Brenda Minton - The Cowboy Next Door

And the other thing they said was that it was all because of Jamie. But no one really talked about who Jamie was and what she meant to Jay Blackhorse.

“Come on, Lace, stop ignoring me.” Corry, petulant and high-strung. Lacey sighed and turned back around.

“You’ll have to stay here. I have to work, and I can’t entertain you.”

“I’ll go to town with you.”

“No, you’re not going with me.”

“Why not?” Corry plopped down on the sofa and put her feet up on the coffee table.

“Because I said so.” Lacey rubbed a hand across her face. “This is not what I want to do every day, Corry. I don’t want to raise you. You’re a grown woman and a mother. If you’re going to be bored, we’ll find a sitter for Rachel and you can get a job.”

Corry frowned and drew her legs up under her. The baby slept in the bassinet someone from church had donated to their new home. They both looked at the lace-covered basket.

“You know I can’t work,” she whispered, for a moment looking vulnerable.

“You stay home with the baby, Corry. Be a good mom and let me worry about working.”

“I’m not worried about it.”

Of course she wasn’t. “Fine, then you can be responsible for cooking dinner.”

“I can’t cook. Well, maybe mac-n-cheese or sandwiches. Not much else.”

“You can learn. I have cookbooks.”

At the word cookbook she saw Corry’s eyes glaze over, and the younger woman looked away.

“I want to call my friends and let them know where I am.” Corry plucked at the fabric on the couch. “They’ll be wondering what happened to me.”

Lacey shook her head, fighting the sliver of fear that snaked into her belly when she thought about the kind of friends that Corry had. She didn’t want that old life invading Gibson.

“You can’t drag the old in with the new, Corry.”

“Just because you walked away from everyone doesn’t mean that I have to.”

“I didn’t walk away, I started over.”

“I don’t see how you can like it here.”

Lacey stood up but didn’t answer. She picked up her cell phone and slipped it into her pocket, a way to let Corry know that she meant it when she said her sister couldn’t contact people from her past.

“I’ll be home by four o’clock. But after dinner, I have to go to Springfield for a few hours.”

“Fine, have fun. Don’t worry about me, stuck out here, alone, nothing to do.”

“I won’t.”

Lacey grabbed the backpack off the hook on the wall and walked out the front door, letting it bang shut behind her. She heaved the backpack over her shoulder and glanced back, seeing Corry on the sofa, watching.

She couldn’t tell Corry about the classes in Springfield, or what they meant to her. Corry wouldn’t understand. Lacey was one month away from finishing high school. She would finally have a piece of paper to show that she had accomplished her goal.

As soon as the GED certificate was in her hands, she wanted to enroll in college. She wanted to be a teacher.

She wanted to help children who, like Corry, had never had a chance. Maybe if those children had someone to believe in them, their lives would take different paths than the path her sister had taken.

It was after ten o’clock Friday night when Jay saw headlights easing down the long drive to the old farmhouse that Lacey had rented. He dropped his book and went to the window.

“Who is it?” His mom turned down the volume on the news program she was watching.

“I’m not sure. Someone pulling into Lacey’s.”

Lacey’s house was dark.

“You should go check on them. They don’t have a phone yet.” His mom had joined him at the window. She peered out into the dark night. Clouds covered the full moon but Jay could see stars to the south.

“Mom, I think they can take care of themselves.” He shrugged off his own curiosity. “I’m not her keeper.”

“You’re also a nice guy. Don’t try to pretend you’re not.” His mom gave him the mom look. “Jay, she’s a sweet girl and she’s worked hard to change her life.”

“I’m sure she has. But I also don’t think you can take in every stray that comes along.”

“Okay, fine.” She peered out the window again and then shrugged as if she didn’t care.

“If it makes you happy, I’ll go check on her. But I have a feeling she isn’t going to appreciate it.”

“Maybe not, but I will.” She smiled at him, and he knew he’d lost the battle.

He grabbed a flashlight and his sidearm, sliding it into the holster he hadn’t removed when he’d walked through the door thirty minutes earlier.

Pete woofed from the dog bed near the fireplace. The dog didn’t bother getting up. He was retired from the police force and usually didn’t care who did what.

Jay walked out the door and headed across a field bathed in silver light as the clouds floated overhead. Pete woofed again and he heard the dog door flap as the lazy animal ran to catch up with him. Obviously Pete had decided the action was worth getting up for. Five years of sniffing drugs and searching for lost kids, and now he spent most of his time sniffing rabbit trails and chewing up perfectly good shoes.

A shadow lingered in the front yard of the old farmhouse. Pete lumbered to Jay’s side, growling a low warning. Jay’s hand went to his sidearm and he walked more carefully, deliberately keeping an eye on the form that had stilled when the dog barked.

Pete took off, his long legs pounding and his jaws flapping. The person in the yard ran for the car and was scrambling onto the hood. The outdoor security light had been shot out by kids nearly a year earlier. As clouds covered the moon, Jay thought about the mistake of not getting that light fixed.

“Who’s there?” He recognized the trembling voice.

“Pete, down.” The dog immediately obeyed Jay’s command. He walked through the gate and crossed the lawn to find Lacey cowering on the hood of her own car. He should have recognized the headlights of her Chevy.

“Where in the world did he come from?” She didn’t move to climb down from the car. He almost laughed, but she had books and she might throw them.

“He’s mine.”

“Do you always sic him on people when they come home at night?”

He held a hand out and she refused the offer. Lacey Gould, afraid? How did he process that information? She always seemed a little like David, confronting the world with five stones and a lot of faith.

And she collected dogs. Of course, not real ones.

“I didn’t know it was you. I saw a car pulling up to a dark house, late.”

She grasped the books and shot him a “stupid male” look. “So, I can’t come home late?”

“You were in Springfield this late?”

“Do you interrogate all of your renters?”

“No, I don’t interrogate all of them. It was a question, Lacey. You were going to Springfield after work. It’s late. We saw headlights down here and we were worried. Mom was worried.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I have to get inside. I have the breakfast shift and I have to be at work at five in the morning.”

“Let me help you down.”

“Jay, do me a favor, grab your dog.”

“He won’t hurt you.”

“He’s huge and he has big teeth.”

“You’re afraid of dogs.” More information to process. He reached for Pete’s collar. “What about that dog collection of yours?”

He shouldn’t have asked. Asking meant he wanted to know something about her, something that didn’t quite make sense. He wanted to deny that she was a mystery to solve.

He definitely didn’t want to get involved.

“I love collecting dogs.” She stared at Pete. “The kind without teeth.”