Sweet Talking Cowboy (13 page)

Luckily, Tristin’s teacher, Lacie knew a family through the
school that needed work, so they were moved into the old house that Aunt Poog
and Uncle Mike had lived in before Briann’s parents died.  She learned that the
Fishers had fallen on hard times after Martin lost his job due to a car
accident.  His recovery had been slow and even with Lucy working part time;
they were having a hard time making ends meet.  Martin was able to do most of
the chores around the barn as well as mow the lawn for Aunt Poog.  Their little
girl, Annette, was the same age as Tristin and they quickly became friends. 
Briann was thankful that she had found the Fishers when she did.  They were
close to her in age and she discovered she felt better about being gone and
leaving Aunt Poog and Tris at home.  There would be someone around in case they
were needed, so now she began to go to shows that meant not coming home until
Monday.

She came home one Monday early in November to discover that
Tris had been chosen for a part in the school Thanksgiving program.  She felt a
little uncomfortable to learn that her daughter would be playing the part of an
Indian maiden, but Tristin was so excited, Briann repressed her concern and
tried to be as supportive as possible.  That meant picking Tris up later, after
the children in the program had a time to practice when school was over.

After a really good dress rehearsal, Lacie showed Briann
three places where the little costume needed some adjusting to fit Tris
better.  Briann had planned to take her out to eat, but Tris wanted to go home
right away and see if Aunt Poog could fix her Indian dress.

When she stopped the truck in front of the house, Briann saw
a strange truck parked nearby.  Tristin couldn’t be reined in and jumped out
almost before the truck came to a complete stop.  Still wearing the costume,
Tris ran into the house with Speck now close on her heels, to show Aunt Poog
her beautiful Indian dress.

Briann was laughing at her daughter’s exuberance when she
followed the rowdy child into the kitchen where Aunt Poog sat at the table,
Tris now in her lap, the dog laying on the floor next to them.  Briann stopped
short, recognizing the broad shoulders turned to her as Slade sat at the table
his back to the door, having been interrupted while sharing iced tea with Aunt Poog.

He turned slowly and Briann froze.  She hadn’t seen him
since just after Uncle Mike’s funeral.  Her smile disappeared.

“Sorry we interrupted,” Her voice was stiff and she looked
quickly away.  She held out her hand to Tris.  “Come on, we’ll go fix your
costume while Aunt Poog visits.”

Tristin didn’t move.  “I want to stay.”

Slade’s eyes swung back to the child and having advanced
into the kitchen further, Briann saw the groove at the corner of his lips
deepen into what she recognized even from the back third view of his face as a
smile.  Poog made a formal introduction and Tris stretched out her tiny hand to
be enveloped by Slade’s large one.

“I’m pleased to meet you, Tristin.”  He said slowly.  “I
think you’re the prettiest Indian maiden I’ve ever seen.”

She smiled shyly.  “It’s just the costume.  I’m not really an
Indian.  I’m part Italian.”

Slade’s eyes narrowed, but the smile stayed in place.  “Are
you sure?  I’ve seen lots of Indians and you sure look like one to me.”

Briann went to Tristin and took her hand.  “Come on, now. 
You have to study your letters before you do your chores.  Tell Mr. Butler
good-bye.”

Tristin did as ordered and Briann could feel Slade’s eyes
following them as they left the room.  Her heart was pounding like a jackhammer
as she escaped up the stairs with her child, the dog right behind them.

She’d known they would meet at some point in time, but to
meet while Tris was wearing an Indian costume was just too much.  Briann was
afraid it might put an idea in his head and it appeared he’d jumped at it
quickly enough.

She kept Tris busy upstairs until she heard Slade’s truck
leave and only then did she feel comfortable enough to allow the child to go
down and do her chores.

When Tris went outside to feed the barn cat, Aunt Poog found
Briann in the study, filling out papers for an upcoming horse show.  She
settled into Mike’s old chair.  “I didn’t know he was coming.”  She said, “but
it was inevitable that they meet.”

Briann looked up from the paper work.  “I know.  I guess I
just wasn’t prepared for it yet.”

“He’s only been home a couple of days and called me on his
way home from picking up feed.  He looks good, don’t you think?”  Poog smiled,
thinking of what a fine man the lost boy she and Mike had befriended had grown
into.

Briann shrugged.  “I didn’t notice.”  But she had noticed. 
In spite of the anger she still harbored after all this time, Slade Butler
could still make her heart do flip flops and that made her even angrier.

Now, she found herself looking forward to the long week-end
when she would be away from home.  It meant a much smaller chance of seeing
Slade and since Tris and Aunt Poog were going to Wild Adventures with a church
group, there wasn’t much chance of him being around her daughter either.

She took Tris to school Friday morning and reminded the
child that since she was traveling out of town, Aunt Poog would pick her up.

Tris gave her a tight hug and promised to be good.  “Drive
careful, Mom, and I remember that you said you’d pick me up Monday, after you
get back, but don’t forget it’ll be play practice day again.”

Briann nodded.  “You’re growing up too fast.”

It was a six hour drive to the show she was attending but
the classes didn’t start until Saturday morning.  She wanted time to work both
horses on the lounge line before putting them away for the night.   It was
important to make sure they had the exercise they needed and weren’t too fresh
the next morning when the halter classes started.

She made good time and had both horses settled into their
stalls well before dark.  It was still early so she drove to the Hampton Inn
that she had stayed in before and checked in.  It wasn’t until she opened the
door of the room and entered that she realized she was in the same room she and
Slade had shared that one night so long ago.  She almost asked for a room
change, but then decided she could conquer any ghosts that remained by staying
and resolutely hung her clothes in the closet.  She’d noticed a branch of a gym
she had a membership with as she had traveled from the show grounds to the
hotel.  She knew a good hard workout would be a giant step in allowing her to
sleep, so she slipped into an oversized shirt and a pair of jogging pants and
drove back there.

She worked out hard for about an hour, then picked up a
salad at the nutrition center next to the gym and drove slowly back to the
hotel.  She became aware of a strange foreboding as she walked the few steps
from the back door of the hotel to her room but there was no one around to make
her feel that way, so she opened her door and entered.  Being safety
conscience, she locked the door behind her and turned to place her salad in the
small refrigerator provided as a courtesy for guests.  She’d closed its door
when she turned and saw the two long legs stretched down the length of her
bed.  She gasped, adrenalin shooting through her entire body and then
recognized Slade laying there, his hands behind his head, those pale blue eyes
looking at her.

“Did you get this room on purpose?”  He asked casually.

“What…Ho…How’d you get in here?”  She demanded angrily.  She
couldn’t believe that he would show up here, reclining in her bed as if he
owned the place.

He shrugged.  “I told them I was your husband.  Then I
explained that this was a surprise and you weren’t expecting me so I paid the
difference in the price of the room.  The young lady at the desk thought I was
bein’ very romantic.”

Briann watched as he rose to a sitting position and then
bounced on his seat a little, his pale eyes looking steadily at her the entire
time.

“Do you think it’s the same bed?”  He asked.

Her voice was shaking with anger.  “Get out of my room. 
Now.”

He arose with slow deliberation and stalked across the small
space that separated them until he was looming over her like the disaster she had
sensed approaching.  Refusing to give in to intimidation, she looked up to meet
his eyes and recognized the flashing of barely controlled fury swirling in those
cobalt orbs.

She stepped back.  “I’ll call the cops.”

“Go ahead, but we either talk here and now, or you’ll be met
with my lawyers when you get home Monday.  It’s up to you.”  There was none of
the easy bantering that had been in his voice earlier.  It was hard and frigid.

“Talk?”  She glared at him.  “We don’t have anything to talk
about and what do your lawyers have to do with anything?”

“We have a lot to talk about, Bri.  And if we can’t work
somethin’ out this weekend.  I will be suin’ you for full custody.”  His voice
was almost a whisper but Briann knew it was because he was struggling to
control his intense anger.

“Custody!”  She thought her heart would burst from her
ribcage.  “Custody?  Are you crazy?  I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 
She was backed into a corner and had to hold her own.  She could not admit
anything to him.  Not now, not ever!

“Then you won’t have a problem providin’ Tristin’s DNA?”  He
glared at her.

Briann shoved past him and stormed to the door.  With
fumbling hands, she unlocked it and snatched it open.  “Get out!”  She held it
open, returning his hard glare.  “Get out of my room.”  She practically hissed
at him.

He shrugged and walked over to stop in front of her. 
“That’s fine with me, Bri, but if I walk out that door now, the chance to talk
this out has ended.  I promised Poog that I’d try to talk with you, but if you
aren’t willin’, well….I’ve never forced
anything
on you.”

She looked at him in surprise.  “You talked to Aunt Poog?” 
She hadn’t missed the sarcasm in his final remark and admitted to herself that
he was right.

“How do you think I knew where to find you?”  His voice had
lost some of its edge.

“I can’t believe she told you where I’d be!”  Briann was now
wondering what else Aunt Poog might have admitted.

Slade saw the hesitation and pushed.  “When I saw Tristin in
that little Thanksgivin’ costume I had the strangest feelin’ that I’d seen it
all before.  It took a while for me to remember, and then I had to dig through
several boxes of my mother’s old pictures.  Would you believe she played an
Indian maiden in a play when she was in elementary school?  There was an old
black and white photo of her,…and Tristin looks just like her.”

Briann shrugged, but slowly pushed the door closed and
walked back into the room.  “Tris told you, she’s Italian.  It’s not impossible
to mistake Italian for Native American.”

“She’s Italian?”  His dry chuckle revealed no true humor. 
“If she’s Italian, I’m St. Mary’s old maid sister!  She doesn’t just resemble
my mother, Bri.  The pictures could be of the same person.  It’s enough to
convince me that I fathered her,” he cast his eyes about, “right here in this
room, and the only thing that will change my mind is DNA.  If that’s what it
takes, then I’m ready to push it, but if I have to involve a lawyer, then we’ll
do it in court so her name is changed and I’ll get at least partial custody. 
However, you need to know that if it comes to a legal fight, I’ll fight to win
full custody.  After all, you deliberately kept all knowledge of my child from
me for almost six years and as her biological father, I do have some rights.”

She looked at him and knew he was telling the truth.  His
eyes reflected not only his anger, but his hurt.

“I never got to see her as a little baby,” he continued, his
voice almost a whisper.  “I didn’t get to hear her learnin’ to talk.  I missed
helpin’ her learn to walk and I swear to you, I
will not
miss out on
anything else that my daughter does.  Do you understand me?”  He trembled with
emotion as he related the things he’d missed and Briann felt a smidgen of guilt
in spite of her anger.

She also felt defeat creeping up on her.  Her brows puckered. 
“So now, after I’ve raised her by myself this long, all of a sudden you’re
really into this parenting thing?”

“What do you mean by all of a sudden?”  He almost shouted. 
“You
know
how I was raised.  I found out who my father was only to lose
my mother.  Then I was moved out to live in the barn, because his beauty queen
wife refused to allow his half breed bastard live in the house with her and her
Caucasian family.  The closest thing I’ve ever had to a real family was Mike
and Poog.  No sane person would want their child raised like that.  What if
something had happened to you, instead of your husband?  What would have become
of Tristin?  Since she has his last name, it would be assumed he was her father
and who knows what her life would have been like.  My God, Bri, I almost want
to strangle you when I think about that!  How could you think I wouldn’t want
to be a father to
my
child?”  He stalked angrily across the room, away
from her.  He was battling to contain his fury as well as the hurt that
threatened to consume him.

Briann had known him long enough to read his body language,
if she’d been paying attention, but she was struggling with strong emotions of
her own.  “You’d never have known it, and besides, if anything had happened to
me, Evan would have taken excellent care of her.  He loved her as much as he
would have a child of his own.”  She wasn’t just bluffing and she knew it.  “She
would have had every advantage a child would ever want.  Evan and his family
would have raised her to be a wonderful person.”  Briann really wasn’t
interested in what might have been.  She had reality to deal with.