Love Drunk Cowboy

chapter 17

Rye fidgeted while he waited. Austin was coming home to Terral for good. She’d even left her car behind in Tulsa and flown to Dallas. He’d arrived an hour early and looked through the shops. He bought a long stemmed red rose wrapped in crinkly clear paper and tied with a bright red ribbon. Then he found a seat as close as he could get to her gate and waited. Time crept by so slowly that he wondered if the clocks had stopped, but every so often the boards with arrival and departure times would shift. Finally, her flight number and time fell into place and the line after said that it would be right on time.

Ten more minutes and her plane should be setting down. He picked up a six-month-old magazine but nothing in it held his attention for more than five seconds. Fifteen minutes passed before he saw a stream of people coming up the corridor. She wasn’t among the first ones and he feared she’d changed her mind. When she’d called the night before she was excited about the plans but she’d had time to sleep on it; time for her mother and aunts to convince her not to make such a foolhardy change in her life.

He caught a flash of a tall woman with dark hair and there she was, waving at him with one hand, dragging a small suitcase on wheels with the other. He stood up and waved back and everyone in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport disappeared. She covered the distance in long strides and walked into his open arms.

He swung her around in circles and kissed every inch of her face. He set her down and kissed her long and passionately, then picked her up and swung around three more times. When he set her down he gathered her into his arms and kissed her again, this time longer and more lingering and with more heat.

“I can’t believe you came home for good. I’m so happy I could jump up and down like a little kid at Christmas,” he whispered in her ear as he hugged her tightly to his chest.

“I missed you too!” She laid her head over his heart and heard the steady rhythm. That was Rye. Steady. Dependable. Truthful and still sexy as hell!

He tipped up her chin with his fist and kissed her again and then handed her the rose. “Welcome home.”

“Wow! Kisses and a rose and you… what a homecoming!”

“That’s just the beginning of the story. Let’s go to baggage claim and get your things.”

“No need. Got it all right here.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“There’s still three months on my apartment lease so I just brought a few things. Later, I’ll have it all packed and put into storage closer to Terral.”

He looped her arm through his and picked up the handle of the suitcase. “Then let’s go home, Austin Lanier. Have I told you in the last ten minutes that you are beautiful?”

“No, but flattery gets sex in the bathtub or on the counter. Hey, we haven’t christened the kitchen table yet.” She smiled. She wore the jeans and lace blouse from the Red Barn and had topped it off with a suede vest that tied in the front that she’d picked up when she and her mother had shopped.

“Anytime you want to give it a try, I’m game, but remember that table is at least fifty years old.” He hugged her tighter to his side.

“But what a way to kill it, right?” She giggled.

“Hungry?” He changed the subject.

“For you or food?”

“Either one can be arranged.”

He’d found a short-term parking spot close to the entrance of the terminal, so he draped an arm around her shoulders and led her outside to his truck. He opened the door and helped her inside then rounded the tail end and settled into his seat. He’d barely slammed it shut before she flipped the console unit up and wiggled her way into his lap, her long legs straddling him like he was a saddle.

“I want an appetizer of you and then food.” She kissed him long and hard, unbuttoning his shirt the whole time, feeling his rock hard muscles and abs. “I’m not ever leaving again.”

“Promise.”

“Oh, yeah! Now let’s go find some fast food and go home.”

“It’s not fast food but we could get a beer at Chili’s Bar and Grill.” He sunk his face into her hair and inhaled deeply.

“Sounds wonderful. I want a beer in a bottle and chips and picante and when I’m done with fajitas I want one of those chocolate cake things that is absolutely sinful.”

He grinned and kissed her so long that she was panting when he broke away. “Whew!” She fanned her face with her hand. “Gotta stop or else figure out a way to have sex in the airport parking lot.”

She shifted back into her seat.

He couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. She’d said home more than once so she must mean it! No more counting the hours until she got back from Tulsa. No more phone calls that left him pacing the floor with hot desire.

“How about you, Rye O’Donnell? You wanted my farm. Are you glad that I’m not selling or disappointed that you won’t ever get that land now?” She strapped in her seat belt.

Oh, honey, there’s more than one way to get that land. But I’m not nearly as interested in three square miles of dirt as I am in you, he thought.

He said, “I’m not a bit disappointed.”

Her phone rang at the same time he started the engine and she fished it out of her purse, checked to see who it was, and answered, “Hello, Mother. I’m on the ground and Rye and I are heading toward a Chili’s for supper.”

“Good. When you get tired of playing farmer down there in the hinterlands, call me. I’ve hired a decorator to redo an office for you at the dealership,” Barbara said.

“Don’t spend too much money,” Austin said.

“There’s the doorbell. James and I are having dinner with some friends.”

“Have fun.” Austin flipped the phone shut and put it back in her purse.

“Spend too much money on what?” Rye asked.

“An office in the dealership. It’s her hope that I’ll hate this place by the time we bring in a watermelon crop and will need a job so she’s creating a managerial position in the dealership for me. Since I used poor judgment and left a gravy job in the oil company, I am no longer deemed responsible enough to own Lanier Chevrolet but I won’t be allowed to live in a cardboard box out by the Goodwill store. I told her that if the car business went belly-up I’d give her a job.”

She’d left an apartment full of her things and a mother with an office waiting. Things weren’t nearly as simple as he’d hoped they might be but, hey, the watermelon crop wasn’t in and if she came home to him, then she might stay home with him if he gave her plenty of reason.

“What are you grinning about?” she asked.

“Your mother on a tractor? I’ve never seen her but somehow I don’t think high-heeled shoes and a fancy suit would last long out there in the watermelon fields.”

She giggled. “She wouldn’t be caught at a dog fight in overalls, much less covered in sweat and dirt. And riding on a tractor? That is a funny vision.”

“I’m glad you are home, Austin. I can’t begin to tell you how much I miss you when you are gone. I feel like I’ve known you forever,” he said.

She’d wondered after the first few times that she talked to him why she was so drawn to their conversations on the phone. Why she felt so energized and happy when she talked to him. Ten years and she’d never met the man who’d been such a big part of her grandmother’s life. Then she met him in the café. Was that fate and if it was, why?

Hell’s bells, I betcha Granny fixed that too! She’s been having a grand old time making sure the timing was right for us. That’s why she didn’t want her ashes scattered until Easter—so I’d be here for the first of the planting. And that’s why she doesn’t want us to have sex at his house. She wants us to settle into the place across the road. Sly old girl, aren’t you?

“You look pretty serious over there. Regrets?” Rye asked.

“No regrets.”

“Cháchara?” He chuckled.

“I’ve got lots of time to take care of the rest of the junk. Tomorrow I will call a company for one of those roll-off Dumpsters. When it arrives the scoop shovel can take care of the cháchara.”

“Set up a couple of tables out in the yard and put all the junk you don’t want on them. Put a sign that says ‘free’ in great big letters on it and you’ll be surprised how little of it gets into the Dumpster.”

“Is that where Granny got so much junk? Did she go to free sales?”

“She loved garage sales and the Red Barn. My grandmother is the same way. I’ll take you to her house sometime. It looks just like Granny Lanier’s.”

“You are kidding me.”

“No, I’m not. They’ve both got their own quirks but they are a lot alike. Like planting the first seeds of each row by hand.”

“Yes, she did have her ways and she was superstitious as hell.”

“So is Grandma,” Rye said.

“We made good time getting out of the airport traffic. We shouldn’t even have to wait for a table.”

“Good because I’m really hungry. Mother says I’ll be calling Omar the tentmaker to design my clothes if I stay in Terral.”

What stuck in his brain was “if I stay in Terral.” She must have a few doubts hiding in the shadows of her subconscious to say that, but he would erase them if it took every damn bit of the energy he had left in his body.

“Granny was tall and thin and never watched a thing she ate. A couple of years ago the doctor told her that her cholesterol was slightly elevated and if she’d be careful she might never have to take medicine for it. Know what her response was?”

Austin nodded. “I will eat what I want and die when I’m supposed to.”

He parked the truck and unfastened his seat belt. Turning toward Austin, he ran the back of his hand down her jawline. “I wouldn’t care if Omar did make your clothes.”

Her nose wrinkled in disbelief and she said, “Really?”

“Really.” He leaned in and brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “You’d be beautiful in a burlap bag tied up in the middle with a piece of frayed out rope.”

“I already told you that flattery will get you anything you want, including a bump on the head or bathtub sex.” She quickly unfastened her seat belt and opened the door. She met him in front of the truck and he laced his fingers in hers.

They devoured the first basket of tortilla chips and went through two bowls of salsa before their meal arrived. She was on her second beer when she realized he was still nursing his first one and raised an eyebrow.

He read her expression and held up the mug. “I’m driving. One is my limit. You don’t have a limit.”

“I love this stuff. Never drank it, so it’s not an acquired taste. Must be a dormant gene that’s surfacing.”

“You never drank beer? Not even in college?”

She shook her head. “I always had a martini and my limit was one.”

“When did you have your first one?”

“At your house. My dad loved a good cold beer, but Momma said she wouldn’t kiss him with beer on his breath, so he didn’t drink them often. Guess that’s my dormant gene. Did Granny like beer?”

“Honey, your granny loved beer. Coors was her favorite. That and Jack Daniels, neat. Two fingers.”

“That I knew. It’s pretty damn good, too. I had one yesterday just to see. Granny told me that it was sipping whiskey, not the kind that you throw back down your throat like they did in the old western movies.”

Rye stuffed a flour tortilla with grilled beef, peppers, and onions, added a bit of guacamole and a spoonful of salsa. “She’s right. It is sippin’ whiskey. It’s meant to be savored, not tossed back. Kind of like sex with you,” he teased.

“Then that must be the reason I like it so well!”

***

They talked all the way home just like two old friends but when he parked in the front yard, friendship stopped and something far deeper began. The kisses started at the pickup door with a slow brush across Austin’s lips. They intensified so much with each step that by the time they reached the porch a step at a time, she was panting, he was breathing hard, and red-hot desire could have been written in the stars overhead.

She was pressed against the wall but didn’t break the kiss to reach around behind her, open the front door, and walk backwards into the house. She kicked the door shut with her boot heel and unfastened his plaid western shirt starting at the top and working her way down through three buttons before sinking her hands into all those muscles and groaning.

He slipped his hands under her blouse and whispered, “I love touching you.”

Her lips found his again in the darkness.

He didn’t tell her that he liked a woman her size, that tiny women scared the bejesus out of him. She didn’t tell him that she had never been so turned on in her life or that she didn’t care if she got another leg cramp. She peeled his shirt from his broad shoulders and tossed it at the sofa. “Sit down and let me get those boots off.”

He pulled her down to the sofa with him and removed her blouse and bra before he let her remove his boots. She sat on him backwards, put one hand under the heel of the boot and one on the toe and had them both off in seconds.

“You’re pretty damn good at that.”

“I’m learning,” she said.

His fingertips danced up and down her bare back, sneaking around the sides for quick touches of the sides of her bare breasts and loving the way she gasped. The past was gone and he wanted to be a big part of her future.

She stood up and led him down the short hallway to her grandmother’s bedroom, fell back on the full-sized bed, and dragged him down with her.

He didn’t know when her boots had been left behind but when he pulled her jeans down over her hips they were already gone. Moonlight flickering through lace curtains on the window made her red toenails sparkle. He kissed each one individually, taking time to make her moan before making his way back up to her lips.

“Don’t make me wait. I’ve thought about this moment all day. I was scared to death that the plane would have to land somewhere between Tulsa and Dallas and I wouldn’t be able to do this.” She ran her hands over his body, and felt tension and desire bottled up there as much as she felt it in her own body.

“Yes, ma’am, but I do not intend to hurry. I’ve thought of nothing else all day too.” His breath was warm against her already-hot skin.

He started a rhythm that produced shivers, purring noises, and long, sensual kisses. Keeping things from going too fast was the hardest job he’d ever done but he made it last until she finally dug her nails into his back and pleaded. After which he rolled to one side and drew her close to his side.

They slept until midnight in the soft glow of moonlight and that special light reserved for cowboys and the women who brand them. She awoke first to find his strong leg thrown over her body, one arm under her and the other over her, her breasts pressed into his chest and his face buried in the crook of her neck.

That uncanny feeling that tells a person when someone is staring at them awoke him. He opened his eyes slowly and hugged her tighter.

“Round two?” He kissed her neck right where the hickey still shined.

“Too tired. Time for you to go home. We’ve both got a big week ahead of us and rodeo on the weekend.”

“Wake me early and I’ll make breakfast,” he mumbled.

“Rye, I’m going to live in this town for the rest of my life. You are going home.”

“Okay! Okay!” He rolled off the bed and grabbed his jeans.

She pulled the sheet up under her arms and stood toe to toe with him. “Don’t get huffy.”

He hugged her close to his bare chest and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow and I’m not huffy.”

“I’ll cook supper, so plan to eat here.”

“And go home before daylight?”

“Probably before dark.”

He groaned. “I know I’ve said it a lot but you really are killing me, Austin Lanier.”