One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(49)

“Leah is a grown woman. She can make up her own mind about who she dates,” Rhett said.

“I like her better than any of the Brennans or the Gallaghers but, Rhett, don’t get your hopes up. She’s never gone against her family.”

“Not until recently.” He grinned.

“She has had a little independent streak in her these past few weeks, but it won’t last. Let’s go get the stuff ready for you to take out to the field to those boys. I bet they’ve starved plumb to death. You can take the ice out and dump it in your cooler while I charge the food to Fiddle Creek.” Jill stood up and headed inside.

Rhett followed her. “You really think Leah will forfeit what she wants to toe the line for her grandmother?”

“Depends.” Jill grinned.

“On what?”

“On whether a cowboy with a big motorcycle can sweep her off her feet and take her away to the promised land, where there are no feuds and only beautiful sunsets and mimosas that bloom all year long.”





Chapter 16


The guys were still building sandwiches and eating supper when Rhett got the first text message: At the beauty shop. Thank God it stays open late and takes walk-ins. Won’t be at the bar tonight. I had no idea Granny wore a hairpiece. This is worse than the school getting blown up.

Rhett quickly wrote back, Me either. I’ll be building fence until midnight. Is Mavis buying another wig?

The answer, No, she’s getting her long hair cut really short and a new color put on. She doesn’t look like Granny with thin, short hair.

Rhett’s answer was, Time for a lot of changes.

He got back one word: Amen!

Hoping she’d found a way to call rather than text when his phone rang, he snatched it from his pocket so fast that it slipped out of his hands and went skittering under a big bull’s hoof.

“Better grab that in a hurry. If he takes one step forward and lets go, it’ll be covered in shit!” one of the boys yelled.

“Yeah, but that’s okay. There’s a shit war going on in Burnt Boot, so it would fit right in. I heard you already got in the middle of one storm when it rained shit,” another one shouted.

Their laughter rang through the rolling hills and echoed off the mesquite trees. Rhett chuckled and very carefully reached under the bull, picked up the phone, and said, “Hello.”

“What took you so long? I was about to hang up,” Gladys said. “I heard that Naomi scalped Mavis and she’s got the pelt to prove it.”

“It’s not Mavis’s real hair, but that’s the truth.” He went on to explain what had happened, including the part about Dammit trying to stop the fight by hanging on to Naomi’s jeans.

“Good dog you got there. When Mavis thinks about it, she’ll spread the news that Naomi might have scalped her but that Dammit bit Naomi’s leg and now gangrene has set it. I know those two old farts.”

“Do you think my dog going for Naomi will buy me any points on the Brennan side?”

“Don’t get your hopes up. She might try to buy Dammit, but your fate was set in stone the day she heard about that motorcycle,” Gladys answered.

“Dammit isn’t for sale.” He chuckled.

“Keep him close by your side. She might steal him. Or then again, Naomi might have him shot for ruining a pair of jeans.”

“Holy shit!”

“That’s the Sunday term for this new phase of the war. I’m glad I hired you, Rhett, and I hope you make a lifelong home here in Burnt Boot, but it won’t be with Leah. If you’d set your sights on Betsy, you might have had a chance. She’s wild and independent. Leah is the sweet girl who does what’s expected of her. Bye now. I’ll drive down and look at that fence tomorrow.”

The hired hands took another break at ten o’clock and polished off the last of the sandwich makings, then went back to work. Dark clouds had begun to drift over the moon when they tightened the last strings of barbed wire and called it the longest day of their lives. They rode in the back of the old truck back to the bunkhouse, where they moaned and groaned all the way to their own vehicles and drove away in a cloud of dust.

Dammit hopped out of the passenger seat when Rhett opened the door, bounded up the steps, and came to a halt on the bottom step. The hair on his back stood up like a punk rocker’s, and then it flattened as he wagged his tail. He tucked his chin down shyly and walked into the shadows, where he could now make out Leah’s outline in the rocking chair on his porch. He approached her slowly and rested his head on her lap.

“Tired?” Leah scratched Dammit’s ears and looked up at Rhett.

Rhett pulled a rocking chair close to hers and sat down. “Tired and sweaty but glad to see you.”

She reached across the distance and laid her hand on his. “I wanted to see you too.”

“How long have you been here?”

“An hour at the most, but the night breeze is nice, and this is a perfect place to think,” she answered.

“Is Mavis still fuming?”

“Smoke will be coming out her ears until way past Christmas. There was a meeting tonight of the boy cousins to talk about revenge. I’m so sick of this feud that sometimes I dream of running away.”

“Give me time to get a quick shower and we can be two hundred miles down the road in any direction you want to go by the time the sun comes up.”