Timing (257 page)

“He looked like a Phil.”

Rand looked over his shoulder at his uncle Tyler. “Is he kidding?”

I looked over at him, too, and saw him shrug. “What’s the

problem? The boy bein’ there saved the cow and her calf. If he wants to

name the damn thing, I say g’head.”

Rand made a noise in the back of his throat before he turned back

to look down at me. “You look like shit.”

I had no doubt. I had been hosed off, but there was still some

sticky stuff dried in my hair, and I smelled really bad. My T-shirt,

which had started off white, was brown and red and just needed to be

tossed. The jeans needed to be washed several times, and as for my

hiking boots, I had already thrown them out.

“So Mac fired Pete?” he asked the older man.

“Yessir he did, and it’s about time, if you ask me. Everett and

Jackson took him off the ranch an hour ago.”

“Did Mac pay him out?” Rand asked, turning his head to look at

him.

“I’m sure he did, but you should be askin’ Mac about that, not

me.”

“And so you and your buddy Stef are going to do what now?”

“You ain’t got no cause to be givin’ us none of your––”

“Sorry,” Rand chuckled. “I didn’t mean nothin’.”

“And for your information, your mama’s bringin’ Stef and me

some lunch and we’re havin’ us a beer.”

Rand squatted down beside my chair as I lifted my hand for the

Budweiser his uncle passed me.

“I’ll be right back with the salsa, Stef. Little girl I know in

Guthrie makes it for me. It’s real good.”

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“It’s real hot is what it is,” Rand mumbled under his breath.

“What’s that, boy?”

Rand shook his head, and I watched the screen door bang shut

behind the old man, who was in a lot better shape than I was.

“Hey.”

I turned my head to look at Rand.

“So you helped a cow give birth this morning. How do you feel?”

“Like I need to sleep,” I yawned. “But sitting with your uncle and

your mom is gonna be just as good.”

“Why don’t you come back up to the big house with me?”

“You mean your house.”

“My house, big house, since when does––”

“Never mind.”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Listen Charlotte needs––”

“Charlotte has her bridesmaids and Ben. She doesn’t need me.”

“Little dramatic, ain’t it?”

I took a long swallow of my beer and let my head fall back and

my eyes close. I was ready to stretch out and go to sleep.

“She needs you, you jackass. She’s gonna fall apart without ya.”

She was a rock now. She had unburdened her soul. There would

be no more crying over wedding programs or wedding dresses or

wedding flowers. She was woman; hear her roar. “I seriously doubt

that.”

“Where were you last night?”

“In the den.”

“Why didn’t you come to my room? I waited up, but I must’ve

fallen asleep.”

My eyes flicked open as I looked at him. “I checked your room,

you weren’t there.”

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125

“When?”

“I dunno, little after one.”

“I was bringin’ in the dogs and checkin’ on things. You shoulda

come on back, ’cause I was there.”

“Why didn’t you look for me?”

“Because you were supposed to come to me.”

“Yeah, but––”

“You was the one wantin’ to be in my bed. Why would I go

lookin’ for you?”

“Why would you think I wanted to be in your bed?”

His smile was wicked. “Oh, I dunno, maybe ’cause I fucked you

on my back porch and I figured maybe you’d like it better in bed.”

“Really? Is that what you thought?” Again he was taking me for

granted, and I hated it.

He snorted out a laugh. “Damn, you are a touchy thing, ain’t

cha?”

“Go away,” I grumbled, suddenly tired and much too edgy to

banter with him. I looked out toward his house to where I hoped to see

his mother coming from the back porch.

“And cold as ice and stubborn,” he said, hand on my chin,

bringing my eyes back to him. “You are the most stubborn man I have

ever met.”

I had no doubt that was true.

“Jesus, Stef, I promise not to think I own you if you confess to

likin’ me just a little.”

I stared into the electric blue eyes.

His fingers slid over my jaw line, stroked down my throat, and

then made the return trip to my lips. “Tonight, after the wedding, when

everybody’s gone, I’m gonna bring you back out here to the ranch and

put you in my bed.”

I sighed deeply. “That sounds real nice.”

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His eyes sparkled. “Does it? Real nice?”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“Sounds like some Texas creepin’ in there to me, Stefan Joss.”

“Oh my word,” Rand’s mother said from behind him. “Stefan

Joss, what did my brother-in-law let you get yourself into?”

“He’s covered in blood an’ shit, Mama,” Rand laughed, rising to

his feet, “and he looks damn fine.”

“Well, yes, but… Tyler!” she yelled toward the house, carrying a

tray by me. “Rand, open this door for me––Tyler!”

I was smiling as Rand moved fast to hold the screen door open for

her.

“Tyler, what did I tell you about Stefan? He doesn’t belong to

you, he belongs to Charlotte! You have no right to….”

Her voice trailed off as she went deeper into the house.

Rand was smiling as he walked to the edge of the wrap-around

porch of his uncle’s home. “I won’t tell Char that you’re down here at

Tyler’s but you need to get on up to my house as soon as you’re done

with lunch, you understand? They’ll be leavin’ soon, and you need to

go with them.”

“Sure,” I lied to him.

He pointed at me. “Knock it off and quit bein’ such a prick. This

here day ain’t about you, Stefan Joss, it’s about her, and you’re here for

her, just like the rest of us. Don’t be a selfish bastard or you’ll never

forgive yourself.”

I sat up fast. “Listen––”

“No, you listen,” he cut me off. “You’re right, Charlotte don’t

need you the same no more. You and her… there are things she’s

gonna share with Ben that you ain’t never––”

“I know that,” I snapped at him. “Don’t you think I––”

“Lemme finish.”

I knew that my relationship with Charlotte would never be the

same; he didn’t need to reiterate the point for me.

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127

“But just because you don’t belong to her no more don’t mean

you should worry that you got no home,” he said, stepping off the

porch. “”Cause my mama’s wrong.”

“What?” I asked, standing up to go to the edge of the porch so I

could look down at him. “Rand?”

He stopped and looked up at me. “What she said to Tyler ain’t

right.”

“Oh,” I said, something about the look in his eyes making my

legs go weak.

“You don’t belong to Charlotte. You belong to me.”

I swallowed hard, my mouth dry, my throat tight. “You shouldn’t

just––”

“Eat and then get your ass back up to the house right quick. Don’t

mess with a woman that’s about to be married. Her sense of humor is

all gone.”

I would have said something else, but he was walking away too

fast, whistling for his dogs, all of which came charging across the

paddock to reach him. Watching him kneel and pet them, seeing their

absolute joy at his attention, I realized that if I had a tail, I would have

wagged it every time the man got near me too.

“Stef, honey, come eat.”

I practically bolted into Uncle Tyler’s house.

TO ME, it was nice that the whole Holloway family had lived on the

ranch all together at one time. Charlotte’s father had owned the ranch,

and his brother Tyler had been ranch foreman and lived in the house

that was still his. When Tyler had retired as foreman, Rand should have

let Mac Gentry move into Uncle Tyler’s house, but instead, Rand had

built another house for his new foreman and allowed Tyler to remain

on the land. He had not wanted to pressure the older man into moving

in with him, and it turned out that his uncle liked living alone.

Currently, he was courting a widow from Dumont, and not sharing

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space with Rand was a good thing. The older man did not want Rand

cramping his style. Rand, he said, was much too much of a homebody

to live with. The man never left the ranch and as such was always

underfoot.

“He don’t do nothin’ or go nowhere,” Tyler told Charlotte’s

mother and me over lunch. “I tell you what, May, that boy of yours

needs a good woman.”

“He needs someone, yes,” she said, nodding, “but we thought

Jenny was the woman for him, and look how that turned out.”

Tyler scratched his head. “Y’know, I reckon I still don’t know

what happened there. She was the perfect gal for him. She taught

school, she was a homemaker, her family was ranch folks… but

something wasn’t right, and I still don’t know what.”

“Don’t you remember?” Charlotte’s mother said gently. “It was

the way he looked at her. From the beginning, he liked her just fine, he

would smile whenever she looked at him, but the problem was that

when she wasn’t, he never smiled.”

“What are you goin’ on about?”

“She means like Ben,” I clarified for Tyler. “Whenever you catch

him looking at Charlotte, even when she doesn’t notice him… he’s

smiling or just looking at her with that goofy, lovesick face of his. You

know he’s crazy about her.”

“Exactly,” she agreed. “That’s what I mean.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Well, I don’t rightly know what you two

see that I don’t, but mostly it has to be sex.”

“Ty!” May Holloway yelled, as I choked on my ice tea.

“The man didn’t enjoy sleepin’ with his own wife––I know, she

told people, and it got around. She wanted him and he didn’t want her,

can’t get no plainer’n that.”

“Tyler Wade Holloway!”

He threw up his hands as I started laughing.

“I’m just sayin’, might been she weren’t his type. She was a bit

small-chested for a woman, and maybe he needed a little more to hold.”

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129

I was laughing so hard, and watching May beat Tyler with her

napkin wasn’t helping me regain my composure.

After lunch, I offered to do the dishes but was turned down twice,

so instead of being at the sink, I was sitting with Tyler on the porch

when Ben came walking down to the house with Nick in tow.

Tyler and I both waved with our beer bottles. It was a nice day,

now close to one, the morning having been spent birthing cows and the

early afternoon eating, drinking, and talking with two of my favorite

people in the world. Funny that Charlotte’s mother, the mother of the

bride, had opted to spend a little over an hour of her time with me

instead of up at the house with her daughter. Maybe she was feeling a

little useless as well.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ben yelled at me as he came up

the three stairs to the porch. “Have you lost your goddamn mind?”

I just looked at him.

“Stef, get your ass off this porch and come with us. Nick and I are

leaving now, and you know we got an hour drive in front of us back to

the B and B. We all need to start gettin’ ready.”

“The wedding ain’t ’til six o’clock at night,” Tyler yawned.

“What on earth could Charlotte need five hours before? I tell you, a

nice shot of tequila will calm her down some.”

I nodded my agreement.

Ben pointed at me. “You’re bein’ an ass, and I don’t know why,

but y’are.”

“I just… don’t all the girls have to go to the salon and get their

hair done and their nails and all that? I mean, why would I need to be

involved?”

“I thought you guys enjoyed gettin’ groomed.”

I didn’t even dignify the comment with a response; instead, I just

looked back out across the ranch at the sky and the sea of clouds.

“You best get on back up to the house, boys,” Tyler grunted.

“Leave the men be.”

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They left without another word as Charlotte’s mother took a seat

on the other side of me. She passed me a slice of peach cobbler.

When I turned to look at her, she smiled warmly.

“You and Charlotte didn’t have any last night, and I think that’s

because she was busy telling Ben and Rand about what happened those

many years ago when she was attacked.”

I stopped breathing.

She tipped her head at Tyler. “We both know. I told him after the

hospital called me. She was covered under my medical insurance, after

all, Stef.”

I had never once considered who had paid the medical bills when

she was taken to the hospital to be checked out. It had never even