Cowboy Seeks Bride (17 page)

Monday morning dawned without a cloud in the sky. The sun came up in a big orange blaze of glory with the promise of a warm day, and the cows were eager to move out of the pasture, across the gravel section line road, and into the next phase of the journey. Even Eeyore had a little extra spunk in his usual ho-hum, head-down walk.

The fingernail polish had been passed around before they left that morning and Haley had found two more places right below her belly button where a couple of slow climbers had buried in. She’d escaped behind the wagon and threatened the whole bunch of cowboys with justifiable homicide if they so much as peeked while she painted the red dots.

And now they were back in the saddle for another day herding cattle north toward Dodge City. Dewar had told them at breakfast that morning that they’d probably cross the state line that evening and her heart had stopped beating.

“That only means that we’re more than halfway there,” Coosie had said.

Her heart settled into a regular routine as he explained they’d still have about thirteen more days until they actually sold the cattle to the feedlot Dewar had picked out.

They’d only been riding an hour when they passed a cemetery. It didn’t cover acres like the ones Haley had seen in Dallas, or even the ones in Louisiana where her grandfather was buried. It was small but well kept with flowers on the grave sites, freshly mown grass, and tombstones of all descriptions shining in the morning light.

It reminded her of the brevity of life and how she should be reaching out to grab opportunities while they were at hand instead of waiting until they were miles down the road. Was Dewar the opportunity of a lifetime? Or was he a plaything for a month? She had never in her entire life started a relationship of any kind after only knowing someone for a week. She’d certainly never even thought about falling into a pile of leaves with a cowboy.

The faint noise of a train rumbling down the tracks to the west drew her thoughts away from the cemetery. She’d researched what seemed like a lifetime ago on the Internet and found it was the trains that brought an end to the trail drives. When the railroad put tracks closer to their ranches, the need to drive the cattle all the way to Dodge City disappeared.

What would it take to change her? And at the age of thirty, could she even make changes or was she so set in her ways that it would be impossible? She pondered on that the rest of the morning. Would Dewar like her if she became a ranching woman or would her decision make her such a different person that he fell out of love with her?

Love!
She sputtered without even saying the word. He’d never uttered such words, never even mentioned them after sex or during sex when men will say anything. Not Dewar; his words were always well chosen and so sweet. But if he did fall in love with her, would he fall out of love with her if she changed? That was the question.

At noon she was downright grouchy because of unanswered questions. Coosie laid out bologna, cheese, tomatoes, and everything to make Dagwood sandwiches. She slathered mustard on one slice of bread and folded it around one piece of bologna.

“Chigger bites still bugging you?” Finn asked.

“They’re fine,” she said.

Rhett raised dark eyebrows over his green eyes. “You sick?”

“Nope, just not too hungry. Ate too much breakfast,” she explained.

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing. If I’d known them damn chiggers were taking up homesteading on my legs I would have never gone fishing. The fingernail polish stuck the hair down flat and every time I move it rips out another hair. I swear, Haley, I don’t know how in the devil you girls get your legs waxed,” Sawyer said.

That brought out a weak giggle. “Boys ain’t as tough as girls.”

Dewar smiled.

“What’s funny?”

“You said ain’t instead of aren’t. You’re beginning to talk like a redneck. Be careful or they won’t let you back into that fancy office down there in Dallas,” he said.

Daggers shot from her eyes. “It’s living around the bunch of you that causes me to swear like a sailor and…” She stopped herself before she said, “think about having wild sex with you all day.”

“And what?” Dewar pressured.

“And use the word
ain’t
. Momma will throw the whole lot of y’all off the roof of the office building if you do much more damage,” she said.

“We still got almost two weeks to ruin you, girl,” Rhett said. “You may go home with a tat yet.”

“Hmmph,” she said and bit into her sandwich.

***

When it was time to pull up reins that night they were back in a flat area with no trees, not even a sapling beside Bluff Creek. There was no more than two inches of water in the bottom of the creek; barely enough to water the cattle. Not nearly enough for a real bath or washing clothes.

“So we’re in Kansas?” She removed the saddle from Apache and carried it to the spot where her bedroll was lying.

“We are,” Dewar said.

She went back to her horse and took off the blanket, brushed him well, and sent him out to graze with the cattle. Coosie was already working on supper, and the smell of fried chicken permeated the evening air. Buddy was busy brushing down the two horses that pulled the wagon. The cousins were making out their beds and griping about the water being low in the creek.

“This has been fun, but I wouldn’t do it again for all the money in that damned reality show,” Sawyer declared.

“Why?” Buddy asked.

“I didn’t realize how much I’d miss a bath at the end of a long, hard day. I don’t mind getting dirty and sweaty. But when the day ends, I like to be clean and…” He paused and looked at Haley.

“Finish your thought. Don’t hold back on my account,” she said.

“Go to bed clean and naked, instead of wearing everything but my boots and not having a real shower or even a creek bath,” he said.

“Nothing like the feel of cool sheets on a naked body,” Dewar said.

Haley’s imagination picked up speed so fast that she could almost hear the gears grinding. Dewar, tangled up in sheets, his head on a pillow, and not a stitch of clothing between him and her fingers. There he was in her mind’s eye propped up on an elbow smelling all woodsy and sexy, his hair wet with a fresh shower and his body ready and willing.

“How about it, Haley?”

“What? No, I am not getting a tat. Momma would throw me in the Bayou with the gators and Daddy would disown me,” she stammered.

“Wasn’t me talking.” Rhett chuckled.

“It was me—I asked if you miss a bath every night,” Sawyer asked.

She nodded and gulped, glad they couldn’t read minds. “Oh, yeah, I damn sure do! So you wouldn’t be interested in being the trail boss for the reality show, Sawyer?” She changed the subject.

“Your daddy hasn’t got enough money for me to do that job.”

“Not even if the women contestants looked like Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders?” she asked.

“No, ma’am! When I get to that hotel in Dodge City, I may have room service brought into the bathroom and not get out of the tub for two whole days. When I get home, my girlfriend isn’t going to want a man that smells like a boar hog,” he said.

“How about you, Finn? You want to be trail boss for the reality show?”

He slowly shook his head. “Not me. This has been a good run, but I’m ready to go home and buy my own place and get settled into life.”

Dewar looked up. “How remote are you willing to go?”

“For what?”

“A ranch?”

“Why?”

“Well, I heard from a friend that there’s a ranch out in the Palo Duro Canyon that’s been for sale for more than a year and the folks are itchin’ to sell,” Dewar said.

“Don’t say yes, man!” Sawyer said. “I went back in there to look at a place one time and believe me, it’s way, way back in the sticks.”

“Sawyer ain’t tellin’ the half of the story,” Coosie said. “Only thing that lives in that place is rattlesnakes and lizards.”

“Y’all stop it,” Dewar said. “My friend thinks it’s paradise.”

Finn looked at Dewar. “Sounds like something I’d sure be interested in looking at.”

“I’ll call him when we get back home and he can set you up with the realtor if it’s still for sale,” Dewar answered.

“What are you two going to do when this is over?” Haley asked Sawyer and Rhett.

Rhett loosened his ponytail and shook out his hair. “Get a haircut and find a job. You need help at the horse ranch, Dewar?”

“Always got a job for you there, cuz,” Dewar said.

“Might talk to Aunt Maddie about that,” he said.

Sawyer held up a palm. “I’m going home to my woman and never leaving her again. I’m going to use the money I make on this trip to buy a diamond ring and propose to her. I like ranchin’, but I want to live close to a town. It don’t even have to be a big one but it’s got to be big enough for at least one good decent honky-tonk so I can shoot some pool and have a beer.”

“Think you’re going to do that when your woman gets that ring?” Rhett asked.

“She’s a good woman. She won’t mind me going into town and blowing off some steam on Saturday night.”

“Ain’t no woman worth havin’ that good, cuz,” Dewar told him.

“And why would you say that?”

“What’s she going to be doing while you are shootin’ pool and havin’ a beer at a honky-tonk filled up with women wanting to dance or take you home for more than a dance?” Dewar asked.

Haley’s head slowly moved from side to side.

“What? You don’t agree with me?” Dewar asked.

“About the woman part? Yes, I agree with you. Sawyer, you’d best think twice about an engagement ring if you aren’t through with partying. I was shaking my head at the idea of that canyon. I’ve been to that place. There is nothing out there for miles and miles and it’s all flat land and then boom, it’s like a big bomb blew a crater in the earth. Pretty land but desolate,” she said.

“And you couldn’t live there?” Dewar asked.

“I could, I suppose. I wouldn’t though. I need people and civilization around me.”

Coosie called supper before she could say anything more and Dewar was quiet the rest of the evening. When she tucked herself in that evening, she looked over at him only to see his back. Was the short-lived relationship over because she didn’t want to live in a godforsaken canyon? She’d never sleep without an answer, so she threw back the side of her sleeping bag and padded across the grass in her sock feet.

She snuggled up to his back and nibbled on his earlobe. “Wake up and talk to me.”

“What’s there to talk about, Haley?”

“Quit pouting. You are mad at me because I said I needed civilization, aren’t you?”

“I’m not mad and I’m damn sure not pouting,” he said.

“I am who I am, Dewar. You knew the day I drove up on your ranch. You are who you are. I don’t ask you to change so don’t ask me to.”

He rolled over and kissed her with so much tender passion that it brought tears to her eyes.

“And what do we do about that side of it?” he asked.

“What side?”

“The one that can’t stop thinking about you. The one that wants to touch you every minute of the day and listen to your voice and hear your giggle. Who loves just to watch you pet that damned old donkey. What do we do about all that, Haley?”

“We face it head-on and make decisions later. Right now we’ve got cattle to get to the feedlot and a reality show to plan,” she answered.

“And when it’s over, can you walk away without looking back?”

She shivered. “I don’t know, Dewar. I guess we’ll wait until it’s over and see what happens.”

He pulled her close to his body and wished that he was naked and they were in a bed with sweet-smelling sheets. She deserved that much. Hell, she deserved more than that, but like he’d told her repeatedly and from day one, he was a plain old cowboy. He could give her all the love in the world, all the security in the world, and promise to be faithful unto death. But he couldn’t change any more than she could. Once they were back in their separate and opposite worlds, love, security, and faithfulness might not be nearly enough.

Haley would have been much more comfortable if she’d been wearing her business suit and high heels when she opened the door to the
Caldwell
Messenger
, a small weekly newspaper in Caldwell, Kansas. But those things were half a lifetime in the past and she needed to talk to the person in charge of the newspaper.

“Hello, could I help you?” a woman asked.

Haley removed her dusty cowboy hat and held it to her side. “I’m H. B. McKay.”

The woman extended a hand. “I’m Dorothy Amos. We were hoping you’d come by and visit. It’d be a big thing for us to have your people come through our little town and set up shop for an episode. We are very proud of our Chisholm Trail heritage around these parts.”

Haley shook it firmly. Usually a woman with a gift of gab, Haley was eager to get out of the office and back with the drive. Apache, her horse, was hitched to a porch post, but the cattle would be coming along any minute and the people were gathering to watch the sight. A little boy was out there eyeballing the horse and after the fiasco in Comanche, she damn sure didn’t want him to turn her horse loose.

“I appreciate that,” Haley said.

Dorothy brought a pen out from the gray bun on top of her head. “I’ve got the questions right here if you don’t mind answering them. Number one is: What’s it like, being the only woman on a drive like this?”

“It’s been an experience that has given me a lot of ideas for the show. Ideas that I would have never thought of if I hadn’t come along for the ride,” Haley said.

She could see a little boy messing with Apache’s reins. If that horse got loose, Dewar would never let her live it down.

“I bet it has. We’ve got a man out there taking pictures. He just sent a couple back to the computer. Good-lookin’ cowboys for the most part.”

“Yes, ma’am. Did he get a picture of Coosie, our cook?”

She nodded. “That man looks like he should be playing football for the Dallas Cowboys, not cooking for a cattle drive. Do you miss your modern conveniences?” she asked.

“Of course, and so will the contestants. That’ll be part of the intrigue of the show.”

“How about the contestants? Will you be interviewing them when you get back to Dallas?” Dorothy asked.

Haley nodded again, eager to get out of the shop and back outside before that child turned Apache loose in a hundred head of cattle. “That process is going on right now. Anyone who is interested should be contacting the 800 number at Levy Enterprises.”

“I think that’s everything. We’ll use your quotes and write up our own story. Want me to send a tear sheet down to your business address?” Dorothy smiled.

Haley nodded. “That would be very nice, and thank you for your time. If I’m going to head up the drive, I’d best be going now. And whoever is in charge of the show will drop by when it comes through Caldwell.”

“Am I right? Dewar is the one heading up the cattle and Coosie is the one driving the wagon at the rear?”

“That’s right.”

“And the other ones? I’d like to get their names right when I do the article for today.”

“Dewar O’Donnell’s three cousins who are also O’Donnells: Finn, Sawyer, and Rhett. And then there’s Buddy.”

She pointed at a picture on her phone. “He’s this man?”

Haley pointed to the picture. “That’s right. Dewar is this one.”

She could hear the cattle bawling and the cowboys whistling at them as they came into town. “Got to go. Any other questions, just send them down to Joel at Levy Enterprises and he’ll answer them. I just wanted to stop by and pave the way for the reality crew.”

“Nice to meet you, H. B. Frankly, I was surprised to see that you are a woman. I figured you’d be a man.” Dorothy followed her to the door.

“Most people make that mistake.” Haley stepped out into a brisk south wind that brought the smell of cows and horses right along with it. Would she feel as caged as she had in the newspaper office when she returned to her own world? Had days on a horse and nights under the stars turned her into an outdoors woman? Would life ever be the same?

That ornery kid looked at her, grinned, and slapped Apache on the rear end. Evidently he’d already untied his reins because Apache took off into the traffic running like the wind right up the middle of the street. All she could do was run like the dickens and whistle for him to stop and come back to her.

Cars and trucks were on both sides of him, and a stray dog jumped between the vehicles and snapped at his heels. Horns blared and people leaned out of trucks to tell her to get her damn horse off the street. Apache finally heard her whistle and stopped dead, stirrups flapping against his side and cars still breezing past him at twenty-five miles an hour.

Then suddenly the cars all pulled over to the side like a funeral procession was coming up the street. Only it wasn’t a hearse, it was a rangy old bull. And the procession wasn’t a string of cars with their lights on; it was a line of cows. The stray dog slunk back down a side street with his tail tucked firmly between his legs. He wasn’t nearly as mean when it came to facing off with a big black bull as he was chasing a running horse.

Haley picked up a rock and slung it toward him. The dog picked up speed and darted under a parked car.

“Get on out of here and leave my horse alone, you mangy bastard,” she screamed.

The cows looked from one side to the other as if they were disappointed that there wasn’t a sidewalk sale going on. Haley just hoped that that little boy had run all the way home and wasn’t brave enough to slap a cow. Lord, she’d done already had enough stampedes to last a lifetime. She was totally out of breath and heaving until her sides ached when she finally caught up to Apache. She reached for the reins and looked up into Dewar’s twinkling eyes.

He handed her the reins. “Lose something? Want me to go back and get that dog so it can be your second pet? Poor little bastard looked lonesome, didn’t he?”

“You bring that dog to camp and I’m tellin’ Eeyore that it’s a coyote. One more kid touches my horse, throws a rock at my horse, or sticks his tongue out at me, or tries to steal one of our cows, I swear to God, I’m going to chase him down and…” She tried to think of something horrible enough to do that wouldn’t land her in jail.

Dewar threw back his head and laughed. “Does that mean you don’t want a dozen sons?”

“Right now you’d have to pay me big bucks to even consider a sweet little daughter.”

***

Dewar pushed them past the usual mileage that day, especially on a day when they had to go right down Main Street of a town. Haley began to think she’d grown fast to the saddle and it would be stuck to her butt forever. Even Coosie was cranky when they finally stopped a hundred yards from the Chikaskia River.

“You ran at least five pounds off those cows today,” he told Dewar.

“They’ll gain it back with good fresh water and all this green grass. I wanted to reach the river so we could clean up, so stop your whining.”

Coosie narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you talk like that to me, son. I could take you down with a broken arm and the other tied behind my back.”

“Are we m-m-mad?” Buddy asked.

“We are tired. Y’all are getting potato soup and corn bread for supper. I’d planned on doughnuts, but it ain’t happening tonight,” Coosie snapped.

The saddle didn’t stick to Haley’s butt like she’d feared, but it was a hell of a lot heavier than it had been that morning. By habit, she’d dropped her bedroll six feet from Dewar’s and then lugged her saddle over to the same spot. Apache waited patiently for her to come back, remove the blanket, and brush him. Finally, she finished taking care of her horse, unfurled her bedroll, placed the saddle at the top end, and stretched out, surprised as hell when she lay down that with her bowed legs she didn’t look like she was rigged up in the stirrups at her gynecologist’s office.

As tired as she was, the idea of stirrups conjured up a vision of sex with Dewar in that position and she had to hold back the giggles. In her Dallas corner office she damn sure wouldn’t be entertaining thoughts of sex in stirrups with a cowboy. She’d be all about the business, the next conference, and the next big thing on television. She hardly even knew this new wanton hussy that had taken over her body. Were the Cajun genes surfacing? Granny would be tickled, but her father would be mortified.

She shut her eyes and the next minute someone kicked her boot. “Hey, supper is ready.”

She didn’t want to wake up. The dream had been good. She and Dewar were in a nice restaurant with a candle in the middle of the table and she was all dressed up in a cute little dark green dress that showed off her cleavage. Dewar laid his big hands over her small ones and squeezed gently.

She opened her eyes reluctantly to see Rhett standing at the foot of her bed, a smile on his face. “Is Coosie in a better mood?”

“Hell, no! I am not!” Coosie said from the campfire.

She sat up. “Is the potato soup burned?”

“I don’t burn food just because I’m pissed at the trail boss for making us do a parade and extra miles.”

Dewar yawned and stretched. “You’ll feel better with some food in your stomach and a good bath.”

Coosie pointed the soup ladle at him. “Way I feel right now I might drown your sorry ass.”

Haley fished the notebook from the saddlebags and wrote:

We’re more than halfway through the cattle drive and we pushed on to a record amount of miles after running the cattle through downtown Caldwell. Stopped at the newspaper and talked to the lady editor who is running an article this week and very interested in the reality show. Tempers are getting edgy and Coosie, who’s usually calm about everything, is cranky as hell. Tonight the guys are taking a bath in the Chikaskia River and then I will take one. Think pushing the contestants to the limit today just to see how they react.

“You going to write in that thing all night or eat?” Coosie asked.

She slipped the notebook back into the saddlebag and stood up. “I was just waiting for you guys to get your soup first because I’m hungry and what’s left belongs to me. I can eat while you are getting cleaned up, and then I can get my bath.”

Coosie handed her a bowl and the ladle. “That’s a lot of soup you plan on eating.”

She looked into the pot. “That is potato soup?”

“Lucy calls it potato chowder since it has got bacon and sour cream in it. Ice is about melted in the chest so I needed to use up the sour cream. Fried enough bacon this morning to use in it,” he explained.

“Well, it looks delicious,” she said.

The scowl on his face softened.

“Don’t you dare get it all. I’m coming back for seconds. My belly feels like my throat has done been slit,” Sawyer yelled.

“You better hurry. Boss man has done kept us all in the saddle so long today that we’re all hungry,” Haley said.

“I got so hungry I almost ate my ponytail,” Rhett said.

“Hey, I meant to ask and forgot. Why did you say you were cutting your hair when you got home?” Haley asked.

“Because summer is coming and it’s hot. I thought maybe you and I’d go get our hair cut together. You can get a spike and a tat, maybe of a set of bull horns on a pretty heart that has initials in the middle.” He wiggled his black eyebrows.

He was waiting for her to ask what initials, but she shoved a spoonful of soup in her mouth and said, “Mmmm, delicious, Coosie.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“Is the water clean?” she asked Dewar, changing the subject even more.

“Not as much as I’d like,” he answered.

Rhett finished his second bowl of soup and followed Sawyer and Finn to the river. Buddy left next and then Coosie, leaving her and Dewar at the camp alone.

“Confession,” she said.

“Me or you?”

“Me. I felt cooped up in the newspaper office today and it scared me.”

A grin curled the scar on his jawbone even more and the dimple in his chin deepened. “What do you figure that means?”

“That I’ve been in the saddle too long.”

“What’re you going to do about it?” he asked.

“Get over it, I guess. I got over the measles when I was a kid. I guess I can get over this. You going to take a bath?”

“Oh, yeah. Want to take one with me?” He flashed the most brilliant smile she’d ever seen on his sexy face.

“You ready for the whole world to know about us?”

“Are you?”

She slapped his arm. “Do you ever answer a question?”

“Do you?”

He carried his dishes to the pan at the back of the chuck wagon, washed and dried them until they were squeaky clean, and picked up his clean clothing. “Guess that means I’ll be washin’ up all alone.”

“Guess so, trail boss,” she whispered.

“Hey,” Finn yelled from the tree line. “The water is okay to take a bath in but don’t think about washing your dirty clothes in it. Have to see if Coosie will let us have a panful from the barrel for laundry.”

Haley yearned for the washer and dryer in the utility room of her apartment. She might even hug them when she got home. She’d finished her dinner, wrote some more in the journal about the grouchy mood that had hit the whole crew and how that could be played into the show, and then it was her turn for a bath. She gathered up her clean clothes and headed through the trees with Eeyore following behind her.

“I don’t think there’s coyotes or mountain lions out here in this flat world,” she told him.

He wiggled his big ears and kept pace with her.

She stripped down to bare flesh, picked up her soap and washcloth, and sat down at the edge of the water. The cold water made goose bumps pop up all over her skin, but washing away the grime of the day felt really good.

She had just leaned back and dunked her red hair into the lazy river when Eeyore let out a bray that brought her straight up to a sitting position, eyes wide open and wet hair plastered to her neck and back.

His eyes were set across the narrow river and he took off in a fast trot, the water splashing up to his belly as he ran. She looked toward the other bank to see a coyote. The stupid thing had the audacity to wade right out into the creek and growl at Eeyore, who never slowed down. They clashed in the middle of the creek like a hurricane colliding with a class five tornado. The coyote tried to latch onto Eeyore’s legs, but they were moving too fast. Eeyore kicked and snapped at wherever he could find a chunk of hair.