you’d think I lived here all my life the way people talk to me. About me. About me and the sheriff and whether or not I’m going to wear glass slippers to our wedding. Newsflash—he hasn’t exactly proposed yet. But I did show up in town like Cinderella fleeing the ball, glass slippers and all, so the speculation isn’t a shock. Also, I’m pretty much an open book. I guess people who want to be known get known.” Olivia shrugged.

  Violet nodded. She got that. And she was the type of woman who did want to be known. It was a matter of surrounding herself with the type of people who wanted in on that.

  “Then there are those who’ve lived here their whole lives and are still an enigma,” Olivia added with a raised brow.

  She didn’t name names, but she didn’t have to. Violet knew she was talking about Walker again. But as much as she wanted to confide in a new friend, she didn’t want to admit how much she wanted that kiss to mean. She needed words. An explanation in English, French, or any other language so long as she could plug it into Google Translate and figure out what it meant. But Olivia was right. Walker Everett was one hell of an enigma, and there was no guidebook or translation app that was going to help her with that.

  “So, dropping out of school,” Violet said, steering the conversation back to something she could explain. “I did it when things were getting really bad with my mom’s MS. She couldn’t work at the restaurant like she used to, and our insurance wasn’t enough to cover a nurse to help out at home, so I quit to be hostess, table busser, and eventually a very underpaid sommelier for my father’s restaurant—and an unqualified nurse for Maman on the days when she was in too much pain to be home alone.” She shrugged. “It was really a no-brainer. I’ll go back eventually.”

  Olivia reached across the table and squeezed Violet’s hand. “I’m sorry about your mom. But it sounds like there might be some hope with this whole France situation that’s gonna take you away from us soon?”

  “Nothing can cure the disease,” Violet said. “But the treatment could improve her quality of life. If I can help give that to her, then it’s worth the sacrifice.”

  “Do you miss it? Having music as part of your professional life?”

  How did you miss
something you didn’t quite have yet? She missed the internship hours she’d spent at her university’s partner schools, working with kids from kindergarten all the way to middle school. But she’d never had a class of her own.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I mean, I have my playlists. I have ninety-four minutes in the car twice a week where I get to sing my heart out without annoying the hell out of other passengers.”

  She smiled at the memory of her first day with Walker, their drive to Santa Barbara where he had endured her singing, and how her stubbornness almost had her walking a mile with a two-tier cake in three-inch heels.

  Olivia gasped. “I just thought of the most amazing thing!”

  Violet laughed at the other woman’s sudden exuberance.

  “Um…okay.”

  Olivia bounced on her bench and clapped. “I’ve got someone to work the desk until we close at ten. After the wine tasting, I’m taking you out for karaoke!”

  Violet hesitated for maybe a fraction of a second before her eyes brightened and a smile took over her features. When was the last time she’d had any sort of girls’ night? She hadn’t thought such a thing existed anymore. But tonight it would.

  “Olivia Belle, you have yourself a deal.”

  It was after nine when Violet hopped into the passenger seat of Olivia’s canary yellow Volkswagen Bug.

  “Is this what you were driving when Sheriff Hawkins pulled you over?” Violet asked.

  Olivia grinned. “Yep. And he didn’t just pull me over. He arrested me. Handcuffs and everything.”

  Violet laughed. “Sounds like a great start to a relationship.”

  Olivia clicked her seat belt into place and put the car in drive. “It was pretty disastrous, that day the sheriff and I met. I mean, I was the disaster. Not Cash. My parents had a nasty divorce and have been living hatefully ever after for too many years to count. The biggest lesson they taught me was that I never wanted to end up like them. It might have messed with my ability to commit. Your parents seem pretty tight, though, yeah?”

  Violet cleared her throat. “They are. But I don’t think they have an origin story quite as romantic as yours.” After getting the real story, she wondered how much she really knew about the people who raised her—about the relationship she’d always wanted to emulate. “Let’s just say we might not be that different, you and me. I always thought my parents had this perfect, easy sort of love. So instead of being cautious, I dove headfirst into every relationship assuming if it was right—like they were right—that it would simply fall into place.”

  Olivia gave her a knowing grin. “You thought you knew the answer. I thought I could run to Oak Bluff and find the answer. But the truth is, I was never asking myself the right question.”

  Violet raised her brows and waited for her new friend to explain.

  “It’s not about what made it work for your parents or my grandparents or what made my mom and dad’s relationship crash and burn. I was a runner. So the question for me was what would it take to get me to stay?”

  “Cash,” Violet said, assuming the answer was easy.

  She shook her head. “I mean yes, Cash, of course. But it was because when I was with him I was home. I didn’t want to run anymore because I was safe right where I was.”

  Why was Olivia telling her all of this? They barely knew each other. And Violet wasn’t a runner. She knew exactly where home was. Other than her three years in college, home had been the same place for Violet’s entire life.

  Olivia turned on the radio as the chorus to Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” came on, and she started dancing in her seat. “Okay, wine expert, show me your real skills!” She sang along with the song, loud and off key but with such ridiculous joy that it was contagious.

  So that was that, the end of a conversation that was starting to make Violet squirm. She welcomed the distraction.

  Olivia lowered the windows, and soon the two of them were belting out each song that followed so that the thirty-minute ride was filled with fresh air and loud music, with all of life’s stresses tucked neatly away until tomorrow morning.

  They pulled into the parking lot of a smallish rectangular building with a nondescript exterior except for the pink neon sign that read CENTER STAGE.

  “How did you even know this place existed?” Violet asked.

  They hopped out of the car, and Olivia pointed to a red Jeep Renegade parked a few spots away from them.

  “That’s Ava. She and Lily are inside keeping a couple of seats warm for us. Lily introduced me and Ava to this place a month ago. And because Cash, Luke, and Jack wouldn’t be caught dead behind a microphone, we decided it would be our place whenever we needed some girl time. Figured tonight was one of those nights.”

  It so was.

  The two women strode through the front door. Violet’s steps felt lighter with each one she took. Inside, four-top tables took up the bulk of the floor space. She spun to find a large screen on the wall above the doors that displayed the words to the song that was currently playing, Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive.” To the left of the entrance was the bar, and straight ahead, at the far end of the one-room establishment, was a stage.

  On that stage, putting his whole heart and soul into the song, was Luke Everett.

  “Nooo,” Olivia said softly under her breath. “I’m sorry, Violet. It really was supposed to be girls’ night, but it looks like a cowboy or two are crashing.”

  Violet’s heart sped up, and she scanned the crowded bar for one certain cowboy. She found two tables pushed together near the front of the room where Ava, Jack, Lily, and Sheriff Cash Hawkins currently sat. But Walker Everett was nowhere to be seen.

  She blew out a breath. Was the kiss a fluke and he was avoiding her again? He’d seemed so sure of himself in the moment. She’d felt—something. But seeing everyone else here tonight except him had her doubting her instincts.

  “If this is too weird,” Olivia started. “I mean, I know you don’t want to talk about that smooch Walker planted on you yesterday…”

  “It’s not weird,” Violet said, her voice sounding an octave higher than normal. To prove it she grabbed Olivia’s hand and tugged her forward, meandering through the sea of tables until they reached their party. Lily was rapt watching Luke finish his song, but Ava, Cash, and Jack stood to greet them.

  “I know!” Ava said over Luke’s rendition of the popular eighties song. “We meant it to only be us, but Lily and Luke have barely seen each other all week since she’s been overseeing the restaurant construction, and…well…he wasn’t willing to give her up on the first night they both had free all week. So he tagged along—and brought Jack and Cash with him.”

  Cash grabbed Olivia around the waist and kissed her right there in the middle of the bar.

  She laughed when he pulled away, her cheeks flushed. “I guess girls’ night is everyone night!” she cried, no longer apologetic. Violet didn’t blame her, nor did she begrudge Olivia or Lily or Ava a night with their men, even if it did make her the odd one out.

  Violet settled in between Lily and Ava. There was an empty chair on Lily’s left with a half-finished bottle of beer on the table, which she assumed was for Luke. Cash, Olivia, and Jack sat across from them. On Cash’s left there was also an empty chair, but no drink. A completely vacant spot confirming that she was, without a doubt, a seventh wheel.

  Luke finished his song to a roar of applause from the bar patrons. Even if his singing was awful—which it wasn’t—Violet guessed the response would have been the same. There was no denying the Everett gene pool was filled to the brim with unquestionable good looks and charm. Throw in a pair of hip-slung Wranglers and some beat-up cowboy boots, and you had an undeniable fantasy of a man.

  Not that Luke Everett had occupied any of Violet’s fantasies this past week, but someone had.

  Ava passed her the song booklet and a server came by and took drink orders for the newcomers. Olivia ordered a beer, and since Violet di
dn’t feel like this was the type of place to order a merlot, she decided on beer, too.

  “How about some tequila?” Luke said. “I’m feeling like this is a tequila kind of night.”

  Ava held up her hands. “I’m out. Jack and I are heading to my parents’ after this to grab Owen.”

  Olivia joined in. “Same. Driving. One beer and I’m out.”

  Lily shrugged. “My day is wide open tomorrow, so count me in!”

  Cash and Jack were in, too, which meant the sheriff was probably getting a ride home with Violet and Olivia. But that didn’t leave much room for Lily and Luke. Oh well. Maybe Ava was dropping them somewhere on the way to her parents’ house. Violet knew she had a ride home, and she guessed that was all that mattered. She could stand to let loose a little, too.

  Looked like girls’ night had turned into an all-out karaoke party.

  Ava and Lily did a duet to “Don’t Stop Believing,” and after a shot of tequila, Olivia somehow dragged Cash up to sing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Except he didn’t know the song, so Olivia had to keep pointing at the screen and showing him when his part came up, much to the amusement of the rest of the bar. They were definitely the comic relief of the evening.

  By the time Violet picked a song and made her way onto the stage, she was slightly buzzed—the good kind where everything made her smile and it felt like nothing could make this night anything short of spectacular. That feeling of being the seventh wheel was long gone, and she finally felt like herself in this group of people who were less strangers and somehow more than employers. Maybe Ava had truly meant it when she’d welcomed Violet to the Crossroads family.

  She took her place behind the mic and readied herself for the music to start. She chose a song where she knew all the words, so she didn’t need the screen. That was the excuse she gave herself when she told the DJ she’d be singing “Cowboy Take Me Away” by the Dixie Chicks. She liked the song and was good at it. It had nothing to do with any sort of unspoken thoughts or desires about an enigma of a man who’d managed to burrow his way under her skin after her brilliant idea to kiss a stranger.