Kathleen Eagle - Never Trust A Cowboy

Chapter Two

Lila wasn’t taking the new hand seriously. She’d known he was kidding when he asked her to go down to her father’s house with him for supper. She had managed not to look out her kitchen window more than once or twice, checking for signs of life at the bunkhouse. She told herself she was only parking her horse in Dad’s corral now because it was time to check in. She hadn’t seen her father in more than a week, and she was suddenly missing him.

She stuck her socks in her boots and left them in the elaborate mudroom June had added to the plans for the new house, padded through a kitchen filled with the smell of beef and fresh bread—interesting, since she’d never known June to bake bread—past the kitchen table normally used for meals and ventured into the dining room.

“Well, look who’s here,” Brad said. “There’s an empty chair next to me and one beside our new hired hand. Take your pick.”

“Your new hired hand asked me to go to supper with him.” Del almost managed to get out of his seat and pull out the chair before she claimed it herself. Lila tamped down a smile. “So I choose him.”

“You should’ve told me you had a date, Del. We could’ve picked her up.” Brad peered across the table at Lila. “How’d you get here? Don’t tell me you finally decided to put the crazy woman in the closet and get behind the wheel of a car again.”

She eyed him right back. “The horse I rode in on is helping himself to your hay.”

Frank laughed. “My daughter is no crazier than I am, son. I’m taking up bread making. Watched one of them videos and got the recipe off the internet. How’d I do?”

“I knew he’d find it relaxing,” June said. Her red hair looked freshly styled, the color skillfully revived. Dar’s Downhome Dos had done it again. “It’s very good, my darling. And you notice, the baker in the video was a man. The best chefs are men. So it doesn’t surprise me that this bread is delicious. No more store-bought for us.” She flashed Frank a doting smile. “No surprise, he especially enjoyed kneading the dough.”

“What else has he been kneading?” Brad pulled a fake double take. “Never mind. We probably don’t want to go there with our parents. Right, Lila? I mean, we’re eating.”

Once begun, half done, Lila reminded herself.

“He experimented with the dough hooks that came with that new mixer I got him, but that didn’t do it for him. Right, Frank? I’d say mission accomplished, technique perfected. What do you think, Del?”

Del brandished the buttered heel he’d just torn into. “Great bread.”

“There’s more in the kitchen,” Frank said.

“Just for you,” June told Del. “When Brad said he’d hired a new hand, Frank was all about welcoming you with a good meal.”

Frank gestured with the point of his table knife. “If you’re as good as Brad claims, I’d like to keep you around for a while. Guess Thompson took off without saying too much. I never thought much of him, tell you the truth. Brad says he called a guy you worked for, what? Couple of years, right? Said you’re a top hand.” He turned to Brad. “Where’d you say that was? Colorado somewhere?”

“Denver,” Brad said.

“So you came along at the right time. You mind puttin’ up hay?”

“It was a four-month job,” Del said quietly. “This last time. But I’ve worked for Walsh before. And I guess I wouldn’t be much of a ranch hand if I minded putting up hay.”

“I used to hate that part of the business, but nowadays, with the new equipment we’ve got, I can just—”

Brad’s knife clattered to his plate. “I’ll make sure Del has plenty to do, Dad. I drove him around all afternoon, so he knows what he’s in for. He’s like you. Says his cowboy ass ain’t sittin’ on no ATV. Right, Del?”

“Brad fixed me up with a good mount.” Del glanced at Lila, an I’m-on-your-side look in his eyes. “Nice big buckskin.”

“Hombre,” Brad told Frank. “Figured you wouldn’t mind.”

“Best horse on the place.” Frank grinned. “He should be ridden, and by somebody who knows how.”

Between her father’s grin and the look in the hired hand’s eyes, Lila suddenly took heart.

“Sounds like something I’ve heard before,” Brad said.

“That’s what Rhett Butler said to Scarlett,” June put in.

“Kissed.” Lila attended to buttering her bread. Attention with a secret smile. “He said she should be kissed often.”

“I don’t get to many movies,” Del said. “This Butler, is he a cowboy? You got a horse needs ridin’ or a woman needs kissin’, you find yourself a real cowboy. Ain’t many of us left.”

“Probably just as well,” Lila said. “Hollywood isn’t making many Westerns these days.”

“R-e-a-l,” Del instructed. “Not r-e-e-l . The world is full of actors.”

Lila flashed him a richly deserved smile.

“You like that?” His answering smile lit a true twinkle in his nearly black eyes.

“I do.”

“What’s going on here?” Brad said. “If I didn’t know better...”

“You’d think I was rackin’ up points with the boss’s daughter. But I can already tell she doesn’t give out easy points. I’m just trying to keep up with the conversation.” Del glanced around the table. “Lila and I witnessed a rare sight this morning.” He nodded at her. “You tell it.”

“We watched a fight between a badger and a rattlesnake. They tore up my garden.”

“I thought I tore up your garden,” Brad said.

“You ran over a flower bed.” She took Del’s cue and kept going. “It was amazing. They really kept at it for, I don’t know, five minutes, maybe... They just kept at it.” She turned to Del. “Didn’t they?”

A loaded look accompanied Del’s nod. “Time stood still.”

“In fact...” Damn , he was good-looking. Nearly black hair, chiseled cheekbones, angular jaw and no white-above-the-eyebrows farmer tan on this cowboy’s face. Unless she was mistaken, he’d be head-to-toe brown. Lakota, probably. It took her a moment to turn her attention to her father. “Del caught me before I walked right into the fray.”

“How awful. I hate snakes of any kind.” June gave a tight end-of-story smile. “And I really hope you’ll start joining us for supper regularly, Lila.”

“I didn’t have any kids today. Del helped me look for Bingo. I’ve been searching on horseback, still haven’t found him.” She lifted one shoulder. “So I was...in the neighborhood.”

“I haven’t seen the pup at all lately.” Frank turned to his wife. “Have you? You’ve been out quite a bit getting groceries and whatnot.”

“I thought he always stayed around your yard,” June said, turning to Lila.

Lila nodded. “That’s why—”

“Bingo is the first dog we’ve had around here since Lila left for college,” June explained, apparently for Del’s information. “I’m not a dog person. Kind of allergic.” She turned to Lila. “I think that’s why you decided to move into the old place when you came back, isn’t it?”

“That’s my house,” Lila said.

“I know, but it’s as old as the pyramids, all dark and depressing. We’d like to see more of you. That’s all I’m saying.”

“I’m not far away, June. You have to drive past my house to get to the highway. We see each other all the time.” Lila welcomed the mental distance that slid over her like a cool cloud. “And your hired hands are always perfectly positioned to keep an eye on me.”

“That happens to be where the bunkhouse is,” Brad said. “The men don’t give you any trouble, do they? You tell me if they do. I never hire anybody without checking him out. And I don’t tell them to keep an eye on you.” He turned to Del. “I never told you to spy on her, did I?”