One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(71)

“Thank God I’ve got a job.” Leah turned around and went upstairs to write a long letter to Rhett. She’d hand it off to him in church the next morning. She hadn’t been driven to church since she got her driver’s license at the age of sixteen, but hopefully her dad wouldn’t mind some company. She had to see Rhett, give him a note, and explain why she hadn’t called him that evening—or worse yet, why she hadn’t answered when he’d called.





Chapter 22


Russell was waiting at the bottom of the stairs as Leah started down them that Sunday morning. When she took that last step, he said, “Your truck is parked out front. Your cell phone service is back on for two weeks. That should give you enough time to get a plan of your own. And as soon as I can get to the tag agency in the morning, the truck title will be in your name.”

She hugged him. “Are you a miracle worker?”

“No, but this isn’t happening. I wish I’d never moved back to River Bend after your mother and I graduated from college. Even more, I wish I hadn’t stayed here after she left me, so I fully understand how you feel right now. I know you’re moving out, but that truck is yours and turning your phone off was childish. I swear if she gets any more cantankerous, I’m putting her in a nursing home.”

Leah gasped. “Did you tell her that?”

Russell nodded seriously. “It wasn’t the first time and it probably won’t be the last, but she’d best be careful. The feud is one thing, but she’s not turning on the family.”

Leah slipped the keys into her purse and hugged her father. “Thanks, Daddy.”

“Tread softly. She’s on the warpath and she’s in the kitchen. And, Leah, I meant it when I said you can come back to the ranch anytime. That’s to talk to me, for Sunday dinner, to sit on the front porch, or to move back into your room. This is your home too, and your grandmother is going to have to realize that.”

One tear rolled down her cheek, and she hugged him tighter. “I love you, Daddy. And it’s not like I’m moving out of the state. I’ll still live in Burnt Boot if Polly lets me rent her house.”

“I want you to understand.” Russell wiped the tear away with his forefinger. “Don’t let the old gal see a drop of weakness or she’ll devour you.”

Leah managed a smile. “Yes, sir. Off to do battle with the dragon.”

Russell kissed her on the forehead. “That’s the spirit.”

Mavis didn’t even look up from her Sunday paper when Leah entered the room. She sighed a few times, but Leah didn’t comment as she went about making sandwiches and loading a picnic basket that she brought in from the pantry.

“So,” Mavis finally said in an icy tone, “you’re going to have a picnic with Tanner Gallagher. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life as when you came dragging him back to the flatbed truck.”

“He caught me. I didn’t catch him.” Leah brought out a small cooler for a couple cans of soda pop and a few bottles of water. “Betsy wouldn’t have caught Rhett, but she threw out stickers on the pathway where he was running.”

“Shows how stupid he is. And you should have run faster. I heard that Betsy is taking Rhett to Wild Horse today for dinner. When he sees all that she has to offer, you might be out in the cold anyway. Man like him is out for all he can get.”

A visual of Rhett’s body tangled up with Betsy’s hung in her mind, and no matter how many times she blinked, she couldn’t get rid of it.

Your grandmother is right, the voice in her head said. Rhett is better matched with Betsy than he is with you. Admit it and then if he sees something at Wild Horse that appeals to him, it won’t hurt so badly.

Mavis put the paper aside and pointed her finger at Leah. “I do not agree with Russell about your truck or that phone. If you leave River Bend, you should only be allowed to take your clothing.”

“There is no if, Granny. I’m leaving before you throw me out.”

“You can stay. You have to promise me that you won’t see that hippie cowboy no more and that you won’t get something started with Tanner today,” Mavis said.

“Can’t do it.” Leah picked up the basket and the cooler, dropped a kiss on Mavis’s head, and headed out to her truck.

“If you move out, you can’t come back,” Mavis yelled.

Leah kept right on walking. “See you in church, Granny. Save me a seat and I’ll sit beside you this morning.”

She parked in front of Gladys’s house, checked her makeup and hair in the rearview mirror, and opened the truck door. The skirt of her bright-colored sundress swished against her bare legs as she made her way to the door and knocked. It was already hot at eight o’clock in the morning. Not so much that she should have been sweating, but then nerves did that and she was about to ask for a pretty big favor.

Gladys opened the door and then the screen door and motioned her inside. “What are you doin’ out this early? Tryin’ to get two old women to hide you on Fiddle Creek so you don’t have to go to dinner with Tanner?”

Leah stepped into the cool house and caught a whiff of bacon. Her stomach growled and tightened up like a ball of yarn. “No, ma’am. He tricked me, and Betsy sure enough tricked Rhett, but I’ve got a picnic out there in the truck. Granny would skin me alive if I brought him to the ranch for dinner.”