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The next morning, my head pounded and my eyes burned. Why was I still in my dress from last night? It came flooding back to me; Pete took me home. Bolting upright, I disturbed Benny from his nap at the foot of my bed.
“Pete? Are you here?”
All I heard in answer were Benny’s dissatisfied snorts as he circled to find the best spot.
“Whew. At least he didn’t stay the night.” I rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. I chanced a look in the mirror, cringing at my reflection. My hair stood every which way, mascara streaked down my face, and bags formed under my eyes. I turned the shower on hot and stepped in. The hot water dissolved my cares and leftover makeup away as I leaned against the cool tile. What was I doing? Was I leading Vance on? Did I have feelings for him? Of course, I did. Who doesn’t after almost eight years together? Is it still love or being comfortable with each other? And the big question. Could I ever trust him again?
I stepped out of the shower and tied a towel around myself. Benny’s nails clicked against the floor as he ran back and forth.
“Hang on Benny! I’ll let you out.”
I padded to the door to let Benny out in the yard. As I swung the door open, it crashed into Vance standing on the other side, raising his fist to knock. A screech pierced the air as I dropped my towel in surprise.
“You’re looking perky this morning.”
“Shut up.” I snatched the towel to myself. “Don’t you know how to use a phone to call or text?”
“I could, but I didn’t want you to ignore me.”
“Like that would be the worst thing in the world,” I muttered as I stomped my way into the kitchen. “Make yourself at home. I’m going to change. Not like you’d leave if I asked,” I grumbled to myself all the way to my bedroom. “What does he think he is doing here? Interrupting my morning.”
I shut the door and dialed Pete’s cell. It rang several times and went to voicemail. I was in the middle of leaving a voicemail when my phone dinged with an incoming call.
“Hey Melanie, is everything ok?” He sounded far away with wind blowing into the speakers and men's shouts filling the background.
“I wanted to thank you for taking me home. I had a good time.”
“No problem. Is there anything else? I am kinda busy right now.”
What? He’s kind of busy. What does that even mean? On with the question I needed to have answered.
“Um, I was wondering if we had hooked up?”
The background noise faded away as a vehicle door slammed.
“Melanie, I am not that kind of guy. You were tired and sleeping before we left the bar.”
An audible sigh escaped my lips. “Thank you. Is everything ok with you?”
“No, not really, the fence is down and my cows are gone.”
I gasped. I didn’t even know what to say.
“The sheriff is here. I got to be going."
"I hope you find them."
"Me too."
The phone went dead. Poor Pete. He loved those cows, and his nanna, she must be devastated. I sent a text to Delilah to see if she’d heard.
Delilah: Yep, I’d heard. A bunch of people are getting together to help.
Melanie: Anything I can do?
Delilah: I’m bringing a dish to pass. They’re going to be hungry. Why don’t you bring something too?
I quickly pulled on my jeans and a tank top before heading out to the kitchen. Vance was at the stove quickly whisking some eggs together.
“What are you making, Vance?”
“Omelets,” he smiled at me over his shoulder before turning back to melt butter in the pan. “Western is your favorite, right?”
“Yah, sure.” I poured orange juice into two tall glasses.
“Your mother would add champagne to make mimosas.”
I laughed, “she sure would.”
He poured the eggs into the pan, whirled it around, and added peppers, tomatoes, onions, ham, and cheese. The aroma made my mouth water as he cut it in half and slid each half on a plate. I smothered his in salsa before adding ketchup to mine.
“This is great.” I said between mouthfuls, even though I would rather have scrambled eggs.
“Thanks. What are your plans for today?”
“Pete’s having a rough time today. I was going over there later to help him.”
“I see.” He spooned some omelet into his mouth, his grey eyes scanned my face.
“What!”
“I thought you might want to give us a try.”
“I don’t know if I can,” I sighed and rolled my eyes. Seriously, how can he expect to just walk back into my life? Things were starting to go my way. Why would I want to go back to the tiny apartment with a man that cheated on me? “You hurt me and I don’t think I can trust you anymore.” I pushed the eggs around on my plate. Benny ended up with a bit of egg on the floor. “All of the nice things you’re doing. Is it because we are comfortable? Or do you love me?”
He passed some more eggs to Benny who jumped up and down with joy. “I care about you. I don’t want to see you hurt.” He gathered the plates. “The lease on this place is fishy. Did you even read it?”
“I skimmed it.” I sipped my orange juice, avoiding his gaze.
“Melanie, how many times have I told you to read things before you sign them?” His voice growled.
“You don’t have to lecture me! I can take care of myself!” Anger coursed through me. I balled my fists and shoved them into my lap.
He walked over to me, placed his hands on my shoulders. I met his gaze straight on. “That’s not what I’m saying.” He pressed his lips gently to mine, as they thinned to a line. The pressure was nice, but no fireworks. “I can see I’m not wanted right now; but before I head back, I need to see you tomorrow. I’ve got research to do; we will talk about this, again.” He brushed my hair off my forehead. “Bye, Mel.”
“Looking forward to it.” I cringed.
He turned and walked out the door.
“What to do Benny?” He looked at me with his head cocked. “Do you want to come with me to Pete’s?” He jumped up and down like he understood what I was saying. I grabbed his leash and my new cowboy boots to head to my car.
#####
“IT’S AWFUL, ISN’T IT?” Delilah cried as she climbed into the passenger seat. “Everything that he has worked for gone. Who would do that to Pete?”
“How do you know they just didn’t wander away?”
She looked at me with disbelief, “are you kidding?”
I shook my head.
“Pete checks his fence religiously; he loves those cows. They didn’t just wander away.” She lifted the lid on my casserole and sniffed. “Tater Tot Hot Dish smells good. Anyway, Damien said that the fence had been cut. At least according to the sheriff.”
“Oh, not good.”
“Yep, they were driven off or taken.”
“Pete must be devastated.”
I turned up the drive to Nanna’s house. Trucks and trailers were parked all up the drive and in the yard. The sheriff’s car was parked by the barn with people standing around the tailgate of a truck. Delilah motioned to an open spot by the front door. Then, she led me up the stairs to the front door.
“Oh Dee, it is so nice for you to come.” A tiny older woman took her dessert and hugged her tightly. “And you must be Pete’s Melanie.”
My cheeks heated up under her gaze. “I don’t know about that.” I studied the scuffs on my new boots.
“My dear, he lights up when he talks about you. I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time. I’m Nancy, Pete’s grandmother. But you can call me Nanna, everyone else does.” She pulled me into a hug, her thin hands felt extremely strong. She motioned to where Miss Elizabeth sat at the table. “I believe you have met my sister, Elizabeth.”
“I didn’t realize you were Pete’s aunt,” I said as I hugged her.
“Tisk, that boy would forget his head if it weren’t attached sometimes.” She waved her hand about. “Besides, I've got a feeling you’re going to do great things.” She winked at me as Delilah hugged her too.
Nanna handed both of us ice-cold colas. “You two head outside. Us old birds have the kitchen under control.”
The two women shared a look and laughed together. Delilah shrugged and lead the way to the group at the tailgate.
I recognized a few people from in town were standing in the group. Lindsay was wearing short shorts and a button-up without sleeves. She was leaning against a large man, snapping her gum. Carrie Ann squealed when she saw me and dragged me into the circle.
“Everyone! Meet our newest member of Sunnydale, Melanie! She’s making my wedding dress.” She jumped up and down as she started to name the people around the circle. She got to a thin, wiry man named Kade who sported a bandaged head and a swollen black eye.
“Kade!” Carrie Ann screeched for the third time before he turned his attention to her. “This is Melanie.”
He lifted his cowboy hat. “Howdy, ma’am.”
He went back to gazing at Delilah, who was being shy for once in her life. She stared at her boots, drawing designs in the dirt. That was very interesting.
“Haloo!” someone called. He was standing on the fence waving his cowboy hat in the air. “They’re coming in.”
Delilah grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the group of men on horseback plodding down the dirt road.
IT’D BEEN A LONG DAY. The whole neighborhood showed up at Nanna’s two minutes after the news of my wayward cows spread around town. We spent the rest of the day scouring the countryside, without a trace. I was tired, hungry, and smelled like old socks.
Our horses ambled into the yard of the ranch to a group of people gathered around the bed of a pickup truck. My heart swelled and some of the exhaustion left me as I spotted my girl; a smiled split her face when she spotted me. Melanie broke away from the group to meet me at the drive. She walked up to Gaston and stroked his forehead.
“Hi handsome boy, did you have a long day?” She murmured to the horse.
“I could use some of that sweet talk too.” I leaned forward in the saddle.
She laughed a light tinkling laugh and planted a kiss on my lips. My hand cupped the back of her head to draw her in closer. Whistles, catcalls, and one “Get a room” filled the air. She pulled back and winked at me. I slid my arm down her back and swung her up behind me in the saddle. She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her palms into my chest with her head rested on my back. I held on to her hands and urged Gaston to the barn.
“Thanks for coming.” I helped her off the horse. “It means a lot to me.”
“Did you find them?”
I sadly shook my head as I unsaddled Gaston who butted his head against my shoulder. “The sheriff is going to call the livestock markets in the area tomorrow.”
Melanie grabbed a curry comb and started to rub circles in Gaston’s coat. He extended his head and neck to express his enjoyment as he closed his eyes and groaned.
“Could they have jumped the fence into someone else’s place?”
“Nah, my fence was cut.” I gave Gaston a crunchy carrot. “It looks like they left the pasture together. Then, their tracks just disappeared.”
The reason I was down here, my grandfather’s legacy, Nanna’s future was all gone in the blink of an eye. Despair fell onto me; I tried to fight it off, but it weighed heavily on my shoulders.
“Pete,” Melanie grabbed my fingers and squeezed. My little ray of sunshine was breaking through the heavy clouds of depression. “It will be alright.”
She held me tight as I fought the sadness within me. I buried my head in her hair; the smell of vanilla soothed my pain a little. “We should head in. Nanna is anxious to meet you.”
######
AS WE MADE OUR WAY to the front porch, the men were pulling out picnic tables to eat on. I had my arm slung over Melanie’s shoulders; it made me feel better just to have her there.
“Good to see you, Kade.” I shook hands with the man sitting on the tailgate. “Have you met Melanie?” He nodded. “What happened to you this time?”
“Oh, this.” He motioned to his bandaged head and black eye. “I did the tango with Devil’s Brother and lost.”
“What?” Melanie broke in, her brow was wrinkled. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Kade is a professional bull rider. Devil’s Brother is one of the top bulls in the country.”
“It would’ve been a 92-point ride, too.” He reached behind him and pulled a beer out of the cooler as Delilah swooped in out of nowhere.
“Oh no, you don’t!” She shoved a cola in his hands and tossed the beer to me. “Doctor’s orders.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He winked at Delilah. She huffed and stormed to the house.
“You wasted no time in finding her.” I popped the top of the beer and handed it to Melanie. She took a gulp and passed it back to me.
“Couldn’t help it.” He pressed the cold can to his black eye. “She was my ER nurse.”
“Good to have you back.” I looked over where Dee was busy straightening napkins. “I’d say take it easy. But I've got a feeling your own personal nurse will be watching you.”
“A cowboy can only hope.” He nodded to Melanie. “Ma’am.” We headed towards the aromas coming from the kitchen. My stomach rumbled at the thought of food.
DELILAH AND I SAT ON the back porch at my place for the night. The stars shone brightly in the sky and the moon played peek-a-boo with the wispy clouds. I shuffled a deck of cards as I tried to figure out how to approach my best friend, the one I thought I knew everything about.
“So...”.
“The food was excellent,” Delilah cut in as she took the cards, I’d dealt her.
“Nanna can sure cook... But I want to talk about Kade.”
“I don’t.” She groaned, laying her cards face down on the table, crossing her arms.
“Come on, just tell me why you were pretending to avoid him all day.”
“It was that obvious?”
I nodded.
“Fine.” She stared up at the stars for a while. She was never going to tell me. “I was engaged once.” She sighed, moving her cards around as she looked back at them. “To Kade. I thought, that he was going to be my forever.”
“You never told me.”
“It was before college. I was going to get married and not go.”
“Okay... What happened?”
Tears were rolling down her face. “I was so young. Innocent even. I thought everything was going to work out.”
I passed her a tissue from my purse.
“He was my first and I was so infatuated with him. We’re going to get married. I had the dress, the cake, the DJ.” She sniffed loudly. “He called off the wedding.”
“Oh, Delilah.” I pulled her into a hug. Tears rolled down her soft cheeks, a hiccup escaped her, and she buried her head into my shoulder.
“But why did he cancel the wedding?”
“Something I don’t want to talk about happened. When Kade found out, he looked at me with the most disgusted look on his face and walked out of my life. And Sunnydale.”
“What could you have done?”
That got a little snort out of her. “It doesn’t matter anymore...Two nights ago when he came into the ER was the first time that I’d seen him in ten years.”
I hugged her tightly, rubbing circles in her back.
“Why don’t I get us something to drink? There’s a bottle of wine waiting for us in my fridge and then we can finish our game.” I popped the cork on my favorite Moscato as Delilah washed her face and changed into flannel PJs. The wine smelled heavenly, and it especially paired well with the peach cobbler Nanna gave us to take home.
“This looks perfect.” Delilah tied her long hair up on the top of her head in a fashionable bun. “Nanna’s peach cobbler is heaven by itself.”
“I thought we could use a real girly wine tonight.”
She tinked her glass with mine. “What is going on with you, Vance, and Pete?” She played her card first.
“That’ll ruin my mood, right now.” I groaned before draining my glass, the wine gurgled as I quickly refilled. I placed my cards down and took a couple from the stack. “I told you about Pete storming in and kissing the lights out on Saturday.”
“I get hot flashes just thinking about it. Just like a romantic movie.” She fanned herself.
“Vance says he won’t give up on me.” I swirled the wine in the glass, looking for the elusive legs. Our cards sat in a pile, forgotten.
“For the record, I love having my best friend within driving distance.” She extended her glass. “Hit me again. How do you feel about him?”
“Vance?”
Delilah nodded.
“It’s comfortable. He knows everything I like and he’s been very helpful the last couple of days.” I stabbed a peach slice to plop in my mouth. “I can’t tell if I love him or not.”
“Let’s do the game that they did on Friends. I ask questions, you answer with your first thought. Got it?” She crossed her legs and stared at me for a moment.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Blue”
“What’s your dog’s name?”
“Benny”
“What’s your mom’s favorite drink?”
“Cosmo”
“Who’s your best friend?” Delilah had the biggest, cheesiest grin on her face.
“You” I rolled my eyes at her.
“Do you trust Vance?”
“No”
“Who do you dream about kissing?”
“Pete,” I blushed.
“Do you love Vance?”
“No”
“See, told you it would work.” She waved her cards at me. “We now know: you don’t trust Vance. You don’t love him. And you have crazy dreams about kissing Pete.” Her eyes twinkled, mischievously.
“You’re right.”
“Of course, I am! I don’t know why it has taken you so long to figure it out.” She used her finger to lick out the bottom of her bowl. “Now, you just have to tell Vance to beat it.”
I nodded in agreement, all the while thinking, easier said than done.
#####
THE NEXT MORNING, I pulled my little car up to Susie’s Café. The regulars were sitting at the bar as I made my way to a booth with a view of the door.
“A coffee, please,” I said to Lindsay as she placed a menu on the table before striding away to the bar.
The bell tingled and the chatter went silent. I looked up from studying my coffee to see Vance coming in the door. The regulars stared at him as Lindsay sidled up next to him.
“Hey handsome, what can I get you?”
“A coffee, black would be great.” He smiled his snake charmer smile at her. A chill crept up my back, but Lindsay all about melted into the floor before heading to the coffee pot. He sat down across from me, and we ordered food and made small talk until it arrived.
“Eating like this will pack on the pounds.” He said in between mouthfuls of golden-brown potatoes.
“Good thing you don’t then.” I wasn’t as hungry as I had thought. The egg scrambler was being abused on my plate by my fork. “I was thinking about us.” I pushed my food around some more. “I don’t want to be us. I’m not able to trust you anymore and without trust, what’s the point.”
Vance leaned back in the chair. His eyes hardened to his questioning the witness look.
“I don’t love you, either. I’m not sure I ever did.” I set my fork down and met his gaze.
“Have you thought this through?”
I nodded.
“I still love you, Melanie. I know that the farmer caught your eye, but I’m prepared to wait for you to see your mistake. It is just a passing fling,” a sneer pulled at the corners of his mouth as he leaned in. He put a few bills on the table and winked at Lindsay. “You’ll come back, together we had everything.”
“Only material things. Not the stuff that matters.”
“You are so naïve. Do you think that Pete is as innocent as he seems?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Do I want to know what you are talking about?”
“Miss Elizabeth, who you believe is your landlord, is his great aunt.”
“Yeah, so...”
“Did you read the contract you signed? She’s not your landlord. He is. He owns the building and the apartment, has for several years now. Plus, if you can’t prove you make a profit after your first year, the entire shop and your apartment go back to one Pete Thompson.”
The blood drained from my face as my jaw dropped. Vance stood up and looked down at me.
“You need me and don’t you forget it. Call me when you are ready to come home.” He strode out the door without looking back.
What have I gotten myself into? Breathe in and out, Melanie. This has to be a mistake. Pete wouldn’t do something like to me, would he? He knew I wanted to do this on my own. Why didn’t he say anything? Was he as untrustworthy as Vance? And I had sunk my savings into this place! I needed answers and I needed them now. I marched out of the café to my car. I dialed Pete’s number. It rang a couple of times before going to voicemail.
“Pete, call me back.”