The Convenient Cowboy (18 page)

Chapter Eighteen

“Uh-oh,” Lavonda said over the phone, her voice distressed but with a hint of laughter. “Molly heard. That pony’s got bat ears.”

“What do you mean?” Olympia asked. She had been talking on a three-way call with Lavonda and Jessie about the upcoming ceremony, where she and Spence would renew their vows. It was supposed to be simple. Just family. And by family, her preference would have been Cal, Audie and Spence. Her two friends had other ideas of what constituted family.

“Molly heard about the wedding,” Jessie clarified through the speaker.

“So?”

“So,” Jessie went on patiently, “you remember what happened with Payson and me?”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Dang it, Molly,” Jessie said before Olympia heard a stomp and bugle from a much larger equine.

“What’s going on there?”

“Molly’s got Bull all riled up, and she’s trotting up and down in the barn,” Jessie said, then called, “You are not going to be in this wedding. She just said they’re not... Hey, don’t open that.” Jessie’s voice was raised in alarm.

“Gotta go,” Lavonda said. “We’re in the midst of an all-out pony rebellion here.”

* * *

“E
XPLAIN
TO
ME
again why we’re doing this?” Olympia asked as Lavonda pulled at her wedding dress. It was an off-the-rack, lacy number from Dillard’s that Lavonda and Jessie had insisted she wear.

“Because,” Jessie said patiently, jiggling a fussy Audie, “we all love a party and felt cheated not getting to see you hog-tie Spence. Plus, Molly wanted to be in another wedding.”

“Since Molly is not my pony, I’m not sure how it was my problem that she was ‘upset’ about not being the ring bearer again,” Olympia said.

“We’re family, and that pony is family,” Jessie said. “What do you have to complain about? Spence negotiated a good deal with his brother for ‘babysitting gratis and without just compensation until such time as those services are no longer needed.’”

“We were supposed to go see your brother, Danny,” Olympia said. “He could have said the words again to convince Cal we were really, really married, then we were going to go out to dinner. That was it. Look at what’s happened now. There’s a whole yard of people, and the house is full, and—”

“But because of the wedding, you got the house upgraded,” Rickie said with no sympathy. “I think this is one of them there win-wins.” Her sister imitated Spence’s cowboy drawl exactly.

“I’ll take Peanut,” Olympia said, reaching out her arms for the baby, hoping that would settle her nerves. Why was she nervous? She and Spence were already married. Had been married for more than a year now.

“No,” Lavonda and Rickie said with horror.

Wrinkling her nose, her sister added, “She’ll spit up on you or leak some other bodily fluid.”

Jessie said to Rickie, “You clean up horse poop, and you’re worried about a baby?”

Rickie stood back and gave Olympia the thumbs-up. “Time to go, so we can get this party started before Cal runs out of gummy worms for Molly.”

“What is it about this family that we can’t do weddings like everyone else?” Jessie asked as she followed Olympia out of the master bedroom, which had been enlarged in the ranch renovation—paid for with a home-equity loan co-signed by Jessie and Payson. The furnishings had been added courtesy of an online gift registry Lavonda had created. Then there was a lot of free labor from friends and family to get the whole project done—well, nearly done anyway.

“We’re rebels at heart?” Lavonda suggested.

“We’re free spirits,” Rickie said.

“No. We’re bullheaded cowgirls, according to Spence,” Olympia added. “Or maybe that’s Muffin-headed. That horse has nearly out-stubborned me.”

“I hear Spence has horses all figured out,” Jessie said.

“He thought he did until he got bit when he tried to make Molly come out of Muffin’s stall.”

Olympia shut up when she saw they were on the patio, and everyone turned to look at her. The aisle between the rows of borrowed folding chairs was filled with family and friends. Her stomach fluttered, not with Peanut kicks, but the excitement of saying in front of everyone that she loved Spence, that she wanted to make a family with him. Olympia looked down the aisle at her husband, splendid in his finest Western suit and hat. She glanced to her right, where Cal stood with Molly’s flower-decorated lead in his hand and decked out in a suit just like his dad’s. Audie let out a squeal from behind her. She’d spotted her father. That baby was smitten.
Yeah, just like you, cowgirl.

“Get a move on,” Lavonda said with a light push as soon as Molly and Cal started down the aisle.

Olympia stepped toward her cowboy, followed by her friends and her baby girl. Her sisters watched her with big goofy grins. Even Mama and Grammy had come. Spence’s parents sat primly, his mother’s perfectly matched outfit looking out of place. Jessie said not to pay attention because the woman wore only Chanel.

Olympia caught the light scent of licorice. Her nerves settled, and her grip firmed on the small bouquet that Lavonda insisted she carry.

“You ready, darlin’?” Spence asked as he pulled her close and they faced Danny Leigh—little brother to Jessie and Lavonda. He was mayor of some town somewhere, giving him “marryin’ rights for the whole danged state.”

“Of course. A cowgirl never shows fear,” she whispered back with a smile. “’Cause only a real cowgirl would take on you and your wild herd of kiddos.”

“That’s right,” he whispered back. “Maybe we can see how good you are with a rope later?”

“Hey,” Danny, light eyed like his sister Jessie, said. “That is stuff that I don’t need to know. Are you ready?”

Olympia looked at her fake-as-a-three-dollar-bill cowboy and only saw the real deal today. She nodded. He squeezed her hand and gave her a full-dimpled smile.

* * *

“D
AD
,” C
ALVIN
SAID
, his sister seated at his feet on her heavily padded butt, happily patting the dirt. Spence sighed. The pretty outfit his mother had purchased for Audie was now dusty and streaked with what he hoped was cake. “Dad,” Calvin said louder.

“Yeah, buddy.”

“You and Limpy are married, right? We’re a real family?”

“We were married before.”

His son gave him the look, which basically said, “Don’t give me that line, I’m scary smart, and I know it’s total BS.”

“There was a ring this time, right?”

“Calvin, you led Molly down the aisle with the rings on her pillow.”

“I just wanted to make sure. You could have done a magic trick.”

Calvin had recently become fascinated by magic. Audie scooted closer to Spence’s foot and started covering his pointed cowboy boot with dirt. He couldn’t help but smile down at the mess of inky hair on her head as she concentrated on his foot. That was her mother. That fierce determination.

“So.” Calvin interrupted Spence’s focus on his little girl. “It’s real, and we both get to live here forever.”

“Yup. That’s why we made the house bigger—so we’d all fit.” Spence thought that some logic might help Calvin. He understood that the boy might be worried about where he’d land after his early life. Spence could see Calvin was leading up to something, but he didn’t know what. “You were even on the crew and put in the kitchen tile with Uncle Payson and Uncle Danny.”

“Because it’s easy to clean, right?”

Spence looked at Calvin carefully, hoping he could read his big brain. “That’s what—”

“Hey, what are you guys doing? And why is Peanut sitting in the dirt?” Olympia asked, bending over to scoop up the little girl, obviously not worried about the drooling mouth that immediately gave her kisses or the grubby hands that yanked at her dress.

“Calvin was asking me about our flooring choices,” Spence said, enjoying the sight of his wife and little girl. They both grinned at him.

“Aah,” Olympia said with understanding, though what she could understand, he had no idea. “You want to make sure the floor can handle a puppy?”

“What?” Spence asked. “Calvin, we told you—”

“Aunt Jo said that the puppy needs a home bad,” he answered fiercely. Apparently, Olympia’s sister Jolene, who worked as a vet tech and had a menagerie at her farm, was trying to unload one of her crew.

“We’ve talked about this, Calvin. No dogs, and especially not a puppy. You’re in school all day, I’m at work and Olympia has the horses to take care of.”

“I’d take care of him, and I don’t need to go to the stupid school anyway. I could go to cyberschool or you could teach me or you could ask Mimi and Grandpa Stu for money for a tutor.”

Spence closed his eyes to find patience. Calvin’s therapist had said the boy was excited and happy about Spence and Olympia renewing their vows. The woman had also said that Calvin needed a lot of stability and assurance that the adults in his life were sticking around. She thought that his insistence on getting a puppy was to create a connection he had more control over. Or, Spence thought cynically, he could just be a little boy who’d watched too many movies about how cool it was to have a dog.

He’d taken too long to answer, and Olympia said, “Cal, Aunt Jo is always trying to give away a dog or a cat. You know, she helps rescue animals. It’s part of her job.”

“I know, but this puppy is different.”

“Really? What’s his story?”

Oh, no, Olympia sounded interested, as if she was actually considering adding a puppy to the ranch. It had taken threats from him of taking away Xbox and computer privileges to get Petunia to the sanctuary.

“Aunt Jo said that he’s deaf and that he has to have an operation on his heart, then he’ll be better. She said that deaf dogs are special and that Max is really, really smart. He already knows how to sit. She thinks that he can learn sign language. I found a YouTube video, and I’ve already learned how to tell him to stay, fetch, roll over, play dead—” Calvin gulped a breath of air.

“Buddy,” Spence stepped in. “We’ve talked about this.”

“But, Dad, he might never get adopted,” Calvin said. “He’s got problems. People don’t want puppies with problems, Aunt Jo says.”

Spence glared at his wife. They’d been together long enough that he knew she had a very good idea what he was thinking—that her sister should keep her big mouth shut. But Olympia just smiled.

Darn. He’d lost another argument, without a word. He knew defeat, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t negotiate for better terms, later, alone, in bed.

* * *

O
LYMPIA
SMILED
AT
the frowning Lavonda, who was completely baffled by the change in plans. She didn’t understand that Spence and Olympia didn’t want to be alone for a honeymoon. They wanted to have their family around them. Olympia guessed sometime soon she and Spence would be willing to let the children go to sleepovers, and that they’d take getaways from the ranch, but not now, not today. Not on this day when Olympia finally had settled into her new dream of a family, of loving Spence and having all of it—from a husband to children to a ranch full of strays. Later tonight, they’d celebrate by burning their prenup and its addendum in the chiminea, then they’d have their own fun under the stars. She shivered in anticipation.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Lavonda said, her delicate and very ladylike features scrunched into a frown. “It’s X-rated, and a woman not getting any shouldn’t be exposed to such blatant—”

“Uh-oh,” Jessie interrupted as she walked up. “Does Limpy have ‘honeymoon eyes’?”

“Honeymoon eyes?” What the heck were they talking about? Olympia wondered about these sisters some days.

Jessie grinned. “That’s what she said Payson and I looked like after we got married. That sometimes we got ‘honeymoon eyes,’ which meant we’d kick her out so we could get busy.”

Lavonda put her hands on her hips, glaring at her older and taller sister. “It was disgusting. Even Mama and Daddy commented on the goo-goo eyes.”

Jessie just shrugged.

“So, are you and Spence all packed?” Jessie asked.

“No. We’re staying here with the kids, and the puppy’ll be here in a few days.”

“Your sister broke down Spence’s resistance?” Jessie asked.

“Something like that,” Olympia answered. She loved the two women, but she really wanted everyone to go home now. She wanted to enjoy her family, the little unit that made her feel safe and whole.

“See what I mean?” Lavonda accused. “See her face?”

“I see what you mean, which also means it’s time for everyone to hit the highway. Lucky for you, Molly has decided, now that Muffin is totally in love with her, it’s time to go home,” Jessie said with a smile. “Are you sure you don’t want us to take the kids just for tonight? You can drive to Phoenix tomorrow and pick them up.”

“No, we’re good with everyone here.”

Jessie stepped forward and gave Olympia a hug, whispering in her ear, “I understand. This is a great way to celebrate, and don’t let Lavonda tell you any different. I hope I get to feel the same way soon.”

Olympia stepped back and nodded, but she’d stopped paying attention because Spence was walking toward her with the kids.

“Oops. I see I’ve lost you.”

Olympia turned to her friend. “It’ll happen. I know it’s not for lack of trying, and Payson will be coming back to Arizona permanently in a month or two. Then you’ll see, you’ll be pregnant in a second.”

Jessie’s smile didn’t reach her eyes, but Olympia didn’t push. She just hugged her friend and sister-in-law.

“Payson says to shake a boot because Molly has eaten every gummy worm and has spotted the leftover cake,” Spence said to Jessie, giving Olympia a questioning look. She tilted her head so that he knew they’d talk about it later.

“All right. I tried to take the munchkins, but Olympia said no. You’re good with it, too?”

Spence nodded and came to stand beside Olympia. She felt whole again. She waved Jessie away. “Everyone else gone?”

“Yep,” Spence said, the arm around her shoulder moving down her back to caress her rear, giving her a promise of what he was planning for their second honeymoon.