One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(19)

“You said you wanted one like the one I made you at the bunkhouse this afternoon. Since I spent the whole day out driving a tractor, plowing up about forty acres to put in winter wheat, you must have eaten an invisible one with an imaginary Rhett O’Donnell. And here it is. It’s free, by the way, so keep your money in your purse,” Rhett said.

Leah’s smile warmed his heart.

“And now I’ll get your burger ready, Miz Leah. What made you decide to change schools?”

“Job security,” Leah said and then turned toward Honey. “So Granny sent you to take care of the problem, did she?”

Honey glared at her. “You are a fool. All of us would love to have the chance you’ve got at River Bend, but you’ve been the chosen one since you were a little girl. There’s not a man on the face of the earth worth messing up that kind of sweet deal for.”

Rhett set the basket in front of Leah. “Want to explain what she said?”

“It’s like this,” Honey said. “Leah has been groomed from the time she could walk to take over Granny’s job someday. That means running the whole ranch. Granny let her have her way when she wanted to teach rather than learn the ranchin’ business, but she knows ranchin’ upside down and backwards, even if she doesn’t get her hands dirty real often. Her daddy made her learn all the ranch stuff when she was a kid. Granny made her learn the financial part, and she’s supposed to get the River Bend crown when Granny gets ready to pass it down.”

“That is enough, Honey.” Leah could feel the burn starting at the base of her neck and traveling around to her cheeks. Honey had no business airing the Brennan laundry in the bar, not one damn bit. Especially not to Rhett.

“She’s throwing it all away because Granny confronted her this morning,” Honey went on.

“About the school burning? Neither of us had anything to do with that,” Rhett said.

“Not about the burning. Hell, if Granny didn’t have a hand in it, I’d be disappointed. About you, Rhett O’Donnell,” Honey said. “Now I’d like a double cheeseburger basket and a pitcher of beer. Real ones.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Rhett filled her order and set four red plastic cups on the bar with the beer when it was done. She stacked the cups on top of the burger and carried it all to a corner table. She’d barely sat down when several other Brennans joined her. They’d just gotten their red plastic cups filled when six Gallaghers made their way into the bar. Tanner stopped long enough to order two pitchers of beer, and the whole bunch of them went to a table on the other side of the bar.

“Think we’ll have a bar left after tonight?” Rhett asked Leah.

“It’s a tough old bar that’s withstood a lot more than you can imagine,” Leah said. “And, Rhett, let’s get something straight right now. I don’t know how I feel about you, but it’s my business to figure that out. Nobody needs to throw ultimatums at me and expect me to heel like a huntin’ hound that they can pen up until they’re ready to let me loose for a few hours—not even Granny, as much as I love her. I’ll be thirty years old this fall, and I can make my own decisions.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned.

“What’s so funny?”

“We’re probably about the same age. My birthday is in November. When’s yours?”

“October,” she answered.

“I always did like older women.”

*

Things got so busy that Rhett had to call Sawyer and Jill to come help him at nine o’clock. The bar was full. Tension was even thicker than the smoke. The noise level—from the jukebox to the sounds of noisy dancing boot heels—was so loud that behind the bar, they had to use hand signals to communicate.

Around nine thirty, Rhett looked back at Leah to find her bar stool had been claimed by a big, husky man with a beard and long hair. He had a tattoo of a parrot on his right arm and he motioned for a beer in a bottle.

Rhett twisted the top off and set it in front of him. “Pay the lady at the end of the bar,” he said.

The man nodded and handed Jill a bill. “Jumpin’ joint tonight. What’s the occasion?”

“School burned last night,” Jill said.

The man threw back his head and laughed. “I guess that the feud is fired up?”

“Kinda looks that way. You a Brennan or a Gallagher?” Jill answered.

“Neither one. I’m from the other side of the river. I was passin’ by and decided to stop for a beer. Who’s the pretty girl who left this bar stool?”

“That would be Leah Brennan,” Jill yelled.

“Mavis Brennan’s kin?”

Jill nodded.

“Man would be crazy to mess with that. I’ll be on my way.”

Rhett spotted Leah at the Brennan table, with Kinsey on one side and Honey on the other. He wondered what in the hell they were trying to talk her out of or into, but he could not read lips.

At eleven, he sent Sawyer and Jill home and unplugged the jukebox. “Last call. Closing time,” he yelled, and the last three customers left.

He was busy sweeping the floors when Leah poked her head back inside the bar. “I hate to bother you, Rhett, but my truck won’t start. I think I left the lights on and ran the battery down.”