Beauty and the Cowboy (7 page)

“Jesse, I’m so sorry to drag you out in the middle of the night, but you know what’s going to happen if people see you bringing me home in the morning with me wearing the same clothes I wore to work yesterday.”

“Why do you care so much about what people think?”

“Because all it takes is a couple of nasty rumors to plant and spread, especially in a small town, for bad things to happen.”

He looked at her as if she’d asked him to dance on the nightstand.

“What kind of bad things?”

“What people say affects my family—my father and sister. I can’t let that happen. What would my dad say if people told him they’d seen me leaving your place at sunrise? Plus, my head hurts and I need a shower.”

“Fair enough. Let me get dressed, and we’ll go.”

When he stood, her gaze fell over his bare, muscular shoulders and followed the line that tapered into his slim waist. Low-slung pj bottoms covered the region that Charlotte had tried in vain to get her hands on.

For the second time that evening, parts of her she’d nearly forgotten existed hummed to life.

No. This was not happening. Not again.

Her face flamed, and she took a step back.

“I’ll meet you in the living room,” she said. “So you can get dressed.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

As she put some distance between them, she thought, Jane was wrong. That’s not just one fine, sexy ass. That’s one hell of a fine man.

*

Charlotte hadn’t intended
to hide out all weekend. It just happened that way. She’d slept in on Saturday, trying to get over that sledgehammer headache. Then she’d called her dad to tell him the news about Tom before the rumor mill could churn its way to him.

First, she called the home phone, but no one answered. She got him on his cell. She was relieved to hear he was over at the cattle auction in Billings. She’d gotten to him first.

True to fashion, he was a man of few words after she told him that Tom was married.

“You okay?”

“I am. I’m surprisingly fine. Don’t you worry about me.”

“I can come home if you need me.”

“It’s sweet of you to offer, but, really, I’m fine. I just wanted you to hear the news from me.”

“Yep.”

She could hear the disappointment in his voice. Though it was a ridiculous thought, she couldn’t help but wonder if some of it was because Tom would not be part of their family. After all, he’d been pretty proud that Tom Tucker, golden boy of Marietta, Montana, had chosen his daughter. From the way he talked, her winning Tom had been better than any pageant title she could’ve snagged.

Her dad just needed time to digest everything. A lot of things were uncertain, but the one thing that she was sure of was that her father loved her unconditionally.

Still, she thought after they’d said goodbye, she hated disappointing him.

It was a good distraction when Jane, the good friend she was, dropped off a mend-the-broken-heart care package containing pints of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy and Chocolate Peppermint Crunch ice cream; three tabloid magazines; DVDs of Gone With the Wind and Breakfast at Tiffany’s; a dart board with a picture of Tom’s face on it; and more chocolate for good measure.

So, word was beginning to get around. Jane had heard it through Emmaline Akers, owner of the Copper Mountain Courier, who’d heard it from Taylor Harris, who worked over at the library, who’d heard it from Mardie Griffin, the waitress at Grey’s Saloon.

Yep. It was all over town. Charlotte wasn’t in the mood to venture out and endure the looks of pity and inevitable questions. Instead, she decided to turn the ringer off on her phone, baked her famous Chocolate Blackout Cake, and ate it right from the pan with the ice cream Jane had brought her while she watched both movies twice.

By Sunday afternoon, Charlotte had just about worked herself into a sugar coma. Then she’d gotten the text from Mattie.

You’re still coming over, right?! Super excited!!!

At least Mattie hadn’t mentioned Tom. But, oh, she did not want to leave the safety of her cocoon. She contemplated texting Mattie that she couldn’t make it, but the girl was obviously looking forward to getting together. The four exclamation points she’d used in the seven-word text had tipped her hand.

Charlotte supposed she had to face the world and its curiosity sometime. Better to take the plunge today than tomorrow at work.

After she showered and dressed, she found herself standing on Jesse’s doorstep, thinking if she hadn’t promised him she’d do this, she wouldn’t be here. But Jesse had taken care of her. He’d fixed her eggs and left her aspirin and had driven her home in the middle of the night. Granted, the ride home had been mostly silent except for the part when they’d gotten to her apartment and he’d argued about seeing her safely to her door.

He’d won.

God, it had been awkward. But once the door had been unlocked, Jesse had simply said good night and turned and walked away.

She hadn’t heard from him since. She was still trying to convince herself that was a good thing, despite the hollow feeling in her chest.

His house looked different in the light of day. It felt strange to think she was here to see Mattie, not him. But there was that part of her that hoped he wouldn’t be here, despite the dip of disappointment when she didn’t see his truck in the driveway.

As she raised her hand to knock, she decided if he was here, she would just act as if nothing had changed. She wouldn’t think about how she regretted that he hadn’t taken advantage of her more than she regretted getting Tom’s call.

Before Charlotte’s knuckles could meet the wood, Mattie threw open the door.

“You’re here! I’m so excited you’re here. Come in. Jesse said you’d help me put together the perfect wardrobe for the pageant. I turned in my application yesterday. I put it in the mail slot on the Chamber of Commerce door because no one was working yesterday. I hope I got it there on time.”

“Whoa. Take a breath, Mattie,” Charlotte said, glancing at the kitchen where Jesse had cooked for her, at the couch where she’d fallen asleep, at the living room where they’d kissed. “You’re good. We’ll process all the applications tomorrow.”

No signs of Jesse.

With a twinge of disappointment, Charlotte tried not to wonder where he was and whether he’d purposely planned to be scarce this afternoon.

“Good,” Mattie said. “I was worried. But I cleaned up my room for you, ’cause you’ve never been here.”

If Jesse hadn’t mentioned he’d brought her there, she wasn’t going to touch that one. It would lead to too many questions she couldn’t answer.

“Thanks for doing that. Lead the way to your room, and we’ll get started.”

She followed Mattie down the same hall that just the other night had been illuminated by moonlight. Today, the late summer afternoon sun poured in through the skylight, giving Charlotte a better look at the pictures that had been cloaked in shadows before—Jesse and his brothers, the family portrait. Once, she’d been as close to his family as she’d been to her own. Yep, Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie were definitely looking disappointed in her.

She bit her bottom lip so hard she tasted blood.

“Hey, Charlie, in here.” Mattie waved from the door that was at the farthest end of the hallway.

“I was just looking at the pictures. That’s a good one of you. Is that your school portrait?”

Mattie rolled her eyes. “Yes, and I hate it. I look like such a child.”

Charlotte was tempted to say, You are a child. But she knew better. “Well, you have grown up a lot since then. That’s why I think you’re going to have a lot of fun doing this pageant.”

That’s when she noticed the explosion of orange clothes on the girl’s bed.

“I want to wear orange. I want it to be my signature color. So I brought out every piece of orange clothing I have, which isn’t a lot. I only have, like, two things, but I’ve borrowed some things from my friends, and if you could lend me anything you have that’s orange, I think I might be able to make it work. Gina has an orange dress that might be good for my personality outfit. What do you think?”

The girl held it up and struck a pose.

Ohh. Boy. This was a dilemma. With the girl’s golden-blond hair and blue eyes, the color made her look sallow. Really, she couldn’t have picked a worse color for herself, other than maybe chartreuse.

“Why do you want to wear orange?”

“Because it’s my favorite color.”

“Yet, most of your own clothes are other colors. You said had to borrow most of these.”

Charlotte went over to Mattie’s closet and surveyed the contents. It was full of pinks, yellow and blues. Bingo. Great colors for her.

“Why not something like this, Mattalyn?”

Charlotte held out a pretty, blue, flowered dress.

“Noo. I have to wear orange.”

“You don’t have to wear it. Can I be honest with you?”

Mattie nodded warily, her brows knitted.

“It’s not your best color. Orange is really hard to wear unless you have a certain coloring. If you want to look your very best, I think you should stick with blues and maybe some pink. You don’t have to stay with one color.”

The girl shook her head. She looked panic-stricken. Something else was going on here.

Charlotte hung the blue dress back in the closet, pushed aside the pile of clothing and sat on the edge of Mattie’s bed. “You asked me to come over and help you. If I’m going to do that, you have to be open and honest with me about what you’re thinking and why you have certain things in mind…like all this orange. Because I can’t help you otherwise.”

The girl crossed her arms in front of her and looked up at the ceiling. She opened her mouth as if she were about to speak, but then she clamped her lips shut, emitting a little sigh.

“Mattalyn, I’m not going to judge you. Just tell me what’s on your mind.”

“Orange is Cody Granger’s favorite color. I thought if I wear it in the pageant, he’ll notice me. My best friend, Gina, knows him. He made the JV football team this year, and he’s sooo cute.”

Mattie’s face flushed bright pink, a color that looked a heck of a lot better on her than all that orange.

“I really want him to like me. That’s why I’m entering this pageant. I just want him to notice me, and then maybe he’ll ask me to be his girlfriend.”

Ahh. There it was. Now all this orange made sense. “Honey, a guy isn’t going to like you simply because you wear his favorite color. He has to like you for you. Don’t change yourself to be something you think he wants. It’ll never work out if you do. You’ll get the wrong guy.”

It suddenly dawned on Charlotte that she had spent the better part of six years living the way Tom had wanted to live. She’d put up with the long-distance relationship and kowtowed to him to make him happy. In the process, she’d lost sight of herself.

That’s why it would’ve never worked. After being apart for so much of their relationship, they hadn’t really known each other. When it had come down to the crucial moment—the moment of truth, when they had been doing their best to get engaged, the natural next step—something inside of Charlotte had known it wouldn’t work. That’s why she hadn’t been able to accept that marquise ring, a ring that was beautiful but so contrary to everything she wanted. It hadn’t made any sense.

Obviously, Tom had been one step ahead of her.

Something shifted inside Charlotte. Life would be different, but she was going to be okay.

It took a little more convincing, but after Charlotte had Mattie try on Gina’s orange dress and then compare it to her own favorite dress paired with her cowboy boots—both just so happened to be blue—the girl seemed to come around. She finally admitted to Charlotte that she simply felt better in the dress that was true to her own style.

“If you wear this dress with these boots and make an effort to say hello to Cody and just be your sweet self, he’s bound to notice you.”

She almost added, If he doesn’t like you for you, then he doesn’t deserve you. The right guy will come along.

But she didn’t say it. Instead, she looked at the time on the alarm clock on Mattie’s nightstand. It was getting close to five. She’d already been there an hour. She wanted to be gone before Jesse got home so she wouldn’t look like she was hanging around to see him.

Less pressure that way, on both of them.

“I need to go now, but I want you to go through your closet again and pick out the things you like.”

Mattie walked with Charlotte to the front door.

“Okay, but the only problem is I don’t have anything to wear for the formal-wear part of the pageant.”

Charlotte tucked a blond curl behind the girl’s ear. “Don’t worry. I think I know where I can find you a gown to borrow.”

Mattie’s eyes lit up, and she threw her arms around Charlotte. “Thank you so much!”

“I’m happy to do it. I’ll see you next Sunday. Same time?”

“Yes. But I don’t think I can wait that long.”

“Work on all the things we talked about, put on the clothes we selected and pretend like you’re on stage so you can get comfortable. If you do that, the week will go fast.”

Mattie nodded. Charlotte put her hand on the doorknob to let herself out, and at the same time, someone on the other side of the door pushed it open.