Brenda Minton - Single Dad Cowboy

“Yeah, that’s how it is with pain.”

She took a biscuit out of the microwave and handed it to him. It was piled with cheese, bacon and fried eggs. He leaned against the counter and took a bite while she poured them each a cup of coffee.

“Callie and Cash seem to be adjusting.”

He nodded, following her to the dining room. “It hasn’t been easy for them, moving here, where everything’s different and there’s no one they know from their old life.”

“I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for you, either. You left here a single guy on your way to a bull ride and came back, what, a year later a dad to two kids.”

“Something like that. Katrina was a good mom.” He pulled out a chair from the old oak table in the middle of the big room. “The kids don’t—well, Cash doesn’t understand. Callie gets it but she still worries that her mom will come back to the house in Texas and we won’t be there.”

“I’m sorry.” She absently stirred her coffee.

“Yeah, well, life isn’t always easy, is it, Harmony? We were pretty full of ourselves ten years ago.”

She smiled at that. “You were full of yourself.”

“And you were the princess.”

“Life has a way of making us look at things a little differently.” She took a sip of her coffee before continuing. “One day you’re the princess and the next day your best friend is gone, your body is broken, you find yourself hooked on painkillers and...”

He put the biscuit back on the plate and took a long look at the woman sitting next to him. She didn’t look broken. She still looked like a princess. He guessed he still looked like the player he’d been all of his life.

From the outside someone might see two people, whole and enjoying themselves.

If they looked a little closer, they would see the pain in Harmony’s eyes, in her expression. They would see that he was about as exhausted as a man could get. Maybe they were the best allies that ever joined forces.

“If we’re going to do this, we need boundaries.” She stirred her coffee some more.

“Boundaries?”

She looked up. “Dylan, I came here because I was looking for space. Not a relationship.”

“Me, too. That’s why we’re perfect for each other. I know where you stand, you know where I stand. As long as we’re helping each other, we have a good reason to tell the rest of Dawson to leave us be.”

“You really think this is going to stop people from offering to help?”

“It won’t stop them, but it will slow ’em down a little. Especially the matchmakers who think I need a wife.”

She smiled at that. “That bad, huh?”

“Worse than bad. I think they had a list of prospects written up before I came home.” He finished eating the last bite of biscuit and had to admit, she wasn’t a bad cook. “What about you?”

“Me?”

“What are your plans for the future? How long are you staying in Dawson?”

She shrugged, slim shoulders under a pale blue T-shirt. She played with the handle of the coffee cup and didn’t look at him.

“I don’t know. I thought if I came here, I’d find the person I used to be, before life got crazy. I need time and space to put my life back together. And then maybe I’ll go back and finish college. I always thought I’d be a teacher.”

“Not a singer?”

She shook her head and smiled up at him. “I’m not the musician in the family. I leave that up to Clay and Lila.” Her older brother and little sister. He knew that both had somewhat decent careers.

“You’re good. I heard you playing.”

“I’m okay, but not good. I play for myself. I hadn’t played in years but since I had the accident I’ve picked it back up.”

A screech from the living room ended the conversation, reminding him that with Cash and Callie in his life, he had no room for relationships. All of his energy went to raising the two kids in the living room.

He headed that way with Harmony following. What he found in the living room were two kids wrestling over one toy. He scooped them up in his arms and gave Harmony an apologetic smile.

“I think it’s time for me to get these two home for a nap. And maybe I’ll see you at church tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure,” she responded as she gathered up the diaper bag and followed him to the door.

He had a feeling that “not sure” meant no way would he see her in church.

Chapter Four

Harmony hadn’t planned on attending church; it just happened. At some point during the long, sleepless night while pacing the living-room floor, she’d decided to give faith a second chance. She’d stood at the window watching the sky turn from inky darkness to gray to palest pink on the eastern horizon, and realized she’d been empty inside for a long time.

In the stillness of early morning she’d leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the window and thought about being fourteen again. Fourteen and knowing what she wanted out of life. Chasing calves as she helped her dad with immunizations, dozing in the green grass of the field as bees buzzed and a horse grazed nearby, her brother somewhere close playing the guitar and singing an Elvis song.

She’d known herself then. Her faith had taken her to Cooper Creek with several other members of Dawson Community Church for a late summer baptizing service.

As she’d packed her bags to come to Dawson, she had said she needed a place to be alone, without family and friends invading every quiet inch of her life. It hadn’t been the complete truth. She’d come to Dawson to find joy in life again. Dawson was the place where she remembered being happiest.

She’d been hoping that coming here would help her bring the pieces of her life back together. And one of the missing pieces was the faith she’d walked away from.

Several hours after that revelation, she stood in the parking lot of the church looking up at the white building with the steeple reaching to the sky wondering what she’d been thinking. How had this been a good idea? It wasn’t that easy, to fix a life. Church wasn’t the bandage she could put on the last seven or eight years of mistakes and expect them to be instantly fixed.

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