Chapter 15
Maddie nodded at Grandpa. Quietness fell over the house as everyone bowed their heads. Grandpa said a short grace and immediately the noise level went from dead silent to raising-the-roof clamor in two seconds.
Maddie nudged Gemma with her elbow. “Come on over here. We’ll let the noisy bunch have the table, and you and I’ll sit at this card table right here. I need to hear more about this cowboy you’ve been keeping company with. I looked him up and found out that his father is a lawyer, and his mother is a judge. How in the world did he ever get into ranching and rodeo?”
“His uncle Teamer is a rancher and all three of his cousins are ranchers,” Gemma explained.
Gemma’s father, Cash, raised his voice from the end of the big dining room table. “How do the cowboys take a cowgirl giving them such rugged competition?”
“They don’t like it a bit,” Gemma answered.
“Well, you keep showin’ them who’s boss.” Cash chuckled.
Gemma nodded. “Mama, this is wonderful chicken and dressing.”
Maddie buttered a hot roll and asked, “Do those cowboys treat you with respect?”
“If they don’t, they don’t live to ride the next time.” Gemma laughed.
Cash yelled across the noise of a dozen conversations, “That’s my girl! She’s right, Maddie. This is some mighty fine dressin’.”
Dalton, one of Ace’s younger brothers, joined Maddie and Gemma at their table. “I hear you are giving Trace Coleman a run for his money. Did he think he could just waltz into the rodeo scene and steal the whole show?”
Gemma smiled. “He’s not all that egotistical, but I’m going to win.”
“That sounds pretty egotistical to me.” Dalton grinned.
Gemma slapped him on the arm and kept eating.
He grabbed his bicep and pretended to grimace. “She hit me. She’s mean, Maddie.”
Maddie smiled. “Children, you are supposed to behave at Sunday dinner. After dinner you can go out to the horse barn and duke it out but be nice at the dinner table. I’m finished, so I’m going to go cut the pies and get out the ice cream for the cobbler.”
“Need some help?” Dalton asked.
Maddie stood up and laid a hand on Dalton’s shoulder. “Thank you, but Ace came over before we all went to church this morning and helped get the ice cream ready. We made it by his mama’s recipe using peaches instead of bananas since they’re in season right now.”
Dalton turned back to look at Gemma. “Does Trace Coleman raise horses or just cattle out there in the Panhandle?”
“I have no idea, and I’m tired of hearing about, talking about, or listening to people discuss Trace Coleman. I’m the one who is home,” she grumbled.
“Yes, ma’am.” Dalton said with a nod. “Guess you got a soft spot where that rough old bronc rider is concerned.”
“He’s just a cowboy like all of you,” she said.
Maddie sat back down in her chair. “When she wins the title and the money in Vegas, she’s going to buy her own piece of land. I’ve got one picked out between us and Henrietta that she’s going to fall in love with the minute she sees it.”
“I’ll pick out my own land when I win!” Gemma shot back at her mother.
“Well, it just now went on the market, and I told Willard Dean that you might be interested so he’s holding it until you win. I haven’t got a problem with you fallin’ for that cowboy, Gemma, but you will live around here when you settle down,” Maddie declared.
“And if I don’t?” Gemma asked.
“Marry Dalton,” Maddie said, and handed one of the cobblers to Gemma.
“That could be arranged.” Dalton grinned. “I’ve always had a thing for older women.”
“Ouch!” Gemma grabbed her heart as if he’d stabbed her.
“Want me to drop down on my knee right now?” Dalton asked. “That way I’d get the woman and the ranch I’ve been wanting to buy for over a year. I went out to Willard’s yesterday and gave him a bid, but he said he was under a verbal contract until December. You win. You buy the ranch and marry me, and we’ll live happily ever after.”
“You are crazy.” Gemma laughed, but then she remembered what Liz had said when she told her fortune—a blond cowboy and a baby. Maybe getting one wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
“Hey, Dewar, how long are you going to let your sister live in your house?” Dalton asked.
“Until I find a wife. They say no house is big enough for two women.” Dewar answered.
“That settles it.” Gemma laughed. “I can be there until hell freezes over because Dewar is not husband material.”
“Oh, finish your dinner,” Maddie scolded. “Granny’s been talking about you coming home all week so we can play and sing. But put this in your pipe, young lady: you are not getting married to a cowboy who lives that far away. I’ll sabotage the whole thing if I have to. Dalton, don’t take your offer of marriage off the table before December.”
“Ain’t got a woman in mind right now, and I’ll gladly marry Gemma to get Willard’s place. Then when she dies, I’ll still be young enough to get me a trophy wife to strut around Montague County with,” he teased.
“Good Lord! You are planning my marriage and my funeral all at one time.” Gemma groaned, but wondered how much of what he was offering was real or just joking.
“Well, you are the older woman. You are at least five or six years older than me so you should die before me,” Dalton said. “Maddie, I was thinking of another helping of chicken and dressin’, but that cobbler and ice cream sure looks good.”
Gemma pointed to the ice cream freezer in the kitchen sink. “There’s pecan pie and peach cobbler. And when is Colleen getting here anyway? I know you made those desserts and ice cream special for her, Mama.”
“Colleen called at midmorning and said they were running late. Something about packing up all the carnival stuff this morning. Anyway, she’ll be here in a few more minutes. She said twelve thirty at the latest but not to hold dinner for her,” Maddie answered and held a spoonful of ice cream toward Gemma. “Taste this. It’s always better after it sets a little while and cures. Just think, you could have this every summer if you marry Dalton, because his mama has the recipe.”
Gemma had no choice but to open her mouth. “Y’all are crazy. I’m not engaged to Trace Coleman. He hasn’t even mentioned marriage, so wiggle around in that seat, Mama, and get your panties out of that wad they’re in.”
Before Maddie could scold her, Colleen and Blaze rushed inside the house.
“We’re here! And Dewar, if you ate all my ice cream, I’m going to whip you all over this yard,” Colleen said.
“Can I sell tickets to the show?” Austin asked.
Colleen stopped long enough to hug her and headed straight for the kitchen.
Gemma pushed back her chair and followed Colleen into the kitchen. “You look good, girl.”
Colleen gave her a quick hug on the run. “So do you! I’m starving. I’ll catch the rest of you later, but if I don’t eat, I’ll faint plumb away. That man out there didn’t give me anything but cold funnel cakes for breakfast this morning.”
“She’s not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And where is Trace Coleman? I heard he might be here,” Blaze called out. “I’ve been following the whole rodeo tour, and I’m dying to meet him.”
“He’s not here, and Gemma is going to marry Dalton and buy Willard Dean’s ranch,” Maddie said.
The whole dining room went silent.
“Maddie is teasing,” Dalton said. “I couldn’t marry Gemma. Lord, that would be like marryin’ my older sister.”
“I can see I’ve missed something.” Blaze headed for the kitchen and turned around to shake a finger at Austin. “Hey, don’t you eat all that dressin’, woman. I’ve been waitin’ a whole week to get at your mama’s chicken and dressin’.”
Colleen slung her natural burgundy-colored hair over her shoulder and grinned at her husband. “You’d better hurry up, then. And if any of the rest of you want some more dressin’, you’d best shove your way to the buffet because when this man gets started, there won’t be anything left.”
Gemma went back to the dining room and touched her sister-in-law, Liz, on the shoulder. “You done eating?”
Liz stood up. “Sure am.”
“Let’s go on outside and tune up the Dobro and fiddle, then,” Gemma said.
“I’m ready.” She pushed her chair back and stood up.
Leaving the air-conditioned room for outside was like stepping from a freezer into a bake oven. By the time she and Liz reached the shade tree where the chairs were set up with the instruments, Gemma’s thin cotton blouse hung limp and stuck to her sweaty body.
“It’s too hot to play out here. The instruments shouldn’t even be sitting in this heat. We need to take this inside,” Gemma said.
“Maddie says we’re playing outside, and Granny has looked forward to it all week. And we only brought the instruments out just before you drove up. It’s hot, but it’s coming out of the cool makes it feel even worse. You’ll adjust. Besides, you can’t tell me you haven’t been hot this month.” Liz wiggled her eyebrows and grinned. “But I got to tell you, Maddie is going to be cussin’ mad if there’s something serious going on with that Trace Coleman. She’s working an angle to get you to buy a ranch close to Ringgold, so you’ll be tied to the area. She says she’s not losing you like she did Colleen when she took off with Blaze.”
Gemma sighed.
“Pretty obvious, wasn’t she, with all that talk about marrying Dalton? If he was any other cowboy but Dalton Riley, he would have been embarrassed to the bone, but he played along with the joke pretty good.” Liz laughed.
Gemma picked up the Dobro and sat down. Her thighs stuck to the metal chair with a fine layer of sweat as she strummed down across the strings, adjusted the instrument, and strummed again.
Liz positioned her fiddle on her shoulder and ran the bow down the strings, tuned the strings, and tried again. “She’s been like a cat in hot water ever since you told her about being drugged and sleeping in Trace’s trailer. He’s got a reputation like Blaze had, you know?”
“For what? Being a good bronc buster and bull rider?” Gemma asked.
Liz sat down beside Gemma. “No, for womanizing. How is he in bed?”
Gemma blushed. “Reputation don’t always tell the truth.”
“You aren’t going to answer me, are you?” Liz asked.
“Y’all girls gettin’ it all ready?” Granny joined them.
“Saved by the bell.” Liz laughed.
Granny chose the mandolin that afternoon and ran through a few chords on it with Liz and Gemma following her lead. Raylen joined them next and picked up a second violin.
“Okay, before they all get here, Raylen, you can give me some ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’” Granny said.
“You always ask for that.” Liz grinned.
“And I always will. Someday one of you is going to make a mistake, and I’ll declare one of you the best fiddler in the state, but I got to hear it every time so I can be sure it’s still a tie.” She pointed at Gemma. “And you come sit by me while they’re fiddlin’.”
Gemma moved down two chairs, and fast fiddling music drifted out across the whole ranch.
“I told Maddie to let you make your own decisions about where you might settle down.” Granny patted her on the shoulder. “And who you will marry, or else she’ll regret the whole thing in years to come.”
“It’s not serious, Granny,” Gemma said. “Mama doesn’t need to be trying to buy a ranch for me or worrying about me getting married. I swear, she’s got wedding bells on the brain.”
“Honey, she’s been scared out of her mind about this new feller. She says she hears something in your voice when you talk about him, and she ain’t wantin’ both of her daughters to run off to the Panhandle. I ain’t never seen her act like this neither.”
“I don’t know what she thinks she’s hearing, but all I’ve got on my mind is winning this bronc busting event in Vegas,” Gemma declared.
Before the song ended, the yard had filled up with folks—some picking up instruments, some sitting on quilts. Some leaning against the trees.
Granny yelled out, “Bill Bailey,” and they all started playing at the same time.
When they finished, she handed off the mandolin to Raylen who laid his fiddle to one side and fell in behind the rest of the musicians as they played “Red River Valley.” Gemma handed the Dobro to Colleen and sat down on the quilt. Her little niece Rachel backed up and sat down in her lap. She hugged the little dark-haired girl, loving the smell of baby shampoo and sweaty kid mixed up together.
“Hey, everyone, we’re here. Don’t start telling any good news without me.” Pearl waved from the truck. She and Wil each carried a wiggling toddler son with dark hair and more energy than a Category 5 tornado. They set them down on the edge of the quilt and both boys made a beeline for Rachel, grabbed her by the hands, and pulled.
She left Gemma’s lap and led them to Austin.
“Star?” she said.
Austin pointed toward the play area with a sandbox and swing set under the shade of a big pecan tree. “You and the boys go play in the sandbox. We’ll go see Star after a while.”
The three kids scampered off to the sandbox and the bright-colored toys sitting along the side.
Liz laid down her fiddle and joined the group on the quilt. She poked Gemma in the leg. “Confession time. Pretend I’m your priest, and we’re in confessional rooms. Now tell me all about Trace Coleman. Has Maddie got something to really worry about?”
“I’m not Catholic, and if you’re a priest, I’m Saint Peter.” Gemma laughed.
“I don’t care who is what!” Pearl exclaimed. “What are y’all talkin’ about? What’d I miss? I knew we should’ve told my mother that we couldn’t meet her for Sunday dinner in Bowie. I missed chicken and dressing and all the gossip, didn’t I?”
“Oh, yeah, you did.” Colleen joined them. “They can play without me. Mama is ready to crucify you.”
“I thought you weren’t going to let any cowboys ruin your game,” Pearl said.
Colleen smiled. “Looks like one is about to do just that, and he lives right out by Claude, so if she hooks up with him, she’ll be close to me in the winters. Mama might hate the idea, but I love it.”
“Talk!” Pearl pointed at Gemma.
Liz pointed at Gemma. “Maddie is going to put a chastity belt on you and send you to a convent on a deserted island.”
Gemma put up both palms defensively. “Y’all stop it! He’s my biggest competition. So, Liz, your fortune-telling is still in question, and Colleen, don’t get your hopes up that I’ll be living in Goodnight, Texas, when the dust settles in Vegas. Don’t you think if this was really all that serious that he would have invited me to go home with him?”
A short burst of laughter came from Austin’s corner. “Honey, you aren’t fooling me! I’d bet dollars to fool’s gold that it is serious as hell. Why didn’t you invite him here?”
“Because Mama would have a heart attack,” Gemma whispered.
Maddie laid the Dobro on the chair and started out across the lawn.
“Huh-oh,” Liz muttered.
Maddie settled down right in the middle of all six young women, and Granny drug up a chair at the edge.
“I heard my name,” Maddie said.
“I said that you’d have had a heart attack if I invited Trace Coleman home with me for a week,” Gemma said honestly.
Maddie pointed her finger. “Gemma Irene O’Donnell!”
“I don’t know why everyone keeps pointing at me today,” Gemma said. “I couldn’t wait to get home, but now I wish I would’ve stayed on the dude ranch this week.”
Liz spread her arms out. “Move back, everyone. I’ve been with this family a whole year and I didn’t even know Gemma had a second name.”
“Why did you tell Willard I might buy his ranch? And why were you going on about me marrying Dalton?” Gemma asked.
“She’s right, Maddie. You want her to settle right here in Ringgold and you’re going about it all wrong,” Granny said.
“You don’t get a vote in this,” Maddie told her mother.
Granny laughed. “Hey, I might have done some manipulation in my day, but it didn’t involve buying a ranch. Besides, I knew Cash O’Donnell was the man for you, Maddie. I was right too. You love Cash and you’ve got five beautiful children, and he’s been a wonderful husband and a good father.”
Maddie started to point but dropped her hand. “I don’t want you to move away from Ringgold.”
“Mama, don’t be looking at wedding dresses just yet. There ain’t even been a proposal yet,” Gemma said.
“Hmmmph!” Maddie snorted. “Your lips are saying one thing. Your eyes say another.”
Granny touched her daughter on the shoulder. “Maddie, don’t worry about how many chickens you got to feed until they hatch.”
The music stopped and Rye smiled at Austin. She stood up and he slipped an arm around her waist. “Hey, everyone, gather around. We’ve got some news.”
Gemma could have kissed her older brother for choosing that moment to make his announcement.
Rye took a deep breath. “Rachel will have a baby sister or brother next March. Right now, she says she wants a brother like Jesse and John, but we’ll be real happy with whatever we get.”
It went from quiet to full-blown noise in less than two seconds. Everyone, including Maddie, was busy hugging Rye and Austin when Gemma’s phone buzzed in her hip pocket. Trace’s picture showed up on the screen, so she carried it away from the noise and sat down in Grandpa’s rocking chair on the front porch.
Trace’s voice was even deeper over the phone “I miss you. Are you okay?”
“I keep tellin’ you I’m tough, but my mama is trying to force me into buying a ranch in Ringgold. I wish I’d stayed on at the dude ranch,” Gemma answered.
Trace chuckled. “I don’t hear music. I thought y’all were playing music this afternoon.”
“Austin and Rye just announced that they are having another baby in March, so they’re getting all the attention, thank God!”
“Call me if things get too hot and we’ll go to Dodge City early.”
“Will do,” she said.
***
Trace pulled into the yard in front of his house on the Coleman ranch just as Teamer came out onto the porch. He shaded his eyes with his hand and then waved at Trace. “Come on in out of the heat, son. Sunday supper is close to bein’ ready, and the boys are washin’ up. Thought I was going to have to come get you.”
Trace turned Sugar loose, and she took off like a streak toward Teamer. He scooped her up while her legs were still churning and got a face full of doggy licks for his welcome.
“That old cowboy ought to leave you here with me when he goes off on his trips,” Teamer crooned.
“She’s spoiled rotten.” Trace laid a hand on his uncle’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Trace, I got something to say but not tonight. We are goin’ to talk about this ranch while you are home, so you might as well get ready for it, son.”
Trace chuckled. It was good to be home, and his uncle could talk, and he’d listen. That didn’t mean he’d obey.
“I’m hungry. I missed Louis’s cookin’,” Trace said.
Teamer was tall and lanky, sinewy but strong looking, had a mop of gray hair that always needed trimming and clear blue eyes. That evening they sparkled when he yelled into the house, “Hey, boys, he’s here. Time to put it on the table.”
Trace smelled grilled steaks when he followed his uncle off the porch and inside the cool living room. “Louis did do the cooking tonight, huh?”
Louis was a short, stocky cowboy with bowed legs and a spare tire around his middle right above his belt. His face was as round as his body and his thick gray hair cut close to his head.
Louis clapped Trace on the shoulder. “I grilled steaks. Teamer would char them so black that the hound dogs out in the yard would be gnawin’ on them when the winter snow comes. And I made the chocolate pies for dessert, and the rest of the meal. I keep tellin’ that old codger that we need a woman on the place. One that can cook. Then I could go on back out in the fields and do some real work. I’m gettin’ fat stayin’ in the kitchen so much.”
Teamer sat down at the end of the table and pointed at Louis. “And I keep tellin’ that old codger that a woman would mess up our way of doin’ things. She’d probably want to put doilies all over everything and start collectin’ ugly ceramic ducks and elephants. And besides, he’s old, so he’s got a right to get fat.”
Gage and Kevlin both came through the kitchen door at the same time. Gage was eighteen and starting college that fall. He was six inches shorter than Trace but square built and strong as an ox. It was his fourth year working for Teamer in the summer months. His younger brother, Kevlin, would be a junior in high school come fall, and it was his second summer on the Coleman ranch.
“Thank God you are here for a few days!” Gage said. “Those two need some discipline, and me and Kevlin, well, they don’t listen to a thing we have to say.”
“Y’all had to put up with this ever since I left?” Trace asked and slid a sly wink over their way.
Gage nodded, but his face split into a wide grin. “They’re like an old married couple. Bitchin’ and snappin’ at each other all the time. But let me or Kevlin say a word and they stick together like they’re joined at the hip. You need to straighten ’em both out while you are home.”
Trace looked at Kevlin.
The younger boy just shook his head. “Never a dull minute. We missed you, and what’s this about you foolin’ around and lettin’ a girl whip your scrawny ass? We need to give you some more lessons on stayin’ in the saddle?”
Trace shook his head slowly. “Gemma O’Donnell is one piece of sassy baggage that’s been whippin’ me. And if you got any magic tricks about how to get more points, I’m all for learning. How about right now we dive into those steaks before Louis throws it all out for the dogs in a fit of anger.”
Teamer passed the platter of steaks, followed by bowls of steaming fried potatoes, fried squash, and black-eyed peas. Then he started a platter of sliced cucumber, tomatoes, and peppers around. The finale was a big plate of hot biscuits. All of them dived into their supper like hungry hounds after a long night of hunting.
Teamer was the first one to break the silence and only after he’d finished half his food. “So talk to us and tell us why that woman is whippin’ your butt so often,” he said.
“Because she’s that good. We’re both linin’ up pretty solid to be finalists. I just hope that she’ll have a big wreck then, and I can come home with the win at the end,” Trace replied.
“And maybe she won’t,” Louis said.
“Guess we’ll know soon enough,” Trace said with half a shrug.
“What does she look like? We saw her on television, but mostly all we saw was a blur of hot pink when she came out of the chute. Is she all mannish-lookin’, and does she dip snuff?” Kevlin asked.
Trace thought before he spoke. “She’s about five feet three inches tall and would have to put rocks in her pockets to hold her down in a hard windstorm. She’s got red hair, but she tells me it’s out of a bottle and she is a natural brunette, the most amazing green eyes, and she’s meaner than a rattlesnake when it comes to riding and soft as an angel when she’s not riding.”
“I’d let someone like that win for sure. You kissed her yet?” Kevlin asked.
“You better watch that hussy. She’ll be throwing you off your ride, and when the dust settles, she’ll have the prize and you’ll have a busted ego,” Louis said.
Trace looked at Teamer.
“She as good as they say?” he asked.
Trace nodded.
Teamer locked eyes with Trace. “She know anything about ranchin’?”
Another nod.
“Now answer Kevlin’s question,” Teamer said.
“Which one?” Trace asked.
“That one about kissin’ her,” Louis said.
Trace shook his head. “Good cowboys don’t kiss and tell. You taught me that yourself, remember?”
Teamer chuckled. “She might do to ride the river with, son. Now eat the rest of your dinner. Potatoes and squash ain’t worth puttin’ in your mouth when they’re cold. Besides, we got chocolate pies in the icebox, and Louis will whine like a little girl if you boys don’t brag on them.”
***
Lucy looked around the room at the decorations, the cake, the presents, and all her friends.
“Hey, you aren’t supposed to cry,” Wilma said.
“But you all did this just for me.” Lucy sniffled.
“And look what all you’ve done for us,” Wilma told her. “I work for Liz, and Noreen is picking up her life at the beauty shop, and look around, Lucy, at all the women you’ve helped get their lives back on track.”
Gemma patted her on the back. “And those like me, who still need you to get theirs on track in the first place.”
“Come on and sit down. You are going to open presents first and then eat cake and visit until we run out of things to talk about,” Liz said.
Lucy dabbed her eyes. “Then I reckon I’d better call Tyson and tell him I won’t be home for two days because it’ll take us that long to catch up on gossip, and let me tell you right now, I’ve never opened this many presents in my whole life, total, and I’m going to enjoy every moment, so don’t rush me.”
She’d barely gotten started opening presents when Gemma’s phone vibrated in her back pocket. She slipped off to the bathroom, put the potty lid down, and sat down before she answered Trace’s tenth call that day.
“Party over?” he asked.
“Just beginning. Lucy is opening presents, but she’s slow as molasses in Alaska in December. She even keeps the paper and the ribbons. So, we can talk for a few minutes,” she whispered.
“Where are you?” Trace asked. “I don’t hear squealing and lots of woman oohing and ahhing over presents.”
“I’m in the bathroom,” she answered.
Trace chuckled in his deep drawl. “Lock the door, take off all your clothes, and send me a naked picture of you in the mirror.”
“Trace Coleman!”
“I will if you will,” he teased.
“I don’t need a picture. All I have to do is shut my eyes to see you doing a strip to ‘Hillbilly Bone.’” She told him.
A long, pregnant pause made her hold the phone out to see if she’d lost connection.
“Trace?”
“I’m lying here on the bed looking out at the stars. I’m naked and the cold air from the ceiling fan is making the hair on my arms stand straight up. I’m thinking about you all doing that little dance for me in the Jacuzzi,” he whispered.
Crimson crept up her neck and into her cheeks. “I will get even.”
“Turned you on, did I?” Even Trace’s chuckles were deep and sexy.
“Let’s just say I’ll have to wash my face in cold water and stay in here until I stop panting before I go back out there.”
“Hey, Gemma. I…miss…you,” he said seductively.
“You are in big trouble,” she warned.
She’d barely gotten back to her chair when her phone vibrated again. She slipped it out and laid it on the chair seat beside her. Trace had sent her a text: Does being in big trouble mean you’re going to let me win in Dodge City?
She carefully sent back a message: Dream on!
She turned off her phone and shoved it in her hip pocket.
“Okay, Lucy, now tell us all about this wedding, and why it was so sudden,” Gemma teased.
“Sudden!” Lucy exclaimed. “I thought I never was going to get that man out of his shell enough to propose to me. And when he finally did, I got him to the altar as fast as I could so he wouldn’t change his mind.”
Gemma wondered what she’d do if Trace proposed. Would she rush him to the church the very next day or would she want the big wedding that Colleen had? Could they live together more than a week without the wildfire burning itself out? She loved everything about Ringgold, but she also wanted to be back at the rodeo with Trace. She already missed bickering with him, his kisses, and the way her body felt when he touched her. The week was going to last forever.
***
Trace was in the hayfield when his phone rang. He pulled it out of a sweaty shirt pocket and answered, “Hello, darlin’,” in his best Conway Twitty impression.
Gemma groaned. “Is it really only Thursday? I feel like I’ve been home a month.”
“Is your mother still mad?” Trace asked.
“No, she’s over that. She don’t stay mad long. But I’m ready to bust broncs and smell rodeo dust,” Gemma told him.
“It’s addictive, isn’t it?”
“Tomorrow won’t never get here, will it?” Gemma asked.
“Want me to put down these hay hooks and come get you right now?” he asked.
“What I want and what I’ll get are two different things,” she said with a groan. “Since I’m home and there’s an extra rider to exercise the horses, Raylen and Liz went off on a three-day holiday to spend time with her grandpa and uncle. They’re over in your part of the world, and I’m in Ringgold.”
“Seems to me that not long ago you couldn’t wait to get home to Ringgold where your roots are. Why aren’t you fixing hair this week?”
“I’m going to the beauty shop this afternoon,” Gemma answered.
“I need a haircut. If I wait until next week, will you cut it for me? Naked?” he asked.
She moaned at the visual that popped into her head. “Which one of us?”
“Both,” he said.
“One naked haircut after I win in Dodge City, right?” she asked.
“You will never get to me say yes to that,” he said.
She laughed. “I’ll give you a haircut no matter who wins, and we can both be naked. You sure you’ll trust me with scissors when I win? I’ll be pretty giddy.”
“Well, I sure wouldn’t trust you with them when you lose and I win,” he said. “You’ll cut my ear off just for spite.”
“Long as I don’t harm your hands, I reckon you could give up one ear,” she teased.
“What are you wearing right now?” He changed the subject.
“Nothing, darlin’. I’m riding bareback as naked as the day I was born. My hair is flowing down my back, and the wind is in my face,” she teased.
“You are a witch, Gemma O’Donnell. Now I’ll have that picture in my mind all day.”
“I told you paybacks are a bitch, didn’t I? Now we are even,” she said.
He slid the phone back in his pocket, picked up the hooks, and slung another bale of hay off the back of the truck into the barn. Kevlin grabbed it, stacked it, and turned for the next one.
“Was that the hottie you been moonin’ around about all week?” he asked Trace.
“It was Gemma, but I haven’t been moonin’ around,” Trace answered.
“Yeah, man, you have. You better be careful or that hussy will use all that moonin’ to make you feel sorry for her and let her win. Then she’ll run off with some other rich cowboy and you’ll be left with nothin’ but a pair of spurs and a gold hatpin,” Kevlin predicted.
“You sure are wise for a sixteen-year-old kid,” Trace said sarcastically.
Kevlin smiled and wiped sweat from his forehead with a red bandanna. “Out of the mouths of babes. I been around the rodeo arena a few times. Them women can sure mess you up, no matter how old you are or how pretty they are.”
***
It was noon when Gemma opened the door to her beauty shop and got a whiff of hair spray, dye, and fingernail polish all mixed together. It was almost as intoxicating as the dust in the rodeo arena.
“I was wondering if you’d come around or if you’d call and tell me you had something else going today, what with Liz and Raylen gone.” Noreen was tall and rail thin, wore jeans, a knit shirt, and sneakers.
“Oh, no! I had to see how things were going. Looks like you are keeping the place up in fine style,” Gemma said.
“Here comes Nellie Luckadeau and her sister. Which one do you want?” Noreen asked.
“I’ll take Ellen. I need to get my hands in the dye and do some back combing. The higher I can get that red hair for Ellen, the better she likes it,” Gemma answered.
Ellen’s eyes lit up when she saw Gemma. “Well, lookee here! Gemma has come home just to fix my hair today? I swear Noreen is good, but darlin’, she don’t know how to tease my hair like you do. No offense, Noreen. And you are keeping your hair red. That’s what’s bringing you good luck with that cowboy that has Maddie in a mood. I told you that red hair was the best good-luck token you could take with you on this trip.”
“Gemma has been ratting hair so long it’s second nature to her. Get in a chair and let her take them pins out so she can get you over to the sinks for a good washin’,” Noreen said.
Gemma fell into the work just as easily as she rode the broncs. Both were second nature like Noreen said. She removed the pins from Ellen’s hair and brushed it out, then fastened a cape around her shoulders and led her back to the sink.
“So, what’s been going on since I left?” she asked.
“Slade and Jane are expecting their third baby. This one is a boy, and them two girls they’ve already got is going to make him toe the line. Two older sisters need a little brother. Me and Nellie needed a brother, but all we got was each other. If we had had a brother, he would make her not be so grumpy in her old age. I tell you, she’s got so cranky that I can’t hardly even live with her. Do you know she still won’t let me drive?” Ellen tattled.
Nellie piped up from the sink right next to her sister. “She hasn’t driven in years because she’s got lead feet and thinks she’s a teenager. I don’t even drive anymore except for the old work trucks and tractors out on the property. Jane just dropped us off for our hair fixin’s while she runs into Bowie for her doctor’s appointment.”
Ellen shut her eyes while Gemma scrubbed her scalp. “She’s not lyin’. I like speed and hot men and hard liquor.”
“She’s been wild her whole life.” Nellie sighed.
“And I’ve lived every minute of it,” Ellen shot back across the room at her sister.
“If you want to drive so bad, then you can drive the work truck, but you can’t drive the tractor because they are too expensive to fix, and you’d break something for sure.”
Ellen giggled like a schoolgirl. “Can I drive the truck to the dance tomorrow night?”
Nellie almost came up out of the chair but checked herself. “No! You can’t drive it off the property. It’s not even tagged.”
“Well, I could drive it so fast that the policeman couldn’t even tell that it didn’t have a tag,” Ellen said.
“No! And that is final,” Nellie said with a long sigh.
“What’s the use of gettin’ my hair all done and not even be able to cruise over to Wichita Falls for a dance?”
Gemma giggled.
“Don’t laugh at her,” Nellie said. “It makes her worse.”
“Oh, hush. Just because you got old don’t mean I intend to,” Ellen said.
Gemma rinsed and conditioned Ellen’s over-dyed, over-ratted, and over-sprayed hair. Then she wrapped a towel around her head and pushed the lever to raise the chair up.
“Let’s go get your dye mixed and on. Nellie, has she always been a redhead?” Gemma asked, knowing that question would set them off again.
“Ever since she was born, and she’s had the temper to go with it. I swear I didn’t think that attitude came in a box of hair dye, but it does.” Nellie laughed.
Gemma loved listening to them bicker and argue and hoped when she and Colleen were old that they would be just like them. If she lived in the Panhandle, they’d be close enough as old women that they might even end up living on the same property in their old age, like Nellie and Ellen.
“Okay, enough bitchin’ from us two old women,” Nellie said bluntly. “We want to hear about this cowboy who is makin’ Maddie close to havin’ a heart attack.”
It was on the end of Gemma’s tongue to say, “I miss him like crazy.”
But Ellen took off before she could say a word. “I know menfolk real well. How is he in bed?”
“Ellen!” Noreen said.
“Well, I got to know if he’s any good in bed before I pass judgment. Does he make you go all oozy when he kisses you?” Ellen asked.
“Ellen, for God’s sake!” Nellie slapped her arm.
“I’ll call the cops and sue you for elderly abuse if you do that again.” Ellen glared at her. “Does he?” She looked in the mirror at Gemma’s reflection.
“Yes, he does,” Gemma said.
Ellen stuck her tongue out at Nellie. “Then I expect he’s worth whatever it takes to get him roped down.”
“Maddie is going to be a handful,” Nellie said.
“Yes, she is,” Noreen agreed.
Gemma listened with one ear to them go from one gossip topic to another. The other ear stayed focused on the cell phone in the back pocket of her jeans. Maybe Trace would call when he took a break. She missed him so much that it hurt, and her mother could get over it. If he appeared at the door of her beauty shop right then and asked her to run away with him, she’d drop the hair dye and be gone before Nellie could roll her eyes at Ellen one more time.
***
Gemma awoke on Friday morning at the crack of dawn. She couldn’t sleep so she went to the stables and saddled up a mare. When the sun peeked over the horizon, she was exercising her third horse of the morning and heading out over the rolling hills toward her granny’s house. The door opened before she could rap on it, and Granny motioned her inside.
“We seen you ridin’ out over the rise and hoped you’d come for breakfast. Your grandpa made pancakes and sausage this morning. Never cooked a meal in his life until he retired, and now I gotta fight him to get in the kitchen.”
Grandpa poured pancake batter on a cast-iron griddle and talked as he cooked. “Sit right down there, sweet baby girl. How’s it been goin’ this week? Maddie over her snit about Trace Coleman?”
Gemma picked up a sausage patty from the plate in the middle of the table and nibbled at the corners. “She’s gettin’ over it. I called Willard and told him not to hang on to the ranch in hopes that I’d buy it. Dalton Riley has made him a pretty good offer on it, and I think he’ll sell to him.”
“She wanted you to have Creed Riley, but he up and married that painter from out in the Panhandle last winter. Until then his eyes were still wanderin’. He just couldn’t get settled on one woman,” Grandpa said. “When a man’s eyes stop wanderin’, and he can’t see nothin’ except the pretty little gal right in front of him, then he’s ready to settle down.”
“So, Great and Noble Wise Man, what if I did get tangled up with Trace Coleman?” Gemma asked.
Granny popped her hands on her hips. “Don’t call him no wise man. Lord, child, that was the men who came to bring presents to baby Jesus. Your grandpa ain’t that smart. Coffee or juice?”
“Coffee, and I believe Grandpa might be that smart, Granny,” Gemma said.
“Y’all two stop your bickerin’ and I’ll tell you my opinion. Soon as I serve up some breakfast,” Grandpa declared.
The pancakes were browned perfectly, so Gemma held her plate out and Grandpa stacked three huge ones up on it.
“Grandpa, I love Ringgold and my roots are deep here, but…” she said.
“But you might like that cowboy enough to dig them roots up and plant them somewhere else?” Grandpa asked.
“I wanted to come home and find answers, but all I got was more questions,” she said.
“Darlin’, you only got one ass. You can’t ride two broncs with it at one time. Make a choice, and don’t never look back, just forward. It’s your choice to make. Not mine or Granny’s or your mama’s or daddy’s. It’s your ass and you decide which one of them broncs is going to give you the best ride for the rest of your life. And that’s my opinion,” Grandpa told her.
“See, he is wise,” Gemma said.
Granny kissed him on the cheek. “I know it, but it’s not good to tell him. Now, let’s talk about the new baby that Austin is having. I hope it’s another girl. Rachel needs a playmate, and they can have boys the next couple of times around.”
Grandpa shrugged. “I hope she has triplet boys and they’re all just as ornery as Maddie’s first three was. Remember when they was little, and we couldn’t keep up with them?”
Granny smiled. “Lord, they were a handful.”
“Why would you wish that on Rye and Austin?” Gemma asked.
“Ask your grandmother about the time that Rye and Dewar come to stay with us, and we caught them about to jump off the house,” Grandpa said with a chuckle. “Rye was about four and Dewar wasn’t but two. Lord, I thought your granny would die before I could get up that ladder and get them boys off the roof.”
Gemma mulled over and over that remark about Trace having eyes only for her as she listened to her grandmother tell the age-old story one more time.