One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(41)

Verdie ignored Mavis and whispered to Rhett, “Finn and Callie are having a baby in about six months over on their ranch, Salt Draw. But don’t let the cat out of the bag. They’re telling everyone else at lunch.”

“Well, how about that?” Rhett said.

“Shhh. Finn wants to spring the news on everyone at the dinner table. Not even the kids know yet.”

“I heard you, Verdie. You never could whisper worth a damn. Dear Lord, don’t Finn and Callie already have four kids?” Mavis gasped.

*

Leah had already decided what she was going to do when the phone call from Rhett came in right after noon. Her suitcase was on the bed, and Honey hadn’t even put up too much of an argument. Kinsey had told her to do what she had to do.

She answered the phone with, “Hello, Rhett. I’ve got a big favor to ask.”

“Name it,” he said.

“I’m flying home. Can you pick me up at DFW at four?”

“I’ll be there. What airline?”

“American.”

“I called to bring you up-to-date on the feud, but I’ll tell you the story on the way home. I’m afraid this one is going to blow Burnt Boot off the map. Naomi Gallagher might even put a hit out on your grandmother,” he said.

“You can tell me all about it when I get there. I’ve got to get to the airport in record time. Talk to you when I get there and believe me when I say it can’t be worse than the pig war.”

Leah zipped her suitcase and wheeled it to the door.

“You sure about this?” Honey asked. “You’re going home to an argument with Granny, and that never goes well. You might as well put it off as long as you can.”

“I’ve thought about it, worried about it, and now it’s time to face it head-on and get it over with before it gives me ulcers,” Leah said.

“I can’t talk you into staying?” Honey asked.

“There aren’t enough words in an unabridged dictionary to do that.” Leah opened the door and walked out with Honey right behind her. “You don’t have to go with me. I’m perfectly able to catch a cab by myself.”

“I’ll walk with you down to the lobby. I wonder what Granny would do if I told her I was in love with a Gallagher?” Honey asked as she opened the door for Leah.

“Are you?”

“Hell no, but you should tell her about Tanner and that we all think it’s one of Naomi’s tricks,” Honey said. “That’ll take some of the heat off you and Rhett. I still can’t figure out why she hates him so bad. I bet it’s the ponytail and the cycle.”

“Why?” Leah asked.

“I was flirting with a guy at Germanfest down in Muenster last year that looked a little like him, only his ponytail was longer and his cycle didn’t have horns on the front. Granny called me into her bedroom later that evening and put the fear of God into me. No Brennan was ever bringing home a man like that, so I could damn well watch who I was hangin’ all over—her words not mine,” Honey answered.

“You’re probably right.” Leah explained the ordeal with her mother leaving with the guy on the cycle.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Honey said. “I always figured it was Uncle Russell who did the cheatin’.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Just something I overheard him sayin’ one time. I was hiding in the living room up under a desk when us kids were playin’ hide-and-go-seek. He came in and shut the doors, looked out the window, and then made a phone call. I was a kid, but it sure sounded like he was talkin’ to another woman to me. His voice went all soft and he said he’d meet her later,” Honey said.

“And you never told anyone?” Leah gasped.

“Lord, no! They already said that I exaggerated and even accused me of lying. I wasn’t about to get myself sent to my room for a week with nothing but crayons and a coloring book. I wasn’t old enough to read, and I sure didn’t have a television in my room back then.”

“How old were we?” Leah asked.

“It was before either of us were in school.”

“Then it was at the same time Mama had her affair with the old boyfriend,” Leah whispered.

“I don’t know about all that. I only remember it because he shut the door and no one found me, so I won the game.”

*

She was the last one to board the plane taking her back to Burnt Boot. She had a window seat beside a small guy wearing a three-piece suit and a hundred-dollar haircut. He nodded and she did the same, and then she spent the rest of the flight looking at the clouds and thinking about Rhett. Something deep inside her said she was doing the right thing. That same feeling told her that even if she had to live in a tent on the banks of the Red River and eat nothing but catfish and bologna sandwiches, she’d be happier than living in the house on River Bend and wondering what life would have been like with Rhett.

He hasn’t proposed, and you’re fantasizing about living with him, her new alter ego asked.

I’m not giving him up, she answered.

There’s no going back.

That’s what makes this such a difficult thing, Leah argued. But it’s the right thing. I don’t want to run River Bend. I don’t want to be a part of this feud anymore. I want to live a peaceful, happy life without all the tension. I want what I saw when Rhett took me over to Ringgold to meet part of his family.