Wild Texas Rose (26 page)

Chapter 2

A
few blocks away from the Harmony Library,
Beau Yates finished the last song in his first set at Buffalo’s Bar and Grill. He ended with an old Gordon Lightfoot song from the seventies called “Sundown.”

Beau didn’t know why he loved the song. Some of it didn’t even make sense to him, but it had a special kind of magic that made folks who heard it stop and sing along. When he finished the final chord, the crowd went wild with applause.

“You did it again.” His partner, Border Biggs, laughed. “I swear, man, you’re getting better and better and all these drunks know it.”

Beau shook his head. He couldn’t see the gift everyone kept telling him he had. He just followed where the music took him. He knew he was good and liked to perform, but in truth, he played more for himself than the people beyond the caged stage.

Six months ago, when his dad heard that he was playing at a bar, the old man waited in the parking lot one night and preached at full volume about how his only son was wasting his life and shaming his upbringing. At one point he even thanked the Lord for taking Beau’s mother so early so she wouldn’t feel the humiliation.

Beau might have cared if he remembered his mother. He wasn’t even sure she was dead; his dad had a way of stating wishes as if they were facts. But he just stood there as he had all his life and listened to the preaching as if his old man were a carnival barker pulling souls in for the next show.

Border Biggs, true friend that he was, had stood beside Beau until his old man had gotten tired and driven off. Then, as if they’d just been delayed a minute, Border had said, “How about one of them steaks at the truck stop? I’ve been hungry for so long my stomach is starting to gnaw on my ribs. Now that my brother is spending all his time over at his girlfriend’s house we may starve to death.”

“Maybe Big thinks we should feed ourselves. Maybe even buy the food. After all, we’re old enough to vote and almost old enough to drink.”

Border shook his shaved head. “I was afraid something like this would happen if he ever found a female who smiled at him. I knew it wasn’t likely, but I guess I’d better get used to the idea. Last time he came home all he brought was a gallon of milk and Fruit Loops. I hate Fruit Loops. If you ask me, only clowns should eat them things.”

Beau yelled over his shoulder as he led Border to the car. “I love Fruit Loops. It’s like a Hawaiian vacation for your mouth.”

“You must have loved them. You ate them while you watched me starve.”

“All right, I’ll buy the steaks.” They stored the equipment. “Only you got to look at the bright side of your brother finding a woman. If Big could find one, maybe you got a chance.”

Border nodded. “I’m thinking of getting my next tattoo to say,
I’ve had my shots. Take me home
.”

Beau saw his partner’s arms clearly in the parking lot light. A full sleeve of tats covered them from wrist to shoulder. “You know, Border, I don’t understand it. I think you’re downright beautiful.”

“I know it,” Border agreed. “I’m surprised someone doesn’t try to shoot me, skin me, and frame me on a wall.”

A car backfired half a block away, and both boys hit the dirt, then laughed. Neither had much in the way of family but they had each other.

They’d driven over to the highway and ordered steaks to celebrate the raise they’d gotten last week. Neither mentioned Beau’s father’s screaming. Maybe Border thought the lecture was nothing compared to how his stepdad used to beat him and his big brother. Maybe he thought Preacher Yates was simply warming up for the next sermon. Either way, Beau was glad he’d had Border beside him that night just as he was glad his partner was behind him tonight and every night.

Harley, the bar’s owner, tapped on the cage door with the corner of the tray he carried.

“Food.” Border set down his bass guitar. As he opened the door to what Harley called the stage, he asked, “Any chance we could get a beer to go with our burgers, Harley? I think it might improve my playing.”

“It probably would, Border, but it ain’t happening.” The owner swore. “You boys are lucky the sheriff lets you play in this place. I swear if she caught me giving you beer we’d be locked up until you both turn twenty-one.”

Beau took his hamburger and leaned back in his chair as he watched the crowd. In the months they’d been playing here he didn’t know Harley Moreland any better than he had when he’d walked in the bar and asked for a chance to play. Harley was a hard man interested mostly in the bottom line of his business. He was fair, but rarely offered a compliment. In fact, his vocabulary consisted mostly of swear words held together by a noun now and then.

Border was half finished with his burger before Beau got his unwrapped.

“You know,” Border said as he chewed, “I think there shouldn’t be a drinking age. I think it should go by weight. Anyone over two hundred pounds can drink. You ask me, those skinny girls who drink half a beer and make fools of themselves do a lot more damage than I ever would.”

“You got a point,” Beau played along. “Then instead of carding people, there could just be a scale at the door. I’m guessing the women wouldn’t mind that one bit.”

A beer bottle hit the chicken wire of the cage, making Beau jump. “It’s going to be a wild night, partner. Not even ten o’clock and the natives are already restless.”

Border finished off his dinner. “I don’t care, for two hundred dollars a night they can yell and fight all they like.”

While Border tested the sound on his bass, Beau looked out at the people crammed into the bar. In the twinkling lights he usually just saw bodies, not faces, but tonight he tried to find anyone in the crowd he recognized.

He barely remembered the people he’d gone to high school with two years ago. The folks from the church where his daddy preached weren’t likely to be in the bar. Ronny Logan, who lived next door to Border and his brother, had said she would come in if she could. She was ten years older than him, but Beau called the shy woman a friend. All she did was study and cook, but now, between semesters, she needed to have a little fun.

“You see Ronny?” he asked Border.

“No, she’s not coming. She was just being nice by saying she might. Why should she come? She hears us practicing every day.”

Beau continued to look. “I’m making a New Year’s resolution.”

“You’re a month late,” Border reminded him.

“I don’t care. This year I’m going to find a girlfriend. A real one.”

“Yeah, I’m getting a little tired of the imaginary one I got too.”

Beau glanced at him, trying to figure out what Border was talking about. As usual, he gave up. “I mean a girl who likes me. The women who come in here are all older than us and have been around the dance floor too many times. I want someone my age. Someone smart that I can talk to. Someone pretty without being all made up.”

“Well you shouldn’t have much problem with the age or finding someone smarter. Only trouble I see you having is talking to her long enough to ask her out. Every time a pretty girl comes within ten feet of this cage you start stuttering.”

“I plan to work on that. I think I would be all right if we could just start at the third or fourth date. It’s the first one or two that make me nervous.”

“How about I put a sack over each of your heads? Then you won’t know she’s pretty and she won’t know she’s on a date.” Another beer bottle hit the cage. “Third time I put you two together, I’ll take the sacks off, and bingo, you’re on your third date.”

“It’s time to go to work,” Beau said as he began playing a fast piece that he knew Border would eventually remember and join in on. Under his breath he said to himself, “I’m going to get out there and live so I’ll have something to sing about.”

Couples moved to the dance floor. It was time for the boot-scooting to begin.

Titles by Jodi Thomas

JUST DOWN THE ROAD

THE COMFORTS OF HOME

SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY

WELCOME TO HARMONY

REWRITING MONDAY

TWISTED CREEK

***

WILD TEXAS ROSE

TEXAS BLUE

THE LONE TEXAN

TALL, DARK, AND TEXAN

TEXAS PRINCESS

TEXAS RAIN

THE TEXAN’S REWARD

A TEXAN’S LUCK

WHEN A TEXAN GAMBLES

THE TEXAN’S WAGER

TO WED IN TEXAS

TO KISS A TEXAN

THE TENDER TEXAN

PRAIRIE SONG

THE TEXAN AND THE LADY

TO TAME A TEXAN’S HEART

FOREVER IN TEXAS

TEXAS LOVE SONG

TWO TEXAS HEARTS

THE TEXAN’S TOUCH

TWILIGHT IN TEXAS

THE TEXAN’S DREAM

eSpecials

IN A HEARTBEAT

A HUSBAND FOR HOLLY