One Step Over the Border (23 page)

He squeezed back. “I know ever’one needs somethin’ to live for… some dream or plan or goal that keeps them going. Is that
what you mean?”

“I think so. You make it sound so… philosophical.”

“I reckon.”

She leaned into him and brushed her lips against his, then paused for a soft, quick kiss. “That’s not philosophical. That’s
real,” she whispered, then pulled back. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry. I was thinking this afternoon… what if Hap
wasn’t looking for that long-lost Juanita? What if that had never happened and we had met back then and I’d known you would
stay with me and not keep looking for another Juanita. I keep wondering, would it have all turned out different if we’d driven
all night to Nevada like we teased and gotten married?” Her arms swung around his chest; his circled her back. “Hey, we’d
have kids by now… Little Hap Junior and Teresa.”

He rocked her back and forth. “The ‘what ifs’ of life can haunt a person.” He turned her loose. “We are here, Juanita. And
a whole lot of stuff has gone on since then.”

“I know… I know… but just for a split second, I forgot. Did it seem like old times, just for a minute?”

“Yeah, I reckon so.”

“That’s one more moment of contentment than I thought I’d have. Thank you for that, cowboy. And you know what? I do have a
goal… a dream, something to look forward to.”

“What’s that?”

“The day when you and me are both living in Wyoming and you stop by to see me and I place all that money in your calloused
but tender hand and say, ‘I’m sorry, cowboy.’ That’s a dream worth following, don’t you think? Maybe you’ll have your very
own Juanita by then.”

“I promised Laramie if I didn’t find her after we get to Colorado, I’m givin’ it up.”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. “Then I really have something to dream about.”

Hap tucked his hands in his front jeans pocket. His left hand rested on her note and the hundred-dollar bill. “Sometimes dreams
need a little help.”

“Do you know Suzanne Pearson? She’s originally from Lander.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“She opened a café in Jackson called the Waxed Turtle. Anyway, she phoned me this spring and begged me to come work for her.
I was too proud to admit my condition and turned her down. I’ll bet she’ll still hire me.”

“Next time I’m over that way, I’ll stop by.”

“Oh, Hap… that would be so great to look up and see my cowboy swagger in with that to-die-for grin.”

“What about those old boys with the video?”

“They’re both in prison in Arkansas. I don’t know who owns the tape now. I’m guessing it’s in some porn lover’s library. But
he doesn’t know who I am or where I am… I hope.” She rested her hands on his hips. “I feel incredibly better after getting
to talk to you. Maybe we can visit tomorrow in the daylight. And wish me luck. I want to win tomorrow more than I ever wanted
anything. Sometimes you don’t know what’s a life-changing event until it happens. But this one, I know about beforehand. My
whole future will be sprinting around those barrels.”

Hap pulled out the contents of his right pocket and mashed them firmly into her hand. “Maybe you already won.”

“I won’t take that money back.”

“I didn’t give that money back. This is different money. And it will get you where you want to go. Go home, Juanita. Go back
to Wyoming.”

“You can’t do that…”

“Go home…”

“But… you…”

He thought he heard Laramie ride up to the back of the trailer.

“Go home right now, Juanita. Get in your truck and leave.”

“You are crazy.”

“We are both crazy. Are you going home?”

“Yes.”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

He kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you in Jackson Hole,” he whispered.

“I’ll expect more than a kiss on the cheek then.”

“So will I.”

The sun sprayed through high, scattered clouds as Laramie stomped around the horse trailer. “You did what?”

“I sent her home.”

“I heard that part when I rode up last night. That’s when I went to sleep, innocent and happy. I figured you told her to get
lost. Tell me the eight-hundred-dollar part.”

“I gave her eight hundred dollars to buy some tires and get back to Jackson Hole and settle down.”

“You gave her more money? This is insane. What part of ‘naïve sucker’ don’t you understand?”

“You don’t got to holler about it. It was my money. I can do whatever I want with it.”

“You got any left?”

“I got the hundred dollars she left me last night and we’ll probably add to the poke today.”

Laramie combed his fingers through his short hair. “This is beyond belief.”

“Well, thank you.” They both spun around.

“Annamarie?” Laramie took a moment to drink in her crisp black jeans, white silk blouse, and the wide, easy smile on her full
lips, even as she raised her eyebrows.

Sara, on the other hand, immediately scrambled over. “Hi, baby…” She wrestled the boxer by the ears. “What are these cowboys
arguing over?”

“An act of kindness…” Hap insisted.

“A complete mental breakdown,” Laramie argued.

Hap whipped his hands around as if swatting horseflies. “Look, I forgave someone. So I gave her better than she deserved.
I tried resentment and bitterness for six years and I didn’t like it.”

Laramie’s neck reddened. “And now you’re going to start six years of insanity? Hap, what’s going on here? This is beyond idiot
obsession. This is like a horrible plague.”

“Whoa… time out, guys,” Annamarie interjected. She slipped her hand in Laramie’s, then pecked him on the cheek. “You better
fill me in on what I missed. Back me up two weeks ago to when I last saw you in Laredo.”

Laramie brushed a kiss across her lips. “We’ve got to back you up a whole lot farther than that.”

The Sunday finals burst into the arena, then flooded back out to the parking lot. The most exciting part of the day’s activity
was the rodeo queen getting bucked off during the grand entry and the 94-point bull ride on Northstar.

Laramie and Hap finished team roping in second place, .38 of a second behind Teddy James and Cash Filer. While they didn’t
ignite fireworks in the arena, plenty of sparks simmered in the contestant parking lot.

“Annamarie, you talk to him. Facts don’t seem to matter. I truly think he’s having a mental collapse,” Laramie intoned.

“And I don’t see why he’s overreacting. I know what she’s like. I know that was all sweet talk. I didn’t believe it. I just
truly wanted to help her be different. She acted like she wanted to turn her life around.”

Annamarie lounged on the tailgate of the black Dodge pickup as Sara slept in her lap. “Hap, let me review. Your Juanita admitted
conning you out of $6,150.”

“She’s not ‘my Juanita.’ And she had a good explanation of why she did what she did six years ago.”

“Which you don’t want to tell us?”

“It’s very personal and reflects poorly on her past judgments. I don’t reckon I should. It’s not the kind of thing I would
repeat about any woman.”

Annamarie unfastened the collar button on her blouse and rubbed her long, thin neck. “Then, last night, she gave you one hundred
dollars and talked you out of another eight hundred dollars?”

“No, ma’am, she didn’t twist my arm. I freely surrendered it. She didn’t ask for anything but forgiveness.”

“And she claimed to be going home. But Brick Trotter told Laramie he heard that Juanita, Cindi, and Lacee drew out of today’s
barrels to hurry to Las Vegas and play in a poker tournament.”

Hap grimaced. “I hear there was two Juanitas here. It might have been the other one.”

“One fact I know for sure,” Annamarie added. “The Waxed Turtle in Jackson only lasted one summer. They went broke and it’s
now Teton Espresso. I phoned the Chamber of Commerce myself.”

“She might not have known it went belly-up.”

Laramie paced around the back of the truck. “So, Judge Annamarie, what’s the verdict? Is Hap a certified loony, or what?”

“Guys, I’m not the judge. But I will give you my opinion. With the details at hand, it seems naïve, or foolish, or both for
Hap to give this Juanita more money.”

“Yes!” Laramie boomed, “that’s what I’ve been saying.”

“However,” Annamarie continued, “Hap is thirty-one years old. He has the freedom to be naïve or foolish, if he wants to.”

“Or both…” Hap said.

“So where does that put us? Where do we stand, partner?” Laramie said.

Sara jumped down at the sight of another boxer. They raced neck and neck between the rigs.

Annamarie laced her hand into Laramie’s. “That, my dear man, is the exact question I came all the way to Del Rio to find the
answer to. Where do we stand?”

“You and me?”

“Yes, what’s our relationship? Of course, I also want that supper you promised you’d buy me.”

Laramie hugged her. “Let’s go eat.”

She turned to Hap. “You coming with us?”

“I ain’t hungry.”

“Would you mind…”

“I’ll keep Sara.”

“We might be late.”

“I’m goin’ to sleep early. We’ve got a long drive tomorrow.”

Hap watched his father crawl out from under the Mexican family’s old Ford station wagon, grab a couple of hand tools and a
flashlight, then slide back beneath the rig.

“Did you hear what I said?”

Hap’s eyes snapped to the twelve-year-old girl with tiny silver stud earrings beside him. “You bought yourself a bracelet?”

“No, I said I wanted to buy myself a bracelet. It costs two dollars.”

“Why didn’t you buy it?”

She stared down at dusty flip-flops that pushed out from under her long white dress. Her voice lowered. “I didn’t have the
money.”

Hap picked up a rock and threw it at a cedar fencepost about thirty feet away. He missed it four inches to the left. “Ask
your daddy.”

“Mother says I should never ask him for money. He works very, very hard and we barely have enough for rent and groceries.”

Hap liked the way listening to her made his throat tickle. “Do you ask your mother for money?”

“Mother doesn’t have any. She always gives her pay to father.”

He stared down at her chipped, red-painted toenails. “You mean, you never have any money?”

“Sometimes my grandmother sends me some for my birthday or Christmas, or my aunt lets me babysit. I have money then. I just
don’t have any right now.”

Hap plucked up another stone and tossed it at the fence post. This time it flew by two inches to the right. “What was the
bracelet like?”

She hunted alongside the road and retrieved a small round rock. “It was silver with the word
Wyoming
engraved in it. One charm hung down, a cowboy riding a bucking horse. Now I want it more than ever. If I had that bracelet,
it would remind me of you. Hap, I really like visiting with you this afternoon.” She rifled the rock at the fence post and
clobbered it dead center. “I wish you lived close to us. We could visit every day.”

“I would like that.”

“Are you going to come see me? Someday, I think you will.”

He smeared dirt when he rubbed his hand on his chin. “I’d like to see you tomorrow.”