Cowboy Take Me Away (12 page)

But something had changed. Here he was making promises to a defenseless animal that he’d look out for him.
Trust me,
he was telling Manny.
I won’t let you down.

Tears sprang to Shannon’s eyes. Suddenly the man who’d walked in there a week ago—brash and pushy and more than a little arrogant—slipped to the back of her mind. Now all she saw was a big, strong man acting protectively toward a helpless little horse, and it made her heart melt.

Luke opened the gate to retrieve Manny’s feed bucket. To Shannon’s surprise, the little horse didn’t back away, teeth snapping. He lifted his head questioningly, and when Luke leaned over and held out his hand, Manny stretched out his neck and sniffed it. Luke crouched down beside him and stroked his face, then eased his hand down Manny’s neck, where it tripped over a long, wicked scar.

“I’d like to strangle the bastard who did this to you,” Luke said, his voice low and angry. “If he were here, I swear to God I would.”

As Shannon imagined him defending this little horse against anybody who tried to hurt him, she choked up all over again. For the first time it occurred to her just how much Luke and Manny were alike. Shannon didn’t know the details of what had gone on between Luke and his father, but when she thought back now to the wary, defensive look she’d seen so often in Luke’s eyes, it couldn’t possibly have been good.

Manny allowed Luke to touch him for a few seconds more. Then he threw up his head and backed away, but miraculously, he didn’t try to bite.

“Okay. I hear you. You’ve had enough for one day.” Luke stood up. “We’ll talk again tomorrow, okay?”

As he retrieved Manny’s feed bucket, Shannon quickly wiped her eyes and went back to Molly’s stall, where she looked over the door and pretended to be checking her out. After a moment she heard Luke’s footsteps behind her. He tossed the bucket into the feed room and walked over, a slight limp marring his gait.

“She’s a little uptight,” Luke said. “But once she’s used to the place, I think she’ll be okay.”

Shannon turned around. “Luke. I didn’t know you were here.”

“I was out back feeding Manny.”

“How’s he doing?”

Luke looked over his shoulder dismissively. “I swear with those teeth of his, he’s half shark, half horse. Actually, he’s half a horse to start with, so what does that make him now?”

“He’ll calm down eventually,” Shannon said.

“I don’t know,” Luke said, pushing away from the mare’s stall and grabbing a broom and dustpan. “He’s pretty messed up.”

“He seemed to like you,” she said nonchalantly. “You know. Back a few weeks ago at your father’s house. Right before he bit you.”

Luke just shrugged.

“Maybe you can take some time with him. See if he’ll come around a little.”

“Nope,” Luke said, sweeping up some spilled grain. “I won’t be around that long.”

“That’s fine. It’s just that, you know, nobody else has had much luck with him, so I thought maybe—”

“Sorry,” Luke said, dumping the spilled grain into a nearby trash can. “Horse taming isn’t part of my job description. I’m just here to put in my time and then hit the road.”

Then what was with that carrot in your pocket, cowboy?

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Luke said. “You’re supposed to be letting me take the Sunday shift.”

“I just dropped by to see how things are going.”

“Everything’s handled. Go home.”

Luke put the broom back into the storage room. When he came out, she was still standing there.

“Shannon?” he said. “Did you need something?”

Yes. She needed to
do
something because that was what she always did. But with Luke there now…

“No,” she said. “Nothing. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

As she left the barn and walked back up the path, she felt oddly disoriented, overcome by that strange sensation of thinking she knew all there was to know about someone, only to realize she’d barely scratched the surface. When it came to her relating to Luke on a personal level, she was going to have to stay on her toes. Their history together said that road was never going to be an easy one. But where the shelter was concerned, she’d come to the most amazing conclusion.

She trusted him to take care of the animals.

It wasn’t as if she wouldn’t be there almost all the time, overseeing things, working her heart out, even on Sundays if she felt the need to show up. And the obligation she had to the administration of this place still overwhelmed her. But after watching Luke with Manny, it was as if the cloud of responsibility she felt every day had begun to float past, letting her feel a few tiny rays of sunshine. And no matter how indifferently he acted toward the animals from now on, she would always know how he really felt.

Holding on to that little nugget of truth, she left the shelter. Went back to her apartment. Crawled back into bed.

And slept.

As the days passed, Luke discovered things at the shelter ran much as they had when he’d worked there before, with volunteers coming and going. Part of them were high school kids trying to fulfill their volunteer hours for graduation. They handled most of the dog walking, a necessary but lightweight job that was perfect for somebody who dropped by for an hour at a time and then left. Luke figured once their thirty hours were done, they’d probably never show up again. Other volunteers dealt mostly with the cats and dogs, playing with them, feeding them occasionally, but usually drawing the line at cleaning up after them. That job fell to Luke. But that was what he’d signed on for, so that was fine by him.

He’d already driven to Austin twice for physical therapy. In his room in the morning and evening, he performed every exercise the physical therapist suggested—twice—in addition to working out in the barn. His knee felt better with every day that passed. He only wished it was strong enough to get back on a bull again. He knew patience was a virtue, but he’d never been all that virtuous, and it just about killed him to sit out rodeo after rodeo. But one wrong twist, and not only might he be out for the year, but his career could be over for good.

One morning, Luke had just finished with the dogs when his phone rang. He looked at his caller ID. He didn’t recognize the number, but it was local. He picked it up to find Rita on the other end.

“Freddie Jo gave me your number,” she said. “Hope that was okay.”

“Sure.”

“So you got yourself a job at the shelter. Couldn’t believe it when I heard what happened to land you there. You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“Medical bills ate up my savings. I needed a short-term job while I’m getting my knee back into shape.”

“How’s it coming along?”

“Not bad. I’ll be on the road to Denver soon.”

“How about lunch today?”

“Sure you want to be seen with me? There are people in this town who still think I’m evil.”

“I’m too old to give a damn what people think. Rosie’s at noon?”

A
little before noon, Luke lucked out and found a parking space on the square, which still oozed with the kind of charm people expected all of Rainbow Valley to have. Every business followed a strict set of unwritten rules. A floor could be gouged and scuffed and otherwise beat up—that was charming—but it couldn’t be dirty. Something could be painted an oddball color—that was quirky—but that paint couldn’t be peeling. Every shop owner had to be kind and welcoming, even if a dozen other emotions lurked beneath the surface. Rainbow Valley had always felt like a movie set to Luke. All façade and no substance.

As he got out of his truck and headed for Rosie’s, he passed Hildy and Honey Hancock, whom he’d have recognized no matter how long he’d been gone from Rainbow Valley. They were sisters who lived together in a house on Persian Street, trust fund babies who’d never worked a day in their lives and busied themselves instead with volunteer work. Honey had always been at least cordial to him in spite of his reputation, but Hildy had always treated him as if he had leprosy. He wasn’t sure, but it might have had something to do with the lit firecrackers he’d once stuck inside their mailbox.

As he passed by them, Hildy looked at him, looked away, then jerked her head back, coming within inches of running into a lamppost. He glanced over his shoulder to see her chattering away to Honey, who was looking at him with eyes so big a Martian with good vision could have seen them without a telescope.

A minute later, Luke slid into a booth at Rosie’s across from Rita. At the counter, the waitresses had already noticed him. They were chattering like chipmunks and eyeing him as if he were the special of the day. Finally Bobbie Whatshername emerged from the fray and headed to their table.

“Luke Dawson,” she said with a big smile. “Heard you’re back in town for a while.”

“That’s right.”

“Missed you at the reunion a few years ago. I was kinda hoping you’d show up.”

She seriously thought he might show up to a Rainbow Valley High School reunion? “Yeah, I was real sorry to miss that.”

“What can I get for you?”

Bobbie took their order, gave Luke what she probably figured was a sexy smile, and disappeared into the kitchen.

“You should have told me you were short on money,” Rita said. “I’d have let you borrow—”

“No. I don’t borrow money. Not from anyone.”

Rita nodded. “How are you and Shannon getting along?”

He shrugged. “She’s the boss.”

Rita smiled. “Yeah. She’s never had any trouble calling the shots.”

“I remember your management style being a little less hands-on,” Luke said.

“Yeah, but you can’t argue with the way she gets things done.”

“No wonder you wanted her to take over the shelter.”

“Nah. That didn’t really have much to do with it.”

“Well, then. It must have been her amazingly uptight and annoying personality.”

Rita smiled. “Nope. That wasn’t it, either.” Then her smile faded. “I wanted her for the job because there’s nothing on this earth she wouldn’t do for those animals. But sometimes that’s a problem, because she puts people who want to adopt them through the wringer. She’s afraid nobody else will take care of them the way she does. But that just means more animals and more work. She’s going to burn out something awful. She’s close to it already.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Luke said. “In the end, nothing gets her down. She’s tough.”

“To a point. She doesn’t fool me, though. And you shouldn’t let her fool you. I think the older she gets, the worse it gets, because she realizes there’s only so much one person can do. And that’s just not acceptable to her.” Rita folded her arms on the table. “Only a few weeks after she came back to Rainbow Valley, somebody brought us a greyhound who’d been starved and abused. He had four broken ribs and a punctured lung. In spite of everything she did, giving him medicine, staying with him twenty-four hours a day, he didn’t make it. I know she seems tough as nails, but she fell apart. She sat there beside that poor dog, tears running down her face. She told me she has nightmares about injured and homeless animals crying out for help, but suddenly she’s paralyzed and she can’t do anything about it. She was crying so hard she could barely get the words out. I’ve never seen anything so heartbreaking in my life.”

Luke couldn’t imagine that. To him, Shannon had always been strong. Resilient. A force to be reckoned with. But this…

“I wondered right then what I’d done encouraging her to come back here,” Rita said. “I told her maybe she belonged back in Houston after all. But there was no stopping her after that. The next morning, she shook it off, picked up her sword, and went into battle again. But don’t let her fool you. Her heart is way closer to the surface than you think.”

A few minutes later, Bobbie brought their lunch. Luke may have had a problem with Rainbow Valley as a whole, but he’d never had any argument with Rosie’s chicken-fried steak.

“I know she came to the shelter last Sunday,” Rita said. “That’s the day she needs to be doing something else. Anything else.”

“I told her that. She went home.”

“Good. That’s good.” Rita’s face grew uncharacteristically serious. “Will you do me a favor?”

“What’s that?”

“While you’re here…will you watch out for her?”

Watch out for her? That made no sense to Luke. Shannon wasn’t the kind of woman who would take kindly to anyone holding her hand.

“You’ve got the wrong guy,” Luke said. “Shannon doesn’t want anyone watching out for her. And even if she did, it wouldn’t be me.”

“But what we want isn’t always good for us, is it?”

He didn’t get why Rita was telling him all this, putting him on the spot, trying to make him responsible for anything that went on at the shelter. Or with Shannon.

Bobbie dropped by their table and slid a piece of apple pie in front of Luke, giving him a big smile. “On the house.”

As she walked away, he noticed a paper napkin beneath the plate with a phone number on it.

“Think twice about that,” Rita said. “Bobbie has two kids and a boyfriend with a short fuse.”

As if Luke would even consider picking it up.

They went to the counter to pay the tab. After they left the café and Luke was walking toward his truck, Rita called out to him.

“By the way, Luke.”

He turned back. “Yeah?”

“You don’t fool me, either.”

With that, Rita hobbled off, leaving Luke wondering what drove her to say something like that. An overabundance of empathy and compassion was something he’d never been accused of having.

When Friday night came, Shannon did her best to dress appropriately for the Majestic Golf and Country Club, which meant a skirt, a dressy top, and heels. When Russell picked her up, he did a double take and gave her a big smile, which pleased her, until she realized it had taken her an hour and a half to look good enough to generate that kind of reaction.

They drove to the club in Russell’s new Lexus, and it astonished Shannon just how many features that particular car had and how long it took him to orate about every one of them. She’d had no idea that a Lexus GS 450h had a continuously variable transmission, Sirius XM satellite radio, an electrochromatic inside rearview mirror, and HDD navigation. Chances were that she could have continued to exist without knowing any of that, but Russell didn’t offer her that option.

They arrived at the club just after seven. As they made their way down the drive to the clubhouse, they passed rolling hills of deep green grass. Shannon could only imagine the water it took to keep that golf course in perfect condition in the middle of this drought.

The valet whisked Russell’s car away, and they headed into the club. There was nothing new or trendy about the Majestic. It was old money through and through. Chandeliers flowed from the ceilings, and the rooms were filled with antique furniture. The club manager greeted them at the door of the ballroom where the event was being held, making a fuss over Russell because he was a new member. It had been ages since Shannon had been there with her parents, but the man still remembered her and made an even bigger fuss.

They made their way to the various tables. The hors d’oeuvres were to die for, and the wine was even better. Shannon started to feel a little loopy, but that was okay. This place looked a whole lot better to her through the haze of alcohol.

“Russell!”

Shannon turned around to see another couple approaching. The woman was a pristine little blonde with perfectly highlighted hair. She gave Russell a pseudo-hug and an air kiss, and the sight of her umpteen-carat diamond ring against the shoulder of Russell’s suit coat nearly blinded Shannon.

Russell introduced them as Lauren and Dan Something-or-Other. Dan shook Russell’s hand and commented on the round of golf they’d apparently played a few days before. Dan was a better golfer than Russell, it appeared, but Russell was coming on strong.

“Are you a golfer, Shannon?” Dan asked.

“I’m afraid not.”

“Neither is Lauren.”

“Tennis,” Lauren said. “That’s my thing. Do you play?”

“A little,” Shannon said.

Actually, she’d been on the tennis team in college, but she hadn’t picked up a racquet in years. That person seemed so far away now, as if she’d dreamed being her. Shannon had enjoyed college. And for a while, she’d enjoyed her job, too. It had been a challenge in so many ways. But the more she fought her way up that ladder, the more she realized the ladder was against the wrong building. And this place only reminded her of that.

“Wonderful,” Lauren said. “We’ll have to play sometime.”

“Yes,” Shannon said. “We’ll have to do that. Sometime.”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you. Russell couldn’t stop talking about you. He said you run an animal shelter.”

“That’s right.”

“Taking care of homeless animals is such a worthwhile cause,” Lauren gushed. “What would we do without women like you?”

Shannon smiled. “I’m glad you feel that way. We’re always looking for supporters. Why don’t you drop by the shelter sometime and I’ll take you on a tour?”

Lauren froze. “Well, you know, I’d love to do that, but up to my neck right now. Why don’t I give you my e-mail address and you can send me some information?”

Which you’ll delete the moment you receive it.

Shannon went through the motion of taking Lauren’s card, after which the woman suddenly had to be somewhere else. As she grabbed her husband’s arm and walked away, Russell said, “Nice couple. We should do dinner with them some night.”

“Yeah,” Shannon said, because what else could she say? “Sounds like fun.”

For another hour or so, she and Russell swirled and sniffed and sipped, during which time Shannon said hello to a few couples who were friends of her parents. When she introduced Russell, he turned on the charm, clearly wanting to become part of this place in a major way. By the time they left, he was in a jovial mood. He’d had just enough wine to loosen him up and just enough stroking from the management and the other members to feel as if he was part of the crowd.

When they returned to her apartment, she could tell he wanted her to invite him inside. Dismissing him at the door seemed a little ungrateful after the nice evening he thought he’d shown her, so they went inside and she fixed them both a cup of coffee.

He sat down on the sofa with her. Soon his arm was around her. He took her coffee cup, set it on the table, and kissed her.

“Thanks so much, Russell. It was such a nice evening.”

“It doesn’t have to be over yet, does it?”

“I have to get up early tomorrow morning.”

“It’s Saturday. I thought that was why you hired a caretaker. So you wouldn’t have to work so hard.”

“Saturday is a regular workday for me.”

She could tell he was a little put out, but true to Russell’s nature, he didn’t push. He just smiled at her, thanked her for a wonderful evening, and rose to leave. She followed him to her door.

“We should do this again,” he said. “I’ll see what other events are coming up.”

“Sure,” she said. “Let me know.”

After Russell left, Shannon closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a breath of frustration. He could do everything right, everything a man was supposed to do to get a woman’s attention, but nothing seemed to stick. Shannon looked at him and thought,
This is nice. Why don’t I like nice?
And then she’d wonder if she was being unreasonable for thinking that being with him was supposed to feel like more than a pleasant day at the park. More than enjoyable. More than agreeable.

More than
nice.

Her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. Eve.
Aaargh.
Shannon didn’t want to talk to her sister right now. She let it ring through, then picked up the message Eve left.

“Okay, so I know you heard your phone ring and you’re screening so you don’t have to talk about your date with Russell tonight,” Eve said. “Hope you said hi to all the snotty people at the club for me. And yes, I remember that I’m supposed to come by the shelter and take photos for the new brochure tomorrow. Looking forward to it. And by
it
, I mean
him
. And my
him
, I mean
Luke Dawson
. Can’t wait to see if he’s as hot as he was in high school. Later.”

Shannon tossed her phone aside.
Damn it.
Why did Eve have to remind her of Luke? After going out with Mr. Nice, she didn’t need to be thinking about, well…Mr. Not-So-Nice. And by
Not-So-Nice
, she meant
exciting
and
compelling
and…

And really, really bad for her.

She’d had too much wine tonight. That was the problem. It made her mind travel to places it had no business going. By tomorrow, she’d forget all about this feeling and realize what was good for her again.

And it wouldn’t be Luke.

The next morning, Luke had finished with the horses and was starting in with the cats, when he heard his text message tone. He pulled out his phone.