Rodeo Reunion (20 page)

Slade stopped what he was doing and strode to Raquel's side in case this reminder of Annette's death upset her. The man had a kind face, gray hair. Rugged cowboy type with a slight stoop to his shoulders.

“I, um, I don't usually go to church. But I felt like coming today. I heard about this place, so I thought I'd give it a try.”

“I'm so glad you did.” She turned to Slade. “This is Ben Smith. He helped me the other day.”

“I'm glad you're both here.” A man in his midtwenties approached. “Hello, Ben, Raquel.”

“Leroy.” Raquel's eyes widened. “I didn't see you either.”

“I didn't feel like going to our church, where everybody knows us. Knew Annette.”

The dead teacher's husband. The saddest eyes Slade had ever seen.

“I figured everybody would be sad at our church and the boys don't need any more of that.”

“Where are they?”

“With my folks.” Leroy motioned toward an older couple near the door with a toddler and antsy five-year-old running circles around them. “We planned to come here today anyway. Annette invited several of the teachers who don't attend church to come. I thought I'd show up in case they did.”

“She invited me,” Ben said, his voice cracking.

“I'm glad she did.” Slade patted the older man on the shoulder and turned to the grief-stricken husband. “I'm so sorry for your loss.”

“I keep asking myself why.” Leroy shrugged. “I mean,
she was young and healthy. We need her. And she knew she was allergic—she had her EpiPen within reach.” He swiped his eyes. “I know—she was right with God and ready to go. But we weren't ready for her to go.”

“I'm so sorry, Leroy.” Raquel hugged him. “Everybody's praying for you and the boys. And if you ever need help with them, just give me a call.”

“Thanks.” Leroy sniffed. “And from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you both for trying to help Annette.”

Raquel's eyes were too shiny. She swallowed hard. “I wish we could have saved her.”

“Me too.” Leroy pulled away from her and shook Ben's hand. “You'll both be at the service tomorrow?”

“Of course.” They echoed each other.

Leroy strode toward his family, straight and tall—a fake tower of strength for his boys.

“If only I'd brought her purse with us when I carried her to your office.” Ben Smith looked as if he might fall over.

“You didn't know about the EpiPen, Ben.” Raquel set her hand on his arm.

He shook his head. “I didn't even know what one was until this.”

“You did the right thing based on what you knew.”

“So who do we blame?”

“Blame the wasp.” Slade closed his eyes. “Blame all the evil in this fallen world. But don't blame yourself. Or Raquel. Or God.”

“I was there.” Ben cringed. “Raquel did everything she could. And I don't know much about God. But I don't figure I'm significant enough to blame anything on Him.”

“Would you like to learn more about God, Ben?” Slade seamlessly slipped into witnessing mode.

“Do you really believe Annette is in heaven, Preacher?”

“I do.” Slade flipped open his Bible. “And I'd like to show you exactly how she got there. Let's start in Romans
3:10. ‘As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.' Are you a sinner, Ben?”

“Well, I've never killed anybody. Or anything like that.”

“Did you ever tell a lie, take something that wasn't yours, look at a woman in a certain way?”

Ben ducked his head with a slight nod.

“Then that makes you a sinner, just like me. And the Bible tells us in Romans 6:23 that there's a price to be paid for our sin. ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.'

“Our penalty for sin is death, Ben. Death in an eternal hell with a real eternal flame. Hell isn't just separation from God. Mark 9:44 describes it this way. ‘Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.'”

Ben started sweating—a literal sweat.

“But God gave us a gift. A way to spend eternity with Him.” Slade's pages rustled again. “Romans 5:8. ‘But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'

“And finally—” pure joy rang in Slade's voice “—God gave us instructions on how to spend eternity with him in Heaven, where Annette is now. Romans 10:13. ‘For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'”

“So what do I do?” Uncertainty coated Ben's words.

“Pray a very simple prayer. Something like this.” Slade closed his eyes. “Oh, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Save my soul from the flames of hell. I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ, Your son, and what He did at Calvary's cross. I receive Him as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus's name, amen.”

“That's it?” Ben opened his eyes.

“That's it.”

“How can the difference in Heaven and hell be so simple?”

“It wasn't simple for Jesus when He had to take on our sin and die in our place. But He did make it simple for us. We choose Christ or we choose the devil.”

“Now, I never said I chose the devil.” Ben flushed.

“But if we don't make a choice for Christ, we choose the devil by default.”

“I'm not sure I understand. But I'm getting hungry. Maybe we can talk about it some other time.”

“There's no time like the present.” Slade clapped him on the back. “How about we discuss it over lunch at Moms on Main? I'm buying.”

Ben hesitated. “Okay.”

Slade had him. How could anybody resist eternal life in Heaven? He looked around. The barn was empty. Raquel had slipped out. Along with Lane and Natalie. She'd probably caught a ride with them.

If only he could sell himself to Raquel as easily as he'd hooked Ben with Jesus.

* * *

Lunch at Moms on Main had been as awesome as usual. Slade patted his stomach as he neared his house. But not the same with Raquel at a separate table.

He drove by her place nice and slow. The garage was shut. She'd left Moms before he had. Probably went to see Cody. Once Cody got out of rehab, it would probably be a while before he went back to the rodeo. If he did. What would Slade do once Cody recovered and took her out on a date? Or worse still, when Cody married her?

You sure You want me to stay here, Lord?

Silence.

He unlocked his door, went inside and pulled off his boots. The house was as he'd found it—furnished, but he'd done nothing to personalize it. He liked his surroundings spare and neat. Probably from living on the road in a small camper. Nothing to straighten or clean. He paced the liv
ing room, longing to go over and see if she was home. Then what? Say hi?

No. He needed to leave her alone. If he stayed in Aubrey, he needed to find another rental house. Or maybe even buy a house. Something not right next door to Raquel.

A whimper from the back of the house. He hurried to the mudroom to let Blizzard and Flurry out. “Hey, y'all, sorry about that.”

Blizzard and Flurry wagged their tails as Slade stroked each coat and opened the back door.

A knock sounded at the front door. Strange. He hadn't heard a vehicle. Maybe Raquel was home and Hunter wanted to let the dogs out to play with Snow. But since he'd put the gate between their fences, Hunter usually played with them there.

He hurried to the front of the house and swung the door open. Raquel was on the porch, and his pulse began to race.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” He managed to speak around his heart lodged in his throat.

“Can we talk?”

“Sure.” He opened the door wider.

Her perfume got to him first. Then the sway of her dress with the pink top and denim bottom paired with boots. Flirty, feminine and fun wrapped up in cowgirl flair. A ridiculously beautiful package. That wasn't his.

“Have a seat.”

“So I'm dying to know.” She perched in the middle of his couch. “Did Ben take the bait?”

He grinned at her word choice and took a seat across from her. Where it was safe. “He did. He accepted Christ.”

“That's awesome!” Her eyes watered.

“It is. I was honored to be a part of it.”

“So, if the thing hadn't happened with Annette, Ben might never have gotten saved.”

“Possibly.”

“You were amazing today. Watching you fish for men was like poetry in motion. My insides were all in a tizzy while Ben's soul hung in the balance. But I knew you had him hooked and you'd reel him in.”

If only he could reel her in. But she wasn't available. And he needed to focus.

“We'll be sure and tell Leroy about Ben at the funeral tomorrow. Something positive to come out of his wife's death might help him deal with losing her.”

“Are you sure you don't mind going?”

“Of course not. I said I would. Until Cody's back in shape, I'm your guy.” He winced. Poor word choice.

She frowned. “Why do you keep bringing Cody up?”

“Um…I figure it was his shoulder you'd have cried on after Annette died if he hadn't been all bunged up. And if he were able, he'd go to the funeral with you. I'm just a stand-in friend. When he recovers, I'll step aside.”

“Why? I can have more than one friend.”

What? Now it was Slade's turn to frown. “Sure. But I'm not following.”

“If Cody weren't hurt, that doesn't mean he'd have been here for me after Annette died. Or that he'd go to her funeral with me. When he gets well, he'll probably go straight back to the circuit.”

“He must be insane.”

“The jury's still out on that. But why do you think he's insane? You ride broncs.”

“No. I mean he's insane because he's leaving you behind again. And you love him.”

“I do not.”

“I heard you say it yourself. At the hospital. You said, ‘I love Cody.'” He swallowed the hard knot in his throat. “The jig is up. So maybe y'all fought and he doesn't want to quit the circuit. But I thought maybe that bull knocked
some sense into him and he'd stay here and marry you. Maybe I should sink my new spur in his backside for ya?”

Raquel laughed.

Laughed! While he was steaming mad. While he was trying to defend her honor. While he was trying to tuck his tail and hand her over to another man.

“I know one thing—if you loved me, I'd never, ever leave you.”

That stopped her laughter.

S
lade's insides twisted. He'd laid it all out there for her. Even if Cody was too stupid to stay in Aubrey for her, she still didn't love Slade.

“Slade, have you prayed about going back on the circuit?” Her voice was almost a whisper. “About the cowboy church?”

“Three months ago, I wanted off the circuit. But I fully intended to go back because I thought that's where God wanted me. I'll admit I waffled because of you, but once I figured out you loved Cody, I actually wanted to go back on the circuit.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn't stand to stay here and watch you marry Cody.” His chest hurt as if he had filleted his heart open for her. “I only agreed to help set up the cowboy church before I leave. But everything has fallen in place so seamlessly. And there were so many people. And Ben accepted Jesus. It's almost like God wants me to stay.”

“What if you stay? What happens to your circuit ministry?”

“Before I came here to find Tori, my mentor showed up out of the blue without knowing anything I was going through and offered to give me a sabbatical. If I go back, we'll split the territory in half or he'll travel a different circuit.”

“So if you stay here and figure out later that the cowboy church isn't where God wants you, you can go back to the circuit anytime.”

“Yes. But if I stay here, even though Cody's too stupid to stick around, I won't bother you. I'll probably move to a different house.”

“What if I don't want you to move?” She stood and rounded the coffee table.

He held his breath as she neared, then perched on the arm of his chair at an angle facing him. “Raquel, I'm only a man.” He closed his eyes. “Please don't ask me to be your friend. And please keep your distance.”

“What if I don't want to?”

He opened his eyes. Man, she was close. Way too close. “I won't be your rebound guy.”

“I don't want you to be my rebound guy. I want you to be my guy.”

That did it. He got caught up in her eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes that made him feel as if he was her one and only. And then her lips. Her lips that kept inching closer to his. Until they actually touched his.

The fire that ignited surely knocked his boots off. He hauled her against him and tasted all the sweetness she offered. While his brain screamed for him to stop. She didn't love him. And he couldn't kiss her into loving him.

He pulled away and pushed her back onto the arm of the chair.

“Wow.” She sat there, seemingly dazed.

“Go home, Raquel.”

“You said if I loved you, you'd never leave me.”

“I heard you say you love Cody.”

“Yes, I love Cody.”

His thundering heart crashed against his ribs.

“But as a friend.”

“You love Cody as a friend?”

“Yes. Like you loved Dylan as a friend.”

“You sure?” She and Cody were just friends?

“I'm positive. And besides, even if I felt anything for Cody, which I don't, he's in love with Al— I mean someone else.”

“Cody's in love with Al.” Slade scrunched his face. Cody didn't seem like that type.

“No, silly. He's in love with a woman and I almost said her name. My whole life I've been terrible at letting secrets slip. I've been working on it.”