Lila tied on an apron and tucked an order pad into the pocket before she flipped on the lights and unlocked the doors to the café that Thursday morning. No one was in the parking lot yet so she went back to the kitchen, stuffed a biscuit with crispy bacon, and ate it as she watched Daisy crack eggs into a bowl.
Lila took a deep breath and faced her mother. “I’m going to the Dawson family reunion on Saturday night with Brody,” she said.
“Well, that ought to go over like a cockroach in the punch bowl at a church social,” she said. “It might be the smartest thing for you.”
“Really?” Lila had expected a hundred reasons why she shouldn’t go and lots of talk all day about the issue.
“Sure,” Daisy said. “It will show you that those people ain’t never going to accept you. You’ll always be my daughter and Valerie would rather have Lucifer’s sister for a daughter-in-law than my kid. Go on and be miserable.”
“And you won’t say ‘I told you so’ one time, right?” Lila finished the biscuit and made another one.
“Oh no. I’m going to say that at least fifty times on Sunday. You never would listen when it came to Brody Dawson,” Daisy said.
The bell above the door dinged and Lila laid her biscuit to the side. “Well, just be careful you don’t say it in front of Brody. I asked him to go to church with me on Sunday and we—as in me and you and him—are coming back here for ice cream afterward.”
“Are you nuts?” Daisy whispered.
“Not according to my therapist!”
Lila made her way through the swinging doors into the dining room. “Good mornin’, Paul and Gracie. How y’all doin’ today?”
“Coffee for us both and the breakfast special,” Gracie said. “We’re on the way to Amarillo to get some things for Hope and Valerie for the Dawson family reunion and thought we’d splurge and have breakfast out this mornin’.”
Lila pinned the order on the merry-go-round in the window and poured two mugs of coffee. “Sugar or cream?”
“No, just black,” Gracie said. “We started helping with the reunion when Adam got in the family. Since our family is down to just the two of us, we like having the Dawsons take us in.”
“That’s sweet of them,” Lila said, glad that several more folks were arriving so she’d have an excuse to walk away.
“Order up,” Daisy yelled.
From then until after the noon rush, there was someone in the café all the time and Daisy was kept busy. But at two o’clock things slowed down enough that Daisy brought two burger baskets to the front. She pointed at the drink machine and then at the food.
“You know what I drink,” she told Lila.
“Sweet tea for both of us.” Lila nodded. “No lettuce and extra pickles, please?”
“I raised you, kiddo,” Daisy told her. “I know how you eat your burgers.”
Lila carried the tea to the booth and sat down across from her mother. Each of them stretched forth their long legs and propped their feet on the other side and sighed at the same time.
“Been a morning.” Daisy dipped a French fry in a small container of ketchup.
“Felt more like a weekend than a Thursday.” Lila poured ketchup over her fries.
Lila had just bitten off a bite of burger when the bell above the door rang. She looked around to see Brody swagger into the café. Looking like he’d spent the whole morning in the hay fields or maybe building fences, his white T-shirt was smudged with dirt and his hair wet with sweat. His forehead had a definite line between dusty and clean where his hat had been all morning.
She didn’t realize she was mentally stripping him out of his clothes until Daisy kicked her under the table. Shifting her gaze from him to her mother, she tucked her chin and shot a mean look across the table.
“Something wrong, Lila?” Brody headed around the counter to the drink machine.
“Not a thing.” She smiled. “What can I get you?”
“Y’all keep your seats. I’m just here for a glass of ice tea and I can get it myself,” he said.
“Kasey don’t make tea at the ranch?” Daisy asked.
“Yep, but I had to come into town to get a load of feed and I’m thirsty,” Brody answered. He poured a tall glass from the drink fountain and carried it to the booth where he slid right in beside Lila.
“How you been Miz Daisy?” he asked.
“Busy,” Daisy answered tersely.
Under the booth, his hand rested on Lila’s knee. She took a big gulp of iced tea but it did nothing to cool her off.
He squeezed gently. “Lila tells me that you’ll be here until Monday. You need a ride to the airport?”
“I’ve got Molly’s car. I’ll drive myself and she’ll be here in time to cook breakfast on Tuesday,” she said.
“She hates Florida and can’t wait to get home to Texas. Crazy thing is that Georgia doesn’t like it so much either and she might be coming back to Happy also. They might buy the café after all.”
“Why does Molly hate Florida?” Lila asked.
“Too much sand. Molly says it’s in everything from her hair to the corners of her suitcase. It’s like it follows her.” Daisy almost smiled.
“Well, would you look at that? I wonder what Clancy is doing in Happy, Texas.” Daisy beamed.
Lila whipped around so fast to look out the window that it made her light-headed. She dropped the French fry in her hand and gasped at the sight of her ex-boyfriend walking toward the cafè. “Mama?”
“Hey.” Daisy shrugged. “We still talk occasionally.”
“Why?” Lila glared at her mother.
“Should I leave?” Brody asked.
She grabbed his free hand and held it on top of the table. “No, stay.”
It was Daisy’s turn to glare and if looks could kill, Brody would be nothing but a bag of thirsty bones on the floor right then. The bell rang and Clancy entered the café, glanced around, and smiled when Daisy waved him over to the booth.
“Well, hello, Clancy. Can I get you something?” Daisy pulled a chair out for him.
“Got a drink back down the road,” he said. “I’m good. Keep your seat, Daisy. Hello, Lila.”
“Clancy, meet Brody Dawson.” Lila made introductions. “Brody, this is Clancy. He and I are colleagues at the school where I work in Florida.”
Brody slid out of the booth and extended a hand. “Pleased to meet you, Clancy. I take it that you’re friends with these folks or is it family?”
“More than friends, right, Dee?” He shook with Brody and then sat down. Wearing perfectly creased dress slacks, a pale blue shirt open at the collar, and loafers, he looked exactly like he did every day at school. Not a blond hair was out of place and his cute little mustache was trimmed.
Brody’s phone pinged and he checked the message. “That’s Jace. The kids we’ve hired to help us this summer are down to the last fence post, so I’d better get back to the ranch with what I’ve got loaded on the truck. See you Saturday, Lila.” He stood up. “Nice to meet you, Clancy.”
“Lookin’ forward to it,” Lila answered. “Call me later?”
“Of course.” Brody dropped a kiss on her forehead and started toward the door.
“So what are you doing in Texas?” Lila asked, but her eyes stayed on Brody as he crossed the floor.
“I came to see you, Dee. Why would he call you Lila?” Clancy asked.
Brody stopped at the fountain and filled a takeout cup with ice and tea. He took his time, throwing a wink over his shoulder toward Lila before he finally laid a five-dollar bill on the counter. He waved at the door and she couldn’t keep her eyes or mind off him as he made his way across the parking lot.
“I asked you a question,” Clancy said brusquely.
“Because that’s what I’m known as in this town. Why would you drive fifteen hundred miles to Texas to see me? If you’re going to fire me, you could do that by phone,” Lila said.
Clancy chuckled. “Darlin’ Dee, I’m not going to fire you. I can’t wait for the end of summer when you come on home where you belong.”
“Does Belinda know you’re here?”
“Blunt.” Clancy’s grin got bigger. “Like always. Texas didn’t change that a bit, did it, Daisy?”
“When she crosses the border into Texas, it gets worse,” Daisy said. “I’ve got to get back to the kitchen. You two have things to discuss. And, Lila, we’ll talk later.”
“Oh, yes, we will,” Lila said, and then turned her attention to Clancy. “What’s going on? Did my mother call you?”
For some insane reason, an old song by Vince Gill played through her head—“Which Bridge to Cross (Which Bridge to Burn).” She thought she’d burned the bridge between her and Clancy when they’d broken up last year. If she hadn’t at that time, she sure enough had the torch in her hand now and he’d better run because she was about to set fire to the damn thing.
“No, actually I called her last week and she said she was coming to Texas for a week. Then we talked on Monday. I got a flight from Pensacola to Amarillo today just to see you. I’ve only got about an hour before I have to head back to the airport, but what I wanted to say needed to be said face-to-face,” he said seriously.
“I’m listening.” She imagined skipping across the bridge like a little girl and pouring gasoline from a red can as she went from one end to the other.
“I missed you.” He scooted closer and ran a hand down her arm. It did nothing but irritate her.
“What about Belinda?” Sorry sucker was two-timing his girlfriend of four months. He deserved to get a little gasoline on his expensive shoes, so in the video playing in her mind, she doused them down good.
“Things are going well. We like the same things, love the same old movies, the same books, and we have so much in common. We’re both coaches at the school, so we understand what the job means,” he said. “But there’s this thing between me and you that I need to resolve before I take it to the next step.”
“Which is?” Mentally, she flicked a candle lighter and a flame shot out from the end.
“Which is asking her to marry me. Are you listening to a word I’m saying?” He squeezed her arm too tightly.
“Congratulations. I’m happy for both of you.” She jerked her arm free and scooted over to the other side of the booth.
“Is that Brody cowboy the reason you called it quits with me?” Clancy raised an eyebrow.
“Could be.” She’d seen that look on his face before when he didn’t get his way.
He combed back his hair with his fingertips and not a single strand fell over his forehead like Brody’s did when he did the same thing. “I really love you, Dee.”
“Then why are you marrying Belinda?”
“I won’t if you’ll give me another chance. We had something good and I can’t get you out of my mind and heart. It’s not easy for me to sit here and say this when I saw the way you looked at that dirty cowboy,” Clancy answered.
“You shouldn’t have come to Texas,” Lila said.
“Is there hope for us after school starts? If you get that rancher out of your sights, you might see things different. A marriage shouldn’t be based on a high school whim,” Clancy said.
“There is no hope for you and me,” she said.
Flaunting the fact that he had money enough to fly to Texas and back in one day did not impress her one bit.
“Then I wish you the best and I’ll go now.”
“Thank you and give my best to Belinda,” she said.
“A good-bye kiss? It might change your mind.” He stood and pushed the chair back in place.
She shook her head. “Not a good idea.”
Propping his hands on the booth, he leaned close to her and whispered, “We could have had something really good.”
That was as far from the truth as black was from white. What they would have had would have been far from good and would have probably ended in divorce.
“I want something that will take my breath away and if I can’t have that, I’ll do without,” she said.
In an instant, his hands left the table and he was plastered next to her in the booth, her face cupped in his hands and his tongue halfway down her throat. She pushed him away so hard that he slid off the end of the booth and sprawled out on the floor.
“You just made the biggest mistake of your life.” Clancy’s voice went cold as ice as he got to his feet.
“Or I just made the smartest decision of my whole life. I can’t believe that you came all the way to Texas to try to get back together with me when you’re living with Belinda.” She wiped the feel of his lips away from hers. “She deserves better.”
“I care too much about you to see you throw away your life on a worthless, dirty farmer,” Clancy said. “You know I could give you a good life, if you would just get over this silly teenage infatuation.”
In her vision of the bridge, she wrung every last drop of gasoline from the can and poured it out.
“You sound more like a parent than a boyfriend and that’s a little creepy.” The imaginary torch she’d held in her hands hit the bridge, sending it into a blaze. “I’ve got to get back to work. Have a nice flight home.”
She made her way out of the booth, sidestepped around him, and headed toward the kitchen. The decision to not go back to Florida for the new teaching year was made in that instant. She would reopen her employment files at the college and teach in central Pennsylvania, as badly as she hated the winters there, before she taught with Clancy as her principal for another year.
“Then this is good-bye?” he asked on his way across the floor.
“Exactly.” Run, Clancy, run. The fire is on the way.
“Just remember I tried, Daisy,” he called out as he slammed the door.
Lila pushed through the swinging doors to the kitchen and popped her hands on her hips. “What were you thinkin’?”
“Keepin’ you from a life of misery,” Daisy shot back. “What did you tell Clancy? He loves you and he’d do right by you.”
“Oh, like he’s doing right by his current girlfriend?” Lila said through gritted teeth. “I can’t imagine how she’d feel if she knew he was only going to propose to her if I wouldn’t take him back.”
Daisy’s brows drew down into a solid line. “He said that?”
Her mama just got a glimpse into the real world. Not every man out there was like Billy Harris who adored his family and who let them be a part of the decisions.
“Pretty much. You talk about Brody’s family feeling like they are above me socially, well Clancy is a thousand times worse.” Lila propped a hip on a bar stool. “What’d he tell you?”
“That you had commitment issues, whatever that means. You kids talk a different language than we did at your age,” she sighed.
“He’s right,” Lila said. “I do have trouble giving my heart to someone.”
Daisy searched in her purse for her phone. “I’m going to call him and give him a piece of my mind. I’m so sorry that I even talked to him.”
Lila took the purse from her hands. “Remember what you’ve always told me?”
“About what?” Daisy’s dark brows drew into a tight line.
“Anyone who stirs in a shit pile…” Lila got tickled.
Daisy finished the old saying. “Has to lick the spoon.”
Arms around each other’s shoulders, they laughed so hard that tears ran down their cheeks. Finally, Lila wiped her mother’s face and then her own with a bar rag.
“Everything works out as it should, Mama. Ignoring him is the best thing we can do. This helped me decide that I’m definitely not going back to Florida, though. I’ll take a job wherever I can find it next year,” Lila said. “I can’t work with him after this.”
“Come to central Pennsylvania. I promise I’ll…,” Daisy started.
Lila crossed the room in a couple of long strides. “You’re the mother. If you didn’t meddle and worry, I’d call the undertaker.”
Daisy wrapped Lila in her arms. “Thanks for not being mad at me. Now get on back out there. I hear truck tires on the gravel.”
“And if it’s Brody?”
“I don’t want to see Clancy again but…”
Lila handed Daisy the towel. “When you were my age, you had a ten-year-old daughter. And your mother didn’t run your life.”
“She tried,” Daisy said, “but I was every bit as stubborn as you. She didn’t want me to buy this café or put an apartment behind it.”
Lila waved over her shoulder and she went back out to the dining room. “Well, hello, Brody Dawson. Haven’t seen you in days.”
She could almost hear Daisy’s sighs.
“We good?” he asked.
“We are very good.” Two bridges had been burned but she was very interested in rebuilding one of them.
Brody had come back to check on her. That meant more than a Sunday date, the Dawson reunion, or the Fourth of July party. Not caring that Paul and Fred were on their way into the café, she walked right up to him and wrapped her arms around him.
“Want to talk about anything?” He drew her close.
“Not a thing. I just want you to hold me for a minute so that I know you’re really here,” she said.
“I’m here for you always, Lila,” he whispered. “As long as you need.”
The door opened again and two of Daisy’s old friends, Laura and Teresa, rushed inside from the blistering heat with Fred and Paul right behind them.
“Well, hello, Brody,” Laura said.
Lila stepped back away from him. “Hello. What can I get y’all?”
“Ladies.” Brody nodded toward them and turned back toward Lila. “I’ll see you Saturday night, right?”
“I’ll be ready.” Lila beamed. “Don’t work too hard.”
He rounded the end of the counter and kissed her on the cheek.
“Does Valerie know about this?” Laura raised a dark brown eyebrow that matched her hair—all but that inch of gray roots shining at the part, anyway.
“Lord, she’s going to have a hissy,” Teresa whispered. Laura’s opposite, she was tall and thin with dyed red hair cropped at chin length and a face so full of wrinkles that it looked like a road map of Dallas.
Drying her hands on her apron, Daisy pushed back the swinging doors and motioned them back into the kitchen. “Good enough for her, the way she’s acted toward me and Lila. Not that I’m for my girl going out with Brody but Valerie don’t get to call the shots. Y’all come on in here and we’ll make us a batch of sweet potato fries to nibble on while we have a visit.”
Lila carried two glasses of sweet tea to Fred and Paul’s booth. “A big order of fries?”
“Sounds good, sweetheart,” Fred said. “It’s my turn to buy, so make the ticket out to me. He’s wishy-washy like an old woman. Changes his mind all the time.”
“And you’re one of them DOC people,” Paul shot back at him.
“OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder. Get it right, old man,” Fred said.
“Only someone who had it would know how to spell it,” Paul joked. “And does Valerie and Hope know that you and Brody are makin’ out in public?”
“Why would you ask that?” Lila asked.
“Because we need to know whether we should warn the volunteer fire department,” Fred teased. “Those two women are going to burst into flames when they hear what we just now saw.”
Paul lowered his voice and his eyes shifted around the café. “I heard that you might be going to the Dawson family reunion. That true?”
“Might be.” Lila patted him on the shoulder.
Lila listened to their banter and yelled the order through the window rather than pinning it up. She’d barely gotten that done when her phone rang. Seeing Brody’s picture put a smile on her face.
“Hello,” she said.
“Just thought I’d let you know that I did tell my family that you’re my date for the family reunion and for the Fourth of July picnic at Hope Springs. There’s no surprises,” he said.
“Tell that to Laura and Teresa. I’m not sure they believe their eyes,” she laughed. “What do I hear in the background?”
“George Strait and I are enjoying the morning now that Conrad has driven out of Happy,” he answered.
“Clancy, not Conrad,” she said. “But that doesn’t matter. He’s gone. And I think that is ‘Check Yes or No’ playing. Am I right?”
“If I gave you a note with the words ‘will you be my girlfriend’ and there were two boxes at the bottom with yes by one and no by the other, which would you check?” he asked.
“Well, I checked no when Clancy handed me the note today. I haven’t gotten one from you yet, so I don’t know. Maybe you’ll have to write the note and see which box I check,” she answered. “Order is up. Got to go.”
“Maybe I will write that note,” he said.
Brody let out a whoosh of air that he didn’t even know he was holding until he put the phone back in his pocket. It rang immediately and he jerked it out, hoping that he’d hear her say that she’d check yes on that childish note.
“Hey,” he said.
“Come on to the springs. Sundance is belly deep in the water and refuses to get out,” Jace said.
Brody parked the truck and one of the high school boys he’d hired for the summer came running over. “Glad to see you with the wire. We strung the last of what we had.”
“Got to go get that pesky bull out of Hope Springs. Wouldn’t happen to have a rope, would you?”
“Sure thing, Mr. Dawson.” He removed his keys and tossed them at Brody. “Take my truck. Rope is behind the seat. The clutch is a little tight so you got to stomp it real good. We’ll get this unloaded and keep on workin’.”
“Mr. Dawson. If that don’t make me feel old,” Brody complained as he started the ten-year-old vehicle, jammed it into gear, and took off across the bumpy pasture toward the springs.
Jace was sitting at the edge of the water when he parked the truck. Boots were set off to one side and his jeans were soaked all the way to the waist. “There ain’t no coaxin’ or cussin’ him out of there.”
Brody grabbed the rope and headed that way. “How’d he get out of the corral?”
“I have no idea but I’m ready to put him in a steel pen with no gate,” Jace groaned. “I might as well go on out there and rope him since I’m already wet.”
Brody handed him one end of the rope and kicked off his boots. “I’ll go this time. It’s so damned hot that I’ll enjoy the cold water.”
“Kasey called. Who was the citified feller who came to see Lila?” Jace wrapped the rope around his broad palm twice.
“Don’t know much other than she put him packin’.” Brody waded out into the water and sucked air when the bull kicked backward and drenched him from the neck down. “You sorry sucker. You want to act like a rodeo bull, then I’ll ride you out of this water.”
Sundance shook his head and bawled.
“Feelin’ feisty, are you,” Jace laughed.
“Yes, I am.” Brody slipped the rope around the bull’s neck.
“Hey, I was talkin’ to Sundance, not you. He’s already mad. Just push and let me get him tied to the truck and he’ll come out of there.”
“I’m going to teach him a lesson.” Brody mounted his back, holding on to the rope with one hand.
Sundance went completely wild. His back feet shot toward the sky and his nose went straight down into the water. He snorted, slung water and bull snot everywhere as his hind legs hit the water with a splash. Twisting his head toward his tail one way and then reversing the process, he tried to shake Brody off.
“Hey, we could use him for rodeo stock,” Jace hollered as he removed his phone from his shirt pocket and started recording.
Brody hung on, getting angrier by the minute as he watched Jace film him rather than checking the time to see if he’d managed eight seconds. Then suddenly, the bull’s back legs reached for the sun and his head went into the water again. His hide and Brody’s jeans were sopping wet, so there was no way Brody could hang on another minute. He slipped into the cold water and his straw hat floated down the stream.
“Guess your family jewels is a bit cold now too,” Jace laughed.
“Delete that video,” Brody panted.
“Okay,” Jace said, and hit a few keys. “Deleted.”
“Thank you.”
“But I did send it to Lila before I deleted it.”
“You…” Brody shook his fist at Jace and ran toward his brother.
Sundance, now rid of the burden on his back, walked out of the water, his head held high as he strutted off toward the pickup truck and stopped at the rear.
Brody had Jace in a headlock when he realized that Sundance was staring at them. “Would you look at that crazy fool? He’s waiting for us to tie him to the back of the truck and lead him back to the corral.”
Jace wiggled free and plopped down on the grassy bank. “Why shouldn’t I send that to Lila?”
“You didn’t see that guy, Jace. He was everything that she probably needs in her life. All spruced up.” Brody fell down beside him, flopping onto his back. “She deserves better than a crazy old rancher who gets mad and rides a bull out of icy-cold water.”
“Maybe so, but she put him goin’, didn’t she?” Jace lay back beside his brother. “If that bull moves an inch, I swear this is when he goes to the market to be made into bologna.”
“That don’t mean she can’t reconsider. He looked at her like she was…Well, he looked at her like I feel when she’s in my sight. Like there’s no one else.”
“She loved you first and you know what they say about first loves. Let’s get this old cuss back to the corral.” Jace stood up and offered a hand to his brother.
“Thanks, brother.”
“Just helpin’ my elders,” Jace teased.
“Hey, I’m not old yet.” Brody slid into the truck seat.
“You’ll always be older than me,” Jace said as he headed toward the back of the truck.
Brody grabbed his phone from where he’d tossed it onto the passenger seat and found a message from Lila: Call me.
She answered on the first ring. “What was that all about? I was afraid you’d drowned when you went into the water like that. I swear it was worse than the fear in my heart when you rode at the bull riding and fell off.”
“You care!” he chuckled.
“I don’t want you dead. And I bet you and that bull both will have to warm up for a long time before…” She paused for a breath.
“Before what?” he asked.
“Call me later when your HDTs are thawed.”
“HDTs?” he asked.
“Hangin’ down things,” she said as she hung up.
The screen went dark and he roared with laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Jace asked.
“Nothing.” Brody had no intention of sharing the moment. “You going to drive or ride on the tailgate and keep him moving?”
“I’ll tailgate and then we’re going to the house to get cleaned up. Mama says we’re supposed to be over at her place at six to start helping get things ready for the reunion. I’m steering clear of her. She’ll be fuming or trying to lay a guilt trip on you. I don’t want to hear either one,” Jace said. “And for a man who’s about to get strung up by his mama, you sure got a happy expression on your face.”
“I’m doin’ now what I should’ve done in high school. I just hope it’s not too late.” Brody got inside the truck and started driving slowly back to the barn.