One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas) (18 page)

“Showers? Bathroom? Sleeping?”

“I’m not bashful. And I’ve got scissors to cut off whatever clothing we can’t remove.” He grinned.

“Preacher wouldn’t ever go for such immorality,” she said.

“Everyone and everything has a price, Leah. We donated enough money to buy a youth director. You think we can’t donate enough to make a new rule about the cuffs? The preacher was saying last week that the church needs a new piano.”

“It’s not happening. If he doesn’t take them off, I promise I will take that little snub-nosed pistol out of my purse and shoot them off. I’m not an excellent shot, so you might think about how close your hand will be when I fire the gun,” she said.

“There’s that sassy side I like.” He chuckled. “But, Leah, darlin’, please keep in mind that my granny will do anything to have her way. I told you how I feel about you, and it’s above and beyond the feud. Don’t think for a minute that something as small and insignificant as Rhett O’Donnell can’t be made to disappear.”

Her blood turned to ice water. “Are you threatening to hurt Rhett if I don’t play along with this farce?”

“Now did I say that? I said that he could disappear. Everyone has a price.”

“And if you couldn’t buy him?”

Tanner flipped a strand of her blond hair back from her face and leaned closer to whisper in her ear. “Then, darlin’, I expect that his body will go the way of others before him.”

The ice water in her veins froze solid. “The feud hasn’t had a killin’ in decades.”

Tanner kissed her on the earlobe and whispered, “That you know of.”

* * *

“I do not appreciate any of this, Betsy,” Rhett said.

“Like I told you, all is fair in love and war and feuds and Sadie Hawkins races.”

“Especially in shit wars, right?”

“Ah, now, sweetheart.” She batted her lashes at him. “You don’t have to bring up unpleasant things because I got you. Leah is not your type, Rhett. She’s lukewarm. You deserve someone with a little fire in their veins, and I can deliver that right to your bedroom.”

“You know how I feel about Leah, and this thing is a distraction, nothing more.” He held up the cuffs. “Nothing but a nuisance until it’s over.”

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Have you told her that you are in love with her?”

He stiffened, and she wiggled her cuffed hand against his. “You haven’t told her, which means you aren’t sure, which means I can change your mind in twenty-four hours. Besides, remember what Mavis said. If Leah doesn’t break it off with you, she’s lost her free five-star hotel. I wonder if she even knows how to do laundry or pick up her own clothes. She’s been spoiled rotten her whole life.”

“And you haven’t?” Rhett asked.

“Darlin’, I can work a ranch as hard and good as any man. My granny trained me from the ground up. I was cuttin’ hogs and cattle when I was ten years old and brandin’ them at eleven. I didn’t get sick one time either. Listen to me. You need a woman like me, and I can offer you Wild Horse.”

“I’ll never be a kept man,” Rhett said.

“Who said you’d be kept? Honey, we’d work side by side to make it even bigger and better than it is now.”

“And if you don’t like me once we got to really know each other?” he asked.

She scanned him from bare feet to eyes. “That’s not even a possibility. Besides, my granny wants this to happen with Tanner and Leah. But if Leah isn’t willing, there’re always ways to take care of things so that Mavis still loses her.”

“Is that a threat of some kind?” Rhett’s heart stopped and then raced.

“It’s stating facts. This new phase of the war has taken on the style of the old ways, and in those days, people disappeared.”

“Naomi wouldn’t hurt Leah, would she?”

“Not if Tanner wins her hand when it’s all said and done.”

Rhett stood under the shower for a very long time, washing away sweat and the feel of Betsy’s hands from his arms, his face, even his thigh. Not even hot water could take away the feeling that he’d not only cheated on Leah but that he’d also disappointed her. He finally turned the water off and wrapped a towel around his hips. Leaving wet footprints across the floor on his way to his room, he heard his phone ringing.

He raced across the floor, grabbed the phone without looking, and said, “Leah?”

“No, this is Gladys. I think Polly had a heart attack. I called Jill, but she and Sawyer are in Gainesville at a movie with their phones turned off.” Gladys’s normally gravelly voice had a high pitch to it, her words coming out in breathless jumps and starts.

“I’ll be right there. What do you need me to do?” Rhett flipped the towel onto the floor and opened a dresser drawer for a clean shirt.

“Would you drive me to the hospital? They won’t let me ride with her in the ambulance, and I’m too shook up to drive,” Gladys asked.

“Give me five minutes to get dressed,” Rhett said.

“I can drive from here to the bunkhouse. I’ll be waiting out front.”

He was putting on his boots when he heard the gravel crunching beneath the truck tires. He shoved the bunkhouse keys, his phone, and his wallet into his pockets and crossed the living room in long strides with Dammit and the cats following him single file.

“Sorry, old boy. You can’t go this time. You take care of the cats, and I’ll be back soon as I can,” he said as he rushed out the door.

Gladys was in the passenger’s seat with a big black purse on her lap. She started talking before he even got the door shut. “I told her she was overdoing it, but she wouldn’t listen to a damn thing.”

“Maybe it’s not a heart attack.” He backed the truck out of the driveway and headed toward the main road.

“If it’s not, then we’re going to have a serious talk about retiring. We’re past eighty years old. It’s time for us to slow down,” Gladys fussed.

His phone vibrated in his shirt pocket, and Gladys looked at him, wide-eyed with tears. It was written all over her face that she was hoping for the best but thinking the worst.

“I gave the EMTs your number because my cell phone was dead. I left a message on Jill’s phone to meet us at the hospital.”

He handed her the phone and pressed the gas pedal down harder.

She chuckled as she read the message.

“Good news?” he asked.

“Depends on who we’re talking about. It’s a message to you from Leah. She’s sorry about the way things went to day and she wants you to call her.”

“Call her, Miz Gladys. Tell her what’s going on. I can’t drive this fast and talk.”

“You drive. I’ll text her rather than calling. It might embarrass her if she thinks I read her message,” Gladys said. “Just tell me the words.”

“Polly on the way to the hospital. Taking Gladys that way. Talk to you later.”

With the speed of a teenager, Gladys hit the keys with her thumbs and sent the message. In seconds, another one came back, and she read, “‘Miss you. Call ASAP.’”

She handed him the phone, and he shoved it back into his shirt pocket. “What did the EMTs say about Polly when they got to the house? Did they think it was a heart attack?”

“They put her on oxygen and hooked her up to an IV, and believe me, she hates them, so she threw a hissy that raised her blood pressure even more when they stuck that needle in her arm,” Gladys answered.

“How high was her blood pressure?”

“They wouldn’t tell me. I asked, and they said it was high. They probably only had one stretcher and thought if they told me, it would shoot mine up and they’d have to stack me and Polly up like cordwood,” she said. “Changing the subject to get my mind off Polly, how in the hell did Betsy catch you? I thought you and Leah had a plan.”

“Betsy peppered the path to the barn with a handful of goat head stickers. I stepped on them really hard and she caught me.”

“Damned feudin’ people. So that’s how you got caught. How’d they find out, anyway?”

“I have no idea unless someone happened to see us walkin’ that way last night. We decided to do a trial run, but we didn’t tell anyone our plan,” Rhett answered.

“You should have come to me and Polly. We would have helped you hide in the store. Someone must’ve seen or overheard something one of you said or hell’s bells, knowing the Gallagher’s, they might have bugged your truck,” Gladys said.

Rhett nodded. “Paybacks are a bitch, so they’d better be careful.”

“Let it go. Get past the dinner tomorrow and forget it.”

Rhett inhaled deeply and asked, “Do you think that they’d do something stupid, like kill Leah?”

Gladys whipped around in the seat, and the whites of her eyes were visible all around her dark eyes. “What makes you ask a fool question like that?”

“Betsy was probably pulling my chain, but she made a veiled threat that Leah could disappear if I didn’t back off and let Tanner have her,” Rhett answered.

“It’s part of the war between Mavis and Naomi. If Tanner did wind up with her, it would be a revenge match, not a love one. But then again, this is the Gallaghers and the Brennans. There ain’t no love there anyway. But to answer your question, there hasn’t been a killing between them in decades.”

“But this is the worst case of feudin’ in a long time, right?”

Gladys nodded. “Only thing worse would be if a Gallagher and a Brennan really fell in love with each other and Mavis or Naomi neither one was behind it. Lord that would be a holy mess.”

“But Tanner and Leah—” he started.

Gladys held up a palm. “That doesn’t count because it’s sanctioned by Naomi to get back at Mavis. I’m talking about a real, honest-to-God love.”

“Like Betsy and Quaid or Honey and Declan?” he asked.

“Oh my Lord.” She gasped. “Betsy, because she is Naomi’s pride and joy, and Declan, who is Naomi’s favorite grandson. Now that might bring on a killin’.”

“Well, I hope it never happens because Leah wants the feud to end. We’re here and would you look at that? We’ve got a wonderful parking space not far from the emergency room door,” he said.

Gladys bailed out of the truck the moment Rhett stopped the engine, and she was halfway to the doors when he caught up to her. His phone rang, but he ignored it and followed her through the automatic doors, into the waiting room. She marched right up to the desk and said, “I’m here for Polly Cleary. Just hit the button and let me through those doors.”

“Are you family?” the lady asked.

“Damn straight I am,” Gladys said.

The doors opened, and Rhett followed her through them and to the next station, where the nurse pointed toward a curtained-off area. They found Polly sitting up in the middle of the bed, with oxygen tubes in her nostrils and an IV drip in her arm.

“Come on in and sit down. There’re two chairs. One is for the doctor, but he’s not here right now. I may never forgive you for this, Gladys Cleary. I told you it was heartburn, and look at this needle. I swear to God, it’s as big as a tenpenny nail, and I’ll have a bruise as big as a dollar bill tomorrow. Old women like us don’t get rid of bruises like we did when we was kids.”

“Will you shut up bitchin’ and tell me what they’ve done?” Gladys asked. “We got here as fast as we could.”

“They’ve run an EKG, and I’m waiting for the doctor to bring back the report on that, but they mixed up a thing that was green and tasted like shit. They made me drink it, and the pain eased up right away. I think they ground up bullfrogs, guts and all,” she whispered.

Rhett chuckled. “Acid reflux?”

“That’s the new fancy word for it. We called it heartburn when I was your age. They tell me it feels like a heart attack. I guess I shouldn’t have eaten them hot tacos for dinner and supper both. Your phone is ringing. You’d better step on out of here and answer it. Never know what all them crazy currents might do to the machinery, and I’m not stayin’ in this place all night because of heartburn.” Polly pulled the oxygen tubes from her nose. “Let’s retire and go on one of them senior cruises. You ready?”

“Hell yes,” Gladys said.

“We’ll take Verdie with us,” Polly said.

“You ain’t leavin’ this place until they convince me it was tacos and not your heart, you crazy old fart,” Gladys said.

Rhett’s phone rang again, and he stepped outside the curtain to answer it. “Hello, it’s been a crazy night.”

“Is Polly all right?” Leah asked.

“Sounds like a bad case of acid reflux,” he said.

“I know about the stickers,” Leah said.

“I’d like to give them a taste of their own medicine. I hate this.”

“I want to get it over with and get on with my plans. I’m packing. You want to help me move out?”

“Yes, I will. Want me to be in front of the ranch about six?”

“No, I’m hoping that you can be in front of Polly’s house at seven tomorrow evening. You might not know it, but Polly has been living with Gladys for over a year now. I’m going to talk to them tomorrow about renting Polly’s house. If she doesn’t want me to do that, I’ll stay in a hotel in Gainesville until I find a place,” she said.

“Are you sure about this, Leah?” he asked.

“Yes, I am, and right now, I just wanted to hear your voice. Call me when y’all get home and let me know how Polly is?”

“I sure will. Here comes Jill and Sawyer.”

“Go explain to them what’s happening, and I’ll talk to you later,” she said.

* * *

It was after ten when Rhett drove Polly and Gladys home in the backseat of Gladys’s truck. The arguing and fussing began the minute Gladys and Polly crawled into the backseat.

“I told you not to call that ambulance. If my insurance doesn’t pay for it to come all the way to Burnt Boot and haul me to the hospital, I’m going to make you pay for it,” Polly grumbled.

“Next time, I’ll kick you out in the yard and let you die, because I don’t want your stinkin’, old body on my sofa,” Gladys popped back at her.

“Lot of surprises at the festival today, right?” Rhett tried to steer the conversation away from the ambulance.

“I’m thinkin’ about puttin’ out a contract on Betsy Gallagher. I heard about the sticker trick. That was just downright evil,” Polly fumed. “Tell me that we ain’t goin’ to lose you to Wild Horse, Rhett.”

Rhett looked at them in the rearview mirror. “Hey, who says I’ll go to either one? Maybe I’m happy at Fiddle Creek. Besides, I’d never be happy on a ranch that big or takin’ orders from Mavis or from Naomi.”

Polly nudged Gladys, who nodded. Now what was that all about? Had they given him a test, and if so, did he pass the damn thing?

* * *

“Leah! Come down here!” Mavis’s voice echoed up the stairs, across the landing, and through her shut door.

Leah had been stretched out on her bed, replaying the horrible day, trying to figure out what she might have done different. Her feet hit the floor, and she made a dash for the door, leaving her cell phone behind on the pillow beside her.

She leaned over the railing and said, “What?”

“I’ve told you a thousand times not to answer me like that. It’s disrespectful to say one word in that tone. Come down here.”

“At this time of night?” Leah asked.

“I can’t sleep, and I want to get this settled.” Mavis wore a long, pink cotton robe and matching slippers. Her new short hair stuck up like she’d stuck her finger in an electrical socket and, in the harsh overhead lighting, every single wrinkle showed.

“Okay, Granny, but you might not like the outcome,” Leah said.

“Right now! In my office.”

Leah was halfway down the steps when her father came in the front door. He raised an eyebrow, and she nodded toward Mavis.

Mavis turned her glare to Russell. “Where have you been?”

“I’m pushing sixty, Mama. I don’t reckon I have to tell you where I’m at every minute of the day or night,” he said. “What’s going on here?”

“We’re going to draw up the lines. On one side, it will be white; on the other side, black. There will be no gray,” Mavis said.

“She’s upset over the fact that Tanner tricked me and I have to have dinner with him tomorrow,” Leah said.

“Leah will be thirty this fall, Mama. She’s proven time and time again that we can trust her judgment. She’ll take a picnic to the church in the morning, have a sandwich with him, and be home by one o’clock. It will be over. You are letting Naomi get under your skin.”

“It’s not Tanner I’m worried about or Naomi. It’s that Rhett O’Donnell.”

Leah sat down on the bottom step. “I’ll make it easy for you, Granny. Tomorrow I’ll have my picnic with Tanner. Monday is my first day of school, and after the day is finished, I’ll pack my things and move off of River Bend.”

Russell sat down beside her and draped an arm around her shoulders. “That won’t be necessary. This is your home and my ranch. You can date whoever you please.”

Mavis crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s not your ranch until I die, and I can change the will.”

“But can you run this place without me?” Russell asked.

Mavis glared at him. “You’ve got brothers who can step up and take your place.”

Leah threw up both hands, fingers splayed out, as she shook her head from side to side. “Stop it! You aren’t going anywhere, Daddy. I am moving away, not because of Rhett, but because I want to. I need my own place.”

“Then I’ll build you a house anywhere you want on the ranch.”

“That’s it. I don’t want a place on the ranch. I want outside of it so I can breathe. This place is smothering me to death. I’m going to talk to Polly tomorrow evening about renting her house. She’s not living there, and if she won’t rent to me, then I’ll live in Gainesville and commute to work.”

Mavis stomped her foot, but it didn’t make much noise. “I forbid it. If you move away, you’ll fall into bed with Rhett, and I won’t have it.”

Leah stood up and stretched. “Daddy, you will come see me often, won’t you?”

“Yes, I will, and you know you can always come home if you change your mind,” Russell said.

She dropped a kiss on top of his dark hair and hurried up the stairs to call Rhett.

Mavis called after her, “Leah, you better rethink this. It’s a bad decision.”