My Cowboy Valentine: Be Mine, Cowboy / Hill Country Cupid

Tommy continued to grin and eat, watching Cade’s face as he chewed, and something shifted and ached in Cade’s chest.

It was ironic, but with his dark hair and big blue eyes, Tommy looked an awful lot like Cade and could easily pass for his son, just as Cade had looked like his father, rodeo cowboy legend Jack King, who’d died at twenty-seven when his horse had rolled on him during the saddle bronc competition. It was a freak accident—and rare—as most fatalities in the sport came from bull riding, and even then there had only been three in the PRCA since 2000—but it made big news.

Cade wasn’t much older than Tommy when his dad died, just five, but he remembered the funeral and all the cowboys who attended, and how so many of them clapped him on the shoulder, or patted his head, and told him one day he’d be a great cowboy, too, just like his dad.

Funny. Cade rarely thought about his dad, despite becoming a rodeo champion in his own right, but remembering his childhood never felt good and he’d learned to get through life by focusing on the next event, the next road trip and the next prize to be won.

“Done,” Tommy said, pointing to the hall. “Go. LEGOs.”

“You had enough to eat?” Rachel asked, leaning across the table to wipe his mouth off.

Tommy nodded so Rachel excused him, and Cade watched Rachel watch her son dash down the hall and he felt his chest grow tight again. She loved her son so much, and her love was so pure and so unconditional that it moved him deeply. She was so different from his mother, who wasn’t a maternal woman...

Abruptly he stood and gathered the plates and cups and carried everything to the sink, turning the faucet on to rinse the plates clean.

“Leave it,” Rachel said from behind him. “I’ll do it later.”

“I’m here. Let me help.”

“You’ve helped so much already today, Cade. You saved me.”

“I did nothing—”

“Nothing? You were an answer to my prayer! If it weren’t for you, Mia wouldn’t have had a cake, and what’s a wedding without a cake?”

“Not much of a wedding,” he agreed, turning off the water to smile at her, his expression warm. “But it was my pleasure to drive you there, and attend the reception with you. You looked so happy...it made me happy to see you smile and laugh with your friends. I have a feeling you don’t get to see your girlfriends as much as you used to.”

Her mouth curved and yet he saw a shadow in her eyes. “No, but someday they’ll be moms and we’ll have more in common again.” And then just like that the shadow was gone and she was sitting forward in her seat, smiling mischievously at him. “And you, Cade King, were quite popular at the reception. Seems like you knew everybody. There was a line of folks waiting to talk to you all afternoon. I swear you were more popular than the bride and groom.”

“I sure hope not, considering I wasn’t invited.”

Rachel laughed. “You might not have been invited, but Mia was thrilled you were there. She’ll be telling everybody for the next year that a celebrity attended her wedding.”

Cade grew warm, uncomfortable with talk like that. “I’m not a celebrity,” he growled. “And I was there as your wheels. Your assistant. Your driver.”

Her lips pursed and she arched a dark eyebrow. “My chauffeur?”

“Exactly.”

She gave her head a faint shake, even as her gaze searched his. “You really didn’t mind racing around, wrestling with my cake, dealing with my car?”

“Best day I’ve had in years.”

“Stop it.”

He drew an X on his chest. “Cross my heart, Rachel James.”

Her lower lip quivered before she bit down hard into it. “You’re killing me.”

“Why?”

“You’re too good with lines.”

“They’re not lines, Rache,” he said earnestly, wishing he could reach for her, touch her, take her into his arms. “I mean everything I say. I loved being with you today. It felt good. Right—”

“So, how long do you think it’ll be until my car will be ready?” she asked, jumping to her feet, reaching for the bottle of root beer and screwing the cap on. She walked quickly to the refrigerator and put the root beer away, but the tumble of dark hair around her face only highlighted how pale she’d gotten.

Cade silently kicked himself, wishing he could take the words back. What was the matter with him? Why make her uncomfortable? “At least two or three days,” he said. “Maybe more, depending on how hard it is to find the parts and complete the labor. But Phil will call you in the morning once he’s been able to assess things better.”

“Will it be expensive?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Cade hesitated. “Probably.”

“How expensive?”

“Could be anywhere from six hundred to nine hundred dollars.”

“Nine hundred?”

“Provided you don’t need a new engine.”

Panic flared in her eyes. “Seriously?”

Cade jutted his jaw, feeling like hell. “Not what you want to hear, huh?”

“No. Accountants might be busy this time of year, but not wedding-cake folks. We slow after Valentine’s Day and, yes, it’ll pick up late April, but...” Her voice trailed off and then she shrugged and forced a smile. “I’m going to go check on Tommy.”

Down the hall in Tommy’s room, Rachel leaned against the doorway watching him line up his miniature LEGO figurines. Pirates and ninjas and little Harry Potters. She loved watching him play and how engrossed he became in his activity. And he’d always loved his room. From the time he was a toddler, it’d been his sanctuary. He’d miss this room, and so would she.

She was still watching Tommy when Cade came to find her a few minutes later. “Everything okay?” he asked.

Her skin prickled with awareness as he came up behind her. She might not want to be attracted to Cade anymore, but her body certainly knew he was there. “Yes,” she said, flashing him a quick smile. “Just thinking. I’ve lived in this house ever since Tommy was born.”

“There must be a lot of good memories here.”

“Hundreds,” Rachel agreed, thinking of the green-and-white nursery she’d decorated for Tommy and the cheerful Beatrix Potter quilt Grandma had sewn for his crib before making a matching quilt to hang on the wall.

“What’s your new place like?” Cade asked.

“Nice,” she said quickly, maybe too quickly, because she saw the lift of Cade’s eyebrows. “Of course it’ll need a little TLC. Every place does. But it’ll be good once we’re all settled.”

“You’re taking the furniture?”

Rachel glanced past him, back down the hall, toward the kitchen with its solid, scratched oak table, but it was a table she loved more than anything, and then to the dining room and living room beyond.

“As much as I can,” she answered, her fingers curling into a fist that she pressed against her ribs. She wouldn’t be taking the kitchen table with her. She couldn’t. It wouldn’t fit through the narrow apartment doorways. And yet that table represented her grandmother more than anything else in this place. Grandma Sally sat there every morning with her coffee and every night at dinner with her iced tea. And it was home. And maybe it was silly, because it was just a piece of furniture, but it made her feel loved. “It’s an apartment, not a house,” she added, huskily, “so not everything will fit.”

If Cade heard the break in her voice he gave no indication. “When do you move?”

“The new people are moving in on the sixteenth, but I have to be out by the fourteenth so they can clean on the fifteenth—”

“You’re moving on Valentine’s Day?”

She rolled her eyes. “Valentine’s Day isn’t a big deal to me, and Tommy doesn’t care, so it’s not something we focus on around here.”

“Can I help you with the move?”

“I’ve already got that handled.” She glanced around Tommy’s room, which would be the last room packed since he didn’t like his things disturbed. She needed to go through his toys, too, and donate the things he’d outgrown or didn’t play with, but she was so sentimental. Many of the toys symbolized the early years. The years when she hadn’t known what was wrong with Tommy, only that something was wrong with Tommy, even though doctors just told her not to worry so much, that boys were often developmentally delayed, that many little boys struggled with speech...

But she’d known. She’d known that something wasn’t right when a baby wouldn’t look at his mother. She’d known in her heart that it wasn’t supposed to be like this...her baby should smile...look into her eyes.... Tommy did neither.

Cade frowned. “Won’t that be expensive?”

“I’m doing it as a barter. A wedding cake in exchange for two guys and a truck for three hours.”

“That’s smart.”

“Mmm,” she agreed, unwilling to let Cade know how hard it’d been to find someone who would barter the move. Rachel had never had a lot of money, and paying for Tommy’s specialists and therapists was a constant strain, but it was worth it. Already the weekly speech and occupational-therapy sessions had made a difference.

“Where is his dad, Rachel?” Cade asked quietly.

Rachel glanced quickly at Tommy before moving away from his door and walking back to the kitchen. “Calgary,” she said, picking up the plates Cade had rinsed and adding them to the dishwasher.

Cade drew out a chair at the table and sat down. “He’s Canadian?”

“No. David’s from Dallas. I met him at a bar in Fort Worth one night when I was out with Mia and some of the other girls.” She added the root-beer glasses to the top rack, closed the dishwasher door and faced Cade. “From far away David looks like you—tall, dark, handsome. But he wasn’t you.” She grimaced and shrugged. “Definitely wasn’t you, and we only went out a couple times, but I somehow still managed to get pregnant.”

“And David doesn’t want to be part of Tommy’s life?”

“He gave me money for an abortion before leaving town.” She lifted her chin, looked Cade square in the eye. “I didn’t love David. He was a rebound thing, but there was no way I could get rid of the baby. So I took the seven hundred and fifty dollars he gave me and opened a savings account for Tommy’s college education. And maybe Tommy won’t go to college, but he’s going to have an amazing life. I’ve given up on a lot of dreams these past few years, but I’m not giving up that one.”

Chapter Five

Before Cade could think of an answer, Tommy walked into the kitchen with the television remote.

“Show,” Tommy said, holding out the remote to Cade.

Cade glanced at Rachel. “Can I turn on the TV for him?” he asked, rising.

Rachel sighed and rubbed at her forehead. “Yes, but he won’t be happy. He wants a particular program—”

“Show,” Tommy interrupted, impatiently pushing the remote into Cade’s hand before walking out. He glanced over his shoulder at Cade and gestured for him to follow. “Scooby.”

Cade followed him to the living room and hit Power on the remote. It took a moment before the old TV flickered on.

“Scooby,” Tommy repeated, looking expectantly at Cade.

“Scooby-Doo?” Cade answered. “You like that show? I do, too.”

Tommy flinched, facial muscles twitching before he nodded and smiled, a jerky little smile. “Scooby. Shaaag...Shaaggy.”

“Scooby and Shaggy are my favorites.”

Tommy’s mouth twisted again but this time no sound came out and he simply smiled.

“Hey, Rache, what channel is your Cartoon Network?” Cade called to her, thinking she was still in the kitchen.

“We don’t get cable anymore,” she said quietly from right behind him. “Just the regular free stuff. But he doesn’t understand. We won’t have cable until we move.”

“Don’t you have a DVD he could watch?”

She sighed. “It broke last month.”

“Scooby,” Tommy insisted.

Rachel raised her voice. “Tommy, we can’t watch Scooby-Doo right now, but I’ll see what else is on,” she said cheerfully but firmly. “Maybe we can find a kids’ show on another channel.”

The boy’s mouth worked, his features tightening and grimacing. “Scoob. Mama.”

“We’ll find another show you can watch, Tommy,” Rachel repeated, even more firmly. “I’m sure there is something fun on—”

“Scooob, Mama. Tommmy...good boy.”

“We can’t watch Scooby, Tommy—”

Tommy let out one of his piercing wails and Cade suddenly couldn’t breathe, his chest on fire. “You can get DVD players cheap now, Rachel,” Cade said shortly, angry, so angry, and not even knowing why.

“Not cheap enough,” she answered, raising her voice even louder to be heard over Tommy’s wailing.

Cade’s gut hurt. His emotions were so damn raw. “I’ve seen them for sixty-five bucks—”

“And that sixty-five bucks will pay for ten hours of child care or buy groceries or pay for a half hour of speech therapy,” she snapped, facing him. Color flooded her cheeks, making her gray eyes luminous. “So I have to make choices, and they need to be good choices, and unfortunately buying a cheap DVD player so Tommy can watch Scooby-Doo isn’t one of them!”

Cade’s chest grew tighter and he drew a short, rough breath, temper simmering. “It’s that bad around here?”

“I wouldn’t call it bad. I’d call it tight. But it’s always been tight. And maybe it’s a struggle but it’s a good struggle, because I’m making it...I’m doing it. I’m taking care of my boy and I don’t need David or you or any other man to waltz into my life like you’re some fairy godfather and make things better.”

“I’m not interested in being a fairy godfather. I just want to get you a DVD player. Please.”

“That’s not necessary. But thank you.”

Tommy moved behind Rachel, and began bumping his face repeatedly into her hip. “Scoob. Show.”

“Rachel, it’s sixty-five dollars. And it’d make him happy.”

Her chin lifted even as she put a hand behind her to stop Tommy from pushing against her. “A lot of things would make us happy—a new car and hot-fudge sundaes and a trip to Disneyland, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get them—” she held up a hand to stop him when he would have interrupted “—and I’m okay with that. Those are luxuries. I—we—don’t need luxuries. What we need is speech therapy and physical therapy and occupational therapy and doctors and teachers, and those all cost money. A lot of money.” She swallowed hard, and her chin jerked even higher. “But I’m doing it...I’m giving him every important thing I can.”

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