One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas) (10 page)

Leah escaped out onto the patio at the restaurant while Honey and Kinsey were in the gift shop, buying souvenir T-shirts for their friends and some of the favorite cousins. She found a table in the corner, under the awning, and ordered a shot of Jack with a back of Coke and watched the people still out and about after eleven o’clock. Back in Burnt Boot, even the bar closed at eleven and then the whole town was totally dead. A couple sets of lovers walked past Leah, and two became one in silhouette in the distance as they hugged up close to each other.

She sipped the whiskey, letting the warmth slide down her throat as the taste took her back to the Burnt Boot Bar and Grill. Even without closing her eyes, she could see Rhett with that little soul patch below those lips that felt like pure, white-hot coals when he kissed her.

“I bet she’s dreaming about Rhett O’Donnell,” Honey said as she and Kinsey joined her at the table.

“Why on earth would you think that?” Leah asked.

Kinsey raised her hand to get the waiter’s attention. “There’s a look in your eyes when you think about him, something that I’ve never seen there before.”

“Oh, really? Maybe your vision is blurry from three margaritas and mine are twinkling from this Jack Daniel’s,” Leah said.

“I’m glad we’re only a block from the hotel, since I might have to carry both of you home,” Honey said.

“I’m only having one drink and I’m chasing it with a Coke, but I’m ready to go back to the hotel,” Leah said.

“Then you go right on, darlin’. We’re not through partying or drinking either one. Don’t wait up for us,” Honey said.

“I can stay.” Leah sighed.

Kinsey shook her head. “No, ma’am, you can’t.”

“Why?”

“Be honest with yourself, Cousin. Do you really want to be on this vacation? Where would you rather be?”

Leah nodded. “I’m going to sit here awhile and finish my Coke, go back to the hotel, and do some thinking about where I really want to be now that you’ve brought up the question.”

“Think real hard about Rhett and the ultimatum Granny gave you.”

“And about my mother,” Leah said.

“Girl, you’d best let that one go. Granny won’t go back on her word when it comes to Rhett, but she’ll disown you if you talk to your mother,” Honey said.

“Doesn’t seem quite fair for you to be in such a dilemma when we’re out having a good time,” Kinsey said. “We should be there supporting you.”

Leah’s smile was almost shy. “This is my burden, not yours, and there’s not a better place to figure it all out than right here. At least I’m not in the middle of the forest, where I can’t see the trees.”

“Leave it to you to find a silver lining in a jet-black cloud,” Honey said.

I wonder if Eve can do the same
, Leah thought. “I hope there’s one to find when I rip open the black clouds. Y’all get on out of here and have fun. I’ll be up before you two, so I’ll order waffles from room service for breakfast.”

Honey pushed her chair back and patted her on the shoulder. “And tell them to send up some scrambled eggs and bananas. They’re great for hangovers, and I’ve got a feeling Kinsey might have one.”

Kinsey popped her on the shoulder. “Speak for yourself, girl. The way you’ve been knocking them back, it’ll be you who’s whining in the morning.”

“You got it,” Leah said.

She waited until they were gone and then held up her hand to get the waiter’s attention. When he came to her table, she asked him to put her Coke in a to-go cup.

He lingered beside her table. “I’ll be glad to do that for a beautiful woman like you, ma’am. You here on vacation or did you move to the area?”

“Vacation.”

“And you’re all alone?” He wiggled his eyebrows.

It came off more sinister than sexy. How could she have felt so comfortable with Rhett from the beginning and yet so uneasy around this man? It didn’t make sense unless her inner voice, the one that she had dubbed Eve, was telling her not to be so trusting.

“Not for long. I’m meeting someone as soon as I leave.” She smiled.

“Lucky man,” he said with a long, sly wink.

She nodded but didn’t answer and left before the waiter returned. She walked back to her hotel, and fifteen minutes later, she’d changed into a long, flowing caftan and was sitting on the sofa. It was so late that there was no way her mother would answer her if she did send a message.

She opened her laptop and went straight to the Internet and her mother’s Facebook page. She felt like she was making the right decision—right up until she looked at her mother’s face again, and then an icy chill shot down her spine.

“Well, no freakin’ wonder,” she mumbled as she scrolled down and noticed her mother’s favorite music. “Lady Gaga and Jason Mraz. It’s a wonder Granny didn’t string her up for that alone. Anyone who doesn’t listen to country music on River Bend might get beheaded.”

She looked up the songs mentioned. Lady Gaga came first because she liked the title of the song, “The Edge of Glory.” She flipped over to YouTube and found the song. The first time she listened to it, she had to remind herself to breathe. The second time, tears rolled down her face, bathing it salt water.

The lyrics said she was on the edge of glory and she was hanging on the moment with her love. She played it through a third time, reading the lyrics as Lady Gaga hit all the high notes. It was exactly where she was right then—hanging on the moment on the edge of glory, and Rhett O’Donnell was the cowboy holding her hand as they climbed up the cliff together. But was it her alter ego, Eve, or Leah that he was with when they were together?

Her phone rang, so she hit the pause button and dried her eyes with the sleeve of her caftan.

“Hello, Granny,” she said.

“I don’t hear music or dancing,” Mavis said.

“I’m in the hotel,” Leah said.

“Honey and Kinsey?”

“Probably dancing the leather off their sandals.”

“Have you gotten over your folly?”

“No, ma’am.”

Leah heard a muffled cussword. “Well, work harder at it. You know the Sadie Hawkins Festival is the day after you make it back home, and I damn well do not expect you to catch Rhett O’Donnell,” Mavis told her.

“I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“Well, we will talk when you get home, and that’s a promise,” Mavis said, and the phone went dead.

That’s when the Leah’s new alter ego surfaced, and she hit the message button on her mother’s Facebook page and wrote, “Hello, this is your daughter, Leah. I’ve got questions. Got time to give me answers?”

The three little dots at the end of her note said that it had been seen, and then a line appeared, saying that Eden was typing.

The two minutes that it took for a reply lasted three days past eternity, but it finally flashed on her screen. “Are you still living on River Bend?”

Leah wrote, “For the time being, but the future is getting shaky.”

The next one read, “When you divorce River Bend, get back with me. Until then, I signed a paper and gave my word.”

Evidently, Eden did not go back on their word either. Now her curiosity was piqued. There were skeletons hiding, and they were rattling loud enough that Leah wanted to open the door.

Her phone rang again. She hoped it wasn’t Granny for the second time that night, but the picture that came up was one of Rhett at the bar.

“Hey, what’s happening? Talk to me. I’m homesick,” she said.

“After only two days?” Even his deep drawl was sexy.

She closed her eyes and pretended that he was sitting beside her. “I sent my mother a Facebook message.”

“Wow! That was a change in subject.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be. What did she say?”

“To get back to her if I divorced River Bend,” she answered.

Rhett chuckled. “And have you even talked to a lawyer?”

She eased back in the sand and opened one eye to see the big lover’s moon hanging out there above the skyscrapers. “No, but I looked one up in the yellow pages.”

“Why? Are you teasing me, Leah?”

She took a deep breath. “Yes, I was teasing. But it would be like a divorce, because Granny told me I had to make a choice.”

“Between?”

“The ranch and you.”

The silence was so long that she held the phone out and glanced at it to be sure the connection hadn’t broken. “Rhett?”

“Sorry, that took me by surprise. We’ve only known each other a week and, Leah, I would never come between family. You’ve seen how close the O’Donnells are and—”

“I’m not proposing to you,” she said.

“Well, thank God for that. I’m not sure what Eve would do, but you seem like the type of woman to let a man have his moment and do that job,” Rhett said.

“Even Eve isn’t that brazen,” she said. “Do you have an alter ego, Rhett?”

“We all do. Some of us call it a conscience.”

Leah sat up and shut her laptop. “What if you have both?”

“Unless there’s a psychological problem, it’s called a conscience. You can name it if you want. I call mine Scorpion.”

The giggle came from her chest. “Like the bug.”

“That’s right. Because, more often than not, it stings me, it’s not pretty, and it’s sneaky.”

“Mine is sneaky too, but it doesn’t sting me. It tells me to not be so trusting and laid-back, to make up my own mind and not let others do it for me,” she said.

“It sounds like you’re becoming friends with yours,” he said.

“Do I hear you filling beer pitchers? Please tell me you don’t have this on speakerphone.”

“No, ma’am, I’ve got you wired up to my ear. Bought this thing to use when I’m driving and it works very well in the bar when I want to talk to you,” he said. “But”—his voice dropped to a whisper—“I’d rather be close enough to whisper in your ear in person.”

“Me too, Rhett. Why don’t you fly up here for the weekend?”

“Hey, Jill, I’m stepping outside for some fresh air,” Rhett said, his voice coming through loud and clear.

“When you get back, I’ll take a turn outside. Polly should have made it a nonsmoking place years ago. I’ll be glad if the law is passed that declares we don’t have a choice in the matter and all public places are nonsmoking,” Jill hollered back.

“Might as well shut it down,” Rhett said. Polly was Gladys’s sister-in-law and she still owned the bar. She’d broken her ankle in a fall a while back and it was taking longer to heal than she’d have liked. Nowadays she was even talking about selling the place, but so far it was just talk.

And then the noise softened.

“Pardon that interruption. Are you still there?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m still here. Are you on the way to New York to take me up on my offer?”

“I wish I could, but the bar stools are all lined up with Gallaghers, and the Brennans have three tables at the back instead of their usual one or two, and there’s something in the air, Leah. It’s heavy and thick, worse than the tension in church when everyone is leaving and some of the Brennans get tangled up next to the Gallaghers.”

“Granny is going to get revenge, and then in a few days or weeks, the Gallaghers will do something right back at us. I’ve lived with that tension my whole life.” Leah sighed.

“No wonder you want to divorce the ranch. I couldn’t live six weeks under a roof like that. Come home and let’s go skinny-dippin’ in the river,” he said.

“Can I have a rain check? I don’t expect that the Red River would be a good place to partake in such an adventure, but I know where there is a wonderful waterfall less than two hours north of us that would be perfect for a midnight swim in the nude,” she said.

“Really?” He sounded surprised.

“Eve came out to play. We could ride up there late one evening on the cycle, spend some time at the falls, and be back by morning. Or if it’s a Saturday night, we could rent a cabin close by.”

“It could be your divorce celebration,” he said. “Are you smiling? I could swear I heard a smile.”

“How can you tell when I’m smiling?” she asked.

“When you’re happy, your voice has a lilt to it. Remember, I told you that the first time we talked on the phone? When you’re sad, it’s deeper and you talk slower.”

“You figured all that out in such a short time?”

“Darlin’, I figured all that out in the first few minutes.”

A smile spread across her face. “Next you’ll be tellin’ me you can read my mind.”

“I’m not that good yet.” His laughter had a twang to it that sent shivers down her backbone. “Leah, all kiddin’ aside, I can’t make decisions for you, but I can listen anytime you want to talk.”

“That means a lot,” she said.

A man who listened? Had she found the eighth wonder of the world?

“Got to get back inside or Sawyer will send Jill outside to get me. I’m not afraid of Sawyer, but Jill is a different matter. She might stop making cakes and pies.” He laughed. “Good night, love. Sleep tight and call me tomorrow. We’ve got church tomorrow, but I’ll be doing chores before that, and afterwards, Dammit and I are going to the river to see if the fish are biting. Think about me if you don’t call.”

“I will. Good night, Rhett.”

He’d called her love. Yes, he’d definitely called her love—not darlin’, not sweetheart, not even honey, but love. A man who listened and wasn’t afraid to let that word slip out of his mouth was truly a treasure. She flipped through the dozens of pictures she’d snapped of him in secret. She imagined the two of them standing behind a waterfall, tangled up in each other’s arms with the water flowing down over their naked bodies. A slow heat started in the pit of her gut and traveled with the speed of light through her body.

She wanted Rhett O’Donnell to make love to her. Slow, sweet love. Wild, passionate love. It didn’t matter as long as she was in his arms.

To have that, she’d have to give up River Bend. To talk to her mother, she had to give up River Bend. She sighed as she shut her laptop and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger to ward off the threatening headache.

She’d barely shut her eyes when someone knocked on the door. Supposing that either Honey or Kinsey had forgotten their key or they were too drunk to figure out which way to slide the key down the slot, she slung it open without even looking through the peephole.