One Last Sunset (The Long Ranch Series Book 1) (2 page)

“I swear you will put me in an early grave.”

“That’s okay, daddy said there’s still room.”

“Why did you chop off all your hair? Are you trying to be a cowboy?”

“I distinctly remember you swooning over how elegant Halle Berry was at the Oscars with the same hair cut.”

“You are not wearing
Ellen Saab
, you’re wearing
Wrangler
.” Her mother held Melody’s chin between her fingers and turned her head from side to side. “I suppose it’s not that bad. Your face is angular enough to pull it off.”

“What about the bald fade?” Mel teased and her mother fussed, but eventually released her chin.

“Do I even want to know what you did today?”

“Vaccinations, mama, nothing vulgar or disgusting. Just stick and go.”

“Well, that’s good. How much longer do you have in your internship?”

“A few weeks, but Doc Carlisle said he’s scaling back his hours in the next few years. Until then he can hire me part time. Walt said they’d take me on part time too, so I should be able to get my own place.”

“Long’s don’t do that,” her mother scolded with her eyebrows bunched. If nothing else, MeMaw Long had laid down the rules when Loretta married her father Henry. “We may send you to college, but you’ll live on the ranch.”

“You’ve got to make a decision.” She looked her mother straight in the eye. “Can I be a cowgirl or not?”

“How about being a Southern lady?”

“Now, what fun would that be?” she asked as she stuffed a big bite of steak in her mouth.

Her mother didn’t say anything.

After a little bit of awkward silence, Mel asked, “Where are the boys?” She knew her father went to sleep by eight, but her brothers Miles and Montgomery were usually around doing something.

“They were going somewhere with your cousins.”

The Hard Root, Melody thought with a smirk. The local bar tended to be the Long family’s favorite hangout. Three generations had made it their home away from wives and children. Since Melody turned twenty-one she’d pissed off the boys more than once by showing up there. Thankfully, the owner loved her. When she saw her mother yawn that was her clue to copy the motion and pretend to crash.

* * * *

With a jerk, the bus came to a stop outside of the Frosty D ice cream shop. At the edge of downtown there was a small window on the side that tickets could be bought. It wasn’t a long stop for the bus unless someone was getting on or off because they’d had an hour break in El Paso. After heading back to the front of the bus to take care of her kids, Sunny didn’t see the mother again before she got off there during the break. JT, his childhood friend, would have been proud of him for doing the respectable thing.

Hoisting his duffle up on his shoulder, Sunshine made his way to the trailer park a mile away. Tender Root wasn’t a bad little town so walking at midnight was far from dangerous. Few people were out and about in the summer time heat anyway. High schoolers enjoying the freedom afforded to them for two months out of the year buzzed past him on dirt bikes, but were smart enough not to start trouble.

He’d been home a handful of times since going on the national rodeo circuit with JT. Although there were a few changes, each time he returned to Tender Root he was twelve again.

A distant light called to him, reminding him of the only place that felt more like home than the Long Ranch. The Hard Root, a brick building with no windows and a steel door, had a lighted glass sign currently flickering from a bulb dying. It didn’t need the neon signs promising one beer or another. No, everyone knew what the Hard Root was and exactly what you could get there.

A nice cool drink, and possibly a woman minus the baggage, might get him past the dread walking into his father’s house caused.

Sunshine waved at Caroline still tending bar. Estimating her being in her late sixties at a minimum, the silver haired owner ran the toughest bar in the area.

Today, her long hair was pulled back in a twist with a clip holding it in place. “Now here I thought it was closer to midnight then noon.” Caroline toddled her way to him. The broken ankle that had never healed correctly had ended her barrel racing career and added pounds to her once dainty frame. “Who let sunshine into my bar?”

Flipping the board at the end of the bar up, she rounded the corner and pulled him into a tight hug. Caroline Turner was one of the few people in town that never treated him as a nut who didn’t fall far from his father’s tree.

“Be careful,” he winced at the five foot two barmaid with the vice-like hug directly on his cracked ribs. “I’m coming back battered and bruised.”

“My poor baby, let me get you something to ease that pain.” Caroline went behind the bar and poured him a draft and shot of Jack.

“Hey, can I stow my bag, so I can hit the table?”

“Pass it here, baby.” She took the bag and he took his shot, then grabbed his beer and headed to the pool table.

He placed his quarter in line and waited for an opening. A half hour later, he was lining up to break when a very fine ass was leaning over the bar, distracting him from the end of his cue. Shaking off the vision, he shot, and with a click and clatter, the balls exploded from the triangle and bounced around the table. The yellow one ball rolled into the side pocket, and he walked around the table while chalking his cue.

The jeans hugging the woman shifted to show off an onion ass…the nice round, plump type of ass that could make a man cry. With trim hips, his eyes traveled up the woman’s frame. Her head was turned in the other direction and all he could see in the dimly lit room was a cowboy hat and short, dark hair barely peeking from the bottom.

“You shooting?” the older man across from him asked.

Sunny looked over the break. There was a chance he could sink the five into the corner pocket if he angled it just right. As he lined up the shot, a noise caught him right as the cue made contact with the white ball. It bounced around the table, making a full diamond before coming to rest next to the six.

“I said back off,” a woman snapped.

Sunny turned to see the woman he’d been eyeing backhanding a Hispanic guy sitting next to her.

“Come on, you know you’re the jerk-off queen,
puta
.”

Sunny may have gotten a D in Spanish back in the tenth grade, but he grew up in these bars and he knew full well what
puta
meant, even without the guy’s inflection.

When another man stepped behind her, she was trapped, and Caroline was too busy filling drinks on the other end of the bar to notice the fight.

“Let’s go outside and you show me how you get paid.”

“How about you go take a flying leap?”

All right, that was a clear cut no. That was all Sunny needed to step in. Tossing his cue to the next guy in line, he strode over to the bar, stepping between the woman and man. He did so with such force the man’s hand, which had been clutching her wrist, snapped back. “I believe the woman told you to fuck off.” Sunny suggested he move on with a bit too much of a shove.

“Fuck you,
Blanco,
this is between me and the
puta
.”

“See, that’s where we have a problem,
gringo
,” Sunshine said. Stepping closer to the man had the desired effect of the guy backing off just enough that when Sunny swung, there was no chance of elbowing the girl on accident. “Outside of your sister, I don’t know any
putas
in this town.”

The man reared back and Sunny ducked while landing an uppercut to his gut. He tried to stand up, only to have Sunny’s patented left knock his ass to the floor. Turning on his heel, he kept his fists up ready for the punch from the guy’s friend, who ended up just looking at him with his hands raised as he backed up.

“Sunshine,” Caroline snapped, but there were more important things than a scolding right now.

“You okay?” he asked, catching the most beautiful set of mahogany eyes he’d seen in years. Something familiar looked back at him as the woman licked her lips and looked down meekly. Her smooth chocolate skin was devoid of any blemish and although she didn’t have an ounce of makeup on, her eyes seemed naturally defined. Her full lips were a burnt red and he ached to touch them. She must have been passing through. Black cowboys not named Long were rare in this part of New Mexico, and cowgirls, black or not, were as prevalent as unicorns.

“It’s my fault, I thought my brothers or cousins were going to be here to protect me,” she said as her fingers curled around the beer bottle she was gripping tightly.

“Well, next time be sure,” he said, placing his finger under her chin and turning it upward. “That face should never hear words like that.”

“It’s the ears that hear, Sunny,” she smirked back.

“Smelly Mellie?” he asked and instantly felt like a schmuck when she rolled her eyes and turned to the bar.

It was a normal reaction—the lone girl on the Long Ranch had been the victim of the boys’ torments since before he could remember.

“Um, Sunny, Caroline wants you.”

“Caro—” When Sunshine turned he saw the sawed off shotgun Caroline kept behind the bar leveled at him. “I’m sorry sexy, I was defending the honor of a woman.”

“You know the rules,” she said coolly, but he could tell she didn’t have the heart to go through with the trigger pull. “One punch, one shell. You want it in the ass or the chest?”

“I’m already injured,” he said, putting his best puppy dog eyes on her.

“Is he dead?” she asked, pointing the gun down to the unconscious Mexican on the floor.

Sunny nudged him with his boot.

The guy groaned.

“Nope.”

“Fine,” Caroline said, tossing the gun on to her shoulder and turning her eyes to Melody. “Mel, you okay?”

“Yeah, Caroline, I’ll just settle up and head home. You haven’t seen my family tonight, have you?”

“Nope, can’t say that I have. Only Long ranch hand around here is Sunny. Why don’t you head home and I’ll let you settle up next time.”

“Thanks, and he doesn’t work for my family,” Melody replied.

The shill in her tone sent icicles down Sunny’s spine.

Melody took off to the door.

Sunny had to double time to catch her before she got outside. Wrapping his rough hand around such a delicate wrist was a contrast he hadn’t expected. He’d not thought of Mellie for years and the last memory was not of this vision. “Mellie—”

“I prefer Mel or Melody. Mellie is like nails on a chalkboard to me.”

“Melody,” the name rolled from his tongue like honey and he saw the appeal. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was you.”

“I know I’m forgettable.” She turned.

He tugged her back so quickly she crashed against his body. He had to admit her soft curves melded to him like a kid leather glove. “I’ve never seen your face without a book covering it.” Sunny cupped her cheek and slowly stroked his thumb over her bottom lip. She quivered in his arms and he quickly released her. Shit, she was JT’s baby cousin. Between JT and his brothers and her brothers, she was persona non grata for any man that wanted to stay one.

“Well, you’ve been gone for a while taming bulls and all.”

“Broncs actually,” he replied with a shrug. “JT kicked my ass when I tried to get on a bull, then got me booted from the rodeo.”

“JT would kill for you, don’t run that on me.”

“Okay, so I broke a few ribs and he tattled on me, same thing.”

“Not really.” She snorted. “Well, I have to work in the morning.”

Sunny wasn’t ready to let her go, not yet. She might just be worth the ass whooping. The years he’d been away had let her fill out into a woman. Last time he remembered her she was a stick that could easily hide behind a briar. Now between her hips, chest, and full beautiful lips she’d turned into the type of woman a man would lose his senses for a taste of. “Let me walk you out,” he suggested as he noticed the guy was pushing his way up from the floor finally.

“You still have that nasty left, don’t you?”

“Appears so,” Sunny said as he ushered her out to her car. “Mel…you really shouldn’t come in this place alone.”

“I don’t see anyone hanging out with you here.”

“I can take care of myself,” Sunny said as he eyed the guy stumbling from the bar and his friend who called in backup. At the edge of the parking lot, he saw the man who had seemly surrendered initially now standing with a dozen other guys. If Sunny didn’t want to add to the number of broken bones rattling around in his body he needed to move, but his feet wouldn’t be fast enough. Especially when he couldn’t take a deep breath. “Hey, you mind giving me a ride home? I may be your knight in shining armor, but I’m minus my trusty steed.”

Melody looked to the side of the building where the group of men were examining his handy work with growing rage. “Get in.”

Chapter Two

Melody had no choice in the matter. That’s what she’d keep telling herself as Sunshine Parker sat next to her in her tiny sedan. Funny how the four door vehicle, which was never tight when she used it each year to move to college and back again, was suddenly claustrophobic with Sunny’s broad shoulders and muscular arms straining against his t-shirt. The scent of man filled the car and she flipped on the AC to avoid the windows being put down.

Five and half years her senior…five years, seven months, and twelve days to be precise. Not that she’d counted more than a dozen times. While she was away at school, she rationalized the childish crush had been puppy love brought on by the only non related guy on the farm. Sadly, that theory flew out the window the second she saw him in the bar. Damned if he wasn’t who’d she’d been trying to turn her boyfriends into. College lovers, of course. She hadn’t dared date in high school. Then again, most boys were afraid of who she was and the baggage she carried. Not to mention the five overly protective family members who weren’t afraid of taking a charge for beating up a minor. By college, finding muscle bound blonds were a dime a dozen at Texas Tech.

Sunny was different, though He came with the same moral compass she’d been raised with. That, and a smile that made heat fill her cheeks and her eyes turn down. “Soooo…” She tightened her hands on the steering wheel. “How, um, long are you staying?”

“Hopefully not too long,” he said, taking his black Stetson off and tossing it on her dashboard. His fingers rustled through his almost white blond hair. “I was just hitting my stride.”

“Aren’t you a bit old to still be rodeoing?” she asked, then bit her bottom lip.

“I thought I left JT twelve hundred miles away.”

“You know us Longs,” she sighed. “Always digging in where we don’t belong.”

Sunny shifted in his seat, then rubbed his side. It was then she noticed the hitch in his breath. His lips pursed and he sipped air. With a strangled curse, he put his head in his hands.

“You’re not going to hurl in my car are you?”

“No,” his response was quick and strained.

“How much did you drink?”

“Hadn’t…” He sucked in a deep breath. “…Even finished one.”

Melody pulled over to the side of the road.

Sunshine turned his head. Their eyes locked, but his lips drew her. No longer pink, they had a blue tint to them.

“Sunny, what’s wrong?” Chills shot up her spine as she took his strong jaw into her hands.

He was struggling to breathe, but wasn’t panicking. Instead, he wrapped his fingers around hers and removed them from his cheeks. He reached for the door handle and got out of the car.

“Talk to me, Sun,” she cried as she ran around the car to stand by him. When her hands made contact with his firm abdomen and back, she felt padding around his center. “What happened?”

He was still sipping air like it was at the bottom of a glass.

Mel ran through all the diagnostic possibilities she could, but what type of animal could she compare him to? Pig? Dog? Shit, that was her damn brothers running interference through her brain.

“I’m good, Mellie…” He swallowed a big gulp of air. “Melody.” The deep Southern drawl made her name sound like a country song from the seventies. “Just cracked a few ribs and I left my inhaler at the bar.”

“We’ve got to go back there then.”

“Nah, I’ll be good until tomorrow.” He gave his half crooked smile as he eased back on his heels, and her hands glided down until she was about to hit his belt buckle. “That’s why I came home, gotta recuperate. Didn’t JT tell you?”

“I haven’t spoken to him in almost a month. We’ve just played phone tag a few times.”

A shit eating grin lit up his face and his color began to return.

“What?”

“Oh, I’m letting JT drop that bomb.”

“What bomb? Okay, now you
have
to tell me,” Mel whined a bit and wished she could pull it back.

“Remember Betsy?”

“Remember her?” Mel let out a loud laugh at the woman who’d rocked the Long Ranch down to its core. Educated and refined were must haves for anyone joining the Long clan, but black was the unspoken requirement. “Don’t tell me, he found another reporter.”

“Nope,” Sunny said as he placed his hands on the roof of her car and let his head drop.

“Then what? Is he dating a white girl again?” The words bit back at her when her mother’s voice entered her head. “That sounded bad.”

“No, it was a very
Long
thing to say.” Sunny turned around and hopped on the hood of her car. “Remember, I’m the token white friend. I’ve heard much worse over the years, because I guess I don’t count.”

He counted to her. Oh, so damn much.

As his legs dangled off the side of her car, his feet kicked at the dirt. Sunny wasn’t the tallest guy by far. He pushed six foot in his cowboy boots, but his build…shoulders so straight and broad you could use them as a ruler. Although he had the slight bow to his legs most riders acquired over the years, his thighs maintained a thick muscular form. Then again, if she remembered right he rode bareback, which required even more leg strength.

“Why did you bring up Betsy?”

“Because she works in Minnesota, that’s why he bought a farm there.”

“He sold his share in the ranch, so he could stalk his ex?”

“Hey, they were hitting it off like the old times for a minute there.”

“You saw her?”

“Hell yeah, she covered the rodeo I got hurt at.” Sunny ran his strong fingers through his hair and turned his eyes to the ground. “I kinda fucked it up for them, again. I thought I was helpin’ at first then, well, shit turned pretty quick when I got hurt.”

“JT and Betsy.” Mel shook her head, then saw an opportunity. If her cousin, who’d dropped out of college to chase the rodeo, could get the family to accept Betsy, a white girl, then maybe, just maybe…

The streetlight cast a shadow across Sunny’s face illuminating his profile. He had a small bit of stubble, but he’d never been one to grow any type of facial hair. Instead, he had the smooth baby face with a strong jaw in contrast to his gentle demeanor. “Mel, I need to know something.” He stood and the soft tone of his voice made her knees quake. “Why were they calling you a puta?”

Heat filled her cheeks and she quickly turned away.

Sunny caught her upper arm. His hand was strong and there was no give, but he didn’t hurt her.

“I’ve been working with Doc Carlisle,” she replied.

“And?”

“And I seem to have a knack when it comes to animal husbandry. Let’s just say I can cut collection time by over half.”

“Oh.” His smirk returned as he released her arm. “Still, those guys should know better than to call a Long anything as nasty as a whore.”

“They’re new to town and I’m the only female Long without a husband. Well, except Vanessa, but she’s only three.”

“And we’re hoping not as adept with the male of every species?”

“You want a black eye?”

“From you?” he teased and arched an eyebrow. “Will you kiss it afterward?”

Her stomach tightened as she bit her bottom lip.

“My bad, I forgot who you were.” Sunny ran his fingers through his hair as he shook his head. “You know me, I can’t turn off my flirt gene.”

She remembered all too well about Sunny’s flirt gene. Even when not aimed at her, she couldn’t help getting turned on. First, the rush of him coming to her rescue, now the request of a kiss that she wanted to give him more than anything, caused heat to surge from her center. Now, she felt a strange ache in breasts. The buzzing in her head swirled and she placed her hand on the hood of her car to find balance.

“I better head home before it gets too late,” Sunny said as he slid into her car.

* * * *

There were seventy five mobile homes in the Rootin’ Tootin’ Mobile Village where he’d been raised. Three rows over, six trailers up, right by one of the speed bumps his father’s old Bronco was stuck on a jack with its driver’s side front tire removed. Rust had eaten away on the back door where the spare tire should have been. Dust covered the windows making him think it may have been up there for a while.

“Thanks for the ride, something tells me I better avoid the Hard Root for a few weeks,” Sunny said, trying to turn the five minute ride into more. God, he wanted so much more and it killed him to think of the skinny little girl they’d picked on when he was young had turned into quite a woman. JT’s scolding him for choosing his women by their measurements and not their mind echoed in his skull. If he even thought of dating Mellie, he’d have to make sure it was for more than the curves captivating him.

“At least.” Melody licked her lips as her eyes stayed straight ahead. “Come out to the ranch and at least say hi while you’re home. With you around, JT doesn’t seem as far away.”

“Yeah, because we look so much a like.”

She finally turned to look at him, but her fingers stayed tightly curled at ten and two. “What can I say, when I look at you I see JT.”

Well, if that ain’t a big road block to anything with Mel. No one wants a kissing cousin, especially the Longs. They sent the kids away only long enough to find a suitable girl to bring home…then again, no one wants to send their daughter out into the cold cruel world. Sunny kicked himself for the hundredth time in the last fifteen minutes.

He watched as Melody’s red tail lights went down the aisle, then turned. He sighed and realized he’d left his clothes at the Hard Root.
Fuck.
Three steps covered in faux worn down grass were the only thing separating him and the white trailer with the barn red stripe around it. Knocking on the aluminum door caused a rattle as if it weren’t even really closed. It took three more attempts for his mother to come to the door.

“Sunny,” she cooed through a yawn. “I’m sorry, baby, I fell asleep watching the news.” She ushered him inside.

His mother was a sight he was always torn about. On the one hand he loved her more than anything else on the planet. On the other, he hated that he hadn’t made it big enough to get her out of the park and away from his father. Then again, she’d probably never leave the son of a bitch.

“Hey mama,” Sunny said as he wrapped his arms around her tiny frame and tried not to crush her in his embrace.

Her tanned face had deep lines from the sun and cigarettes. Not hers, but his fathers.

“How long has the truck been up like that?”

“A few months.”

“How’s dad getting to work?”

His mother began scrubbing the kitchen counters absently. As she put away the dishes in the rack, he placed his hands on her shoulders.

“How long has he been out of work?”

“The Longs let him go when the boys came back from school.”

He knew his mother well enough that she was making excuses. Coming home from college had never been a reason for the Longs to fire a hand. “How have you been surviving?”

“They let me pick up a few shifts at the Hard Root in the afternoon.”

He gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze. “What really happened to dad at the Long Ranch?”

“I know you don’t like me working at the Hard Root, but Sunny, I don’t work past seven.”

“Then you walk home, over a mile at seven at night after being on your feet for hours.”

“I’ve never been too proud to put in a day’s work.”

“Yeah, there’s only one Parker that’s too proud.” Sunny tossed his hat on the corner of the tattered brown couch and ran his hand through his hair. “You got a bed for me?”

“Of course.”

* * * *

“What’s wrong?” Mellie asked as she slowly approached Sunshine Parker as he sat at the top of the hayloft steps. Usually, he and JT were attached at the hip, but JT was helping brand some new calves. She hated the screams of the animals and tended to stay away from the pasture where the rest of the boys and farm hands were.

“Why you thinkin’ something’s wrong, Smelly Mellie?” he teased, but she could hear the hitch in his voice.

With one hand over the other, she climbed the ladder and he helped pull her onto the edge next to him, then turned away. His hand wiped at his blushed cheeks that hadn’t started growing facial hair like JT had. Even Clay had begun showing a little peach fuzz and he was only ten.

“You aren’t with the other guys and…” Mellie twisted her fingers together and until the knot hurt. “Well, I kinda saw you crying.”

“I wasn’t crying,” he snapped, then his eyes softened. “Sorry, there’s a dance at school.”

“I know. JT’s going with Erika.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sunny said as he kicked the top rung of the ladder.

“Did you wanna take her?”

“No, I wanted to go with my girlfriend.”

“You have a girlfriend?” Mellie asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, I do…or I did. Don’t act so surprised.”

“What happened?”