Rodeo Blues (20 page)

Anxious and worried to reach him, the
emotions played havoc with her heart as if a fist were around it,
pressing, squeezing…
Please let him be all
right
, she thought to herself, a prayer she'd been saying as
she drove all the way here. What if he wasn't all right? What if
he'd been seriously hurt?
What if he was—

"Jolie?"

She halted her steps at the sound of her name
and whirled around. She blinked in confusion, believing her eyes
deceived her. "Tye?"

He stood there, no more than a few feet away.
He appeared to be all right, but still she had to be sure. She took
the steps separating them and threw her arms around his neck. "Oh,
Tye."

He hesitated for a millisecond, but then his
strong arms encircled her waist, bringing her close. He was all
right. She kept repeating it to herself, over and over again, until
she actually believed it. A dry sob burned in her throat.

"What's wrong, darlin'?" he asked and she
didn't miss the confusion in his voice.

She pushed away and stared into those amber
eyes rimmed with green that were now peering at her with
apprehension.

"I thought you'd been hurt. Someone told
Whisper you'd been taken to the hospital." Her gaze slid over him
from his cowboy boots, to his well worn jeans where he sported a
silver belt buckle, and finally to his forest green T-shirt that
fit his broad shoulders and showed off those strong defined biceps.
He looked…perfect. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she
forced her eyes to refocus on his face. Her emotions were all over
the place with this man.

He let out a tired sigh and stuffed his hands
in his pockets. "You thought I was hurt." He didn't wait for her to
answer. "I'm fine as you can see. I just rode along in the
ambulance. Chris Burns, one of the rodeo clowns, spotting me was
the one hurt. Got hit pretty hard when the bull slammed him against
the wall with a back kick. Might have broken his back. Don't know
yet. We're still waiting on the tests."

She felt for this Chris fellow, but relief
flooded her senses. Tye hadn't been the one laying broken and
bleeding in the bed in room 4B, but now that she was calmer, she
could see the stress lines around Tye's eyes. "You look like you
could use a cup of coffee," she said.

"I don't want to leave," he told her. "You
know…" His pain-filled eyes wandered toward Chris Burn's room. "His
wife won't be here until later this evening. They have three little
ones at home and she had to arrange for someone to look after them
before she could book a flight."

"I understand." She reached for him and
rested her hand on his forearm. "All we can do is wait now. We
won't leave the hospital. The cafeteria actually has good coffee."
She gave him an encouraging smile, hoping he'd go with her. He
needed a break from worrying, even if he didn't know it.

Finally, he nodded and she strode over to the
desk to let the nurse know where they would be if the doctor needed
to speak with Tye.

They rode the elevator to the first floor in
silence, but she chanced a look at him. Tired lines of worry etched
his rugged face, but they didn't distract from his charm. Tye had
always been handsome, even when most teens were going through an
awkward stage, but then maybe she was biased. The roundness of
youth had been replaced by angles, making his features more rugged.
They only added to his appeal.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. He
allowed her to exit first and followed close behind. "Why don't you
find us a table," she told him over her shoulder, but didn't wait
for his response as she headed toward the front where she could
place an order. The cafeteria wasn't crowded. Only a few tables
were taken. One by the window overlooked the patio, where more
tables and chairs were located, and the other was a corner table
near the back.

Fifteen minutes later, with two coffees and a
grilled cheese sandwich and chips for Tye, she headed toward the
table he'd chosen. She highly doubted he'd eaten anything today and
it was getting late. He used to love grilled cheese sandwiches.
They were his comfort food. Everyone had one or two. Pistachio ice
cream and kettle chips were hers.

Back when they were preteens and Tye had a
really awful day at home when his father went on one of his
drinking binges, he'd sneak away to her house and she'd fix him a
grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough. It was the only thing she was
allowed to make on the stove when her daddy wasn't home, but Tye
told her grilled cheese was his favorite. He'd then started showing
up at her place every Saturday with a pint of Pistachio ice cream
and chips, and she'd have lunch ready for him when he did.

"Here you go." She placed the plate in front
of him. The coffee he took from her hand. He indulged before he
placed the cup down on the table and his gaze caught sight of the
paper plate she slid toward him. "Grilled cheese?" His eyes riveted
to hers and she knew he remembered the past as she had.

"Yep. Probably not as good as I used to
make," she teased and pulled out a seat across from him.

"Most likely not," he agreed, but he picked
up the sandwich anyway. He'd taken a few bites before he spoke
again. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." She leaned back in her
seat, resting her arm over the backrest. Tye's hair was slicked
back as if he'd been running his hand through the strands. She
wondered where he'd left his cowboy hat. She hadn't seen him
without it in public since he arrived home.

"This is good. Do you want half?" he
offered.

"I'm fine."

He tore open the potato chip bag. "Those days
I spent at your house, where we chatted about nothing and
everything," he looked at her then, "were some of the best days of
my life. I never told you how much I appreciated you and your daddy
letting me stay there long into the evenings, long after my father
drank himself into oblivion."

"We were happy to have you, Tye." She reached
for his hand and he stared at their clasped hands, the pad of his
thumb lazily sliding over her knuckles then over her bare ring
finger. She'd taken the cherry stem ring off, but she hadn't thrown
it away. She still had it tucked in her jewelry box for
safekeeping. She told herself it was to remind her how stupid she'd
been to get drunk and marry the first guy who asked, but deep down,
she knew the truth. She couldn't bring herself to toss it away.

"You rushed down here to the hospital…for me.
Why?" He pinned her with those green-rimmed, amber eyes of his.
They were framed with thick dark lashes. Definitely, every girl
would be envious of such lashes.

"I was worried," she said and slipped her
hand away. The contact seemed too…intimate, but as soon as the heat
of his palm left hers, she immediately wished for the comfort
again. Her eyes shifted to his face as she gauged his reaction to
her words.

His eyebrows drew together and his lips
pressed into a thin line. Not the response she expected and when he
spoke, his voice had a hard edge to it. "Did you fear I would make
you a widow before we could get divorced?"

"That's not funny." That was it, wasn't it?
She didn't want him to leave her, feared no matter what he pledged,
in the end, he would.

"Wasn't meant to be humorous, darlin'. I'm
curious why you troubled yourself."

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before
meeting his eyes. "I care about you, Tye. I never said I
didn't."

He stared at her for a long measured moment,
then nodded. "So you do. Just not enough to stay married to
me."

"Don't," she warned, but he looked like he
wanted to argue the point further. They had made progress this
morning, and she didn't want to backpedal now.

He pushed his chair away from the table and
stood. His hand rested on the tabletop, his fingers lightly
thrumming. He stared at her as if thinking something over in his
mind, then one final tap with his hand, and she knew he'd made a
decision of some sort. "I have to go back upstairs." He picked up
his tray and strode past her to dump the items in the wastebasket.
Without another word, he strode out of the cafeteria.

She stood to go after him, but after a few
steps, she stopped in her tracks. She didn't know what to say to
him, and feared if she tried she'd say the wrong thing. She'd give
him time. He was worried about his friend. He didn't need to think
about anything else.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jolie opened up the shop like usual, but
would be heading out to the fairgrounds by eleven to help Whisper
at the booth. She was already there setting up for the day with
more goods, T-shirts, and the items they kept on consignment. Vin
Gordon had brought in some more of his wood carved horses last
night. Mary Lou Smithers' necklaces had been selling like hot
cakes, so she'd made more to sell today, and Pat Green's stuffed
holiday bears were really popular this year. She only had a few
more of those left. The store had done well, better than any of the
previous Cowboy Christmas in July Rodeos. Even Whisper said she'd
sold more readings than she had in the past.

Jolie glanced at the clock on the wall. She
hadn't heard from Tye since she left him at the hospital yesterday,
and he had yet to call her this morning. She hoped everything was
all right with Chris.

She strode over to the coffee machine to make
a cup of coffee. As she waited for it to brew, she went over the
last conversation she had with Tye. All this time he'd been
pursuing her, wanting to make a go of their relationship, but in
the cafeteria she felt him distance himself, and she didn't
understand why.

The bell chimed over the door and she turned
to find Mayor Dirkly. "Good morning, Jolie," he said as he removed
his straw hat. He wore a Hawaiian button down shirt with a palm
tree print, and tan slacks.

"You've been avoiding me for days," she
blurted out. "Sorry," she apologized for her rude behavior. "Good
morning, she said. "You've been avoiding me," she repeated in a
calmer voice.

Mayor Dirkly pursed his lips. "Sorry about
that." He did appear contrite. "I know you've a hankering to get
that annulment. I was hoping you might have changed your mind." He
did look hopeful, and it made her curious as to why he seemed so
determined she and Tye remain married.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Don't rightly think I can stop you," he
said.

"Why'd you do it?" She met his gaze head
on.

His brows furrowed. "Do what exactly?"

"Marry me and Tye. You knew we were drunk and
not in our right minds, but you preformed the ceremony anyway. You
let us exchange cherry stem rings, for God's sake. Why did you
allow us to make a mockery of it all?"

Mayor Dirkly stepped closer to the counter.
"You were very persuasive."

"Me?" Her voice hitched and she cleared her
throat. "What do you mean?" Here she'd been blaming most of this on
Tye, but now Mayor Dirkly claimed she'd been the one to sway him to
do the ceremony.

"You told me, you loved Tye Casper, that you
always had. Sober or drunk you aimed to have him, and if I didn't
marry you both, you would just get in your truck and drive to
Houston to catch a plane to Las Vegas."

She inhaled sharply. "I did not."

"Oh, you did. I couldn't let you get in your
vehicle, not with you both having too much to drink. So I did what
you demanded. I married you. Don't rightly think there's a law
stating cherry stem rings couldn't be used for the ceremony. I once
married a couple who used origami rings fashioned out of
twenty-dollar bills."

She rolled her eyes. "At the very least, you
could have pretended to marry us."

"Could have," he agreed. "But didn't think it
right. Not after your speech and all."

Her frown deepened. "I don't make speeches,"
but even as she said this a flash of memory surfaced. "That was
real?" she murmured. She couldn't remember the details, but she did
remember wanting everyone's attention. "No, I wouldn't…" She shook
her head, still in denial.

Mayor Dirkly sighed. "That's why I'm
here."

Before she could ask him what he meant, he
placed the DVD case he'd been holding on the counter. "Take a
gander at this."

"What is it?" she asked, but had a sinking
feeling she already knew.

"Your wedding ceremony, of course."

"Of course," she repeated. Just what every
bride wanted. Only this DVD she'd like to break into a million
pieces and throw away. She couldn't believe she agreed to have the
wedding ceremony filmed. Then again, she didn't remember a lot of
what happened that night. Most of it was one big blur.
Good
Lord,
she'd made a speech.
A speech!
Obviously one which
impressed Mayor Dirkly enough to pull out his Bible and marry them
at the saloon.