Carla Cassidy - Operation Cowboy Daddy

He’d been relieved when he’d thought about Mary that morning. She was not only an old friend to Amy, but also a woman who had given him the impression of great stability and strength on the few times he’d seen her.

Still, he’d never really noticed the richness of her long black hair in the single braid down her back, or her beautiful doe eyes, or her full lips and high cheekbones.

She’d been clad in a pair of tight jeans that showcased her long legs and her brown T-shirt had fit perfectly across her breasts and slender waist.

He was just so glad she’d agreed to take care of the boy. Before he’d thought about Mary, Tony had spent the morning not just worried about what he was going to do, but concerned that he might do something wrong, or not do something at all that Joey needed.

The first thing he intended to do before he did any shopping was get a quick bite to eat at the Bitterroot Café. His nerves had been so shot that morning he’d barely eaten any breakfast and lunchtime had already come and gone.

His stomach gurgled in anticipation as he pulled into the café parking lot. He frowned when he saw two familiar pickups also there. The men from the Humes ranch must be having a late lunch, too.

As far as all the cowboys on the Holiday ranch were concerned, all the men who worked on the neighboring ranch were lowlifes and creeps. One of them was now in jail, looking at plenty of prison time for kidnapping Trisha Cahill, who worked here as a waitress and who was the love of Dusty’s life.

Tony got out of his truck and walked through the café door. He immediately spied Lloyd Green, Zeke Osmond and Ace Sanders from the Humes place seated in a booth. He headed for an empty stool at the long counter, pleased to see Trisha working that area.

She greeted him with a huge smile. “A little late for you today, Tony,” she said.

“I had a few other things to attend to this morning.”

“Clay and Sawyer were in a little while ago and filled me in on the latest news. Where is the baby now?”

“Do you know Mary Redwing?” he asked.

Trisha nodded. “A nice woman. Her grandmother is definitely a pip.”

“They’re going to take care of the baby until Amy shows back up again...hopefully in the next day or two. How are you and Dusty doing? I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to him the last couple of days. You still like living with that crazy cowboy?”

She flashed him a bright smile again. “He’s wonderful, we’re wonderful.”

“When are the wedding bells going to ring?”

“We’re not having a real wedding. We’re just going to sneak away one of these weekends and get married at city hall. We’re already married in our hearts.”

“He’s a lucky man, Trisha.”

“And I’m a lucky woman. And now, what can I get for you?”

He ordered a hamburger and fries and ate quickly as he mentally tried to make a list of what Mary might need.

He was almost finished eating when the men from the Humes ranch walked over to him. “Hey, Tony, I heard through the grapevine that you have a little papoose,” Lloyd Green said and then snickered.

“Are you going to teach him how to hunt with arrows?” Zeke asked.

“Or maybe how to scalp somebody?” Ace added.

Tony turned around on the stool to face the men, his blood boiling at their utter disrespect, the vile offensiveness of their words.

Flashbacks from his painful childhood raced through his head, flashbacks that had made Tony hate the very blood that flowed through his veins.

All three men balled their hands into fists. It was obvious they were spoiling for a little entertainment in the form of a fight. Tension snapped in the air.

“Ignore them, Tony,” Trisha said softly, yet urgently.

He had been taught by the tough Cass Holiday to never start a fight, but she’d also told him never to walk away from one.

He was just about to get off his stool when the chief of police, Dillon Bowie, entered the café. “Afternoon, gentlemen.” His gray eyes narrowed. “Is there a problem here?”

“No problem.” Lloyd moved the toothpick in his mouth from one side to the other as he backed away from Tony’s stool. The two younger men followed his example and stepped back.

“We were just on our way out,” Zeke mumbled. The three hurried out the door.

“They’re a bunch of jerks,” Trisha exclaimed as Dillon took the stool next to Tony’s.

The lawman’s eyes bore into Tony’s. “Don’t tell me there’s new bad blood brewing between all of you.”

“Like Trisha said, they’re just a bunch of jerks,” Tony replied as his blood slowly returned to a more normal temperature. “Anything new on the investigation?”

Tony didn’t have to say specifically what investigation—there was only one that he was interested in and only one that had been the talk of the town for months.

Dillon’s eyes darkened. “Nothing new.”

“Would you tell me if there was something new?” Tony asked.

Dillon gave him a dry grin. “Probably not.”

Tony knew that he and every other cowboy on the ranch were suspects in the fifteen-year-old murder case that had rocked not only the people on the Holiday ranch, but also the entire town of Bitterroot.

“I’ve got to get moving,” Tony said as he stood. “I’ve got things to attend to.”

“I’m sure I’ll see you later,” Dillon said.

“’Bye, Tony,” Trisha added.

Once he was back in his truck, thoughts of the murders filled Tony’s mind. It had been just after Cass’s death in the aftermath of the spring tornado that the skeletons of seven young men had been found buried under an old building that was being torn down.

The murders had been committed around the time period that Cass had brought in twelve teenagers who had been living on the streets in Oklahoma City to work on her ranch, making all of the men still working there today potential suspects.

He shoved these thoughts aside as he pulled into the parking lot of the Bitterroot General Store. Inside, a person could buy everything from a fancy evening dress to a part for a lawn mower. He hoped he could find anything that Mary might need to take care of the baby.

An hour later he finished placing the last item in the bed of his pickup and then headed back to Mary’s house. He knew this was only a temporary arrangement. He had to find Amy. He had to know if the baby was really his, or if she’d lied about who the baby’s daddy was to Mary.

One of the reasons he’d stopped seeing Amy was because of her lies. He frowned and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. What kind of trouble was she in and when would she reappear?

He couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to think of Amy’s friend, but the shock of being left with a baby had numbed his brain.

It was almost four when he pulled back into Mary’s driveway and sat for a moment as he gazed at the house before him. The ranch-style home was on a huge lot with tall cottonwood trees along the back perimeter.

It exuded a sense of welcoming, with its warm dark beige color and the last of the summer flowers spilling a colorful display into flower beds across the front of the house and in pots on the front porch.

A sense of fear whipped through him. What if in the hours he’d been gone Mary had changed her mind? He meant nothing to Mary Redwing and she certainly had no reason to take on his troubles.

If truth be told, he knew very little about her. He knew only that she’d been a kind and caring friend to Amy and that her reputation around town was stellar.

He got out of his truck and grabbed several of the bags, filled with formula and diapers, and then knocked on the front door.

Mary opened the door to allow him inside. The air smelled of something cooking and Joey was asleep on a blanket in the middle of the living room. There was no sign of Mary’s grandmother.