Cowboy Seeks Bride (10 page)

“Never have, but then I’ve never loved anyone that much,” she said.

“Married to your job, are you?”

“Pretty much.”

“Your turn,” Rhett called out when he finished the last of the song.

Dewar bent Haley back and whispered, “Thank you for the dances, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m ready for bed,” Coosie said. “Saturday on the trail don’t mean sleeping in an extra hour.”

Rhett handed the guitar to Buddy, who carried it to the chuck wagon and stowed it in the right place.

“Thanks, guys,” he said.

“It was fun. Maybe we’ll do it again at the end of next week,” Rhett said.

“Why wait until the end of the week?” Haley asked.

“You tell her, Dewar. I’m sleepy.” Rhett yawned.

“Gives us something to look forward to at the end of a long week,” Dewar said. “Wouldn’t be special at all if we had music every night. You might keep that in mind for your reality show.”

His hand brushed against hers, but he sidestepped a little to keep it from happening again instead of taking it in his. That confused her to no end. He’d held her tightly when they danced. He’d flirted and his eyes had said that he liked holding her close and now he didn’t even want to touch her?

She wanted to drag him under the weeping willow tree, strip off naked, and make wild passionate love with him until daybreak, and he didn’t even want to grasp her hand. When they reached their sleeping bags, he nodded at her, sat down, and tugged his boots off. She did the same and slipped into her bag, zipped the side, laced her hands behind her head, and stared at the stars.

The cowboy was getting under her skin and it was driving her totally insane with desire, want, and need all balled up together.

Haley awoke on Saturday morning to Eeyore braying right outside the campsite and Coosie telling him what a good boy he’d been. She sat up so fast that her head spun around like it was suffering from an acute hangover. She squinted against the very first signs of the sun peeking over the eastern horizon.

Coosie looked her way and pointed to Eeyore, who had a dead coyote at his feet.

“Your new little friend is earning his keep,” he said. “I can’t believe the critter got this close to the camp. Must have been hungry.”

Haley shook her boots to make sure no spiders had taken up residence deep in the toes and crammed her feet down into them. She went straight to the donkey, rubbed his ears, and told him what a good boy he’d been to save the cows from that mean old coyote.

“Please tell me we aren’t having that thing for supper,” she said.

Coosie laughed. “Be like eatin’ dog. I ain’t never been that hungry yet.”

“We had snake and we had squirrel, which isn’t anything but a glorified rat with a fluffy tail,” she reminded him.

“But that ain’t dog. Don’t think my stomach would handle dog or cat very well. We’ll leave him here for the buzzards. They deserve something for taking care of roadkills for us,” Coosie said.

The morning lasted six days past eternity. After a night complete with dancing, a woman ought to at least get a good-night kiss at the door, but Dewar rolled over with his back to her and promptly went to sleep. And that morning he acted like she had the damn plague.

She and Eeyore brought up the rear for a while and not one time did Dewar ride back to check on the herd stringing along back there. Before noon they came into El Reno and had to herd the cattle through the Interstate 40 underpass. A police escort led the way down two lanes of the highway with another black and white car bringing up the rear. Two of the policemen tried to flirt and one even asked for her phone number. Fat lot of good that would do since her phone was in her car back at Dewar’s ranch. She wished Dewar would show her a fraction of the attention they did.

Eeyore didn’t like the cars, the town, or the traffic on the other two lanes and he brayed all about it the whole hour that it took to get through town and back into the pasture. Too bad it didn’t look like it did way back when it was a wild Chisholm Trail town. Eeyore would have been a lot more comfortable with horse-drawn buggies than fast cars.

That evening, Dewar ate and made an excuse to check the cattle, since they’d been on the trail for a week. He crawled into his sleeping bag before anyone else that evening and was snoring before Haley took out her notebook.

The next day wasn’t any better. Dewar didn’t speak to her all day and had very little to say to the rest of the crew. She made notes that night about the trail boss being a total jackass and that it should be worked into the reality show. Everyone could wonder what they’d done wrong to put him into a black mood after the night of singing and dancing.

That night he and the boys washed up in Buggy Creek and then sat around the campfire talking about horses, cows, and ranching. She spent an hour at the creek taking a cold bath, shaving her legs in cold water, washing her hair, putting on clean clothing, and washing her laundry. She hung it, panties and all, on a line she stretched from the wagon to a mesquite tree and dared Dewar to make a comment about it.

But he didn’t.

Sunday she awoke to a cloudy day, but at least her laundry had dried through the night, so she packed it away in her saddlebags and got ready for the second week of the drive. She’d dropped more notes in the mail in El Reno and hoped that Joel was having fun getting the reality show details together from her notes because he was the one who’d be sleeping on the ground pretty soon even if he didn’t know it just yet.

She giggled when she thought about him sleeping in a hayloft or a chasing a spider out of his underpants. She’d never have to worry about him running roughshod over her again when that happened because he’d throw up his hands and die right on the spot. He might have wormed his way into the family business, but he didn’t have the backbone or the fortitude to last the whole time on the trail.

Thinking about Joel and what he’d endure on the trail didn’t help that evening when they made camp. She felt like she’d been on a first date, kissed so passionately at the door that her knees buckled, promised a call later in the week, and then nothing, nada. No flowers, phone call, not even a friendly nod at the water cooler in the office. Trouble was that on a cattle run, there was no place to get away from the sorry SOB who’d led her on with all those sweet songs and two-stepping and a kiss that was better than sex with most men.

Clouds as black as Haley’s mood covered the sky the next morning. The air was pregnant with the promise of rain, and the cows all faced the southwest. Even Eeyore kept his head down as if he was getting ready for the onslaught of a heavy rainstorm. Coosie fried up extra sausage and bacon for breakfast, made three times the usual biscuits, and removed the lid from the water barrel.

“It’s a comin’, no gettin’ around it,” he said while they ate that morning. “I’ll get the slickers out of the wagon. You might just as well go ahead and put them on.”

“But it ain’t rainin’ yet,” Buddy said.

The first big drop hit him on the end of his nose. “Guess I was wrong.”

Dewar jogged over to the wagon, pulled up the canvas cover, and grabbed the yellow slickers. His hand brushed against Haley’s and the heat was still there. He cut his eyes around to stare at her for a split second, and the longing in his eyes said he felt it too.

“Thank you,” she said curtly.

“You are welcome,” he answered formally.

The first big drops of rain hit as she slipped her arms into the sleeves and pulled the hood up over her hat. She was glad she’d saddled Apache while waiting on breakfast because the rain got serious, falling in waving sheets that left her vision limited. She put a boot in the stirrup and grabbed the saddle horn. Her right foot slipped on the wet grass and she was grabbing at air when strong arms grabbed her from behind and set her upright. She turned quickly, expecting to see Dewar but looked into Coosie’s smiling face.

“’Bout took a second tumble there, kiddo. Try again and get settled. Can’t have a broke leg. You will need to help keep the strays rounded up today. Rain makes them crazy sometimes,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said. The second time she got a better footing and slid right into the wet saddle. She’d barely gotten her gloves on and the reins in her fingers when Dewar rode up on his big black horse.

“Your job is to keep an eye out for strays at the back of the herd. Can you whistle?”

“Why do I need to whistle?”

“If you can’t herd a stubborn cow back into the herd in the rain, whistle and one of us will come help,” he said.

“You do whatever the trail boss does. I can do my job just fine,” she said. “I hope it rains just like this for my television show.”

He rode away without even a nod.

***

Dewar gripped the reins so tight that his hands ached as much as his clenched jaws. It had nothing to do with the pouring rain and everything to do with that woman. He’d known she’d be trouble when she drove up into his yard in that fancy car, but he’d expected it to be whining, bitchin’, and being a general pain in the ass. He didn’t expect her to learn the ropes, stay out of his hair, and crawl into his heart.

He’d thought his older brother, Rye, was crazy as a drunk rooster when he fell ass over belt buckle in love with Austin Lanier. Not that Dewar was admitting anything near the
L
word, but he did understand Rye’s dilemma much better. He was attracted to Haley, plain and simple. But he was determined to nip it right in the bud before it got a better foothold, because the only end game held too much pain and heartache. Sure, he’d been looking for a woman for a few months. Hell, he’d gone a step further than just looking; he’d been seeking diligently for someone to fill the void in his heart. But Haley wasn’t the one. No, sir! It was just one of those physical attractions that happened because she was the only woman around. When he got back to Ringgold all the women at the church, the café, and ranch in the whole area would be looking for a woman to hook him up with and any one of them would do better than that red-haired piece of sass.

“Move ’em out,” he yelled and rode up to the front of the herd to ride point with the big longhorn bull right behind him.

Going was slow that morning and the rain poured relentlessly. At noon there was no break in the sky, no way to heat up a pot of coffee, or even a place to get dry. They kept moving instead of stopping and picked up biscuits from Coosie when they had time, eating them in a hurry before the rain turned them into a soggy mess.

They traveled through unfenced territory that day, so Dewar made wide loops around the herd to check several times to make sure the cattle weren’t straying off in the storm. Before they made camp, they would be back in pasture roped off with barbed wire. But right then Dewar was glad they didn’t have to work their way through gates or cut fences and mend them in the pouring rain.

It wasn’t uncommon to get hard rains in April, especially around Easter time, but it made for slow going. Thinking about Easter brought on thoughts of the ranch and what had gone on there on the Sunday before. There would have been a big family dinner. All his siblings and their mates would have been there, and pictures would be taken of the little children. The next generation was coming on strong. And he’d missed it all to herd cattle in pouring down rain! He should be back at home seeking someone to
ride
the
river
with
, as Grandpa called it. Not just any woman would do. It had to be someone very special because the river Grandpa talked about was the river of life.

He rounded the back of the chuck wagon and saw Haley and Apache keeping the herd moving forward. Her shoulders were hunched against the north wind. Cold water dripped off the end of her nose, and what hair had escaped from under the hood of the bright yellow slicker hung in limp strands around her face.

Dewar wanted to take her to the nearest motel, spend an hour drying every inch of her body, and then make love to her the rest of the afternoon. He could visualize her curled up naked in his arms and kissing her awake when the first afterglow dimmed.

He shook the picture from his head. But with silent catlike stealth it snuck right back in. In the vision, he brushed back her freshly washed and dried hair and kissed that soft part of her neck as he whispered sweet love words in her ear. The rain pounding on the roof of the old fifties motel and slapping against the windowpanes was romantic instead of cold and miserable. The cotton sheets were warm and soft against their skin.

“Dammit!” he mumbled.

“She’s gettin’ under your skin, isn’t she?” Finn said.

Dewar turned his head to see outside the wide hood. “Where’d you come from and who is getting under my skin?”

“Well, I’m damn sure not talkin’ about the weather, although it is getting under my skin. Sinking right into my bones and chilling them since the wind shifted. I see a gate up ahead. Guess we’ll be back in fenced land again?”

Dewar nodded. “For several days.”

“Any chance this is going to let up or are we going to have to break out the tents for tonight?”

“Don’t have a weather channel on my saddle. You got one?”

Finn chuckled. “Wish I did. Now let’s talk about that woman.”

“Let’s don’t,” Dewar said.

“I figured she’d be a city slicker that whined and moaned at every turn, but she’s shaped up pretty damn good. Coosie is taken with her, and Buddy thinks she hung the moon. Lucy might be losin’ her place.”

“Those two might like Haley, but they love Lucy and after this is over, Lucy will still be there for them. Haley will be gone, never to be seen again.”

“That what’s got your mind in a twist?”

“She’s got a fancy office, wears fancy clothes, and you saw what she drives. Her daddy owns a television station or two or maybe a dozen. She’s going right up the success ladder and I’m just a cowboy. Oil and water do not mix.”

“You got that right,” Finn said through clenched teeth.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Wouldn’t do a bit of good. It’s over and there’s more than a television station and a hundred miles of highway between us,” he said.

“Someone over there?” Dewar asked.

“She was our translator’s sister. I asked her to come home with me but she wouldn’t. Her family would disown her and family was everything to her. Like you said, oil and water don’t mix. Our hearts didn’t know about religion, skin color, or even family ties, but in the end the heart took a backseat.”

“I’m sorry, man. Have you heard from her at all?”

“Buddy of mine sent a note a month ago. She and her brother were on their way to the base one morning and hit a land mine. It was instantaneous and neither of them suffered. I’m working my way through the bitterness of it all and this trip is helping. You are the first person I’ve told. Even my folks don’t know.”

“Talk helps and I’m here,” Dewar said.

“Thanks. And I mean it. Now about those tents?”

“We’re in luck tonight. Rancher has an empty barn with a big corral out back at the far end of his property. We’ll have to ride an hour longer, but we’re already wet so don’t guess it’ll matter. We can herd the livestock into the corral, pull the wagon inside, and bed down in the dry.”

“Sounds better than the Waldorf Astoria right now,” Finn said.

Dewar went on ahead to open the gate into a wide flat pasture. When the cows had passed through and headed on north with their heads down against the bitter wind, he rode back to shut the gate.

“I got it!” Haley yelled over the roar of the wind and rain.

She leaned to one side and fastened the gate without ever getting off her horse. She had come a long way in a short time. Too damn bad it was all for a television show and had nothing to do with him.