Cowboy Seeks Bride (19 page)

“I can feel their eyes on our hands,” she said.

“I reckon it’s all right since we are going out on a date in a couple of weeks.”

The church was red brick with a tall pointed white steeple topped with a cross that reached so far up that it looked as if it touched the clouds obscuring the sun that afternoon. The arched windows in the front of the church matched the windows flanking it on either side.

“Are you Catholic?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Baptist when I go. Momma’s people are Catholic down in Louisiana. My granny is Catholic. My dad is Jewish.”

She sat down on the porch steps and pulled him down beside her.

He untangled their hands and threw an arm around her shoulder. “My Irish ancestors were Catholic but the little church where we go in Ringgold is Baptist. In my opinion God doesn’t have to be confined to a building.”

“It’s peaceful here, isn’t it?” She leaned on his shoulder.

They had a date so it wasn’t the end of the road when they got back to Texas. But would there ever come a time when her father walked her down the aisle toward Dewar waiting at the front of a church?

Lord, where did that thought come from? I can well understand seeing him naked on the horse after reading Cheryl’s romance books or even all the other wicked imaginations that have popped into my mind, but him as a groom. That would be stretching things to the breaking point.

“What were you thinking about? You suddenly went all stiff,” Dewar asked.

“I was wondering if God would strike us dead for making out on the steps of a church this old.”

Dewar tilted her chin up with his forefinger and kissed her passionately. “Don’t guess He will,” he said when he broke away.

She pulled his lips down to hers for another kiss right there in broad daylight.

“Wow! Your kisses are just as hot in the daylight as in the night.”

He grinned. “And so are yours.”

“So we might be compatible in the daytime?” she asked.

“Looks like it, darlin’. Ready to go back to the camp? It’s about time to move out again,” he said.

“No, I’d like to sit here and kiss you all afternoon.”

Dewar pointed toward the clouds that were growing blacker by the minute. “That might lead to something that would get us struck by lightning and those clouds are lookin’ pretty dark.”

“Looks like we might have to get out the slickers,” she said.

A few drops hit them before they got to the campsite where Coosie waited with two yellow slickers held out toward them. Dewar helped Haley into hers and then got his on and into the saddle before it got wet.

Coosie raised an eyebrow at Haley. She winked and mounted up for the afternoon ride. A jackass might not make her a rancher, but she had an invitation to dinner at a café called the Chicken Fried and no amount of gloomy weather could take that away.

That evening they pulled the wagon under a thick pecan grove. It was still drizzling rain, but the thick foliage offered enough protection that Coosie could make a small fire and scramble sausage and eggs together for supper. A trip down to the edge of East Sand Creek for some serious lovemaking wasn’t even an option. Haley and Dewar snuggled down into their sleeping bags and were asleep before Coosie snored the first time.

The next day the skies were still overcast but the rain had stopped. Coosie and Buddy rolled the canvas back from the chuck wagon and fastened the wet sleeping bags to the bows with old-fashioned wooden clothespins so they would dry as they traveled.

She’d written in her journal that morning and told about sleeping in the rain and the water dripping on her from the tree leaves. The end of the journey didn’t seem so formidable anymore and she actually woke up looking forward to the finish.

What would her father think of Dewar? Her mother would think he was handsome, but she’d just see a plain cowboy. Granny Jones down in Louisiana would love him.

“So?” Coosie asked.

“So what?” Haley asked right back.

“We saw Dewar holding your hand. In Texas that means something. I like Dewar. He’s a good man. You wouldn’t hurt him, would you?”

“What makes you ask that?”

“He’ll do right by you. He’s that kind of man. But you two come from two different worlds. When did all this start anyway?”

“A while back. I don’t want to talk about it right now. You won’t tell me about his family. Will you tell me about him? Stories you know about him growing up and things like that?”

“Nope, that’s his job. How long have you two been makin’ moony eyes at one another and talkin’?”

“A while,” she admitted.

Coosie nodded seriously. “I knew it. You can’t keep nothing from old Coosie. He sees everything.”

Haley bit the inside of her lip. “I knew you’d figure it out. Now tell me a story, please.”

He grinned. “Once upon a time a spoiled princess met just a plain old cowboy.”

“I am not spoiled and I’m damn sure not a princess. Just ask my Cajun cousins. They’ll tell you I’m a hellcat on wheels.”

Coosie threw back his head and laughed. “I’d say it’s your job to make a story with or without him. You can do your own detective work on that story, missy.”

“He asked me out to dinner when we get back,” she said. “What if he don’t like me in my high heels and fancy clothes?”

Coosie laughed again. “Way he’s been lookin’ at you I don’t reckon you’ve got a lot to worry about. Darlin’, the heart, it don’t have ears or eyes, but it does know what it wants. And once it feels something that is its soul mate, then it don’t rest until it has that person for all eternity.”

“You think Dewar is my soul mate?”

“Hell, honey, I don’t know. Ask your heart. It’ll tell you right up front. Trouble is when you ask and it tells you, then you’ll have to do something about it or be miserable as hell the rest of your life.”

“Are you speaking from experience, Coosie?”

He blushed so red that if he’d fallen off the wagon he would have started a grass fire in the wet grass.

“That’s a story for another day,” he said softly.

Haley was so excited that she could hardly sit still on the wagon seat. It must be what the pioneer women felt like when they got to go to town once or twice a year. She would never be able to put into words the anticipation of walking through a Walmart store again. She’d even tucked her credit card in her hip pocket for a new bar of soap. Hers was nothing more than a thin sliver and wouldn’t last another week.

The wagon bounced up and down over rolling hills for the better part of an hour through a pasture with both Black Angus cattle and black iron oil wells with their arms slowly pumping up and down. Dewar pulled up the reins and hopped down from the buckboard to open a gate, and Haley could see the highway right there in front of her. White lines and concrete had never looked so beautiful.

A rusty old pickup truck rattled past when Dewar crawled back on the seat and flicked the reins. When the horses were through the gate, she jumped down on her side and quickly pushed it shut and threw the barbed wire loop over the fence post to secure it.

“Thanks,” Dewar said.

“You are so welcome. I still can’t believe that Coosie let us go into town for supplies.”

“He doesn’t think anyone can roast a turkey without burning it,” Dewar said.

“I’ve never eaten wild turkey cooked over an open fire,” she said.

“It’s pretty good if it’s done slow and done right. Coosie didn’t trust any of us, and besides, he winked at me when we drove away. He thinks this is a date situation. It is Saturday night, you know,” Dewar said. “Maybe you can use the idea in the show. Send two people off to the store for supplies. Let the public vote on which two should go. It might surprise you who they choose. It could be the two who hate each other or the two who’ve been slipping down to the river at night for hanky-panky.”

“I don’t hate any of the guys,” she said.

“But you aren’t a contestant with her life being filmed on the trip.”

She adjusted her hat. “I like the idea. It’s a way to keep the public involved. They could call in their votes about who got to go to town in what’s the name of this place again?”

“Spivey, Kansas,” he answered.

“Okay, three weeks into the trip, two people—one guy and one lady—get to go to Walmart for supplies. I guess he’d best be able to control the wagon and the horses.”

“Or maybe she’ll be the cowgirl who does the driving,” Dewar said.

Her eyes glittered as they clipped along faster on the paved road. “That part could be up to the public too. Whoever gets the most votes that week gets to do the driving.”

A pickup pulled around them and sped on down the highway. Seventy miles an hour looked like a lightning streak from where she sat. From her calculations Dodge City was less than two hours away going at that speed, but it would take them another week to get there.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m in a time travel machine,” she said.

“That’s the way it’s supposed to feel. We’ve gone back more than a hundred years to when they really ran cattle up the trail.”

“Making the contestants feel like this will be the trick, won’t it?” she asked.

He nodded. “There it is.”

She looked up and saw a sign that welcomed them to Spivey. She expected to hear more traffic and see the glow of the Walmart parking lot lights up ahead, but everything was quiet in Spivey for a Saturday night.

“Just how big is this place?” she asked.

“It’s got two churches and they turned the old school into a convenience store. That’s where we’re going to refill the water barrel and get supplies,” he said.

Her heart tumbled down into her boots. “Are you teasing me?”

“No, ma’am. This is Spivey. I made arrangements with the store owner to order extra things this week and paid for them in advance. He is expecting us either tonight or tomorrow night.”

“But Coosie always goes to Walmart for supplies,” she said weakly.

“Until this time,” Dewar said. “Oh! Haley, I’m sorry. You thought you were going to a big store.”

“Don’t be. This will be a great scene for the show. The two contestants will be all fired up and happy and then we’ll see their expressions when they pull up in front of this place.”

Dewar touched her shoulder. “But you wanted something more, didn’t you?”

“I wanted a bar of soap, Dewar. The rest can wait.”

“Whoa!” Dewar pulled back on the reins and the horses came to a stop not far from the two gas pumps.

“Guess we won’t need to fill up with that,” Haley said.

“No, we run on grass and water.” He slid to the ground and held up his hands. She scooted across the seat and he grasped her slim waist in his hands, picked her up like she weighed no more than a feather pillow, and set her on the ground.

“That part of going back in time, I do like,” she said.

A bell at the top of the door jingled when he opened it and stood to one side. A middle-aged man looked up from the cash register. “Y’all are the cattle run folks?”

“Yes, we are,” Dewar said. “We preordered supplies and we’d like to fill our barrel with water.”

“Hose is right out there at the end of the store. Help yourself. Supplies are in the box by the door. I’ll get the meat you ordered out of the refrigerator. You got an ice chest, right?”

“We do and we’ll need two bags of ice for it. While you do that, we’ll look around the store. We aren’t keeping you open too late, are we?”

“No, we don’t close shop for another hour.” He disappeared into a room toward the back of the store.

Haley wandered up and down the few aisles and picked up a bar of soap. The DJ on the radio playing beside the cash register said that the next two days were going to be sunny and bright in southern Kansas with no rain in the forecast.

“And now it’s time for more of your favorite country music and the five for five contest. At the end of the five songs we’re about to play the fifth caller who knows all five songs and the artist who sang them will get two tickets to the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City. So get out your pencils and paper, folks, and write them down if your memory isn’t good. Starting right now we’re playing five for five.”

At the first strum of the guitar strings, Dewar said, “I wouldn’t have nothing if I didn’t have you.”

She turned so quickly that she dropped the soap.

He bent down, picked it up, and handed it back to her. “That’s the name of the song that Randy Travis is about to sing.”

“How’d you know that quick?”

“I’ve played it dozens of times.” He hummed along as Randy sang that he counted his blessings and prayed every night that the Lord let him keep her just one more day.

“Do you?” she asked.

Dewar removed two six-packs of beer from the cooler and set them on the counter. “Do I what?”

“What you are humming?” she asked.

“I’m humming along with that song and yep, I do. Just one more day,” he said.

“For real?”

“Oh, yeah.” The song ended and the next one began as soon as the last note faded away into the far corners of the tiny store.

“And this one is our song. It’s the Kendalls singing about heaven being just a sin away. Do you still believe that?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah!” She smiled. “You are definitely the devil with a halo.”

He chuckled.

The fellow who ran the place came out of the back toting a heavy cardboard box. He set it on the counter and said, “There you go. Y’all find anything else you can’t live without out there on the trail? Looks like the little lady needs some soap and you’ve got some beer and what else for you?”

Haley laid seven candy bars and a big bag of pretzels, plus a whole bag of popcorn and a roll of toilet paper on the counter. “We’ll be needing these too.”

“You realize that’s not microwave popcorn.” The man laughed.

“Our microwave got hit by lightning,” she said with a serious face.

He laughed harder. “She’s a keeper, mister.”

“Yes, she is.” Dewar pulled out a bill to pay for the extra things.

The fellow made change and picked up the heavy box. “I’ll help y’all get this all out to your wagon and show you where that water hose is located. We’re all excited around these parts about the idea of a reality show coming through our town. As you can see we’re about dried up to nothing but dust and oil wells, so it’ll give us something to look forward to.”

“And we’ll look forward to doing business with you,” Haley said. “Where’s the nearest mail drop?”

“Post office shut up last year. You got something you want mailed I’ll be glad to put it in my mailbox and the rural carrier will get it tomorrow,” he said.

She pulled a thick envelope from her back pocket and handed it to him. “I appreciate that.”

“No problem. Be glad to do it,” he said.

Twenty minutes later they went through the gate separating present from past and headed back to the camp. Haley expected to be disappointed on the return trip but she wasn’t. She was eager to get home to the cowboys and hand out beers and candy bars after a supper of wild turkey and fried potatoes. She was impatient for the evening to end so she and Dewar could slip off to the river and cuddle on the quilt.

“There was a pay phone there. I should have told you so you could talk to your momma,” Dewar said.

“It’s only a few more days,” Haley said.

When she had slipped from the past back into the present, she’d talk to her mother every morning in the conference room. Would it be as difficult to climb into the time machine and go forward to the present-day scene as it had been on April Fools’ Day to fall backwards in time?

Dewar reached across the distance and held her hand. “Sometimes I envy those Amish folks.”

“You haven’t had enough of this?” she asked.

“Have you?”

“Are we back to the questions?” she asked.

One side of Dewar’s mouth turned up in a crooked grin. The dimple in his chin deepened and his eyes locked with hers. “I’ll be ready to go home, but I won’t be ready for you to go home. I meant it when I said I wouldn’t be nothing if I didn’t have you.”

“What exactly are you saying?” she asked.

He let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. The smile faded and his eyes went soft and dreamy as his mouth met hers in the sweetest kiss she’d ever had in her life. No tongue, just the promise of what would come later in the brush of two people exchanging a chaste kiss.

“I’m saying that I’m very, very glad that our relationship isn’t ending when we leave Dodge City.”

“Me too.” She laid her head on his shoulder.