Catching the Cowboy: A Small-Town Clean Romance (Summer Creek Book 1) Read online

  Since her ice cream was covered in dirt anyway, she tossed it into the ditch, grabbed both handlebars and began pedaling like she was in a race and intended to win. She coasted off the road onto the Summer Creek Ranch lane and pumped the pedals, sliding to a stop as her father stepped out of the luxury sports car he tended to only drive in the summer since it was a convertible.

  “Sweetheart!” James wrapped her in a hug when she hopped off the bike and propped it against the fence surrounding the yard.

  “Daddy! What are you doing here?” she asked, watching as her uncle helped his wife out of the car.

  “Your mother insisted we spend Easter with you. I spoke with Nell about it yesterday. She assured me it would be fine, but we asked her to keep it a surprise.” James kissed her cheek, then turned to help his wife out of the car.

  “I told you we should have had Drew drive us in the sedan,” Lisa Brighton complained as she let James pull her to her feet.

  Barely over five-feet, Lisa was petite and as southern as they came, even if she diligently strove to keep her Georgia roots deeply buried.

  “Baby! Come give your mama some sugar.” Lisa held out her arms and Emery went into them, giving her mother a loving hug. “Oh, I missed y’all somethin’ fierce.”

  Emery grinned at her mother’s drawl. Whenever she got upset or excited, Lisa couldn’t hide it. “I thought you were still visiting your friends, Mom. When did you get back?”

  “Day before yesterday. The house just seemed too empty and quiet without you there.” Lisa turned a pouting look to James. “Your father said you’re doin’ well, but I wanted to see for myself. Oh, you look terrible, darlin’. Dirty and disheveled, and your hands! My word, Emery! What have they done to you?” Lisa stared at the rough, reddened spots on Emery’s palms and fingers.

  “I’m actually doing well, Mom. Really well.” Emery realized the truth in her words. She liked life in Summer Creek, where the pace was far slower than in Portland, but the days could be hectic and busy, and exhausting in a good way. Emery felt stronger, both mentally and physically, than she had in a long, long time, maybe ever. She loved being with the Cole family. Cricket had stolen her heart from the first time she met the lively child. Jossy had become a friend and confidante. Nell was like a grandmother to her. And then there were the complicated, entangled feelings she held for Hud.

  But her mother didn’t need to know any of that. All she needed to know was that Emery was well and happy.

  “I love it here, Mom. I’m truly grateful to Dad and Uncle Henry for making me come.”

  Lisa scowled. “Well, I’m not, and it’s gonna take a good while before I forgive them for kidnappin’ my baby and leavin’ her in some desolate, backwater … ”

  “Nell! So nice to see you,” James said in a loud voice that drowned out Lisa’s words.

  “Oh, Nell!” Emery’s aunt Jenny exclaimed as she rushed over to the woman. “It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen you. I don’t think you’ve aged a day.”

  Nell beamed as she welcomed Jenny with a hug, then looked to the rest of them. “I’ve aged plenty, but you can butter me up all you want.”

  They all laughed, and Emery nudged her mother forward.

  Nell extended a hand to Lisa. “We’ve not yet met, but I’ve heard so much about you. Welcome to Summer Creek Ranch, Mrs. Brighton.”

  “Thank you.” Lisa took Nell’s hand and managed to offer her a cordial smile while modulating her voice to one of a dignitary. “We do appreciate you keeping an eye on Emery for us.”

  “We’ve loved having her here,” Nell said, winking at Emery, then placing a hand on Lisa’s shoulder. “Come on inside and have a glass of tea. I just pulled cookies out of the oven.”

  “Chocolate chip, I hope,” Henry said, smiling at Nell and holding the screen door open as the others walked into the house.

  Emery was the last one in the door. She stepped inside in time to watch her mother wrinkle her nose as she looked around in disdain.

  “What is that horrid stench?” Lisa stage-whispered to Jenny.

  Jenny gave Henry a helpless look before smiling too brightly at Nell.

  Before Emery could explain why the house smelled of boiled eggs and vinegar, Cricket’s voice carried to them from the kitchen.

  “Grammy! I need help!”

  Emery and Nell rushed down the hallway while the others followed. Cricket stood on a kitchen chair with a purple egg in one hand and her shirt sleeve dripping blue dye on the floor.

  “Did you decide to color your shirt?” Emery asked as she set her bag on a barstool, then hurried to grab a rag to mop the floor while Nell rinsed Cricket’s sleeve in the sink. She plucked the egg from her hand, then set the little girl on her feet.

  “Uncle Henry!” Cricket squealed when she saw who followed them into the kitchen. “Uncle James!”

  “Hi, princess. How are you?” Henry asked, hunkering down and giving Cricket a big hug. The little girl turned to James and offered him a hug, too. When James let her go, Henry gave her a peppermint candy and a wink.

  “Cricket, I’d like you to meet my wife, Jenny. And this other pretty lady is Emery’s mother, Lisa.”

  “Hi!” Cricket smiled at both women, then spoke so animatedly, it was hard to keep up with her. “We’re coloring Easter eggs. Tomorrow we get to find them in the park, and I wanna win a prize. I’m gonna change my shirt.” She raced out of the kitchen, her footsteps thudding down the hallway.

  “She certainly is … ” Lisa started to speak, but Jenny interrupted.

  “Adorable. Precious. Full of fun.” Jenny smiled at Nell. “And she looks so much like Jossy did at that age.”

  “Doesn’t she?” Nell smiled at Jenny, then looked at Lisa. “I do apologize for the state of things, but we need another ten dozen eggs colored for the hunt tomorrow. Emery stopped at the store on her way home to get more food coloring.”

  “And I snagged the last box,” Emery said, digging into her bag and setting the box of food coloring on the counter. “Should I add it to the bowls?”

  “Yes, please. After Cricket soaked up half the blue dye with her shirt, we could use more color.”

  Stupefied, Emery’s family watched as she mixed more dye for the eggs, then took a pan of eggs off the stove and drained it.

  “Can we help? I haven’t colored eggs for years and years.” Jenny removed her designer jacket and draped it over a kitchen chair.

  “Pretty please? Can we play too, Nell?” Henry looked like an excited boy as he removed his jacket and tossed it over Jenny’s, then rolled up his sleeves.

  Nell laughed. “Help yourself. There are plenty of eggs left to color.” She glanced around at her guests. “You all will stay for dinner, won’t you?”

  “No, we wouldn’t want to impose,” Lisa said, somehow managing to look simultaneously disgusted and imperial.

  “But we … ” James snapped his mouth shut at a quelling look from his wife.

  Nell gave him a sympathetic look. “Well, let’s plan on you being here for dinner tomorrow. And you all are invited to join us in town for the egg hunt. It starts at ten. Oh, and I hope you’ll join us Sunday morning for church services. We don’t have a sunrise service, but the pastor will hold the regular Sunday service at half past ten.”

  “That all sounds fine,” Henry said, looking at Jenny.

  “It sounds lovely.” Jenny hugged Nell’s shoulders, then accepted the floral-printed apron the woman held out to her. “Thank you for including us when we’ve intruded on your holiday on such short notice.”

  “Friends are never an intrusion.” Nell smiled at her, then went back to dipping eggs.

  Cricket returned, dressed in a clean shirt, and somehow talked Lisa into going outside to see the calves and horses.

  Emery craned her neck trying to look out the window as Cricket led Lisa toward the pasture.

  “Afraid your mother will insult Cricket?” James asked, stepping behind her.

  Emery turned a
round and grinned at her father. “I’m more worried about Mom. She might faint if one of the dogs gets too close to her.”

  “I doubt it. When I first met your mother, she lived in a single-wide trailer that was forty years old. She and her two roommates had four dogs between them.”

  “What?” Emery glared at her father. “I thought you met Mom at some snooty corporate event in Atlanta.”

  “I did, but what she never wanted anyone to know was that she was working as a waitress at the event and that’s how we met.”

  Emery blinked twice, sure she’d misheard her father. “Mom was a waitress?”

  James nodded. “Yep. And a good one, too. She works hard to hide that part of her past, although I don’t know why. I didn’t care if she was penniless or rich. The first time she set a cobb salad in front of me, I knew I was in love.”

  “Daddy, that’s so sweet.” Emery kissed his cheek. “And that explains a lot about Mom.”

  “She means well.” James patted Emery on the back. “I’m certainly glad to see how well you’ve settled in. And I heard all good reports from both Hud and Henry. Did you get the box I sent this week?”

  “I did, Daddy. Thank you.”

  Emery thought of the gifts her father had sent each week he’d received a good report about her. Some might call the gifts bribes for continued good behavior, but Emery looked at them as awards for a good effort. She’d received gourmet chocolates and coffee, a box of imported English tea she could only find in a few select stores in Portland, a pair of soft slippers, and a bottle of her favorite lotion.

  “Those chocolates were incredible, James.” Nell gave him a teasing look. “We sure appreciated Emery sharing them with us.”

  “Well, we appreciate you sharing your home with her.” James lifted a yellow egg from the dye and studied it before setting it back in the bowl. He looked to Emery again. “If I’d known that was you riding a bicycle on the road, I would have stopped.”

  Emery giggled. “You barely have room for Mom and Aunt Jenny in your car. Where would you have put me and the bike? On the roof?”

  “That bicycle is … ”

  “Hud’s castoff,” Nell said. “He thought she needed a form of transportation into town, but other than Stran’s old pickup, we don’t have an extra vehicle for her. Unless she wants to drive the lawn mower.”

  Henry laughed. “Now that I’d like to see.”

  Emery stuck her tongue out at her uncle, then went back to creating swirls of color on the egg she dipped in pink and then blue dye.

  “Hud used to ride that bike into town all the time before we let him drive.” Nell looked at James. “He put a new chain and tires on it but ran out of time to paint it. It looks like a piece of junk, but it gets Emery where she needs to go.”

  “It’s been fun to ride it, Dad. I get to enjoy fresh air and sunshine, and it only takes about fifteen minutes to get from here into town.”

  James offered his daughter a studying glance. “Are you still enjoying the work at the library?”

  “I am,” Emery said, remembering the newspaper article she’d found earlier. “That reminds me of something I brought home to show Nell and Hud.”

  She set the egg she’d been coloring into an empty carton, wiped her hands on a stained dish towel, then retrieved the newspaper from her bag. “I found a story about you and Uncle Henry rescuing Michael Cole. Is that how you all originally met?”

  Henry nodded, taking the newspaper from her. “I used to have a copy of this. Wonder where I put it?”

  Jenny leaned on his shoulder to read the article.

  “I’d forgotten about that story being in the paper,” Nell said, leaning around Henry’s other side. “Mike always tried so hard to be so grown up, and we often forgot just how young he was. Stran sent him into the hills to round up some stragglers in the herd. A rattler spooked his horse, and Mike fell off. He broke his leg in two places and spent the rest of the summer in a cast. But if Henry and James hadn’t found him, goodness only knows what might have happened. Mike’s horse came back here to the homeplace without him, and I was beside myself. Mike was our only child, you see, and Stran and I both felt so guilty about letting him go off by himself like that. He was only nine at the time.”

  Henry nodded at Nell. “James had just graduated from high school, and I was home for the summer from college.” A far-off look crossed his face before he continued. “We’d been working hard and decided to take a week off between odd jobs to relax. A friend from college mentioned good fishing in this area, so we packed our old car and drove up to Summer Creek. Someone stopped by our camp to ask if we’d seen a little boy. Since the fish weren’t biting, we joined the search. When we found him, Mike wasn’t in good shape, but we brought him back to the ranch, and that’s when we met the Cole family.”

  “And have been friends ever since,” James added, as he looked at the newspaper. “I was a good-looking kid back then. You weren’t too ugly, either, brother.”

  Everyone laughed, and Jenny hugged her husband. “You both look pretty good for old men.”

  “Hey, watch who you’re calling old,” James said, winking at Jenny before he returned to coloring eggs.

  By the time Cricket returned to the house with Lisa, it was getting close to dinnertime.

  “Are you sure you won’t stay?” Nell asked again.

  “No. We’ll eat in town, but thank you.” Lisa gave James a pointed glance.

  “Where are you staying?” Emery asked, wondering if her mother held the crazy notion that a five-star hotel awaited her in Summer Creek.

  “It’s taken care of, but we’ll meet you in the park in the morning.” Lisa kissed Emery’s cheek and smiled at Nell. “Thank you, again, for your hospitality.”

  Nell nodded. “Anytime.”

  “I like you,” Cricket said, running over to Lisa and giving her an impetuous hug.

  Emery expected her mother to stiffen and pull away. Instead she bent down and gathered Cricket close, pressing a kiss to the unruly curls on the child’s head.

  “I like you, too, Cricket. We’ll see you tomorrow at the park.”

  “Okay!” Cricket hugged James and Henry, then Jenny, before she raced out of the room.

  “She’s lovely, Nell. Such a bright little thing. What grade is she in?”

  “First grade.” Nell smiled. “We think she’s splendid, but the slightest possibility exists that we might be biased.”

  “Not in the least,” James said, giving Emery a parting hug. He took Lisa’s elbow in his hand and guided her out the door.

  Emery stood with Nell on the porch, waving as her family left. “You think Mother will figure out the best place she could have stayed was here?”

  “Soon enough,” Nell said with a grin, tugging Emery back inside the house. “Come on. We’ve still got two dozen eggs to finish coloring.”

  Emery groaned in mock dismay, even though she was having a wonderful time.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Is it time now, Daddy?” Cricket asked for the fourth time in as many minutes.

  “Not yet, baby girl.” Hud reached down and ruffled Cricket’s hair, giving her a tender smile.

  While Nell and Emery hauled the dozens of Easter eggs they’d colored into Summer Creek so they could be hidden throughout the town’s small park, Hud tried to keep Cricket entertained.

  She’d gone with him to feed the cows, and then he’d let her ride her pony, Blister, in the corral near the barn while he tidied the tack room.

  After she lavished attention on one of the calves he was bottle feeding and walked out to see the piglets, they’d gone back to the house to get cleaned up. Hud was all thumbs when it came to Cricket’s wild hair, so he called Jossy to see if she could provide assistance.

  He barely had time to tell Cricket her Aunt Jossy would come style her hair when his sister strolled into the house. He blinked and gave her a second look, surprised to see her dressed not in scuffed boots and manure-coated chaps, but a
pair of new jeans, a pretty blouse, and her best pair of cowboy boots.

  Hud scowled. “Going somewhere?”

  “Yeah, you big dolt. With you and Cricket to town for the Easter egg hunt.” Jossy’s glower made her thoughts on his intelligence perfectly clear. “Do you really think I’d miss out on watching Cricket race around the park?”

  He shrugged. “I assumed you’d be too busy.”

  “As usual, you assumed wrong. Besides, I heard Emery’s fancy-pants mother was going to be there and I want to see her for myself.” Jossy smirked mockingly. “Did you meet her yesterday?”

  “Briefly. Cricket gave her a tour of the place. I happened to be bringing in a sick calf as they were leaving the barn.” Hud grinned as he recalled running into Lisa Brighton. From her dour looks and the snooty tilt of her nose, he assumed he hadn’t made a stellar first impression. Not that it mattered. He’d most likely never see her again after this weekend, anyway. “I don’t think she was impressed with me or the observation that calf scours are the same color as the hideous jacket she had on.”

  Jossy chuckled. “You might avoid mentioning the similarity if you want to score any points with her.”

  Another shrug rode his shoulders. “Why would I care what she thinks?”

  Jossy leveled him with an observant look. “Seriously, Huddy? Are you absolutely certain you don’t have rocks rattling around in your head?”

  Before he could say anything in his defense, she marched down the hall toward Cricket’s room.

  Ten minutes later, Cricket and Jossy returned to the kitchen. Cricket was dressed in an entirely different outfit than the one she’d chosen earlier. Admittedly, the jeans and denim jacket with a ruffled hot pink blouse and sparkly pink tennis shoes looked cute. Jossy had somehow managed to tame Cricket’s curls and pulled them back with a pink bow that matched her shirt. A pair of glittery sunglasses completed the outfit.

  “Look at me, Daddy! I’m stylin’!” Cricket flicked up the collar of her jacket and struck a pose with one hand in the air and the other on her hip, cocked at a sassy angle.