Cowboy Take Me Away

Chapter 19


As the band started playing a slow, sweet song, Luke stuck his phone into his pocket and rose from his chair, taking the most direct route across the dance floor, dodging people left and right. When he reached Shannon, she was still wearing that smile.

He closed his hand around hers and led her to the dance floor, then pulled her gently around to face him. As he slid his hand around to her back, she skimmed her fingertips to his shoulder, then flattened her palm against it. Twining the fingers of his other hand with hers, he pulled it against his chest.

They didn’t dance as much as they simply swayed to the music. With each second that passed, they moved a fraction of an inch closer to each other until her breasts grazed his chest. He stroked his hand up and down her back.

Ah, God, it felt like heaven.

“Told you I couldn’t dance,” she said against his ear.

“You dance just fine,” he murmured. “Just fine.”

He inhaled her scent at the same time he moved his hand gently over her back, imprinting his mind with both of those sensations. Her hand felt so soft inside his, and he hoped his calloused fingers weren’t scraping her tender skin.

“People are watching us,” Luke said.

“I don’t care.”

“Will you regret it tomorrow?”

“No. Never.”

“Even with your mother watching?”

“That doesn’t bother me, Luke. And it won’t ever again.”

A cool evening breeze swirled around them, drawing them even closer together. Luke felt as if they were the only couple on the dance floor. He’d never heard the song before, but it was pleasant and soothing and it felt as if it was playing just for them.

He slid his hand up and tucked it beneath the hair at the back of her neck, stroking his thumb back and forth. She sighed softly and lay her head against his shoulder. He closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the sensations. But when he opened them again, he glanced across the dance floor and saw Loucinda looking back at him. She caught his gaze and held it. In the span of a single second, her hard, unyielding eyes told him no matter what he thought, he wasn’t one of them. That he never could be, no matter how Shannon felt about him.

Just seeing that expression on her face stirred up Luke’s old feelings of inferiority all over again. In the end he knew what would happen. Long after he was gone, her family would still be there, and sooner or later Loucinda would make Shannon pay for whatever she did tonight.

Finally the music wound down. Shannon pulled away and looked up at him, her blue eyes shimmering in the dim light. He had the sense of people looking on, but they seemed to fade away to the edges of his vision until all he saw was her. Then, in the middle of the dance floor with the whole town looking on, she did something he never imagined she would.

She took his face in her hands and kissed him.

It was a long, soft, sensual kiss that no one watching could have mistaken as a quick kiss between friends. He knew he should pull away. Hold her at arm’s length. Ask her if she knew what she was doing. But he just couldn’t bring himself to make her stop. Then she eased her lips away, trailed them along his cheek, and whispered in his ear.

“Come to my apartment.”

Yes.

As the crowd dispersed, Luke told her he’d parked just a little bit illegally and needed to move his truck. Shannon told him she’d say good-bye to her friends and meet him at her apartment. Their hands were still clasped together as they walked away from each other. Shannon waited until the last second before letting go, and even longer before she turned away. Her eyes were tempting, her smile full of promise.

Luke walked across the square and down Rainbow Way to the intersecting street where he’d parked, hoping the sheriff and his deputies had been far too busy that night to even think about issuing citations. But as he came closer to his truck, he saw something far worse than a parking ticket. Russell was leaning against the fender, his arms folded, watching as Luke approached.

Luke stopped in front of him. “What do you want?”

“I saw you with Shannon.”

“So?”

“I want you to stay away from her.”

His words were slurred just enough that Luke could tell he’d had one too many drinks, which meant he needed to avoid getting angry and keep on moving. He shook his head and brushed past Russell, heading for the driver’s door of his truck.

“Hey!” Russell said. “Don’t you walk away from me!”

Luke hated that tone. Hated it. “You’re drunk, Russell. Beat it.”

“When are you leaving town?”

“None of your business.”

“Just make sure you don’t come back.”

That really fried Luke. This guy thought he could tell him where he was allowed to go and when?

“You know what?” Luke said, turning back around. “Now that I think about it, I might come back. In fact, you’ll never know when you might turn around and I’ll be there. I’ll be your worst nightmare, Russell, because you have no way of knowing when I might show up again.”

“You’re such a bastard,” Russell said. “And I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

“I don’t give a shit what you or anyone else thinks.”

“How about Shannon? Do you care what she thinks? A man like you would never fit in with her family.”

“It’s not about what Shannon’s family wants,” Luke said hotly. “It’s about what she wants.”

“And you think she wants you because she kissed you out there in front of the whole town?” He made a scoffing noise. “She had a fight with her mother earlier. Loucinda told her you were scum and she should stay away from you. Shannon was just making a point because she doesn’t like to be told what to do. Are you really stupid enough to think it was anything else?”

No. That wasn’t the way it was. He knew how Shannon felt. But her mother—God. Was that woman going to make life hell for her until the day she died?

“I was sitting with Jerome and Loucinda while you and Shannon were dancing,” Russell said. “Do you know what Loucinda said? She said you came from trash and you’re still trash.”

Luke wanted desperately to get past that. To feel like his own man. But in this place he would always be associated with his father. Always. That hard, horrible, repulsive man was his legacy, now and forever.

Luke remembered the look Loucinda had given him when he and Shannon were dancing, that look that said that because of where he came from, her daughter would be defiled if he so much as touched her. He knew Shannon didn’t feel that way. But that look from her mother…it brought up something inside him that made him feel every bit as filthy and disgusting as his father. It wasn’t rational. He knew that. But he couldn’t shake the feeling of living eighteen years in this town with that hanging over his head.

No! Don’t pay any attention to any of this. Get out of here. Go!

Luke waved his hand dismissively and turned to get in his truck. Russell grabbed his shoulder and spun him back around. Luke shook off Russell’s hand and glared at him, his fist tightening at his side.

“If you touch me again,” Luke said, his voice slipping into the warning range, “we really are going to have words.”

Russell smiled. “Ah, now there’s the Luke who’s legend around here. The one who has a real hard time controlling his temper.”

Something old and painful welled up inside of Luke, ripping open that barely healed wound until it bled. “You don’t know a damned thing about me.”

“I know you want her,” Russell said, his voice low and intense. “I mean, what man wouldn’t? But you don’t stand a chance.”

“And you do?”

“Shannon might go slumming for a while, but in the end she knows where she came from.”

“Listen up, Russell,” Luke said, his mind growing blurry with anger, his fist itching. “The only reason you have any shot at all with Shannon is because I’m leaving.”

“Bullshit,” Russell said. “A woman like her deserves a better man than the son of the town drunk!”

White-hot fury obliterated the last of Luke’s restraint. With a roundhouse punch, he smacked Russell in the face with his doubled-up fist. Russell stumbled backward. Instead of going down, though, his face came alive with rage. He rushed at Luke, shoving him backward. Luke fell to his back, his head smacking against the ground. Russell fell on top of him. The pain only fueled Luke’s anger. He shoved Russell away, rose to his feet, and went after him again. He heard people behind him shouting. He couldn’t make out the words. They were nothing but noise. He kept punching until Russell went down again, and then he leaped on top of him. Luke had the sense of people gathering around, more shouting, but he was beyond rationality. Beyond stopping. Beyond doing anything but making this bastard pay for what he’d said. He wanted the whole f*cking town to pay for what it had done to him all those years ago, for ignoring him, for treating him as if he was a lowlife just because of an accident of birth, for turning the other way when they saw a bruise on his face or a bloody lip. The anger and bitterness he thought he’d shelved came roaring out from the dark recesses of his mind, making his vision blurry with rage and his fists shift into weapons he was beyond controlling.

Then somebody grabbed his wrist and yanked him backward.

“Hey! You two break it up! Now!”

When Luke looked up, he saw the sheriff standing over him. He came to his feet, breathing hard, pain slicing through his head. Russell stood a few feet away, his nose bleeding and his left eye already beginning to swell.

Luke leaned against his truck, breathing hard, his head spinning crazily, feeling as if it was about to split wide open. The sheriff took off his hat, wiped his brow with his forearm, and put it back on. “Okay,” he said wearily. “Who threw the first punch?”

Luke wiped blood off his nose. “I did.”

“You’re damned right you did,” Russell said. “I’m pressing charges!”

The sheriff sighed. “Now, Russell, I’d like you to think twice about that. If we just talk about this—”

“No! He assaulted me!”

“Looks to me like you both got your licks in pretty good,” the sheriff said. “Why don’t we just forget about this whole thing, everybody go home—”

“Hell, no,” Russell said, gritting his teeth. “I told you I’m pressing charges!”

“There’s no need to escalate this,” the sheriff said. “If you’ll just—”

“I said I want him to go to jail!”

Jail? Luke felt a shot of apprehension. No. Not that. No!

The sheriff turned to Luke. “If you threw the first punch, it’s assault. If he wants to press charges, I gotta take you in.”

Luke just stood there, his head pounding, unable to believe this was happening. He had no idea how long this would tie him up there. He was due in Denver soon. If this dragged out very long, he might even miss the first round of competition, and the dream he’d been chasing for the past decade would disintegrate before his eyes.

No. It was worse than that. He was being arrested for assault. If Russell carried that all the way to the end, he could actually go to prison.

Slowly Luke became aware of people surrounding him, whispering, pointing. He couldn’t make out their words, but he didn’t have to. He knew what they were saying.

I knew this would happen.

Of course it was his fault.

Bad seed.

Just like old times.

Guess he’s like his old man after all.

What happened next was a blur. The sheriff turned him around and cuffed his hands behind his back. Luke had a flashback to the humiliation of his teenage years, when these cuffs around his wrists had spurred him to spit out a string of curse words a mile long. But this time he didn’t say anything, even as a hot flame of resentment burned inside him.

The sheriff walked him to the patrol car. Put him in the backseat. Luke gazed around the inside of the car. His hazy memory of being in the back of a police car before became crystal clear, and he hated what he saw.

The sheriff started the car and pulled away. Luke looked out the window. Shannon was standing ten yards away, her hand against her chest, the most horrible mix of shock and disappointment on her face.

He turned away, unable to look any longer. Now he knew that the past few months had been an illusion. A cruel illusion that he was becoming part of this town somehow, but in the end, nothing had changed. Somehow he would get out of jail. Leave this town behind, just as he had all those years ago, but this time he’d stay gone. As far as he was concerned, they could all go straight to hell.



As Shannon watched the sheriff’s taillights disappear down the street, she had the most unbearable feeling of everybody in the crowd staring at her, as if she was going to explain it to them. As if she was going to tell them why Luke had beaten the hell out of Russell and the sheriff had dragged him to jail. But she didn’t know. She’d arrived just in time to see the sheriff pull Luke off Russell and both men bruised and bleeding.

Eve grabbed Shannon’s arm. “Come on. You need to go home.”

“Eve—”

“Now.”

She led Shannon down the street toward her apartment. As they walked, Shannon saw her mother standing on the curb nearby, giving her a look so cold it made her shiver. Her eyes were dark. Accusatory.

Triumphant.

Didn’t I tell you what kind of man he was? Didn’t I tell you?

And then she turned and walked away.

Shannon’s stomach turned over with anguish. She couldn’t imagine the Luke she knew doing this. Ever. It was as if he’d shifted to another world, another dimension. Russell had to have provoked him into the fight. But what the hell could he have said or done to make Luke hit him? What?

She wanted to go back in time. Just ten minutes. That was all. Just go back ten minutes to the time they’d spent on that dance floor in each other’s arms, when they’d made plans to be together in her apartment tonight. That was all she wanted.

Only there was no going back.

Luke was going to jail. Half the town had witnessed it. And now the connection she’d felt with him had been ripped apart, leaving a hole so ugly and jagged that no force on earth would ever be able to repair it.



Early next morning, Russell sat at his desk, his face still throbbing. His nosebleed had stopped, but the bruises would take some time to go away. And the swelling. And the anger. And the confusion. And—

He heard some commotion in his front office. He went out to find Cynthia there, putting stuff into a box on her desk. She glanced at him. Looked at his bruised nose. Then she looked away again, picking up the clock from her desk and putting it into the box.

“He didn’t break my nose, in case you’re wondering,” Russell said.

“I wasn’t.”

Her words hit him with nearly as much power as Luke’s fist. And still she wouldn’t look at him.

“What are you doing?” he asked her.

“Cleaning out my desk.”

“What for?”

“I quit.”

Russell’s stomach fell to the vicinity of his knees. “What do you mean, you quit? You don’t want to quit.”

“The hell I don’t.”

He couldn’t believe it. Cynthia had cussed at him. Cynthia. Yes, she had more of a mind of her own than he ever realized, but in the end, she was a good girl who only went so far. She’d cussed, and she hadn’t so much as apologized for it?

“Okay, fine,” he said, an anxious feeling coming over him. “You’re quitting. But why?”

Cynthia raised her chin. “I heard what you said to Luke last night. It was awful. You deserved what he did to you and more.”

Russell froze. Thought back to the words he’d spoken. Well, so what? Luke had done the unthinkable. He’d tried to take Shannon right out from under him.

“You heard that?” he asked.

“I was going to my car. But you weren’t paying attention, because you were saying mean things to Luke.”

He grabbed the rabbit before she could stuff it in the box. “You’re quitting because of something I said to Luke?”

“I’m quitting because you’re a clueless man who drives me crazy.” She took the rabbit away from him and put it in the box. “By the way, I’m taking Jessie with me.”

Russell drew back with disbelief. “You can’t take my cat!”

“She’s not your cat. She’s mine.”

“I adopted her.”

“Doesn’t matter. She’s mine. If you don’t believe me, just ask her.”

He glanced over at Jessie, who sat on Cynthia’s desk as if she belonged there, right between the aloe vera plant and that weird lamp with the fringed shade. The truth was that Jessie had never liked him, so why would he want to keep her? She was better off with Cynthia. Yes. That was exactly right. Both of them had treated him badly, so they deserved each other.

“Fine,” he said. “Take her. Is there anything else you want?”

He’d meant that sarcastically, only to see her looking around the room. “The ficus tree. It was dying when I showed up here. I brought it back to life, so I figure that makes it mine, too. And that little watercolor on the wall over there. I got it from the Red Barn, thinking it would look pretty in your waiting room. But you never said a word about it, so I assume you don’t like it.”

“I do like it. I told you I liked it.”

“No, you didn’t. Not once. So I guess it’s mine after all.”

“Fine!” he said, throwing his arms up. “Take everything! Take it all! Do you want my dental drills, too?”

She seemed to ponder that for a moment, then shrugged. “No. You can have those.”

“You had to think about it?”

“Well, you did ask.”

He looked at her incredulously. “Stop talking to me like…like you’re not you!”

“How would you know if I’m being me? You don’t know me.”

“I don’t know you? You’ve worked for me for six months!”

“Doesn’t matter. You don’t know me. But I know you.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Sure I do. Enough to know that as much as I like Shannon, she isn’t the right woman for you. Not even close.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re both workaholic control freaks. That’s a recipe for disaster. If you marry and have kids, they’ll be so neurotic they won’t be able to show their faces in public. They’ll stay in their beds every morning with the covers pulled up over their heads. You need balance in a relationship. That’s what makes it work.”

Russell felt as if his brain was turned inside out. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing happened to me.”

“So if I’m not good for Shannon, who is?”

“Who do you think?” Cynthia rolled her eyes, then spoke with ultra-enunciation. “Luke.”

“He hit me!”

“You deserved it. Haven’t we been through that already?”

“So you’re quitting because of something I said to Luke?”

“Of course not. You’re actually a nice person at heart, so sooner or later you’re going to be sorry for what you said. And you’ll beat yourself up plenty, so there’s no point in me doing it.”

“So why are you leaving?”

“I told you before. Because you’re a clueless man who drives me crazy.”

Russell felt his eyes crossing with confusion. “That makes no sense.”

“Once again. Clueless. Good-bye, Dr. Morgensen.”

With that, she jerked the box up and took it to her car. She came back inside, yanked the painting off the wall, and took it away, too. Then she came back inside and put Jessie into a cat carrier. And when the door closed behind her for the third time, she was gone for good.

He stood there helplessly, humiliation crawling through him. Just once in his life he wanted to come out on top. Be a winner. Be a man other men envied. And now, once again, he was hanging from the bottom rung like the biggest loser alive.

He had to face facts. Shannon wasn’t his. She’d never been his. Not from the beginning, and certainly not now. He thought if only he pushed hard enough, he could get a ring on her finger, and the rest would take care of itself. Then he’d be part of the North family and his station in this town would be assured forever. But Shannon didn’t want him.

She wanted Luke.

When the two of them were together, it was as if they were meant for each other. Why, Russell didn’t know. Matters of the heart had always been the hardest things for him to fathom. If he tried to understand it, his head would hurt for the rest of his life.

The strangest feeling overcame him. It was as if Cynthia had seen right through his skin to the man beneath. That scared the crap out of him, because he wasn’t sure that was a man he wanted anybody to see.

She’d been right. About everything.

This had been his fault. Luke hadn’t wanted trouble. But Russell had given him trouble, anyway, because Luke had taken Shannon away from him, as if he’d ever had her in the first place. Right now, though, for some reason he couldn’t fathom, something else bothered him more.

He’d lost Cynthia.

He’d done things in his life he wasn’t proud of, but nothing like he’d done last night. Shame filled him, crawling inside him and making him sick to his stomach. Cynthia was right about him. He was clueless. No wonder he drove her crazy. Somehow, some way, he had to make this right again.

He walked back to his office, grabbed his phone, and called the sheriff.