My True Cowboy (2 page)

“Is that right?”

“Hell, yes.”

Actually, he hadn't really thought that…he'd just been trying to get her to leave him alone. But now that he was warming up to the idea, Cal began to think it had merit. After all, she wouldn't be the first woman to cozy up to him because he was a Riddell. Lots of women had gotten close with either him or his brothers in order to get the life
they'd always dreamed of having. Even Christy, who he'd thought was different.

Red was prevented from replying because Hank returned, a hunk of napkins clutched in his hand. “Hank, sit down and eat, please,” she murmured.

The boy sat. But instead of picking up the rest of that hot dog, he pushed a napkin Cal's way. “I brought you a napkin for your shirt.”

“Thank you.”

Green eyes the same shade as his mother's watched him swipe at his shirt again. Then he spoke. “How come you're at the hospital?”

Though he hadn't intended to say another word, he said, “My dad's fixin' to have heart surgery.”

“I'm here for testing,” Hank said, lifting up his left hand. Two ID bracelets were wrapped around his wrist. And two tiny bruises decorated the back of his hand. Obviously the kid had had an IV lately.

Cal was taken aback. Here he'd been so focused on his own source of pain and aggravation, he'd forgotten to look around a bit. “I'm, uh, sorry.”

Completely oblivious to the tension between the two adults, the boy said, “My mom's name is Susan. Susan Young.”

Cal nodded in her direction. “Pleased to meet you.” Though he wasn't pleased at all. Not by a long shot.

“We just moved here from Ohio. We had to move 'cause we need more money.”

Cal pocketed that little bit of information all while noticing that finally Ms. Susan Young didn't look quite so smitten with her pain-in-the-ass son. “Is that right?”

“Uh-huh,” Hank muttered. “Who are you?”

“Cal Riddell. Junior.”

Before he stopped himself, he held out his hand and
shook hers. Carefully, he curved his palm around hers. She had a slender hand with long fingers and long pale pink nails with little rhinestones at the tips of each.

Hank screwed up his face. “Junior's your last name?”

“No, Riddell is.” He waited a moment, waited for the significance of his last name to register. But neither boy nor woman so much as blinked.

After Hank swallowed another bite, he said, “So are you Cal or Junior?”

That boy could try the patience of a saint. “Both. I'm named after my dad, so most people just call me Junior.”

“I'm Henry, but everyone calls me Hank instead. I like Hank. I hate Henry. What do you like being called?”

Cal had never taken the time to analyze that. Actually, no one had ever given him a choice. “Cal.”

When Hank looked to be preparing to ask another twenty questions, Susan placed a hand on her son's shoulder. “Hush, now. Mr. Riddell is leaving. He doesn't want to talk to us.”

Perversely, now he wasn't in such an all-fired hurry to leave.

But it was time to go. He stood up and grabbed his mug and uneaten snack. “Goodbye.”

As Hank waved a free hand, Susan replied, “Goodbye to you, too. And don't worry—I'll make sure I never make the mistake of sitting anywhere near you again.”

If he was in a different situation, he might have tried to smooth things over. If he was a different man, he might have apologized for his remark about her coming on to him.

If he wasn't so worried about his father, he would have apologized for swearing in front of her, too. His mother had been a good woman, and she and that bar of Dial had taught him better than that.

But at the moment, he wasn't anything but what he was. So, with that in mind, without another word, he turned and walked away.

And hardly thought about looking back at Susan and Hank Young at all.

 

S
USAN WATCHED THE COWBOY
walk off and wondered how it was possible for a man to look so good and be such a jerk, all at the same time.

“What that man needs is an attitude adjustment,” she muttered.

Hank picked up a carrot stick and bit off the top as he swiveled around to look at the cowboy's retreating form. “He sure was grumpy.”

“You're right about that. Oh, well. He's not our problem. All we can do is hope his dad feels better soon.”

Something changed in her son's expression, and Susan wished she could bite her tongue. Now that her boy was seven, he'd taken to letting her know often that he wasn't real happy about his fatherless state.

Telling him that he didn't need a daddy wasn't doing much good, either.

Of course, neither would telling him the truth, that his dad was little more than a glorified sperm donor. He'd moved on to another girl before Susan had even known she was pregnant. But when she did know and told him about it, he'd simply moved farther away, most likely to another willing woman's arms.

Boy, she'd made a big mistake with him.

Clearing her throat, she tapped the container of sugar-free pudding he'd insisted on having. “Why don't you finish up so someone else can have our seats.”

Obediently, the boy pulled back the foil top and licked it. “I'm not all that hungry now.”

If they were home, she would have fussed. But her nerves were already frayed just by being at the hospital. And by the cantankerous conversation with Cal Riddell. “All right. So are you ready to go pick out a movie to watch this afternoon?”

Hank shrugged. “I guess. But I'm getting tired of being here. I want to go home. Remember you said you were gonna paint my new room blue?”

“I remember. I can still do it next week, you know.”

“But I don't wanna wait until then.”

His voice had just a touch of a whine to it. Which made her think about that cowboy's comments. And how Hank did seem to be more than a little bit mouthy. “Mind your manners, Henry.”

He sighed and pushed his food around on his plate. Then he said, “I still don't want to wait so long. You promised we'd paint this week.”

“I don't have time. I'm here with you and working.” And that was literally all she'd been doing. Working at the Lodge, or taking care of Hank. “Sometimes we don't always get what we want, son.”

He rolled his eyes as he hopped off his chair and walked to throw his napkin in the trash. “I've heard that before.”

Holding his tray, Susan followed slowly behind. It was hard to see resignation fill his expression time and again, but no matter how hard she was trying, Susan knew she wasn't going to make everything with him all right.

Somehow he'd still gotten diabetes.

The adjustment to Texas still wasn't going all that well, even though she'd promised Hank that things would be better for them real soon. The hospital, while state-of-the-art, was no match to Cincinnati Children's.

And now that she'd moved so far away from her par
ents and brother and sister, she had no one to help her with Hank.

After tossing the last of his lunch in the trash can, she led Hank back to his room.

“I wish we weren't here, Mom,” he said quietly before he walked inside.

“I know.” What she didn't dare add was that a lot of times, she wished they'd never moved to Texas, too.

Two days later, Susan was back at work and was dividing her time between performance evaluations, hiring teenagers to work as servers in the dining room and listening to way too many complaints about other coworkers.

Now, with just one hour left of her day, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was time to play gin rummy with Rosa Ventura. After a brief knock at her partially open door, she peeked into her room. “Want to play cards today, Mrs. Ventura?”

The older woman, confined to a wheelchair for most of the last three years, looked up from the pile of newspapers by her side. “Who's playing?”

“Just me.”

She looked Susan over, the way she always did, as if trying to determine if she was a worthy opponent. “All right, I guess. Care to bet?”

“Of course.” Susan shook the Mason jar of pennies she'd just fished out of her locker. “I came prepared.”

“If you can get a table away from that crazy Stan and find us two cups of coffee, I'll meet you in the main room in five minutes.”

“I'll do my best,” she said with a smile. She didn't need to ask who Stan was. The man who'd lost a leg in World War II and his pleasant disposition around 1972 was Rosa's
archenemy at the retirement home. The two disagreed on just about everything, but couldn't seem to help egging each other on.

Susan had a feeling there was more to their relationship than simple dislike. After all, never were the disagreements about anything too meaningful. Yesterday an argument had erupted about the original seven Crayola colors. Last week it was the order of the first twenty presidents of the United States. That one had gotten so noisy Susan had been called in to mediate…and then had gotten a pounding from both of them when she admitted she'd never memorized all the presidents' names.

Most staff members were afraid of both Stan and Rosa. Susan agreed each was intimidating in his or her own way. But, well, she'd been through harder things, so she took their behavior in stride.

Susan shook her head as she entered the large community room of the Electra Lodge. She really would have thought at this point in their lives the two of them would have learned that there were far more important things to worry about.

She
sure did. Every fifteen minutes, she'd been checking to see if the lab at the hospital had called and left a message. The wait for Hank's latest test results seemed to be taking forever. His insulin levels were high, so she was going to need to readjust his diet and medication once again.

At home, she was trying to put a positive spin on things. However, the reality was that she was still feeling guilty for Hank even having diabetes in the first place. No matter how many doctors or nurses said it had nothing to do with his lifestyle or diet, Susan was sure her crazy work schedule and single parenting was at fault.

After claiming the back game table, Susan pulled out
the deck of cards and set her jar down. She'd just filled two coffee cups when Kay Lawson, her boss, stepped in.

“How are things going today, Susan?”

“Just fine. Mrs. Ventura and I are about to play cards.”

“Uh-oh. I have a feeling you're about to get soundly beaten. Again. Didn't I see the two of you playing cards yesterday?”

“Yes. We are having ourselves a rematch.”

Kay grinned as she looked at her notebook. “Already I can't imagine what we would do without you here. You've sure livened things up.”

“I try.” Not wanting her boss to think she hadn't been doing her real job, too, she said, “I put a report on your desk about the new hires for the dining room.”

“I saw it. Thank you.”

“And I think the nurses on the second floor have figured out their schedules now.”

Kay patted Susan's shoulder. “I didn't stop by to check on you. Just to say hello.”

Susan bit her lip. Once again, she was letting her experience with the administrator in Ohio cloud her relationship with Kay.

When her old boss had hired her, she had seemed to have no problem with Susan. However, soon afterward, Susan felt as though she'd somehow landed on the director's bad side.

She'd begun to get reprimanded for not putting in enough hours, though she already worked more than the forty hours in her contract. Then other minor offenses had been written down.

Finally, Susan had known it was time to move on. She'd been very thankful when the employment recruiter had told her about Kay Lawson and the Electra Lodge. Against
her family's wishes and Hank's complaints, they'd moved away from the big city and to the small Texas town.

And she'd been right. Things here really were better, work wise. Kay was a dream to work for, polite and dedicated, and appreciative of Susan's efforts.

It was just that everything else in Electra wasn't so hot. Hank wasn't making a lot of friends at school, and was already complaining about after-school day care.

And then there was the hospital. Everything just seemed to move at a slower pace. She was constantly waiting for test results or for nurses to call her back with answers to her questions.

“Well, good luck with the game,” Kay said, bringing Susan back to the present. “Who knows? Maybe someone will want to take Rosa on besides you.”

“I doubt that.” There wasn't a person in the home who wanted to play cutthroat gin rummy the way she and Rosa Ventura did.

Just as Kay walked away, Susan spied the topic of their conversation at the entrance to the room. “I've got us a spot over here,” Susan said brightly. “Let's get started.”

Rosa wheeled her way to the back table. As soon as they were in whispering distance, she murmured, “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, sure. She was just checking in.”

“You looked so serious. For a moment I was worried that it was about your son.”

“It really was nothing. Hank's doing okay.”

Rosa rubbed her hands together. “All righty, then. Let's get started before Stan comes around.”

“Yes, let's definitely do that.”

As Rosa started dealing, the elderly lady looked Susan up and down. “Are you sure you're all right? Something about you looks different today.”

“I'm fine.” She picked up her cards. “Let's just concentrate on our hands, shall we?”

But instead of accepting Susan's efforts to move them on, the older lady grimaced. “Don't you start talking to me like I don't have a brain in my head, Susan Young.”

“I wouldn't dare.”

“You better not, you hear me? You're one of the few people in this place who treats me like I still have my wits about me. A couple of the nurses here talk to me like I'm in kindergarten. Yesterday, at dinner, one of them asked if I needed help cutting my chicken.”

Susan hid a smile at that. She wouldn't dare ask Rosa if she needed help cutting meat. At least, she wouldn't if there was a knife nearby!

As she sat across from her at the card table, Susan fiddled with her cards. “Just so you know, I really do like playing cards with you. I don't look at it as a task. I promise I don't.”

Reaching out, the elderly woman patted Susan's arm. “I know, honey. Now, let's play before I lose my eyesight.”

They ended up playing four games over the next hour. Susan won a hand, Rosa won the next two, and as they played the fourth round, the tension between them intensified as their competitive spirits took control. As always, they concentrated on their latest cards as if their lives depended on it. A little crowd gathered around and cheered them on.

Susan was just about to draw another card when Rosa called out, “Gin!” and slapped her cards on the table victoriously.

Susan leaned back against her chair and sighed. “One day I'm going to beat you, fair and square.”

“I won't hold my breath,” Rosa retorted, but there was a
bright light in her eyes that hadn't been there when Susan arrived. “Same time tomorrow?”

“I don't know if I can. I have some work I need to do on the computer that might take a while.”

“Friday?”

“I can't Friday, either. I'm, uh, taking the day off.”

“Susan Young, I know it's Labor Day weekend, but are you taking vacation already? Or are you finally going to tell me what's got you so stressed and worried?”

“I'm not taking vacation….” Though she was tempted to leave it at that, the concern in Rosa's eyes practically asked her to share. “But I am kind of stressed today. You were right about that. And it actually does have to do with my son,” she said as the rest of the residents drifted away.

“Has he gotten worse?”

“I'm not sure. He's been getting low a lot, which means his blood sugar's been taking nosedives. I just found out that he's going to have to go back to the hospital for another round of tests,” she said slowly. “But I'll play on Monday. Kay should be fine with that.” Though it was a school holiday for Hank, she hadn't even thought about asking for the day off.

For a moment, Rosa's eyes softened. “That's fine, Susan. We'll see each other on Monday. No problem.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

“Mind if I give you a piece of advice?”

She shook her head.

“You put that boy of yours first, every single day. A mother's duty is more important than any job.”

“I know that. But it doesn't pay the bills.”

“Bills will get paid—they always do, sooner or later. But you can't get days missed back. I can promise you that.”

Susan would have hugged the lady if she was the kind of person who hugged. “Thanks, Mrs. Ventura.”

The older woman waved Susan off with a hand. “We don't need a scene now. Now, you best go mill around and chat with the rest of the folks here. The last thing you need is the dragon lady to fuss at you again.”

Doing her best not to chuckle at the name, Susan stood up. “Thanks, I will.”

“And, Susan?”

“Yes, ma'am?”

“That Stan is sitting over there by himself, struggling with his crossword again. Why don't you go see if he needs some help. He almost always does. He's not too smart, you know.”

“I'll go do that right now.”

 

O
N
S
ATURDAY AFTERNOON
, Cal was sipping a Coke from the machine and trying to determine how many cattle they should plan to take to market, when two people he hoped never to see again in his lifetime appeared down the hall. The smaller of the pair scampered over.

“Hi, Mr. Riddell. It's me, Hank.”

Seeing them only made him recall being a complete and total jackass. Holding out his hand, he shook Hank's. “Hey, buddy. How are y'all doing?”

“Not so good,” Hank said as his mother approached and stood right behind him. “We're here. Again.”

Susan patted her son's shoulder. “It couldn't be helped.”

“In that case, I'm sorry to see you.” When her eyes narrowed, he silently groaned. Was he ever going to be able to have a conversation with her without sticking his foot in the middle of it? “What I meant to say was, I thought this place would have been just a memory for y'all by now.”

Hank answered for the still-silent Susan. “Well…we were home, but now we're back. I'm getting tests again, aren't I, Mom?”

“Tests?” A strange sensation burned the back of his neck, reminding him that he hadn't spared a thought about why Hank was getting stuck so much.

“Yes. More tests.” Susan nodded, punctuating the gesture with a smile that didn't come close to meeting her eyes. “Excuse us. We need to be on our way, as well.”

Now he felt even lower than a snake's belly. Just because he was in a permanent bad mood, it didn't mean he had to take it out on innocent women and children. “About the other day—I'm sorry if I was a bit abrupt.”

“A bit?”

“A lot. This thing with my dad, it's brought out the worst in me. I'm sorry,” he repeated. “And, Hank, you're right. I shouldn't have said shut up to you.”

Hank grinned, showing a wide gap where an incisor used to be. “S'okay.”

For a moment, he didn't think she was going to respond. Then, ever so slowly, she nodded. “Apology accepted. Now, we really need to be on our way.”

Just as she passed, Cal smelled gardenias again. Gardenias and something spicy underneath. For too long, his gaze tarried on that auburn hair of hers, wondering how a person could manage so much of it…when he met the boy's eyes.

“Hank, are you ready?” a nurse asked as he approached.

“Sure.” Hank grimaced. “Sorry, but I've gotta go. I've got to go pee in a cup.”

“Good luck with that.”

Hank grinned. “Thanks,” he said as the nurse escorted him down the hall. “See ya, Mom.”

“Okay.” She smiled at him and the nurse until they were out of sight. Only then did the full extent of her worries cross her face.

Making Cal feel another tug toward her. As he knew
from his experience with his little sister, Ginny, nothing was harder than worrying about the health of a child. “Well, ma'am. You take care now, Susan,” he said, nodding as he stepped away.

“Wait.” She swallowed. “I forgot to ask. How's your father?”

“Truth is, I don't know. His double bypass ended up being a triple and, as you can imagine, he's having quite a time.”

“I'm so sorry about that.”

“Thank you.” Unbidden, a lump formed in his throat. His father's operation had felt never ending. And he'd looked so pale and lifeless in the recovery room, tears had formed in Cal's eyes. Now he was waiting for more information, but he was having to wait and wait for answers—something that rarely happened in his life. Usually the Riddell name got things done.

“How old is he?”

“Sixty-two.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah. Too young for the condition his heart was in, I'm afraid. And, of course, he's not afraid to complain loudly and, uh, colorfully. The air's pretty blue.”