The Reluctant Cowgirl (21 page)

A split second of panic exploded through her. Jeremy obviously assumed she was attending the program. She released a huffy breath. Well, good grief. How was she to have known? They definitely had to work on their—no, his—communications skills if this relationship was going to last. And she hoped it did, for say, a hundred years or so. She grinned at her thoughts and glanced down at her clothes. Acceptable for a school program. “Sure, I’ll ride with y’all. Are you gonna come by and pick me up?”

“In about ten minutes, if that’s okay.”

“Perfect.” She smiled at the phone. “Perfect,” she repeated.

“Good. See you then.”

Ten minutes later, she was a little breathless, but ready and waiting.

As soon as he pulled up, she ran out. Her mama would have croaked if she’d been here, but she wasn’t. And Crystal was a little past the high school dating scene anyway. Plus, he’d have come in if she’d waited. She laughed as she hurried out to the truck. She was making excuses to the mama in her mind. Sad.

When she climbed in, a big grin spread across his face. “You look nice.”

She glanced down at the jeans and her red shirt. “Thanks.” She turned around to look at Beka. “You are a super-duper bumblebee.”

“I’m going to put my antennae on when I get there.” Beka held up pipe cleaners with fuzzy balls on the ends glued onto a headband.

“That’s a good idea. Just to be sure they don’t get smushed.” Crystal bounced slightly in her seat. She was so excited about seeing a kids’ play.

“So...” Jeremy said quietly. “Had you forgotten about the play?”

She raised her eyebrows. “No. Why?”

“Well, it sounded like you were driving when I called you a while ago. And right before we left the house, I saw the farm truck go by.”

She studied his face, so kind, so sweet, so ... clueless. “I didn’t
forget
about the play. I just didn’t know I was invited.”

“You didn’t—” He lifted one hand from the steering wheel and slapped his forehead. “I’m an idiot.” He snorted and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I thought ... I just assumed you’d go with us.”

And in a New York guy that kind of assumption might have made her feel taken for granted, but with Jeremy, it just made her feel included and necessary. “Well, you did say Beka had a program tonight. But I thought you were just letting me know where y’all were going to be.”

He gave her a rueful grin. “So is it okay? I mean, did you want to go?”

She glanced back at Beka, who was humming a song to herself. Then she brought her gaze back to rest on him. “More than anything.”

His brows drew together. “You do know this is an elementary program? It won’t be what you’re used to.”

She clapped her hands together and bounced a little. “I’m counting on that.”

He blew out a laugh as he eased the truck into the school parking lot. “Are you excited?”

“Hey. We’re all excited. It’s opening night.” She turned around and grinned at the bumblebee in the back. “Right, Beka?”

“Right!” Beka pumped her fist in the air and they all three laughed.

When they got inside the school building, a dark-haired woman rushed to meet them. “There’s my other bumblebee.” She looked up at Jeremy with a sweet smile that only faltered a little when she saw Crystal. “Crystal McCord. It’s good to see you.”

“Hi, Patti. You, too.” Crystal had never been close to the bubbly brunet, but she’d always liked her.

“I heard you were back in town.” Patti brought her attention back to Jeremy. “Temporarily.”

Crystal stepped up beside Jeremy. “Yes, well—”

Patti took Beka’s hand and waved over her shoulder at Jeremy and Crystal. “C’mon, sweetie. We need to get those antennae on and get you ready.”

Jeremy winked at Crystal as they walked into the auditorium.

“I have butterflies,” she whispered as they settled into the third-row center aisle seats.

He motioned toward the pulled curtain. “You planning on getting up there tonight?”

“No. But I always feel a little butterfly-ish for the people on stage. It goes with the territory.” Not to mention that when it was over, she’d probably see several people she hadn’t seen in years. Since the accident.

“Ahh ... I see.” His smile was tender, and she had a feeling he really did see.

Her phone rang and she jumped. “Glad that happened now,” she whispered. She flipped it open. “Hello,” she murmured.

“Crystal!” Mia screamed. “You won’t believe it.”

Jeremy and all the people sitting around them were looking at her.

“Mia, there’s a performance about to start,” she whispered.

Mia immediately took the cue and lowered her voice, but excitement still vibrated in her tone. “Performance?” she hissed. “Are you in the city?”

“No, I’m in Arkansas. It’s a—”

“Never mind.” She raised her voice again. “You have to be here by noon tomorrow. You got a callback. But they want you to audition for the youngest sister part.”

Crystal blinked, trying to process what Mia was saying. “A lead role?”

“Yes. But you have to be here by noon. That’s why I booked you a red-eye flight out of Memphis before I called you. Do you have a pen?”

Crystal reached for her purse. But Jeremy slipped his pen from his pocket and held it out to her. She looked up into his eyes, and the disappointment there took her breath away. He’d obviously heard every word, or at least enough to get the gist of the conversation.

She quickly scratched down the flight info on the back of a feed store receipt and hung up, trying to ignore the stares of the people around her. She realized belatedly that she should have gone out as soon as her phone rang.

She looked up at Jeremy again. “I’m sorry.” It sounded so inadequate. “This is for a Broadway lead.” She handed him his pen.

He took it and nodded, his jaw set as if chiseled from stone.

“Jeremy, I have to go for my agent. It would really let her down if I didn’t. And she’s worked so hard.” She reached over and touched his arm. “But I’m
not
going to get the role. A lead role on Broadway.” She laughed. “The chances of that happening after all these years...” She shook her head. “You’d have a better chance of getting Luke to go on a blind date.”

A smile tilted one corner of his mouth just for a second. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and stuffed them into her hand. “Take my truck back to the ranch. Dad and Mom will be here in a few minutes. We’ll get a ride with them and come by and get it later.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Let the gawkers talk. “I’ll be back before Mama and Daddy’s party Saturday.”

He held on to her hand, and as she straightened, he gave it a gentle tug. “Be sure you are. Call me if you need me.”

“I will.”

He released her hand and she headed toward the door. In the aisle, she almost bumped into Jeremy’s parents. “Hi.” She answered their puzzled expressions with a weak smile. Jeremy would have to explain to them where she was going.

As she reached the door, the curtain parted jerkily, as if the strings were in the hands of a sixth-grader. Crystal stopped, seized by the certainty that she had to see one particular bumblebee before she left.

She stood with her back against the wall next to the door as the music started and a row of flowers walked out, singing as they came. A few minutes later four precious little bumblebees came skipping out singing a
bzz
...
bzz
... song.

When it was over, Crystal applauded wildly with the rest of the audience. She glanced across the auditorium to see Jeremy, gazing at her intently, an enigmatic expression on his face.

Her hands froze in mid-clap, her mouth dry. She had to get out of here while she still could. She yanked the door open and fled to the parking lot, afraid to look back.

Jeremy unfolded another chair then glanced over at Luke and cleared his throat. “So is someone picking your folks up at the airport?”

Luke shook his head. “They left their car there. Aaron and Bree are flying in and riding with them.”

“Oh. And is Crystal coming with them?”

Luke’s eyes were filled with sympathy as he slid a chair under the table. “She was supposed to, but apparently she’s going to have to come in on the red-eye and rent a car. I guess things are takin’ longer than she thought.”

Jeremy picked up a table and moved it to the front of the room. He hadn’t really expected to hear from Crystal. He knew she’d be busy and would call if she needed him. But he had thought she’d be home tonight.

Ever since she left the program the other night, he’d had a gnawing fear in his gut that refused to be calmed. It was there when he got up in the morning and when he went to bed at night. What if she didn’t come back?

Elyse started unfolding chairs around the table he’d just set up. She gave him a sideways glance. “She doesn’t know anything yet. About the part, I mean.”

He nodded.

“We’ve only heard from her once, and that was tonight to say she’d be late. I think she’s been really busy.”

He appreciated the information, but his pride stung that her family obviously felt so sorry for him. “Just getting a callback for Broadway is a big deal.”

Elyse nodded. “It is. We’re really proud of her.”

He tried to hold back a sigh. “I guess it’s what she’s wanted her whole life.”

Elyse’s brown eyes looked troubled by the question. “Cami couldn’t talk about anything else.”

Only Cami had died. And Crystal had gone to New York alone. His heart ached for the loneliness she must have faced, eighteen and grieving in the big city, away from everyone she knew. He rubbed his hand across his face. “Crystal must have wanted it very badly, too, to go ahead after losing Cami.”

Elyse regarded him again with an odd expression. “Cami was very determined that they do it.”

He thought about that, later, after he’d picked up Beka at his parents’ and gotten her into bed. Was Elyse trying to tell him that Crystal was in New York because of Cami’s dream?

As Crystal eased the rental car onto the dark gravel road, she glanced at the dashboard clock. Almost midnight. And it would still take everything she had not to pull into Jeremy’s driveway as she drove by. Not one waking hour had gone by in the city that she hadn’t considered calling him. But as the original callback turned into one more audition and one more, she found herself less and less certain of what she’d say. And the truth was, she still didn’t know.

Her phone vibrated. She slowed, and with one hand on the steering wheel, flipped it open. The screen said,
NEW VOICE MESSAGE.
She pushed the button to listen to her messages. According to the time/date stamp, this call had come while she was in the air.

“It’s Mia. I hope you’re sitting down.” Mia paused dramatically and Crystal gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Because ... welcome to Broadway, baby! You got the part. Rehearsals start Monday morning. Enjoy your parents’ party but be sure you get back ASAP. We’ll go over the details together Sunday. Love you, darling.”

Crystal hit the brakes and came to a complete stop on the deserted gravel road. Her hands shook as she fumbled for the number to replay the message.

As Mia’s voice came through the line again, Crystal stared down the dark road at the nearest guard light. Jeremy’s ranch. And, even though she’d have never admitted it to anyone, the place that she’d already started thinking of as her future home. But now...

She’d gotten the part. A lead role. On Broadway. She tried saying it aloud. “I got a lead role on Broadway.” Her voice sounded scratchy, like she hadn’t used it in years. She eased off the brake and moved slowly down the road. She was afraid to even look at Jeremy’s house as she drove by. If she didn’t stop thinking about him, she’d throw caution to the wind and wake Mia up to refuse the offer.

And who in her right mind would turn down a dream come true?

The music woke her. Country music blaring in the distance. She opened her eyes and blinked at brightly colored Broadway posters on the wall. She smiled and gave a lazy stretch as she slowly came alive. Suddenly she sat straight up and stared at the clock. Eleven a.m.

Last night came flooding back. The phone message from Mia. “Broadway, Cami,” Crystal whispered to the empty bed across from her.

The house had been quiet and still when she’d gotten in. Kaleigh had been asleep in the sewing room, Chance in the boys’ room, Aaron and Bree already bunked at Elyse’s, and her parents in their own room. It hadn’t been that hard to climb into her old bed.

Instead of dwelling on the past, she’d lain awake in her childhood room most of the night, thinking about what the future would hold. And, more importantly, what it wouldn’t. And now she’d overslept and was going to be late. No doubt her family had thought they were doing her a favor letting her sleep in, but she’d wanted to talk to Jeremy before the party started at noon.

As she gathered her clothes from her overnight bag, the deep
boom,
boom,
boom
of a bass guitar vibrated her room. Someone, probably Luke or Chance, or both, had apparently found the huge outdoor speakers they’d used for parties in high school and set them up outside the barn.

Even though it was almost noon now, she took extra care getting ready. Tina had always told her, “If you’re going to make a late entrance, you’d better look like someone worth waiting for.” Crystal was only interested in impressing one guest really. She was already thinking of ways that long-distance relationships
could
work.

She settled on a turquoise top and a knee-length denim skirt with strappy sandals. She smiled at herself in the mirror. Together, she and Jeremy would figure this out. At the last second, she grabbed her hat and slammed it on her head. Who knew when she’d get a chance to play cowgirl again?

Jeremy stood toward the back and looked up every time someone walked in the open barn doors.

“Daddy! Look.” Beka came running across the barn holding her teacher’s hand. “It’s Miss Davis.”