The Cowboy's Little Surprise

The owner began her day in the bakery long before the sun came up, yet could often be found in the shop at closing time. Normally, she let the waitresses handle the customers.

The wooden floorboards creaked as Sugar approached their table.

A hefty Georgia peach in her midsixties, Sugar had the softest drawl Tina had ever heard. She also had the most solid arms Tina had ever seen on anyone, including any wrangler who had ever worked on Garland Ranch. Sugar claimed she’d earned those muscles from years of kneading bread dough and hauling restaurant-sized sacks of flour.

“Hey, girls, you’re in late.”

“And you’re working overtime,” Tina said.

“Yep. Layne took the day off, so here I am.”

“Darn.” Ally set down her menu, giving Tina a look that said she would handle the questioning—which was fine with Tina. The less interest she showed, the less suspicion Sugar would direct her way. “We wanted to talk with her.”

“Well, she’ll be in tomorrow. Or you can catch her at home tonight.”

“Is she spending the day with Cole? I heard he’s in town.”

“He is.” Sugar’s gray eyebrows rose as her eyes widened. “And you could have knocked me over with a sheet of parchment paper when I heard about him coming home. Layne was pretty closemouthed about it till last week.” She sounded upset that she hadn’t known sooner about Cole’s return.

“But why is he back?” Ally asked. “I mean, he hasn’t come home since he graduated high school.”

“Because the ink’s barely dried on Layne’s divorce papers, and that rat Terry’s kicking her out of the house.”

Ally gasped. “But she’s got Scott—and she’s pregnant!”

Tina winced, thinking of the loving support she had received from Abuela and Jed all through her life, even during her pregnancy. Even though she had never told them who had fathered her child.

“Layne’s situation doesn’t seem to be bothering Terry,” Sugar continued. “So, she called Cole.”

“That’s a first,” Ally said, exchanging a glance with Tina. “How long is he staying?”

Ally had spoken too quickly. Sugar frowned. Resting her hands on the edge of the table, she stared from Ally to Tina and back again. “Why? What’s happening?”

She didn’t ask only out of curiosity. Everyone knew how well Sugar looked out for all the residents of Cowboy Creek, especially her employees.

Just the way Jed looks out for us, as Abuela would often say.

“There’s nothing’s happening,” Tina said. But there soon would be, unfortunately.

“Yeah.” Ally nodded. “I was just wondering whether I’d get to say hi or not.”

“You should. Layne tells me he’ll be around for a while.” Sugar chuckled. “I think coming back home again might give that boy a lot more than he bargained for.”

This time, neither Tina nor Ally had anything to say.

* * *

IN HIS SISTER’S new apartment, Cole picked up one of the packing boxes he’d piled in the corner of the room. She had given the larger of the two bedrooms to her son—and his toys—and left this closet-sized one for herself.

“Scott’s probably getting hungry,” Layne said. “I need to start thinking about supper.”

“Supper? You just gave him a three-course snack.”

She laughed. “That was hours ago, Cole. And little boys have big appetites. Don’t you remember from when you were a kid?”

“Not really.” What he recalled was being four years old and stockpiling his own snacks, holding them aside until Layne started whining about being hungry. The sooner he could get his little sister quieted, the less chance there was of their dad yelling and sending her into tears.

As if she had read his mind, she abruptly grabbed a pile of clothes from the carton he’d set next to the closet door. “Once I have this box emptied, I’ll start supper.”

“We could go out,” he suggested. “Or pick up some takeout. My treat, either way.”

“No. The sooner I get used to cooking in that tiny kitchen, the better.”

She turned to the closet. Shaking his head, he took a seat on the edge of the twin bed. He should have known she’d refuse the offer. It had been enough of a struggle getting her to agree to let him pay for some of the groceries.

She hadn’t had the money to rent a truck for the move, either, and wouldn’t let him get one, though he’d told her he could easily afford to pick up the tab.

In the years he’d been gone from Cowboy Creek, he had worked as a wrangler on one ranch after another.

On the run, Jed had said.

He’d rather think of it as staying open to possibilities.

In any case, he had never tied himself to anything permanent, never owned a home or even paid rent or electricity, and he had always traveled light enough to fit all his belongings into a couple of duffel bags. No sense buying things that would only weigh him down. Cheap, some folks might say, but again he preferred to look at things his way and call it being frugal.

That frugality had paid off. So had his time on the rodeo circuit. He now had a good-sized nest egg he’d been sitting on, thinking of investing.

As he’d said to Layne, what better investment could he come up with than spending some of it on his sister and her son?

He knew the answer to that question, all right. So did Layne. He would do anything for the little sister he’d raised practically single-handed.

In the years he had been gone from Cowboy Creek, he made sure to send money when she asked to borrow it, and even when she hadn’t.

Deep down, he knew money could never make up for not being here for her the last few years. True, he hadn’t known how bad things were between her and Terry until the end. But maybe if he’d stayed, he could have helped her out more. Been there to keep an eye on her son once in a while, so she and her now-second ex could have had some time together. Maybe that would have saved the relationship—not that he’d believed it had ever really had a chance. Neither he nor Layne knew what a good marriage looked like.

But if nothing else, helping her back then might have him feeling less like a stranger with his own sister’s child now.

In the long run, his offer to get the truck for her move had done no good.

You’re taking care of enough already, Layne had said.

So he had loaded his pickup and made one trip after another between her former two-story house and this so-called two-bedroom apartment.

He thought of the trip he’d made out to Garland Ranch that afternoon.

Though he and Tina had been a couple of grades ahead of Layne in school, the two knew each other. Suddenly, he felt the urge to tell Layne about running into Tina again. About what a jerk he’d been to her in high school and about how that could come back to bite him. About how he wished he’d done some things...maybe a whole lot of things...in his life differently.

But he’d never dropped his problems on his sister before and sure wouldn’t start now. Not when she had enough troubles of her own.