“This is my kind of barn. And there is a pool in here?” Janet whispered.
Roxie crooked a finger. “Follow me and I will show it to you. I don’t expect you’d like to stop by the sauna on the way?”
Janet shook her head.
“Well, if you change your mind, this is the door and it won’t be locked.”
“Oh. My. God!” Each word got louder when Janet said it.
Laura threw an arm around her shoulder. “Fascinating, isn’t it?”
“Wow! Just plain old wow!”
“I’ll take you to the cabana and you can choose a swimsuit. What time do we have to be back at the ranch house, Laura?” Roxie led the way behind the waterfall.
“Better leave here at four because supper is at five and we’ll have to clean up. And Maudie has invited Cynthia and Roger,” she answered.
Roxie rolled her eyes. “Why, God? Why did you let me put them together?”
“I don’t think it was God.” Laura laughed.
It didn’t take them long to choose bathing suits and dive into the water. Janet swam from one end to the other several times then hopped up to sit beside Laura on the side of the tub.
“You are an idiot,” Janet said. “If you don’t want to fleece him, then fall in love with him. Just promise me that you won’t make him sign a prenup. Hold your hand up and let me see that ring again.”
“Money isn’t that important,” Laura said.
“Honey, it is when you don’t have it. Will you just think about the prenup? He’s so damned much in love with you that he won’t even think of it if you don’t mention it.”
Laura shrugged. “There is a lot of difference in sex and love.”
“You’ve changed,” Janet said.
“I know I have.”
“I don’t know if I like the new Laura.”
Laura shrugged again. “That’s your option. Hey, Roxie, let’s play a game of pool basketball and then Janet is going to play the winner of that round.”
She dived into the pool. Staying would be the easiest thing in the world. Colton had asked her several times and she loved the ranch. But he’d never said that he loved her and until he said the words, she wasn’t committing to anything, not even real dating.
***
“Where are Andy and Rusty?” Maudie asked when Colton slumped down in a dining room chair.
“They’ll be along in a minute. Barn is all put back in order. I hope Ina Dean and Patsy are thoroughly convinced.”
Maudie smiled. “You enjoyed yesterday more than anyone so stop your bitchin’ about doing half a day’s worth of cleanup. You ain’t gettin’ an ounce of my sympathy. Have you talked Laura into staying?”
He fanned his face with his straw hat. “I’ve asked her and she’s thinking about it.”
“She’s fitting in right well. Andy did good when he hired her.”
The fanning stopped. “She deserves more than I can give her.”
“Good God, you are a billionaire, Colton! Give her whatever she wants.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. Money can’t buy love and I’m not so sure I’m willing to trust anyone enough to…” He stopped so fast that the sentence dangled there above them like the wagon wheel chandelier.
“Spit it out,” Maudie said.
The fanning started again, this time slower. “I don’t know that I can.”
“Well, give it a try and I’ll fill in the blanks.”
“I’m ready to settle down. I realize that and Laura is a good woman and…” He paused.
Maudie folded her arms across her chest and waited.
“Daddy loved Momma but they fought all the time.”
Maudie leaned forward and propped her elbows on the table. “Is that what your problem is? Why didn’t you talk to me about it before?”
Colton looked absolutely miserable. “I never was good at showing my feelings. Not like my folks. Lord, they showed everything they thought. Sometimes I think that the DNA skipped a generation and I’m more like you than like my dad.”
“You are beating around the bush, Colton,” Maudie said.
“When I was ten, it was sissy to talk about things like that. It wasn’t an issue until now because I didn’t want to let a woman into my heart. Cowboys don’t go around talking about their hearts and love. I’m rambling. Forget I even mentioned it.”
“No, we are not forgetting it. We’re going to hash this out and get it out of the way. I’m not so sure that your mom and dad were suited to each other but they were in love from the first time they met. They fought when they dated and broke up like Roxie and Dillon do—every other day. I always feared you’d be like them.”
“It’s a wonder I’m not, but I hated their fighting,” he said.
“They fought about where they were going to college because your dad wanted to go to Oklahoma State University and she wanted to go to Midwestern over in Gainesville. They loved each other, I’m sure of it, but they could never agree and both of them were so bullheaded it wasn’t even funny.”
Colton inhaled deeply. “I’m afraid that all marriages will wind up like that. And I’d rather be a bachelor and leave everything I’ve got to Roxie as take a chance on going through that.”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said your folks fought when they dated. How many fights have you and Laura had?”
“I don’t think we’re dating except in a make-believe world.”
Maudie frowned. “The night your folks were killed, did you hear the argument?”
“The folks on the far end of the block heard it,” Colton answered. “It was about another baby. Daddy wanted more kids. Momma didn’t and she was very loudly telling him that all he had to do was make a child but she had to take care of it.”
Maudie sighed. “They’d been fighting about that for years. He always wanted a houseful of children but she wanted something more than a bunch of wild kids running around her legs.”
“And Momma?” he asked.
“She wanted a career and to live in the city.”
“Why’d they ever get married?”
“Honey, they were passionate. They might have fought like banty roosters but they loved just as passionately. Never doubt that they both loved you.”
Colton ran his fingers through his dark hair. “Now I’m more confused than ever. If Laura and I don’t argue, does that mean we aren’t passionate?”
“You think too much. Let go of the past and listen to your heart. And it’s not sissy to talk about your feelings. Happiness starts with you, Colton, and to be happy, you’ve got to open up your heart. Happiness starts down deep in here.” Maudie touched her chest with her fist. “When you find someone who truly makes you happy, then hang on for dear life.”
“That sounds like experience talking,” Colton said.
Maudie nodded. “It is, but that’s in the past that I’ve let go of. I’m happy now with my life.”
Andy followed Rusty into the dining room and said, “Y’all leave us any food?”
“We ain’t even started yet and it’s leftovers from last night,” Maudie answered.
“I’d eat raw armadillo right now, I’m so hungry,” Rusty said. “Them women left yet?”
“They’re having a day to themselves at the pool,” Colton answered. “They’ll be leaving tomorrow morning. We’ll all have supper tonight with the preacher and Cynthia.”
Rusty rolled his eyes.
Andy Joe’s blue eyes twinkled and a smile covered his face. “We ain’t got nothing to worry about from now on. Roxie says that Cynthia has seen the light and is going for the title of preacher’s wife.”
“Well, praise the lord,” Rusty said.
On her way out of the dining room, Maudie bent down and whispered in Colton’s ear, “My regrets about the past have nothing to do with you. You are the best part of my life.”
***
Every one of the nine chairs was filled at the table that evening. Laura was seated to Colton’s right with Cynthia beside her and Roger next in line beside her. During dessert and coffee, Cynthia leaned over and whispered, “Did it take a long time for you to know you were in love with Colton or did it happen on the first date?”
“Why? Do you think you are in love with Roger?” Laura skirted the question.
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking. I never have believed in love at first sight. But then it wouldn’t be first sight since he’s been preachin’ at our church for a year and I see him every Sunday.” Cynthia continued to keep her voice low. “He kissed me good night after the dance.”
“And?” Laura asked.
“My toenails curled. He’s a preacher, for God’s sake, Laura!”
“He’s also a man who evidently knows how to kiss.”
“He asked me on a real date for tomorrow night. We’re going to dinner and seeing a movie over in Sherman.”
“Have fun.”
“You don’t think I’m crazy?”
Laura patted her on the arm. “Honey, you don’t ask a crazy person that question.”
Cynthia giggled. “Did you know that Colton was rich when you went to work for him?”
“I did and it didn’t make bit of difference to me how much money he had or didn’t have.”
Cynthia nodded. “That’s why he fell in love with you. All the rest of the women were chasin’ him for his money.”
“What are you two whispering about?” Roger asked.
“The future,” Laura said quickly.
Janet and Cynthia had both mentioned that Colton was in love with her that very same day. Apparently, he was playing his role better than she was because no one had said that she was head over heels in love with him. And yet, the truth of the matter was that she was no longer pretending.
“And the past,” Cynthia came in right behind her.
Roger slipped an arm around the back of Cynthia’s chair. “Well, I rather like the present, right here and right now.”
“Too bad y’all can’t stay around for a game of Monopoly. We’re partnering up and Roxie and I are going to whip the newly engaged couple,” Janet said.
“Sounds like fun but we’ve got church at seven. Roger is preaching on the love chapter in Corinthians,” Cynthia beamed. “You should come hear it and play Monopoly afterwards.”
“Will you two come back and play if we do?” Roxie asked.
Laura bit back a groan. She didn’t want to play Monopoly with her cheating sister and she sure didn’t want to sit still and listen to any preaching about love. She was having a hard enough time sorting out her own heart and mind without listening to the well-known chapter about love not being selfish.
Besides, that wasn’t exactly right. When a person fell in love they were selfish. They wanted the other person to love them more than they wanted anything else in the world and they’d do anything to get and keep that love for themselves. That was selfish served up on a silver platter.
“Sure we will,” Roger said. “But only if Cynthia can be my partner.”
“Then we’ll all be there,” Roxie said.
“Since when do you make decisions for us?” Andy asked.
“You going to tell the preacher you don’t want to hear his sermon about love?” Roxie asked.
Andy blushed. “I was plannin’ on going to church this evening anyway, but you ain’t got the right to tell me what to do. Me and Rusty are going to team up and whip your butts at Monopoly.”
Roxie’s eyes twinkled. “Now we got the four teams to play—me and Janet, Colton and Laura, Rusty and Andy, and Cynthia and Roger.”
“What about me?” Maudie asked.
“You are the banker and the ref,” Roxie said.
“You’ve got school tomorrow morning, young lady. If the game isn’t over at ten o’clock then you’ll bow out and I will be Janet’s partner,” Maudie said.
“Oh, me and Janet will whip all of you long before ten!” Roxie said.
***
The Circle 6 crew took up a whole pew that evening and sure enough Roger preached from Corinthians about the qualities that love brought into people’s lives. He started off by saying that after the party the day before and watching Laura and Colton work as a team that he’d been inspired to go back and read that chapter before he went to sleep.
Laura wanted to stand to her feet and disagree with him. She and Colton weren’t the inspiration for his sermon. He’d read that chapter because he and Cynthia had found each other and love was on his mind. Was that why fate had brought Laura to the Circle 6? Not to find her own true love but to cause Cynthia and Roger to find happiness?
If it was, then Lady Fate really, truly was a first-class bitch.
“Is he talking to us or trying to relay a message to Cynthia?” she whispered to Colton.
He laid his hand on hers and squeezed. “You believe that love is all those things?”
“I believe that love is something that two people work at every day, not something that falls out of the heaven.”
Colton squeezed her hand again.
Janet hugged Laura tightly and whispered, “This is the real thing, sister. Don’t blow it. And for your information, I did not cheat last night at Monopoly. Roxie and I won fair and square and it felt damn good.”
Then she hugged Colton. “Take good care of her, cowboy. She might be the best thing that God ever put on this earth.”
Then she was behind the wheel of her rental car and driving away.
Tears streamed down Laura’s face. For the first time in their lives, Janet’s pathway was leading in a different direction than Laura’s. This had to be the way it felt when a child went away to college. It was long past time for Janet to spread her own wings and learn to take care of herself, but it hurt not to be needed anymore.
You’ll always need each other. You are family. You’ve just stepped up to a higher place—one called adulthood
, her conscience said in a rough voice.
Colton hugged Laura close to his side and kissed her on the forehead. “She’ll be back. We have the cattle sale in the fall with a party then and there’s Christmas. Don’t cry.”
Before she could remind him that she’d probably be gone long before fall now that her debt was paid, his cell phone rang. He fished it out of his shirt pocket and listened for a few seconds before shoving it back into his pocket.
All Laura heard was, “Hello,” and “I’ll be right there.”
“Problem?” she asked.
“Big one. Roxie’s in trouble at school. Evidently Granny is in that area over by Bonham where the cell phone service is spotty and I told them I’d come. The social worker is already there.”
Laura’s blood ran cold, like ice water shooting through her veins. “What did she do—kill someone?”
Colton started toward the truck. “Guess she tried to. She and Rosalee got into it.”
Laura followed. “I’m going too.”
“No need. I’ll smooth it over and probably barely beat Granny there. Soon as the social worker finds her, she’ll stop whatever she’s doing and get on over to the school.”
Laura opened the passenger door. “I don’t care who is there. If the social worker has been called in, it’s serious and she’ll need all of us. They can’t take her away from the ranch for this, can they? That rotten Rosalee has been askin’ for this for weeks.”
Colton started the truck and headed down the lane. “I told Granny, you don’t change a leopard’s spots, not even with all the love in the world. Roxie is a sweet kid but she’s got her momma’s blood and worse yet, her daddy’s DNA. We can’t knock that out of her even if we want to, and I’ll fight the system to my last dollar to keep that kid on the ranch.”
The tears dried up instantly. Anger like she’d never known before settled in their place and she stared out the side window at the world speeding past in a blur. She’d known it was too good to be true but she’d think it all through later. Right then Roxie needed her and it didn’t matter whose blood or DNA she had, Laura was going to be there for her.
Colton parked in the school parking lot and she was out of the truck before he could turn off the engine. So what if he had to scramble to catch up with her! After that comment he deserved to be left in the dust.
He grabbed for her hand. “What’s your hurry?”
She pulled it away and shoved it into the pocket of her jeans.
He opened the door for her and she didn’t even break stride as she headed down the hall. When she reached the door marked Principal she swung it open and plowed right in with Colton two steps behind her.
“We are here about Roxie,” she said.
“Where’s Maudie?” the secretary asked.
“She’ll be along but I want to see Roxie now.”
“And you are?”
“I’m Laura Nelson.”
Colton stepped inside the office and the school secretary looked around Laura at him. “This is your new fiancée, right? Sorry I missed the party on Saturday. We had a family reunion over in Whitewright. Roxie is in the lounge with the social worker. We have to call her when the problem involves fighting, stealing, or such. Roxie might not be in the system but well… you know. You understand, don’t you, Colton?”
“Which way is the lounge?” Laura asked.
Colton pointed to a door behind them. “We probably ought to wait for Granny since she’s in charge of Roxie.”
“I’m not waiting for anyone,” Laura declared.
The principal and the social worker were sitting on one side of an eight-foot table with Roxie and another girl across from them. Laura’s heart stopped racing when she saw that Roxie wasn’t bleeding or holding a broken arm. She had a scratch across her cheek but it was superficial. It looked like the other girl would have a black eye for a week or two. Both of them looked like they’d tried to pull each other’s hair out.
“I’m Laura Nelson,” she said.
“Colton, where is Maudie?” the principal asked.
“On her way, I’m sure. What happened?”
“She tried to kill me,” the other girl whined.
“Oh, shut up, Rosalee! You’ve been askin’ for it ever since you got here,” Roxie snapped.
“Roxie,” the social worker said.
Laura sat down beside Roxie and put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned forward and looked at Rosalee. “You want to tell them or should I?”
Rosalee shrugged. “I didn’t do nothing. She just came at me with her fists and started hittin’ on me. I was takin’ up for myself when I scratched her and pulled her hair.”
“Voodoo doll?” Laura asked.
Rosalee dropped her head and blushed. “That was a joke.”
“With a pin shoved through the heart? Don’t sound like a joke to me. Cheating in class to try to steal her boyfriend?”
Rosalee glared at Laura. “He don’t belong with her. She’s white trash. He deserves someone better than that. And I told her so this mornin’ when she got off the bus…” She clamped a hand over her mouth.
“So you antagonized Roxie, did you?” the social worker asked. “Why didn’t you tell the principal, Roxie?”
“I’m not a tattletale,” Roxie answered.
“Well, my work is done. This is your job, Sam.” The social worker looked at the principal.
“Then you aren’t going to take me away from Aunt Maudie?” Roxie asked nervously.
“No, I am not. But whatever punishment the principal hands out you’d best follow it to the letter, young lady. And Rosalee, next time you taunt her, remember that she’s got a mean right hook.” The social worker picked up her file and walked out the door.
“You want me to take her home, Sam?” Colton asked.
He shook his head. “School rules say that fighting gets a person in-school suspension for three weeks. That will finish up the summer session for her. She’ll be in a cubicle all day every day with her studies in front of her. If she finishes before the day is out, she’d best have a book to read because if she falls asleep, that day doesn’t count. Go on back to class, Roxie.”
“What about Rosalee?” Laura asked.
“We have a no tolerance rule for bullying. She will get six weeks of in-school suspension. That means when school starts back the first of September, she’ll owe us three more weeks before she gets to attend normal classes again. We’re waiting on her sister to get here to discuss it and that’s all I’m saying. Privacy laws,” Sam said.
“Then you don’t need us anymore?” Colton asked.
“No, I don’t,” Sam said.
Colton’s phone rang before they reached the truck and he told Maudie what had happened, laughed a couple of times, and put the phone back. He whistled as he opened the passenger door for Laura. He settled into his seat and started the engine.
“What is so funny?” she asked.
“Granny said that she would have decked that kid for Roxie if she’d heard her say that. She also said that Roxie was going to be in trouble when she got home,” Colton explained.
“Why would she be in trouble?”
“For throwing the first hit. Granny’s rule says that you can’t start a fight but you sure better not run from one. Roxie should have waited for Rosalee to start the fight. Now she’ll get a lecture or grounded for a week for starting it.”
“That’s bullshit!”
“What would you do different?” Colton asked.
“Not a thing because…” She stopped and stared out the window.
“Spit it out,” Colton said.
“Because I wanted a mother like Maudie. One who loved us like she does Roxie. So I wouldn’t do a thing different but, hell, I don’t know how to explain it. And if I’m honest, that’s not the only reason I’m mad.”
“The real reason you want to chew up fence posts is because Janet left, isn’t it?”
She glared at him.
He hit the steering wheel with both hands. “What? It wasn’t me that started a fight and got in trouble with the principal. And I told you Janet would be back in the middle of the summer.”
She jerked her head around to look out the side window and clamped her mouth shut.
Roxie
has
more
on
the
ball
than
you
do. She will stand up and fight for what she wants. You are planning to run from it
, that hateful voice inside her head shouted.
I’m not running. I’m leaving because my bloodline and DNA would never be good enough for him
, she argued silently.
It only took ten minutes to get back to the ranch but it felt like ten hours by the time he parked the truck. She jumped out and stormed to the backyard. She gathered up her gardening tools from the shed and carried them to the first flower bed.
“Dammit!” she swore as she started the tedious job of pruning the crape myrtles from the bottom.
“Coffee?” Colton asked a few minutes later.
She whipped around to find him three feet behind her with two mugs of steaming coffee in his hands. Being careful not to touch his hand, she took one and sipped it.
“Now tell me what is really wrong with you,” he said.
“Nothing is wrong with me. Too bad you don’t see it that way.”
Colton nodded toward a garden bench. “Sit with me, please.”
She laid her pruning shears down and felt like she was in Roxie’s shoes, sitting across the table from the social worker and the principal.
At least Colton had the good sense to sit on the other end of the bench and not crowd her. A monarch butterfly as big as the palm of her hand lit between them, its wings flipping up and down.
“I run from arguments,” he said bluntly. “That’s been part of my commitment issues. I hate to fight.”
“How’d you ever get through school?”
“Not that kind of fighting. I did my share of that and just like Roxie, if I broke the rules, I paid the price.”
She sipped her coffee. She had the same problem. She was like the butterfly. The minute she smelled emotional danger, she took flight without looking back.
“Why?” she asked.
Colton sighed and looked at the butterfly instead of her. “I was ten when my folks were killed. Granny says that they were passionate in their love as well as their arguments. But the last thing I heard before they dropped me at Aunt Maudie’s house while they went out to dinner was another fight.”
She wasn’t sure that she understood what that had to do with today.
“That night it was over whether to have more children and my mother said that just one kid was enough responsibility for her. My father wanted a house full and she didn’t. I’m not so sure I can explain this.”
“Keep talking,” she said. That’s what the therapist had said when she’d said the same words to him on the first visit. Besides, Colton looked absolutely miserable and her heart went out to him as much as it had to Roxie when the girl had looked up at her in the teacher’s lounge.
He stretched his long legs out and crossed one boot over the other, raked his fingers through his hair, and finally looked at her. Their eyes locked and she could see pain all the way to the inner parts of his soul.
“Fighting means separation, and since no two people can ever be together without arguments then it stands to reason that commitment will bring nothing but separation. Does that make sense?”
“Perfectly. But why did you ask me to stay if that’s the way you feel?”
Colton blinked and looked away.
She understood on a depth that couldn’t be explained.
“We’ve been burned pretty bad, haven’t we?” she asked.
His head bobbed up and down. “I don’t know what you are mad about, but believe me, I feel it when there’s anger in the air. It would be easier if you were vocal, but you retreat into your shell just like I do. That’s not a good thing, Laura.”
“Well, thank you, Dr. Nelson,” she said.
The butterfly spread its wings and flew away.
Colton started to stand but she reached over and put a hand on his leg. “Don’t you leave me with all this inside me or I’ll explode.”
He settled back into his corner of the bench.
The butterfly came back and settled on his knee.
She took a sip of her coffee and said, “I never knew my father and I never heard my mother fight with anyone. To me, any relationship is headed for disaster because there has to come a time when the other party disappears. Why even start something that is only going to end in heartache? If my mother couldn’t even love me enough to fight for her life and stop smoking and drinking, then how could anyone else?”
***
It hit Colton like a class-five tornado.
It wasn’t Janet’s leaving or Roxie’s fight that had set her off but what he’d said about the blood and DNA. If only a person had the means to erase what they’d said like a teacher removing things from a blackboard.
“Guess we make quite the pair,” he said.
“I have trust issues because of my past,” she said. “You have commitment issues and relate them all to arguments. That doesn’t make for much of a relationship outside of the hot bedroom sheets.”
“You also have trouble spitting out your problems and keep everything bottled up inside of you,” he said.
“And you can’t say what you really feel?”
“What you are really upset about is what I said about Roxie not being able to change what she is by birth and nature. You didn’t pitch a hissy in the truck about that. You just puffed up like a bullfrog.”