Marin Thomas - The Cowboy's Destiny

Guess what? Marsha’s teaching physics at the Yuma Junior College and Ryan got accepted into the accelerated program at the high school. Come home. We miss you.

Even though things had worked out between Will and Marsha, that didn’t mean his brother was ready to forgive Buck.

He texted back.

Thanks for the update. Hope little Nate is well.

Buck figured he had two brothers pissed at him now. Will, and Johnny after he’d missed the birth of Johnny’s daughter Addy in June. He left the room and headed back to the garage to fetch his rodeo gear and duffel bag.

One of these days he had to go home—whether he was ready or not.

* * *

DESTINY REMOVED HER dinner from the microwave and sat outside on the stoop to eat. From her vantage point above the garage she had a great view of the town and the Flamingo Motel at the opposite end of Gulch Road. Her gaze zeroed in on the room farthest from the main office, and she imagined Buck moving around inside. Was he taking a shower? Or resting on the bed watching TV?

What in the world had gotten into her—loosening the axel on Buck’s truck? Maybe Daryl ditching her at the altar bothered her more than she cared to admit. No. She honestly believed he’d done them both a favor by not showing up at the chapel. He’d yet to respond to any of her calls. He might not have his act together, but he wasn’t heartless and eventually he’d show up in town with an apology.

Daryl was the least of her worries. Without health insurance, finding care for her and the baby had been difficult. At least she’d located a women’s clinic in Kingman that had charged her next to nothing for her first prenatal appointment. Afterward, they’d sent her on her way with a free bottle of prenatal vitamins and several pamphlets on nutrition and the stages of the baby’s development, which she was instructed to read before her next appointment.

A movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she squinted into the darkness. The door at the end of the motel opened and Buck emerged. When she’d come across his truck on the side of the road, she’d suddenly forgotten about Daryl, the baby she carried and the town’s problems. And then he’d smiled and her heart had stumbled.

Buck walked across the street to Lucille’s—he probably needed a drink. The first thing she’d learned when she’d moved to this town was that there was never a shortage of alcohol. According to the residents, whiskey cured hundreds of old-age ailments.

Destiny finished her dinner then showered before settling into bed and reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Melba had loaned her the book, insisting Austen was a highly acclaimed author. Destiny didn’t understand the book at all or any of the behaviors of the Bennett sisters. If it had been left up to her, she’d have told both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley to kiss her ass then she’d have left town and struck out on her own.

A banging sound in the garage below the apartment interrupted her reading, and she bolted to the window. Buck left the repair bay, his duffel bag in one hand and his saddle propped on his shoulder. She watched him make his way back to the motel, wishing she could go with him.

She wasn’t the kind of girl most boys took home to meet their mothers, and she wasn’t a saint—she’d spent a night or two in motel rooms with men she shouldn’t have—but Buck made her yearn to experience the teenage milestones she’d missed out on. Like a girl’s first crush—that moment when she saw the guy of her dreams and her breath froze in her lungs. And a girl’s first kiss—hers had been from a drunk who’d mistaken her for her mother in the truck stop restroom.

Men had come and gone from her life but never once had any of them, including Daryl, made her yearn for more than what was right in front of her.

She and Daryl had been friends who’d ended up in bed together one night. Even though Daryl had made her feel less alone in the world, hours would pass by when he wouldn’t cross her mind. Unlike Buck, who’d been in her every other thought since she’d first come upon him sprawled inside his truck.

You don’t even know if Buck has a girlfriend or if he’s married.

The cowboy wasn’t wearing a wedding band but that didn’t mean squat. This was all foolishness on her part. Whimsy. She’d be better off reading thrillers than filling her mind with fantasy.

Tomorrow she’d tighten the axel on Buck’s pickup and replace the hose then send him on his way—after the pool party.

Seeing the cowboy without a shirt on would provide her with a lasting memory after he left Lizard Gulch in the dust. To hell with Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley—when she went to sleep at night she’d conjure up an image of Buck and drift off to dreamland.

* * *

BUCK WASN’T SURE what to make of the pool party. An assortment of old women wearing flowered swim caps played in the water surrounded by floating toys and chairs, while the other guests drank margaritas in red Solo cups with tiny umbrellas and flamingo stir sticks. A table in the shade held the leftover casseroles from Destiny’s wedding/mayoral reception the night before, and bottles of beer and water sat on ice in a rusted-out horse trough.

“The cowboy’s here!” Bernie waved from his inflatable dolphin chair floating inside a circle of heads covered with bathing caps. He’d pinned his sheriff’s badge to the front of his John Deere cap and wore a camouflage T-shirt and matching swim trunks along with white tube socks—the old man must be worried about getting his feet sunburned.

Buck searched the AARP crowd but didn’t spot Destiny.

“She’ll be here soon.” Melba stopped at his side. The twinkle in her eye suggested that she was aware of Buck’s interest in the mayor. “I imagine she’s catching up on sleep after going on a call at 3:00 a.m.”

He didn’t like the idea of Destiny alone on a deserted road late at night. There were too many weirdos out during those hours.

“The highway patrol asked her to pick up an abandoned car,” Melba said.

“I didn’t hear the wrecker.” Buck should have heard the tow truck since the town dead-ended at the garage and the only road in and out sat twenty yards from his motel-room door.

“When you get to be my age, you don’t sleep much. I was reading my gossip magazine in the lobby when she drove past. I called her, and she told me where she was going.”

So Melba played the role of mother hen as well as motel manager. She stared at his body. “Don’t you own a pair of swim trunks?”

He chuckled. “I knew I’d forgotten something when I packed for the rodeo.”

“I can help.”

Inside the motel office Melba set a cardboard box filled with mismatched clothing on the counter. “This stuff was left behind by guests. Maybe there’s a swimsuit that’ll fit you.” She left, and Buck rummaged through the clothing, finding a pair of blue trunks with giant yellow pineapples on them. “These might work.” No sense changing in his room. He stepped behind the counter and removed his jeans then yanked on the trunks. The suit was a little snug but covered all the important parts. He’d left his sneakers on the floor of his truck so he searched for a pair of men’s sandals or flip-flops but came up empty-handed. The thermometer hanging in the shade outside the office window read one hundred and two degrees—the asphalt parking lot would fry the soles of his feet if he walked to the pool barefoot.

He pulled his socks and boots back on, then tipped his Stetson over his forehead to block the sun, helped himself to a pink towel from the storage closet and left.

Wolf whistles greeted him when he returned to the pool. “Now that’s a sexy look if I ever saw one.” Enrick circled Buck, leering at his body. “Your ghostly legs and chest could use a little sun.”