ANOTHER SUNNY DAY (20 page)

Sunny's
protective circle of cowboys finally moved on, and Sarah searched out the other familiar faces from among the thousands of urban, drugstore, and, most rare, real cowboys and cowgirls that filed past. There was Willie, riding old Ethyl, of course, and Jed, driving the chuckwagon. The newly married couple whose wedding she had attended last evening were conspicuous as they rode their horses who had bells and ribbons woven into their manes and tails signs saying "
Just
" attached to the bride's back and "
Married
" to the groom's.

After every other trail ride several green street-cleaning machines went by, attempting to keep the animal deposits under control. Someone commented that today there was enough horse manure on these streets to grow roses in the concrete. The announcers also said that although Harris County was almost entirely urban, it had a larger horse population than any other county in the United States. In fact, there were more horses and riders in this one area than there had been at any other time in all of Texas. Horses did seem to be the most popular way to travel, although a few unorthodox and daring cowboys rode on saddled longhorn, steers, stick horses and even one shaggy dark brown buffalo. Buford too, put in an appearance, with his false horn and three children and a dog balanced on his broad back.

It had been years since Sarah had actually attended a parade, and she had certainly never been to one of the same magnitude as this one. She watched the rest of the parade with increasing depression. It only served to make her more aware that this last week had been like a childhood fantasy. None of it had been real, including Tyler. It was time she turned her thoughts again to her future and tried to forget the past.

"You mean that even after last week you still want to leave me and the tour and go vegetate on some little farm in Kentucky?" Sunny asked incredulously later that afternoon as she dressed for the performance that had been scheduled by Mack for that evening.

"Especially after last week," Sarah answered firmly. "I'll never understand how you can stand all that attention day after day, year after year. It nearly drove me crazy."

"I honestly don't think I could live without it. Doing nothing for a week nearly drove me crazy!" The two sisters smiled, understanding each other's feelings but not sharing ambitions. It would be a difficult adjustment for both of them, because they had always been very close. But Sunny knew Sarah well enough to know that once she had made up her mind, there was really no use in trying to talk her out of it. And Sarah knew Sunny well enough to know that she would try anyway, but she remained firm in her decision.

"I'm singing at a club in Galveston tonight, and we'll probably go out for a good dinner afterward. You'd better hurry up and get dressed because we have to leave in a few minutes," Sunny reminded Sarah.

"I think I'll just stay here and go to bed early. I have several nights of sleep to catch up on." Sarah answered, stretching lazily. Maybe if she weren't so tired, she wouldn't feel such
an apathy toward life.

Sunny started to tease her sister about the reasons for her lack of sleep but snapped her mouth shut. Sarah hadn't shared any of the intimate details of her relationship with that cowboy named Tyler, but she had said that he was really someone special. Sunny sensed that it was a very personal thing and that Sarah wouldn't appreciate being kidded about it, especially right now.

Sunny's concern for her sister grew as she watched her mope around for the next three days. It seemed to take all of Sarah's energy each day to get out of bed and get dressed. Sunny and Mack even insisted that Sarah accompany them on a sight-seeing and shopping tour of Houston, but even though she was with them physically, it was obvious her thoughts were somewhere" Sunny was convinced that Sarah needed a change of scenery, and she was looking forward to leaving Houston after tomorrow night's rodeo performance.

As she was getting ready to leave for the other club date Mack had set up, Sunny tried again to get Sarah to join them, but Sarah offered some excuse about watching an old movie on TV. "I really wish you'd change your mind," Sunny persisted. "This place is only a few miles from here, and I promise that we'll come right back after my show. Mack said this was a new club, and even though Alvin is not a very big town, he said everybody seemed real nice and—"

"You're singing at a club in Alvin?" Sarah interrupted.

Encouraged by her sudden interest but a little confused, Sunny nodded. "They're not usually open on weeknights, but since this was the only time I could—"

"I'll just be a minute," Sarah interrupted again as she jumped up and almost ran into her room, with Sunny's bewildered gaze following her.

The ride to Alvin didn't take long, but by the time they pulled into the parking lot, Sarah's nerves were stretched as tight as guitar strings. This was Tyler's hometown, and maybe, just maybe, he would come to hear Sunny sing tonight. Sarah had missed him so much that with the least encouragement she could possibly even get up the nerve to walk right up to him and tell him the truth. Before the show began, she paced backstage like a caged tiger, until Mack forced her to sit in a chair just offstage because she was making everyone else nervous. It was a good location from which to observe without being seen, so she stayed there during
Sunny's entire set. As always, the room buzzed with noise, and although the customers stopped dancing while Sunny was singing there was still a steady clink of beer bottles and cans being passed and put down on the Formica tabletops.

Sarah's eyes ached from the effort of trying to see through the haze and single out the one person she wanted to see in the semidarkness. She recognized several people who had been on the trail ride, but Tyler wasn't one of them. If possible, she was even more dejected than before as she rode back to the hotel later that night.

"Did you see him?" Sunny asked perceptively.

"Who?" Sarah
tried to pretend not to know exactly who her sister meant.

"Whoever you were looking for so hard that your eyes are as bloodshot as if you had been on a two-week drunk. Does Tyler live in Alvin? That would certainly explain your sudden change of heart when I told you where I'd be singing tonight."

"I thought he might show up," Sarah admitted in a small, sad voice. "But it obviously wasn't important enough for him to come tonight."

"When I met him Saturday at the parade, he acted really distant," Sunny told her.

"What did he say? Did he ask why I had left early?" Sarah asked, hungry for any details about him.

"Not really. After I told him I had decided to accept the offer to ride on that stagecoach instead of on horseback, an offer for which I am eternally grateful," Sunny added as she strayed from the original subject. "He just turned and left me standing there. He had a chip on his shoulder as big as Texas. I admit he was really a handsome hunk of mucho macho, but be wasn't very friendly. I like my men a little more attentive and adoring."

"He can be all that and more," Sarah whispered. "I just wish that I had met him at some other place and under different circumstances, so I would know for sure. We never really had a chance."

That night Sarah tossed and turned, troubled by choppy, exhausting dreams. Even without the strains of Reveille to announce the dawn, she had been waking each morning in time to watch the sun rise behind the unique Houston skyline. She had never had trouble sleeping, but now she just felt so alone. It was strange that her body had become so addicted to sleeping next to Tyler's after just two nights together that she could miss his warmth and strength.

At last, after sitting at the hotel room window and watching the city come back to life as people jammed the streets going to work, she forced herself to go back to bed and get a few more hours of sleep. It was almost noon when she woke again, and she felt much better. But it left her with very few hours to get everything packed in time for a smooth exit from the city after tonight's rodeo performance.

As she, Sunny, and Mack rode to the Reliant Stadium in the long black limousine that had been sent for them, she even felt enough like her old self to ask Mack how Dillon Landry's audition had gone. Mack was enthusiastic about Dillon's prospects and anxious to get a demo record cut. Sarah smiled to herself. Things were returning to normal. Sunny was Sunny, dressed in her elaborate blond wig, her flashy stage costume, and dramatic makeup, while Sarah was Sarah, with her long honey-blond hair flowing freely down her back and dressed in faded fitted jeans, a blue chambray shirt, and wearing just a light touch of makeup.

"This is the way to travel," Sunny said with a sigh, leaning back against the plush velvet-covered seat. "Four wheels beats four legs any day; I hope I never have to ride on another horse again. Mack, make sure that you add a clause to that effect in all my future contracts.

Sarah, of course, didn't agree, but she didn't argue. Thinking of horses made her think of Tyler, although he never seemed to be far from her thoughts. She knew that she should be trying to forget him, but he was still so fresh in her mind. She cherished her time with him. Without him there would always be a special emptiness that could never be filled by another man, but maybe
soon all the sharp edges of her memories would smooth over, so that she wouldn't be choked by this lump in her throat.

The limousine entered the Reliant Stadium through a special entrance, stopping right by
Sunny's dressing room. Sarah helped her sister put on the final touches, then followed her out to wait for Sunny's big introduction.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen." the PA system blared, "here's the little lady you've all been waiting for. Let
’s give a big Houston welcome to Miss Sunny Day!"

Sunny rode into the arena, perched prettily on the back of an open convertible, and made a slow circle around the ring before joining her band on a revolving platform in the middle of the Reliant Stadium. The cowboys who had been hanging around the bucking chutes checking their equipment and waiting their turn to ride the
broncs or the bulls or rope calves dropped everything and hurried to the fence so they could watch Sunny in action.

Sarah, too, moved toward the arena, then climbed up on one of the gates so she could get a better view of her sister. This was probably the last performance she would see for some time. She was listening to
Sunny's version of "Mommas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" when a deep voice behind her asked, "How much longer is this performance going to last?"

"
Sunny's shows always run about forty-five minutes," she answered automatically, without looking over her shoulder.

"That wasn't the performance I meant, Sarah," the voice responded.

It took a second for her to register that the man had used her name . . . end then she realized that she knew that voice. Whirling around, she lost her balance and started to fall backward off the tall wooden gate.

Tyler caught her, cradling her in his arms for just a moment before he let her slide safely to the ground. Her knees threatened to buckle beneath her as she stared wide-eyed at the closed, unfriendly expression on his beloved face.

"You were full of pretty words last week." he mocked. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"When you're in it up to your nose, keep your mouth shut," she flashed back, her whole body trembling so violently that she thought she would shake apart.

He didn't smile, but a tiny twinkle flickered briefly in his solemn gray eyes before it was abruptly extinguished. "Is there anything you'd like to tell me? Maybe about your family?" he prompted.

"I have a sneaking suspicion that there's not much I could tell you that you don't already know," she answered, then started to turn back toward the arena. "You're missing
Sunny's show."

"I don't give a damn about
Sunny's show," he exploded, roughly grabbing her arm and turning her around to face him. "I want an explanation. I want to know why you didn't tell me the truth last week?"

"Why should I have? What guarantees did I have that you wouldn't run to the press?" she flared back in a whisper so no one would overhear more than they should. "What are you going to do now that you know our little secret?"

"Why couldn't you trust me?" His voice was ragged. "I couldn't believe you had run away without so much as a word of good-bye. You didn't even leave a note."

Sarah hesitated. Had it really meant something special to him, or had his feelings just been hurt by the deception? It was important to her to know, but from his attitude she could tell that all he wanted from her now was an explanation. Then he would probably walk out of her life forever. Her chin lifted defiantly as she spoke. "I don't owe you anything. You never led me to believe that you wanted any more from me than a few nights of diversion. But I'm not complaining. I got my money's worth."

"You know it was more than that," he said angrily. "I never meant for it to happen and God knows, I fought against it, but we were good together."

"There's more to life than sex," she retorted.

"Damn it, I didn't mean that we were good together just in bed." He spat the words out between clenched teeth. The muscle in his jaw twitched as he struggled for control. When he spoke again, his voice was softer and strangely vulnerable.