Page 15 of The Texas Cowboy's Proposal

“Was that the crux of the problem with you two?” Sammi Jo caught herself. “I’m sorry. It’s really not any of my business what happened in your marriage. That had to be a tough road at times. But you have raised a wonderful young lady who adores you. That counts for a lot in my book. I might have misjudged you a time or two, and for that, I am sorry.”

“No apology needed. Sandy Lou was a learning curve if ever there was one. She wasn’t ready for a real marriage, and she certainly wasn’t ready for the fact that having a fair amount of land and cattle didn’t mean they had the bank account to go along with it. I also learned that sometimes love equates to the amount of greenbacks in the bank.” He paused and then added, “But the story is a bit different in our case. It’s all those dollars in the Burkitt vault that is giving me pause. Money can corrupt. It can change a person’s whole dynamic. I want to give my daughter everything I can to get her a good start toward building her own dreams down the road. Money is nothing but a tool. It can’t take over your whole life or else you lose what’s really important... beginning with your soul. Sorry about the soapbox. And present company is certainly excluded in a lot of what I just said.”

Beaudry gave her one of those smiles that managed to flip her insides upside down. She had to catch her breath. She had a flash of memory of the first time she had seen his smile. She had happened onto him while at a horse show. He was leaning over the stall door, an apple in one hand and a pocket knife in the other. He was quartering the fruit, then feeding it to his horse. And he was smiling at the animal. In that moment, she had experienced a burning desire deep down in her core to want to know how it would feel to have that smile turned upon her. It shook her up. But she tried to not let it show. She had turned away very quickly and walked smack into a locked door. People had laughed, and then she had to endure the doctor at the stock show—a vet, not a people doctor—trying to stem the bleeding.

Funny that memory should pop up at that moment. She hadn’t thought of it in years. She had just graduated from high school and they were competing in a horse show. She tried to remember if he had laughed along with the rest, but that part was fuzzy. What she did remember was that he left the very next day for basic training. And so had Sandy Lou. They had eloped, and Sammi Jo had pushed the pair out of her thoughts.

She would be mindful of closed doors and such from that point forward. She wasn’t about to let a man’s smile make a fool of her again.

“So, I never thought to ask before, but is there some guy I need to keep an eye out for in dark alleys? Someone you’re dating who might not like this arrangement of ours? Am I poaching some other fellow’s girl?”

She shook her head. “Don’t worry about dark alleys. There’s no one remotely special enough to fear meeting the wrath of. My dating life is few and far between. I happen to be very selective. Too selective, as my sister often reminds me. But I don’t care. I have to know that it’s me a guy is interested in and not the name and bank account he envisions.”

He nodded. “Very wise indeed. And there is something else I have learned about you that shatters my preconceived notion about the spoiled rich girl I first thought of you as. You have to be careful on the other side of that same coin. There are men out there who would give a lot to be in my shoes right now. The male equivalent to a Sandy Lou. Guess we’re lucky in that we both are going into this deal—if we do go into it at all—without rose-colored glasses.” Then he finished off his glass of tea. “I think our plan of letting the town see us together is moving along. We seem to still be number one topic at the local gossip sessions, or so I hear.”

“I’m so pleased. Why can’t people get a life and focus on something important?”

“Well, other people’s lives seem so much more exciting, I guess, when you’re on the outside looking in. We’ll step things up with the fair coming up and the fall stock show. Then it’ll be time for the showstopper.”

“Showstopper?”

“Will they or won’t they walk down that aisle? I hear the bets are already being placed on that one.”

Sammi Jo knew he was trying to make light of the situation. But for some reason, she couldn’t match it.

“There went the smile. What’s wrong, Sammi? I hope you know that you can talk to me. All joking aside, wearein this together. Don’t ever hesitate to get whatever is bothering you out on the table for us to look at and work through if we can. That is the only way this has a chance to work.”

She stood as he did, obviously needing to be someplace else.

“You really think this has a chance of working? Or am I just being foolish for even trying?”

He turned on the second step of the stairs and faced her, putting them almost eye level to each other. His gaze was serious as he met hers.

“I think you’re hopeful. Because this dream of yours means more than anything to you. And you are fueled by an honest intent to help a lot of people you care about. I would give anything to have a crystal ball to see how this turns out, but I don’t. One step at a time, Sammi Jo. And remember... you aren’t alone.” He wrapped his hand around hers and her surprise held her frozen to the spot.

“Your heart is huge. I know that now. I know you are a fighter. I also know that your grandmother underestimated you. You take after your grandpa, and that is why I agreed to see where this takes us for the next few weeks. And if we take that leap off the cliff, as you liken it to, well, it will be with our eyes wide open. And the next meal is my treat. We have a date for Friday night. Pick you up at five.”

For a moment, she thought he might actually lean in for a kiss. Instead, he settled for a squeeze of her hand. But that was okay with her. Kisses would definitely cloud things. And that was the last thing she needed. It was a good thing she didn’t like wine, because Beaudry was a heady wine she needed to steer clear of. And suddenly an image floated through her mind of wineglasses and satin sheets with Beaudry beneath them and nothing else between the two of them but a wisp of material... well, she felt the heat begin to rise up the back of her neck. The last thing she needed was him to see her blush. She needed to block thoughts of wine and bedrooms and kisses.

But theman...he might be another story. How did she do that?

Chapter Seven

“There he is.”Jaxson’s words preceded him into the barn. He took a moment to deposit the large bag of oat grain on top of the others he had already unloaded. Wiping his brow on the sleeve of his shirt in a practiced manner, he blew out a breath while his gaze remained on Beaudry. “The man of the hour.”

Beaudry tossed him a look over the saddle he had just landed on top of his horse’s back, fingers automatically going to the cinching routine he could do blindfolded. “What’s that supposed to mean? Or do I want to know?”

“Well, the usual talk around the tables at the Coffee and Chat about the drought and the latest rise or drop in cattle and hog prices has been replaced with the ‘goings on’ involving my little brother and a certain heiress. It’s a change of pace, but I don’t know if I can handle being related to such a celebrity.”

“No doubt you’ll do just fine,” Beaudry shot back, making one more adjustment to his saddle. “Just remember that you agreed this was the course we needed to take that day in Matt’s office.‘Break the news on the good neighbors of Burkitt easy and they won’t cause such a stir.’Or are you jealous that gossip about your own bachelor shenanigans might have been shelved for the time being?” That was a jab of the good-natured brother-to-brother kind, accompanied by the usual gotcha grin they both understood so well.

“Humph.” Jaxson shook his head. “That’s a dog that doesn’t hunt any longer in these parts. Only one Hawkes’s bachelor status is in question in this corner of the world. And the interest is growing by the minute. The best part is standing back and watching you squirm around like a big worm caught on the end of a fishing hook, about to be tossed into the deep end of the pond. And swallowed up by a determined barracuda.”

“Has the heat already gotten to you, brother? Last time I looked, we don’t have any barracuda in ponds around here.”

“Well, I guess I was trying to find the right fish for this analogy, seeing as how, in about three minutes, there’s going to be one sailing through that barn door with her sharp teeth snapping. And I’ll just go out the back door to leave you dangling on that hook.” Jaxson was already headed toward the tack room with its escape route far from the main entrance to the barn.

What in the world?Beaudry didn’t have to remain in the dark long. A familiar voice sounded behind him; he had waited too long to escape. It wasn’t a barracuda that swam through his mind in that moment, but a full-sized shark, evidently hungry.

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