Not Looking for Love: A Cowboy Romance (26 page)

A day later, Melanie’s problem came to a head and it wasn’t good. She and Logan split, but that’s another story. In the time they were apart, Kara was busy at work. Victoria had her traveling to New York, California, and one client bought a home in Seattle and requested Kara’s designs and presence. She made quite a few runs out there.

Because Richie and Kara had been spending more and more time together, this made it possible for him to act upon any leads he had, with her none the wiser.

About two months later, Kara, not one to sit and watch a rodeo event, though she had plenty of times when she accompanied Richie and Logan to some events, had opted to visit her family when the rodeo Logan traveled with put on a two day event in Florida. It turned out to be a wonderful trip. Logan, who had been unbearable to be around, found Melanie and they got back together.

Six months later found Richie taking Kara to Finland with him when Logan asked if he would accompany him, Melanie, and Heath. The plan was for Richie to watch Logan’s son, Heath, on one of the nights they’d be there so he could ask Melanie to marry him. Logan refused to leave Heath behind with Linda.

That night Richie studied Kara as she interacted with Heath. From the beginning, almost five year ago, when Heath was only two years old, the kid had warmed to her. She had the patience of a saint and showed him the love he was deprived of from his mother. Since Heath began to talk, he had always called him Uncle Richie. It gave him pleasure in hearing him call her Aunt Kara.

In those five years, the two of them had grown. They weren’t kids anymore. Richie was sure he had a big part in the transformation Kara had gone through from being a young porn actress to being a beautiful, respectable, well-respected businesswoman. He himself felt settled now. No longer did those words ‘a trust fund baby’ bother him. A rancher is who he was now. Just one more obstacle to go before he was complete.

Richie and Kara continued getting closer, but he stopped asking her to marry him, he wasn’t finished with what he was determined to do. In that time they had one fight. It was when he called her one night to cancel their plans of him picking her up and going to dinner then spending the weekend at his house which was often the norm. He sounded terrible and he told her he had a fever and was full of aches and pains. He caught something that was going around.

“Oh, I’m on my way. I’ll pick up some soup and—”

“No. Don’t bother. I don’t want you getting sick,” he had cut her off. “Besides, I just took some meds and P.M. pills and just want to sleep.”

“Richie, it’s no bother. I don’t mind.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said.

Well, that night, Kara thought more and more about it. She should have put up a bigger fight. He was sick and he needed her, even if it was only to drop off soup. He had no family here and so she made up her mind. Pick up a couple of quarts of chicken soup and drop them off at his house. Leave a note that they are in the fridge and come back home.

The sun had already set when she pulled up at Richie’s house. She used the key he had given her months ago, musing over the fact that this was the first time she ever used it. The light in the kitchen was on and she thought that he might have forgotten to shut it.

Taking the two quarts of soup out of the bag, she walked to the refrigerator.

“Who let you in?”

Hearing a woman’s voice as she set down the two quarts on a shelf, she whipped around. Kara ignored her question, tilting her head to the side trying to figure out what this woman was doing at Richie’s house, holding a bowl and spoon and looking too sexy in her skintight jeans and off the shoulder red blouse. Her spiked heels put her just at Kara’s height and Kara was wearing flat sandals.

“Who let me in? Who let you in?”

The woman walked over to the kitchen sink and let the water run. “Richie did. He called me and asked if I would bring over some chicken soup. He just finished a bowl.” She proceeded to wash the dish and utensil.

Kara felt something stab at her heart. Without showing emotion, she walked toward the door, but she was dying inside.

“Well, please let him know that there are a couple more containers of soup in the fridge. Have a good night.” She didn’t even bother to look at her, she just walked out.

Fuming, she got in the truck, finally noticing the little blue hatchback parked on the side of his house. She took a moment to sit and collect her thoughts. And the more she collected them, the more she got angry.

Back at the apartment, Kara tried to unwind. She sat at the kitchen table with her laptop, toggling between fiddling with some designs for work and working on some book covers. She had mostly given up on the book cover job save for a few clients that she had been working with over the years.

Every time she tried getting into a task, she pictured the pretty girl that was at Richie’s house. She was thin and had short dark brown hair in a stylish bob. Her eyes were done up with mascara and eyeliner making them look big and beautiful, and a diamond stud adorned the side of her nose.

Argh!
Unable to concentrate, she had turned the television on in the living room for a little noise, the quiet was getting to her. As she walked back to the kitchen her phone played the George Strait song she assigned to Richie’s number. He was one of their favorite country music artists. Richie had even taken her to a few of his concerts, and a meet and greet after one of those shows.

Should she answer or ignore it. She ignored it. Enough is enough already. Why did she keep letting him do this to her. She’d been faithful since her one night error with Timothy. Of course, she didn’t tell him. Let him ask for exclusivity first. He’d asked her to marry him a few times, but he hadn’t asked in quite a while, and they never discussed exclusiveness. Seeing a beautiful woman in his house confirmed that they were not. With a cynical laugh, she thought about how they grew closer and she assumed they were only seeing each other.

A text came in from Richie.

Carmen told me you dropped off soup. I told you, you didn’t have to. Thank you.

Talk to you in the morning.

Sent by: Richie

Saturday 10:45 pm

“Carmen, huh!” She knew the name, but she never met her. She was the chick that liked threesomes with Richie and Logan. Richie mentioned her back when they first met and were in bed talking about some of the wildest things they had done sexually in the past. And now that she thought about it, she remembered seeing her at the Salty Dog a time or two. Kara flung her phone into her bag and shut down her computer and the TV. She grabbed her keys and left the apartment. Needing a little air and a lot of distraction, she took a walk around the neighborhood, stopping on the way home at a little dive bar the tenants in her building hung out in and had a few drinks with some of them.

Her cell phone woke her up the next morning and she reached for it, but something wasn’t right, she couldn’t feel the phone nor the night table. When she opened her eyes she realized she was in her living room with the TV on, her clothes from the night before still on and her blouse twisted, and she had a massive headache. Grabbing the phone from her bag on the coffee table, she answered it. “Hello?”

“Morning, baby. Did I wake you?”

“No.”

“You sound like you just woke up?”

“No, I have a headache. You still sound terrible.”

“Yeah, at least I don’t have a fever now.”

“Yeah,
Carmen’s
soup must have really helped. Listen, I gotta go. You know I…” She let out a deep breath. “I just can’t.” She hit the end key as Richie was talking.

Kara got up off the couch and walked to the bathroom, ignoring her phone when it rang again. Downing three pain relievers, she studied herself in the mirror and made faces.
When did that line get there?
She smoothed the crease on her forehead.
Girl, you are not getting any younger. What are you doing? Should have married him when he first asked.
Okay now the woman in the mirror was mocking her. As the first tear slipped down her cheek, she turned around and walked out of the bathroom. By the bedroom door, she broke down. Her sobs became uncontrollable at one point and she sank to the floor, leaned against the wall, and hugged her knees.

After a good cry, Kara picked herself up off the floor and headed for the shower. As she soaped up, her headache seemed to get worse. The pain killers she took earlier weren’t helping at all, and she thought about all the wine she drank the night before. Too much always gave her a headache, and probably the three or four tequila shots didn’t help either.

In nothing but a t-shirt and a pair of very short shorts Kara downed some more Tylenol then headed for the front door. She opened it and walked to the other end to check for mail in her box from the day before. As she was about to go back inside her apartment with the mail she heard Matt’s door open.

“Well, hello.”

She looked up to see her neighbor. “Hi,” she said sounding indifferent. She never gave him the time of day even when he showed up at the dive bar the night before.

“How you feeling this morning?” He looked her up and down, pausing on her crotch as he walked closer to her.

“I’ve been better.” She backed up, hitting the wall. “Too much wine last night.” She looked toward the door to the staircase when she heard footsteps. “I have a splitting headache.” She looked back to Matt.

“Well, you were downing it like it was water.” He chuckled, just as the door to the stairs opened.

Kara looked to the door as Matt turned around.

Richie was eyeing the scene. Sick as he was he was angry that Kara had on a tight t-shirt, no bra, that looked like a second skin on her, making her breasts look nice and round with her nipples prominently pushing through, and those shorts, geez, could they get any shorter. In a word, she looked delicious, yet knowing that sleazy neighbor was privy to it ate at him.

“Richie? What are you doing here?” Kara asked as they started walking toward each other. He looked pale and beads of sweat were on his forehead. “Your fever returned,” she said as she placed her hand on his forehead.

“Yeah,” he said without taking his eyes off of Matt. The guy was staring at Kara’s ass and if he were feeling better, he would have punched his lights out. He looked back to Kara. “Am I interrupting something?” His voice was harsh, like he was lashing out at her. Matt shifted his eyes from her ass to Richie’s eyes.

“No. Just getting my mail from yesterday.” She tilted her head and slightly raised her hand with the mail in it. “Come on, let’s get you inside.” She gave a quick glance to Matt and nodded once, as she walked past him.

“What the fuck is going on, Kara?” Richie said as soon as she closed the door to her apartment.

“Noth—”

“Was he in here?”

“Uh, nooo. I think he’s a sleazeball. How bout you? Let anyone into your home recently?” She walked past him and threw the mail on the coffee table and sat on the couch, tucking her feet under her.

He walked over and sat down, sighing as he leaned back. “I feel dizzy. My whole body aches.”

“What can I get you? You want some Tylenol?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

She jumped up and went to the kitchen and came back with a glass of water and a couple of pills in her hands. “How’d you drive like that?”

“I didn’t,” he said as he took the pills from her and popped them in his mouth. He took the glass and took a nice long gulp. “I had Carmen drive me.” He handed her the glass.

“Oh,” She practically ripped the glass out of his hand. “I hope
Carmen
is downstairs ready to take you back home.” She turned on her heels and took a few steps.

“Kara!”

She jumped at the sound of his booming voice and turned around. “I know she’s one third of your little threesome, Richie. Logan show up? Did you have fun last night?”

Richie did a double take. “What are you implying? I was sick last night. Still am. And Logan is happily engaged to Melanie…You know I told you once before, green isn’t a good color on you.”

She clicked the roof of her mouth and turned to walk away but paused and turned back to him. “What are we doing here, Richie? I’m confused. It was never discussed, but I thought it was just you and me in this relationship. We don’t use condoms anymore. Should I be worried?” She gasped. “She’s why you haven’t asked me to marry you in a while.” Inwardly, Kara was a bundle of nerves having asked about their relationship. What if it was still nothing more than what it started out to be?

“Jesus, all I did was call in to the Town Café for some soup. Milton said he’d send someone over with it. I didn’t know it would be Carmen, I didn’t even know she worked there. All she did was bring me soup.”

Hand on her hip, she nodded with a frown on her face. “That’s why she brought the empty bowl to the kitchen to wash it. And what? Did she spend the night?”

Richie took in a deep breath and huffed it out. “No. She came by this morning asking how I felt. That’s when I asked if she would drive me here.  Nothing happened, I swear. And I stopped asking you to marry me because I got tired of getting shot down all the time.”

They stared at each other.

“You gonna tell me nothing’s going on with you and the panty sniffer? How’d he know you had a lot of wine last night? Was he here, Kara? Did you spill you were a porn star?”

Kara blew out an exhausting breath. There it was…again. The main reason she had refused to marry him whenever he had asked, and apparently it still bothered him. “Really, Richie? No.” Mimicking his words she said, “Nothing happened.” She walked into the kitchen to get away from the situation. He didn’t even define their relationship and he brought up her sordid past, she began to feel insecure.

She heard movement in the living room and sensed him getting closer, but she didn’t turn around, just kept looking out the window over the sink staring at nothing. When he put his arms around her she leaned into him.

“I don’t want to get you sick,” he said, “and I don’t want to fight with you.” He didn’t get a response. “You know I love you,” he whispered by her ear.

His nearness and now much softer voice made her weak…as always. “I love you too.” Then she turned around and searched his eyes. He was in no mood to define anything. He looked like he was ready to pass out. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.” She took him by the hand and led him to the bedroom.

While he rested with her hand massaging his hair, she told him about the night before and how Matt showed up at the bar, but she ignored him. He mumbled something and she felt a little nod and before she knew it, he fell asleep.

She gently slid out of bed and went to the kitchen for some coffee and worked on an invoice and finishing touches for a cover and emailed them to her client.

Kara checked on Richie a couple of times. His fever went down as he slept on. When he woke up he felt better. His body didn’t ache as much and knowing that Kara had to fly out to Seattle in the morning, he said he’d call a cab to take him home. She protested and wanted to drive him home instead, but he was adamant, he didn’t want to get her sick. He left her apartment without discussing much. All he said was ‘it’s all good, Kara” and kissed her before leaving.