Cowboy Take Me Away (24 page)

Russell opened the box, surprised at what he saw. A single cupcake. On top was a swirl of frosting with multicolored sprinkles.

And a blue birthday candle.

“I know your birthday was on Saturday,” she said, “but we weren’t in the office then, so I thought…”

Russell continued to stare at the cupcake. She’d remembered his birthday?

“I know,” she said, shrugging weakly. “It’s dumb.”

“No!” Russell said. “It’s not dumb. It’s not dumb at all.”

“I have a match,” she said. “I can…you know. Light the candle. If you want me to.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

She pulled a book of matches from her pocket and struck one, leaning in close to light the candle. It flared. Burned.

“Make a wish,” she said.

That was easy.
When I ask Shannon to marry me one of these days, she’ll say yes.

He blew out the candle.

“What did you wish for?” Cynthia asked.

“If I say it, it won’t come true.”

“Then keep it to yourself,” Cynthia said, smiling. “I hope you get your wish.”

He looked up at her smile, a sweet, friendly smile that made him feel good in ways he’d never realized before. As single-minded as she could be, she still made things easy for him around there. Jessie had even started to warm up to him a little, but only because Cynthia brushed her and fed her and petted her and made her generally happy to be there. With that kind of attention, how could the cat possibly be anything but ecstatic all the time?

“Well, I’d better get back to work,” Cynthia said. “Happy birthday, Dr. Morgensen.”

She left his office and closed the door behind her. He looked at the cupcake, then at his calendar. He thought about his mother, then about Shannon…

He grabbed his phone.
Call Shannon. Make another date. Get her back on the hook again.

Then he stopped himself. No. He wasn’t going to do that. That clingy stuff wasn’t going to work with her. He had to play just a little bit hard to get. And the more he thought about it, did Luke Dawson really matter, anyway? In a few weeks he’d be gone for good. Out of the way forever.

In the meantime, Russell decided he’d just lie low. Once Luke was gone, Shannon would realize he’d been nothing but temporary fun and games. And when she went looking for somebody she wanted to be with forever, who would be right under her nose?

He would. The man she was really destined to be with.

And neither one of them would ever mention Luke Dawson again.

The day before the festival began, Luke got a call from Myrna, asking him if he could help her out with a special surprise. He agreed instantly. After he hung up, he asked Freddie Jo for the necessary paperwork, and then he went to the kennel and told Barney his life was about to change big time.

Barney jumped into his truck with him, and fifteen minutes later they pulled up in front of Myrna’s house. Luke sat down beside Myrna in a wicker chair on the front porch. She filled out the paperwork Luke had brought, and then she poured them both a glass of sweet tea. Barney lay down on the front porch, acting as if he belonged there.

Smart dog.

At a little after four, the school bus pulled up to the corner of 12th Street and Llama Lane. Kids piled out. Pretty soon Todd came down the steps, dragging a lunch box and a handful of papers. He made it as far as the house next door before he noticed the guests on his front porch.

“Luke! Barney!”

He took off running across the lawn. Barney leaped to his feet and looked at Luke.

“Well, go on,” Luke said with a nod.

Barney shot off the porch and met Todd in the middle of the front yard. Todd dropped his lunch box and papers and gave Barney a big hug. The dog squirmed happily, his tail wagging like crazy. Then Todd came to the porch, Barney following close at his heels. Myrna took his lunch box and his papers from him.

“Hey, Luke! Did you bring a ball?”

Luke tossed the red ball to Todd.

“Can Barney stay for a while and play?”

“Luke didn’t bring Barney for a visit,” Myrna said. “He’s going to be staying with us.”

For a few seconds, Luke could tell Todd didn’t quite understand.

“He’s your dog now,” Luke said.

Todd just stood there, stunned. Then slowly his eyes filled with tears. He looked at Myrna. “I get to have a dog?”

“Uh-huh,” Myrna said. “Long as you take care of him.”

“I will!” Todd said. He squatted down and gave Barney another big hug, and for some reason, Luke’s own eyes filled with tears.
Well, crap.
He blinked rapidly, furtively swiping the shoulder of his shirt across his eyes.

“You and Barney go on inside, now,” she told Todd. “You need to get out of your school clothes before you play.”

“Okay. Come on, Barney. I’ll show you my room!”

As they went into the house, Myrna said, “Seems like a pretty good dog.”

“Yep. I think he and Todd are going to get along just fine.”

“Appreciate you bringing him over.”

“My pleasure.”

Myrna took another sip of her tea. “But you were a rotten kid, you know. No denying that.”

A tiny smile played across Luke’s lips. “Yes, ma’am. You’re absolutely right.”

“But that means I’ve got hope.”

“What do you mean?”

“That people can change.” She shrugged weakly. “Maybe someday my Belinda will come back.”

For all Myrna’s talk about how she’d said “good riddance” to her daughter and never looked back, Luke knew now that just the opposite was true.

“She’s probably just trying to figure some things out,” Luke said. “Sooner or later she’s going to miss you and Todd.”

“Maybe so.”

As they finished their tea, he could hear Todd inside the house chattering away to his new dog, and it occurred to Luke that lately, life had been good in Rainbow Valley.

Very, very good.

W
alking down Rainbow Way on the first day of the Festival of the Animals was like getting trapped inside a gigantic ant farm. People swarmed all over the square and up and down the length of Rainbow Way, taking in the booths, the food concessions, the arts and crafts displays, the midway games, and whatever musical group happened to be playing in the gazebo.

The late October air was crisp and cool in the morning. But rain was still scarce, which kept the soil so warm that by afternoon the temperature was well into the eighties. Summer flowers had been yanked up and replaced with the yellows and oranges of fall, but even those were starting to wilt. A hundred miles north, unseasonal wildfires reminded everyone that in this part of Texas, the longest drought in forty years was still in play.

The night before the festival, Shannon, Luke, and a couple of volunteers had erected a temporary corral for Clancy, Daisy the donkey, and one of the llamas who was less inclined to spit than the others. Beside that was the Puppy Pit, which they created by sectioning off a ten-by-ten area with bales of hay and turning loose five or six of the older puppies to entertain the people who came through. Next to that were cages full of adoptable cats and dogs, and visitors were encouraged to interact with any animal they thought they might like to adopt.

Shannon had arrived at the shelter early that morning, helped Luke feed the animals, and then they collected the ones they were taking to the festival and headed out. Angela came by to help as often as she could, given her responsibilities at the Cordero Vineyards shop on the square, and volunteers took shifts handing out brochures and completing adoption paperwork. Rita offered to help Freddie Jo man the office back at the shelter and greet visitors who showed up there.

They’d had the sign printed with Russell’s name on it, even bigger than the sponsorship sign from the year before. He came by once, told her it looked good, then disappeared again. And she hadn’t seen him since.

As always, Shannon held her breath, hoping for lots of adoptions and a flurry of donations. She needn’t have worried. By noon the first day, she could tell both would be superseding anything they’d achieved in prior years. And it was mostly because of Luke. He was a one-man public relations firm, drawing people in with a big smile and inviting them to meet whatever animal he was holding at the time.

Tourists loved him immediately. But Shannon also caught snippets of conversation from some of the townspeople.

Sure that’s Luke Dawson? He seems different than before.

Heard he’s a bull rider now, going to the World Championship. Can you believe it?

No man who loves animals that much can be all bad.

Every day the festival held a different event, the most popular of which were the Puppy Power 5K for walkers and their dogs and the Blessing of the Animals. For the blessing, Father Andrews said a prayer, then sprinkled each pet with holy water. Luke had told Shannon about Todd adopting Barney, but seeing them together for the blessing came very close to making her cry.

Shannon left the festival grounds exhausted every evening. She and Luke took the animals back to the shelter and made sure everybody was fed. Then he came to her apartment, and suddenly she perked right back up again. They took a shower, then grabbed a bite to eat, barely finishing dinner before they were in each other’s arms again, making their way to the bedroom. They never talked about what was going to happen when the festival was over and he had to get on the road to Denver. That was fine with Shannon. The last thing she wanted to do was interject one bit of sadness into the happiness she was feeling.

All too soon Sunday came, the last day of the festival. Attendance dwindled in the afternoon in anticipation of the barbecue that night. The animals were getting tired, stretching out in their cages, their eyes drifting shut. Only a dozen visitors had stopped by in the last hour.

Luke sat down in a chair, holding a fuzzy little mutt that was part Yorkie and part something else. As Angela talked to a visitor who was thinking of adopting a cat, Shannon sat down beside him.

“I don’t know what it is about the festival this year,” she said with a smile. “It’s been a whole lot more fun than usual.”

Luke smiled back. “It’s been fun for me, too.”

“Did you come to the festival when you were a kid?”

His smiled faded. “Yeah, but I didn’t have any money to do anything. Then when I was older, I couldn’t even walk up to a booth without somebody thinking I was going to steal something.”

“That must have been hard.”

Luke just shrugged, but she knew how much that had to have hurt him as a child. It broke her heart to imagine him walking around the festival without being able to do what the other kids did—shop at the booths or play the games or even buy a little cotton candy.

“Let’s do it now,” Shannon said.

“What?”

“We haven’t gotten out of this booth the whole week. Let’s go play.”

Luke raised his eyebrows. “Did you just say the word ‘play’?”

“Yeah. Let’s go do festival stuff.”

“What about the shelter booth?”

Shannon looked over at Angela. “Can you hold down the fort for an hour or so?”

“No problem.”

Shannon smiled at Luke. “Let’s go.”

All week long Russell had been trying to get into the spirit of the festival, but it was a hard thing to do. People were everywhere.
Pets
were everywhere. He couldn’t even drop by Rosie’s for a takeout order without standing in line behind a string of tourists. Most of the business owners on the square loved every minute of it, but that was only because they were selling souvenirs or consumables. To date he hadn’t had a single tourist drop by his office for a spur-of-the-moment root canal. And the costume contest—why had he agreed to judge that? He’d felt like a fool sitting up there trying to decide between a Chihuahua dressed like a Hell’s Angel and a cat wearing a bumblebee costume.

He went to the petting zoo the first day to see what he’d supposedly paid a thousand bucks for. The sign looked good. He liked seeing his name emblazoned at the entrance in foot-tall letters. Shannon had stopped working for a minute to talk about the sign and tell him again how much she appreciated it. But with Luke Dawson hanging around in the background, the whole experience had eventually irritated Russell enough that he hadn’t been back since.

Now he was walking down Rainbow Way, stopping to talk to vendors and other townspeople, wanting to make sure people saw him at the festival even though he didn’t entirely get it. He also made sure to stop by the Preservation Society booth to say hello to Loucinda, who greeted him like the son-in-law she was hoping to have. If only her daughter would pay that kind of attention to him, things would be just fine.

He stopped to look around in a booth filled with leather goods. Buck-stitched wallets weren’t remotely his thing, but he did love the smell of good leather. Then he heard a voice beside him.

“Hi, there.”

He turned around to find Cynthia standing next to him. She wore an oddball hairband with tiny silk flowers on it and a pair of feathery earrings he’d seen one of the craft booths selling.

“I saw you judging the animal costume contest,” she said with a smile. “You looked good up there.”

“Good?”

“Very judgelike. Did you ever consider law school? You know. Back when you were in college.”

“Law school? Uh…no. I didn’t.”

“Well, if you ever feel like changing professions, there you go. And just for the record, I think you and the other judges picked the right winner. That Chihuahua in the Hell’s Angel costume was hilarious.”

“Do you think so?” he said, suddenly feeling as if the whole thing might have mattered after all. “I really wasn’t sure.”

“Absolutely. But there were others that were pretty funny, too. How about the squirrel in the Superman cape? What did you think of that one?”

“Not elaborate enough,” he said.

“Hmm. Good point.”

And then she commented on the dachshund dressed as a hot dog, and Russell found himself talking at length about his reasons for liking one contestant over another. For some reason, Cynthia was smiling at him as if he’d done something truly noteworthy by judging a dumb costume contest. Maybe this stuff meant more to people around there than he realized. By the way Cynthia was looking at him, it certainly meant something to her.

All at once, Russell caught a glimpse of Shannon out of the corner of his eye. She was standing on the other side of Rainbow Way near a cotton candy concession.

This was his chance. She was away from the petting zoo, which meant Luke wasn’t around. He could talk to her. Suggest maybe they have a bite to eat together, or maybe a glass of wine at the Cordero Vineyards shop. Just a casual,
Wasn’t it nice to run into each other?
kind of thing. It would be perfect.

But just as he was about to tell Cynthia he had to go, he realized Shannon wasn’t alone. Somebody walked up to her and handed her a cone of cotton candy.

Luke Dawson.

They turned and walked down Rainbow Way in the direction of the games on the small midway, chatting as they ate the cotton candy. And Shannon was smiling.

Russell felt a slow burn of anger. He hated feeling that way, but he just couldn’t help it. It irritated him to no end to watch the woman he wanted with another man and feeling as if there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it. Then he realized Cynthia was still talking.

“I’m sorry,” he said, jealousy still buzzing inside his head. “What did you say?”

“I asked you if you’re going to the barbecue tonight.”

“Uh…yeah. I’m going.”

“Okay. Then I guess I’ll see you there.”

She gave him one last smile and walked away. Russell told himself he just had to be patient, that Luke wasn’t a threat in the long run. But if he saw Shannon with Luke at the barbecue tonight, patience was the last thing he’d be feeling.

As Luke walked down Rainbow Way, he had the sun on his shoulders, the warm October breeze in his face, cotton candy in his hand, and Shannon by his side. He decided it was one of the best days of his life. And given how good his days had been recently, that was saying a lot.

They’d gotten in the swing of things at the shelter’s booth this week, finding homes for a dozen animals in the past few days alone. The big jar they’d set out for donations and seeded with twenty-dollar bills was almost full. Pledges of ongoing support were at an all-time high. And Angela’s suggestion of a doggy kissing booth manned by some of their friendlier mutts—at a dollar a kiss—was a huge success. Shannon told him that for the first time since she’d taken over as executive director, she felt as if she had breathing room.

He remembered the woman he’d found in the barn that first day he’d come to the shelter asking for a job. She’d been driven, yes. Determined, definitely. But she’d also been tired, overworked, and unhappy. Sometime in the past few months, all that had changed. And in the past week, the way her face lit up every time she saw him…

Nothing on earth made him feel better than that.

They went to the midway and stopped by a shooting gallery. Shannon held his cotton candy as he plunked down two bucks and took three shots. He won a stuffed dog and threatened to name it Son of Fluffy. But there was a little girl next to him who’d lost and was on the verge of tears, so he knelt down and gave it to her instead. She took the stuffed dog and hugged it, her tears turning to smiles.

They browsed through the craft booths, then sat down for a minute to watch a cooking demonstration where somebody was making homemade dog biscuits. As they rose to walk on, he saw the Preservation Society booth ahead. He imagined Loucinda holding court there, pontificating about their efforts to preserve the history of Rainbow Valley, even as she wished she could rid the town of Luke’s place in its history forever. He wished he didn’t feel uptight at the thought of running into her, but he just couldn’t make the leap.

He slowed, then stopped. Shannon looked at him questioningly.

“Maybe we’d better turn around,” he said.

Shannon looked ahead and saw the Preservation Society booth, and an expression of understanding came over her face. She nodded. They made a U-turn and started back up Rainbow Way.

As they strolled along, Shannon’s hand accidentally brushed against his, and it was all he could do not to take hold of it. But he refused to do that. He didn’t want any public display of affection he showed her now to cause her any grief later. The past few days had been wonderful, and the last thing he wanted as he left this town for good was Shannon having any regrets about what had happened between them. This time he wanted nothing but good memories to stay with her forever.

By the time Luke and Shannon returned the animals to the shelter, the sun was already hovering over the horizon. After everyone was fed, Luke stayed to take care of a few final tasks, telling Shannon to go home and get ready for the barbecue. She told him once she was ready, she’d walk the few blocks from her apartment to the square to meet him.

By the time Luke finished at the shelter, took a shower, and drove back to town, there were cars parked for blocks around the square. He finally found a space that might have been slightly illegal to park in, but he figured the sheriff had more on his mind that night than handing out parking tickets. As he walked to where people were congregated, he saw vendors dishing out barbecue, and beer was flowing like crazy. Multicolored party lights were draped everywhere, and picnic tables were set side-by-side to accommodate the hundreds of people who’d shown up for the celebration.

Eve spotted him and waved. “Hey, Luke! Over here!”

She and Tasha sat together, finishing off their dinner, and they scooted over to make room for Luke. Ginger and Eve’s dog, Brynn, stood by, hopeful for any tidbits of food that might come their way. He leaned over to give each one a friendly pat, and when he looked up again, his heart stood still.