The Cowboy's Courtship (5 page)

The fact that church interested his sister was more of a surprise than the fact that someone had bought the
building. Their father had jerked her out of church about ten years ago and she hadn’t been back. Now he thought she stayed away because of the recent past, not the distant.

“The sign in front of it says Sold.” She looked up at him, and then glanced back at Etta. “She looks like Andie.”

“She’s Andie’s sister. I think they might be twins.” He glanced down and smiled. “How’s that for short-term?”

“Good. When did Etta get home?”

“I didn’t say the memory was perfect.” He pointed to his head. “Remember, head injury.”

“You need a keeper.”

“I’m starting to realize that.” He definitely needed someone to keep him on track until his memory returned to normal. If it ever did. He paused at that thought. Not long enough to let it get to him. He was an expert at not letting things get to him. “Are you here to work?”

“You know I’m not. Jas, do you want me to drive you home?”

“Why would I need that?”

“You look pale and you’re limping.”

“I’m good.”

“Yeah, you’re always good.” She hugged him. “I’m heading home. Call if you need me.”

She took the paper from his hand and wrote on it. “In case you forget.”

“I won’t forget.”

As she walked away, he turned back to Etta and Alyson. Something had changed. He studied the woman in worn jeans, a T-shirt and flip-flops. He didn’t remember her being like that. He remembered cashmere. And pink.

Of course Alyson’s grandmother led her directly to Jason Bradshaw. In the few hours the two had spent together, Alyson had learned that her grandmother did her own thing.

On the way to Grove, they had talked about how a younger Etta had backpacked across Europe, lived in a commune during the early seventies, and then found Jesus in a real way and settled in Dawson with Henry Forester.

He died when her children were young and she started a business making tie-dyed clothing.

And now she was making a beeline for Jason Bradshaw, holding tight to Alyson’s wrist, as if she thought her granddaughter might try to escape. And Alyson couldn’t lie and say the thought hadn’t crossed her mind.

“What is it we need to do here, at the camp?” Alyson thought her question might pull her grandmother back and get her on track.

“Well, we’re going to check on Jason and then we’re going to ask Jenna and Adam what we can do to help them get started next week when the first campers arrive.”

“I see.” Alyson had never been to camp, and now she was going to volunteer at one.

“Jas, honey, are you here to work?”

“I think I probably am.” He winked at Alyson. She looked away, scanning the camp, the buildings, the fields.

“There’s Jenna and the guys.” Etta pointed to a woman with a round belly. There were two men with her. One had a protective arm around her waist. The other was stepping onto a ladder.

“She sure looks pretty pregnant.” Etta smiled at Jason, not at Alyson. “Adam’s a lucky guy.”

“I’m happy for them, Etta.”

“I know you are, but a few of us thought…”

He limped ahead of them, ignoring her grandmother’s unspoken question about what people thought. But Alyson wanted to know. What had people thought? Had there been something between Jason and Jenna?

“They were only friends,” Etta answered. “I just don’t know what’s wrong with that boy. He’s never had a serious relationship. Always been that way.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to get serious with anyone.” It made sense to Alyson. So did changing the subject, but something else she’d learned about her grandmother was that Etta was relentless.

“Well, that doesn’t even make sense. Of course he wants to get serious with someone.” Etta made a face, drawing in her brows and scrunching her mouth and nose. “Why aren’t you married?”

“I…”

“Well?”

“I was engaged.”

“I see.” Etta stopped walking. “Is that why you’re here?”

“No, not really. I mean, it’s part of it. I wanted to find you.”

“And you wanted to find a place to hide. We’re more than a shelter in the storm, Alyson, we’re your family. We’re going to be here, even when the storm passes. Make sure you remember that.”

Alyson nodded. “I know. And I’m not here to hide. I’m here because I found you.”

As they approached the group gathered at the corner of the dorm, Jason spoke to the woman, and then glanced
toward Alyson and Etta. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he looked away, and he looked uncomfortable.

“Etta, you’re back.” The woman, round and pregnant, hugged Alyson’s grandmother.

“Well, of course I am. I had a surprise waiting for me.” Etta slipped an arm through Alyson’s. “Honey, this is Jenna, her handsome husband Adam Mackenzie. And that guy on the ladder is her brother, Clint.”

“Nice to meet you all.”

“Are you here for long?” Jenna spoke, her hand going to her belly.

“I’m not sure.”

Etta shot her a look that questioned her answer, but Alyson couldn’t explain. How could she give answers when she had no idea what her future held? She couldn’t explain to her grandmother about her fears.

For a little while she wanted to be a girl from Dawson. She might want to be that person forever. But wanting didn’t undo the realities of her life and a schedule that couldn’t be undone.

Jason smiled at her, making her answer okay. He winked and his hand went to the ladder, shaking it a little, distracting the people looking at her, waiting for answers. Clint Cameron grabbed the edge of the roof that he was working on.

“Give a guy a break when he’s standing on a ladder.”

Jason looked up, pushing his hat back. “Sorry, Clint, just making sure it’s steady.”

“Right.” Clint took another step up the ladder. “Try to hold it steady.”

“Jenna, we’re here to volunteer.” Etta stepped closer
to the group, pulling Alyson with her. “I know you’ve got camp starting on Monday. If you need unskilled labor, Alyson and I will be here.”

“We can always use help.” Jenna’s smile was sweet, and she held on to her husband as if he was the best thing in the world. “I know that I’m not going to be a lot of use, so we could really use kitchen help.”

“Kitchen would be great.” Etta wrapped an arm around Alyson’s shoulders and squeezed. “It’ll be fun, won’t it?”

Alyson made a weak attempt at smiling and Jason laughed. He shot her a look and shook his head. “I don’t know if you want her in your kitchen.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t remember a lot, but I do remember putting out a fire in Etta’s kitchen.”

“Kittens, fires—what in the world kind of trouble are you going to drag out of your hat tomorrow?” Etta asked, still holding Alyson close.

“I’m sure she can think of something.” Jason held the ladder as Clint climbed down.

“Are
you
going to work in the kitchen?” Alyson directed the question at Jason, who was standing by the ladder, pretending it wasn’t holding him up. She knew that it was. She had him figured out. He deflected to keep the focus off him.

She had realized a long time ago that she learned more watching than she did talking.

“I’m not sure what I’ll be doing.” Jason stepped away from the ladder.

“Are you going back on tour when the doctor gives
you the okay?” Clint asked as he pulled off work gloves. “We could really use your help here, with the junior rodeo at the end of camp.”

Jason shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about it. If I can go on tour, I probably will. I need to get on some practice bulls and see how it feels. Or I might try some smaller, local events.”

“You can’t,” Jenna spoke up and Alyson wanted to agree, even if it wasn’t her business. “Jason, come on, is it really worth it?”

“Jenna, I don’t have a family. I’m a bull rider.”

“I hope you’ll think about this,” Jenna spoke softly, and then seemed to let it go.

Alyson listened but she wasn’t going to comment on someone else’s career, not when her own was going down the drain fast. And she didn’t want them to know that she’d fed her curiosity about Jason Bradshaw.

She’d used her computer to search his name and in formation about his accident. He’d been unconscious when they took him from the arena. He hadn’t regained consciousness for twelve hours. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury with symptoms that included short-term memory loss, headaches and dizziness.

He was the kind of person who faced his fears. She had never been that type of person.

But she was here, she reminded herself. She was in Oklahoma. She had left Boston, driven for two days, and made it here. She hadn’t asked anyone’s opinion, hadn’t cleared it with anyone. She had just left.

Because her life wasn’t about fear, or playing the
piano. This was her life, too. She was Alyson Forester. And she knew that, deep down inside, she was strong.

She was strong enough to meet the gaze of a cowboy with a slightly wicked smile and brown eyes that flashed with humor when he winked at her.

H
e had to stop flirting with Alyson Anderson. Jason watched her walk away with Etta and Jenna. The three of them were going to the kitchen to talk about what they should expect next week. He didn’t look away, not even when Clint cleared his throat to get his attention.

“If you mess with that, Etta will be on your doorstep with a shotgun,” Adam warned.

“I know.” Jason turned back to the two other men and ignored the strong desire to seek Alyson out, to get to know her better. “What’s up with the camp?”

“We’re going to have a great summer, Jason. We’d really like for you to be part of this.” Adam nodded in the direction of the barns and stable. “Come on out and I’ll show you what we’re working on. Clint?”

“I’m going to get these gutters finished and head home.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Adam started walking and Jason followed.

They stopped at the gate next to the barn. Jason leaned
against the top rail and looked out at the field, and then in the direction of the indoor arena.

“You’ve come a long way with this place.”

Jason watched the two dozen horses grazing in the field, cows with calves a short distance away. A little over a year ago, there had been nothing here but a few of the buildings. Adam had arrived to find the place half-finished and the money to finish the rest had been spent by his cousin.

What a difference a year could make.

And a year ago, Jason was working hard, fast on the track for a world title. This should have been his year. It probably would have been, if it hadn’t been for the wreck of the season that ended with him in the hospital for a couple of weeks.

Adam Mackenzie wanted him here, working at Camp Hope. It meant more than people realized. It meant staying, being involved. A guy couldn’t do something like this halfway, without total commitment.

Of course, a guy had to be pretty committed to staying full time on the back of a bull, too.

Maybe he was better at commitment than he realized.

Or maybe it was because bulls weren’t people and didn’t expect much from him.

He figured he was an expert at being detached. He’d learned it from the best, his father. Detachment was not getting too close to a mother that fought cancer for a dozen years. Because Jason had known, even before anyone had said it, that he wouldn’t always have her.

He remembered the little ways he had pushed her out of his life. And now he recognized that he’d been a kid trying to protect himself from being hurt.

She had always pushed right back, insisting on hugging him when he was scared, insisting on being at school programs. Later, close to the end, she had talked to him about not being afraid to love someone.

He shook past that thought because it hadn’t gotten any easier over the years. He’d become an expert at being unattached. There were exceptions, he realized. Beth, of course, his sister had always counted on him. They’d relied on each other.

And Jenna. She had needed a friend and he’d been there for her. And she’d figured out a few of his secrets along the way.

“Adam, this camp is a big deal and you know I want to support you.” Jason let his gaze wander—to the dorms, to the steeple of the open-air chapel.

“Yeah, I know. But we’re looking for more than a check, Jason.”

“Right.” A rangy-looking colt walked up to the fence, inching his nose out. Jason scratched the horse’s face and rubbed its neck. “That’s about the ugliest horse I think I’ve ever seen.”

Adam laughed. “Yeah, he’s Jenna’s favorite. Some spooky mare of hers had this thing last fall.”

“She would like it.” Jason patted the horse’s neck one last time and turned away from the fence. “I’ll do what I can for the camp. I have a doctor’s appointment next week. I’ve got people pressuring me about riding next month. And then I’ve got people telling me I’d be crazy to ride.”

“And the sponsors always have to be happy.” Adam walked next to him, slowing his mammoth stride. “I get that.”

“Yeah, I know you do.”

“I won’t pressure you, I just want you to know that there’s a spot for you if you decide this is where you’re supposed to be.” Adam turned and they started the walk back to the main campus area.

Jenna was waiting for them at the dining hall. The boys were playing on the swing that hung from the oak tree nearby. She watched, but her hand kept going to her belly.

Jason shoved aside the moment of envy. Not because Adam had Jenna, but for what the two of them shared. How could he envy something he had never wanted?

It was the epidemic of love and marriage that was getting to him. Everyone had caught the illness, and he was the last one with any immunity. Cody, Adam, Clint—they were all married now with kids, or kids on the way. Clint and Willow were working on adopting child number two.

There were so many happy-ever-afters, a single guy had to keep his guard up. It kind of gave him the willies when he thought about it.

“How’s your memory?” Adam asked as they sat down on the bench next to Jenna.

“Another reason you wouldn’t want me working with kids. What if I put one on a horse and forgot he couldn’t ride. Or forgot that the horse wasn’t broke.” He tried to smile, as if it were a joke.

Jenna patted his shoulder. “We’ll get you a helper.”

“Thanks.” Jason stretched, straightening his leg out and taking a deep breath when the pain hit. Adam had asked him a question. “My memory is improving, though.”

He had remembered Alyson. More specifically, he remembered her perfume, and a cashmere sweater.

“I should head home.” Jason stood up. “I’ll pray about helping.”

He lifted his hand in farewell and walked across the big lawn toward his truck. He worked up a memory of Alyson in blue jeans, flip-flops and a T-shirt. She hadn’t been dressed like that the day he first saw her.

A memory had never felt so good. But some strange twist to his gut told him the memory was dangerous.

After talking to Jenna, Alyson and Etta stopped at the Mad Cow. Alyson walked through the door of the café with her grandmother. It felt better than it had the previous evenings, when she’d come here alone. This time people smiled. They still stared, but it wasn’t like before when everyone was trying to figure who she was and why she was in their town.

Today she was one of them. Kind of.

And she’d never been that before. At least not like this. She’d been in a group of children who all had spectacular musical gifts, so much so that people would pay to see them, to listen to their music.

“You okay?” Etta gave her a gentle push toward a booth in the corner, pausing for a moment to say hello to a friend and introduce her. And wasn’t it wonderful to have her in town?

Alyson smiled, but her lips trembled and it was hard to breathe.

“Hold it together, kiddo.” Etta whispered as they sat down on opposite sides of the booth.

Alyson blinked to clear her vision. It was the restaurant that caused a little bit of a light-headed feeling. The walls
were painted with black-and-white splotches, like the hide of a cow. The booths were black. The tabletops were black Formica. And the tiles on the floor, black and white.

Vera, owner of the Mad Cow, came out of the kitchen carrying an order pad and two menus. She wore black pants, a white top and black-and-white spotted boots.

“Etta, great to have you back in town. And wasn’t this a wonderful surprise? Alyson is back with us. Remember how she loved chocolate ice cream when she was a little thing? Goodness, always neat and tidy, too. And Andie couldn’t ever eat a bowl of ice cream without getting half of it on her face or clothes.”

Alyson blinked a few times, because last night Vera had been pleasant, but hadn’t shared personal stories with her. Even her grandmother had been vague on personal stories. But this story—maybe it explained why Andie wouldn’t have survived their mother.

“She’s still pretty neat and tidy, Vera.” Etta smiled at Alyson. “But from the looks of my kitchen, cooking isn’t one of her skills.”

“That’s okay. She has other gifts.” Vera patted her shoulder. “What can I get you ladies for supper?”

Alyson started to order a salad, but her grandmother shot her a look. “Good heavens, child, do you really want to eat a salad when you could have Vera’s chicken fried steak, smothered in gravy?”

It sounded like an artery-clogging special to Alyson. But her mouth watered and her body chanted something that sounded like, Must. Have. Carbs.

And she agreed. She nodded. “I’ll take it.”

Vera smiled big and scribbled on the order pad. “Now
that’s more like it, sweetheart. A person can’t live on salad alone. You having the same, Etta?”

“No, honey, I’m having her salad.”

Vera laughed. “So, does Andie know her sister is home?”

“I called her this morning.” Etta smiled and Alyson got the impression there was more to the call.

When Vera walked away, Etta stopped smiling. “There’s something you learn in a town like Dawson. You don’t ever give all the facts unless you want everyone to know your business.”

“So what is our business?”

Etta poured sugar in her coffee and stirred it. “I called, but Andie didn’t answer. She doesn’t always.”

“Oh.”

“But she’ll be home. She’ll see my number on the caller ID and she’ll call.” Etta smiled big, as if everything was perfect, but it wasn’t.

Alyson smiled back, but apprehension tugged at her stomach and she couldn’t believe she was about to eat chicken fried steak smothered in gravy.

There were too many thoughts racing through her mind. She was thinking about Andie, about seeing a sister she hadn’t seen since they were not quite three years old. And she couldn’t help but think about Jason Bradshaw.

He was the last thing she should have been thinking about. She’d been dumped a month ago. She’d fallen apart, walking off the stage halfway through a concert, leaving a stunned symphony orchestra trying to pick up the pieces of a shattered performance.

The next day she’d read the article about what how she’d had a nervous breakdown. But she hadn’t. It had
been just the opposite. She had finally walked away from something that she should have walked away from years ago.

Jason woke up the next morning with a pretty clear head and notes next to his bed telling him what he needed to do that day. After a cup of coffee, he walked out to the barn. His dad was coming out with an old saddle.

“What do you need me to do today?” Jason glanced at his watch. The notebook had outlined chores at his own place, a trip to town and stopping by Camp Hope.

“I can’t think of a thing.” Buck Bradshaw tossed the saddle into the Dumpster next to the barn. “Been meaning to throw that thing away for ages.”

A thirty-year-old saddle that had belonged to Jason’s mother. The two men didn’t discuss it, just went on. That’s how they dealt with things in their family. Jason’s dad probably hadn’t planned on anyone seeing him throw the saddle in the trash.

But why now? Jason didn’t ask questions. He wouldn’t have gotten answers anyway.

“How you feeling?” Buck paused at the door to the barn.

“Feeling good, Dad.” Jason glanced one last time at the Dumpster. “I need to run into town, get a few things done. If you need me, just call.”

“I’ll do that.”

Jason was heading down the drive when he saw Andie driving toward town, her truck pulling the horse trailer with the living quarters that she spent most of her time in.

He eased onto the road and followed her. Not the best move—he knew that. He should have driven on out
to Camp Hope. He had it on his notepad. He had talked to Adam yesterday and promised to pray about working at the camp.

And Alyson’s name was written on the bottom of that page. Etta’s other granddaughter. He hadn’t forgotten her.

He almost wished he could. If he could forget her, he could drive on past Etta’s. He could take a side road that would lead him to Camp Hope and away from a situation that wasn’t going to be pretty.

This had to be from the brain injury, this sudden need to be involved in everything, and his own crazy inability to walk away. It had nothing to do with a woman who reminded him of a summer day, kind of breezy, warm and easy to be around.

She even smelled like a summer day.

She was Andie’s sister. And Andie was about to get the surprise of her life. There was no telling what she’d do when she walked through the doors and saw Alyson in her home, with their grandmother. People assumed life didn’t bother Andie. Jason knew better.

The truck and trailer ahead of him turned into the driveway at Etta’s and pulled down to the barn. He stopped next to the house and got out of his truck. As he walked, Andie jumped down out of her truck. It took him by surprise, how much she looked like her twin. He hadn’t seen it before. They weren’t identical, but they were close.

Andie was tough. She was country, the real deal, with her jeans tucked into leather boots, her T-shirt said something about being raised country. Her soft edges were hidden by a sharp personality, a sharp attitude.

“What are you doing here so early?” She walked back to the end of the horse trailer, sprang the latch and then flipped up the bar that kept the doors safely latched.

“Saw you driving by.” Thought she might need a friend. He doubted that now.

“Cool.” She walked into the empty side of the trailer, down to the end, where her horse was tied. She pulled the lead rope and freed him. “Back up.”

The horse obeyed. When he backed out of the trailer, Andie had the lead rope. Her gaze shifted, to the back door of the house. Her eyes widened. Jason waited.

“What’s she doing here?” Those were Alyson’s sister’s first words to her in over twenty-five years. So much for happy family reunions.

“She’s found us.” Etta said, reserved, smiling. “She found out who she is and she came looking for us.”

Andie stared and Alyson waited, not knowing what to do. At least having a twin wasn’t a surprise for Andie. Alyson’s gaze shot to Jason Bradshaw and she wondered why he was there. For her sister, no doubt. They’d always known each other. They were friends.