One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(47)

Sawyer’s picture came up on the phone instead of Leah’s. “Where’re y’all at with the new fence?” he asked.

“More than halfway across the back side of the ranch, up next to the river,” Rhett said.

“Ask the guys if they’d mind staying with it until it’s done. There’s a big moon, and y’all could probably do the work with your eyes closed,” Sawyer said. “Jill and I will take care of the bar tonight.”

“Why the hurry?” Rhett asked.

“The weatherman says we’ve got a ninety percent chance of rain tomorrow. You might be able to build fence in the dark, but I don’t think you can do it underwater. If we can get that done, then we can start clearing mesquite off another forty acres while the ground is soft from the rain.”

Rhett turned around and yelled, “Hey, it’s going to rain tomorrow. Who wants to make up the hours you’re going to lose by working until this job is done tonight?”

Five hands shot up.

“The vote is in, and I guess we’ll keep working,” Rhett told Sawyer.

“That’s good. I know the boys are tired, but let them know how much I appreciate it. Make a run down to the store and get sandwich makings and whatever else you want so they can have some supper. Can’t expect them to work on empty stomachs,” Sawyer said.

“Will do.” He hit the end button and called Leah, but it went to voice mail, so he sent a text saying that he would be building fence instead of bartending that night.

She didn’t text right back, so he checked the time and yelled at the guys that he was going to the store to get some supper for them. The air conditioner had long since gone out on the ranch’s old work truck, so Rhett drove with an arm propped on the open window. Since the radio didn’t work either, he hummed one of Blake Shelton’s older tunes, “Sure Be Cool If You Did,” with Dammit howling in the seat beside him.

He let go of the steering wheel with his right hand and rubbed the dog’s ears. “I bet if they let dogs sing in karaoke bars, I could make a mint with you. But what would be really cool is if I got to see Leah today. I wouldn’t even care if it was a glimpse and a wave from a truck going down the road,” he said as he parked in front of the store. Dammit bounded out of the truck right behind him and beat him to the porch, where he sprawled out in the shade.

“You stay right here. I won’t be long.”

Dammit yipped and wagged his tail.

“Hey.” Jill waved from behind the counter. She looked like a teenager with her hair pulled up in a ponytail and the freckles shining on her nose. “I’ll trade places with you anytime you want an afternoon in the store. This is so damn boring I could scream.”

“No thanks. I’d rather be outside putting up barbed wire than sitting in here, even if the cool does feel wonderful. I need about three pounds of lunch meat. Just mix it up—ham, turkey, bologna, salami.”

“Hungry, are you?” Jill asked.

“No, but there’s a bunch of boys out there who could eat a whole hog. We’re going to work until the job is done because Sawyer says it’s going to rain tomorrow. Y’all will be running the bar by yourselves tonight,” Rhett said.

Jill headed toward the back of the store. “I’ll take care of the meat. You go on and get the bread and a sack of ice and a case of soda pop. I’m glad they’re willin’ to stay with it. Oh, Rhett, pick up a couple packages of cookies for them too, and a bag of those apples.”

He was pushing a half-full cart to the front of the store when the little bell at the top of the door rang. He looked up into the eyes of Betsy Gallagher who was right behind her grandmother, Naomi.

“Well, hello, Rhett. Seems like we run into each other pretty often. Think it’s an omen?” Betsy asked.

Naomi stopped in front of the counter and eyed him from boots to ponytail. Her hair had probably been as vibrantly red as Betsy’s when she was younger, but it had a few gray streaks in it these days. She wore it short, in a no-nonsense cut that feathered back, away from her green eyes. That afternoon, she was dressed in jeans, a hot-pink Western shirt with pearl snaps, and black, shiny boots.

“So, you’re the one who’s turning Leah Brennan into a bad girl,” Naomi said.

“I’m Rhett O’Donnell, ma’am. I’ve seen you in church, but we’ve not been formally introduced. About Leah, has she always been a good girl?” Rhett asked.

“Yes, she has,” Betsy answered.

“I might even like her if she wasn’t a Brennan,” Naomi said. “But I’m glad you’re giving Mavis some grief. After what she did to me this week, she deserves it.”

“Did I hear my name?” Mavis pushed her way into the store with Leah right behind her, letting cold air out the door and making no attempt to shut it.

Leah caught Rhett’s eye and smiled at him.

“My prayers have been answered,” he said.

“Well, mine haven’t,” Mavis snarled.

Instant tension sucked all the air out of the store. Mavis and Naomi locked eyes, their brows drawing together and their mouths pursed up like they’d eaten green persimmons.

Jill jogged from the back of the store, three packages of lunch meat wrapped in white butcher paper in her hands. “You’d do well to remember, folks, that this is neutral territory.”