Lily's Cowboys (2 page)

“
There is always a choice. You made yours and I hope you rot in hell. If I’m going to die, I’ll do it with the knowledge you will never do to me what you did to my mother.” Lily raised her eyes briefly to the sky and let out a small prayer of forgiveness for what she was about to do. Twirling around, she jumped off the eroding bank into the swift moving water. The dark swirling waters closed over her head, the weight of her dress dragging her down deeper into her watery grave, Lily couldn’t help but think of how she hadn’t even had a chance to live before she died and felt regret she would never know love the way her parents had.

“
Caleb, you do something with him! I’ve had it.” Ethan slammed his hat on his head as he headed out the door. “I’ll be back in two weeks.”

Caleb just gritted his teeth as he slammed his own hat on his head and headed for the back door. He had enough to do without babysitting his goddamn brother. Allen had made his own bed and nothing he or Ethan did seem to help. “Maggie, can you see if you can get Allen to open the door long enough to bring him some decent food and maybe talk him into getting a bath? I’ve got to head to the western pasture to take care of a fencing issue. I won’t be home for a couple of days, maybe more. I’ll be staying at the old line shack in case you need me.”

Maggie stood staring at the retreating figure of Caleb. Shaking her head, she went into the kitchen and made a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich for Allen. The boys were going to be the death of her. She was seventy-two years old and couldn’t keep up with them anymore, especially since Allen came back home to live on the ranch. Moving slowly through the living room to the downstairs’ guest bedroom Allen had taken over on his return she carefully balanced the tray on her hip. Knocking softly, she opened the door to a darkened room when she received no reply. Frowning, she sniffed and shook her head. The room stunk of male body odor and stale whiskey. She moved carefully over to the small table in front of the window and set the tray down. Pulling back the curtains to let some light into the room, she jumped when a loud voice yelled out.

“
Goddamn it. Shut the fucking curtains. If I had wanted them open, I would have opened the damn things. Get the fuck out of my room.” A harsh voice demanded.

Putting her hands on her aged hips, Maggie glared at the dishevel figure in the bed. Bare from the waist up with a six month growth of uncut beard covering his chin and dark curly hair covering his chest, Allen Cunnings was a scary figure. At over six foot two he could be intimidating anyway. It was hard to tell this was the same handsome young man all the girls in town drooled over for years. His normally neatly trimmed light brown hair hung down past his shoulders and was matted from not having been washed or comb in god knows how long. He still had the muscled chest from years of hard work but he had lost a lot of weight and was too slim. Allen ignored Maggie’s glare rolling over to feel along the floor next to the bed. He grunted when his fingers wrapped around the top of a partial bottle of whiskey. He dragged it up and pulled the cork.

“
Boy, its eight o’clock in the morning. Don’t you think that is a little early to be hitting the bottle? And you need a bath. You stink and so does this room. How do you stand it?”

“
Just close the damn curtains and get out Maggie. I’m a grown man and can do what I want.” Allen growled. “Tell Ethan I need some more whiskey.”

“
Ethan is gone for the next two weeks at an auction in Texas.” Maggie said as she moved to pick up some dirty clothes off the floor.

“
Well, tell Caleb I need more then.” Allen demanded with a snarl.

“
Caleb is gone to the western pasture and won’t be back for several days.”

“
Will you just drop my damn clothes? I don’t need a nursemaid. You go get me some more whiskey then.” Allen said, turning to take a deep swig out of the almost empty bottle.

Maggie dropped the clothes in frustration and glared at Allen shaking her finger at him she had finally had enough, “You don’t need a nursemaid, remember? Get your own damn whiskey. I am through putting up with you and your brothers’ bad tempers. You don’t need a housekeeper; you need an angel who could put up with all the bullshit you boys have been giving everyone. I came to help out but this is beyond me. I’m going to town and not coming back without a new housekeeper who can put up with all your boys’ shit.”

Maggie Cunnings had a spitfire of a temper when roused and she was tired of putting up with all the crap her nephews had dished out. She had been coming back and forth to the ranch for the past two years helping out between housekeepers. So far, the boys had driven off six housekeepers in the last six months, two of them men! No one could put up with all the shit the boys dished out. They weren’t mean; no they were just angry, confused, and ornery. None of them knowing how to overcome what life had dished out to them.

Ethan was the oldest at thirty-three. He was trying to take on the responsibility of everyone. He had taken over the reins of the ranch when their parents had been killed in an airplane crash almost ten years before. He did all the bookkeeping, buying, and investments that made the ranch so profitable, as well as, trying to be a ranch hand when needed. He was burning the candle at both ends and now felt responsible for what had happened to Allen.

Caleb bottled everything up never letting anyone get too close to him. He spent as much time out on the range as he could. He made sure everything outside the house ran smoothly because he didn’t know how to deal with what was happening inside it. He felt just as responsible for Allen being in the shape he was in believing he could have prevented what happen somehow. At thirty, he had always been the one to hold things in and not show much emotion. The problem with that was it ate at the inside of him.

Allen, on the other hand, was angry at the world. He had taken off at twenty and joined the military against his older brothers’ wishes wanting to get away from the ranch. At twenty-eight, he had spent the last eight years traveling and fighting all over the world. Eight months ago the boys’ world crashed down around them when it was reported Allen was missing in action in South America. When he was finally rescued he had been beaten and tortured. At first, it was unclear if he would even make it. Both his legs had been broken and he was covered in cuts and bruises. The jungle climate had been perfect for infection to set in and when he had been transported to the closest military hospital it had been touch and go for the next week. They had reset his legs and he was healing slowly. He no longer needed the wheelchair. Ethan and Caleb had brought him home six months ago and he hadn’t left the room they had set up for him since, preferring to hide in the dark with his whiskey. Ethan and Caleb had tried at first to get him to go to physical therapy only to have every therapist in a four state region refuse to come back to the ranch, no matter how much they offered to pay them. As the pressure of everything going on increased, one housekeeper after another began leaving as the boys’ tempers escalated to a breaking point. They could hardly stand being together in the same room. Maggie had stepped in again two months ago but even she was at her wit’s end. The boys needed a miracle and she needed to find it.

Standing in the kitchen she put on her coat and picked up her purse. “Please lord if you are listening my boys need an angel, one with a lot of patience. If you can find one you can share, I’d be mighty appreciative. I know I don’t talk to you as often as I should but the boys need someone to love and who can love them. Please, if you can find the time, please send my boys an angel to love.”

Sighing, she closed the door just as she heard a bottle crashing against a wall and a loud curse. Pulling her gloves on to ward off the cold Wyoming winter, she walked out to the truck and drove to town on a mission.

Maggie pulled into the parking space in front of The Flats Grill. The old diner was a favorite among the locals. If you needed news or wanted to find someone to help you out this was the place to go. Any news in Boulder Flats, Wyoming would pass through the diner at some point. Getting out of the truck, Maggie felt every minute of her seventy-two years. She pushed open the door and moved to a booth near the back of the diner. She would ask Gladys if she knew of anyone looking for a housekeeping job. She would have to let whoever interviewed know it would be in a combat zone.

Dropping her scarf and purse on the seat next to her, she removed her heavy coat and hung it on the coat rack next to the corridor leading to the bathrooms. Sitting down heavily, she smiled when she saw Gladys coming with two cups of steaming coffee. Gladys’ slim body and head of silver hair barely showed her seventy years as she moved with a spry step in her walk toward the booth. She carried the two cups with the experience of years of serving.

“
Hey, Maggie.” A pair of voices called out behind Gladys. Carl and Earl Ganders were Maggie’s husbands. Tall and thin, they were still handsome as sin. In a time when it was considered unusual Gladys had fallen in love with the twin brothers and they had fallen in love with her. The men had advertised for brides but only Gladys had arrived on the bus. When they had taken one look at her they knew she was for them both. They had recently celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

“
The boys’ giving you fits again?” Gladys asked with a knowing smile sliding into the seat across from Maggie.

There had been a lot of disgruntled ex-housekeepers flowing through the diner in recent months. She had heard all about some of the more colorful fights at the ranch including Ethan and Caleb’s attempt to hire a hooker for Allen. Seems Caleb figured if Allen had sex he would be in a better mood as it had helped in the past. He had talked Ethan into talking to a friend of a friend who knew a woman from Nevada who was willing to come in. In the end, Allen had not been appreciative and the woman had left in a huff but not before threatening to tell the sheriff about what the brothers’ had tried to do if they didn’t pay her a six figure sum to keep quiet. Of course, the sheriff, Matt Holden who was a childhood friend of the boys, had threatened to arrest the woman for blackmail and prostitution. According to the housekeeper at the time the woman left with her promised two hundred and fifty dollars and a bus ticket out of town.

“
I just don’t know what to do. Ethan took off for two weeks on the excuse he needed to go to an auction, Caleb would rather spend a week out on the range in freezing weather than be in the house, and Allen,” shaking her head Maggie took a drink of the hot coffee before continuing, “the boy is going to drink himself to death if something isn’t done. I can’t do any more. I need a miracle, Gladys.”

Gladys sat quietly wishing she could help her friend out. She was at her wit’s end too. She didn’t know a single person who was willing to take on the Cunnings’ men, no matter how rich or good looking they were. Sighing she reached over and placed a supportive hand over Maggie’s as she shook her head in sympathy, “I wish I could help you out.”

Maggie spent the next hour talking with Gladys and her husbands. She enjoyed their company and missed them since she had moved to Florida. If the weather in Wyoming wasn’t so damn cold in the winter she would have stayed just to be near them. Her old bones just couldn’t seem to handle it any more plus she had met a really nice widower whom she enjoyed spending time with. Just as she was resigning herself to returning to the ranch empty handed the bell over the door chimed. Maggie looked up and inhaled a deep breath. Standing just inside the door was a young girl. She had on a thin patchwork jacket and was wearing a pair of faded jeans and scuffed up boots. What caught Maggie’s eye was the light streaming in behind her. She didn’t know if it was the play of the light through the ice-coated window or what but the girl looked like she had a halo around her head.

“
Gladys, Earl, Carl look behind you.” Maggie whispered excitedly. “I believe my angel just walked into your diner.”

All three of them turned as one to look at the new arrival. Their eyes widened as they noticed the play of light surrounding her.

Lily stood inside the door of the diner biting her lower lip with uncertainty. She pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear as she looked around. She didn’t have much money but she needed to get warm and find something to eat. The diner was the first place she had seen when she had arrived in town. Walking over to one of the bar stools at the counter she lowered her canvas bag and sat on the stool. Earl walked around the counter to take her order smiling a welcome as he handed Lily a worn menu. Lily looked at the menu for a minute trying to decide. Her mouth watered at all the delicious selections. She had a hard time choosing what to order. It would have to be something very inexpensive. She finally settled for ordering a glass of water, no ice, and a cup of soup. It was all she could afford until she found a job. She would ask the man behind the counter before she left if he knew of anyone who might be hiring locally. She would also have to find a place to stay tonight. She really didn’t have enough money for a room, she sighed. She better get as warm as she could now because she had a feeling she was going to be very cold tonight if she couldn’t find a really, really cheap place to sleep. Pulling out a small battered change purse, she pulled a couple of crumbled dollar bills out of it. She sighed again, she was going to have to find a job soon or she would be going hungry as well as cold.

Sipping the hot soup she let the warmth slide through her frozen body. She hadn’t realized it was so cold out until she came in out of it. Smiling at the man behind the counter, Lily asked softly, “You wouldn’t know if anyone around could use a good housekeeper or cook do you? I’m a hard worker and dependable.”