Her lips and tongue were stained bright red from the cherry syrup. Colton kept stealing glances toward her full mouth after they’d sat down on the swings. Would they be warm and inviting or cold as the snow cone?
“I love rainbow snow cones even better than ice cream, and I really, really love homemade banana ice cream,” she said.
“Aha, and I didn’t even ask what your favorite dessert is.”
“That’s not my favorite dessert. It’s just something I like.”
“I’d ask you the question, but then you’d want to ask one, right?”
She nodded. “Tit for tat.”
“So you worked on a ranch, did you?”
“I lived on one until I was eighteen,” she answered. “Now I get to ask one. Why are you asking?”
“Just thought that when Andy gets caught up that you might drive a tractor or whatever else needs done. There’s always room for extra help during the summer and after this month the computer business slows down a little,” he said.
He waited for her reaction, expecting her to stutter and stammer her way around the fact that she didn’t know a blessed thing about real ranch work. Sure, Andy said that she’d lived on a ranch with her great-aunt, but that didn’t mean she’d done any work there.
“Sure. I’ll do whatever needs to be done until I can get Andy paid,” she said. “It’s just like riding a bicycle. It all comes back to a person. I kind of like getting outside to work.” Her tongue was turning purple now that she was working on the grape side.
“I’ll talk to Andy. He’s been a lifesaver even when the women started hounding me. Guess a billionaire sounds better to gold diggers than a plain old millionaire.” Using the straw/spoon combination, he shoveled a bite of pure banana into his mouth. “I just want to go to the feed store without worrying about a paternity suit. He said that he was working on a plan to help me out, but he didn’t want to tell me the details just yet. I just hope he’s not sending off to Russia to buy me a wife from one of those places you hear about on the Internet.”
She smiled. “Is it really that bad?”
“Worse.”
She giggled. “What would you do if he did?”
“Fire his sorry ass. That’s where I draw the line. You don’t buy people and I sure don’t want a woman that I didn’t pick out or one that I can’t understand.” He laughed with her.
She looked so danged cute with a purple tongue and cherry red lips.
“Andy wouldn’t do that for real anyway. I was just joking,” Colton said.
“You must feel better,” she said.
She pushed out of the swing and carried her empty paper cone to the trash can. He followed her and together they walked back to his truck. He opened the door for her and she hiked a hip up onto the seat. He reached across her to fasten the seat belt like a gentleman and looked up right into her mesmerizing blue eyes.
He cleared his throat and stepped back quickly. He had doubts about her and he’d be damned if he played into her scam by kissing her.
They were back on the ranch in less than an hour. She bailed out of the truck before he had time to open the door and hurried toward the carriage house, throwing a word of thanks over her shoulder for the snow cone.
***
The sound of her boot heels on the wooden steps leading up to her tiny apartment made the same sound that they did when she climbed the steps to her apartment in Amarillo. Janet lived there now and hopefully she’d keep the rent paid and the place clean.
Laura had learned to like the rut she’d fallen into the past week. It would work really well until she was ready to leave. No commitments, except to hold up her end of the bargain with Andy. No friendships, except with Andy, and she’d been his friend since they were kids.
She went into the office at eight every morning, ate a sandwich while she worked at noon, and then took an hour break at supper before going back to finish up for the day. Andy said that once they got caught up, she’d have Saturdays and Sundays off each week, but they’d worked all day on Saturday and Sunday afternoon when he got home from church the first weekend. The one redeeming thing about working so many hours was that she could pay off her note to Andy faster with all the overtime.
She flipped a switch just inside the door and wished she had never agreed to go to supper that evening. Less than four hours had already turned her life around.
First there was supper with the family, then meeting the preacher, and going for a snow cone. And she still didn’t know what Andy was talking about when he and the rest of the family were discussing her and Colton. She really believed the snow cone trip had been a spur-of-the-moment thing. She was very good at reading people and he couldn’t have had an underlying motive or she would have seen it.
A single lamp illuminated the small efficiency apartment. A bank of cabinets covered the south wall of the apartment. A small sink, apartment-sized stove, and under-the-counter dorm-sized refrigerator made it into a kitchen. The queen-sized bed took up a chunk of the remaining area. A rocker/recliner faced a television at the foot of the bed, and a doorway right beside it led into a bathroom.
That is where Laura headed, leaving clothing and running shoes in her wake. She turned on the water in an old cast-iron claw-foot tub and crawled into it as it filled. She leaned on the sloped back and shut her eyes. Had she missed a nuance in Colton’s actions? He’d changed slightly when she ordered the rainbow snow cone, but that’s what she always got. He’d ordered the same one, so what was the big deal? Then he’d had a strange expression when she wanted to go to the school playground, but again, that was her favorite place to go.
It always reminded her of summertime in Amarillo. When Aunt Dotty finished at the feed store and the grocery store, she would let Janet and Laura have a snow cone—if they’d been good that week. And she’d take them to the school playground to swing while they ate it. That was the highlight of their Saturday afternoons when they were kids.
She worked her toes around the faucet handle and turned off the water without sitting up. Andy said the old tub was still in the apartment because they’d have to take a wall out to remove it. She was glad no one had wanted it gone because it had become her refuge—the place where she escaped to each evening while she tried to convince herself that keeping her promise to Andy was the right thing to do when she wanted to call Janet so badly. Just hearing her voice would be enough, but she’d agreed not to even talk to her.
Knowing that Andy was right didn’t make it a bit easier. After all, Janet was her sister and Andy was just a distant cousin. True, without him, she might not have a sister. But she’d always taken care of Janet. Could she really, really practice tough love, as Andy called it, this late in the game?
She leaned back and stared at the ceiling, her thoughts going back to the broken bits of conversation she’d overheard and the snow cone incident. She had moved past that and was thinking about a new computer firewall program when she dozed off, awaking a while later to chill bumps on her bare arms and a kink in her neck. She quickly sat up and pulled the rubber plug, letting the cold water drain as she got out and wrapped a towel around her body. She dried off on the towel and draped it over the side of the tub. She had just finished pulling her favorite tattered old flannel robe over a faded nightshirt when someone knocked on the door.
No one had ever come to visit before. It wasn’t fair to get her first visitor when her clothing was strewn from door to bathroom and a wet towel was crumpled on the floor. Lord, she hoped it wasn’t Colton.
“Hey, Laura, you in there?” Andy yelled.
She slung open the door. “Come in.”
Andy’s grin brightened the room. He’d always been a teddy bear—slightly overweight, wearing his jeans below his belly, and addicted to T-shirts from country music concerts. His curly hair never looked like it had been cut, and his round face always looked slightly scruffy but his blue eyes were as honest as an angel’s. She’d always known that Andy would do anything for her. That’s why she called him when she had no other place to turn.
“Naw,” he said. “I just come to invite you to church with me tomorrow morning. Sorry, I didn’t think about it last week. Ambrose is just a little bitty place, but we got a pretty nice congregation. It’ll get you out and into the community.”
“I met the preacher this evening when I was out jogging. I sat down on the church steps to catch my breath. He asked me to come to church tomorrow but I skirted the issue. That’s my day to do laundry and catch up on my housework. It takes a lot of work to keep a place this size clean,” she said.
He leaned against the doorjamb. “I remember when I first came to the ranch and lived here. Man, it took me all of fifteen minutes every Sunday morning. You can do your laundry tomorrow afternoon after church. The utility room is available in the afternoon as well as the morning.”
“We work on Sunday afternoon,” she said.
“Not this week. We’re going to church and you are going to do laundry and then maybe catch up on some rest. Pick you up at ten thirty. Church starts at eleven. Oh, and Maudie says to ask you to eat with the family from now on,” Andy said.
The skin on the back of Laura’s neck prickled, kind of like when Janet looked at her with a deer-in-the-headlights stare that said she was in trouble again. She tried to think of an excuse not to go to church but nothing, not one thing, came to mind. Yet, that little voice in the back of her mind kept screaming that Andy had something hiding behind that teddy bear facade. She told herself that she was seeing demons in the shadows because of what she’d heard that evening. Hell, nothing could happen at church. All those righteous people, the preacher, and even God would be there.
“I’ll be ready,” she said and immediately wished she could cram the words back into her mouth. But truth was, she owed Andy big-time and if he wanted her to go to church, then she’d go.
“That’s great. Preacher Roger delivers a good sermon and you’ll love the singing. See you in the morning, then.”
She stood in the open door and watched him all the way across the yard and into the back door of the house. Was he going to try to fix her up with a preacher? Well, he could just wake up and smell the coffee. She didn’t have time for romance. And even if she was looking for a relationship, it wouldn’t be with a preacher.
She slept poorly, dreaming about Janet and waking in a cold sweat. If only she could pick up the phone and call her sister, she’d feel a lot better. But she wouldn’t go against Andy’s conditions. She knew Janet wouldn’t either. Janet had been so afraid of what would happen to her.
Laura wished she hadn’t said that she’d go to church, but she told herself again that whatever they were cooking up to protect Colton from the gold diggers in the big bad world had nothing to do with Sunday morning services. Nobody in their right mind would piss off God intentionally, and that’s exactly what would happen if they used Him for their own agenda.
She finally slung the covers back at nine thirty and made a cup of instant coffee. It wasn’t good but it woke her up enough to whine about having to get dressed up. Thankfully, it was only an hour. Maybe after the laundry was done, she’d treat herself to a long hike around the ranch. A loud clap of thunder made her jump and she spilled coffee over her robe and nightshirt.
“Well, shit!” she said loudly. “So much for a nice hike.”
Another rumble brought the first big drops of rain and in ten minutes it was pouring. She threw her robe and nightshirt in the direction of the clothes hamper and opened the closet doors. Standing there in nothing but bikini panties, she flipped through the hangers, finally settling on a cute little pink and white checked sundress with a short-sleeved bolero sweater over it.
Her cell phone rang at ten o’clock and she answered. “Good mornin’, Andy. Are we still going to church?”
“Just making sure you are awake. I’ll park right at the end of the steps and bring an umbrella up to fetch you,” Andy said.
“Who all is going?” she asked.
“All of us. Colton is feeling human again this morning. He’s of the opinion that a snow cone will fix anything. And Rusty, Maudie, and Roxie. We sit together every Sunday morning,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll be there in half an hour. Hope the rain lets up by then.”
Those two words,
sit
together
, kept running through her mind. She’d been uncomfortable sitting around the dinner table with the whole bunch and now she had to line up with them on a church pew. She sighed as she laid the dress on the bed and went to the bathroom to put on makeup and do something with her shoulder-length blond hair. She was still buckling the strap on her sandal when she heard the sound of Andy Joe’s boots coming up the stairs. She hoped the umbrella was big enough to keep the rain from her hair. She’d twisted it up into a loose twist held with a big clamp and used lots of hair spray to keep it there. If it got wet, it would look like yellow strands of yarn plastered together with superglue.
“Well, you sure look beautiful. You still having trouble with your contacts?” Andy asked.
“I know the glasses look dorky, but the doctor said that I can only wear the contacts occasionally now, not every day,” she said.
“Not dorky. Well, maybe a little nerdy, but I like your blue eyes and they’re hid behind those thick glasses,” he said.
“I think the thick lenses make me look like an alien.” She smiled.
“Well, there is that, but the rest of you looks beautiful,” Andy said.
“Honey, I’ll even take a left-handed compliment today. Don’t you dare let that umbrella fly away or I’m going right back inside my apartment. I refuse to go to church looking like a drowned kitten.” She looped her arm in his and huddled under the umbrella.
“I thought it was a drowned rat,” he teased.
“Not with blond hair and fair skin like mine. I’d look more like one of those pitiful little yellow kittens that hasn’t got enough sense to find its way in out of the rain,” she told him.
He opened the truck door for her and held the umbrella just right so that not a drop of rain fell on her hair. A few did find their way to her glasses and she busied herself cleaning them as he jogged around the front of the truck, got inside, and broke the umbrella down.
“I guess Colton is glad to see the rain.” She set her glasses back on her face and pushed them up.
“Not as glad as Rusty. He was fairly well dancing at breakfast this morning. They just planted hundreds of acres of alfalfa and this rain is coming at a perfect time,” Andy answered.
“Did you hear from Janet?” She changed the subject.
“I did. She made her meetings, has not been to a casino, hasn’t missed a day of work this whole week, and is doing fine. Said to tell you that she’s found a new love and it’s called the library, where she checks out books by the dozens,” Andy answered.
“Is she telling the truth?”
“Hell if I know. If not, she’s going to fall right on her own ass this time. She’s thirty. It’s time to be accountable.”
“I miss her, Andy.”
“I know you do and I feel horrible that I set down those rules, but it’s for the best, Laura. She’s got to learn to stop gambling and she won’t as long as you keep paying her debts. If Aunt Dotty was still alive she’d skin you for all you’ve already done,” he said.
“That’s the truth.” Laura managed a weak smile.
The rain had slacked off slightly when they reached the church. He couldn’t drive her right up to the door and most of the close parking spots were taken, but he did bring the umbrella around to her side of the truck and got her inside all dry and presentable.
He shook the water from the umbrella and stood it in the corner with dozens of others. A door designating that it was the men’s room was on her right. The ladies’ room was on her left, and right ahead was the one leading from the foyer into the sanctuary.
That prickly sensation on her neck was back. It had been years since she’d been to church. Not since she graduated from high school and moved into town with her sister, Janet. Aunt Dotty, who’d taken her and Janet in when her mother died, had given them a place to live, taught them how to work hard on a ranch, took them to church every Sunday, and made sure they were fed and clothed. It was her duty to see to it that her blood kin didn’t wind up in foster care, she said, but it was not her duty to mollycoddle them just because they were girls.
Andy swung the door open and led the way. People were already seated, but there was a low buzz from folks’ whispers as they waited for services to begin. When she walked in behind him, the whole church went as silent as the eye of a tornado. It wasn’t until he stood to one side and let her into the pew before him that the buzz started again. She looked up expecting Andy to slide in beside her, but he marched on up the aisle, across the front of the church, and down the side aisle to sit at the far end of the pew next to Rusty.
“Good morning,” Colton whispered. His warm breath caressed the soft skin on her exposed neck, causing a shiver to tickle her backbone.
“Good morning.” She was amazed that she could speak. Damn that Andy! He’d better enjoy visiting with God for the next hour because he was about to get hit with a devil of a fight after church was over.
Laura felt like a bug under a microscope, one of those that had a straight pin pushed through its body to keep it from crawling away. The old man across the aisle smiled as if he’d found something miraculous under the lens of the scope. The old lady in the pew in front of him had turned to stare at her with a scowl as if she’d like to drag up a cross and hang her on it.
Laura removed a hymnbook from the back of the pew in front of her and studied it. When she’d first moved away from Aunt Dotty’s ranch, she’d learned to love to read and every Saturday morning after she finished her half day at the greenhouse, she went to the library. That morning she was reminded of the scariest book she’d ever read, titled
Harvest
Home
, and written by Thomas Tryon. It was an older book, written long before cell phones or Internet, but it had scared the bejesus out of Laura because it wasn’t fantasy. It could really happen in a small town set off in the middle of nowhere… somewhat like Ambrose, Texas.
The hair on her forearms stood straight up as she looked up at all the people staring at her. Did these people have a harvest ritual and were they thinking about her for the next harvest queen? She shuddered from head to toe just thinking about that book and how the setting was so much like Ambrose.
“Preacher has the air-conditioning turned down. Guess he’s going to give us a hot sermon,” Colton whispered.
“Shhh.” Maudie shot a look his way.
Roxie winked shyly at Laura.
“Let’s begin with singing ‘Abide with Me’ and we’ll sing every verse today.” The preacher gave out the hymn number and Maudie grabbed the only remaining hymnbook in the pew pocket.
Colton scooted close enough to Laura that she caught a full blast of his shaving lotion which just made her even more nervous. Sharing a hymnbook with a man was a first for Laura. She didn’t know about Ambrose, but in the little church where Aunt Dotty took her all those years, it was a big, big thing. If a girl shared a hymnal, it was right up there next to being engaged.
She blushed scarlet. Was that why they all turned around in their seats and stared at her? They wanted to see what kind of woman had the privilege of sharing a hymnbook with the rich and sexy bachelor, Colton Nelson?
Just as the last notes of the hymn settled over the congregation, Preacher Roger cleared his throat and said, “We have a visitor this morning. I understand that Laura Baker has taken on the job as an assistant out on Colton Nelson’s ranch. We are glad that you have joined us, Miss Baker, and hope that you make your presence a regular thing.”
She smiled up at him, but inwardly she wanted to crawl under the seat, through all the shined cowboy boots and high heels, to the back door where she’d sneak away and walk all the way back to the ranch. She would not be making her presence a regular thing at the Ambrose church, especially if she found out they had a fall harvest festival like Tryon talked about in that book.
“Now if everyone will open your hymnals, we’ll sing one more song before I begin my sermon.”
As soon as the last note of the hymn faded, Preacher Roger went right into reading the Scripture about the Good Samaritan. To get her mind off Colton’s shoulder snuggled up to hers in the packed pew, Laura sent up a silent prayer that Janet hadn’t fallen back into the gambling pit.
Janet loved her and she’d proven it too many times to count. It was just that Janet couldn’t stay out of trouble, especially at the casinos. She was always looking for the fast buck and always wanted more than her salary as a hairdresser could buy.
Preacher Roger had speechified for the full thirty minutes, but Laura had been off in her own thoughts so she was surprised when he wound down his sermon by saying, “The Ladies Auxiliary has gotten together a potluck reception in the fellowship hall and everyone is invited to stay for food and fellowship. Now Sister Ina Dean, will you please deliver the benediction?”
The elderly woman who had given her the evil eye stood up and bowed her head. “Dear Lord,” she started and went on so long that Laura began to worry that all the casseroles would be molding before she finally said, “Amen!” The whole congregation said it a split second after she did, probably because they were starving, and the noise level shot up from zero to ten in two seconds.
“I’m going to the ladies’ room. Tell Andy I’ll meet him at the truck,” Laura whispered to Colton.
“We’re all staying for the lunch. It’s kind of expected of us since we supplied the meat for the shindig,” Colton said. “See those doors right back behind the pulpit? They lead into the reception hall. Just follow your nose and the noise.”
Oh yes, sir, that rotten Andy was in hot water so deep that he might never get out of it. She pushed the door open into a room with yellow flowers and bright green vines trailing from floor to ceiling on the wallpaper. The stalls, woodwork, and vanity were all painted pale pink, and small baskets filled with fancy little lacy sachets were placed on the back of the potties. The aroma of roses filled the room from the sachets and threatened to choke her to death. The vines looked as if they could reach out and finish the job that the overpowering fake rose scent started. The room got smaller and smaller and her breath came in short gasps.
She slipped into a stall, put the lid down, and sank down. Putting her head between her knees, she took several long deep breaths. When she straightened up she was still mad enough to eat nails. Andy had to have known about the church lunch and he didn’t even bother to tell her. If he had, she would have brought her own truck so she could duck out. Spending Sunday afternoon with that woman who gave her evil looks and then delivered the benediction wasn’t her idea of a day of rest.
She was about to push the stall door open when several women rushed inside the tiny room and they all started talking at once. When she heard her name, she slowly sat back down and pulled her feet up so nothing was showing under the door.
“Did you turn around and look at that woman sitting beside Colton Nelson? Roger said her name was Laura something-or-other,” a woman’s voice said loudly.
“Laura Baker. He said her name was Laura Baker. Did you see those boobs, Ina Dean? If that’s what it took to get him, I would have gladly gotten mine made bigger. I’ve been in love with him since sixth grade and he doesn’t even know it,” voice number two said with a sigh.
“I think it was just a fluke that she sat beside him in church. Andy let her sit there rather than making her walk all the way around to the other end of the pew,” Ina Dean said.
“Oh, it’s his girlfriend, all right. They shared a hymnbook and Melody, Janice Delford’s granddaughter who runs the snow cone stand over in Bells, well, she told Janice that they were over there last night together. I tell you it’s his girlfriend, without a doubt, Ina Dean. You should have told us that you had a crush on him, Cynthia. We could have arranged some dinners,” the third voice said.
“Well, it’s too late now,” Cynthia said.
“Maybe not. If things don’t work out with that woman, you could still make your move on him and wind up with all those beautiful dollars,” Ina Dean said.
“Ina Dean Hawkins, how could you say that? I liked him before he was a billionaire,” Cynthia declared.