Colton dug up the flower bed right beside hers and got finished ten minutes quicker than she did. He leaned on the shovel and eyed the other eight. “We could use the garden tiller. I think it would fit in between the timbers.”
“Lazy, are you?” she teased. “Digging takes a while longer but the tiller would chew up the timbers if you got too close to them. We can take a breather and plant flowers in these two and then work on the next ones.”
“Well, thank you, boss lady,” Colton said.
“Don’t be catty to me. When did you last work on this area, anyway?”
“I bought the ranch two years ago. This has been in a live or die situation ever since I’ve owned it,” he said.
“How’s that?”
“It can live or it can die. It’s up to the rain and how tough whatever comes up in the beds is,” he said.
“That’s horrible. This could be a lovely garden by fall with just a little bit of maintenance. And next spring it would reseed and all you’d have to do is water it.”
“Write down the instructions. It can be Roxie’s job if you leave.”
If!
If?
He’d best be learning how to pronounce
when
. There was no
if
to it. She’d signed to work until she got her debt paid. After that she was going to put in her resume at every greenhouse in Texas until she found another job. Hell’s tinkling little bells! She couldn’t stay on the ranch, not with the physical attraction she had for Colton.
“You could be a gardener. I’d hire you to take care of the yard if Andy gets to the place where he doesn’t need an assistant anymore,” he said.
“Then Andy can hire one.” Using a tiny spade, she dug a hole in the loose dirt, tapped a lantana from a black plastic container, and planted it.
For several minutes neither Laura nor Colton said a word. She thought about her comment about Andy hiring a gardener and remembered when he’d said that he would hire her.
It had all happened when she called him after she and Janet had gone to lunch at the diner. She remembered every single word that was said that day when she met with Janet. She’d been so stupid that she had thought for the first time in years that Janet had called her for something other than money.
She’d gotten to the little café early and ordered two bacon cheeseburgers, onion rings, and a couple of glasses of sweet tea. The waitress had just set the food on the table when Janet slid into the seat across the booth from Laura. Her face was pale gray and her blond hair hung in limp strands. Her eyes were sunken and bloodshot.
“You are in trouble again. What is it this time?” Laura had almost wept.
Janet had immediately taken a defensive stand. “What makes you say that? Can’t I call and ask you to meet me for lunch without you thinkin’ I’m in trouble?”
“Not when you look like hell.”
“Well, you don’t look so hot yourself. Have you gained five more pounds?” Janet had said coldly.
“I will never be as skinny as you, but I’m a long way from being obese,” Laura snapped back. “Now what is going on?”
Janet had put her head in her hands. “I’ve stepped off in a real shit storm, sister. I need help and I don’t know where else to go.”
“How much?” Laura didn’t have five hundred dollars in her bank account and found herself hoping that Janet didn’t need all of that.
“Ten grand and if I don’t have it by tomorrow there will be a funeral.”
“Ten thousand dollars!”
Janet had nodded emphatically.
“Holy shit! How did that happen?”
“I won a couple of times at the blackjack tables.” Janet had shrugged.
“I don’t have that kind of money. My truck isn’t valued at half that and I don’t have anything to pawn that would bring in that much. And I got laid off. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry and I’ve had to use what I had saved to keep afloat. I’ve been putting in applications, but nothing so far.”
“Well, your name is better than mine. You’d best come up with it by this time tomorrow or else have your black suit dry cleaned. You’ve got my number. I’m living out of my car. I haven’t even got five dollars for a hamburger. I’ll just take this one with me. I wouldn’t blame you if you threw me to the wolves, but I give you my word, if you get me out of this one, I won’t even play bingo again. And that’s a promise.”
Laura shook the memory from her head and looked across the flower bed at Colton. “Tell me about what it was like before you got rich.”
“I was a ranch hand on a spread down near Ravenna. I bought one lottery ticket a week when I went into town to put my paycheck in the bank. Just one dollar a week. I’m not a gambling man, but I figured a beer cost more than that and it was fun to think about what I’d do if I ever won. And one day I hit pay dirt. Won a million-dollar lottery. The first thing I did was hire Andy Joe. The second was to buy this ranch. A year later he’d made some investments and I had ten times that much so I bought the three ranches surrounding me. Last year he worked his magic and made me a billionaire.”
“And now?” she asked.
“I’m still the same old ranch hand, only now I have money. I still make a tractor work until bubble gum and bailing wire won’t keep it together anymore, and I squeeze a penny until Abe groans. Guess I’ll always be that poor boy who grew up over in Bells and whose granny was a cook in the lunchroom.” Colton went back to the task of getting the soil prepared in the next flower bed.
Laura sunk her little shovel into the ground again and set another lantana plant in the hole.
He talked as he worked. “My folks left me with Granny one night and were killed in a car wreck on the way to dinner. Drunk driver in a semi broadsided them. They said that death was instant and that they didn’t suffer. Granny finished raisin’ me. I was ten that summer. She made me mow the lawn once a week for an allowance.” He chuckled. “I like that you are making Roxie work for you to pay back whatever you spent on clothes today. She’ll appreciate them more.”
“It’s nice to get paid for your efforts, and Roxie is coming out of her shell a little bit,” Laura said.
“I noticed and it’s great,” he said.
She had never gotten paid for all the work she did at Aunt Dotty’s ranch. It just came with the territory. Dotty handed her five hundred dollars the morning that she left and said it was to help her get started. Janet had gotten her the job at the greenhouse and had moved from the garage apartment into a bigger one with her boyfriend of the month. So she’d moved into Janet’s old place and walked to work until she could save enough money to buy a used truck.
He finished spading up two more flower beds while she planted the first two. Then he leaned on the shovel and asked, “You goin’ to water those?”
“Of course,” she answered.
“I’ll get a couple of hoses. If I help, we might still have time for a swim. Don’t reckon we’ll need a workout in the gym after this,” he said.
He snaked two green hoses out across the yard from the back of the house. He handed one to her and started watering one of the long flower beds. She turned the spraying attachment to “mist” and began to soak down the flower bed closest to her.
In a month the flowers would spread out. By the end of the summer there would be an amazing garden to walk through early in the morning or late in the evening. She could imagine what it would all look like and almost feel the cool stones covered with morning dew under her bare feet.
She shut her eyes to get a clearer picture of the garden in full bloom and then
boom!
Cold water hit her square between the shoulders. She spun around and the water got her at neck level.
She instinctively turned her hose to shoot right back at Colton, but the mist setting wouldn’t reach that far. However, the jet one would so she quickly readjusted and the powerful blast had no trouble reaching his chest.
“Ouch! Turn it to spray. You aren’t playing fair,” he yelled.
“Fair. I’ll show you fair.” She flipped the dial to spray and ran to the nearest pecan trees for cover. “I can beat your sorry old ass on any setting. I’m a pro at garden hose war.”
He took off toward the hedges at the other end of the yard. “I’m a bigger pro.”
Colton defended the south end of the yard and Laura protected the north end. Using two big pecan trees to hide behind and a couple of yew plants as cover, she made her way inch by inch to his fortress, the big box hedge up against the south corner of the house. When he peeked out she hit him at the waist and quickly soaked his jeans all the way to his boots. But the win was costly because he took up the chase as she headed back to her pecan tree fort and there wasn’t a dry stitch on her when he ran out of hose.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d played or laughed so hard. Jimmy-the-fancy-hairdresser would be aghast at her blond hair hanging in wet strands. If her shirt had been white she would have looked like she was competing in a wet T-shirt contest. She looked down to make sure that the water hadn’t made it transparent anyway and got a blast at knee level that almost dropped her on the spot. Her feet made sucking noises inside her boots as she turned to take shelter behind her trusty old pecan tree.
She took a deep breath and peeked out around the side of the tree. He was gone. Time for strategy, sprint like a gazelle, hit him hard in the face, and get back to the tree before he could get the water out of his eyes.
Two long strides into the run he popped up from behind a bush. She tried to apply the brakes but her boots were slick and the ground wet from the last onslaught. She and Colton met head-on in the middle of the yard like a gazelle and an Angus bull and the last thing she saw was two hoses dancing around in the grass like snakes spewing out venom as she fell forward onto the sloppy wet yard.
When she opened her eyes she was sprawled out on top of Colton. His arms held her tightly and her wet breasts were pressed against his hard chest. His green eyes had gone all dreamy and soft. One hand left her waist and his fingers twisted their way into her wet hair. She barely had time to moisten her already-wet lips when he drew her mouth to his.
She expected it to show her that the first pretend kisses were a fluke, but it didn’t work the way Laura thought it would. She didn’t want to pull away. She wanted the kiss to go on and on. His tongue found hers in a mating dance that left no doubt that if they were somewhere other than the backyard, this could lead to something hotter than the blue blazes of hell.
Roxie quickly turned off the water supply. “Old people are not supposed to do that in front of kids.”
Laura rolled off Colton but he kept her pulled up to his side with an arm around her. Crazy thing was that it felt right for Laura to be there.
“Y’all are still playacting, aren’t you?” Roxie whispered, her eyes darting around to see if someone was looking.
“She fell on top of me,” Colton said.
“Looked to me like you liked it too much,” Roxie said.
“Where is that shy little girl that used to live in your body?” Colton asked.
“I’m letting her out sometimes.” Roxie giggled and went back inside the house.
“Teenagers! Best birth control on the planet,” Colton said.
“Your kisses must be almighty potent to get a woman pregnant,” Laura said.
“It’s not the kisses, darlin’. It’s what they lead up to.”
“Who won?” Rusty yelled from the side of the house.
“I did,” Colton yelled.
“He did not. I got him wetter than he got me,” Laura said.
“Well, the winner gets to come on out to the barn and help me pull a calf. That damn bull you bred your prize heifer to is throwing one big calf and the momma needs some help.”
Laura wiggled out of Colton’s embrace. “Give me two minutes to get into dry clothes.”
“Me too,” Colton said.
“I won so I get to bring the baby into the world,” she argued on the way to the porch.
“I won and it’s my baby.”
“Stop your bickering.” Rusty grinned. “You are worse than two-year-old kids. You remind me of your mom and dad. Remember how they were always carryin’ on like teenagers?”
Colton nodded. “Oh, yeah, I remember well. We’ll meet you in the barn in ten minutes and we’ll just see who gets to lay claim to that new baby.”
Laura rubbed the heifer’s velvety ears and spoke softly to her. “Come on, sweetheart. You can do this. The first one is always the toughest. After this you can tell all the other heifers what a sweet little daughter you’ve got. Hell, honey, she might even win the blue ribbon at the state fair.”
“It’s going to be a prize bull, not a heifer calf, and I don’t enter my calves in the fair,” Colton said.
“Not anymore. He did when he was a kid. Maudie always let him buy a calf and show it,” Rusty said.
“Trade places with me. My hands are smaller. I can get in there better than you can,” Laura said.
Colton moved to one side but she could feel his eyes watching her every move.
Laura walked on her knees back to the heifer’s back end. She shucked her chambray work shirt and greased up her hand and arm with petroleum jelly. Without even the faintest shudder, she shoved her hand into the cow’s uterus and grabbed hold of a leg. She worked her fingers around until she found the other leg and pulled hard with the next contraction.
“It moved a couple of inches. Come on, momma; you push and I’ll pull,” she said.
The next contraction hit and Laura put all her weight and energy behind the pull. Several minutes and three contractions later she could see two hooves emerging. As long as she kept talking to the heifer, the cow worked with her, but when she quit, the critter rolled her eyes and Colton had trouble keeping her on the ground.
“Keep talkin’,” he said.
“You talk. I’m pullin’,” Laura told him.
“She don’t like me,” Colton said.
“I wouldn’t either if you’d bred me to a bull that was too damn big.”
Rusty leaned on the stall door and chuckled.
“I see the nose. Push, girl, push. You get the head out and…”
Before she could blink a baby calf was lying in her lap and Colton was everywhere at once. Swabbing out its nose and mouth with a towel, yelling at it to breathe while Rusty took care of the afterbirth. The heifer stood up and started licking the little feller. He must’ve been waiting for his momma’s touch because after the second lick up across his face, he sucked in air and let out a bawl.
“Congratulations, you two. You are the proud parents of a brand-new bull calf,” Rusty said. “You done good, Laura.”
She looked down at her messy shirt and jeans. Had it really been only two hours since she was sprawled out on top of Colton in the backyard? Well, he’d sure enough seen her at her worst. Every time he shut his eyes, he’d shudder at the memory of how she looked right then. He might even like the nerdy girl with the glasses better than the way she looked right then.
She should go to the house and get cleaned up, but she couldn’t force herself away from that baby calf. He was so darn cute looking up at his momma with those big dark eyes.
“Please tell me he’s not going to be a feeder calf. Tell me that you will keep him for breeding stock.”
Rusty chuckled. “He chose that heifer because she comes from the best stock in this part of the state. He’s been sittin’ on pins and needles just hopin’ this calf is a bull. Ain’t no way that new baby boy is going to be hamburger.”
***
The black calf stood on its wobbly legs and nosed its momma’s udder. It was going to be a prize bull for sure. One that Colton could use to make a lot of money for breeding. And Laura was absolutely fantastic. Her hair had escaped the ponytail and strands were glued to her sweaty face and she didn’t have a drop of makeup on. He wanted to scoop her up, carry her to the house, undress her slowly, and then give her a hot bath with his bare hands.
“Took both of you to get him into the world. Which one of you gets to name him?” Rusty asked.
“He’s
going
to be hamburger,” Colton said.
“No!” Laura hopped down and bowed up to Colton.
“Oh yes he is.”
“But he’s a bull calf and you wanted him to be a breeder bull. What’s the matter with you? You can’t send him off to the slaughterhouse. His momma worked too hard to bring him into the world and it’s your fault that she had such a hard time. He can’t be steak on someone’s supper table, Colton. He just can’t.”
She fought the tears but finally one lonesome one escaped and trickled down her cheek.
Colton wiped it away with the tip of his dirty finger, leaving a smudge. “Shhhh, don’t cry. I was just trying to pick a fight for fun. His name is Hamburger. I’d planned to name him that all along if he was a bull. His daddy is T-Bone.”
Laura slapped him on the arm. “That was not funny.”
Rusty laughed. “It was a little bit.”
Laura whipped around and pointed at him. “You hush. You knew what he was saying because y’all talked about it. I would have bought him for my own before I let him go to the calf sale this fall.”
Rusty nodded. “Guess I did. But what were you going to do with a bull calf in an apartment?”
“I would have figured something out. Look at those sweet little eyes.”
“You’re not a vegetarian, are you?” Colton asked.
“You saw me eat that steak and rib eye at supper, didn’t you?” she answered.
“You might be doing that to throw me off the real you. Like Blake Shelton sings about in that song when he asks about who are you when I’m not lookin’.”
“Honey, I am what you see. I wouldn’t put on airs or change who I am for anyone, not even a rich cowboy,” she said.
“Hey, that’s a low blow,” Colton shot back.
“Y’all can stay out here and argue until daylight. I’m turnin’ in for the night.” Rusty disappeared into the darkness. His whistling grew fainter and fainter until the noise of a couple of tomcats disagreeing about territory drowned it completely out.
“I need a bath,” Laura said.
“Want me to wash your back?” Colton asked.
***
Laura’s heart stopped, then took off like a bat out of hell, thumping so hard that it made her chest hurt. Did she want him to wash her back? Hell, yes, she did. She wanted more than that, but it wasn’t going to happen because if it did, she just knew deep down in her soul that she’d leave her heart behind when she finished her work at the ranch. And it didn’t take a genius to know that a body doesn’t survive long without a heart.
“I can manage,” she said.
In a couple of long strides Colton was beside her. He wrapped his big hand around hers. She wondered how he could even touch the hand with all the goop on it. She’d wiped it as clean as she could on an old towel after the calf was born, but it wasn’t clean by any means.
“Thank you,” he said softly when they reached the bottom of the stairs leading up to her apartment.
“For what?”
“For helping with the calf and for playing your part in this so well that it looks real.”
“You are welcome.”
For a split second, she thought that he might kiss her but then he took a step backwards and she realized no one was around so he didn’t have to keep up with the ruse. When he dropped her hand, she felt as if something was missing—something vital and life-giving. Surely to God, she wasn’t falling for Colton Nelson. It was all just for show and it had nothing to do with love, trust, and commitment.
She had turned on the light in her apartment and was on her way to turn on bathwater when her cell phone rang. She fished the phone from her pocket and looked at the caller ID, squealed when she saw her sister’s name pop up, and almost dropped the phone in her haste to answer it. “Hello! How are you? Did you talk to Andy? Move over, Daisy. How’d you get into my apartment anyway?”
“And who is Daisy? Are you into something kinky like a threesome?” Janet’s words tumbled out in a high-pitched squeak.
“Are you crazy?” Laura said. “Daisy is the ranch cat and I don’t know how she got into the apartment unless she snuck in when I opened the door. And you know very well I’m not that kind of woman, Janet. For God’s sake, don’t start an argument on the first rattle out of the bucket. I haven’t talked to you in what seems like a hundred years even though it’s only been since the first of the month and I’ve been worried sick about you. All I can get out of Andy is that you are fine and going to meetings but I know that…”
Janet yelled into the phone, “Whoa! Catch your breath.” Then she lowered her voice and said, “I’m fine. I haven’t even been in a casino since I took you to the airport. I think I’m going to make it through the addiction this time. Gambler’s Anon is great. And I was teasing about the kinky stuff. You never could take a joke worth a damn, sister.”
Laura sighed. “Like I said, Daisy is a cat. I’m glad you are staying out of trouble. But I was afraid you were just pulling the wool over Andy Joe’s eyes. Tell me the absolute truth, Janet.”
“Pinky swear. No casino since you left. That last time scared the shit out of me. I realized I’m an addict,” Janet said. “Now tell me about this billion-dollar rancher you’ve hooked up with. You’ll never believe how I found out that you already have a boyfriend.”
“How?” Laura whispered.
“One of my clients, Lacy Ann Walker, has a grandmother who lives in Bonham. The grandmother has a sister who lives in Ambrose and attends church with your boyfriend and his family. Lacy said that she tried to make a move on your cowboy a year ago when she was over there visiting but didn’t get anywhere. How in the hell did a…”
“A what?” Laura asked.
“A goody-two-shoes like you get his attention?”
“And I thought we weren’t going to fight.” Laura sighed again.
“Ain’t possible with us, but that don’t mean I don’t love my goody-two-shoes sister.” Janet laughed.
“You should. She’ll be working double hard for months to pay off your stupid debt.”
“But I promise, I even pinky finger promise, it’s the last time so that should count for something,” Janet said.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Laura said. “Promise me that you are really going to the meetings and you are not going to gamble.”
The line went quiet for several seconds before Janet spoke. “I promise. And I’m sorry, Laura. I mean it.” Several seconds elapsed before Janet spoke again. “I saw his picture on the ranch website. He’s not ugly. What’s the matter with him?”
“He got tired of women chasing him for his money. I don’t give a rat’s ass whether he’s got money or not.”
Janet’s laugh was brittle. “Well, that is definitely the gospel truth. You never did have any sense when it came to men. Always falling for the underdog. Is this relationship going to get serious?”
Laura had to think quickly. She’d promised that she wouldn’t tell anyone that the whole thing with Colton was just a ruse and that included Janet.
“Well?” Janet said impatiently.
“Hell, I don’t know where it’s going. I’m taking it real slow,” Laura said.
“Don’t get bitchy now. It doesn’t suit you. You are the sister who usually quotes self-help Scripture. I’m the bad sister,” Janet said.
“Janet, you are not a bad sister but you’ve got to get past this addiction. I really mean it, so I hope you are telling me the truth.”
“I am. I’ve lied to you in the past but this time is different. I’ll call often now that I’ve earned the right. That Andy has a God complex and you can tell him I said so. Good night, little sister.”
“Good night, Janet.”
Laura laid the phone on the nightstand and headed straight for the shower. Daisy followed her, weaving around her legs and purring as if she was telling a story. The phone rang again. Laura stumbled over the cat and answered without checking the ID that time.
“Andy said that there’s a ranch party coming up and he’s making arrangements for me to fly from Amarillo to Dallas. He’ll have a rental car waiting at the airport. What should I bring? I told him that I have Monday off. Could I stay that long? Can I come on Friday night after I get off work? I promise I’ll make the GA meeting during my noon hour that day,” Janet asked.
“I’m sure he won’t mind. Just talk to him and tell him what you want to do. He’s making the arrangements. I’m not.”
“Formal?” Janet asked.
“Barn dance. Jeans, fancy shirt, and boots. You’ve got all that.”
“I don’t have good memories of a ranch,” Janet said.
“I loved it,” Laura told her.
“You loved the animals and growing things. You didn’t love the life there,” Janet said.
“It wasn’t so bad.”
“It was military camp with no pay and Aunt Dotty was the major general,” Janet said.
“Throw out the bad memories and hang on to the good ones. We were together and we had our own cat. If she’d have let them put us in the system it could have been a lot worse.” Laura laughed.
“But the cat stayed on the ranch when we left.”
“Couldn’t take him to the apartment anyway, and besides, he would have died if we would have cooped him up inside. He liked roaming free in the barns and catching rats and mice,” Laura said.
“How in the hell you can stay so positive has always amazed me. I’ve got to go clean the shop and get it ready for tomorrow. See you soon.”
Laura tossed the phone on the bed and headed for the bathroom one more time, but Daisy opted to stay curled up on her bed.
“Lord, please let her be telling me the truth about not gambling,” Laura prayed. It wasn’t the first time she’d uttered that prayer and probably wouldn’t be the last.
***
Laura knew he wasn’t there when she walked into the dining room. There were no flutters doing backflips in her stomach; her hands weren’t clammy and her heart didn’t thump one time.
Roxie looked up from the end of the table and said, “Good mornin’. Rusty and Colton just left. They’re all wound up about buying a new tractor over in Sherman.”
She was disappointed. She’d taken extra pains with her makeup and hair that morning and had dressed in a flowing gauze skirt and tank top.
“Oh, and Andy said that he had to go into town and talk to some tax people this morning so you were free to do whatever you want on the ranch. So what’s it going to be?” Roxie asked.
“I’m going to change clothes and work in the flower gardens,” she answered.
“You really like that stuff, don’t you?”
Laura nodded. “I really do.”
“Do what?” Maudie joined them.
“She likes to play in the dirt,” Roxie said.