The Trouble with Texas Cowboys (27 page)

“How about a couple of bags of those heart-shaped red hots and some of those conversation hearts to go on the bar instead of pretzels and peanuts?”

She pulled her wallet from her purse, ripped off a check, and fished around until she found a pen. “I'm going to make a list. Candy for bar. Keep thinking, and I'll write it all down as we travel.”

By the time they reached the outlet mall, the back side of her check was filled with ideas. He parked, and hand in hand, they started toward the party store. It was two stores up from the jewelry store and just past the leather-goods place where they sold boots, saddles, and all kinds of hand-tooled jewelry and luggage.

“Want to dash inside the leather store for a few minutes?” he asked.

“No, darlin', I want to get this list taken care of and then get an apple dumplin' over at that Cracker Barrel place,” she answered. “But it doesn't take two of us to buy party goods. You go to the leather store if you want to.”

He gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “I'll only be a few minutes.”

He darted into the leather store for about thirty seconds and then went straight to the jewelry store. He wanted a necklace with a heart pendant to give her for Valentine's Day. The one he'd seen online had a banner across it with
I
Love
You
written in tiny, sparkling diamonds. If he couldn't find that, then a bracelet with interlocking hearts, but it had to be yellow gold.

“Help you, sir?” an older woman said from behind the counter. “I bet you are doing late Valentine shopping.”

“Yes, ma'am. I was thinking a heart necklace,” he said.

“Sold the last one a few minutes ago. This year, folks are going in for infinity symbols more than hearts, so we didn't order many of those. Want to see what we've got left?”

“Yes, thank you. Yellow gold.”

“That limits it. White gold is still the rage with the young girls. Yellow gold hasn't been in vogue in years. In my opinion, it's far classier. We have one double infinity bracelet in yellow gold. It's all the way to the end of the display case beside the collection of antique rings we just got from an estate sale.” She motioned for him to follow her.

She brought out the bracelet, and he nodded.

“I like that better than hearts. I'll take it.”

“Wrapped? We have some lovely red-rose wrapping paper.”

“Yes, but nothing with roses,” he said.

“Pink hearts?” she asked.

“Or yellow daisies,” he answered.

“For Valentine's? We do have some yellow daisy paper that we got for Easter, but…” She paused.

“That's what I'd like.”

“Be right back then,” she said.

He leaned on the counter and looked inside at display after display of diamond rings. It was way too early to think about that, but he wondered what Jill would choose. Then his eye settled on the small black velvet ring case with the antique rings. Six in all, and every one of them yellow gold.

The last one in the case was Jill. No doubt about it. That was what she'd choose, and it wouldn't be just an engagement ring. It would be her wedding band as well. One emerald, half the size of a dime, graced the middle. Diamonds were scattered in the open scrollwork around it. The stone was the color of her eyes; the diamonds the twinkle in them when she was happy.

“Gorgeous, isn't it?” The clerk set his wrapped present in front of him. “Cash or credit card?”

“Can I look at that ring?” he asked.

“The diamond one in the middle?”

“No, the emerald,” he said.

“It has a story behind it,” she said.

Remembering what Jill had said about liking things with a story behind them brought a smile to his face. “Written down?”

“No, just what the folks told my boss when he bought the rings. That one was the only one they knew much about. It was given to a lady in 1880 as a betrothal ring. She and her husband were married fifty years before he died, and although she was elderly, she was still healthy. Three days after he died, she joined him. They said it was from a broken heart. Her son inherited the jewelry and gave that particular ring to his grown son to give to his fiancée. They were married sixty years when she died, and he lived only a few days afterward. It was put in a lockbox and sold last week at a jewelry auction.”

“Third's the charm.” He held the ring up to catch the light.

“I could hold it for you if you'd like to buy it,” she said.

“Thank you, but not now,” he said.

She put the ring back in the case and rang up the price of the bracelet. He handed her his credit card and started out of the store, but he couldn't push the glass door open. His feet were glued to the welcome mat, and he couldn't get the ring out of his mind or the voice that kept reminding him that he'd never find another one like it.

“Have you changed your mind about the bracelet?” the clerk asked.

“No, about the ring. I'll take it. If you'll put it in a box, I'd appreciate it, but I don't need it wrapped,” he said.

* * *

At five minutes to opening, they finished getting the bar ready for a proper Valentine's Day party. No one who brought their sweetheart out for the evening to the Burnt Boot Bar and Grill would be disappointed in the setting now. Heart-shaped paper coasters circled jar candles burning brightly in the middle of each table. The jukebox sported a huge foldout heart taped securely to the front and had already been filled with enough money to play all night.

Standing behind the bar and taking one more look, Jill nodded at Sawyer. “Turn off the lights except the ones behind the bar. I'm opening the chute. And look at who's first.”

“I asked Callie where she wanted to go, and she said here,” Finn said. “We'll need two cheeseburger baskets, two pitchers of beer, two red cups, and we're going to claim a table. The parking lot is full. We're lucky we got in first.”

In ten minutes there wasn't a table to be begged, borrowed, or stolen. The bar stools were full, and folks milled about in tight little groups, waiting for their names to be called to pick up their beer and food.

Sawyer only had time to look up from the grill when he put baskets of food on the worktable. Cheeseburgers had red toothpicks. Hamburgers had pink ones. Jill yelled out names and filled pitchers as fast as she could.

Betsy showed up at seven thirty, with Tyrell right behind her. “Wow, Sawyer, you did this up really neat. I never thought this old run-down bar could look like a New York City nightclub.”

“Just needs a strobe light,” Tyrell said.

“It wasn't all my doin'. Jill and I worked together on it,” Sawyer said.

Jill and Sawyer were swamped behind the bar until Callie and Finn took pity on them and pushed their way back behind the bar to help.

“Give me that list of folks waiting for food. I'll call out names and take care of getting the money to the cash register,” Callie said.

“This is your night out,” Sawyer argued.

“And y'all are family. We'll have fun,” Callie said.

“You two are lifesavers. We were about to drown,” Jill said.

“This is a huge crowd.” Callie went to work, drawing beer and putting empty pitchers into the dishwasher.

Finn pulled a white apron over his neck, wrapped the ties around his waist, and tied them in front. “I'll help with cookin', if you ladies can man the bar.”

“We can do that.” Callie was already busy pulling beer handles two at a time.

“No trouble with the feud this evening, I take it,” Finn said.

“There's not room for them to feud. The dance floor is full, people are sitting in each other's laps, and some folks are eating standing up,” Sawyer said.

“Romantic, ain't it?” Jill laughed.

They thought things had slowed down fifteen minutes before midnight, but Betsy Gallagher yelled that she wanted ten burger baskets to go. “We're takin' the party to the river. You want to join us, Sawyer?”

“No, thank you.”

Tyrell pulled two cases of beer out from the refrigerated section at the end of the bar where Polly kept milk, beer, and juice. “Put this on Betsy's bill. Is it buy one of these, get the other one free, Callie?”

“Not in your wildest dreams,” Callie said.

“Add a bottle of Jack Daniel's to that bill.” Betsy handed Callie two bills. “I need to drown my sorrows over that long, tall cowboy. Seems I can't entice him with anything, so I'll have to move on and find another one. He'll never know what he missed.”

“Truth is,” Callie said above the noise, “I think maybe he hasn't missed anything at all. Good luck findin' another one.”

“Poor old Rhett. Betsy is liable to set her cap for him next.” Jill laughed softly.

“We'll have to warn him.” Sawyer finished the burgers at two minutes until the hour and turned off the grill.

“We're not cleaning up tonight,” Jill said. “I'll call Aunt Polly's cleaning lady, and she can take care of all this Monday morning. I'll put all the money and the register log in the bank bag. We'll shove it in the safe and count it later too.”

Sawyer nodded. “Sounds good to me. And, Finn, you really saved my ass tonight. I couldn't have kept up without you.”

Finn laid a hand on Sawyer's shoulder. “It was fun, but don't call me to do this every February. This bar stuff is hard work.”

Callie removed her apron and hugged Jill. “Women who work together on Valentine's will be related by the next Valentine's.”

“Who said that?” Jill asked.

“I did.” She laughed. “Come on, handsome cowboy. Take me home and to bed.”

Jill raised an eyebrow.

“I'm not that tired.” Callie winked.

Jill reached up to the top shelf and handed her a bottle of Jack Daniel's. “Happy Valentine's Day, and thank you.”

The bunkhouse looked wonderful, smelled wonderful, and felt even better when they got home that Saturday night. The peace and quiet when Jill walked inside surrounded her like Sawyer's arms. She dragged a chair from the table to the woodstove. Both kittens scampered away to safety at the noise coming across the wood floor, and Sawyer raised an eyebrow.

“What are you doing?”

“Making it still Valentine's Day.”

“I can reach the clock. I'll do it. How much of Valentine's Day do you want left?” he asked.

“Thirty minutes.”

He wound the clock back to eleven thirty. “Now what?”

She went into her bedroom and returned with a box of maple doughnuts and a long, thin box. “Happy Valentine's Day, darlin'. Open it. I can't wait to see what you think of it.”

He sat down on the sofa, and she joined him. She'd found the romantic coupon book at the store where she finished buying party supplies. It had a coupon for a romantic breakfast in bed, one for a picnic to the place of his choice, and several that made her blush when she read them.

He chuckled when he picked it up from the box, laughed at the first coupon, roared at the ones that made her blush. He hugged her so tight she thought her ribs would break and kissed her a dozen times. “Thank you, darlin'. It's a present that will last all year if we use one a week. And doughnuts too. Wait.” He peeled off the one for breakfast in bed, anything he wanted, and handed it to her. “I want doughnuts, your strong black coffee, and you for breakfast in the morning.”

“I think that could be arranged,” she said.

“Happy Valentine's Day.” He pulled a long, slim box from the coat he'd draped over the back of the sofa.

“Did you buy me the same thing? If so, we'll have to use two a week,” she said.

“Open it and see,” he said.

“Oh, Sawyer,” she gasped when she opened the box and saw the bracelet. “It's beautiful.” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him so passionately that her knees went weak. She recognized the infinity symbol and hoped that it wasn't just a trinket he'd bought but that it really told the story of their lives together.

“Double infinity. No end in sight for my life with you.”

“And none in sight for mine with yours,” she said.

Tears filled her eyes as she handed the bracelet to him and held out her wrist. “Put it on me. I love that it's yellow gold.”

He fastened the bracelet around her arm, and she shifted her position until she was sitting in his lap, arm held out so she could look at the bracelet. “Did you have it special made?”

“No, it came right out of the counter, but I knew it was you when I saw it.”

“I'm going to wear it all night so I can see it first thing when I wake up in the morning. Infinity means never having to say good-bye, doesn't it?”

* * *

“Yes, it does. I could never bear the thought of telling you good-bye. There was a ring in the store that had a story.” He hadn't meant to tell her about the ring until the right moment. He'd already planned the perfect proposal, right before his parents came at Easter. Then he could introduce her as his fiancée if she said yes.

She touched the bracelet with her other hand. “A better story than this?”

“You be the judge when you hear it,” he said.

When he finished, tears were rolling down her cheeks and leaving drops on the front of her hot-pink Western-cut shirt. “I love that story. The ring would carry wonderful blessings with it. Did I tell you that I don't believe in luck? I believe in blessings, though, and coming to Burnt Boot was the best blessing I've ever been given.”

The moment was perfect right then, but Sawyer couldn't make himself reach into the other coat pocket and bring out the little white box with the ring inside. It was too soon. They needed more time.

“I feel the same, even if we did get off to a rocky start there at first.” He hugged her tighter, wanting never to face a morning without her. If she passed away the next morning, he was sure that in three days he would join her, just like the people in the story about the ring.

Miss Piggy and Miss Chickadee made a running leap for the sofa, climbed up the arm, and chased each other across the back. On one trip from end to end, they got tangled up in his coat and the ring box fell out.

Jill was so intrigued with her bracelet that she didn't see it, but Sawyer saw it as a sign. She could say no, and he'd ask again every Saturday night until she said yes, but he was about to give her the chance to refuse or say yes.

He set her to one side, dropped down on one knee, and held out the box. “Jillian Cleary, I love you with my whole heart. Will you marry me?”

He popped the box open, and a fresh batch of tears started. “It's the ring, isn't it?” she whispered.

“I figure we might have seventy years together with it,” he said. “We can have it sized later. Please say yes.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” She threw her arms around his neck.

He removed the ring and slipped it on her finger. “Fits perfectly. Was meant to be. Your eyes are the same color as the emerald.”

“I love it. It can be my wedding band too. I don't need another one, Sawyer.”

“Long engagement or a short one?”

“Thirty-six hours. We'll be at the courthouse Monday morning as soon as it opens.”

He gathered her into his arms and carried her to their bedroom. “I was hoping for Easter. I didn't dream you'd say yes and want a simple wedding at the courthouse.”

“Why wait? I'm sure that I want to be with you the rest of my life. And besides, you can have the office for your movies now. Rhett can have my room, and I'll never have to sneak across the cold floor to sleep with you,” she said. “And you'll always remember our anniversary, because it will be right after Valentine's Day.

“I was going to propose in a romantic setting,” he said.

“Nothing is more romantic than this night. I love you so much, Sawyer. I never thought I'd be blessed to find my soul mate.”

“Oh!” she gasped when she saw the little bear from the antique store on her pillow.

“That is to remember our first Valentine's Day together,” he said.

“I love you, Sawyer.” She brought his lips down to hers.

He kicked the door shut with his boot heel and gently laid her on the bed. “Infinity, darlin', starts right now, and it has no end.”