Lila stopped by the rodeo’s concession stand and bought a big dill pickle, an order of nachos, and a bottle of root beer. The bottle went into her purse and the pickle in the side of the cardboard container with the nachos. That way she could make it to the top of the stands without dropping anything. She was halfway when she saw the Dawson family all sitting with the grand matriarch, Hope Dalley, down at the other end of the rough wooden bleachers. She kept going until she was at the very top and sat down on the end of the empty row.
Dust boiled in the arena as the first cowboy lasted all of three seconds on a big bruiser of a bull. The clowns in all their bright, outlandish costumes hurried out to lure the bull away from him so the cowboy could get up, take a bow to the folks in the stand, and swagger back to the chutes.
A chip covered with cheese and jalapeños was halfway to her mouth when she saw Brody’s tall figure disappear down into the chute. The chip fell from her hands, splattering on the toes of her boots, but she didn’t even look down. Her breath caught in her chest, tightening it into a dull ache.
When she decided to attend the bull riding, the last thing she expected was such an explosion of emotions rattling around in her heart and soul.
“Devil Dog is a tough bull to ride, and Daniel has only been riding six months, so let’s give him another big hand.” The announcer’s booming voice filled the place. “Better luck next time, Daniel. You’ve got the makings of a fine bull rider. And now coming out of chute two is Brody Dawson riding Barbed Wire, a young bull destined for great things. Brody is no stranger to riding bulls. He’s been doing it since he was in high school. He is the co-owner now of Hope Springs Ranch right here in Happy, Texas. He’s testing the rope and getting his hat set just right and…” The announcer paused and all noise stopped. Then he yelled, “The chute is open!”
Yelling and whistling began the minute that the bull came out with both hind feet in the air. Barbed Wire twisted around until his head was practically touching his tail and then he whipped back around, almost putting his big wide horns on the ground. Two seconds down, six to go when Lila clasped her hands together so tightly that they hurt.
Brody kept one hand in the air but his straw hat flew off after the first two seconds and the bull stomped it into the dirt. Four seconds, halfway through the ride. Lila wanted to shut her eyes but she couldn’t.
Six seconds into the ride, Brody went flying over the top of Barbed Wire’s head and landed on his side. She jumped to her feet so fast that the rest of her nachos went flying everywhere. Please, God, let him get up.
He quickly scrambled to his feet and she plopped down with a thud. Then she realized that the bull was right behind him. She was back on her feet, mouth open but no words came out. The noise in the stands sounded as if it were a mile away. The bull got closer and closer. Lila’s racing pulse thumped in her ears, blotting out the whoops and hollers from the crowd cheering him on. Then Brody slapped one hand down on the top fence rail and cleared it in a graceful jump. She let out the pent-up air in her lungs in a long whoosh.
One of the clowns grabbed Brody’s hat and made a big show of popping it back into some kind of shape. Another one stole it from him and ran toward the fence. On the way the third one snatched it and took it straight to Brody, who settled it on his head and took a bow to his screaming fans.
With her heart doing double time and the only one in the whole stands still on her feet, she lost sight of him as he rounded the arena and headed toward the chutes. The announcer was introducing the next rider when she finally slumped back down into her seat. The next rider came out and it was an exciting eight seconds, but it didn’t produce nearly the adrenaline rush of Brody’s ride.
When Brody reached the chutes, Jace handed him a cold beer. He rubbed it across his forehead before he washed the dirt from between his teeth with a long swallow. “That Barbed Wire is one mean hunk of bull.”
“But he could help a rider rack up the points. He’s pure evil,” Jace said.
“So when is it your turn?” Brody asked.
“Last one on the docket. They’re saving the best until last,” Jace teased. “Lila is in the stands.”
“When did she get here?” Brody located his family. There was Emma in her pink cowboy hat and Rustin pointing at the clowns but no Lila. His eyes swept the stands a section at a time until he located her at the very top.
“She saw you ride, if that’s what you’re askin’.” Jace grinned. “Now she knows you aren’t perfect.”
“She’s known that for years,” Brody said.
“Yeah, right.” Jace air slapped Brody on the arm. “All I’ve heard since this morning from Rustin and Emma is Lila’s name. I heard about the ice cream and the reading but mostly they talked about how they wished she lived on the ranch with them.”
“She was really good with the kids last night.” Brody nodded.
Jace nodded. “I’d better warn you. Granny was not happy about you taking the kids to the café. She didn’t mind if Kasey did, but not you.”
“I’m thirty years old and both Granny and Mama can mind their own business and let me take care of mine,” Brody growled.
“I hear you and so do they, but they don’t believe it like I do. Granny told Kasey that the two of you were going to have a long talk,” Jace told him.
“Please tell me you’re kiddin’,” Brody moaned.
“Wish I was but she said she was coming to our house tonight right after the riding. You might want to offer to do a second ride so you’ll have an excuse to soak the soreness out of your muscles until she gets bored and goes on to her house,” Jace said.
“I’ll give you a hundred dollars for your ride. You can say that you decided to get into your clown gear and help the guys out,” Brody said.
Jace laughed. “If you got hurt, she’d sit beside your hospital bed all night. You’ve always been her favorite.”
Brody swiped sweat from his forehead with his palm. “I’d thought about going to sit with the family after my ride, but I think I’ll stay down here and help with the chutes. And I’m not her favorite. I was just the firstborn, so she’s had a little longer to smother me.”
“No gripe from me. I’ll let you be the favorite because you have to endure the consequences. And you’re welcome for the warning, brother.”
Brody clamped a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Thanks.”
Jace handed him a second can of beer. “Anytime. We learned a long time ago when it comes to Granny’s meddling that we have to stick together.”
Brody found an old metal folding chair behind a chute and popped it open. He sat down and propped his boots on the rails of the chute where Barbed Wire was still penned up.
“Don’t you snort around at me. You won that battle, but this isn’t the last time we’ll cross paths this summer, and next time I’ll win.” Brody raised his can toward the bull.
He could see Lila at the top of the stands all alone. She was sipping on either a bottle of pop or a beer. When she finished, she got to her feet and started down toward the concession stand. A couple of cowboys stopped her, their body language saying clearly that they were hitting on her and hers leaving no doubt that they’d been refused. She waited in line at the concession and exchanged a few words with a couple of women, using her hands as she talked to them like she’d done back in high school. He remembered telling her once that if he tied her hands behind her back she wouldn’t be able to say a word.
She bought something at the concession stand and then headed off toward the gate. He pushed out of the chair and leaned on a rail so he could watch her disappear into the darkness.
Lila set the nachos on the passenger seat in her truck beside two cans of cat food. She’d thought she’d pass plumb out when Brody hit the dirt, but the next two riders, though exciting, didn’t affect her like those six seconds had when she’d watched Brody try to hang on to the rope. When her heart finally slowed down, it was time to go on the mission that she’d planned after the bull ride. One would involve being a Good Samaritan and giving a black and white cat a good home. The other would mean she was blowing the bottom out of that commandment about stealing because she wasn’t going home without a cat.
She drove to the cemetery and parked in front of her father’s grave. “Daddy, I want something to talk to and to cuddle with me while I watch television at night. If you’ve got any connections with a cat whisperer up there—” She tilted her head back to get a better view of the full moon and stars. “You might tell that homeless critter to show his face or else I’m going out to Henry’s old barn and I’m stealing that big white cat. You going to keep me on the straight and narrow or let me fall back into my wild ways?”
She got out of the truck, pulled the tab from the top of the can, set it on the ground, and propped a hip on her father’s tombstone. Eating a few of the nachos while she waited, she saw the black and white cat slink out from behind a floral wreath not far away. He sniffed the air and warily made his way to the cat food. Careful not to make a fast move and scare him off, she set the nachos to the side and, speaking in a calm voice, took a step toward the cat.
When she was two feet away, he took one more bite and was nothing more than a blur as he took off into the darkness. She slapped her thigh. “I tried to do it the right way, so I don’t think I should be punished for stealing. Besides, Paul might not even know that cat is in his barn. I might be doing him a favor.”
Carrying her food back to the truck, she frowned at the stars. She started the engine and drove straight to Henry’s old barn. She parked the truck and made her way across the floor—nachos and cat food in a wooden crate in her arms.
“I’m here to get a cat and I’m not leaving without one,” she muttered as she sat down on a hay bale, opened the can of food, and dumped it into an old pie pan she’d brought from the café.
She chewed on nachos as she waited. The white cat came out first but it wasn’t long before she was surrounded by four kittens. Two black ones, a white one, and a yellow one with four white feet. Lila captured one of the black ones by the scruff of the neck. It clawed and growled, slinging its paws all the way to the crate. In the commotion, the mama cat and two of the other kittens skittered off to hide behind a bale of hay. But the fearless white kitten kept right on eating.
“And you will keep Mr. Feisty here from whining because he has no one to play with.” She scooped it up and put it in the crate with the black one and they howled out their anger together. “You’ll have a good home and lots of food and I’ll pet you every single day. Hawks won’t swoop down and carry you away, so stop your bellyachin’.”
The big mama cat came back out after a bit and rubbed around her legs. “Good thing those babies came out with you. I’d feel terrible if I took you away from them when they were too young. Are you thanking me for giving them a good home? Well, you’re welcome. Now I have something to talk to other than a broom, so thank you, mama cat, for letting me adopt two of your babies.”
She put her nacho trash on the top of the crate, and carried the whole thing to the truck, where she set it on the passenger seat. She had driven down to Tulia right after work and bought litter, a pan to put it in, and a dozen cans of cat food. The kittens were going to love their new home once they got used to it. And she’d be willing to bet that Paul would be glad to get rid of the kittens. But to be on the safe side and not get into trouble with that business of thou shalt not steal, she would ask him the next time he came into the café.
Her phone rang as she turned the key to start the engine and she dug around in her purse until she found it. “Hello, Mama. I wasn’t expecting a call from you tonight.”
“You’re in Texas and for the first time in years, I’m homesick. Where are you right now?”
“Out at Henry Thomas’s old barn stealing kittens. Paul McKay leases this place and I don’t reckon he’ll mind. He probably doesn’t even know how many there are,” she answered.
Daisy gasped. “I was afraid when you crossed the Texas border you’d get crazy.”
“It’s just kittens. I didn’t set fire to anything or borrow a tractor or…”
“Delilah Harris.” Daisy’s voice went all whispery like it did when Lila was in trouble.
“Would you rather I adopted two children?”
“I definitely would not!” Daisy’s voice jacked up an octave. “It’s an omen that I got homesick today. Fate is telling me that you need me. I should take the café off the market and move back to Texas.”
“I’m doing all right now that I’ve got something to talk to that breathes and even meows once in a while,” Lila said. “Hey, I even went to church last Sunday and Molly says I have to go tomorrow. She’s keeping me pretty straight and very busy. So be sure you want to make a drastic move before you talk to Aunt Tina. And remember, Mama, it’s hotter’n hell in Texas in the summertime.”
“You can’t tell me anything about the panhandle of Texas that I don’t already know. But it’s either sweatin’ in Texas or suffering through butt-deep snow here in Pennsylvania. I can get cool with air-conditioning in Texas.”
“But that danged old northern cold can cut right to the bone, can’t it?” Lila said.
“Promise me you won’t steal anything else.”
“I promise, but I’m not giving my word about skinny-dippin’ out at Hope Springs.”
“Sweet angels in heaven!” Daisy shrieked. “I was right. Texas brings out that wild streak in you.”
“Yep, the minute I crossed the line I got the urge to steal something, go skinny-dippin’, and make out with Brody Dawson in Henry Thomas’s old barn. Blame it on Texas,” she laughed.
“I’m not having this conversation with you. Tell me about those cats.”
“One is pure white with a little yellow spot on its head and the other is black as sin. Want to help me name them?”
“I do not,” Daisy said emphatically. “I’m not going to contribute to your crime spree.”
Lila laughed harder that time. “If they throw me in jail for thievery, will you bail me out?”
“No, but I will feed the kittens for you until you serve your time. I’ll be glad when you’re back in Florida this fall. Now good night,” Daisy said.
“Good night, Mama.”
Granny Hope showed up in the kitchen before Brody took the first bite of the chocolate cake he’d put on his plate. She cut out a slab of cake that came close to being too big for the dessert plate and brought the gallon jug of milk with her to the table.
“We need to talk,” she said to Brody.
“About?”
“You already know but I’ll say it out loud. Lila Harris.”
“You talk and I’ll listen,” he said.
“Have you ever heard the history of Hope Springs?”
“I can recite it to you.”
She lowered her chin and looked at him from under arched gray eyebrows. “Don’t be a smartass. It don’t hurt you to hear a little of this again. You know that I was the fourth-generation owner of Hope Springs. I’ve been pleased with the way you’re doin’ things since I turned the place over to you. You and Jace are doin’ a great job.”
He nodded as respectfully as possible and bit back a yawn.
Hope stopped long enough to take a few bites of cake and drink half a glass of milk. “Since you know the story about my great-grandparents helping get this area settled, I’ll skip that part. At the same time Hope Springs was coming into its own as a reputable ranch, the Dawsons were doing really well with their ranches on down the road toward the canyon.”
Brody poured another glass of milk. A history lesson was better than a scolding, but so far she had not mentioned Lila, so that might still be on the agenda.
“The rest of what I’m going to say is in confidence. That means it doesn’t go any farther than this kitchen. Agree?”
He nodded. She had his full attention.
“The ranch had a reputation to uphold by then. So as the only heir, I had a lot to learn and a tremendous amount of responsibility upon my shoulders. It was a big place by then and I couldn’t let my folks down.”
Brody had never seen his grandmother flustered. She took the bull by the horns, spit in its face, and dared it to come after her. But that night her eyes kept shifting from one corner of the kitchen to the other.
“It’s not easy letting go of the control. I was so tired of making decisions that I thought it would be good to step back and turn it all over to you boys. But I was wrong. I miss the work and all of it,” she said.
Scenarios played through Brody’s mind at warp speed. In the foremost one his grandmother was about to change her mind about the ranch.
“I feel like a duck in a desert. No water in sight and I can’t swim in sand.”
He patted her arm. “Sometimes I feel like that, too, and that’s when I call you and ask for your advice. You’re always going to be needed, Granny. We’re all taking baby steps in this whole transfer and we’re glad that you decided to stay in Cooter’s place so you’re nearby. I’m not sure Kasey could handle the load without you to help.”
“Thank you, darlin’ boy, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. I’m not sure that I can put it into words, and I’m past seventy years old. Your grandpa has been gone a dozen years and without work from daylight to past dark, I’m lonely.”
“Granny, do you have a boyfriend?” Brody whispered.
“Good God, no!” she gasped. “I’m tryin’ to put my feelin’s into words and explain to you how I felt tonight at that bull riding. But in order to do it, I have to say some things I’ve never told anyone.”
“I’m listening.” He covered both her hands with his and squeezed gently.
“I was twenty years old the year that Dad hired a new foreman. He came from over near Clovis, New Mexico, and his name was Weston Dalley.”
“Grandpa, right?” Brody asked.
“That’s right. Wes was twenty-five, a good man and a fine manager. My dad loved him like the son he’d never had.” Her eyes misted slightly.
“And so did you evidently,” Brody said.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I did love your grandpa. Don’t ever doubt that for a minute. But...” She paused.
“But?” Gramps had been Brody’s idol. He didn’t want there to be a but anywhere in his life or in his relationship with Granny.
“But he was not my first love.” She met his gaze and her eyes floated in tears. “Wes was a good man.”
She didn’t have to convince Brody of that. Wes Dalley was well respected in the whole area and he loved his entire family. In Brody’s eyes he was more than just a good man—he could walk on water.
“I’ve never told anyone this before and I expect you to keep it to yourself.”
Brody swallowed hard and nodded in agreement.
“I had an argument with the man I loved. Over Wes. In a fit of anger, this other guy joined the service and I turned to Wes for comfort. We were married six months later, and Daddy built the north wing onto the house for us to live in. Mama had come down with her illness by then and someone needed to be here all the time. We had your mother that next year.”
“And the first love?” he asked.
“He spent more than twenty years in the service, came back to Happy to take care of his parents, and then left when they died,” she said. “The point of this whole story is to tell you that I had a responsibility to the ranch. My first love hated ranching. He was a dreamer with no roots. I did the right thing by marrying your grandfather.”
“Do I hear another but?” Brody asked.
Her eyes met his. “I always wondered what my life would have been like with him, and there was a little part of my heart that Wes never had because of him. Now remember that when I go on to the rest of my story.”
“Lila?” Brody yawned.
Hope inhaled deeply and let it out in a gush. “Always in a hurry. It comes from all that instant gratification you kids have with technology. I knew when you were born I was going to leave Hope Springs to you when you were old enough to take the reins.”
“What about Jace? Right now you’ve given it to both of us.”
“But when he gets ready to settle down or if Valerie decides to step down from runnin’ the ranch, he will inherit Prairie Rose and this one will be yours alone. Lila Harris is your first love, right?”
“Can I answer? You told me to be quiet.”
“Just nod.”
He did.
“I saw her at the bull riding tonight. She sat at the top of the stands all alone. I watched her actions without her even knowing it. Emma talks about her all the time and Rustin thinks she flat out hung the moon. I hear that Silas went right to her when y’all went for ice cream last night.”
He nodded again.
“I stand by my reasoning back when you and Lila were teenagers. She was wild and I could see that you would mess up your life if you got involved with her at eighteen.”
“And?” Brody asked.
“I could feel what she was experiencing tonight. Neither Wes nor my first love rode bulls but when you came out of the chute, I was experiencing that rush that I used to get when I was sneaking off to see—” She stopped before she said his name.
“Sneaking?” Brody’s eyes widened.
“Dad didn’t think he was good enough for me. Like I said, he was a dreamer, not a rancher, and I had a lot of responsibility toward Hope Springs. Back to what I was trying to say—she had eyes for no one else tonight and almost fainted when the bull was chasing you. She left before the rides were finished. I know that feeling that she had, and I expect your heart reacts the same way when you’re around her, right?”
Another nod.
“Then it’s time to see if there’s enough left for another chance or to get over her,” Hope said.
“Was it worth losing your first love for this place?” Brody asked.
“At this point in life, I can say yes, it was,” she answered. “If I’d done what my heart wanted instead of what my mind knew was the right course, you wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation with me.”
A long, heavy pause hung over the room like dust at the rodeo arena.
“You’re thirty years old and so is Lila. You have a chance that I never had. You cannot re-create the past. It’s gone and done with. Decisions made. Consequences paid. But if you see something in that woman, then you have the opportunity to see if there is a future there,” she said.
Brody almost fell out of his chair. “You aren’t against me seeing her?”
“You’re a grown man and you had a lot of responsibility laid on your shoulders when your grandpa and daddy both died that summer. I’m proud of you, Brody.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said.
Hope inhaled and pulled her hands free. “Always in a hurry. That’s your decision. Lila is a responsible woman with a pretty good head on her shoulders from what I’ve found out since she came back to Happy. I knew that wild girl but I don’t know the woman Lila. Take my advice and either get her out of your system while she is here or else do something about the attraction. It’s time for you to have a child so Hope Springs can live on through another generation. This summer needs to tell the story of who the mother of that child will be.”
“Again, Jace?” he asked.
“I told you. He will inherit your folks’ place when Valerie steps down like I did, probably in the next couple of years at the most, and he will sign Hope Springs over to you and move back down the road to Prairie Rose,” Hope said. “And that is the confidential part.”
“And Kasey?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when the time comes. Now it’s well past my bedtime and you need to get a shower. You’ve got dirt in your hair and behind your ears.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned.
She covered a yawn with her hand. “Good talk, as you kids say today.”
“It was and thank you, Granny,” he said.
“But,” she whispered, “let Jace think I gave you a hard time. It keeps up my image.”
“You got it. I’ll take care of the cleanup here and see you in the morning,” he said.
“Bright and early. Ranchin’ starts with daylight and ends when there’s not enough light to see anymore.”
“Amen.” Brody rose to his feet and kissed his grandmother on the forehead. “Sweet dreams.”
Hope stopped at the door and turned around. “Your mama has never forgiven Lila’s mama for trying to get between her and Mitch Dawson when they were in high school, so you might not get off so easy with her. But that’s not my business so you’re on your own there.”