One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas) (7 page)

“No good deed goes unpunished.”

“I’m sorry, Rhett, but it’s the Gallaghers’ fault, not mine.”

“Who burned down their school?” he asked.

She raised her right hand. “Probably the Brennans, but honest to God, I did not know anything about it.”

“Someone is going to get hurt before this is over.”

She nodded in agreement. “They have in the past. Back when it first started, there were actual killings and hangings. Nowadays, there might be property damage, but no one has been killed since Rayford Brennan died back in 1900.”

“What was his great sin?”

“He fell in love with a Gallagher, and when she wound up pregnant, the Gallaghers hanged him and sent her to California. She died giving birth to the baby and it died with her.”

Rhett draped an arm around her shoulders. “And the Brennans retaliated?”

“We always do.”

“That mean this isn’t the end of this?” he asked.

“That’s what it means. Granny will literally rain down hell upon Naomi Gallagher. And then she’ll do something back and it’ll go on for months. The dust from the last battle has barely settled. Betsy is right—this will be known as the shit war.”

“Even in polite company?” he asked.

“Then it will be the toilet war.” She sighed. “I didn’t think anything could be worse than the pig war, but this will top it for sure.”

He drew her even closer. “Or maybe the Holy Shit War.”

She chuckled. “It’s not funny.”

“Got to laugh or you’ll cry.”

“I can hear the jokes now, and they are going to fuel Granny’s anger.” She sighed.

“I’m sorry, Leah. You don’t seem to be the feudin’ type to me. Now, Betsy is another story, and so are Honey and Kinsey. But you have an old soul that likes peace and order, not chaos and craziness.”

She looked up into his eyes. “What makes you say that?”

“It’s the way I see it.”

“Don’t know about an old soul, but I do like peace. I don’t want to be the next Brennan queen. I want to teach school and enjoy the kids. I want to settle down sometime in the not-to-distant future with a man who loves me like I am and who doesn’t want to change me. I want to grow a vegetable garden and roses, and read books in the summer while my kids romp around in the yard with a water hose and spray each other. I want peace and order in my life, and as long as this feud is going, I’ll never have it because I’m a Brennan. But I hate this feud.”

He kissed her on the forehead. “Maybe someday you won’t be a Brennan anymore.”

“Might as well wish for the moon and all the stars,” she mumbled.

Their noses twitched less as they grew accustomed to the horrible aroma. With the windows rolled up and the engine turned off, they were in their own little cocoon, even if it wasn’t a pleasant one. Rhett liked the way that Leah fit in his arms, especially when he sunk his nose into her hair and got a whiff of coconut shampoo, barroom smoke, and the faint scent of beer.

With his fist, he tipped her chin up, and then he lowered his lips until they covered hers in a passionate kiss that fogged the windows of the truck. That lead to another long, lingering kiss with the fingers of his right hand tangling into her hair to hold her head steady for more leverage. His left hand splayed out on her back, and he could feel the strap of her bra. He found himself hoping for a time when they could shed the confinement of clothing and he could feel her bare skin against his.

Her arms snaked up around his neck, her hand undoing the rubber band holding the ponytail in place.

“I love your dark hair. Don’t ever cut it off,” she said.

“I love your blond hair. I won’t get a buzz cut if you leave yours long.” He strung kisses from her forehead to her eyelids, to the tip of her nose, and down the sensitive skin on the side of her neck.

* * *

Drawing even closer to him, she shifted her weight until she was sitting in his lap with the steering wheel against her back. She traced the tat on his arm with her forefinger and asked. “Want to tell me about this while we wait?”

“It’s not a third date yet.” He grinned and then kissed her again.

It felt oh so right for her to be there in his truck with him—even covered in crap.

“Dammit!” he said.

“Where? Is he getting that mess on him?” Leah asked.

“No, look.” Rhett pointed toward two headlights coming at them. “Not dammit, as in my dog, but dammit, as in I wanted to make out with you some more.”

The headlights of a truck approached slowly, and she quickly moved to the far side of the seat; it wouldn’t do for her brother to catch them making out like a couple of teenagers. The truck carefully backed up beside Rhett’s poor, crippled vehicle, and Declan honked. Leah took a deep breath and rolled down the window.

“I want you to open the door and very carefully step from that truck to this one. I swear to God, Leah, if you make a mistake and step wrong, you will ride in the back just like Betsy,” Declan said. “And once you are inside, then Rhett can come across and get in the back. I’ll take him home first. Granny will have a shotgun loaded by now and you sure don’t want to take him to the house.”

“Pull up a little more,” Leah said.

“Why?”

“Because if Rhett can’t ride in the cab, neither will I,” she said.

“What in the hell has gotten into you?”

“I mean it. We are all three going to ride in the front seat, because if any of this splatters up on me in the back, Granny will have your hide, not mine, for bringing the smell in the house.”

“Then you’d both better be careful. Granny’s anger won’t be nothing compared to mine if you get that crap inside my truck. I can hose off the back where Betsy was, but the inside is a different matter,” Declan said.

She eased out carefully and slid across the seat and into the other truck. Rhett did the same, going slow so that he didn’t touch anything. Even though Declan was behaving like a jackass, she couldn’t blame him a bit for not wanting that stuff inside the cab of his truck. Thank goodness Rhett hadn’t been driving with the windows down, or the story would have had a whole new ending to it.

“Thank you for taking me home,” Rhett said after they were both in Declan’s truck.

“You were trying to help my sister. It’s the least I can do.”

Leah poked Declan in the ribs with her elbow. “And his truck is ruined because of our feud that he didn’t have a thing to do with.”

Declan’s truck tires spun, and Leah inhaled deeply, getting a nose full of the horrible smell again. She said a silent prayer that they wouldn’t get stuck and need another truck to come pull them out of the slime. He gunned it, and they were on the way, leaving a four-foot splash of crap in their wake.

“Dammit,” Declan groaned and slowed down.

“Just be damn glad I wasn’t back there,” Leah told him.

“I believe that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you cuss,” Declan said.

“Well, it might not be the last time after this. You know they’re going to dub it the shit war now,” she said.

“I’d already thought of that, but if you’re smart, you won’t be using words like that in front of Granny.” Declan drove slowly until they were out on the paved road, and then he floored it, going ninety miles per hour down the winding road toward Fiddle Creek. He barely slowed down to turn onto the gravel road beside the store.

Leah slapped his arm so hard that the noise echoed in the truck cab. “Slow down. You’re going to knock your alignment out, driving like this. Just because you’re angry with me, you don’t have to drive like a maniac.”

“I hate this feud,” he mumbled.

Leah raised her voice an octave. “You think I don’t? Maybe when our generation has a turn at running things, we can make some changes, but right now Granny and Naomi aren’t going to budge.”

“Not after this stunt tonight.”

He came to a halt in front of the bunkhouse and Rhett opened the door. “Thanks for the ride home. I’ll call my insurance company as soon as it opens tomorrow morning.”

Leah laid a hand on his thigh, and when he turned, she pulled his face down to hers for a quick kiss. “Thank you, Rhett, for trying to take me home. I’m sorry about your truck and I’ll make it up to you one way or the other.”

Declan set his mouth in a firm line and glared at her. “Granny is serious about this, Sis.”

“I know she is. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Rhett.”

Rhett closed the door and waved. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“Why?” Declan asked.

Leah shrugged. “Because I’m a big girl and I should get to make my own decisions.”

He put the truck in gear and drove away from the bunkhouse. They were all the way out on the road and headed back to River Bend when he finally said, “I respect your right to make your own decisions, but remember, you’ll have to sleep in the bed you make so be very careful.”

“I will,” she answered.

* * *

Rhett took several long gulps of fairly fresh air while he tried to sort out the evening. Had those kisses made Leah’s toes curl like they had his? The answer didn’t fall down from the starlit sky, so he sucked in one more lungful of air and went inside the lit-up bunkhouse. Jill and Sawyer were sitting at the kitchen table, sharing a cup of hot chocolate, and they both looked up at the same time.

“Why did Declan bring you home? Did you feel that earthquake?” Jill asked.

“Good God! What is that smell? Have you been in a hog house or did you step in something on your way home from the bar?” Sawyer asked.

Rhett took a beer from the refrigerator and twisted the top off. “It’s a long story, but that was not an earthquake. It was the beginning of a new level of the feud that goes on around here.”

“Well, shit!” Sawyer said.

Rhett pulled out a chair and sat down. “Quite literally. And I would advise you both to pray that the wind doesn’t blow tomorrow, as close as the bunkhouse is to the Brennan school.”

“Why?” Jill asked.

Rhett told the story.

“Whew! The shit war has begun.” Jill chuckled.

“That’s what Leah said it would be called. She said it would be even bigger than the pig war. I guess now all the kids on both sides will be enrolled in public school.” Rhett finished off his beer.

“I wonder what they used on that septic tank,” Sawyer said.

“Dynamite would be my guess and entirely too much of it if they were just trying to blow up the sewer system so the Brennans couldn’t have school. That poor school won’t be good for nothing but bulldozing,” Rhett said.

“Did you see any of them?” Jill asked.

“I saw the faint blur of headlights through a shit-covered windshield. If either of those toilets had fallen differently, they could have come down through the roof and killed all three of us right there on the spot.”

It started as a chuckle in Sawyer’s chest and developed into a masculine roar that bounced of the walls and sent both cats scurrying for cover. Poor old Dammit came out of the bedroom, dropped to lie on the ground, and put his paws over his ears.

“And that is funny, why?” Rhett asked.

“Because I can see the headlines.” Sawyer made a sweeping motion in the air with his hand. “Deadly Toilet in Shit War Kills Three.”

Jill giggled so hard that she got the hiccups. “Feud takes three out in initial battle of the shit war.”

“I’m going to take a bath and go to bed. You two ain’t funny.”

His phone rang while he was digging through a drawer in search of his favorite well-worn T-shirt that he liked to sleep in.

“Hello, Leah. Are you still alive?” he answered when he saw her name on the ID.

“For tonight,” she said. “After I took a shower and got the Gallagher germs off me, Granny wasn’t nearly as mad. She’s got a war to plan, so I’m not in the limelight anymore. Do you work at the bar every night this week?”

“Not Wednesday. Jill and Sawyer are taking that night to give me a rest,” he said.

“I’d like to take you up on that motorcycle ride you offered,” she said.

“Shall I pick you up about six?”

“No, would you please meet me in the school parking lot?” she asked.

“I hope you aren’t talking about the Brennan school,” Rhett said.

“No, the public school. It’ll be empty except for my truck.”

“What time?”

“To meet or going to the bar?”

“To meet at the parking lot.” He grinned.

“Six o’clock.”

“I’ll be there.”

Sweat poured from Leah’s forehead down into her eyes that afternoon. Finally, she got tired of the sting and wrapped a bandanna around her forehead and tied it in the back. The public school wasn’t so different than the private one in that they did not turn on the air-conditioning in the summer months. That meant she was setting up her classroom with the windows open, praying for a breeze to flow through.

Her tank top was glued to her with sweat. The waistband of her cutoff jean shorts was wet. She’d long since kicked off her shoes and had been running around barefoot for the past hour. Now she was putting up the last of the bulletin board welcoming the kids to the fourth grade when the door opened.

She turned to find Tanner Gallagher standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. “So it’s true. You’re going to be teaching here.”

“It’s true. What can I help you with?”

“I’m waiting on Wanda. She was supposed to meet me here. I’m bringing some of the Gallagher kids’ shot records and birth certificates for her to copy.” He crossed the room and sat down behind her desk. “You ever get tired of all this feudin’ shit?”

She stood on tiptoe to put a butterfly on the
W
in
Welcome
. “I do, but it seems to get worse instead of better. How about you?”

Tanner pulled out a chair and sat down. “It gets in the way of lots of things. Did you know I had a big crush on you when we were teenagers?”

“I had one on you when we were kids too,” she said.

“If it hadn’t been for the feud, we might have…” He let the sentence hang.

“But it was, and you’re a Gallagher and I’m a Brennan,” she said.

“I’ve always liked you, Leah. You are so sweet and kind, not like those other Brennans,” he whispered.

Leah didn’t know what to say or if she should say anything. Tanner was a Gallagher. There was a feud, and this could easily be a ploy of some kind to get back at the Brennans.

“And how are the other Brennans?” she finally asked.

“I don’t have to spell it out to you. I’d ask you to dinner, but…” He let another sentence hang.

“But Naomi would disown you like Granny would me if I even entertained notions of going with you.” She sat down in one of the children’s desks.

“We could keep it a secret until we see if we really do like each other,” he suggested.

A year ago, she would have said yes without blinking. Two weeks ago, she might have hesitated, but today, she shook her head slowly. She still had feelings for Tanner. Maybe she always would—but she couldn’t trust him. He was not only a Gallagher but he was the resident bad boy in Burnt Boot, the womanizer who chased anything in tight jeans and boots and who had a reputation for one-night stands.

“You like me. I like you. Why not? We’re grown adults, Leah.” He pushed the chair back and kneeled in front of her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Too fast
, the voice in her head yelled.
Something isn’t right here.

There was no pizzazz, not a single solitary spark dancing around her. It was nothing like what happened when Rhett looked out over the bar at her. And Tanner’s touch absolutely didn’t have a bit of the fizz that one of Rhett’s kisses created.

“Tanner, I can’t.”

He grabbed her hand and kissed the palm before he stood up. “I won’t give up. You’ve shown me a side of you that makes me like you even more these past few days and, Leah, I get what I want, one way or the other. Wanda just drove up. I’ll see you at the bar or at church, or I’ll call you. Number please?” He picked up a pen from her desk and held out his hand.

“I can’t. What if Granny answered the phone?”

“Your cell number, darlin’.” Tanner smiled.

“It wouldn’t be wise.”

“To hell with wise. But if you want to play it safe and let this be a big secret, I’ll go along with you. Tonight at the bar, I’ll slip you another phone, a private one for us to use.” He waved over his shoulder as he left the classroom. In a few minutes, she heard him talking to Wanda in the hallway.

Leah sat in stunned silence until her thighs were sticking to the wooden desk with sweat. What in the hell should she do now?

Yes, Declan, I used another swear word, but it is warranted. I’ve had such a big crush on Tanner for so long, but can I trust him? Rhett is a good man and I do trust him. However, I can’t have anything with either of them and continue to live at River Bend
.

“Hey, it’s hot in here, girl. You should go home and come back in the morning when it’s cooler, and by the way, your room is looking great.” Wanda broke through her circling thoughts.

Leah smiled but it felt fake. “I was about to call it a day and go home.”

Home was the last place she wanted to be right then, but she didn’t know where else to go.

* * *

Later that night, she was standing in the middle of her bedroom with a phone in each hand. To her, it was symbolic of each cowboy that had come into her life. In her left hand was the one that she’d found in her purse when she’d left the bar that night. Tanner must have had an accomplice because he hadn’t been in the bar all evening.

“Which means I was right in thinking that there is something going on,” she whispered. “The whole family is using me as a means to get back at Granny.”

In her right hand was the phone she used every day. Granny didn’t like it when she called Rhett, when they were thrown together, or anything about him, but Leah had no doubts that he was honest.

She looked from the phone in her right hand to the one in her left and back again. “Last month, I didn’t even have the prospect of a relationship. Now I’ve got one cowboy too many,” she said.

She contemplated throwing the one in her left hand in the trash but she couldn’t. She’d liked Tanner for so long, and now there was a possibility. Then the damn thing rang, and it startled her so badly that she threw it against the wall. Her heart thumped and her stomach tightened up.

It was lying in pieces on the floor, and yet the blasted thing rang again. Maybe it would never be dead, like the feud—if she threw it in the river, maybe it would crawl back up on the bank and ring again.

Then she realized that it was the phone in her right hand ringing, and she quickly answered it, breathlessly and cautiously, “Hello?”

“Hey, you sound like you’ve been running. Did you go to the bar tonight?” Rhett asked.

“Only for a few minutes,” she said. “Long enough to drink half a bottle of beer before I got bored and came home.”

“Sorry I wasn’t there. Sawyer and Jill decided to manage it tonight and let me and the guys finish up hauling in one more load of hay. They’re calling for rain tomorrow night, but it’s for after midnight, so we don’t have to cancel the motorcycle ride,” he said.

“I’m still looking forward to it. Where are we riding to?” she asked.

“It’s a surprise, but don’t get all dressed up. Jeans and a long-sleeved shirt will do fine.”

“Long sleeves in this weather?” she asked.

“Bugs hurt pretty bad when they hit your bare flesh.” He chuckled.

“And I sure don’t want bug splatter on me when we get to wherever we’re going,” she said.

“Bring another shirt with you and you can change when we get there or wear one underneath and you can take off the long-sleeved one,” he said. “I missed seeing you tonight, Leah.”

She liked the way he said her name—she also liked the way he looked at her and the honesty in his smile when they were together. They didn’t have to talk over a secret phone even if her Granny disapproved, and she didn’t have to worry about whether she was a pawn in a Gallagher game.

“Me too,” she said. “See you tomorrow night then.”

“Six at the schoolhouse. It’s written on my heart.”

“That’s a pretty good pickup line.” She laughed.

“It’s not a line, Miz Brennan. It’s the truth. Can’t wait to see you.”

The call ended on that note. She slipped her phone back into her purse and picked up the one she’d thrown across the room. It was in two pieces with the battery pack and SIM card showing. She removed the card and tossed it in the trash can, then ripped the phone apart and threw it in behind it.

Tanner might always have a little corner of her heart, but she couldn’t make herself start something that she couldn’t finish.

* * *

Leah was super nervous the next night. She liked the reflection in the mirror a lot better with her hair down than she did with it slicked back. “But if it’s down, it’ll blow in my face and I’ll spend the whole ride trying to keep it out of my mouth.”

She twisted it up one more time and flipped an elastic holder around it before she slipped her feet down into a pair of cowboy boots and picked up her purse. The clock in the foyer rang out one time, which meant it was five thirty. As usual, she was ready fifteen minutes early, and she would have spent it in her room pacing if she’d known that her grandmother was sitting on the porch swing.

“Granny, it’s awful hot for you to be out here,” Leah said.

“Little hot weather is good for the heart. Come on over here and sit beside me. You don’t have to be at the school yard for another thirty minutes, which means you’ve got fifteen or twenty to spare right now,” Mavis said. “You think those jeans and shirt are tight enough?”

Leah sighed. Nothing was a secret in Burnt Boot. She might as well have crawled up on top of the bar with a megaphone and shouted that she was going for a ride on the back of Rhett O’Donnell’s motorcycle that evening. She crossed the porch in a few long strides, dropped her purse beside the swing, and sat down beside Mavis.

“I’m not going to change my mind about that man,” Mavis said.

Leah nodded. “Neither am I.”

“You’re leaving tomorrow for a week. Have you told him? And I do insist that you go on this trip, Leah! Honey and Kinsey have planned it for weeks.”

“I’m not changing my mind about going. I have not told Rhett, but I will before the evening is over.”

“I wish you would’ve had a rebellious streak when you were sixteen, like Honey and Kinsey did.”

“So do I,” Leah said.

“I stand by my word. This is the final night you get to see him and still live in my house.”

“Why? What’s the matter with Rhett?” Leah asked.

“I don’t like him. That’s reason enough,” Mavis said.

“No, Granny, it isn’t.”

“Child, sometimes an older person can see things clearer than a younger one. Why won’t you listen to me? You’ve always been so obedient and easy to get along with.”

Her words grated against Leah’s nerves. Good old, obedient Leah who did what she was told without any sass. Nice, easy Leah who never veered off the pathway that had been laid out for her. Sweet, little Leah who paid attention and made good grades. Smart Leah who had graduated valedictorian of both her high school class and her college class.

Maybe if she was a good girl, Granny wouldn’t see signs of Leah’s mother in her. That had been the ultimate goal her whole life: keeping Mavis from seeing Eden every time she looked at Leah. There were no pictures in the house, but from what Leah could remember of her mother, she’d been a short blond with light green eyes. In Leah’s mind, Eden had smelled good, looked pretty, and always read to her before she tucked her in with a kiss at night. Leah’d been four when Eden had left and never returned. She’d cried for her mother for weeks but her father, Russell, had read to her and tucked her in at night and kept saying that everything would be all right. And eventually, she’d stopped crying and life had gone on without her mother.

A faint memory surfaced as Leah sat on the swing with her grandmother that evening. It had to have been from right before her mother left River Bend, because it was on Leah’s fourth birthday. She was hiding under the dining room table with a piece of cake, licking the icing off her fingers. Mavis and Eden were only a few feet away, and they were arguing—again. Leah hated it when they yelled at each other, and she usually put her hands over her ears, but that evening, she had icing on her hands and it would get in her hair.

“I’m not leaving without my kids,” Eden said.

“You don’t have a choice. Russell should have never married you in the first place, but your children are Brennans, and they’ll stay on River Bend. You will be gone by morning.”

As hard as she tried, she couldn’t hold on to the memory to find out why her mother had had to leave the ranch.

“Why did my mama leave?” she asked.

Mavis blanched and locked her hands together in her lap so tightly that her knuckles turned white. The veins in the top of her hands looked like they might explode before she finally relaxed enough to unclasp her fingers.

“Why are you asking?” Mavis whispered.

“I was thinking about her and a memory popped up. I look like her, don’t I? What is your problem with her anyway?”

“You’re old enough to know, Leah. I’ve kept you and Declan protected from the whole sordid story, but before I open this can of worms, why don’t you leave well enough alone and trust me?”

“Open the can,” Leah said.

Mavis frowned. “Remember you asked for it.”

“Yes, I did,” Leah said.

“Your mother was the resident bad girl of Burnt Boot. They moved here when she was seventeen and your dad was eighteen. We hired her father to help on River Bend, not knowing that her mother was a drunk who flirted with every hired hand on the place.” Mavis paused.

“Go on,” Leah said.

“Her dad wasn’t much better, but he did stay sober through the week and was a good hand. Because Eden lived on the ranch, she attended our school, and your dad fell under her spell. Lord only knows how hard I tried to break it up. I sent him to college here in Texas and gave her money to go to school in California. She got on a bus in Gainesville and followed him to his college, and they lived together for a year before they went to the courthouse and got married.”

“Maybe I got the rebellion from him instead of my mama,” Leah said.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Mavis took a deep breath and hesitated before she said, “It’s time for you to go.”

Leah’s phone rang before she could stand up. She smiled when she saw that it was Rhett and nodded as he told her that he’d be a little bit late.