The Cowboy Meets His Match (13 page)

“I barreled into the man, knocking him off her. She scooted away and watched as the man started in on me. I put up a fight, but he got a couple of good punches to my face, bloodying me up good. When he drew back his hand to deliver the final blow—and I sometimes wonder if that blow would've been my last—it never came. My brother stood over me, like some kind of guardian. He told Mom's boyfriend if he wanted to beat someone up, try someone his own size.

“The man backed down and told us to get out. When we looked at Mom, she agreed with her boyfriend. We ran out the back door.”

Her heart broke at Sawyer's mother's betrayal. When he looked down, Erin pulled back and saw wet spots on his shirt. She hadn't realized she cried.

She cupped his face. “I'm sorry.”

He shrugged. “I told you about my mother so you could see that in the grand scheme of things your mother's actions are what I consider minor. I like Mary, but when we got to her jewelry store, something didn't feel right. Joe also knows that, for some reason, your mom is pulling you back to her.”

She wanted to argue, but everything he said made sense. What's more, Erin already knew the truth he had told her; she just hadn't wanted to admit it to herself.

“So, you're not offended that I put my nose in your business?” He gently held both her arms above the elbows.

“No.” Her mother's words rang in her ears. God had sent Sawyer to help their family. Her mother wasn't going to be pleased with his words. She rose up on her toes and tried to brush a kiss across his cheek, but he turned his head and their mouths met.

Shock raced through her. She should've pulled back, but she didn't. His arms slid around her waist. The warmth of his embrace and sweetness of his mouth soothed her heart. When he drew back, he looked down at her tenderly.

“I shouldn't have done that.”

“True.” Her eyes danced with joy.

He dropped his arms and stepped away. “Why don't we finish our business here in Vegas, then drive to Albuquerque and talk to the concrete manufacturer? I'd like to meet with him face-to-face, but I'll need to call him now and give him a heads-up.”

Glancing down at her watch, she knew they had plenty of time. “I'm up for it.”

“Then let me call him and arrange things.”

It took only moments for Sawyer to set up the meeting. When he hung up, he grinned like a schoolboy, but he was a responsible adult. “It's set. C'mon, let's finish our business here then go to Albuquerque. We have a man to meet with.”

“And while we're there, I'd like to stop by the hospital and see my dad.”

“Absolutely.”

* * *

As they drove to Albuquerque, Sawyer couldn't find his bearings from all that had transpired that morning. He knew any questions about the bids could be answered honestly by Erin. The woman had a good sense of people and honestly appraised each bid. He found he could count on her.

That truth blindsided him. She was the first woman he'd ever trusted in that deep a way. When he saw what was going on at her mother's jewelry store and told her, she had listened to him. She hadn't called him names or accused him of wanting to ruin her mother's name, but realized the legitimacy of what he said.

He had told the truth and she'd listened. That was the first time he'd encountered that with a woman so close to him. He could honestly talk to her and she could deal with it, even if it wasn't an easy revelation. More than just admiration, he felt her pain and tried to relieve it.

Of course, he'd had no business kissing her, but he hadn't expected her to put her lips in front of his. That was an accident, but he wanted to repeat the happy accident.

As he glanced at her, his heart swelled. Erin was the first woman he had told about his mother. He remembered when he'd met his future sister-in-law and she'd confided that his brother had shared stories about their tough upbringing. That was when Sawyer knew something was up with Caleb and Brenda.

Was he in that same boat?

“What are you smiling at?”

Erin's voice jerked him to the here and now. “I was thinking about my brother and his wife. You met Brenda when you attended the rodeo there in Peaster last Memorial Day. She took over putting it on.”

“I remember her. We talked a little about how she organized the rodeo. Of course, what our rodeo needed was an update.”

“She's an amazing lady. She was a captain in the army until she was injured when a bomb went off in the café she was at in Baghdad.”

“I didn't know.”

“She's more than tough enough to handle my brother. It's nice to see her boss him around.” He grinned. “You would understand and appreciate her methods of doing things.”

She turned to him, and her solemn look made him nervous. Finally her lips twitched, and a wide smile creased her mouth. “Are you calling me bossy?”

“If the shoe fits.” His light tone matched hers.

Waving away his comment, she said, “We talked about the problems we've had with our rodeo. I got some good ideas from her, but didn't implement them. The board hired you.”

“And do you regret it?” He really wanted to know.

Her mouth turned up at the corners. “Ask me when we finish the rodeo.”

“It's a date.” And as the words died in the truck cab, he knew it would be a
date
.

Chapter Ten

T
he meeting with the concrete contractor opened their eyes. Erin now stared down at the invoice for the last work the contractor had done for the rodeo. Twenty-five hundred dollars. The price listed on Mel's final expense statement, which he dropped off at the office, was for thirty-five hundred and eighty-four dollars.

“It's unbelievable,” she murmured. Mel had always been hard to get along with, but to embezzle—she never would've thought he'd do that.

“It happens,” Sawyer said, bringing her back to the here and now. They sat in Sawyer's truck in front of the concrete manufacturer.

“Mel's known to be difficult. Too big for his britches, as my mother always likes to say.” She studied him. “Have you run into this sort of thing before?”

“Yes. As long as there are people, we'll have things like this crop up.”

Erin looked at the numbers on the photocopy of the check. “Surely there's another explanation,” she whispered.

“What would you like to do now?”

“I'd like to go see my dad in the hospital since we're here,” she said, without looking at Sawyer.

He didn't respond.

“What's wrong?”

“Are you going to ask your dad about the discrepancy now? You don't want to upset him.”

She turned toward him. “I won't do anything to harm my dad,” she said forcefully, “but I wonder if he suspected something.” Her last words trailed off.

“Maybe that was the reason he brought in an outsider,” Sawyer offered. “If I tripped over the discrepancy, others would be more inclined to believe me than you. It could be chalked up to bad feelings between you and Mel. I know Traci would've gone with that explanation.”

That was it. Her heart and soul latched on to the reason for her father's actions. “You're right. No one would've believed me, but—”

“With me discovering it, others would know I didn't make it up.”

Her gaze fell to the copy of the check in her lap again, making sure she wasn't dreaming. “That's true.” She hadn't understood her dad's actions, but with this explanation things made sense. “Let's go to the hospital and see.”

Reaching over, he squeezed her hand. His unconditional support made her heart sing with joy in the middle of this mess. She felt heaven's direction in the midst of this madness—something to hold on to. No,
someone
to hold on to.

* * *

Mary Morning Star stood beside her husband's bed. When Erin and Sawyer walked into the room, she smiled at them.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” Erin asked. “You just came home.”

“Tate needed to see his father. I thought you and Sawyer had gone to Las Vegas.”

“We did, then did some rodeo business here.”

Erin walked to her father's bed. Picking up his hand, she gently cradled it. “Hello, Dad.”

“Erin,” Detrick choked out.

“It's good to see you face-to-face instead of just on the iPad. You've had us so worried.”

Detrick's eyes went from Erin to Sawyer. He saw the question in the older man's gaze as it traveled from Erin to Sawyer.

“I wanted...” Detrick started.

“Dad, don't worry about anything.” Erin stroked his forehead, brushing away a tear. “I believe in you, and I know you had your reasons for your vote. I trust you.”

Sawyer felt awkward watching the tender scene play out between father and daughter. Mary stepped to his side. “When Erin told me that my husband voted for you, I knew he hadn't betrayed her. Never in the years we've been married has he deceived his family.” She looked up into Sawyer's face.

“I think you're right. Your husband had a reason to bring me in.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Something has happened.”

“We may have stumbled on to some information that could be explosive.”

“I knew it.”

Erin caught Sawyer's hand and pulled him forward. “Dad, this is Sawyer. I don't know if you've met him in person before.”

The older man shook his head. “Read his plan.” The uttering of the words exhausted him.

“Erin's been very helpful. A little bossy, but a valuable asset.” Sawyer didn't want to upset the old man with the truth they'd uncovered, but Sawyer suspected he already knew.

“True,” Detrick whispered.

Mary took her husband's other hand and gently smoothed his hair back from his face.

“You let Sawyer and Erin take care of the rodeo. What you need to do is get well.”

“That's true.” Erin ran the back of her fingers over her dad's cheek. “Sawyer's come out to the ranch and ridden your mount. He and Tate have gone riding a couple of times. Tate's not drowning in a sea of estrogen with Sawyer there.”

Erin looked around. “Where are Tate and Betty?”

“They are with Kai, eating. We'll drive back after they finish their meal.”

A smile spread across Detrick's face as he traded looks with Sawyer. He read a thank-you in the older man's eyes.

The door opened.

“Good evening, Mr. Delong,” the nurse called out. “I've got your evening pills here.”

Sawyer's blood turned cold. He never thought he'd hear that voice again.

Mary turned and greeted the nurse. “Good evening, Sylvia.”

“I see you didn't follow my advice and stay at home this weekend,” Sylvia replied.

“Tate needed to see his father, but I promise to go home tonight.”

“You will not help him if you wear yourself out. He's going to need all the support he can get once home.”

Mary accepted the gentle chiding.

Slowly, Sawyer turned and came face-to-face with his mother. When she saw him, she momentarily froze.

The rest of the world faded away, and his past came roaring back, nearly flattening him. He locked his knees to stay standing.

His mother recovered quickly and turned to Mary. “The doctor's here now and wants to talk to you. I'll get him.”

“Do you think we can take Detrick home soon?”

“You'll need to talk that over with the doctor. I'll let him know you're here.”

Sawyer didn't say anything as he stepped back to get out of everyone's way. The name tag on his mother's uniform said Carter. Where she'd gotten that name, he didn't know. The last he knew, her boyfriend's surname was Braddock. How many men had she gone through since him?

Sylvia glanced at him. “Who do you have with you, Mary?” Her voice cracked.

“This is Sawyer Jensen. He's working with our county rodeo board to revitalize our rodeo.”

“He's a turnaround consultant,” Erin added. She turned to him and smiled. But all Sawyer could see was his mother's face, and a flood of different, hard memories flowed in.

“It's nice to meet you, Sawyer.” She gave him a tentative smile and nodded her head. Deep in her eyes he saw doubt and uncertainty.

He didn't trust himself to open his mouth. He simply nodded.

Both Mary and Erin glanced at him.

“Excuse me,” he said, not trusting his reactions, and walked out of the room.

He didn't stop at the end of the hall. He walked to the exit and descended the stairs to the main floor. Emerging from the stairwell, he saw the door to the ground-level garden for the patients and families and pushed it open.

In one corner, he found a bench shaded by the building and sat, trying to regain his footing. He never thought he'd see his mother alive again. He'd often wondered what had happened to her. She hadn't bothered to contact her sons once she'd hit them up for money right after Caleb had been declared an emancipated minor. They'd moved away and settled in the small city of Plainview, south of Lubbock. Sawyer doubted his mother had ever tried to discover what had happened to her sons.

They had grown into manhood despite their mother's actions, and both his brother and he imagined she was probably dead.

As he thought about it, his mother looked like a woman in charge of her faculties. She certainly had to be in order to be a nurse in the hospital.

He frowned. A nurse? When had that happened? Before his dad died, his mother had always taken care of her boys when they were sick, and she had a talent for making them feel better. She looked as if she had a peace about her, which brought him to the million-dollar question—what had happened in his mother's life?

* * *

“Thank you, Doctor,” Mary replied to the doctor's final assessment.

“I'll look for a rehab center closer to home,” Mary told him. “I think going home for his rehabilitation would help my husband.”

“If you need anything else, be sure to have the nurses contact me.” The doctor left the room.

Mary turned to her husband and smiled down into his face. “It's good news, husband. It will take work on your part to get you back to your old self, but I don't doubt you can do it.” Mary cupped his cheek. “My heart nearly stopped, and your children have not known what to do, so you need to work hard to get better. And Tate needs you more than ever.”

Detrick nodded.

“I'll look around, Mother, for a place closer to home,” Erin said.

“All that is important is that your father gets well. Oh, I have one more question for the doctor.” Mary hurried out into the hall.

Erin stepped to her father's side and grasped his hand. His eyes held a question.

“What is it?”

He glanced toward where Sawyer had stood.

“Are you wanting to talk about Sawyer?”

He nodded. Talking took effort, and he tired easily.

“I will say I didn't understand why you voted for someone else, but as the days go by, I see that vote in a different light.” She squeezed her father's hand. “Sawyer and I have found some discrepancies in the last budget done for the rodeo update.”

He squeezed her hand again.

“As we've talked about it, I realized if Sawyer found the discrepancy, others would believe him quicker than me.”

Detrick's body relaxed.

“Is that it?”

He blinked and tried to speak, but the sounds coming out of his mouth weren't intelligible.

“It shook my faith, but I knew you had a reason.”

A tear ran from the corner of her dad's right eye. She wiped it away.

There were other things she wanted to talk to her father about—how Sawyer had reached out to Tate and how she'd found herself enjoying her skirmishes with him—but now wasn't the time.

The door opened again, and Erin turned, expecting Sawyer. It was her mom.

“I'm going to find Sawyer and go home. Don't stay too late, Mom. We might tire out Dad.”

“Ah, now it happens, the child is trying to become the parent,” Mary replied.

“No, it's a daughter who is worried about her mother's safety.” Leaning over, Erin kissed her mom's cheek and thought about asking her mother why she kept ignoring her accounts at the store, but now wasn't the time to confront her. Tomorrow they'd talk.

Walking out of the room, Erin looked for Sawyer. He wouldn't have left, but she did not see him. At the nurse's desk, she asked Sylvia, “Have you seen Sawyer?”

Sylvia's hand jerked on the computer keyboard. When she glanced up, she took a deep breath. “No, I haven't seen him on the floor. Would he have left?”

Erin rubbed her neck. “Not without me. We drove together from home.”

Erin started to the elevator doors.

“Have you known him long?” Sylvia asked.

Erin turned. “No. He won the bid over me to take our failing rodeo and turn it around. I wasn't happy to have lost, but I will say he's much different than I expected.”

“How so?”

Erin shrugged. “Well, first of all, the man's a cowboy who has won a championship belt buckle, so he knows his stuff. We don't have some egghead who thinks he knows what a cowboy and his horse need. Sawyer's lived it. But what's amazed me is that he's listened to my input to his plan.” A laugh escaped her. “I might have lost the bid, but I wasn't going to walk away from our rodeo and let this stranger have free rein over it.” She smiled.

“And he's been helpful with my seventeen-year-old brother.” Suddenly Erin couldn't stop the words rushing out of her mouth. Here was the nurse who'd been with them from the beginning, who could give an unbiased opinion or at least a reasonably unbiased one. “Tate wouldn't talk to any of us women about Dad's stroke, but somehow Sawyer understood his turmoil.

“And for that I'm grateful.” Erin shook her head. “With all the upheaval and craziness going on around the ranch, Sawyer recognized a lost teenage boy and reached out to him. When the sheriff called me about my brother ditching school, my first reaction was to rain all over him, but Sawyer talked me out of it. He's surprised me with his keen perception of the situation. Most men wouldn't follow through like he did, but he's gone riding with Tate and they've talked a couple of times.”

“That's amazing for a stranger to do.” Sylvia picked up a pen. “Sometimes what we think is the end is a turn in the road we didn't expect.”

Erin had the strangest feeling that Sylvia wasn't talking about her situation now. The words came from experience.

A buzzer from one of the patient's rooms took Sylvia in a different direction. Erin walked to the elevator doors. Before she could push the button, the doors slid open and Sawyer emerged. He looked around. “Are you ready to leave?”

“Yes. When I didn't see you out here, Sylvia, the nurse, asked if you'd left without me. I told her no, that you'd driven me.”

“I'm sorry. I went downstairs for a moment.”

She waited for more of an explanation but didn't get it.

“Are you ready to leave?” The tone of his voice was flat.

The more he spoke, the more suspicious she became. “Yes.”

With the exception of a Western music station out of Albuquerque playing on the radio, the ride home passed in silence.