One Lucky Cowboy (12 page)

   The nightmare surfaced again that night. In it, John held her head under the water and she couldn't breathe. She awoke to the sound of the alarm, her chest aching and gasping for air. She stumbled out of bed and was still clutching her chest when she opened her bedroom door.

   Slade came out of the bathroom, took one look at her, and reached out to catch her when she dropped into a pile of loose bones.

   He picked her up and carried her back to her bed and gently laid her down. Her eyes fluttered open and she grabbed her chest again.

   "What in the hell? Jane, what is the matter? Are you having a heart attack?"

   "Nightmare. Can't get enough air in my chest," she gasped.

   "I'll get Granny," he said.

   "No!" She grabbed his hand and sucked in a lung full of fresh air. "I'll be fine."

   "You're as white as snow."

   "It was a scary nightmare. It's gone now. It's all right. I can breathe."

   "What happened to you?" he asked.

   "Go on and get dressed. I'll have breakfast ready in thirty minutes."

   "You'll lay right here. I can make myself a bowl of cereal. You ladies can eat when you get up."

   She shook her head. "It's my job and I need to get my mind off the dream. I'm fine now. Thanks for catching me."

   He nodded curtly and left her alone. He'd heard that pregnant women fainted. Was Jane expecting a baby and that's why she was hiding out? Did it have something to do with a sorry husband or boyfriend abusing her? A million thoughts chased through his mind as he dressed. One minute he was ready to put on his armor, mount his white horse, and go take care of the sorry culprit who'd hurt her. The next he was furious with himself for caring a whit about the woman. She'd be gone in a few more weeks, and he doubted he'd ever know what happened to her after that. She'd been damned secretive about her problems and what she was running from ever since she got to their place. Maybe that's what she did. Simply went from one job to another. Saved her money and bought bus tickets until the money ran out and then used her little girl innocent look to get someone to take her home.

   The smell of bacon and coffee wafted down the hallway as he made his way to the kitchen. She couldn't be pregnant or she'd be upchucking at those mixed aromas. And when they'd gone to dinner, she'd ordered beer without hesitation. She'd drunk five or six in the course of the previous evening. He would give her credit for having enough sense and loving children enough not to drink if she was expecting a baby. He didn't know he'd been holding his breath until it expelled with a whoosh into the kitchen.

   "What brought that on?" She looked up from the stove. She wore one of her three pairs of jeans and a T-shirt that had been pink once but had faded to almost white.

   He thought she was beautiful, barefoot and with her hair in a ponytail.

   "I didn't want to crawl out of bed this morning. Then I had to catch this broad who faked a faint just to see if I'd be nice," he said.

   "I wasn't faking," she protested.

   "Looked like it to me. You sure recovered fast."

   "I told you it was a dream, damn it."

   "Your momma know you cuss?"

   "My momma could put a sailor to shame when she got mad. I'm told my grandmother could out cuss and out drink any man who worked on her…" she stopped dead.

   "On what, Jane?" He helped himself to a piece of bacon.

   "Nothing. Fried or scrambled this morning?"

   "Scrambled with cheese. What did your grandmother do? She worked outside the home at what?"

   "My grandmother was a lady. She would wash my mouth out if she caught me using dirty words. She did a few times. I think her words were for me to do as she said and not as she did. And that's all you are getting, Slade. So sit down and I'll bring your plate to the table."

   Ellen appeared with one eye still closed. "Just toast for me this morning and lots of black coffee. God, I'm glad we aren't making fried chicken today. Jane, put something in the oven and open some peaches. Like Danny Glover said in
Lethal Weapon
, 'I'm too old for this shit.'"

   "You admitting something like that? Can I tell Nellie?"

   Ellen came to life enough that both eyes opened. "You do and I'll cut your tongue out with a rusty pocket knife, one that Slade used to castrate hogs."

   "You are a vicious woman," Slade said.

   Ellen nodded. "Little girls are all born vicious, darlin'. We just don't let the boys know it. It would hurt their little egos. Eat your breakfast and get on out of here. I'll be human by dinnertime."

   Slade dug into his breakfast without a word.

   Ellen sipped her coffee. "So what did Kristy do? Did she finally leave with that loser?"

   "Isn't a loser, according to Kristy. She said he owns a dry cleaning business in McKinney and she was going to make him very happy. I think she was just trying to make Slade jealous, but he's too stupid to know it. She probably went right home and cried her little eyes out. With good reason. He's asking the big blonde bimbo out on Friday night. They're doing dinner and a movie. Maybe she'll make him very happy," Jane said as she buttered Ellen's toast.

   "You don't keep secrets worth a damn," Slade said.

   "Oh, was it a secret? You didn't tell me not to tell Ellen and Nellie. If it's a secret, next time let me know ahead of time, and I'll tell you a secret. Guess what it is? I don't keep secrets worth a damn."

   Jane didn't know why she was baiting him. He'd played nice. Picked her up when she'd fallen in a heap at his feet. Told her she could stay in bed and not prepare his breakfast. Maybe it was because she didn't like the feelings he evoked when he touched her.

   He finished his eggs and carried his plate to the sink. "You are one of them vicious little girls."

   "Oh, did I hurt your little ego? I'm sorry. Maybe Elaine will puff it all back up for you on Friday night. I could have a nice little chat with her. Where's her phone number?"

   "You stay away from her. You are horrible. I'm not going to be your friend after all."

   "Well, praise the Lord! I thought for a minute He didn't even listen to my prayers last night."

   "What is all this bickering about? It's too early to be fighting," Nellie said as she entered the room.

   "She's vicious. I'm going to work."

   "He's mean."

   Nellie smiled. "I remember when me and Lester first met. We fought like two cats with their tails tied together and thrown over a clothesline. I thought he had a big head because he had this ranch and he thought I was a city girl who didn't know chocolate cake from cow shit."

   "What happened?" Jane poured a cup of coffee and joined Nellie and Ellen at the table.

   "They killed each other. Of course they called it marriage. That just meant it was a long, slow, painful death," Slade said. He almost made it out the door before Ellen's coffee cup hit him in the back.

   "You are all mean women. You can't go to any more parties," he yelled back as he slammed the door, leaving behind a broken cup.

   "What happened is that we fought for six months. Reason we did it was that we knew right off we were attracted to each other and neither of us wanted to give in and admit it. I wasn't going to be tied down to cows and a stupid ranch. He wanted a girl who'd been raised on a ranch who'd be his equal. Guess what? Neither one of us got what we wanted."

   "Tell me more," Jane said.

   "The passion of the fight carried us through forty good years of marriage. We loved just as passionately as we fought. And heaven help the person who thought they could divide us."

   "Ain't that the truth? Remember Aunt Minnie?" Ellen said.

   "What happened?" Jane was all ears.

   "She tried to get between them when they were fighting. She said Nellie didn't have to put up with him and could come live with her. She didn't have to live on a stinking farm with a jackass for a husband. Nellie set her straight with about ten words. Something about not getting in her business or her marriage."

   "So, you and Slade fighting because you hate each other, or because you're afraid of what you do feel?"

   "He says I'm like his sister or a friend. He asked my advice about taking Elaine out on Friday. I'd say he's not afraid of anything about me," Jane said.

   Both Ellen and Nellie laughed so hard they had to cross their legs to keep from wetting their pants.

   Jane couldn't figure out what was so damned funny. The ladies needed to go back to bed and sleep off the effects of the alcohol from the night before.

SLADE DRESSED IN BLACK WRANGLERS, POLISHED COWBOY boots, and a blue plaid, western cut shirt that had been tailored to fit his wide shoulders and narrow waist. He'd found time to get a haircut that week so the curls over the tops of his ears and on his neck were gone. The aroma of shaving lotion permeated the house for an hour after he left.

   Slade whistled in appreciation when Elaine opened the door. She wore a black and white floral sundress with just a hint of cleavage. Freshly painted red toenails peeked from white sandals. Blonde hair begging for a man to tangle his fingers in the softness flowed to her shoulders.

   She smiled and picked up her purse from a table right inside the door. "I'll take that as a compliment. I'd invite you in for a drink, but I wouldn't be responsible for my actions if I drank on an empty stomach. I might not be any more responsible later on when I do intend to invite you in. If I could whistle I would, but I can't, so I'll just tell you outright. You are one damn handsome piece of eye candy."

   "Thank you, ma'am."

   He opened the door for her and settled her into the seat, making sure the hem of her dress was safely inside. A vision of Jane sitting in that same place just last week deflated his puffed up ego pretty quickly. She'd never told him he was a handsome piece of eye candy. She'd fought with him on every issue and wouldn't tell him a thing about herself.

   He opened the driver's side pickup door and said, "So tell me all about yourself, Elaine. Why isn't a beauty like you already married with a couple of kids?"

   "Been there. Done that. Didn't like it. I graduated high school from Whitesboro ten years ago. Stop figuring my age in your head; it's not polite to ask a woman her age or to figure it up from something she says," she smiled, showing perfect teeth. It must have cost someone their calf crop to pay for the braces.

   "Yes, ma'am," he smiled.

   She was funny. Jane wasn't funny; she was biting. All the time sparring back and forth with barbs meant to sting, not make him laugh.

   "Anyway, I went on to college over at Midwestern in Wichita Falls. Met a fellow there in acting class. God, he was good-looking. Not as handsome as you, darlin', but movie star pretty. You're rugged, like Clint Eastwood in his younger days or Robert Redford back when he was thirty. Jeff was downright pretty and determined to be the next big Hollywood star. Name in the tabloids—the whole enchilada. I got pregnant. We got married. He said it ended his career and he never forgave me for it. He became a high school speech teacher and we moved to Alvord, Texas."

   Jane hedged around every question and Elaine was telling him her life story, when all he had wanted to know when he asked the question was what kind of movies and food she liked. He shook his head to remove the picture of Jane in that sundress the night they'd been forced to go to dinner.

   "We had a son and then another one the year after Jeff started teaching. Last year they were three and five. There I was, living on his teacher's salary and my job as a bank teller, unhappy as hell, making ends meet most months, but not having a damn thing I was used to. I was about to suffocate to death. So I told Jeff we needed some time apart. I liked it so well I filed for divorce. It was final three months ago."

   He parked the car in front of Applebee's in Gainesville. "So does your ex have the boys this weekend? I didn't hear anyone in the background at your house."

   "My grandmother left me that house when she died last year. I've always loved it and I wanted Jeff to move to Ardmore with me. He refused. But to answer your question, yes, he has the kids this weekend. Next weekend is mine. I get them second and fourth weekends through the school year and two weeks in the summer. I could have had them four weeks, but two is enough."

   "You mean you don't have custody?" Slade asked.

   "No, darlin', Jeff is much better with them than I am. Besides, just think of all that child care I'd have to pay out. I love my boys, but I don't want to live with them twenty-four seven. You know what I felt when I walked away from them and Jeff? Pure relief. I don't think we would have ever married if I hadn't gotten pregnant."

   Slade was stunned into silence.

   "Let's see, that's the dark side of my life. This past year I went on back to college and finished my degree. I work as an accountant at an oil company in Ardmore. I'm happy and I don't intend ever to marry again. So the pressure is off you, darlin'."

   Slade didn't feel any kind of relief. He parked the truck at the steak house and went around to open the door for Elaine like a gentleman. He'd make it through the night, but it was damn sure going to be a long one. If Jane knew all about Elaine and had pulled a trick on him, he swore he'd get even.

   Elaine took his arm as they headed toward the restau rant door. "Now let's talk about you and that woman you had at the barn dance the other night. Did I tell you how I got there? My older brother owns a ranch near Healdton and is cow-buying buddies with Beau. I went with him and his wife. It was either that or they were going to ask me to babysit their four kids. I'm not fond of dirt and barns, but it was better than changing diapers and reading
Sleeping Beauty
for a bedtime story."