Marry Me, Cowboy

By Friday afternoon, news trucks and vans would line the narrow main street that marked the town of Temptation, their cameras rolling, hoping to capitalize on this story of the town who hoped to save itself by advertising for women.

Within forty-eight hours, single women from all fifty states would be gossiping—and maybe dreaming a little—about the small Texas town of Temptation where the men outnumbered the women eight to one.

One

Houston, Texas

A television sat on the apartment’s breakfast bar, its volume muted, while a suited anchorman on the screen droned out the six-o’clock news. Across the narrow dining room, Mary Claire Reynolds sat at her kitchen table, cradling her sleeping eight-year-old son, Jimmy, against her breasts. Her chin rested on top of his head while hot guilty tears streaked down her cheeks and dripped onto the boy’s red hair, the same unique shade as her own.

With Jimmy sitting in profile on his mother’s lap, his bruised cheek and split lip were visible to the two women sitting on the opposite side of the table. They had arrived as soon as they’d heard the news of the boy being attacked, offering, as they had so many times in the past, support and comfort.

Leighanna exchanged a concerned look with Reggie, then leaned across the table to lay a comforting hand on Mary Claire’s arm. “It’s not your fault,” she murmured softly. “You mustn’t blame yourself.”

Mary Claire caught her lower lip between her teeth, trying to hold back the strangled sob that burned in her throat, and tightened her arms around Jimmy. “It is,” she said, unable to stop the hot angry tears that streaked down her face. “If I’d been home, this never would have happened.” She cupped a hand on her son’s tousled hair as if at this late date she could protect him from the fists of the gang of boys who’d attacked him. Her hand inadvertently touched the bruise on his cheek, and he roused and tried to pull from her arms. She hugged him tighter, rocking slowly back and forth, murmuring to him to soothe him back into a restful sleep.

When he had settled again, she pressed her lips to his head. “I never should’ve divorced Pete,” she murmured with regret. “I should’ve listened to my mother and simply looked the other way when he strayed.”

Reggie straightened, a look of shock on her face. “Mary Claire, you don’t mean that!”

“I do mean it,” she said fiercely. “If I’d stayed, I wouldn’t have been working. I’d have been at home with my children where I belong.”

“You were miserable married to Pete Reynolds,” Reggie reminded her. “He was a two-timing snake.”

Mary Claire lifted her tearstained face. “But we were safe. I’d gladly sacrifice my pride for my children’s safety.”

“What about the children’s happiness?” Reggie asked. “Would you sacrifice that, as well?”

Mary Claire closed her eyes against the painful reminder.

“It’s true, isn’t it?” Reggie persisted. “The kids are happier now than they were when you and Pete were married. He never spent time with them. He was always too consumed with his job and chasing skirts. And when he was home, all the two of you did was fight.”

“But my children were safe,” Mary Claire insisted. “And I was at home with them to see that they stayed that way.” She pressed her lips to the top of Jimmy’s head again, then propped her chin there and turned her teary gaze on the television screen. Suddenly she stiffened, her eyes widening. “Leighanna! Quick!” she cried. “Turn up the volume on the television!”

Startled, Leighanna twisted in her chair and stretched to adjust the volume. On the screen a reporter stood in front of a sign that read Temptation, Texas, Population 978.

“Temptation? Isn’t that where your aunt Harriet lived?” Leighanna asked in surprise. Mary Claire nodded but quickly shushed Leighanna with a wave of her hand, her gaze riveted on the screen.

“...and while other small rural towns around the state and around the country are slowly losing their residents to the economic pull of larger cities, Temptation, Texas, has devised a plan to save their town.” The camera panned, taking in the sleepy community of Temptation.

Mary Claire felt her throat tighten at the sight of the town, remembering the lazy summers she’d spent there visiting her aunt Harriet. Things hadn’t changed much through the years. Temptation still looked like a Norman Rockwell painting.

An American flag still flew above the roof of Carter’s Mercantile, which served double duty as the town’s post office and only grocery store. A red-and-white-striped pole turned slowly in front of the barbershop while a dog napped on the sidewalk in front of the open door. The only movement that broke the solitude came in the form of a dust-covered pickup truck as it chugged down the street.

“That’s it,” Mary Claire whispered. The tears were gone and her eyes now glowed with newfound hope. “Temptation. We’ll move to Temptation.”

Leighanna turned to stare at her friend. “Temptation?” she repeated in disbelief.

“Yes, Temptation,” Mary Claire repeated firmly.

“Do you know anyone there?”

Mary Claire shook her head. “Just Uncle Bert and Aunt Harriet. But of course they’re gone now.”

“Oh, Mary Claire,” Leighanna cried, “you can’t just up and move somewhere where you don’t know a living soul! Temptation’s a small town. Why, there are more people living in a city block of Houston than live in that entire community.”

“Exactly.”

“But where will you live?” Leighanna asked, trying to keep the growing panic from her voice. “Where will you work? The reporter said the economy is drying up.”

Mary Claire kept her gaze on the screen. “I have my aunt Harriet’s house. There’s a renter living there now, but I’ll just tell him he has to move. As for work, I’ll find something.”

Knowing she was no match for Mary Claire’s stubbornness once she set her mind on something, Leighanna turned to Reggie for help. Of the two, Reggie was the more sensible and the only one whose stubbornness equaled Mary Claire’s. “Reggie, please,” she begged, “see if you can talk some sense into her.” When Reggie continued to stare at the screen, Leighanna gave her friend’s shoulder an impatient shove. “Reggie! Help me out here!”

As if waking from a dream, Reggie turned to look at Leighanna. “What?”

Leighanna let out a huff of breath. “For God’s sake, Reggie! Mary Claire says she’s moving to Temptation. You’ve got to try to talk some sense into her! She won’t listen to me. You heard the reporter. There’s nothing there! The economy has all but dried up.”

Slowly Reggie turned to look at Mary Claire. “You want to move to Temptation?” she asked, her face and voice completely stripped of emotion.

“Yes. If I have to take in laundry to support myself and my children, I’ll do it. Anything to get us out of Houston and to a safe place.”

Though she would have chosen anywhere else in the world for her friend to move, Reggie, unlike Leighanna, understood Mary Claire’s need to put as much distance as possible between herself and bad memories. She leaned over to cover Mary Claire’s hand with her own. “Then go,” she said, giving her friend’s hand a hard squeeze. “And know that if you ever need anything, whether it’s a shoulder to cry on or a loan to get you by until you’ve found a way to support yourself, all you have to do is call.”

Shocked, Leighanna nearly fell out of her chair.

Mary Claire curled her fingers around Reggie’s hand and squeezed back, tears budding in her eyes. “Thank you, Reggie.” She shifted her gaze to Leighanna, needing and wanting her approval, as well.

Leighanna hesitated only slightly before shifting to add her hand to the two already joined. “Personally I think you’re crazy,” she muttered. “But, like Reggie, I’m here if you need me.”

Temptation, Texas

Harley threw the last feed sack onto the back of his truck, then stripped off his gloves and tucked them into the back pocket of his jeans. Dragging his forearm across his brow, he narrowed an eye at the June sun blazing overhead. It had to be a hundred degrees in the shade and it wasn’t even noon. With a sigh, he caught the shoulder seams of his shirt between thick callused fingers and lifted in an attempt to peel the sweat-soaked fabric off his back. The day was going to be a scorcher, and although he’d been at it since well before six, his work was long from being completed. He still had the feed to unload once he reached his ranch and calves to move from one pasture to another.

On another sigh, he reached for the tailgate and started to lift, but stopped when he heard a whimpering sound coming from somewhere behind him. He turned slowly and let the tailgate fall back open when he saw a little girl, no more than five years old, limp ing barefoot and sniffling down the sidewalk toward him. He didn’t recognize her, but that didn’t surprise him. Ever since his old buddy, Cody Fipes, had proposed that Temptation advertise for women, the town had been overrun with strangers. He looked left and right but didn’t see another soul in sight to help the child.

In the way of small-town chivalry, he hopped up the step that led to the feed store and met her on the sidewalk, prepared to offer a helping hand. “Hey, there, sweetheart,” he said, dropping to one knee in front of her. “What’s wrong?”

She hiccuped once, then lifted her face, tears dripping off her chin. “I got a sticker in my foot,” she sobbed.

“Well, here, let’s have a look-see,” Harley said gently.

She laid her hand on his sleeve for balance, her touch as light as a butterfly, then lifted her knee. Though he strained, Harley’s size prevented him from being able to stoop over far enough to see the bottom of her foot. Needing a better vantage point, he caught her up under the arms and carried her toward his pickup. “Let’s set you up here, sweetheart, so I can have a better look.” He plopped her down on the tailgate and squatted down in front of her, lifting her foot. And there it was, tucked into the tender arch of her foot, a green-and-yellow sticker as big as a tick.

He frowned, knowing it was going to hurt like hell when he pulled the sticker out. “Can you count to three?” he asked.

She sniffled, dragging a hand beneath her nose. “I can count all the way to ten,” she said proudly through her tears.

“Well, you start counting and by the time you get to three I’ll have this old sticker out of your foot.”