Lone Star Cinderella (11 page)

She'd had a great view of the excitement last year when the Dog on a Stick vendor and the Taco Dude got into a fight over the affections of the Birdhouse lady or something like that. All the excitement had happened right in front of her booth, and poor Sheriff Brady had his hands full putting a stop to that fiasco. Melody figured if there was half the excitement this year she'd at least get a good laugh.

Except, she realized with a sense of foreboding that Lacy had changed her job this year.

Lacy wanted her out of the booth—out in the open. That right there should scare the daylights out of her. But it didn't. Melody realized the shiver that had just raced up her spine was due to anticipation.

Norma Sue patted the chair beside her and Melody took it.

“So,” she whispered. “How are you making it out there at Seth's?”

“Fine,” Melody said, thinking about their argument from the afternoon. The less anyone knew about what was going on out at Seth's…. “It's a great place.”

“We have a lot of ground to cover,” Lacy called, saving Melody from further questions. “We just wanted to have this meeting and make sure everyone is on the same page about the booths for this weekend. The men have done a great job of marking off the booth space, and as you know, the vendors will start rolling into town on Thursday night.”

Esther Mae waved her hand from the middle of the room. “Lacy, while I was gone did you find anyone to help work the dunking booth?”

“Sure did. Well, sort of. Applegate said he'd keep charge of the thing, so I found him a helper.”

“So who'd you sucker into helping him?” Norma Sue asked. Leaning toward Melody she lowered her voice and added, “The poor helper usually has to climb up there and get dunked when no one else is around to do it.”

“Melody!” Lacy chirped.

Esther Mae yelped in surprise as did the entire room.

“Me? No.” She was certain that wasn't what Lacy
had meant. The dunking booth would be the last place her friend would stick her…wouldn't it? The grin plastered across Lacy's face said differently.

“You said you'd help wherever I needed you.”

“Yes. But, Lacy—”

Sheri, Lacy's partner in Heavenly Inspirations Hair Salon, leaned her chair back on two legs so she could see Melody. “You should know better than to give Lace that much freedom.”

That got a round of happy agreements. True, Lacy was about as impetuous as they came, and Melody cringed. “I was thinking she might put me serving roasted peanuts or something!”

“That's a food booth. I told you, you were having fun this year, and the dunking booth is a blast.”

“What would I need to do?”

“Sit on a little seat and wait to get bombed.” Norma Sue chuckled.

“Oh, she will not,” Lacy said, waving her pink-nailed fingers in the air. “You'll just hand the baseballs to the kids and the
cowboys
and tell them to hit the bull's-eye.” Her electric-blue eyes sparkled. “That'll be much more fun than getting covered in spun sugar. Or smelling roasted like a peanut. Don't you think?”

“Yep. I'm putting you down with App. He'll take good care of you.”

“That'll make her
into
a nut.” Esther Mae harrumphed, and chuckles erupted throughout the room.

Melody decided thinking positive would be the best course. After all, Lacy really hadn't done it out of meanness but rather because she thought Melody would have fun. “I think he and I will get along just fine,” she said. She liked Applegate although the older man had in
timidated her when she first came to town. His gruff exterior and being hard of hearing had made her cringe. She'd thought he didn't like her at first but now she'd grown used to him and his bark was worse than his bite.

“Positive thinking. Good for you, Melody,” Esther Mae said. “I think I might try and throw a ball at somebody this year.”

“You don't throw the ball at somebody, Esther,” Norma Sue said. “You hit a little bull's-eye. Hey, maybe we could get ole App to crawl up on that seat, and we could all take a turn dropping him into the water.”

Lacy shook her head. “Oh, no, the name of this game is to get good-looking
single cowboys
to sit up on that bulls-eye. That way the single girls can come spend their money to try and dunk them. Melody's being single and all was my reason for setting her up—I mean getting her to help. Who knows, Melody, Mr. Right might just be in the crowd this year.”

Melody groaned inwardly. She'd escaped any matchmaking attempts so far. Her shyness had seemed to save her. But lately she'd been getting the idea that they were watching and getting ready to pounce on her. They just had to find the right point. She wasn't sure if this was a good time or not, but shyness wasn't considered a marriage-worthy quality, evidently.

By the time Melody walked out of the community center, she knew what was going on with every booth. And she was actually looking forward to the weekend.

She was halfway home when thoughts of Ty and Seth started crowding back into her thoughts.

Seth had been so adamant in taking up for her. It felt good to have someone thinking about her best interests like that. And yet she felt so defensive. He clearly wasn't
happy with her when the rain had finally stopped. But he'd helped her leave the shelter of the overhang, and he'd carefully assisted her in getting up the hill. The horse was waiting not far from where they'd left him, and as she rode behind Seth out of the ravine she'd realized that treasure hunting hadn't crossed her mind since the rain had started. Seth Turner had.

Despite their disagreement, all she could think about was how safe he made her feel and that he was thinking about her well-being above all else.

Still he disagreed with how she handled her life.

But none of that stopped her from thinking about how tenderly he'd looked at her in the kitchen or how he took care of her in the storm. None of that could stop the way she felt when he looked at her or how she so much liked being in his arms. This was dangerous in every way, and she knew it. Falling for Seth was out of the question.

Not to mention again, that he was out of her league.

So out of her league, the matchmakers wouldn't even think to try and make a match of them. Even though she was out there right in the stagecoach house next door to him. Nope, no one would put a shy introvert with an outgoing, good-looking extrovert.

The idea was disturbing to her as she drove through the night.

“Y
ah!” Seth shouted, cutting his horse into the path of the three heifers that had decided they didn't want to run with the crowd. John, the ranch border collie, charged from the back of the herd. Between Dough Boy's moves and John's moves, the heifers were scrambling to rejoin the group within moments.

And he was left to go back to his thoughts of Melody. It had probably been a good thing that he'd had to bow out of treasure hunting today. The ranch didn't run on its own and rounding up this group had required not only his participation and his hired hands' but that of several friends. The vet was due to arrive in an hour, and it would be a long day of shots and examinations.

“Thought you'd missed them,” Jess, one of his hands and a friend, called from across the herd as soon as Seth fell back into place. “You got something on your mind?”

“Just seeing if you're awake over there.” That got him a laugh over the bawling cattle. Seth had a feeling a few friends had figured out his head was not in this section of the ranch.

He wondered if Melody had figured out just how badly he'd wanted to kiss her the day before. He also wondered if she'd had a call from her brother today, and if so, had she wired him the money he wanted or had she stood up for herself and said no more? It bothered him on all counts. For one, this was different…this feeling he had about Melody. This was deeper than anything he'd ever felt before. He'd only started to get to know her, but he couldn't stop thinking about her.

But this thing with her brother. He couldn't abide by it.

And why did he even think she cared whether he could or not? The only reason they ended the day on a good note was because he'd done as Melody wanted and they'd talked about the search for the treasure rather than the problem with her brother. His blood boiled just thinking about the creep using her the way he was. Sure, some would say he was sick, but from the little he'd learned about Ty Chandler, the man was unrepentant. Until the man took responsibility for his own actions, there wasn't anything Melody could do for the dude. Other than be his crutch.

“Hi, Seth. Goodness, you having a bad day?” the vet, Susan Worth, said coming around the back side of her truck.

“Nope. Not me.” He was thinking positive.

“Liar.” She shot him a teasing smile as she reached into the lockers on the side of her truck for her gear. “The scowl on your face tells the tale. You having woman trouble?”

He leaned against the truck and crossed his arms as he watched her. “Maybe,” he confessed. “How's it going for you?”

She dropped a handful of syringes into her bag and leveled him with frank eyes. “Another one bites the dust. I'm about the unluckiest woman when it comes to love. But then, you already knew that, didn't you? We've had this conversation before.”

“True.” He and Susan had never dated though they'd bantered back and forth like they might one day. The timing just never seemed to be right. They never seemed to be dateless at the same time. He watched her working to organize the vaccines that she was about to use on his cattle. He admired the graceful way her hands moved as she plucked bottles from their perch and deposited them into the bag. She was supermodel good-looking and had a killer personality. Men were crazy to let her get away. “We tend to repel relationships like water off a duck's back. We make a great pair don't we?” He chuckled at his stupid joke and was startled when she leaned a hip against the truck and looked up at him.

“Maybe we do,” she said. “For the first time that I remember, it looks like we're both dateless at the same time.”

She was standing mere inches from him, and her cinnamon eyes were dancing with flirtatious fire. His heart sank, knowing what she was expecting. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Susan's feelings, but he was thinking about one woman right now and that was Melody.

“Seth,” she urged, leaning closer, searching his eyes for a response. “Oh. So that's how it is. Anyone I know?”

He should have known Susan would take it in stride. “Maybe. But we're not dating.”

“Yet.”

“Not sure if she'll have me. Thanks for taking that so easy. You're a great gal, Susan.” He felt like a jerk and knew he was saying everything wrong. But what was he supposed to say? “I guess that sounds lame,” he admitted.

She rolled her eyes. “Relax. They say dating is a numbers game…I've decided that my number got left out of the bingo cage.”

“A smart man's gonna come along and surprise you one of these days, so hang in there.”

She shot him a doubtful look then winked. “Don't forget me if this one doesn't work out,” she said teasingly then headed toward the squeeze chute where the first cow was waiting.

Seth followed her. Susan was a strong woman. He didn't tell her but he'd heard from several ex-dates of hers that the guys just couldn't compete with that. He personally thought it was a very attractive trait for a woman.

He was attracted to the strength he'd glimpsed in Melody. She'd been through so much, as withdrawn as she was, and yet she held it together. Melody was stronger than she thought she was. All she needed was to find the confidence to stand up to her brother.

 

“This could be it,” Melody said on Thursday. She'd been disappointed when Seth had to cancel treasure hunting the day before to work cattle. She hadn't been able to convince herself that it didn't have something to do with their disagreement over Ty. She reminded herself that the man did have a ranch to run.

She'd thrown herself into her research, hoping to lose herself in trying to figure out who the mystery man
was. But so far nothing else made sense. Sure it might not have been Nixon or Davis, and this might not be their share of the sixty thousand in gold coins. But they still remained her front-runners.

“I have racked my brain and to me this is what I consider the best bet for matching rocks. Even if this is the north end of the ravine and not the south.”

“Who knows, he might have been directionally challenged like me,” she said.

They hadn't mentioned Ty today, and she got the feeling Seth was trying hard to mind his own business. She found that endearing, which was dangerous for her to be thinking. Not to mention that she was trying not to think about Ty in any capacity today. He hadn't called the day before or this morning, and that actually caused her to wonder what was going on…which was crazy. But she hadn't sent him the money and she—she yanked a mental blackout curtain down between her and any thoughts about him. Seth would be proud of her if he could read her thoughts. At least she thought he would.

She refocused on thinking about the treasure map.

“It's easy to get disoriented in here,” Seth was saying. “Even for the not-so-challenged.”

She couldn't help but smile. “I could take that as an insult,” she said.

Seth laughed, and the sound filled her with longing and her attempt to ignore her attraction for him flew out the window—or flew up in the air since she was outside.

Treasure. She was supposed to only be thinking about treasure today.

Taking a deep breath, she turned west. Seth raised a teasing brow when he saw that she had indeed turned the right direction.

“I'm going to learn my directions before this is all said and done,” she said.

“Hey,” he chuckled. “I have faith in you.”

She liked the sound of that far too much. “Here goes,” she said, and started walking off the steps. The ground wasn't as overgrown with underbrush on this side of the ravine. There was more rock and she was pretty certain less clay. And that meant, at least to her, that where there was more rock there was more chance of a cave. At twenty-five steps, as they'd done before, she paused to look for anything that suggested towers, but there was nothing so she continued on.

“Fifty!” she exclaimed finally. “Do you see anything?” She didn't.

He shook his head. “What did the dude mean?” Seth mumbled almost to himself, frustrated. “By this ridiculous map, there should be something right here, if this is the spot.”

But there wasn't anything. Melody's mood plummeted. She'd been trying so hard to keep her spirits up. “What else could it be? Either we have the wrong place or we have hit upon the worst treasure-map maker in all of history.”

She sank to a small rock in order to keep herself from stomping her foot like a three-year-old. “I just knew this was the right side when I saw that the ground was more rocky. The real south corner over where we were the day before yesterday was more clay. I mean, that's logical. Isn't it?”

Seth nodded, still searching. “I was an idiot not to think of it then.” He rubbed the back of his neck and turned to stare back at the way they'd come. Then he swung around and hit her with skeptical eyes. “Okay,
what-if. And this is a big what-if. But, maybe, just maybe, we have it all wrong. Maybe our guy wasn't so stupid after all. Maybe he wrote the map so that he could figure it out and no one else could.”

“But then why would he have given it to your grandfather? I mean, wouldn't that be kind of mean for him to send your grandfather, the man who was trying to help him get well, on a wild-goose chase?”

“Maybe he didn't give the map to him. Maybe he died with it in his pocket. I don't get it either but what if south is north and west is east? Maybe the dude was easily confused and didn't do it on purpose. We will never know unless we at least give it a shot.” He lifted a brow as if to question if she was game.

She stood up. “So you're saying that back there is the right spot to start but we need to go east now instead of west?”

“That's my best shot.”

“Then let's go. I've got nothing better.”

She scooted past him and practically ran back the fifty feet to the boulders.

“Whoa, woman,” he called when she stumbled on a root. “I don't want you banging up your other knee.”

That had been the first thing he'd asked about that morning. But she'd assured him that though her knee was a bit sore, the cut hadn't really been too bad. Still, just remembering how careful he'd been looking after it and then how sweet he'd been carrying her up the hill made that ache return to her heart. “I'll be careful,” she said and hurried the rest of the way to the boulders. Once there, she wasted no time, just started counting as she headed east. It was quickly apparent that going this way followed the path of the river as it snaked through
the ravine. And even before she reached the count of fifty she could tell there was no tower. There was only trees and overgrowth similar to what they'd found on the other side of the ravine.

“So much for my bright idea,” Seth muttered.

Melody sighed when she'd rather scream. Turning around, she stared at him. “It's a wonder your grandfather didn't go crazy doing this.”

“I actually think he might have just a bit. I mean, think about it—evidently this is what the man did. He roamed these woods while his wife and son worked hard to keep up the stage stop. I think that's not only crazy but unforgivable. Coming into this, I didn't have a favorable image of him. Now I certainly don't.” He glared about him, clearly aggravated.

“Maybe he had stars in his eyes, because he thought if he found the money he'd be able to give his family an easier life? Maybe he was really a good guy who just lost his way?”

He stared at her anger flashing in his eyes. “You really need to get rid of this soft spot you have about men who mistreat women.”

“Seth—”

He cut her off. “First, you're too easy on your brother and now you're trying to give my sorry grandfather the easy way out. The truth is your brother owes you a ton of apologies. And my ancestor owes his wife and son the same.”

“You are cold-blooded,” Melody snapped, going defensive before she could even think not to.

His eyes darkened. “
I'm
cold-blooded? Why, because I expect a man to stand up and be a man? I don't think so.”

Melody closed her eyes and let the anger churn through her like a wildfire eating up dry grass. Why was she so angry with Seth? “I didn't mean that,” she said, at last. “I'm sorry.”

“Melody, I'm just trying to make you see the light.”

He couldn't help it if he didn't understand. She knew that. People who hadn't walked this path with someone they loved couldn't understand the emotions that went with it. “I know you are,” she said. And she was drawn to him because he was trying to look out for her best interests. But at the same time she knew this was a wedge that couldn't be overcome between them. Not deeply, not in ways that could ever let them be more than friends.

She blinked hard at the sudden dampness that thought brought to her. Looking away, she pretended to scan the area when what she was really doing was buying her silly emotions time to get right. How many times did she have to remind herself that even daydreaming about Seth was ridiculous? She was staring unseeingly at a clump of bushes that was blurred through the tears that remained pooled in her eyes. Needing to sniff but not daring to for fear Seth would hear it and realize she was crying, instead she took a deep breath and blinked hard to clear her vision…and that's when she realized what her gaze had fixated on.