Big Heart, Small Town Address Series, Book 1
The cowboy refusing to mourn. The city girl in a strange predicament. The scoundrel that thinks fiancés come with a price tag.
Never, ever date a client. That’s what I keep telling myself. Until Terence Daniels walks into my office. Fine. I caved. Biggest mistake of my life. Next thing I know I’m fleeing Louisiana, hunkering down with my best friend in Dallas. I’m starving, terrified, so confused, and I’m thinking…things just cannot get any worse. Until Kate’s car breaks down outside this bar that looks like their patrons kill women with sticks. We have no choice but to go inside. What I find in there is nothing that I would expect. What unfolds in the coming weeks are more mistakes. Better ones. And then one that I’ll forever call my favorite mistake.
***
After the day I’ve had, I’d sooner eat my boot than cook something. My brother Zack agrees, so we go to this hillbilly bar, where we keep a tab. One cranky woman and her sidekick show up, looking like lawyers among us cowboys, and we ask if we can help. The cranky one thinks we’re trying to steal her car, but the other one softens. All is fine and dandy until she hits us with something that would shock a groundhog back into his burrow until hell freezes over. The look in her eyes is what gets me. Fear. I can’t stand that in a woman. Especially this one, with the tough exterior, making out like she’s fine when inside she’s a crumbling mess. Never figured she’d turn things around like she does. Never figured I’d be the one to help her put it all back together. Never figured she’d see right through me yet show me the way in a way that nobody else has.
Excerpt:
Blake
“I fired Vinnie today.” I grunt, resting my boot on the kitchen chair opposite me, speaking to my brother, Zack, as he walks through the front door.
Pulling his Stetson off, he hangs it on the brass hanger on the wall by the door. “I’d a done that weeks ago if it were up to me.”
“Yeah, well, we can’t seem to find decent help lately. Didn’t want to let our last boy go.”
He walks into the kitchen and shakes his head slowly, giving my hair a tousle. “You look like s**t, Blake.”
I ignore him. “How’s mama?”
He nods once. “Good. She was asking about you.” He could pass for my twin. We’re a year apart in age, but you’d never know it. Came in handy in high school when we traded places skipping class.
“They move her back to the room again, or have they still got her in the ward?”
“She’s back in her room, Blake. I told you about that a week ago.” Zack doesn’t hide the annoyed tone in his voice. “And if you’d come visit her, you’d know that.”
I shudder just thinking about it. It’s been three months since daddy died, and nearly that long since we had to commit mama to a mental hospital. The minute we buried him after he got shot accidentally by a drunken hunter, she started slipping. But I can’t go see her. Not there. She’s not the only one who took it bad when daddy died. Blake knows not to pull at this thread, so he moves on to the next subject. “Austin called. Told me he’s coming around this weekend.”
“Yeah. He called me, too.” Austin, our other brother, lives in El Paso.
Zack pulls the chair next to me out, pulls his shirt out of his pants and takes it off, draping it over the back of the chair, and then he takes a seat, grunting theatrically as he sits, exhaling heavily. He props his boots up on the table, taking full advantage of the fact that mama isn’t here. “So, what now, man?” he rakes a hand through his mussed hair, looking as exhausted as I do.
“Well, we bust our asses again, I guess. Until we can find a few boys to help.”
Maverick, our eldest brother, moved away just before daddy died, and Gunner, our baby brother, left for college. Everything happened so goddamn fast, we didn’t have time to think, let alone have enough help around to keep the place up. And with daddy and mama gone, me and Zack can barely keep the stalls from falling over we’re so overwhelmed with work.
“This place looks like a dog’s breakfast, man.” Zack comments, looking around. Dishes are piled up, there’s an unknown family of crusts living on the stove, an inch worth of toast crumbs are on the tablecloth, and you can draw on the floor with your finger there’s so much grime built up.
“I’m too tired to deal with it. We ought to hire a maid while we’re at it.”
“Mama’d slap you upside the head if she heard you say that.” Zack chuckles, yet I detect a warning tone.
“She’d kill us if she saw this place right now, I tell you that.”
Zack sucks his teeth, saying after a beat. “I’m damn near starved.”
“Me too.”
“Whaddya say we head on up to the saloon and grab us some grub. Couple beers while we’re at it.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice.” I grunt, getting up out of the chair. “I’ll get started cleaning this place when we get back.”
“Yeah, I’ll help.” He says, grabbing his dirty shirt off the back of the chair.
We take Zack’s truck, since his is parked closest to the curb, and head out to Zollo’s. Pat, the owner, sees us as soon as we come in, and he motions us over to him. “I hear you fired Vinnie today.” He says to both of us.
“Yeah, I did.” I admit. “He have anything to say about it?”
“No, but his tab sure did.” Pat says. “He was drunker than a skunk here not an hour ago. I had to call him a cab, and Estelle’s still in there scrubbing the bathroom floor, where he puked and missed about ten times.”
“Ah, shoot. Dang idiot.” I mutter. “He had it coming. I caught him drinking on the job, too, as a matter of fact.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised.” Pat says. “Hey, wasn’t he your last hand?”
“Sure was.” Zack says. “You know anyone else?”
I elbow Zack, giving him a knowing look. Vinnie was Pat’s recommendation. Thanks, but, I’ll pass. Zack looks at me and recognition comes to his face. He changes tack. “Hey, on second thought, it’s okay, partner. We’ll find someone.”
No sooner do those words come out of his mouth when a set of females come walking in the bar, looking stunned and lost. Women almost never come into this bar. At least, not women that look like that. These girls are not from this part of town, for sure. One’s got her hair tied up in a bun so tight she’s giving herself a partial facelift, and the other one’s wearing a tailored suit. Ain’t no way in hell would you find a local girl wearing anything like that here.
Pat looks up from the dishes he’s drying and motions with his chin. “Can I help you ladies?”
The one with the tidy hairdo speaks first. “Our car broke down and both of our phones are dead. Can we use your phone to call a tow truck?”
“What kind of car do you drive?” Zack asks, sizing up the girl in the suit.
“Mercedes. Late model.”
Yeah, definitely not from this side of town. “What’s the problem?” I ask.
“It’s like it boiled over. Steam coming out of the engine.” The girl in the suit answers. She looks like she must be boiling herself. It’s easily a hundred degrees outside today, and she’s wearing a three- piece suit.
“You two lawyers or something?” Pat asks.
“No.” tidy hairdo says but doesn’t elaborate. “Look, can we just use your phone, please?”
“Well, sure, darlin’.” Pat says, picking up an old-school landline telephone from under the counter. He plunks it on the bar and makes sure that she has enough cord. “Here you go.”