Her Summer Cowboy (3 page)

A wave of emotion rolled over her leaving her feeling very warm inside. She’d never hurt Gramps or let him know she was upset. But hearing that Hudson felt the same fierce loyalty to him made her look at him as something other than a troublesome man. He must really care about her grandfather.

“I wouldn’t be bitchy to Gramps. He’s all I’ve got. But I will take you up on your offer to let out steam. Why are you two so close?” she asked.

“I let my temper cost me my family and he let his career cost him his. We both understand what’s important now. Not everyone is on that page but him and I are. You about ready to go?”

He wasn’t going to say anything else and she didn’t really blame him. This long, tall cowboy was something different than she’d expected. Suddenly she burst out laughing.

Sweet Georgia Peaches, nothing was as she expected.

“You okay? You’re not losing it, are you?” he asked, turning back to face her.

“Not yet. What will you do if I freak out?” she asked.

“Distract you.”

She tipped her head to the side and put her hands on her hips. “I’m not sure you can do that.”

“Oh, I know I can,” he assured her.

*

There was something
about this woman that got to him. He liked her fierceness in protecting her grandfather, but he knew it was more than that. Her skin looked soft. Hell, why was he noticing something like that and wondering how it would feel.

He walked back over to her; even standing on the top step of her porch she still wasn’t taller than he was. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her down to the path where he was.

“Man-handling me? That’s your answer?” she asked, shaking her head so that tendrils of her thick auburn hair bounced around her heart-shaped face.

“Not exactly. Just didn’t like you talking down to me,” he said.

“Like you’re doing now?” She put a few inches of space between them and he noticed her legs again as she moved. The skirt she wore ended just above the knees. He knew she wasn’t dressed for seduction yet there was something about her that made his mind stop working.

“Indeed. You ready to go?” he asked. He’d been tempted to kiss her. Hell that was stupid and he needed to get them back to the fairgrounds where she could do her thing and he could escape.

“I already have my bag packed. Let me go and grab it. You want a cold drink?” she asked.

“Nah, I’m good,” he said. This place was nice and everything but he wanted to get back and drop her off. Put some distance between the two of them. And he was going to have to figure out another place to sleep. He didn’t want to be that close to her all night long.

“I’ll be a second,” she said, going back inside. The garden beds in front of the house were filled with white gardenia bushes and the fragrance permeated the air. His mom had always loved that scent and he smiled to himself thinking of her.

She’d be happy he was going home. Of course just because his brothers thought their father was ready to make peace, didn’t mean he was. He had to wonder if maybe up there in heaven she was pushing him on this path. Sending him an old man who missed his family and the granddaughter who felt too much but was too afraid to show it.

He didn’t know but for the first time in about seven years he actually felt like he was right where he was needed.

“Let’s go,” she said, walking down the path in front of him. She’d donned a straw cowboy hat, which looked good on her, and changed her heels for cowboy boots. She looked cute and she looked country. As soon as he opened the door to the cab of his pick-up truck and she climbed in, he realized that the hat and boots were like a knight’s armor.

She was using them to keep the world from seeing the real woman. But it was too late for him. He’d already witnessed her as she’d gone all mama bear to protect Alan. She’d do anything for him and that made Hudson like her just a little bit more than he should.

They got back just as most of the crew were arriving. Hudson watched as Alan took the stage with his back-up singers. And suddenly the cowboy hat and the boots weren’t armor on her anymore. From his spot in the back of the rehearsal hall he watched Emma hug the other singers and then take her place at one of the microphone stands.

Her voice was pure and strong when she sang and he liked watching her sing. Saw that the emotions she’d been struggling with at the mansion earlier all disappeared. And it made him wonder why she was teaching elementary school in Georgia when she clearly loved singing.

“Y’all sound even better than last summer. Since this is the farewell tour and since I’ve got my best girl with me, there are some old songs I’d like to do. Emma will duet with me on
I Couldn’t Have Loved You More
, Tasha will duet with me on
Let’s Tear It Down
, and Mo,
The Other Woman
. I’m going to add in a couple of Keith’s songs because you know we get a few of his fans and so there are new parts for you to learn on
Sweet Girl
and
All Night Long
,” Alan said.

Emma had gone stiff as soon as he’d announced the plan, and he waited for her to lay into Alan the way she had in the trailer but she didn’t. On the stage it seemed being a back-up singer was her role not granddaughter.

“Hudson, get up here, son,” Alan said.

Hudson walked up to the front. “Sir.”

“
Lonesome Range
is the song I’ll need you to ride across the stage with one of the girls,” Alan said. “Emma’s not keen on doing it. Either of you fancy it?”

“Not a chance,” Mo said. “I’m your girl for a rowdy fight.”

“I could switch off with Emma,” Tasha said. “But I’d rather not do it every night.”

“Sounds fair,” Emma said. “You’ll have to do the first tour run because I’m very rusty in the saddle.”

“I’ll help you with that,” Hudson said, winking at her.

“I’m sure you will,” Emma said. “Alan, I’d like to discuss my duet. Is there a chance we could do a different song?”

“Sorry, pumpkin. Those are the songs the label wants me to do,” Alan said. “As y’all probably noticed we are getting the royal treatment this year. The buses are all logoed and we’re going to have a film crew from some country music television station filming us at a few stops. So if you don’t want to be interviewed say so now.”

The roadies and the stage crew all sort of nodded and Hudson realized that despite the fact that this was Alan’s last tour everyone seemed excited to get started.

“You know, y’all are my summer family and I want to make sure we go out with a bang this year.”

“I’m sure we will,” Mo said.

Hudson looked over at Emma, having the feeling that this summer was going to be a good one.

*

Emma smiled and
chatted with the band members. Some of them had been playing with her grandfather since before she was born. So they remembered her first steps, Gramps having her carry his guitar out to him on stage when she was four and the first time she’d sung with him.

Sitting around eating really good country food prepared by Sonny reminded her that when she’d run away from performing she’d left her family behind. She had a nice life in Winsome but she didn’t have the connection she had to these people.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Hudson said coming up beside her with a plate of bar-b-cue pork, baked beans and collard greens.

He had taken off his cowboy hat and had obviously showered and changed. She’d avoided the tour bus where they’d both be living for the next few weeks and caught a ride back to the mansion with her grandfather to shower and change herself.

The summer night was gorgeous. Hudson made her think of harmless flirtation and summer romances. When she’d been growing up she’d always sort of longed for one. A boy that she could call her own before real life started up again.

She watched him as he pulled out a chair, and set down his plate. His jeans were dark denim, clearly his good ones and he had on a western shirt buttoned to his mid-chest and tucked in. He wore a thick leather belt around his lean waist and the buckle attached to it said Marietta Amateur Rodeo.

She glanced up to notice he was watching her look at his buckle area. She blushed and turned back to her plate.

“Hungry?” she asked, gesturing to his loaded plate as he sat down.

“You know it. Cowboying is hard work. My momma used to say there was no shame in eating if you’d put in a full day.”

“My momma used to say that too. Tried to go on a melba toast and fat-free cheese diet.” She’d put on a ton of weight between sixth and seventh grade. Her parents had been fighting a lot then mainly about her dad’s touring and drinking. And her mom had wanted to go back to performing but couldn’t since someone had to stay home with her.

“That’s gross,” he said.

“You know it. After that my momma hired a dietician/chef to come live with us and I learned all about the yumminess of vegetables,” she said.

“Well I do have collards on my plate,” he pointed out.

“They were cooked in bacon fat, which is why I had two helpings,” she said around a laugh.

“I know it,” he said.

He enjoyed sitting next to her at one of the long tables that had been set up under the shade of an oak tree. There were lights strung in the trees, mosquito repellent candles around the perimeter and music pumped from the deejay station in the corner.

“Gramps knows how to kick off a tour, doesn’t he?” Emma said. Lame-o, she thought. No wonder she hadn’t been able to write a decent country song with that kind of wit.

“He sure does. Is it always like this?” he asked.

“Yes. Sometimes not as big. Last year there was no big event planner with the tents and lights and all that. I made spoon bread and veggie pasta salad. Everyone brought a side and some drinks. Sonny was here though. He and Gramps have been friends since the dawn of time.”

He kept asking questions about the tour and she found herself more at ease talking to him. Tasha and Mo came over and sat across from them and Hudson asked them questions about performing. Emma just sat there and wondered why he wasn’t a singer. His voice had a deep, rich timbre to it that she could have listened to for days.

She cleared up the plates for everyone at the table and then went over to Gramps, who was sitting with some of his band members. Gramps had his guitar in his hands and she knew it was his equalizer. He’d told her one time that he couldn’t face a big crowd of people without it in his hands.

She put her hands on his shoulders as he was talking to the bass player and felt something inside of her shift and settle. This was her reality for the next six weeks. Time to adjust to it.

But it felt surreal. Her grandfather’s last tour, the end of the line. She kissed his cheek and slowly drifted away from him and out of the tent. There were fireflies dancing around as she took the path that led away from the party toward the tour buses.

“Where you heading, just Emma?” Hudson asked coming up beside her.

“Just away from the crowd,” she said. “Following me?”

“Nah, I’m the bodyguard. Gotta keep everyone safe,” he said.

“You do take your job seriously.”

He shrugged those big shoulders of his. His expression was shadowed with only the lights from the lamps that the event team had placed along the path to illuminate it.

His eyes were dark at night and as she stared up at him she felt all the things she’d spent the last few years pretending didn’t matter stir inside of her. Things like love, which had always scared her because she’d only seen the heartbroken side of it. And family, which was tied up in so many complicated knots she never knew what would happen when she came to Nashville.

“I do. My momma used to say anything worth doing is worth doing well,” he said. “I guess I took it to heart.”

“You talk about her a lot,” she said. “You’re lucky to have a close relationship with her.”

He paused and she looked up at him. “She’s gone. A little over ten years now and every day I’m reminded of something she said to me. I wish I’d listened as well when she was alive.”

She hugged him. Meant the gesture to be a friendly one between two people who might become friends but something electric seemed to arch between them and she tipped her head back, surprised by it.