Billion Dollar Cowboy (25 page)

Yes, there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth, but she was not settling for need. It made a fine secondary character in the book of love, but only love could have the title of hero.

She was on her way to the bathroom when the ringtone on her cell phone said that Janet was calling. She raced to the jeans she’d tossed beside the bed and answered after the fourth ring.

“Did I interrupt something really nice?” Janet asked.

“Hell, no! He’s gone to an Angus meeting. What are you doing up at this hour?”

“I had to call and tell you all about my date. I would’ve called that night but I’ve been hugging myself and singing ever since. I don’t know if you are aware but in the GA program, I promised not to get involved with anyone for a year and so did James. We’re going to be adults and go real slow and honor that promise that we both made but I just know that he is the one,” Janet singsonged.

“I’m proud of you for sticking to the rules, but how can you be so sure?”

“It’s in my heart just like it’s in yours about Colton. I’m not saying that I’m going to rush into anything. We realize we’ve got to be careful, but it’s real, Laura. And I feel good about it and there’s something responsible about doing things the right way. You figured out that you were in love with Colton pretty early in your relationship, didn’t you? I’m going to be happy, Laura. You be happy too.”

***

Colton sat at the middle of a long table and tried to pay attention to Thomas Corley, president of the NTAA and his former boss. They were discussing whether they should annex Lamar County into their organization. Two ranchers who specialized in Angus cattle had approached them with a desire to join. Colton had never heard of either of them but when the vote was put to the members, he raised his hand to allow that county to merge with them.

He used to look forward to the monthly breakfast meeting at the waffle house with the guys. He loved talking cattle, ranching, hay, fencing, and weather with them, but that morning he wished he was on the Circle 6 having breakfast with Laura.

“Then it is agreed that we will annex Lamar County and any Angus rancher in that area to be a member of the NTAA,” Thomas said. “If there is no more new business, we’ll adjourn until next month and enjoy our meal.”

Colton’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out to find a text from Laura that said:
Good
morning.

He held the phone in his lap and sent back:
Me
2.

Immediately the next one popped up:
Cow
on
the
road. Later.

He groaned.

Rusty elbowed him. “What’s the matter with you?”

“Just heard from Laura. There’s a heifer on the road. She must’ve broke through that old portion of fence we still have to replace. Those posts have been there since the second day of creation,” he said.

“Laura will take care of it. She’ll have the cow back and the fence fixed before you finish your pancakes.” Rusty chuckled.

Colton had no doubt that she’d take care of business. She could probably run the ranch as good as he could. Andy had no idea what a bang-up job he’d done the day he had hired the woman for his assistant. These days, though, since the fiscal year had ended, she spent more and more time on the ranch and less in the office.

Colton had been looking forward to sexy flirting via text messages. Since the argument on Monday, they’d kept the phones hot enough to burst into flames. Their messages had gotten so hot that he was glad for good sturdy zippers on his blue jeans. Now Laura was out dealing with a pesky cow and a busted fence. She wouldn’t have time to read his messages much less carry on a hot conversation with him. He turned his attention to Rusty and Mason Harper, who was sitting across the table from him.

“So tell me, now that the ladies aren’t around, how did you ever land a woman like Laura? All I hear is good things about her,” Mason asked.

“Pure luck. She’s my financial advisor and best friend’s cousin. He hired her as his assistant. You’ll find someone someday,” Colton said.

“I don’t really want another wife. I had one like Laura, a perfect woman who was a good mother and who could run the ranch standing on her head and cross-eyed. It’s the girls who want a mommy and they come with a price tag with wife written on it rather than dollar signs,” Mason said.

“Oh, don’t let that price tag fool you.” Rusty chuckled. “It has dollar signs on it as well as the wife writin’.”

That netted them several hearty “Amens” from down the table.

“So how do you know so much about price tags?” Greg asked Rusty.

“Once upon a time I got close enough to see one. Scared me into being a bachelor for the rest of my life,” he answered.

Since the big argument Colton had a feeling that Laura was waiting for him to say that he loved her, but that price tag waving around with those words on it scared him as bad as the one Rusty talked about. The price of giving his whole heart to any woman, including Laura, and promising to love her through the bad times as well as the good times until death parted them… it took a lot of faith and Colton wasn’t sure he had nearly enough.

The whole congregation sang “Rock of Ages” and Colton leaned down and whispered softly into Laura’s ear, “What color panties are you wearing?”

She almost dropped the hymnbook and high color filled her cheeks. “Maudie will crucify you.”

“It’s her day to sing in the choir. She can’t hear me,” he said between the words of the old gospel hymn.

“We’re in church,” she reminded him.

“So?”

What
is
good
for
the
goose
is
good
for
the
gander.
They were her Aunt Dotty’s words and she most likely stole them right out of Proverbs as much as she read the Bible. Laura didn’t care if they’d come from those love story magazines that Aunt Dotty kept hidden under the towels in the bathroom closet. It fit that morning and she was determined to teach Colton Nelson a lesson.

“What color are yours?” she asked.

“You know I go commando,” he whispered.

She waited until the last words of the song ended and said, “Me too.”

She could feel him tense beside her and heard only the tiniest fragment of a moan.

Roger preached from the book of Ruth, telling the story of Boaz and Ruth. By law he had no right to marry Ruth. There were closer relatives who could claim her after her husband had died, but he did what was required of him and wound up with the love of his life for his efforts.

Roger brought the story to life for Laura. Maybe it was because she was in a strange country just like Ruth. Not physically but emotionally.

“Your gods will be my gods and your people will be my people. That’s what Ruth told Naomi and by marrying Boaz, she sealed that promise. That’s what all marriages should be sealed with, folks,” Roger said in his deep voice.

Laura felt as if someone had poured cold water down her backbone. It had happened—his people were her people. How could she leave them behind? His god—this church where she was sitting in a pew with him—had become her church, even Ina Dean and Patsy. How could she ever leave them behind?

Yet, how could she stay if he didn’t love her? Boaz loved Ruth. He was willing to go the length to ask for her hand in marriage, to stand beside her and to be her husband.

Not once had Colton even hinted at love. True, they’d moved to reality and she felt like they were really dating these days, but Laura intended to hold out for it all.

***

Cynthia pulled Laura aside as soon as the morning services were over. “Do you think he was preaching at me? Was he asking me to leave my people and Ambrose if he got a call to another part of the world to preach?” she whispered frantically. “I need to talk to someone like you who was willing to leave your world behind and fit into the world of the man you loved.”

“Invite him to dinner. Hurry. Push your way to the front of the line before someone else invites him first,” Laura said.

“But I don’t have dinner fixed up,” Cynthia said.

“Not at your place. At the ranch with us. That way we can talk,” Laura said.

Cynthia scanned the small church and circled around the edge quickly, then cut in line right behind Ina Dean, who was always one of the first people to shake Roger’s hand. When it was her turn, she smiled sweetly and said, “We’ve been invited to dinner at the Circle 6.”

“How nice. I’d love to go. Wait for me and we’ll ride over together,” Roger said.

Cynthia looked over her shoulder and winked.

Maudie tapped Laura on the shoulder. “What was that all about?”

“I invited them to Sunday dinner.”

Maudie grinned. “Are you playing matchmaker?”

“Could be but I didn’t start it. Roxie did.”

“What’d I do?” Roxie perked up when she heard her name. “Aunt Maudie, can Dillon come to dinner?”

“Of course he can. You can’t leave the house with him but he can come to Sunday dinner. Rules say that you can visit on the porch or in the living room but you can’t go out on the four-wheelers or to the pool. That’s too much like a date,” Maudie said.

“Fair enough,” Roxie said.

“Still worth it?” Laura asked.

“Darn straight,” Roxie answered.

“Damn!” Colton mumbled under his breath.

“What did you say?” Laura asked.

“I was looking forward to spending the afternoon with you, not the preacher,” he said. “You and Cynthia and Roxie will disappear and Rusty will make an excuse and I’ll be the one stuck.”

Laura patted him on the shoulder. “Are you pouting?”

“Damn straight. And I do not mean darn straight.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before church?” she asked.

“I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Don’t pout. They won’t stay all afternoon,” she said.

“I can pout if I want,” he argued.

Colton laid a hand on Roxie’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, “If you say one word about us all going to church tonight, I’ll ground you for another week.”

Roxie stuck her tongue out at him. “You aren’t my boss. Aunt Maudie is.”

Maudie touched her on the other shoulder. “That’s enough arguing in the church house. You say anything about us all going to church tonight, young lady, and I’ll ground you for another two weeks. I’ve got a movie I want to watch this evening. Is that understood?”

Roxie saluted both of them. “Sir, yes sir. Ma’am, yes ma’am!”

***

Dinner was ham with all the side dishes that accompanies it in the South: candied sweet potatoes, baked beans, cranberry orange salad, hot rolls, and peach cobbler for dessert.

And it lasted two days past eternity. Laura could hardly sit still for worrying about the surprise that she was missing and wondering whether Colton would present it later in the evening. It had been years since she’d had a surprise even for her birthday or Christmas. Most of the time Janet called and they went to lunch during the week of her birthday but not always. And on Christmas she volunteered at the Amarillo soup kitchen for the homeless.

She was almost giddy when dinner ended. Hopefully when the meal ended Cynthia and Roger would go for a drive, go to the nearest motel, or even go back to the church and make wild passionate love on the front pew. But it did not happen that way.

“I would just love for Roxie to do my nails,” Cynthia said.

Roxie smiled sweetly and said, “Of course. Let’s go up to my room. Laura, come with us and pick out a color. I’m thinking pale pink would be so pretty for church tonight.”

Colton leaned to his right and kissed Laura on the cheek. “Don’t take all afternoon,” he whispered.

Roxie turned at the door. “Aunt Maudie?”

She held up a palm. “Not me. My nails don’t need doing nearly as much as I need a nap. Y’all have a good time.”

Roger looked over his shoulder at Cynthia. “If you could get those nails done in half an hour, we could ride over to Savoy. All the young unmarried folks in the area are meeting up for a singing and a social this afternoon. It’s an open invitation and there’s plenty of room in the church van if any of y’all want to go along.”

“No problem,” Roxie said. “But I’m grounded, so that leaves me and Dillon out.”

“And I’ve got plans,” Rusty said.

Roger looked at Andy Joe.

“Thanks for the invitation but I’ve got some things to catch up on this afternoon too. Maybe next time,” Andy said.

“What fun,” Cynthia beamed. “Don’t leave without me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Roger smiled.

Cynthia was like a sugared up six-year-old that had spent the day at her grandparents’ house. She giggled all the way up the staircase and into Roxie’s room. She plopped down on the vanity stool and quickly picked out a bright pink polish and looked at the little brass clock on the nightstand.

“That color will cover what’s already on my nails just fine so you won’t have to take the old polish off. I don’t want to keep him waiting,” Cynthia said. “If he’d told me we were going somewhere like that I’d have dressed up more. Now talk to me, Laura. I’ve got to know if you regret moving away from your family and home.”

“It wasn’t easy at first but I’d never go back,” Laura said honestly.

Cynthia splayed her fingers out on the vanity top.

Roxie opened the bottle of polish. “Why are you even asking?”

“Ina Ruth has a cousin in Bokchito, Oklahoma, who told her that they were looking for a pastor for their church. They are sending a committee member down here next Sunday to listen to Roger preach,” Cynthia answered. “You are very good at nails, Roxie. You didn’t get a drop on my skin.”

“It ain’t my first time.” Roxie grinned.

“How far away is Bokchito?” Laura asked. “And what makes you think that Roger will leave Ambrose? He might be very happy here.”

“What kind of name is Bokchito? Sounds like something they’d use in chemical warfare,” Roxie said.

Cynthia tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear. “In Indian language
Bok
means big and
chito
means creek. I looked it up last night after Ina Dean called me. And it’s almost forty-seven miles from here. It’d be closer but there’s not a bridge across the Red River closer than the one at Hendrix.”

Laura swallowed the laughter bubbling up from her chest. “That’s not so far from your family.”

“Why would anyone want to go to that place?” Roxie asked.

“It’s a lot bigger and they’ve got a high school right there in town. Ambrose is less than a hundred people and Bokchito has almost six hundred,” Cynthia said.

“Did he propose?” Roxie asked.

Cynthia shook her head. “Lord, no! We’ve only been dating a little while.”

“Well, I’m sure that God will lead him in the right direction and if he goes to Bokchito, the angels will be sitting beside you every Sunday as you drive across that decrepit old Hendrix bridge to go up there,” Roxie said.

Laura had never wanted to hug a kid more in her life.

Cynthia laid her right hand with its shiny new polish over her heart without getting a smidgen of polish on her pink floral dress. “Y’all have both put my heart at peace. Now hurry up with that last fingernail. I don’t want to miss another minute with him. I’m just going to be lost when he moves and we get another preacher. Do you suppose the new one will have a wife and kids?”

“Roger hasn’t left yet. Could be that God tells him to stay right here in Ambrose because he’s in love with you,” Roxie said.

The girl was as full of bullshit as Janet had been at that age. Both of them could sweet-talk an angel right out of her halo.

***

Colton, Dillon, and Roger lined up in rocking chairs on the front porch in comfortable silence. Cows bawled in the distance. Daisy sprawled out on the bottom step and shut his eyes. Donald quacked a few times, but when he couldn’t wake Daisy, he promptly settled in the flower bed and tucked his head under his wing.

Roger finally broke the silence. “There will be strangers in the church next Sunday. A committee from Bokchito, Oklahoma, is coming to hear me preach.”

“You leaving?” Colton asked.

“Not unless the good Lord gives me a different sign than he’s giving me right now,” Roger said. “But they’re lookin’ for a preacher for their church and they insisted on coming down here and listenin’ to a sermon.”

“Why?” Dillon asked.

“Ina Dean has a cousin up there who has visited here before.”

“No—why ain’t you leavin’?” Dillon asked.

“God hasn’t told me to go. I’ve been praying and praying and he hasn’t said a word.”

“Cynthia?” Dillon asked.

“I’ve prayed for seven years that God would put the right woman in my life. If this is his answer to my prayer, then I shouldn’t run from it. You know what I’m talking about, Colton. You feel like Laura is an answer to your prayer, don’t you?”

Colton tipped his straw hat back and wiped sweat from his forehead with a white handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. He had never—not one time—prayed for a wife. He had cussed the women that chased him, gotten really angry at the one who doped him, and wished for a simpler life, but he had never prayed about any of it.

Roger went on, “Of course you feel like she is. I can see the love in your eyes for her. I want a home and a family, but I want it to be as right between us as it is between you and Laura. If I’m right here in Ambrose where Cynthia is, then eventually God will speak and I’ll know she’s the right one.”

“Maybe God is putting her to a test. If she’s willing to go like Rebecca was, then she might be the one. If not, then the answer to your prayer might be in Bokchito. That’s a funny name,” Dillon said.

Roger chuckled. “You were listening to my sermon a few weeks ago.”

“Oh, yeah! Maudie asks me and Roxie questions sometimes. If I don’t know the answer, I’m afraid she’ll tell me I can’t stay to Sunday dinner.”

Colton’s thoughts made a whirring noise in his head when Cynthia led the way out onto the porch with Laura and Roxie right behind her.

Roger held out his hand to Cynthia. “You are early. We might have time for a snow cone on the way. That little place in Savoy opened last week.”

“Oh, man!” Dillon slapped his thigh. “We could have gone there today if…”

“But I am still grounded until tomorrow so we’ll have to wait,” Roxie reminded him. “Ain’t no anchor on your butt though if you want to go get one.”

He stood up and held out his hand. “Let’s take a walk out to the pasture fence. Next Friday night we’ll drive over to Savoy and get a snow cone.”

Cynthia passed a test by being early.

Roger passed one by saying the right things.

Colton shivered in spite of the summer heat just thinking about the test before him.

“Thank you for a lovely dinner. Y’all sure you don’t want to join us?” Cynthia asked.

Dillon and Roxie were both shaking their heads as they disappeared into the house. Wild horses couldn’t have drawn Laura away from the ranch that afternoon. Colton had a surprise for her and no amount of singing or even snow cones could be more important than that.