One Last Sunset (The Long Ranch Series Book 1) (3 page)

“Someone else asked her to the dance.”

Mellie scrunched her face up. “But she’s your girlfriend. Did you beat him up?”

“Yes, and that made her mad. She said I was trailer trash.”

“But trailers are fun. We took one to South Dakota.”

“Different kinda trailer, Smelly.” He gave her a gentle shove with his shoulder.

“She sounds…trifling,” the word tangled on her tongue as she tried to say it the way her mother did.

“Guess she is. Maybe I need someone classy like you.”

Heat shot through the nine year old’s body as Sunny ran his fingers through his blond-to-the-point-it-was-almost-white hair. Her heart raced when he reached behind her and for a moment, she thought she’d get her first real kiss.

Instead, he picked up his baseball cap and pulled it tight onto his head. “Well, maybe there’s a few calves left,” he said as he took her chin between his fingers and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

Not what she’d hoped for, but still it left her whole face tingling.

“Don’t tell the guys I was upset.”

“I’d never tell on you, Sunny.”

“That’s why you’ll always be my gal.”

Melody woke on her stomach with her pillow held tight like she feared it would run away in the night. Sneaking back in her window had been a bit arduous. Sadly, her jeans had to be sacrificed. Luckily, it was just the knee and she could turn them into cute cutoffs. Ugh. She was almost twenty-six. She should be able to come and go as she pleased. Unfortunately, her mother didn’t agree.

Something had woke her before her alarm went off. A dip in her bed followed by a thumping noise that reverberated through her skull.

“Mellie.” Her brother Monty was violently poking her head.

The thumping noise must be her brain sloshing against the bone. Seemed fair.

“Mellie.”

“You do know neutering is the best way to deal with unruly animals,” she groaned and cracked her eye, only to see the white of her pillowcase. Another hard thump to her skull aggravated the situation. “Also, I’m trained in said neutering procedure.”

She rolled over to see her brother sitting in a t-shirt with a brown plaid western shirt unsnapped. If it weren’t for his hours outdoors he’d be lighter than her. Instead, his normally milk chocolate skin was now so dark you’d assume he was from the motherland…until he took off his shirt.

“Could I still have sex?” Monty asked when she’d locked eyes with him. “Walt’s taking care of keeping the Long name going so the rest of us are off the hook.”

“Have you told mom that?”

“Please, she’d probably kidnap Ms. Black Texas and send me to Doc’s to procure a sample.”

“Or she could just scrape it off your sheets.” Mel smirked. She swiped at her drapes and noticed a lack of light. “Not that I don’t love you almost as much as peanut butter and jelly, but why they hell are you in my room before the butt crack of dawn? More importantly, why did you insist on waking me?”

“You need to go see MeMaw.”

“Right now?” A shiver of fear shot up her spine.

“No, but you haven’t been there for a few days and Lester needs to be looked at.”

“Ain’t his stitches healed?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why did you wake me?”

“Mom said to.” Monty laughed. Despite being two years her senior, he could be so childish sometimes.

“She did?”

“Yep, what did you do last night?” Monty asked with a raised eyebrow.

A wave of guilt washed over Mel as she smashed her pillow over her face.

“I’m twenty five,” she mumbled through the cotton poly fill. “Why am I afraid to use the front door after midnight.”

“After?” Monty smirked. “You can’t tell me you didn’t sneak out too.”

She tossed her pillow aside.

“Speaking of last night.” Melody sat straight up. “Where the heck were you and the guys?”

“Bible study.”

Mel rolled her eyes. “I thought Clayton was fixing up the cabin?”

“I hope not, then where would we worship?”

Sunlight peeked from the bottom of her teal curtain, giving her an unforgiving alarm that wouldn’t allow her to hit the snooze. Not that her brother would let her anyway. Longs could party as hard as they wanted, but when mama called they were to rise. Whether they be child, spouse, or grandchild.

Shoving Monty playfully off her bed, he slid to the floor with a thump. She sat up and cricked her neck to knock out the last of the hard night of dreams. Jesus, it’d been at least six months since she last thought of Sunny. Now he was back front and center. Who was she kidding? He was always front and center in her mind. Maybe it was time he could see her as something other than the little cousin of his best friend.

After a quick shower and dressing, Mel found a piece of fruit so she could head out before her mother’s lecture.

“You’ll never get a man if eat like that.”

Lecture avoidance tactic one, failed. “What’s wrong with an apple,” she mumbled around it. When she bit down the crunch echoed down the hallway.

“You need hips for a man to hold onto and never want to let go.”

“Is this about me being a lesbian again?” she asked after swallowing her bite.

“Where were you last night?”

“In bed.”

“Before that,” she snipped and crossed her arms.

“Pickin’ up chicks.”

“You better be talking about taking some farm animals out of an incubator.” Her mother crossed to her and fiddled with Mel’s hair. “Mel, there aren’t any eligible men in this area. You can’t expect to find a good man hanging out at some country western bar.”

“You did,” she challenged.

“I did not. I met your father in class.”

“And you thought he was a hick not worth your time,” Mel teased back having heard the story a hundred times.

“Fine, just go check on your MeMaw.” She sighed. “She’ll feed your skinny ass.”

Mel drove past the main house and went to the other side of the ranch where the small retirement home had been built when Mel was little. She had no memory of when MeMaw and Papa lived in the main house. MeMaw never wanted to leave the ranch once she’d married Thomas Long. So, when Papa had to start using the walker, they’d built a three bedroom ranch style home.

“Knock, knock,” Mel called as she entered through the screen door and into the kitchen where MeMaw was drinking her morning coffee.

“Is that my grandbaby here to fix that damn shit eatin’ sooner?” The older MeMaw got, the saltier her language got around the grandkids.

“What’s wrong with Lester?” she asked as she kneeled down and scratched the mutt’s ears. He was a traditional summertime dog. Medium sized, shaggy, some of this and some of that. She’d found him as a puppy three years ago and begged MeMaw to take it in. It had been an argument no grandparent could win against their only granddaughter. The rule for seventy years may have been no animals in the house, but Lester had become a constant companion that spent his days with his head resting either on MeMaw’s feet or lap, depending on where she was sitting.

“I told you not to take his nature.”

“MeMaw, his nature probably spawned twenty puppies that are now roaming wild around the farm.”

“Snip the girls, not the boys. He’s always been a lazy shit eatin’ sooner, but now…” she shook her head in defeat. “I swear he stopped lifting his leg when he pees.”

“He’s perfectly healthy.”

“Yep and he’ll let the devil himself through that front door without so much as a sniff to his ass.”

Mel shook her head and nuzzled it against Lester’s soft fur.

“This dog would kill anyone he thought was a danger to you.”

Her grandmother pishawed her as she waved her on and Mel stood up.

“Your dog is perfectly fine,” she assured as she patted MeMaw on her shoulders. Sitting slightly humped over with a bed jacket and slippers, she brought her coffee cup to her dry lips then coughed spit back into the cup.

“Tell your daddy he needs to check the pipes. I think they’re rusted or something.” Pushing the cup away from her she grumbled, “I ain’t of a mind to pay for water when God provides it.” For being in her seventies Theresa Long didn’t look it. A few wrinkles surrounded her soft brown eyes, but other wise the only sign of age was her stark white hair she kept in a cute bob as if she were still twenty. Her coloring was similar to Mel’s and she had been mistaken for her mother over the years. “I see you cut your hair since I last saw you.”

“Yes.” Mel sighed in anticipation of the chastisement.

“Looks good, you’re too skinny to have long hair.”

The comments made by her family never ceased to amaze her. Not one made sense. “So was Lester the only reason you needed me to come by?”

“I didn’t need you to come by, child. I’d been talkin’ to your mama on the phone the other day sayin’ that damn mutt had taken to humping my davenport. Now what kind of animal does his business with a piece of living room furniture?” She threw up her hands in surrender. “At least I didn’t have to see his lipstick since you stole his nature.”

Mel covered her face with her hands at the crude euphemisms used to describe the act. If she ever slipped and called an animal’s erect penis lipstick in front of Doc Carlisle, he’d probably send her back for another semester of basic anatomy. “Well, I’m glad I got to see you anyway, MeMaw. Lester’s fine and, well, with the plastic on the davenport, I’m sure it’ll be okay.”

“You’re not going to go rushing off, are you?”

“I have to get to the clinic.”

“You’re all done with your studies, but I assume your mother feels you’ve failed in getting the correct degree.”

“I’m a doctor. I’m not sure how much higher I can go.”

“Not that one child. Your mama sent you to get an MRS degree.”

“I’ll get that one in my own time.”

Her grandma’s soft hands covered hers as she smiled. “Just don’t be stupid like those confounded cousins of yours. Or like your Papa’s older brother. Never getting married.” She sighed and looked out the window to the open range. “Then again, the way no one leaves it’s probably best to have a few bachelors around.”

“JT left, got a house and everything.” She left out the info on Betsy. No reason to embarrass him if things didn’t work out.

“JT never liked the ranch, too big. You’ve wanted to live here for the rest of your life.”

There was very little MeMaw didn’t know about everyone she came in contact with. Which made Melody wonder why she was bringing up marriage. It had never been a topic before. “I ‘spose, but the boys think I just want my cut and to go on my merry way.”

“The boys never had to depend on their women on the range.” MeMaw stood and rinsed her coffee mug in the sink while looking out to the mountains at the edge of their land. “Your papa and I would ride the fence line in either direction making sure everything was secure. We’d meet up over by where we set up the cabin by dinner and then… woman worked this ranch as hard as the men at one time. Even the high and proper Loretta put in a decade before the boys got old enough to help out.”

“Loretta? Loretta Long? As in my mother.”

“Don’t let her fool you. She can ride western better than English any day of the week. And rode until her sixth month with each of you. Then your father put his foot down.”

A crackling sound made them both turn.

Then MeMaw filled her cup with water. “Lester, I swear to all that is mighty I’m gonna have Mellie put you down,” she warned as she tossed the water on Lester’s intimate love making with the couch. “I told you that dog ain’t right in the head. You can’t steal an animal’s nature.”

“MeMaw, the faucet,” Mel said since she hadn’t turned off the water.

“I know I’m just flushing the lines. Told you that water’s tastin’ funny.”

Mel got up and filled a cup. Ranch water wasn’t the purest there was, but it did flow down from the mountains. She sniffed the cool glass of water before taking a sip. There was something a bit off, but it wasn’t rusty like when she was younger and her father redid the plumbing. “I’ll tell dad,” she said, tossing the water into the sink and turning off the tap. “Until he checks it out maybe you should—”

“I ain’t drinkin’ that fancy stuff,” MeMaw said and flipped the faucet back on. “Just need to flush it out a bit. Now you get going, maybe ask Doc about that damn dog.”

“He’d just say get an uglier couch.”

Chapter Three

The smell of scrambled eggs woke Sunny as he almost rolled off his twin mattress from high school. Not much had changed in Tender Root… except for Melody Long. Who knew she’d grow into a woman? He supposed it was what happens in the world, but still. It came out of nowhere.

Running his hand through his hair, he rolled from the bed and sat on the edge. He reached for his shirt, pulled it over his head, and tried to take a deep breath, only to get stabbed in the side. Every time he thought the ribs were just a slight ache—little more than a deep bruise—he got a sharp pain from moving and lost his breath. At least he didn’t have to wear that damn wrapping anymore. It was more of a safety precaution to avoid jostling.

Reaching for his pain pills he dry swallowed two and hoped it would help with his stiffness. Living on an ibuprofen diet regularly, the upgrade to narcotics was the only upside of the damn injury.

“Mornin’ mama,” he said as he kissed her cheek before flopping into a kitchen chair.

With a snort, cough, and flush of a toilet, Sunny’s father made his way to the kitchen. “What the fuck are you doin’ here?”

“Love you too, dad.” Retrieving a plate from the cabinet, he set it down for his mother to add a helping of scrambled eggs. Then he dug in the silverware drawer to get a butter knife to tighten the screws on the cabinet.

His father glared at him for making the repair, but he lived here and hadn’t noticed the door was about to come off.

Sunny wasn’t in the mood to apologize because his dad wasn’t willing to take the five seconds needed to fix it.

His father’s hair had gotten thin at the top to add to its graying. Weather beaten skin showed his age as deep crevices outlining his lips and eyes. A hard cowboy that never had so much as a horse in his own name had made the man bitter before his time. “How long you stayin’ for?”

“Probably five, six weeks,” Sunny replied as he leaned against the counter, not wanting to take one of the chairs at the table.

“He’s got some bones that need to heal,” his mother said as she spooned eggs on his two plates.

“Fight or animal?” his father grunted while taking his place at the table.

“Animal,” Sunny explained. “Horse’s hoof got caught in the gate, knocked me cockeyed and I couldn’t recover in time.”

“Couldn’t you of found a use for yourself with the rodeo?” his dad growled while scrambled eggs dropped from his mouth. “We aren’t a damn recovery spot for you to drop in and not contribute.”

“JT said he’d let his brothers know I’m around and could do some light labor. I’m sure they’ll find me something.”

“Yeah, the great and powerful Longs.” He sneered and poked his fork toward Sunny. “You know they think they’re so damn high and mighty with their damn college education. I never needed a professor to tell me how to rustle cattle into their pen or when it was knocked up. A real man works with his hands, not his head.”

Sunny bit back his retort. He could already see his mother sitting up straighter and he was sure her stomach was doing flips in fear of another fight. Worse yet, although he didn’t want to admit it, he needed his parents right now.

“You got any money?” his dad asked.

“A bit I’ve saved. Why, how much do you need?”

“I need a winning lottery ticket. But food isn’t free and last I remember you tend to eat people out of house and home.”

“I’ll take mom shopping later and we’ll get groceries.”

His father’s fist came down on the table, causing the plates to jump. “Goddamn it, boy, did I say I needed your charity?”

“How about I make my self scarce? I’ll head to the ranch. You don’t work there anymore, so that should get me out of your hair.”

“Are you sassing me, boy?” He reached to his waist as if he were wearing pants and a belt, instead of a pair of ratty boxers and a t-shirt.

Sunshine stood straight up and locked his eyes on his father’s. Testosterone overflowed from both men as Sunshine tried to remember to respect his elders. Only the man who’d beat him for his entire childhood wasn’t the biggest man in the room anymore. The fitness centers at hotels, mixed with years of rodeoing had given Sunny a strong firm frame and arms twice the size of his father’s.

Maybe his father sensed the difference because he turned, striking his mother across the face and sending the last of the eggs against the wall.

Instantly, Sunny grabbed his father by the shoulders and tossed him across the small kitchen area into a tattered recliner.

Rage filled the older Parker’s face as he lunged at Sunny. His mother screamed for them to stop, but the bipolar nature and quick temper of his father would not be squelched. There wasn’t a rhyme or reason to his attacks. They’d sent him to the hospital more than once in his youth. He wondered if his absence had started the abuse against his mother or had it always been there and he’d missed it.

“Get the hell out of my house,” he bellowed as he rose his hand.

Sunny caught his hand it and slam it, and his father, against the wall with a crash so hard the pictures fell.

Without pausing to absorb the impact, his father spat out, “No one said you could come back.”

“Please Race,” his mother cried. “He’s our boy.”

“He ain’t never been my boy.” He strained against Sunny’s hold to no avail. “Lazy and useless since the day he was born. Staying out for days at a time.”

“I wonder why that was,” Sunny growled. While he kept his father pinned to the wall his mother was pawing at his back.

“Sunny, please,” she cried. “For me? Let him go.”

The one thing Sunny hated more than anything about his father was they shared the same cool blue eyes. Focused most times, they could become dead when they wanted to hide feelings, almost gray. The blue pools of rage were dissipating and he knew his dad was tamping down his anger, even though his breathing was still labored and his face flush.

Neither Parker could deny Sunny’s mom.

“I’m not your punching bag anymore,” Sunny warned. “If you hit mom one more time, in my sight or not, and I’ll be more than happy to take a charge for killing you.”

“Kill your own father? You are a Long, eating your own.”

Sunny felt his jaw ache from the pressure of gritting his teeth. He’d been used to being his father’s favorite punching bag, but as the two men stared at each other there was a moment of vulnerability and his father turned his eyes away.

“I need a cigarette,” he grumbled.

Sunny released him and slammed his hand on the counter to retrieve the pack.

“It’s almost empty,” he snarled, passing him the cigarettes. “Maybe you need to take a walk.”

“Later,” he spat and shoved the screen door so hard it slammed against the front of the trailer before closing. His father wasn’t one to live with only one pack in the house, let alone one with only a few cancer sticks left.

When his father stepped out, Sunny ran a rag under cold water and placed it on his mother’s face. “How long?”

“Your father has never hit me before today,” she lied. Her reaction to the slap wasn’t one of surprise. “He’s just been so upset about losing his job.”

“Why did he lose it?”

“I told you, the boys are grown now.” His mom shook her head. “He’s worked there for almost twenty years and they just cut him. Walter’s been taking over and there have been a lot of changes.”

There was no love lost between his dad and Walter, but he couldn’t imagine he fired him without cause. If nothing else Walter was a lawyer, or at least he graduated law school and wasn’t about to open himself up to a lawsuit.

Maybe he should just avoid the ranch all together. The Longs, in their own, way ran the town. Respect and all that. If something was going on it might be best to meet them on neutral territory before approaching them. “Can the truck be fixed?”

“Ask…” His mother took a sharp inhale of breath and used the rag to start cleaning up the eggs.

“Stop, I’ll clean this up. What time do you go into the Hard Root?”

“Ten,” she replied and placed her hand over her cheek. “Gotta set up and help the cook prep.”

“I’ll walk you. Why don’t you go get ready?”

His mother took his face in her hands and brought him down to kiss his forehead. “I’m glad you’re back. Your dad loves you, he really does. He’s just ashamed he didn’t become more. You know how that is. Isn’t that why you left?”

He nodded, even though he’d of been happy staying on the ranch and working it. Sunny had been a member of the Long clan for years. When Luce had gotten sick, he spent as much time by her side nursing her as any of her sons. They accepted him without question or reservation. Come to think of it, he might have been the reason his father kept his job for all those years.

Sunny didn’t know what to do with his day. He’d planned on going to the ranch and speaking face to face with Walt, but walking fifteen miles wasn’t on his to do list, even if shady stuff wasn’t going down on the ranch. Worse yet, he didn’t think he’d make it. Not with the heat of July in New Mexico beating down on him. Sitting all day at the Root probably wasn’t the best idea either. Then again, he did owe Carolyn an apology and maybe he could bar back for her.

His mother had done a good job of covering up the redness surrounding her eye. The swelling couldn’t be concealed without a Hollywood special effects team. As they walked to the Hard Root, she told him about the changes in the town. The high school had made it to the quarterfinals in football, while Mr. Jenkins finally closed the five and dime shop after Wal-Mart came to town.

“Maybe you could get a job there,” she suggested, then second guessed herself. “I guess not. Your father said cowboys don’t work there.”

“Mom, I didn’t say it was a bad idea, but I doubt they’d hire me for six weeks.” He sighed as he held the door open for her. There was nothing in the cowboy code banning an honest day’s work after all. “It was a good suggestion. I just don’t want to stay here.”

“Your dad tries, he really does. His dream is to be the Long’s. Have a ranch you’d work with him on.”

“Huh,” he said and looked at the cabinets, only to see another door was hanging from the edge. “Dreams only last until you wake up.”

* * * *

“Melody,” Velma said as she poked her head in the lab. “There’s a woman here to see you.”

Velma seemed visibly shaken.

“Is something wrong?”

“She’s—I’m assuming…” Velma wrung her hands as she tried to settle herself. “I don’t think she’s a local.”

Mel put the semen sample back in the fridge and washed her hands before proceeding to the lobby.

A scream greeted her as her best friend from college rushed her and caught her in a patent hug that had Mel praying for release. “Kendra,” she gasped. “Release me.”

The larger than life in everyway friend had gotten Mel through every struggle in her college life. Although they were on similar paths Kendra was taking the long drawn out way, unlike Mel who stayed summers and had over a years worth of credits when she started college. With long braids, mahogany skin, and eyes the color of night, Kendra had always had more than enough attention to keep her distracted. “Girl, you said you came from BFE, but damn, I thought I was about to find myself on the way to a lynching or something.”

“What are you doing here?” Mel laughed at her friend and finally took in the outfit that had Velma about to pass out.

Hot pink halter top that exposed her belly button piercing, black shorts that held on to an ass she wasn’t sure fit into a seat, and hot pink cowboy boots with rhinestones. The hat was the kicker. Who knew glitter was the way to go. Yeah, a far cry from what usually walked through the door.

“I needed to get my cowboy on…or at least figure out what this redneck is talking about at school.” Mel put her hand on Kendra’s back and ushered her to the lab, not that it would silence her. “So I figured who better than the queen of the ranch herself to teach me.”

“First rule, those boots…Wow, no.”

“These?” Kendra twirled her foot in circles while extending her leg. “These were a steal at one of the boot places in El Paso.”

“Steal…yeah, they stole something.” Mel retrieved her sample from the fridge and started to deal with that mess instead. “Your self respect.”

“What? This isn’t what all the fashionable cowgirls wear these days?”

“Not outside of Branson and even then it’s questionable. Can you tell me something?” Mel asked.

“What?” Kendra sat on the stool next to Mel.

“Exactly how many rubber snakes needed to die for that outfit?”

Kendra removed her hat and ran her fingers around the band. “You know me, I’m a sparkly girl.”

“Yes, you’re blinding me like a vampire I’d like to stake.”

“Ouch.” Kendra placed her hand on her chest. “Well, you weren’t there to guide me. Why are you here instead of interning closer to school?”

“Because the rent is free and Dr. Carlisle helped me a lot through high school and college.”

“Ugh, the great Dr. Carlisle. Tell me truthfully, is he some hot ass cowboy with a crooked smile and abs formed in the Greek god section of heaven?”