Her Forever Cowboy Page 4

  “Yeah, she told me. Only after I asked her. Applegate told me she was moving into town this morning—or Stanley. One of the fellas did—their conversation ran together in my brain.”

  Seth looked amused. “App and Stanley’s conversations tend to run together even on a good night’s sleep.”

  “You have a point.” They both chuckled, easing the tension.

  “So how long are you here for? I’m here to wake you up and haul your sorry hide back over to the house so Melody can interrogate you. But it should be a fair trade since she’s hard at work cookin’ up a meal fit for a king.”

  Cole took the cup of coffee Seth handed him and held it aloft. “Then let me drink this, and then I’ll hop in the shower so I’m presentable to my new sister-in-law. I already have one hometown gal irritated with me, I wouldn’t want to make that sweet bride of yours unhappy with me, too. How’d you get so lucky anyway?”

  “Not lucky, but blessed, thanks to the good Lord and Wyatt.”

  Cole took a swig of coffee. “Our big bro the matchmaker. Never in a thousand years would I have expected that six-foot-four-inch hunk of hot air to be a little Cupid!”

  That got a big laugh from Seth. “Boy, does that paint some kind of picture!”

  Cole grimaced. “True. Still, it is amazing that he met Melody one day and knew she was the match for you.” He cocked a brow at Seth, who reciprocated. It had been a weird thing when Wyatt met Melody and decided instantly to have her do some research on the family history. History that Seth hadn’t wanted researched. It had thrown the two of them into a battle of wills and then into a hunt for long-lost treasure.

  “Wyatt wouldn’t be such a great lawyer unless he was good at reading people,” Seth mused. “Maybe that was it.”

  Cole didn’t know what it was, but serious, levelheaded Seth was happier and more relaxed than Cole had thought possible. He deserved it. “You look good, Seth,” he said, drawing his own thoughts away from Lori. Thoughts of how happy they could have been if things hadn’t been…the way they’d been.

  “I am happy. Melody—”

  “Completes you,” Cole teased with the famous movie line, forcing the door to his past shut.

  “You laugh, but it’s so true.”

  “I’m not laughing. I like it. Wyatt might have missed his calling.”

  “Maybe he’ll do the same for you.”

  “Oh, no,” Cole said. “I’ve got places to be and things to see. I’m not settling down—but it sure looks good on you.”

  “So, any clues why Wyatt wanted you home or what he had to do to get you here? What’s up with that?”

  “He said he’d tell me when he showed up tomorrow.” Cole set his coffee down and headed toward the hall, tugging his shirt up over his head as he went. “But I came because I decided it was time to come see how married life was treatin’ you.”

  “Well, in that case it should be clear that I’m doin’ well.”

  Cole halted at the doorway to the hall. “I can see that, but I want to get a gander at Melody and make sure she’s got the same goofy grin on her face. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  “Cole, hold up a minute. About Susan.”

  “What about her?”

  “I’m guessing you’re in town for a short visit and, well, you should know Susan is looking for a real relationship. One that includes a future and a family. I hope you keep that in mind while you’re here.”

  Cole shot Seth a warning look. “I didn’t come back here to break any hearts, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m here and then I’m back on the road. I’ve got places to be.”

  “Look, Cole, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s been six years. I’m actually hoping you’re ready to settle down and think—”

  “Don’t go there, Seth,” Cole warned, an edge to his voice that had Seth setting his coffee down and frowning at him in disappointment. He pushed away from the counter and stood staring at Cole. The tension between them was born of love and concern. Still, Cole hadn’t come home for more lectures on the life he’d chosen.

  He turned and headed to the bathroom. Truth was, he didn’t really have a clue why he’d come home. Sure Wyatt had forced him in a way Seth would never know about…but even with that, Cole hadn’t had to come. So why had he?

  Okay, just calm down! “What do you mean you’re going on an extended hunt in Alaska?”

  Susan was behind the counter at Sam’s diner talking on the diner phone. The cell reception in Mule Hollow was extremely scarce so she often had to use client landlines to keep in touch with Betty, her part-time receptionist, back at the office. Today she’d expected to meet her contractor out at the new property so they could go over plans before he started working. He hadn’t shown. After waiting an hour she’d driven into town to use Sam’s phone.

  Betty had given her the distressing news that her contractor had quit. Quit! He couldn’t quit. She’d immediately dialed him up.

  “Just what I said,” the louse drawled. “I’m goin’ to Alaska.”

  Susan turned her back to the diner, lowering her voice so as not to shout to the small crowd in the diner. She didn’t want everyone to know she had trouble. “You said I was next in line,” she said, using great restraint. Her daddy always told her to keep a lid on her temper, that a ranting woman didn’t get any respect from a man, but…she was so mad she could spit nails! “We had a deal.”

  “Look, lady, I got a better deal. An offer I couldn’t refuse, so to speak. I’m outta here on the fishing trip of a lifetime.”

  An offer he couldn’t refuse. Where did he get such an offer? “So, let me get this straight. Your word means nothing.”

  His next words were not nice. And being told in no uncertain terms that she was “up a creek without a paddle” did not help her mood.

  If the guy quit for a better job she might not be so furious. But, no, the man was going fishing. Fishing!

  Fighting down the urge to kick something, Susan carefully hung the wall phone in its cradle. It took all she had not to slam it down.

  Now what?

  She bit her lip and stared hard at the phone. What was she going to do? The interior of her new office space needed walls torn out and new ones built. Counters and shelves, not to mention the electric wiring and plumbing required updates, too. And it all had to be done by the end of the month. She could hear her dad’s calm voice reminding her to keep her cool, buckle down, and get the job done. “Getting the job done was what mattered,” he’d say, in that Texas twang that still made her smile to think of it. Still made her miss him like crazy. Still made her want to please him. And she would. She’d had setbacks before and his words always drove her to get it done.

  Right now she had to get her appointments finished for the day and get home. If she was lucky tonight, she’d get a full night’s sleep and be ready to tackle finding a new contractor tomorrow. She was still working on fumes from exhaustion. If tonight went without an emergency call she’d get the much-needed sleep and wipe out the fog of exhaustion clouding her head. But lately it seemed like emergency calls were non-stop.

  “Here’s your burger, Doc,” Sam said, coming out of the back with a paper bag in his hand. His sharp old eyes seemed to look through her. “Every thang okay? You look kinda pink.”

  “Everything’s fine, Sam—” She bit her lip. “Actually that’s not true. You wouldn’t happen to know a good contractor, would you?”

  Sam was a tiny man in his mid- to late-sixties with the boundless energy of a man much younger. He was a hard worker like her dad had been and she respected him greatly. He also knew everyone within a hundred-mile radius of town.

  He scrubbed his chin. “Contractors. “You got trouble?”

  “Looks that way. I need to get moved in before my contract deadline gets here in three weeks. But,” she practically growled the word, “my guy just hung me out to dry. He said he got offered a fishing trip. A fishing trip. And is going fishing in Alaska.”

  Sam grimac
ed, his weathered face wrinkling. “Tank Clawson always was one ta put play b’fore work. It’s a wonder the man kin afford ta finance all his vacations.”

  Susan knew what it was. Supply and demand paid well. The man did good work when he did it and people were willing to pay him top dollar. She’d hired him because he’d said he could fit her in between two big jobs that were scheduled. “I didn’t get the impression that he was paying for this trip.”

  Sam tugged on his ear. “That’s purdy odd.”

  “Yes, sir, it is. Thanks for the lunch, Sam. What would I do without you?”

  His brows dipped. “You’d dry up and wither away. You need ta slow down, sit in one of them thar booths and eat that burger on the sit-down rather than on the blamed run. If you did that, one of them cowboys might sit down with you and who knows where that would lead.”

  She glanced toward the tables and the three different tables full of cowboys. She was going to do that soon as she got settled. “No time today. I’ve wasted more time than I had to give. I still have a load of cattle to see at Clint’s place and that’s going to take all afternoon.” She grabbed the bag and waggled it at him. “Thanks again.”

  He scowled. “It ain’t no wonder Cole Turner had to rescue ya out of that ditch. It’s a wonder you didn’t fall asleep sooner and get yorself killed.”

  “Sam, I’m trying to slow down. If I can get a contractor out there working, the sooner I’ll get to sleep more.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “Thanks. I’m sure if there is a contractor out there to be found, you’ll find him—or you’ll help me find someone who knows one.”

  “Yup. I might jest have a good ’un in mind already.”

  “Really?” Susan’s hopes shot up. “Who?”

  “Can’t say just yet. You comin’ to the barbecue tomorrow night at Clint and Lacy’s ranch, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Susan said, wondering who he had in mind. “Are you?”

  “Yup. Got my relief cook lined up fer this place. Me and Adela will see you thar.” He nodded. “Probably gonna be an interesting night since Cole will be thar, too.”

  Just what she’d been afraid of—the man was going to start turning up all over the place. There would be nowhere to hide until he got bored and left. “He won’t be around long from what I’ve heard about him,” she said, and then wished she’d just taken her burger and hit the road as planned.

  “Maybe.” Sam slapped his ever-present dish towel over his shoulder with a grin. “And maybe not.”

  Chapter Five

  Cole’s gaze swept over the gathering as he trailed behind Seth and Melody toward the backyard barbecue. Clint and Lacy Matlock had a beautiful ranch. The main house sat on a hill and overlooked a stunning valley.

  It wasn’t the view that had Cole’s attention, however, it was the tall beauty leaning against the deck banister watching him.

  He’d wondered if she was going to be here. As much as they had a weird kind of thing going on, he realized the minute he saw her that he’d been hoping to see her.

  As he passed a tub of iced-down sodas he grabbed two and headed her way. Maybe he should have stayed back, but that wasn’t part of his makeup. Even if she didn’t look happy to see him.

  He mounted the steps. “Don’t look so hostile, Doc. I come with soda.” He popped the top of a can and handed it to her; she didn’t take it. “Come on now, it would be rude to snub your handsome rescuer.”

  She reluctantly accepted the drink. “You are going to milk that accident for all it’s worth, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe.” He opened his drink and took a swig. “I have to say, I’m pretty good at reading people, but you are a puzzle.”

  “How so?”

  “Despite my being your knight in shining armor, I continually get the feeling that you’d as soon see me run over by wild horses.”

  Susan almost choked on her soda. “I do not.”

  She had added a touch of shimmer to her lips and now she clamped those pretty lips together. It was a warm day for April but the temperature edged up a few more degrees as they stared at each other. “Oh, you know it’s true.”

  “For your information, I know you aren’t going to be in town long. So, I—”

  “How do you know?”

  “Well, um…you never come home much.”

  The good doctor was flustered. “Have you been checking up on me, Doc?”

  “No. Of course not.”

  Call him crazy for flirting—and he was, but he was enjoying himself. He was about to press further when Norma Sue Jenkins rounded the corner of the house and spotted him.

  “Cole Turner,” she bellowed and engulfed him in a bear hug. The short, stout woman practically lifted him from the deck in her enthusiasm.

  “You are a sight for sore eyes!” Norma Sue declared. She was married to Clint Matlock’s foreman, Roy Don. She and Roy Don had been friends of his grandparents and his parents. As a boy he and his brothers had spent almost as many evenings at Roy Don and Norma Sue’s house as their own. Norma was pure robust Texas cattlewoman from the tip of her boots to the top of her white Stetson. She’d always worn jeans and pearl-button, Western shirts or blue bibbed overalls—except on Sunday when she was partial to striped dresses. Tonight she’d chosen jeans and a pale blue, pearl-button shirt. Her kinky gray hair poked out from beneath the Stetson and tickled his jaw when she yanked his head to her shoulder and smothered him as if she hadn’t seen him in years.

  Norma Sue had always been a big hugger and he’d hated it as a kid. But as a man who often missed his parents and grandparents, he enjoyed the comfort her hugs always gave him. “I missed you, boy,” she said, finally releasing him.

  “Norma Sue, I saw you at the wedding, so if you keep this up folks are gonna start talking.”

  She slapped him on the arm and frowned. “I’m gearing up for when you leave town and don’t come back again for years. Like before Seth’s wedding,” she said accusingly. “I can’t believe you came home twice in the same year.”

  Roy Don had come over and now reached in for a quick fatherly hug of his own. “Welcome home, son. She gets plumb mad when she thinks about you off running the roads and not having enough time to come home. I didn’t hardly have any peace after you rode off into the sunset only hours after the reception.”

  “Sorry about that.” Cole had planned on staying around longer after the wedding, but as happy as he’d been for Seth and Melody, emotions he hadn’t expected had slammed into him during the evening. He’d had no choice but to leave. He’d been in a blue mood for weeks afterward.

  He’d been furious with God after Lori, and it had taken him a long time to regain some kind of relationship with his God. Just like the relationship between father and son can be strained, so had his become with his heavenly Father. But as a father and son reconciled so he had been trying. Unexpectedly Seth’s wedding had almost taken him back to square one.

  There was no way he’d ever want Seth or Melody to know that…Wyatt, on the other hand had figured it out—not that he’d figured it out completely, but still…that was Cole’s reason for being here now. His big brother had decided it was time for Cole to come home for an extended visit and had threatened to tell Seth all if he didn’t cooperate and return. Wyatt reasoned that if Cole came home and spent time with the newlyweds it would help him get over his past. Cole didn’t want to get over his past…and that, Wyatt had argued, was the problem.

  “Now—” Roy Don grinned beneath his wide mustache “—you can well imagine my delight to hear you were coming back for a visit so soon.”

  Cole chuckled at the old cowboy’s use of the word delight. “I’m glad it’s helped you out.”

  Norma Sue beamed, her round cheeks so tight they shined in the dwindling sunlight. “Two times in one year, that’s a record. And a long time coming.” She glanced at Susan. “We’re hoping maybe he’ll stay.”

  “I see.” Susan’s skeptical, blue gaze hit him full force bef
ore dropping to the can of soda.

  Something about the look he’d just seen had Cole stumbling over a reply. “I’ve been real busy,” he said, yanking his gaze from Susan’s and meeting Norma’s hawk eyes. The woman’s brain was clicking along as she studied him and Susan. “Unfortunately there’s been lots of rebuilding needed along the Gulf Coast.” He needed to get this conversation back on track and fast.

  “We know you’ve been doing great things,” Norma Sue said, jumping on board.

  “You represent your hometown very well,” Roy Don chimed in. “Don’t you ever forget how proud we are to call you our own.”

  “That’s right,” Norma Sue agreed. “We’re just glad to get to see you. We can’t help but hope you settle down here with a nice girl who’ll give you lots of babies.” Her gaze slid toward Susan and his followed—like an idiot. Susan’s eyes flared but she did a great job holding her expression neutral.

  He swallowed hard and hoped he did as good a job. “I’m not really lookin—”

  Norma broke in and slapped him on the back. “We’re sure glad you were there for our Susan. God knew what He was doing when He had you there to help her. At exactly the right moment—isn’t that something. I tell you, I do believe in God’s timing.”

  Susan’s eyes widened. If it hadn’t been so off base for him he might have found her reaction funny. Norma Sue never had been one for beating around the bush.

  “Now, Norma, don’t go thinking of matchmaking me,” he warned. Norma Sue and her two best friends, Esther Mae Wilcox and Sam’s wife, Adela, were eaten up with matchmaking. They’d saved the town from drying up and blowing away by coming up with the idea to advertise for wives. They’d found their calling, that was for sure. The proof stood around the yard—most all of the couples at the ranch tonight had been matched up by them in some way.

  “Cole!”

  The shriek came from Esther Mae Wilcox as she emerged from the house carrying a big bowl of fruit. She plopped it down on the long table then hustled his way. Esther was as loud in person as she was in attire. She wore purple-and-pink-striped calf-length pants and a purple shirt with a humongous pink rose across one entire side. It was as bright pink as her hair was brilliant red. Her personality was just as vibrant.