Daisies in the Canyon(58)

She nodded. “Even when I’m drunk, I do not lie.”

A dozen cuss words filtered through her mind when she thought about not lying. She hoped for the millionth time that she had not told Cooper she could fall in love with him. And if she had said it, what was she going to do about it? She still wasn’t ready to commit to the canyon, much less to a man, even if he was a damn fine-lookin’ cowboy.




Forty-five minutes later, they were on the outskirts of Amarillo and Shiloh pointed at a sign. “Look! Nails and hair both done and they’re open on Sunday and they take walk-ins. And it even gives the exit number.”

“Just tell me where to turn,” Bonnie said.

“My truck has a GPS system,” Abby said.

“Your truck seats two people. Why didn’t you buy a club cab?” Shiloh asked.

“Because there was only me and I didn’t need it. I shouldn’t have ordered that second plate. Now I’m too full and when I overeat, I get sleepy.”

Shiloh pointed at an exit. “That’s it right there. Turn off and then it said to turn left. I’m too full, too, but you are not taking a nap. You’re going to stay awake and enjoy the afternoon.”

Bonnie tapped the brakes and made the turn. “It must be in that shopping mall.”

Abby pointed. “There’s a wonderful parking spot. Let’s go get our hair and nails done and do some serious shopping. If we’re going to do this church thing so our wild oats don’t take root, I need a couple more civilian outfits.”




“Holy shit, Coop! I thought Abby was joking when she said she traded some of my cows for your bull. Guess they have gotten into a lot of trouble in just two days,” Rusty said.

Cooper pulled out his phone and called Abby.

“Why didn’t you tell me my bull was in Ezra’s yard?”

“I did. Several times, if you will remember. Both when I was sober and when I was drunk off my ass,” she answered.

“How did this happen?” he asked.

“You figure it out,” she said and hung up on him.

He called her right back. “For someone who could fall in love with me last night, you sure are bitchy today,” he said.

“I was drunk. You can’t believe a damn thing a woman says when she’s drunk any more than you can believe what a man says when he’s having sex.”

He hit the “End” button, and immediately redialed her number. When she didn’t answer he tried both Shiloh and Bonnie, but there was no answer there either.

“I’ll hitch up the trailer,” Rusty said after Cooper had put his phone away. “We’ll load him up and see how many of my cows are at your place.”

“Cows at my place?”

“I thought she was teasing, but she claims she traded some cows for him.”

“That’s not funny,” Cooper said.

“I didn’t think so either, but they were all laughing like a bunch of crazy people. Leave them alone for one day and look what happens. None of them are ranch material.”

They stared walking toward the barn when Cooper pointed to the back fence. “Looks like they started drinkin’ pretty early in the day. They’ve knocked out a whole section of fence with the old truck. Too bad they were on private property or I could haul them all into jail for drinking and driving.”

“Must’ve been one hell of a party. Couldn’t you just take them in for a few hours and scare the hell out of them?”

“I don’t think even jail would scare Bonnie or Abby.”

“And Shiloh is smart enough, she’d probably play like a lawyer and talk them all three out of bail,” Rusty said. “Oh, shit! I knew I was missing something. Where’s the dogs? If they gave away those dogs, I’ll shoot all three of them.”

Rusty tipped his cowboy hat back and squinted out toward the pens. “They must have penned them up to keep them from tormenting the bull. But how in the devil did that bull get in the yard?”

“We’ll figure it out, but I’m not asking Abby another thing. She’s in a pissy mood today. Let’s get this job done and then I’ll fix us some steaks after we finish up the evening feeding chores. Your place or mine for supper?”

“Mine. That way we’ll be there when they come in with all their explaining,” Rusty said.





Chapter Fourteen

Magic has happened,” Abby said when Bonnie parked the van between the silver truck and the poor little faded red one.

“We do look better, don’t we? Course, now I feel guilty for spending money on my hair and nails when I could have done both myself and sent the money to Mama for the electric bill,” Bonnie said.

“Tough love, remember,” Shiloh said.

Abby pointed. “I wasn’t talkin’ about the magic of our nails and hair. Look, the yard fence is fixed and the bull is gone.”

“Poor roses still look bad. Looks like he did manage to uproot a few bushes completely,” Shiloh said.

“You any good with flowers?” Abby asked.

Shiloh nodded. “Mama says I have green thumbs.”

“Then taking care of the flowers is your job. If I breathe on a plant, it dies.”

“Silk flowers die in my care, but I can make a garden produce, so I’ll take that job,” Bonnie said. “Next week we should put the onions and potatoes in the ground.”