No one said anything, so Maudie bowed her head and everyone else followed her lead. Before the preacher said three words, Colton’s hand engulfed hers. Laura was amazed at how right it felt, but something was wrong, terribly so. She glanced up to see Janet’s blue eyes boring into their hands. She had a wicked smile on her face.
Shit! She thinks I’m playing into her scam idea
, Laura thought before she quickly shut her eyes.
The preacher said, “Amen.”
Colton raised her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips. “We make a fine team.”
“Yes, you do,” Rusty said. “Now would you please go start the line so we can eat? We’re all hungry.”
At one thirty, Maudie picked up the microphone and informed the teams that it was time for them to enter the next phase of the games that day. They could pick up their equipment at the table in front of the barn where they had stacked hay, and their fishing spots had been marked by team color around the big pond at the back of the property. She and Patsy would be patrolling the area to make sure there was no cheating and that each team brought their fish to the finish line alive and gaping.
Laura and Colton weren’t the first to make it to the barn but they came in second behind Rusty and Janet. She expected a bamboo pole and some string, but what she got was a shovel, a tin can, and a long skinny box that had a picture of a fishing rod and reel on the front.
“Some assembly required!” she moaned as she laid the stuff in the back of the truck.
Colton fired up the truck and drove beside Rusty the whole way to the pond. “Which do
you
want to do? Assemble or dig bait? One of us will do each job so that it goes faster.”
“First, I’m going to read the rules,” she said. “And they say we have to use worms and can’t use grasshoppers. Dammit! I can catch a grasshopper faster than I can dig worms. And that it’s okay for one person to hold the rod but they both have to carry the fish to the finish line. What does that mean?”
“That we have to hold the fish in both our hands,” he said. “Read on.”
“You cannot drive in the truck. You have to walk to the finish line and the fish, which must be twelve inches long, has to be in both of your hands.”
She frowned. “The finish line is a quarter of a mile back toward the house and if there is dirt or grass on the fish, we get docked points. Maudie is the devil’s spawn!”
Colton parked in front of an enormous farm pond. Different colored flags marked out fishing spots and trucks were gathering around the circular pool of water like thirsty cattle.
The white team had a space marked off that was about twenty feet wide with the yellow team, Darcy and Andy, on one side and the blue team, Rusty and Janet, on the other side.
“Y’all might as well go on and play some more hanky-panky because this test belongs to me and Rusty,” Janet called out.
“You are going to put your hands in the dirt?” Laura asked.
“No, Rusty is doing that. I’m going to put this rod and reel together. It can’t be too difficult, can it?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’m diggin’ bait.”
Janet ripped into the box and laid all the pieces out on the ground. “Good God Almighty! Where did you get this? I thought it would be a simple job of attaching the rod to the reel and stringing the line through the little round holes to the end.”
“Never underestimate Maudie.”
Andy chuckled as he started fastening pieces together. “She’s not one to make it an easy job, but then where would the fun be in that?”
“Y’all don’t have to worry about winnin’ because me and Andy are going to come in first place this time. I know dirt. I’ve got the prettiest flower beds in Ambrose,” Darcy called out.
“Have you seen my flower beds?” Laura asked.
“Yeah, but your dirt isn’t as moist as my dirt. I’m older and I’ve known dirt longer than you have and this part of the pond is better than your part,” Darcy argued.
She sunk her shovel into the ground at the same time Laura did and shouted when she turned it over. “I got three worms right here, Andy.”
Andy grinned. “Face it, Laura. She plays dirty!”
Laura giggled. “I got one worm and it only takes one to catch a fish, right?”
“Y’all stop braggin’. Worms ain’t worth shit if you ain’t got a hook to put them on,” Janet called out.
The next shovel full of dirt produced four worms for Laura and five for Darcy. They pulled them free of the dirt and dropped them into their tin cans.
“I bet you Colton gets his rod and reel ready before you do,” Laura yelled.
“How much?” Janet asked.
“He finishes first you have to do my hair for the dance and party tonight. You finish first, then Cynthia will do your nails.”
“Did I hear my name?” Cynthia asked from the other side of Janet’s plot.
“Yes, you did. You will be getting ready for the party with us so I’m volunteering you to do my sister’s nails if she beats Colton in getting that rod and reel together,” Laura said.
“Be glad to.” Cynthia grinned.
“You are on,” Janet said.
“Hey, I forgot my rules and left them in the truck. Does it say Roger can’t help me with the assembly after he gets the worms?”
“No, it doesn’t say that. It says we have to work together as a team and carry the fish back in both our hands,” Laura answered.
Janet’s head jerked up. “You are shittin’ me. Is that true?”
“Yes, it is. I’ve got a can full of worms. Move over and we’ll work together on that project now,” Rusty answered.
Laura turned up one more shovel full of dirt, sifted it for worms, and found none. She had several wiggling around in her can and Colton said he was a fish whisperer, so that should be plenty. She carried them carefully to the edge of the pond, sat down in the grass, and took the spool of line from Colton’s hand. “I’ll hold it like this and you wind it onto the reel. It’ll go faster.”
Roxie and Dillon caught the first fish but it was only nine inches long when Maudie measured it so they had to throw it back into the pond. Poor Roxie would have to grow a brand-new tongue the next day because she couldn’t cuss in front of Maudie or else she’d be disqualified, but the mumbling didn’t fool Laura one bit.
Laura watched the red bobble and tried to will it to go under the surface of the water but it floated along as happy as a two-year-old in a wading pool. Janet hadn’t kicked the gambling habit at all. Even as a child, she’d bet on anything—if a fly flew off the windowsill in ten seconds then Laura had to do dishes. If it didn’t, then Janet would have to mop the kitchen floor. Back then, Laura thought her sister had special powers—that she could will a fly to take wing or a cat to wake up. It was a long time before she figured out that Janet was just very, very good at cheating.
A tension headache started behind her eyes. They’d had the same disagreement minus the scam issue so many times that Laura couldn’t remember them all. What she did remember was that when Janet came begging, she found a way to get her out of trouble. Now she was going to have a fantasy engagement and her sister would think that she was in the game with her to fleece Colton because she was engaged to him.
As if he could feel her stress, one of Colton’s hands left the fishing rod and came to rest on top of hers. Anxiety left and peace reigned. She looked down at his big paw of a hand on hers and wondered how he did that. When she was tied up in knots so tight that even she couldn’t see the end of the problem, one touch and
poof
, they were all gone.
Rusty brought a fourteen-inch bass up out of the pond seconds before Cynthia let out a squeal and hauled in a thirteen-inch catfish. Just a few minutes later Darcy and Andy caught a keeper and then Colton suddenly let go of Laura’s hand and brought home a twelve-inch sun perch.
“Just barely big enough but meets the game rules,” Maudie declared. “Smaller they are the tougher it is to get them to the finish line, so good luck.”
“We got one, Aunt Maudie, and it’s a big sucker,” Roxie screamed.
Maudie took off toward the other side of the pond.
“Why is it tougher?” Laura looked at Colton for an answer.
“They got to be alive and gaping. And our hands have to be closer together and that means we have to walk in unison,” Colton explained.
“Then we’ll walk slow. I’ll hook a thumb in his gills and you hang on to his tail. What about this equipment? I forgot to read what we have to do with it.”
“You have to get it into the truck bed and you can’t let go of the fish to do it. You each got a free hand,” Darcy called out.
She carried the can of extra worms and the tools they’d been allowed to put the rod and reel together. He carried the box that the thing came in and the rest of the equipment. His stride was twice as long as hers, but after a few steps they adjusted. They tossed the stuff into the pickup bed and very slowly started toward the finish line with Roxie and Dillon coming up behind them in good speed.
Darn little teenagers anyway. She gripped a catfish tail that was at least sixteen inches long and he held on to the mouth end. They swung it between them like a plastic bag of potatoes. But they got too comfortable and too fast. The fish gave a flop and she dropped the tail. It hit the dirt and they both scrambled to pick it back up.
“There goes ten points,” Roxie fussed.
“Want to take it back to the pond and wash it off? That’s not against the rules, but it’ll slow us down,” Dillon said.
“We’ll take the low score and make it up with the wheelbarrow race. FYI, darlin’, I’m pushin’.”
“The hell, I mean devil, you are. I ain’t intendin’ to be the laughin’stock of the whole party. Man pushes. Woman rides,” Dillon said.
Laura checked every five seconds to make sure their sun perch was still alive. Rusty and Janet were coming up right behind them and Janet was giggling. Laura had heard that particular high-pitched laughter before and it always meant that Janet was up to no good. She deliberately slowed her step.
“What are you doing?” Colton asked.
“Winning. Just trust me and follow me,” she answered.
He didn’t argue, but when Rusty and Janet were ahead of them, she whispered softly, “She would have tripped me.”
“For real?”
“I know that giggle. When we get to within twenty feet of the finish line, I want to start jogging. We’re going to get there with a live fish and leave them in our dust.”
Colton pointed with his free hand. “We might come in second that way, but there goes the preacher and Cynthia right up to the line now. They’ve taken this competition and probably went into first place.”
“Don’t you drop this fish! I’m at least coming in second,” Laura declared.
They tied Janet and Rusty for second, both of them dropping their fish on the table at the same time, with Roxie and Dillon taking third place. Maudie lined all ten teams up when they had checked in, four without a fish at all, and the other members with dirt and grass on theirs.
“Now,” she said, “we are ready for the final test of the day. Your wheelbarrows are waiting with your tools on the backside of this barn. We were nice enough to put you all under shade trees. Once the wheelbarrow is put together, the tools go inside it with the lady on the team and the cowboy or preacher in your case,” she nodded at Roger and Cynthia, “will push the lady all the way back to the house. I’ll be taking pictures for the ranch scrapbook like I have been all day, so don’t be thinking you can cheat at this late date. I’m talking to you, Roxie.”
“I hear you,” Roxie said.
Laura looked at Janet.
“I hear you,” she mouthed.
***
Colton opened the box with the wheelbarrow and Laura heaved a sigh of relief. It was standard issue and not something that Maudie had found with fifty wooden slats. It was a plain old red wheelbarrow with a framework to hold the legs, nuts and bolts to assemble it, and a screwdriver and pair of pliers to do the job.
“This won’t take long,” Laura said.
“Are you ready for the games to be over?” Colton asked.
“Not really. It’s been a fun day. I just want to win so that my sister has to fix my hair. I’d like it to look pretty tonight.”
“We really did make a great team, Laura. Would you consider staying on at the end of the month? I really will hire you in any capacity you want to work. You can continue as Andy’s assistant. You can be the gardener. You can work on the ranch as a field hand. You name it and your pay rate.”
His blunt question caught her by surprise. She thought about it for a while. She liked the ranch. She loved Roxie and she was learning to appreciate Maudie more and more. She was falling in love with Colton.
“Whoa!” she said aloud.
“Just think about it,” he said.
“I wasn’t pulling up on the reins for that reason,” she admitted.
“Then what?”
“Just something else.”
In love!
Damn.
She couldn’t be in love. She had trust and commitment issues by the bushel basket full. She couldn’t stay on the ranch in a permanent position, no matter what it was, because she hadn’t even proven that she could tell Janet no. And if she didn’t learn how to do that, it would be dangerous to ever have access to the kind of money that Colton had.
“Will you at least think about it?” he whispered.
“I will,” she said.
Thinking about walking into a store and buying a five-hundred-dollar pair of cowboy boots was a far different story than really doing it. She’d think about it when she slept beside him, when they had glorious, hot sex, and when they sat at the breakfast table together. But that didn’t mean she would actually consent to it.
He kissed her on the cheek and then slid over a few inches further and brushed a hard kiss on her lips—one that set a fire that couldn’t be put out for hours and hours.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Roxie let out a piercing yelp when she and Dillon finished their wheelbarrow first and settled into it, holding on to the sides. Dillon pushed her three feet and hit a gopher hole. She went tumbling—ass over ponytail and he stumbled and landed on top of her.
“Maudie is going to ground you,” Colton yelled.
High color filled Dillon’s cheeks as he rolled to one side, righted the wheelbarrow, and apologized a dozen times to Maudie.
“It’s me that got dumped. Don’t tell
her
you are sorry. Steady that blasted thing up so I can get in it again,” Roxie said.
Meanwhile, Cynthia and Roger got their wheelbarrow finished and Roger took several steps to get a balance. They were five feet in front of Roxie and Dillon when Colton slid an arm under Laura’s legs and one around her shoulders. He set her into their wheelbarrow, grabbed both handles, and away they went with Darcy and Andy right behind them.
It was a fight to the finish line with Cynthia and Roger coming in first by the length of the wheelbarrow wheel. Roxie and Dillon hit the line in second place, and Laura and Colton had a third place win.