Rescue Me

Chapter Nine

Every year on the second Saturday in April, the Lovett Founder’s Day kicked off at nine A.M. with the Founder’s Day parade. Ever year, the reigning Diamondback Queen rode a huge rattlesnake made of tissue and toilet paper. Its big head and bejeweled eyes looked out at the crowd while its forked tongue flicked the morning air. The queen sat atop the coiled body, waving for all she was worth, like she was the Rose Queen making her way down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

This year, the float was hauled down Main by a classic 1960 Chevy F–10 furnished by Parrish American Classics car restorers. A second restored car followed behind the float. Twenty-three-year-old Nathan Parrish drove the completely restored 1973 Camaro; its big V–8, 383 engine pounded the morning air and vibrated the Diamondback so bad the tongue fell out around Twelfth Street. Marching closely behind and sucking up fumes, the Lovett High School band played the “Yellow Rose of Texas” while the dance team shimmied in their sequins and fringe.

After the parade, Main Street was closed off to cars. Vendors’ booths ran up and down both sides of the street selling everything from jewelry and hair bows to pepper jelly and knitted cozies. The beer court and food vendors were set up a block off Main on Wilson and were crammed with people from as far away as Odessa.

The Lovett Historical Society members dressed in period costumes. By noon it had warmed up to sixty-three degrees; by five, it was a balmy seventy-two and the society was looking a bit damp. In the Albertson’s parking lot, artists and cloggers performed throughout the day. That night, a local favorite, Tom and the Armadillos, was set to play at one end of the big lot while a pool tournament took place at the other end.

At seven P.M., Sadie pulled her Saab into a parking slot in front of Deeann’s Duds and hit the vendors down the street. What else was she going to do? Go home and stare at the walls? Watch more television? Check out YouTube until her eyes bled? God, how many talking dog and teenage prank videos could she watch?

She needed a life beyond the rehab center. Her father had always refused to give her responsibilities at the JH. Granted, at the moment she couldn’t analyze grazing reports and animal tracking data, but she’d taken plenty of college courses and was sure she could read graphs if someone took the time to show her.

There had to be something for her to do besides making her bed and washing her own dishes. Something easy. Something to keep her occupied that didn’t carry with it a big weight of responsibility. The responsibility of maintaining ten thousand acres, over a thousand head of cattle, and a herd of breed horses. Not to mention two dozen or so employees. Because she was a girl, her father had never taught her the business. Beyond just the basics she learned from living at the JH for eighteen years, she didn’t know a lot. She didn’t know what she would do once her daddy died. She’d been thinking about it a lot lately, and just the thought of the responsibility made her fidgety and filled her with an overwhelming urge to jump in her car and get the hell out of town.

After she’d visited her dad earlier, she’d gone home and changed into jeans, blue T-shirt, and a Lucky zip-up sweatshirt with a Buddha on the back. She dug out the white cowboy boots and white Stetson she’d worn in high school. The boots were a bit tight, like maybe her feet had grown half a size, but the hat fit like she’d worn it just the day before. She found her old custom-made belt with the JH brand worked into the leather and “SADIE JO” etched in the back. It was a bit stiff, but thank God it still fit.

She might live in Arizona, but she was a Texan and Founder’s Day was no joke. It was an occasion to “dress.” As she walked to the food vendors, she was glad she’d duded up. Given the size of the hats and belt buckles, teased hair and tight Wranglers, no one was messing around.

At the food booths, she bought a hot dog with mustard and a bottle of Lone Star.

“How’s your daddy?” Tony Franko asked as he handed her the beer.

She knew Tony from somewhere. She wasn’t quite sure where. Just like most everyone else around her, she’d grown up knowing them and they her. “Better. Thanks, Tony.” It had been a week since she’d moved him from Laredo.

As she moved down Main, she was stopped several times by well-meaning people who asked about her dad. She paused at the bead booth long enough to buy two coral bead bracelets for the Parton twins.

“How’s your daddy?” the woman asked as she took Sadie’s money.

“Better. I’ll tell him you asked.” She slipped the bracelets into her pocket and moved past the pottery and beeswax candle booths. As she looked at little armadillos and corncobs carved from stone, she polished off her hot dog and felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Dooley and me was real sorry to hear about your daddy, Sadie Jo. How’s he doin’?”

She looked across her shoulder at a woman she recognized from her childhood. Dooley? Dooley? Dooley Hanes, the veterinarian. “He’s doing better, Mrs. Hanes. How’s Dooley?”

“Oh dear, Dooley died five years ago. He had the cancer in his testicles. It was advanced by the time they found it.” She shook her head and her big gray dome wavered. “He suffered something fierce. Bless his heart.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” She took a drink of her beer and listened as Mrs. Hanes listed all the poor misfortunes that had befallen her since the demise of Dooley. Suddenly, sitting at home watching dog videos didn’t sound so bad. Dog videos and a hammer upside the head sounded like heaven.

“Sadie Jo Hollowell? I heard you were in town.” Sadie turned and looked into a face set with dark brown eyes and a huge smile.

“Winnie Bellamy?” She’d sat behind Winnie in the first grade and had graduated with her. They hadn’t been best friends, but they’d hung out with the same group. Winnie had always had long dark hair, but she’d obviously given in to the Texas in her and had dyed it blond and poufed it up.

“Winnie Stokes now.” She pulled Sadie against her chest. “I married Lloyd Stokes. He was a few years ahead of us in school. His little brother Cain was our age.” She dropped her hands. “Are you married?”

“No.”

“Cain’s single and he’s a catch.”

“If he’s such a catch, why didn’t you marry him instead of his brother?”

“He’s a catch now.” Winnie waved the question away. “He and Lloyd are playin’ in the pool tournament. That’s where I’m headed. You should come and say hey.”

The offer sounded better than Mrs. Hanes, dog videos, or a hammer. “Excuse me, Mrs. Hanes,” she said, and she and Winnie caught up on old times as they made their way to the Albertson’s parking lot a few blocks away.

Orange and purple streaked the endless Texas sky as the giant sun sank lower west of town. At one end of the grocery store’s parking lot, two rows of five pool tables were set up beneath strings of Christmas lights. Cowboy hats crowded the spaces around each table, broken up by the occasional trucker’s hat. Only one man braved the event out of costume.

Beneath the white Christmas lights, Vince Haven leaned a big shoulder into one of the square posts. He wore non-issue, beige cargo pants, plain black T-shirt without any sort of flag ironed or embroidered on it, and his head was bare. Obviously the man didn’t know the seriousness of the day, and he stuck out like a sinner among the converted. He held a pool cue in one hand and his head was cocked to the side as he listened intently to the three women gathered about him. Two wore straw cowboy hats; the other had teased her red long hair into a massive pouf like the Little Mermaid. She held a cue in one hand, and as she bent over the table, her hair flowed down her back to her butt in a pair of tight jeans.

“Sadie Jo Hollowell!” someone yelled.

Vince lifted his gaze from the women in front of him and his eyes locked with hers. He watched her for several long seconds before she turned just in time to be caught up in a big hug that lifted her off her heels.

“Cord?” Cordell Parton was three years younger than Sadie and had taken odd jobs at the JH off and on with his aunts.

“It’s good to see you, girl.” He lifted her up higher and his hat fell to the ground.

He’d gotten huge since she’d seen him fifteen years ago. Not fat. Just solid, and he squeezed her tight. “Lord love a duck, Cord. I can’t breathe.” Had she just said, “Lord love a duck”? If she wasn’t careful, she’d be saying “crying all night and pass the tea towels.” Maybe it was the hat. She was starting to sound like a Texan.

“Sorry.” He set her back on her feet and bent to retrieve his Stetson. “How’s your daddy?”

“Getting better.”

“My aunts said you’ve been spending a lot of time in Laredo with him.”

“He was moved to Amarillo last week.” She looked over Cord’s shoulder and her gaze landed on Vince’s butt as he leaned across the next table over and took a shot. Lord love a duck, he was hot. Judging by the three women watching his butt, too, she wasn’t the only one who thought so. He made those non-issue cargo pants look good.

“Come say hey to Lloyd and Cain,” Winnie said, and took Sadie’s elbow.

“It was great to see you, Cord. Come out to the ranch and have a beer with me one of these days soon. We’ll catch up.”

“Sounds good.” He slid his hat back on his head. As she walked away, he called after her, “You’re still as pretty as a Sunday sermon. I always had a crush on you, you know.”

Yeah. She’d known. She smiled and glanced at Vince out of the corners of her eyes. He lined up another shot, then laughed at something one of the women said to him. She wondered which one was his girlfriend, because, after all, he’d been in town for over a month. In Lovett, that was plenty long enough to meet someone, get married, and start a family.

“Hey. It’s Sadie Jo Hollowell,” Cain Stokes said as she and Winnie approached the table. He leaned over and lined up the white ball, and Sadie got a chance to look at him. She didn’t know if he was a catch, but he’d certainly improved since high school. He was taller. Leaner. And somewhere he’d developed a killer smile that filled his blue eyes with mischief. He also knew how to dress for Founder’s Day in a pair of tight Wranglers that outlined his package. Not that she cared to know.

“Hey, Cain.” She turned to his brother. “How’s it going, Lloyd?”

“Can’t complain.” Lloyd wasn’t as handsome as his brother, but he was better husband material. Sadie could tell just by the way he looked at his wife.

“I heard you were back in town.” He gave her a quick hug. “How’s your daddy doin’?”

“Good and getting better.”

She pointed to the pool table. “Who’s winning?”

“Cain.” Lloyd raised a beer to his lips. “He’s a hustler.”

In more ways than one. Cain came around the table and gave her a hug that lingered a bit longer than his brother’s. “Lookin’ good, Sadie Jo.”

“Thanks.”

Winnie followed Lloyd as he moved around the table and eyed his next possible shot. She told him exactly where he should hit the ball and how hard. “I was doing fine before you walked up,” Lloyd complained.

“Where ya’ been hangin’ your hat these days?” Cain asked.

“Phoenix.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Wanna play me next after I finish kicking Lloyd’s behind?”

“You gonna let me win?”

“No, but if you kick my butt I’m gonna tell everyone that I let you win.”

She laughed and shook her head. She was in Texas. Flirting was just another form of conversation. She glanced at Vince as he rose up from the table. Another time, another day, she might have flirted back a little with Cain. Tonight she just didn’t feel like it. Not that it had anything to do with the SEAL with the light green eyes. She just wasn’t in the mood and didn’t want to give Cain ideas. “Maybe next time,” she said, and moved from beneath his arm. Within the crowd surrounding the tables, she stood ten feet from Vince. Close enough to recognize the deep timbre of his voice and the answering laughter of the three women she was now close enough to identify.

The two women in the matching straw hats were the Young sisters. Not twins, but they looked enough alike that they could pass. Sadie recognized the redhead playing pool, too. Deeann Gunderson. All three women were close to Sadie’s age, but had been raised in Amarillo. She’d gone to charm school with them. They’d passed due to skill. She’d passed due to her last name, and the Young girls had never failed to point that out.

“I’m runnin’ to the girls’ room inside the Albertson’s. I hate those Porta Potties,” Winnie announced, and pointed to a row of blue portable outhouses across the parking lot. “You gonna be here for a while yet?”

“I think so.”

She watched Winnie move between the tables and past a skinny teen in full dress code compliance. He wore a big black Stetson and a Texas flag shirt with one enormous star on the back.

She took a step back out of Lloyd’s way and bumped into someone. “Excuse me,” she said, and looked over her shoulder into Jane Young’s hazel eyes.

“Sadie Jo Hollowell,” Jane said, drawing out her vowels. “It’s been forev-ah.”

It had been a long time, and Sadie didn’t believe in holding anyone’s nasty teenage past against them. Lord knew, she hadn’t always been so sweet herself. “Hello, Jane and Pammy.” She gave the sisters a hug, then turned to the third woman standing with them. “How are you, Deeann?”

“I have nothing to complain about.” She laughed, and her smile was genuine. “But that never stops me. How’s your daddy?”

“Good and getting better. Thanks for asking.” She turned her attention to Vince, who twisted a small cube of blue chalk on the tip of his cue. “I see you’re making friends.” It had been almost two weeks since she’d seen Vince at the Gas and Go. Two weeks since he’d told her she looked like shit and that she owed him. Two weeks since she’d told him that her orgasm was worth only forty cents.

“Sadie.”

“Y’all know each other?”

She glanced at Jane, then returned her gaze to Vince. “Yes. He had trouble with his truck and I gave him a ride into town.” Since she didn’t want to discuss the other ways she knew Vince, she turned the subject. “Jane, Pammy, and Deeann and I went to Ms. Naomi’s Charm School together,” she told Vince. “They were much better at the Texas dip than I was.”

Vince looked at all four women. “What’s in it?”

Jane and Pammy laughed. “That’s funny.”

“The Texas dip is a debutante curtsy,” Deeann explained as she handed her cue to Pammy. She moved to a clear spot several feet away, then she extended her arms out to her sides and slowly bowed like a swan until her forehead almost touched the ground.

Sadie looked up from Deeann’s flowing red hair to Vince, who watched with one brow cocked. He set the chalk on the edge of the table, then moved to the other side. He leaned his big body over the table and lined up a shot. The long cue slid between his knuckles as the Christmas lights shone in his dark hair and black shirt. She couldn’t tell if he was impressed with Deeann or not.

Deeann rejoined them and took her cue. “I can still dip.”

“Wow, I wasn’t even that limber at seventeen. Very impressive.”

“Remember when you tripped on your train at the Cotton Cotillion and your rose headdress fell off?” Pammy reminded Sadie, like she’d ever forget. After that, she hadn’t really bothered to pile and pin and spray her hair into a headdress of any kind. She’d just worn her hair straight, which had caused a bigger scandal than the headdress debacle.

“That was tragic.” Both sisters laughed as they had years ago, and Sadie guessed they hadn’t changed much over the past ten years. What the women didn’t know was that Sadie didn’t care. They no longer had the power to make her feel bad about herself.

“But you were always so pretty it didn’t matter,” Deeann said, genuinely trying to make Sadie feel better.

“Thank you, Deeann,” she said, and thought to return the favor. “I parked my car in front of your shop. It looks like you have some real nice stuff. I’ll have to stop by before I leave town.”

“I hope you do. I make my own jewelry, and if you decide to stay in Lovett, and don’t want to live out there at the ranch, let me know. I sell real estate, too.”

Her interest piqued, she said, “I’m an agent in Phoenix. How’s the market around here?”

“I’m not getting rich, but it’s picking up slightly. Brokering a lot of short sales.”

Short sales weren’t what agents bragged about the most. “Me too.” Sadie liked that about Deeann.

“Goodness, are you going to bore us with shop talk?” Pammy asked.

Sadie glanced at her watch and pretended she had somewhere to be. Just because she didn’t care what the sisters said, didn’t mean she wanted to hang out with them. “It sure was great to see y’all.” Lord, had she just said “y’all”? It had taken years to extract that contraction from her vocabulary. She looked at Vince, who lined up another shot. “Good night, Vince.”

He shot the six ball in the side pocket and rose. “See ya around, Sadie,” he said, more interested in his game than in her.

She said good-bye to Lloyd and Cain and headed toward the beer vendor. Overhead, dark blue and orange streaked across the night sky. She ran into JH employees and former employees, and by the time she made it to the vendor, it was full dark and Tom and the Armadillos took the stage at one end of the parking lot. She was tired but didn’t want to go home. She didn’t always mind being alone. She’d been raised on a ranch filled with people, but she’d always been alone. But lately she’d either been in a hospital room alone or listening to her grumpy daddy.

She was Sadie Jo Hollowell. Most people knew her name. Knew she was Clive’s daughter, but they didn’t know her. Her whole life, people either loved or hated her depending on how they felt about her daddy.

She took a drink from her Lone Star bottle and turned, almost running into a massive chest. She instantly recognized those defined muscles and big biceps. He grabbed the top of her arm to keep her from toppling over.

“How many of those have you had?” he asked.

“Not enough.” She looked up past Vince’s square chin and mouth into his eyes staring straight back into hers. “This is my second.” She glanced about. “Where are your friends?”

“What friends?”

“The Young sisters and Deeann.”

“Don’t know.” He slid his hand down her arm and took her beer from her hand. He swallowed a big drink, then gave it back. “Where are yours?”

“Friends?” She took a much smaller drink, then handed it back. “I haven’t seen Winnie since she went to the bathroom a while ago.”

“Not her. The cowboy with the tight Wranglers choking his nuts.”

What? “Oh, Cain. I don’t know. Are you worried about his nuts?”

“More like disturbed.”

She grinned. “Why aren’t you playing pool?” They moved a few feet from beneath the vendor tent.

“I got knocked out of the tournament by a skinny fifteen-year-old wearing a Texas flag shirt.”

She tilted her head back and looked up at him. At the light illuminating half of his face and casting a shadow over the other half. “You’re a big bad SEAL. Aren’t you supposed to kick ass?”

He chuckled, low and masculine and completely secure with himself. “Guess it isn’t my ass-kicking day if I got whooped by a kid with acne.”

“Do you mean that geeky boy with the big hat?”

“That sounds like him.”

“Seriously? You lost to him?”

“Don’t let the pimples fool you. He was a shark.”

“That’s just embarrassing.” She took a drink, then handed Vince the bottle. “He wasn’t much bigger than the pool cue.”

“Usually I’m better with my hands.” His gaze slid to hers and he raised the bottle to his lips. “But you know that.”

Yeah, she knew that. “Hey, Sadie Jo. How’s your daddy?” someone called out to her.

“Good. Thank you,” she hollered back. She put her hands in the pockets of her jacket and moved farther away from the vendor and Tom and the Armadillos’ version of “Free Bird.” The first time she’d met Vince, she’d been under the impression that he wasn’t staying in town long. “Are you still working for your aunt?”

“No. I work for myself.”

He handed her the bottle and she took a sip.

“Luraleen sold me the Gas and Go.”

She choked on the mouthful of beer. Vince hit her back with the heel of his hand as she coughed and gasped and sputtered. “No shit?”

“No shit. Just signed the papers yesterday.” He grabbed the near-empty bottle, drained it, then tossed it in the garbage behind her.

She wiped her nose and mouth with the back of her arm. “Congratulations.” She guessed.

“How are you doing?”

She blinked. “Better. I just had a little beer go down the wrong pipe.”

He placed a hand beneath her chin and raised her face to the light. “I heard about your dad. How are you holding up?”

She looked into the eyes of this man she hardly knew and realized that he was the first person to ask after her. Really ask after her. “I’m doing good.” Her gaze slid to his chin, and her stomach kind of felt weird. Maybe it was chugging that beer.

He tilted her face a bit more. “You look tired.”

“Last time I saw you, you said I looked like shit.”

He smiled with one corner of his mouth. “I might have been a little annoyed with you.”

Her gaze returned to his. “And you’re not now?”

“Not as much.” His thumb brushed her cheek. “Take off the hat, Sadie.”

Her hair appointment wasn’t scheduled for several more days and the hat nicely covered her darker roots. “I have bad roots.”

“Me too. You met Luraleen.”

Sadie laughed. “I’m talking about my hair.”

“I know. Take it off.”

“Why?”

“I want to see your eyes.” He took the hat from her head and handed it to her. “That’s been irritating me all night. I don’t want to talk to your chin.”

For the most part, he acted like he didn’t even like her, and she wondered why he was talking to her at all. “I’m sure Deeann and the Young girls aren’t so irritating.”

“Those women are looking for a boyfriend.”

“You’re not interested?”

He looked out at the crowd near the stage. “I’m not really a relationship guy.”

Surprising. Most guys didn’t cop to that until after they got a girl into bed a few times. “What kind of guy are you?” And if they did admit it up front, they gave the BS answer about having a lot going on in their lives or some horrid bitch had hurt them in the past and so they couldn’t commit.

He shrugged his big shoulders. “The kind who gets bored. The kind who doesn’t want to pretend I’m in it for anything but sex.”

“That’s honest, I guess.” She gave a startled laugh. “Do you have commitment issues?”

“No.”

“How many relationships have you been in?”

“Enough to know I’m not good at them.”

She supposed she should ask why, but it really wasn’t her business. Just like her past relationships weren’t his business. “You want just sex. No dinner? No movie? No conversation?”

“I like conversation . . . during sex.”

She looked up into his face, the strong angles of his jaw and cheeks. His dark skin and darker hair and those light green eyes. If he wasn’t so massively male, he might almost be confused for pretty. He looked like just what she needed to pass the time while she was in town. Much better than junk television and videos. She figured she had a month, perhaps two, to kill before her daddy was well enough for her to leave. Not nearly enough time for her to form any sort of feelings. She looked at her watch. It was a little after ten and the thought of going home alone was like a lead ball in her chest. “What are you doing for the next few hours?”

He looked at her. “What do you have in mind?”

She was an adult. She hadn’t had good sex in a really long time. She knew from experience he could get the job done. He was a sure thing. “Poor decisions we’ll probably regret later. Interested?”

“Depends.”

The lead ball fell to her stomach. “On?” Was he going to turn her down?

“Two things.” He held up one finger. “If you can handle no strings.” A second finger joined the first. “You don’t leave me alone again with nothing but a hard-on like you did at your cousin’s wedding.”

Relief brought a smile to her lips. While they were making rules, she added a few of her own just to make it all square. Lord knew how he liked things squared up. “I can handle no strings. Just make sure you can.” She thought of her last relationship. Just because a guy seemed like a sure thing didn’t mean he could always go the distance. “If I get undressed, you better make it worth my time.”

“Honey, I think it’s pretty safe to say that I can make it worth your time even when you are dressed. Just make sure you make it worth my time.”