Southern Comfort (4 page)

"Yes sir."

Just as Billy was walking away, Riley's phone pinged in his shirt pocket. He pulled it out and read the message.

Well, it took me a longer than I thought it would but I made it to New Orleans and guess what I just did? I bought a voodoo doll!  It's really ugly but New Orleans is amazing. Have you ever been here?  It's my first time. I'm on Bourbon Street and I'm stopping at every bar. Not drinking at every one just stopping for a look.

The message was followed by a shot of Bourbon Street. Riley smiled and typed in a response.
Yeah, been there a time or two. Quite a place. Good thing you're not having a drink at every bar or you'd never make it to the end of the street. Have fun. Getting ready to play some at Billy's.

There was only a few seconds' delay before her response came in.
Sure would like to hear you play one day, Riley.

You should come to the annual Cotton Creek barbecue cook-off in October. Third weekend, starts on Friday and goes through Sunday.

Riley responded and hit the send key, then looked at it in horror. Why the heck had he done that? 

This time the response was not instant. In fact, it took so long Riley started to think that not only was Cody wrong, she was miles off base about Analise having a crush on him. Had he just scared her?

When his phone pinged, he was both relieved and anxious.

I just might. I'm going to a writer's conference the second weekend of September in San Antonio then visiting a friend in the area. Will let you know.

Riley stared at the phone for a moment, trying to decide if he was happy or wished he'd never asked. It wasn't that he didn't want to meet her. They were pretty good friends, and truth be told, he looked forward to their messaging conversations more than he'd admit.

But he wasn't sure he was ready for a face-to-face. First of all, what if she recognized him?  Would that change things?  And second, what if – God forgive him – but what if she was just downright butt ugly?

That thought shamed him on a couple of levels. It shouldn't matter what she looked like, and besides, who said she was gonna show up looking for anything other than what they had. A friendship.

Damn if he wasn't letting Cody mess up his head with her talk.

"Someone piss in your beer?" Cody slapped two plates on the bar.

"Nope." He cut his eyes at her.

She shrugged and picked up one of the thick barbecue sandwiches from her plate to take a giant bite.

Riley shook his head and grinned. Cody might be pint-sized but her appetite was bigger than most men he knew. He'd never known anyone who could put away as much food as she did and remain a petite little thing with enough energy for five people. Maybe that's why it took so much to fill her up. She was a full eight-cylinder machine, running wide open all the time.

He took his time and finished one sandwich, the potato salad and part of the coleslaw. She'd polished off her entire plate of food before he reached for his near-empty beer mug.

"Refill?"

"No, thanks. Think I better mosey on over to the boys. They look a bit itchy to get started. Thanks for the dinner. I'll make it up to you on Sunday."

"Steak. Big one." She held her hands out wide enough to encompass a beach ball. "Just shy of mooing."

"You got it half-pint."

He picked up his guitar and headed over to the stage. Billy and Otis were on old worn stools, softly picking on their instruments – Billy on the banjo and Otis on the bass guitar. Fred was putting a new string on his old guitar and Jimmy was sitting behind his drums, tapping his sticks together.

"You boys ready to play?"

They looked up and him and Billy grinned. "Born ready. Let's do it."

Riley grinned and walked up to the mic, tapped on it and upon hearing the loud tap through the speakers, leaned in to talk.

"Hey, folks. Mind if we play you a tune or two?"

Cheers and yells had him chuckling. "Any requests?"

The cacophony that ensued prompted a chuckle and Billy sidled up beside him at the microphone. "How's about an oldie but a goodie?  Ring of Fire?"

"The Man in Black it is." Riley struck the first chord and the others picked up. He was glad Cody had goaded him to come in tonight. Playing with the band always lifted his spirits and the energy from the crowd never failed to fill him with gratitude. He sometimes forgot to appreciate what it meant to be able to just be Riley and not have anyone expecting larger than life actions from him.

Here it was okay if he missed a chord, or hit a sour note. These people were family and they wanted nothing more than to have some music, tap their toes, dance or sing along.

An hour later Riley held up his hand to the clapping crowd. "We're a bit parched so we're gonna take a break and be back in a few."

He made his way through the crowd to the bar. Cody grinned as she pulled a draft and then slid it down the bar to him. Riley caught it and gave her a grin and a nod before lifting it to his lips.

"Riley Morgan, there you are!"

Riley turned at the sound of the voice to find Stella Sweet standing behind him. With her was the skinniest woman he'd ever seen in his entire life. It was like the phrase "sack of bones” coming to life. Riley's first thought was that the woman was terminally ill, because there was no way a person would choose to be that skinny. His second was that he hoped Stella wasn't trying to fix him up. Again. Please got let it be anything but that.

"Stella, hey. How are you?"

"Any finer and I'd need a manager. Riley, I don't know if you remember Agnes June Jones?  Oh, Howard now. Clara Jean Tilton's sister?  They were a couple of years behind us in school. Anyway, she's visiting Clara Jean for a few weeks and is thinking of moving back to Cotton Creek."

"Well that's real nice. Nice to see you Ms. Howard."

"Nice to see you, Riley." Agnes June gave him a big toothy smile and actually batted her eyes at him. "I just couldn't believe it when I first saw you on the big screen. To think that little Riley Morgan had grown up and become so handsome. And a star. I was just flabbergasted."

"I was a bit as well, Ms. Agnes." No way he was using the woman's first name. He would
not
be accused of flirting with her. But he did have to make himself not stare.  Whoever did her eyebrows must've been hitting the bottle.  One was nicely curved but the other was full on Vulcan. He turned his attention to Stella..

Stella beamed at him. "I was telling Billy that we should all have dinner. Let you and Agnes June get reacquainted. I was thinking Sunday would be good. If you're free."

"Oh I'm sorry, Stella. Cody's coming over Sunday to work with that new fella I hired, Bobby. She's teaching him to rope and I promised to cook her a steak."

"Well, I'm sure Cody wouldn't mind if you—"

"Oh hell yeah Cody would."

Riley had never loved Cody more than at that moment. He cut a look to his savior who was leaning on the bar  behind him. "I'm not gonna cancel on you half-pint."

"Better not or there'll be hell to pay, Riley Morgan."

Riley had to fight back the smile that wanted to claim his face. "I'm sorry, Stella. You know I can't disappoint your girl."

Stella cut her eyes at Cody in a manner that told Riley that later, Stella would give her hell. Riley would gladly make recompense for whatever hell Cody caught. As nice as she might be, Agnes June was downright scary. Big over-white teeth were framed with fire-engine red lips that looked like they'd been cosmetically plumped one too many times, and set in a face that had been pulled so tight, it was a like skin stretched over bone.

"Well, there will be plenty of time once Agnes June gets settled back home."

"Oh I see Billy waving at me. Got one more set to play." Riley took a quick drink of his beer. "You ladies have a fine night."

As he hurried away, he suppressed the urge to shudder. Sadly, he'd reached the age in life where the choice of companions was slim. At least in these parts. Most women over thirty were married and those who weren't were single for a reason. Either way, it didn't leave him a lot of dateable choices.

Not that he was looking for a date. He'd had his share of those. His phone chimed and he pulled it out of his pocket. "Well I'll be damned." He stopped to type in a response, put the phone back into his pocket and grinned.

Life was just chock full of surprises.

Chapter Four

Analise stood on the sidewalk, watching the people. New Orleans was amazing. She couldn't wait to explore it more tomorrow. She'd arrived late in the afternoon and by the time she had the RV set up at the campground and gotten directions to the city, she had just enough time to arrive before dusk. New Orleans might be a city that didn't sleep, but she was tired. She'd driven all day and had not slept well last night.

She was glad she'd decided to purchase the scooter she'd bought in Tennessee. It was a cute little thing, red and shiny and as long as she didn't have to ride it far, it was great. She wouldn't want to put it on a highway, but for driving short jaunts to and from whatever campground she was in, it was perfect.

A crowd of people, obviously with a few drinks under their belts, approached and she backed up to the side of the building to let them pass. One of the women in the group stopped. "Oh, it that a voodoo doll?"

"Yes." Analise handed the woman the doll. "I got it at that shop—" she pointed down the street in the direction the group was headed.

"Cool." The woman returned it to her. "Hey, want me to take your picture with it?"

Analise smiled. "Yes, thanks." 

She'd taken a ton of pictures, but taking selfies wasn't exactly her thing. She handed the woman her phone and then held the doll up beside her face, like a game show hostess displaying a prize.

"Got it!" The woman grinned and returned Analise's phone. "Have fun."

"You too." Analise accessed the photos and looked at the image. It wasn't horrible. The woman had taken a shot from the waist up and you could see the window of the bar behind Analise.

On impulse she accessed her messenger app and keyed in a message.
Voodoo Annie and her doll.
She attached the photo and hit send.

A second later she felt a minor stab of panic. She and Riley had never exchanged photos. He'd never seemed interested in what she looked like. He'd once asked why she didn't have a photo of herself on her author page on Facebook and she had explained that her husband was not a big fan of her writing. He didn't want any of his business associates running across an image of her on the Ana Lise Author Page.

He had never asked anything more about it and had displayed no interest at all in her appearance. What if he thought she was being…being what?  He'd just invited her to a festival, hadn't he?  That meant that at the very least they were friends. And if she went to the festival she'd meet him so it wasn't a big deal to send the photo.

Was it?

Then again, she
had
just sent a picture to a man she'd met over the internet. She thought she knew him but what if she didn't?  What if he wasn't at all what he seemed?  Her excitement over being in New Orleans paled as she gnawed that mental bone. Now she didn't feel much like exploring. And the idea of finding a place to eat had lost all appeal.

She felt a little sick to her stomach. She'd just sent a picture of herself to Riley. Why did that make her so nervous?  Was it that she didn't trust him to be who she thought he was, or was she vain enough to be concerned that he wouldn't think her pretty?

Her phone chimed and she pulled it out to look at it.
Voodoo Annie. You must be the one with the straw hair. Who's that pretty lady with you?

Pretty lady?  Pretty?  Why did that infuse her with a blast of energy and excitement, quicken not just her step but her pulse?  Did it really matter what Riley thought of her looks?  And maybe he was just being nice. He
was
a polite man.

God, it'd been way too long since she'd dealt with men. At least as a single woman. The last time she was with a man other than her husband she'd been … that thought stopped her dead in her tracks. Dear god, that was more than twenty-five years ago. It'd been so long since she'd gotten attention from the opposite sex that she had completely forgotten how to deal with it.

And there she went again.
Was
he giving her attention or simply responding in a nice manner to something she'd sent? Maybe he thought she was fishing for a compliment. After all, she did send him a photo of herself. Damn it all. Maybe she was just over-thinking the whole thing

With a groan, she shoved the phone into her pocket and walked the rest of the way to her scooter, trying to figure out if she should respond and if she did, what she should say. She had not figured it out by the time she got back to the campground, rolled the scooter onto the carrier attached to the rear of the RV and locked it up for the night.

She let herself in, put her purchases on the bed and then opened the refrigerator. After pulling out makings for a salad she popped some leftover pasta into the microwave and pulled out her phone.

Katie, answered on the second ring. "So, how is ‘Nawlins?"

"Amazing. I bought a voodoo doll."

"Ugh, what do you want with one of those ugly old things?"

"I have no idea. It was an impulse purchase."

"Okay, whatever. You staying in the city?"

"No, I'm back at the RV. I – I think I may have screwed up, Katie."

"What do you mean?"

Analise told her about the text, about Riley inviting her to the festival and about sending him the photo.

"So?" Katie asked when Analise finished.

"So? What do you mean so?"

"I mean what's the issue?  You’ve been online buddies for over a year now, Analise. He knows you're traveling and he invited you to a festival. Not to his house or his bed, but to something where there will be millions of people there and—

"Millions?  In a place called Cotton Creek?"

"Okay, you're right. Not millions, but at least hundreds and the point is, if you say yes and show up, he's gonna see you so what's the big deal."

"He called me pretty."

"Well you are, dummy."

Analise sighed, forgot about dinner and flopped down on the small sofa. "Well, I don't feel like it."

"Ah honey, you're just letting the rat bastard back in your head."

"No, no, I'm not. Rick never called me ugly or anything. He just … he just ignored me for the most part. At least after the first few years. The last few … well I don't know if he even realized I was around unless he needed something."

"And that's part of the reason you’re better off without him. But back to you. You're really pretty Analise. You have a nice figure, not all wrinkly and scrawny and your hair still looks good so all in all you've got nothing to worry about  Besides, what does he look like?"

"I don't have a clue."

"Exactly. He could look like a barrel with the middle hoop busted out."

Analise laughed. Katie had a country way of phrasing things. "Yeah, you're right. So, how should I respond?"

"I don't know. Just don't obsess about it, okay?"

"I'll try not to."

"Okay, so how long are you going to be in New Orleans?"

"A week maybe?  I want to see as much as I can while I'm here."

"And then?"

"Then Galveston, Corpus Christie and San Antonio. I decided to go to that conference and registered this morning. Think I could crash with you a couple of days after that?"

"You know you can. And I'm so glad you decided to go to the conference. It'll be fun. You want to drive here and leave your RV and ride with me?"

"That'd be great."

"So…you going to take him up on his invitation?"

Analise leaned back and closed her eyes. "I don't know. I'll sleep on it."

"Okay. Oops, there went the bell on the stove. Gotta scoot. Call me in the morning. Love you!”

"I will and love you too."

Analise put the phone down on the couch beside her. Katie was right. She and Riley were friends and their friendship wasn't based on looks. Heck, if she really thought about it, it was founded on her asking him a million questions.

Thus far there hadn't been a lot of quid pro quo in the friendship. Unless you count the recipes she'd given him for simple meals. Apparently he wasn't much of a cook.

Still, she was reading way too much into all of this. Pushing herself up, she got focused on finishing her meal and sat down at the small table to eat. She opened a video on her Kindle and watched it as she ate. The messenger app popped open with a personal message.

It was a private message on her author fan page on Facebook. A little spark of nervousness hit her until she realized it wasn’t Riley. She didn’t get a lot of personal messages through her author page, so curiosity had her opening it. As he read her eyes widened.

Hi. You don't know me but I live in Cotton Creek and am a friend of Riley Morgan's. I know you are too and I thought you might enjoy this. Sorry the video is so bad. The bar was really crowded so you probably can't see him, but that's him singing. He's not bad.

Oh, I read your new book. It was good. Colt sounded a lot like Riley.

Have a good night.

Cody Sweet

Analise clicked on the link and her browser opened on a YouTube video. She could see a crowd of people in what looked like an old bar. At the far side of the room there were men on a wooden stage. Two of them were seated, each holding instruments. A third man was at the drums and at the front of the stage two men stood at the microphone, one heavyset and the other tall and lanky.

She couldn't make out their features, and people kept moving in front of the camera, but she could hear the music despite the crowd. She listened and then listened again. Which one was Riley?  Was he the stocky guy or the lanky one?

Whoever he was, he was part of music that brought a smile to her face. When she finally turned it off, she sat at the table, staring at the phone. Who was Cody Sweet and why would she send this?  Male or female?  Probably female because of the reference to the book. Not many men read romances.

On impulse she clicked on Cody’s profile name. When the page loaded she sat back in her chair. Cody was definitely a female. A beautiful one. Analise cruised through the page but there were no other photos on it aside from horses and a couple of shots that look like they’d been taken in the bar.

Just what kind of friend was this Cody?

Analise accessed the message app again to respond.

Hi Cody,

First, thank you for taking the time to read my book. I hope you enjoyed it.

I was surprised to get your message. Yes, Riley and I are friends. Well, Facebook friends. We've never actually met. He's been a great help to me when I have questions about ranching, horses and that sort of thing

The music was great and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it with me and for your message.

Best,

Ana Lise

She hesitated for a moment. Should she use her real name. Ana Lise was what she published under, but Riley knew her real name. She changed it to Analise and then hit send. Rather than just sitting there, waiting to see if there would be another message, she cleaned up and then showered and got ready for bed. She checked the phone and didn't see a message so put the phone on the charger, double checked to make sure the doors were locked and climbed into bed.

The problem was, she wasn't sleepy. Her mind kept jumping from her texts with Riley to the message from his friend Cody to the music she heard. Which man in the video was Riley?  Was he tall or stocky?  

Her hands moved up in the dark to cover her face. His friend Cody had recognized Riley in Analise's fictional character Colt?  Had she been that obvious, and did Cody realize that Analise had fashioned a man with the physical appearance she found appealing and then assigned him all of the qualities she liked in Riley?

That thought tortured her for a good hour until she threw off her bedcovers, got up to get her Kindle and then went back to bed. She searched through her library and selected an old Western. It was one of her favorites and she’d watched it more times than she could count.

When the hero of the film came on screen she smiled. Nate Bridges. God, she'd had such a crush on that man. Tall and lean, he had warm brown hair that tended to curl just a bit at the ends when he wore it long. His eyes were hazel but could appear blue if he had on a blue shirt and his smile could light up not just a room but a continent.

Analise snuggled into a more comfortable position and let herself get lost in the movie. Before long her eyes started to get heavy and she drifted off into a dream where she was the damsel being rescued by the rough and rowdy desperado with a heart of gold.