Cowboy Take Me Away

Chapter 14




When Shannon arrived at the shelter the next morning, she went to the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee, then sat down at the table to go through her mail, even though the mail was the last thing on her mind. Bridget curled around her legs, purring loudly, then flopped down to lounge in the middle of the kitchen floor.

A few minutes later, Luke came into the kitchen, his hair sleep-mussed and his shirt unbuttoned down the front, that gorgeous chest peeking out. He gave her a cursory glance and headed for the coffeepot. She tried to gauge his mood but came up empty. She decided it could fall anywhere between I just got up don’t talk to me and I never want to speak to you again.

She took a deep, calming breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? For what?”

“Just about everything that happened last night after there was a knock at the door.”

He grabbed a cup from the cabinet. “Oh, that.”

“Just how angry are you?”

“I’m not angry.”

“But after what you said last night—”

“No. It was my fault, too. I put you in a bad position.”

“What do you mean?”

He poured a cup of coffee, then sat down at the table. “I should have stayed in the bedroom.”

“No, I put myself in a bad position by worrying so much about what my mother thinks.”

“Have you talked to her since I left last night?”

“No. She won’t attack this head-on. She’s more the silent treatment type with a little passive aggressiveness thrown in.”

Luke ran a hand through his hair and let out a long breath. “Look, I get why your mother’s upset. If I’d been a mother back then and my daughter hung around with a guy like me, I’d have had a problem with it, too. Now’s no different. You’re still her daughter.”

“I know. But I’m still letting her get to me. I’m an adult, and I’m still doing it.” She fingered her coffee cup. “I really am sorry about last night.”

“Forget about it. If we start trading apologies, we’re going to be here all day.”

After that night in the hayloft all those years ago, she hadn’t expected him to feel this way about what had happened last night, and she was amazed at how good it made her feel. The boy he’d been was slowly disappearing from her memory, replaced by the man she knew now, a man she not only lusted after but genuinely liked. She felt as if they were starting over, only from a better place.

Unfortunately, now that the animosity was gone, all that remained was an attraction so strong it could have kept all nine planets in orbit. As the seconds ticked by, she thought about what he’d meant to her back then, and how just sitting and talking to him had made her feel good in a way nothing else ever had.

“For the record,” she said, “I really did care about you.”

Luke looked down at the coffee cup he held, tapping it silently with his fingertip. Then he lifted his eyes to meet hers. “For the record,” he said, “I wasn’t there just to get laid.”

He stared at her without blinking, and Shannon was suddenly having a hard time breathing. She wanted to deny the way she felt about Luke, but it was impossible when he looked at her like this. And she had the feeling he knew it. This was a man who noticed when her pupils enlarged and goose bumps raced up her arms. What chance did she have at keeping him from knowing every thought that went through her mind?

None at all.

Self-consciousness overwhelmed her until finally she couldn’t stand it any longer. She started to push her chair away from the table. “I’d better go. I have a million things to—”

“Don’t get up,” Luke said.

Shannon stopped, her heart beating madly.

“You have a habit of running away,” Luke said.

She put her hand to her forehead, sighing with frustration. “Look, Luke. You said what happens between us doesn’t have to be a big deal. But casual sex just doesn’t work for me. So I think we need to stop this once and for all. There was a time when we were just friends. Can we go back to that?”

Luke pushed his coffee cup aside. He leaned in, his gaze fixed unrelentingly on hers. “Is that really all you want?”

No, damn it! I want to go back to my apartment with you and make love until we can’t stand up!

He moved so close she could feel his body heat mingling with hers. “Tell me that’s all you want,” he murmured. “And if you mean it, you’d better make me believe it.”

“That’s what I want.”

A tiny smile crossed his lips. “Try not to blink, Shannon. You’re giving yourself away.”

“Luke—”

All at once there was noise in the outer office. Startled, Shannon pulled away from Luke, and a moment later, Freddie Jo came into the kitchen.

“Donut day!” she said, setting a big white box in the middle of the table. “Shannon, I got those chocolate glazed ones you like, and lookie here, Luke. Bavarian crème. That’s your favorite, isn’t it?”

Luke tore his gaze away from Shannon. “Yes, ma’am. That’s my favorite.”

“What are you doing here so early?” Shannon asked.

“Plumbing work at the house today. They started early. Had to shower at six a.m. before they turned the water off. Thought I might as well come on in and get some work done.” She pointed to the donuts. “Well, eat up, you two.”

As Freddie Jo grabbed a cup of coffee, Luke reached for a donut, then rose from the table.

“Oh,” he said to Shannon. “Do you mind if I borrow that ladder in the equipment shed?”

Her heart still hadn’t slowed down, but she matched his nonchalance as best she could. “Sure. What do you need it for?”

“I want to climb up it so I can reach something taller than I am.”

She gave him a deadpan look. “Well, in that case, why don’t you take the lawnmower, too? That way you can slice the tops off of overgrown blades of grass.”

His brow crinkled. “Anybody ever tell you you’re a smart ass?”

He took a bite of the donut, giving her a little wink at the same time. As he walked away, he glanced back over his shoulder with an expression that made her body temperature shoot up about ten degrees.

Don’t think for a moment this is over, that look said. Not by a long shot.



Luke spent most of the morning replacing chewed-up boards on the corral fence, then most of the afternoon helping the farrier check out the horses’ hooves and shoe the ones that needed it. But through it all, his mind was on Shannon.

Friends. That was all she wanted? For them to be friends? He knew better. But he also knew that for all his intentions of staying clear of any emotional involvement, he was having a tough time of it. He loved it when she wore a sweaty T-shirt with hay stuck in her hair, because it meant she wasn’t afraid of work and had enough determination for ten women. He loved how she protected every animal that came to the shelter with the tenacity of a lioness looking out for her cubs. He loved the way she apologized when she was wrong even though it frustrated the hell out of her and she could barely get the words out. And he loved the times she let down her guard and melted into him when he touched her, then looked up at him with eyes that begged for more.

What scared him was that he might be only a kiss away from loving her.

He froze, his heart beating rapid-fire. That thought was out of bounds. Way out. It was this place—that was what did it to him. It pushed him back into the past until he felt like that poor, emotionally deprived boy he’d been, the one desperate to seize on to anything that looked like love. But he wasn’t that pitiful, needy kid anymore.

As much as he wanted her, maybe her suggestion that they just be friends was a good one. He knew he could coerce her. All he had to do was get her alone and remind her what it had felt like to come this close to making love. But he also knew that in the end, she’d resent him for it, and the last thing he wanted was bad feelings all over again.

When he finished working for the day, he grabbed the ladder, then headed to the hardware store in town to pick up a few supplies. He drove back up Highway 28 to the Pic ’N Go, where he unloaded everything from his truck. He poured paint into the pan, then unwrapped the roller. He took both of them up the ladder, knowing he’d have to do the whole wall so the faded paint that was already there wouldn’t clash with the new stuff.

He’d just gotten started good when he saw Myrna coming around the corner with Todd running along behind her.

She stopped and looked up at him. “Luke Dawson!” she called out. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

He came down off the ladder and gave her a smile. “Hi, Mrs. Schumaker. I thought I’d do a little painting.”

She looked at him warily. “What for?”

“Well, as creative as that graffiti is, I thought you might like it better if it was covered up. Now, I checked with Bob at the hardware store to make sure to get the right paint, and he said this is the same stuff you’ve been using for the past twenty years. Is that right?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Would you rather have it a different color?”

“Uh, no…”

“Well, then, I guess I’ll get back to it.”

Myrna continued to stare wordlessly at the partially painted wall as if she didn’t quite know what to make of it. Luke started up the ladder again, only to have Todd tap him on the leg.

“Why are you painting?” he asked.

“To cover up all these words.”

“Why?”

“Because we want it to look exactly like it did before.”

Todd pointed to a particularly vile epithet in bright red spray paint. “What’s that word?”

“It’s not a nice one, so we’d better not say it,” Luke said, swiping at it with the roller.

“Who painted it on there?”

“Well, that’s hard to say, but I suspect it was some dumb teenage boy.”

“Why’d he do that?”

“I think he was probably just mad at everybody, so he drew bad words on the side of the building.”

“Oh.”

“That’s no excuse, though. You should never mess up somebody else’s property for any reason. Now, the person who did this is the one who should be painting over it, because when you do something wrong, you should make it right again. But it looks like we’re going to have to do it for him. How about it, Todd? Do you like to paint?”

“Yeah!”

“No!” Myrna said.

“Grandma! Why can’t I paint?”

“Because you’ll get paint all over your clothes.”

“I’ll be careful!”

“Todd—no. Not this time.”

“Let’s see if this’ll work,” Luke said. He stepped down off the ladder and grabbed a plastic trash bag he’d brought. He poked a hole in the bottom of it, and a couple on the sides, then turned it upside down and slipped it over Todd’s head. It covered him all the way to his shoes. Then he shoved Todd’s T-shirt sleeves into the openings so just his bare arms were hanging out.

“Turn around and show your grandma,” Luke said.

Todd turned around with a big grin, holding his arms out from his sides. “I won’t get any paint on me now.”

Myrna looked at Todd, then raised an eyebrow at Luke. “I suppose that’ll be fine. But don’t you dare let him up on that ladder.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Luke said.

As Myrna disappeared into the building, Luke smiled down at Todd. “Now the first thing you have to learn is how to get the right amount of paint on your brush.”

Todd watched intently as Luke dipped the brush, then swiped off the excess on the side of the pan. Then he handed the brush to Todd, who slapped it on the wall. For the next hour, Luke rolled while Todd dipped. They talked about everything from Todd’s first grade teacher to his best friend to their neighbor’s dogs, who Todd said liked to fetch balls. When he got his dog someday, he said, he’d teach him to do that.

By the time they were finished, there was paint in the grass, on Todd’s nose, and on the makeshift plastic paint shirt he wore. There was even some paint on the building.

They stepped back to admire their work. “What do you think?” Luke said. “Looking good?”

Todd nodded. “Looking good!”

Luke smiled. It took so little to make kids happy. But that was what they remembered—the little things. Going fishing. Playing catch. Watching a movie together. Kids needed that kind of stuff. As Todd smiled up at the painted building, Luke felt a twinge of longing. This is it. What life’s all about. Living the small moments with the people who matter.

He hadn’t counted on this. He still had so many bad feelings about this place rumbling around inside him, but a few of them had been pushed aside, replaced by memories he wanted to hold on to even after he said good-bye to this town for the last time.

Luke grabbed the roller, paint brush, and paint pan and took them to the spigot on the side of the building to clean them up. As he was showing Todd how to wash out his brush, Myrna came back outside.

“I owe you for the paint,” she said.

“No, ma’am. You don’t owe me anything. In fact, I’d say it’s the least I can do.”

She held out a bottle of Gatorade. “On the house.”

Luke took it from her. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

As Luke took a long swallow of the Gatorade, Myrna handed Todd a boxed drink. He took a sip, then went back to washing paint off his brush.

“You know, Todd and I were talking,” Luke said quietly. “And it seemed to me he’d kinda like to have a dog.”

“Dogs are a lot of responsibility.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And they cost money to keep.”

“They do. But we have a couple of them at the shelter who need homes. Little ones. They don’t eat much.”

“Kids want a lot of things they can’t have.”

Yeah. They did. Luke knew all about that firsthand.

“There is a fifty-dollar adoption fee,” Luke said. “But I think we could work on that.”

“No need. If I decide he can have a dog, I’ll pay the money.” Then she looked at Todd and sighed. “I keep thinking he’ll forget about it. Maybe not want one so much.”

Luke shrugged. “Maybe he will. But if you ever decide it’s time to get one…well, you know where the shelter is.”

He thanked Myrna once again for the Gatorade, then said good-bye to Todd. As he was putting the supplies back in his truck, he wondered where the boy’s mother and father were, and how either of them could have left a kid like Todd the way they had. Thank God for Myrna. It wouldn’t be easy for Todd, but if he had at least one person in this world who loved him, he was going to be just fine.

As he pulled away, Myrna looked at the wall, then back at Luke. Then she raised her hand and waved good-bye before hobbling back into the store.



Late that afternoon, Shannon was leaving the office through the back door and passed the laundry room. Luke’s laundry basket was sitting on top of the dryer. She noticed a pair of his jeans in it, and those jeans had a smear of paint on them.

She stopped and stared at that paint for a long time, slowly putting two and two together. She’d been by the Pic ’N Go earlier. The graffiti on the side wall had been painted over. The paint on Luke’s jeans was precisely the same color of beige that was on that wall now. And what had he asked her earlier?

Do you mind if I borrow that ladder in the equipment shed?

When it finally struck her what he must have done, she was shocked. As far as she knew, Myrna didn’t like Luke in the least, yet he’d taken the time and trouble to paint over the graffiti on the side of her building? Shannon didn’t know what was going on, but it made little tingles of awareness flow through her, giving her the most amazing feeling of delighted disbelief.

First Manny, and now this. Luke had professed to have no heart. If that were true, it was only because he’d given it away, one piece at a time.



With Shannon’s blessing, over the next few weeks Luke did everything he could to get the animals adopted. When a woman came in with her six-year-old daughter one afternoon to adopt a kitten, he told them they were in luck. Three to four o’clock on Thursdays was Kitten Happy Hour—two for the price of one—and the kid ended up going home with a pair of litter mates. With kittens, sending two home together was the best situation of all. They would keep each other company when the family was at work or school, and two weren’t much more effort to keep than one. Yeah, the shelter got only half the adoption fee, which distressed Shannon a little, until Luke pointed out that one less mouth to feed meant less money seeping out of the bank account. And—amazingly enough—whenever somebody came to adopt a kitten, it just happened to be Kitten Happy Hour.

A lot of the time, Luke made things up—harmless things, like telling a kid he got the feeling a particular dog might have been in the circus at one point because he could roll over on command, even though he’d taught the dog the trick himself. People lapped it up, though, and pretty soon Circus Dog had a new home. But there was one very special dog Luke had a plan for, and he decided it was time to put it into action.

On his lunch hour, he grabbed Barney and headed for the Pic ’N Go. When he got there, he went inside, Barney limping along behind him on three legs. One of Myrna’s employees was manning the counter, a tall, gangly teenage kid. He rang up a couple of hot dogs for Luke.

“Is Todd around?” Luke asked.

“He and Mrs. Schumaker are in the back.”

“Will you let him know Luke is here? I’ll be at one of the picnic tables outside.”

The kid nodded. Luke went back outside and sat down, opening up his hot dogs. Barney sat next to him expectantly. Every once in a while, Luke would throw a red ball across the grass to one side of the building, and Barney would take off after it. He’d bring it back, and Luke would throw it again.

Pretty soon Todd came running out the door with Myrna right behind him. He spotted Barney, and his eyes lit up.

“Luke! You’ve got a dog!”

“Yeah. He lives at the shelter right now.”

“What’s his name?”

“Barney.”

Todd stared down at his missing front leg. “What happened to him?”

“He got in a little accident. But he gets around really good now.”

Todd patted Barney on the head, and the dog looked up at him adoringly. “He looks really happy.”

“That’s because you’re petting him. He likes that.”

Myrna walked over to the picnic table, her brows drawn together. “Luke? What are you up to now?”

“Just getting Barney here a little exercise.” He handed the ball to Todd. “Why don’t you throw it for him?”

Todd reared back and threw the ball across the lawn. Barney took off as if he’d been shot out of a cannon. In seconds, he’d brought the ball back and dropped it at Todd’s feet.

“Wow!” Todd said. “He’s fast!”

“Guess we’re lucky he doesn’t have all four legs, or he’d run so fast we wouldn’t even be able to see him.”

Todd giggled. “Can I throw it again?”

“Yep.”

Todd threw it. This time Barney buzzed across the lawn, leaped up, and caught the ball in his mouth. Todd’s eyes flew open wide. When Barney brought the ball back again this time, Todd knelt down to pet him. Barney licked his face, giving Todd a case of the giggles all over again.

“Hey, Todd,” Luke said. “It’s kinda hot out today. Why don’t you take Barney over to that water spigot on the side of the building and get him a drink? Just turn on the water and stick your hand under there like this”—Luke cupped his hand—“and he’ll drink out of it.”

“Okay. Come on, Barney!”

Todd hurried off with Barney trotting at his heels. Myrna watched them, shaking her head.

“Dog’s got a leg missing,” she said.

“Doesn’t slow him down,” Luke said. “And Todd doesn’t seem to care.”

“Is he any particular kind of dog?”

“Most likely not.”

“Is he housebroken?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Big appetite?”

“Not so much.”

“Any bad habits?”

“Yeah. He loves little kids, so he might follow Todd around wherever he goes.”

Myrna sighed. “I always thought you were the devil, Luke Dawson. Now here you are proving it all over again.”

Todd stuck his hand a little too close to the faucet, and water squirted all over both him and Barney. Todd’s laughter drifted across the yard to Luke’s ears, making him smile. There wasn’t much he loved more than the sound of a happy kid.

“He’s a good boy,” Myrna said. “He didn’t deserve having both his mama and his daddy leave him the way they did.”

“So where’s Belinda?” Luke asked.

Myrna frowned. “I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about that daughter of mine. If she wants to up and leave, good riddance.”

Luke just nodded.

“She may not have a lick of responsibility, but she didn’t get that from me. Todd’s my grandson. If I have anything to say about it, he’ll always have clothes on his back and food in front of him.”

But as she watched Todd and Barney making a mess with the water, Luke could tell she was wondering if there was room in the budget for something more than the basics.

“I’ll think about it,” Myrna said. “That’s all I’m gonna do. Just think about it.”

Luke nodded. “There’s something else I’d like to talk to you about.”

“What’s that?”

“There’s a high school rodeo tonight in Waymark. I know this is a lot to ask, and you can say no if you want to and there’ll be no hard feelings. But I was thinking maybe Todd might like to come along with me.”

Myrna turned her gaze to her grandson, who was still playing in the water with Barney. “He’s six years old. Doesn’t pay attention like he ought to. He’s liable to run out in front of a horse or fall right down the bleachers.”

“No, ma’am. No chance of that. Not while I’m watching out for him.”

Myrna lifted her shoulder in a half-shrug. “I suppose that’d be all right.”

Luke smiled. He loved the idea of taking a little kid like Todd to his first rodeo.

He couldn’t wait.



At six o’clock that evening, Shannon sat at her kitchen table, eating Rocky Road ice cream and balancing her checkbook. For so many years, she’d been used to a way bigger paycheck, a lot of which she shoved into savings. Good thing, because these days there wasn’t much left over past her basic living expenses.

At least things were looking up at the shelter.

Over the past few weeks, where animal adoptions were concerned, Luke had shifted into high gear. They had fewer animals on the premises than they’d had all year. In fact, Luke was accomplishing so much around there that she couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like when he was gone. There was something about turning around and seeing a fence fixed or the stock tank full before she even had a chance to say anything about it that made her feel as if things were slowly getting under control.

Then she heard a knock at her door.

She shoved the ice cream into the freezer and went to her living room. She opened the door and was surprised to see Luke standing there. Even more surprising was that Todd was with him.

“What are you guys doing here?” Shannon said, opening the door wider for them to come inside.

“Todd and I are going to a rodeo tonight,” Luke said.

“A rodeo?” Shannon said, smiling down at Todd. “Sounds like fun.”

“We thought you might like to come along,” Luke said.

“Come along? Tonight?”

“Yep.”

“It’s kind of short notice.”

“We just decided to go this afternoon.”

“I was balancing my checkbook.”

“Oh. Sorry. We wouldn’t want to get in the middle of all that fun.”

Shannon looked down at the khaki shorts and beat-up T-shirt she wore. “I’m a mess,” she said, shoving a strand of hair out of her face. “You expect me to go out in public looking like this?”

“We have a few minutes to spare. Jeans, boots, and you’re ready to go.”

“I’ve never been to a rodeo.”

“Well, then. All the more reason to go. It’s a high school rodeo. Not exactly the big league, but I need my fix.”

When Shannon still looked undecided, Luke looked down at Todd. “Todd? Tell Miss Shannon why she has to come with us.”

Todd gave Shannon a shy smile. “Luke says when a guy goes to a rodeo, he’s got to be with the prettiest girl.” Todd glanced up at Luke, then looked back at Shannon. “It’s a rule.”

Shannon raised an eyebrow at Luke. “A rule?”

“That’s right,” Luke said. “You don’t want us breaking a rule, do you?”

Shannon shook her head. “You’re relentless.”

Todd whispered to Luke. “What does that mean?”

Luke whispered back. “It means Miss Shannon is coming with us.”

Shannon told herself this didn’t mean anything, particularly when they had a six-year-old chaperone. But she couldn’t say she hated the idea of spending the evening with Luke. But just as friends.

Friends.