Cowboy Take Me Away (9 page)

“No,” Loucinda said. “You girls stay here. I’ll do it.”

“Nonsense,” Shannon said, grabbing her mother’s plate. “You probably spent all afternoon in the kitchen.”

Eve picked up her plate and Russell’s and followed Shannon into the kitchen.

“Wow,” Eve said, as the kitchen door swung closed behind them. “I’m thinking Mom didn’t know about Luke yet.”

“Yeah?” Shannon said, glaring at her sister. “What was your first clue?”

“The vein popping out on her forehead.”

“How did
you
even know?”

“Well, it has been over two hours since you hired him. Freddie Jo told Rosie, who told Tasha, who told me.”

Forget Facebook and Twitter. The speed of the Rainbow Valley grapevine made social media look like the Pony Express.

“Did you have to drop that bomb right in the middle of dinner?” Shannon said, setting the plates beside the sink.

Eve shrugged. “She was going to find out soon enough. Might as well rip off the Band-Aid.”

Actually, it was probably the best place for her mother to get the news. With Russell around, she was forced to be on her best behavior.

“But Mom was the least of your worries,” Eve said. “I thought Grandma North was going to pop out of that painting and go for your throat.”

Shannon had been a little afraid of that herself. Grandma North’s hypercritical nature had been legendary. If Loucinda had scrambled her whole married life to be good enough for Jerome, how would Grandma North feel about Shannon even
speaking
to Luke Dawson?

“So why Luke?” Eve said.

Shannon pulled a coconut cream pie from the refrigerator as she explained the situation. Unfortunately, the longer she talked, the weaker her logic sounded.

“So not only did you hire a man with a terrible reputation,” Eve said, “he can’t even walk?”

“He can
walk
,” Shannon said. “He just can’t do…you know…oh,
hell
. I couldn’t get anybody else to take the job. He was willing to do it, so there you go.”

“Sure you don’t still have a thing for him?” Eve said, retrieving plates from the cabinet.

Shannon’s heart skipped. “I never had a thing for Luke.”

“Then you were the only girl who didn’t.”

Russell came into the kitchen, and Shannon tossed her sister a sidelong glare.
Nothing more about that subject. Absolutely nothing. Do I make myself clear?

Russell sidled up next to Shannon, looking mildly distressed. “Your mother hated the wine, didn’t she?”

“No. She liked it just fine.”

“It was sixty bucks a bottle.”

“All the more reason for her to love it.”

“She made a face when she drank it.”

“Lighten up,” Eve said. “She liked it. After all, you’re a doctor. You could have brought her a bottle of Drano and she’d have poured it into the Waterford and choked it down.”

“Not doctor,” Russell said. “Dentist.”

“That’s fine. As long as she can eventually say, ‘Meet my son-in-law, Dr. Morgensen,’ she’s happy.”

Shannon gave her sister a deadpan look, then turned to Russell. “Sorry. Eve has no filter.”

“Oops,” Eve said. “Here comes Mom.”

Loucinda swept through the door, her heels tapping. “Now, Russell. Guests aren’t allowed to help. Why don’t you go back to the dining room and keep Jerome company while we girls get dessert?”

Russell obediently scooted out of the kitchen.

“You two have this under control,” Eve said, handing Shannon the knife. “I think Dad needs more company.”

Thanks a million, sis.

As Eve slipped out the door, Loucinda said, “Now, about Luke Dawson—”

“I needed a caretaker. He wanted the job. Supply, demand. That’s all there was to it.”

“No. That Dawson boy has no business back in this town, much less anywhere near my daughter.”

“Mom,
your daughter
is nearly thirty years old. I’ve been making my own decisions for quite some time now.”

“I just don’t understand why you would jeopardize your relationship with Dr. Morgensen by fraternizing with the likes of that man.”

“There’s nothing to jeopardize,” Shannon said, cutting a slice of pie and depositing it on a plate. “We’ve dated only a few times.”

“Well, it’s pretty clear to me Dr. Morgensen is looking for a wife.”

Shannon wanted to beat her head against the counter. “A
wife
? Aren’t you jumping the gun just a little?”

“Deny it if you want to, dear, but your suitability for each other is obvious to everyone in Rainbow Valley.”

Shannon couldn’t deny that. That was the way it was in Rainbow Valley. People were paired up as if they lived on Sesame Street.
Which of these things look the same? That’s right, boys and girls! Shannon and Russell! They’re both pretty people with professional degrees. They belong together!

“Stop the speculation, Mom,” Shannon said, scooting more pie onto plates. “Just because we’re dating doesn’t mean a wedding is right around the corner.”

“Men like Russell don’t come to Rainbow Valley every day,” Loucinda said. “He’s interested in you, so you’d do well to pay attention. He comes from a good family. His father is a heart surgeon, you know.”

Good
Lord.
If Shannon heard that one more time…

“Luke Dawson is a distraction you don’t need. Have you forgotten what
his
father was like?”

“He’s not like his father,” Shannon said.

Loucinda’s mouth settled into a grim line of disapproval. She swept two of the plates of pie off the counter. “It’s a mistake,” she said on her way out the door. “That’s all I can tell you. Hiring that man is a mistake.”

The door swung closed. Shannon took a deep breath and counted to ten before grabbing a couple of plates and following her mother into the dining room. Russell was carrying on an animated discussion with her father about the merits of one golf putter over another while Eve poked away at her iPhone.

They finished dessert, and a short time later, Shannon and Russell rose to leave. He made all the appropriate noises of delight at being invited to dinner and complimented Loucinda once again on her cooking. By the time they walked out of the house, Shannon knew her mother was going to have to restrain herself from getting a subscription to
Modern Bride
.

“While you were in the kitchen,” Russell said as he drove, “I was talking to your father. He asked me to play golf.”

Shannon froze. “You’re playing golf with my father?”

“This Sunday. And he’s going to introduce me to the general manager at Majestic and sponsor my membership application.”

“You’re joining the club?”

“My application should be approved by next week. Your father said it would be no problem.”

No, no, no! No country club!

She could
not
date a man who expected her to play golf and rub elbows with the rich folk. She’d had enough of that kind of thing when she entertained clients in Houston, and the last thing she wanted was to start in again.

“I didn’t even know you played golf,” Shannon said.

“Of course I play golf. What man doesn’t like golf?”

She pictured her father wearing his plaid golf pants, green shirt, and ugly golf shoes. In thirty years, that was Russell.

No. Take it easy. Golf is not evil. The devil does not wear golf shoes.

At least she didn’t think he did.

“That’s nice,” she said. “I’m glad you two are getting along.”

When they got to her apartment building, Russell walked her inside. When they reached her door, she said, “Have you given any more thought to sponsoring the petting zoo at the festival?”

By the look on his face, he’d given it several thoughts, and he didn’t appear to like any of them.

“This is my first festival,” he said. “Tell me again what my sponsorship would involve.”

“Well, we’d create a really big sign that would say, ‘Rainbow Valley Animal Shelter Petting Zoo, sponsored by Russell Morgensen, D.D.S.’ in big letters. Your name would be in all the special literature we put out during the event. And you’d be a featured judge for the animal costume contest on Wednesday afternoon.”

He nodded. “How much was it, again?”

“A thousand dollars.”

When Russell still looked unsure, Shannon imagined the word
no
coming out of his mouth and jumped back in again.

“I have an idea,” she said. “Why don’t you come out to the shelter and see the signs we used for the sponsor last year? I’ll show you all the literature, too. That’ll help you make a decision. We have everything in a storage room out in the barn.”

“Sure,” he said. “I can drop by sometime.”

Sometime. When exactly was
sometime
?

Shannon couldn’t bring herself to pin him down any more than that. If she did, it looked a little too much like she was continuing to date him in order to get the sponsorship. Not a good thing.

Russell gave her a quick good night kiss, then leaned in again for a more substantial one. He was a decent kisser. Actually, better than decent. So why was she having such a hard time warming up to him?

He pulled away, giving her a congenial smile. “Good night, Shannon.”

As she went inside her apartment, she felt a little guilty. If she were to make a list of pros and cons, Russell’s pros would clearly win. Maybe she instinctively shied away from him because her mother thought he was so wonderful. Should she really hold that against him?

Then she thought about how her mother felt about Luke.

Her entire life, Shannon had walked the straight and narrow. Eve may have colored outside the lines every chance she got, but Shannon? Never.

Until Luke.

For the first time in her life, she’d directly defied her mother.
Stay away from that Dawson boy,
her mother had told her repeatedly when she was a teenager. But the more her mother told her to steer clear, the more she was drawn to him.

For a long time, Shannon’s interaction with Luke had been filled with nothing but sarcasm-laced animosity. His bad attitude colored every word he spoke, and her comebacks had been equally caustic.

Then things started to change.

They occasionally joined forces. Helped each other with tasks. Soon they’d left the sharp words behind, finding a new understanding Shannon had never anticipated. Before she knew it, Luke had found his way into every waking thought she had and edged his way into her dreams. The long hours they spent together only intensified her feelings for him, and soon she was sharing things with him she never would have told anyone else. And when he kissed her for the first time, something she thought would stay in her dreams forever finally became reality.

Then came the evening that changed everything.

Shannon sat down on her sofa, her mind tumbling backward through time. It had been a hot August day, just like this one. She’d finished up with the horses and was getting ready to leave the barn, when she realized she wasn’t wearing the diamond necklace her parents had given her. Even though she always tucked it beneath her shirt when she worked, somehow it had come loose, and she panicked. If her mother ever found out she’d worn the necklace to the shelter, much less lost it, she’d be furious.

Shannon retraced her steps. Searched everywhere she could think of. Finally the only place she hadn’t looked was the hayloft. She climbed the ladder, then stepped off it and dropped to her hands and knees. She shoved stalks of hay aside, desperate to see the glint of diamonds in the dim light. She’d just about given up when she heard a noise behind her. Spinning around, she saw Luke at the top of the ladder.

“Looking for this?”

When he held up her necklace, relief flooded through her. “Oh, thank God! You found it!”

He climbed off the ladder onto the floor of the loft. She turned around and leaned against a hay bale, and he sat down next to her.

“I found it next to the stock tank,” he said, holding it up. “It’s pretty. Where did you get it?”

“My parents. They gave it to me on my sixteenth birthday.”

“Pretty good haul for one birthday. Diamonds and all. What do you suppose it’s worth?”

Shannon shrugged. “I don’t know. A lot, knowing my mother.”

“Hmm. Finders keepers,” he said, swinging it gently back and forth, the gems sparkling in the dim light of the hayloft. “I could pawn it for a bundle.”

“No way. If I come home without that necklace, I’m in big trouble with my mother.”

She held out her hand, and he let the necklace puddle into it.

“She’d be that pissed?” Luke asked. “Even if it was just an accident that you lost it?”

“Oh, yeah. With my mother, there’s no such thing as an accident. It means I wasn’t
careful
. Or I didn’t
plan ahead
. Or I’m not
responsible
.”

Luke made a scoffing noise. “Nobody’s more responsible than you are. Tell your mother to fuck off.”

“Right. Like I could actually do that.”

“I would.”

“Sure,
you
would.” She sighed. “I wish I had the guts.”

“Just do it. Nothing’s stopping you.”

Nothing was stopping her? Was he
serious
?

Suddenly the ability to stand up to somebody like her mother seemed like the most amazing talent in the world to Shannon, one she couldn’t imagine ever having herself.

“What does it feel like?” she asked. “To not care what anybody else thinks?”

He shrugged offhandedly. “It doesn’t feel one way or the other. I just ignore all of it.”

“But
how
?”

He shrugged again, but this time he didn’t look at her. “What people think about me is pretty bad. If I cared, I wouldn’t be able to think about anything else.”

In that moment, she knew he’d lied. It did feel a certain way. It felt like hell. The kind of hell he avoided any way he could.

“I still wish I could be more like you,” Shannon said.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “You don’t want to be like me.”

“Why not?”

He looked at her with disbelief. “I know you’re not dumb, so you must just be fucking with me.”

Shannon turned away. “Sometimes it’s not so great being me, either.”