Cowboy Take Me Away(50)
“Beverly! That’s great!”
“I know. I’m excited. Mike wants to get married as soon as he has a place for us to stay on base. Can you imagine? Me living in Georgia with all the other military wives?”
Happy as she was for her friend, Beverly was her only friend, and if she moved away, Carolyn would feel even more isolated.
Maybe you’ll be spending all of your time with Carson anyway so it won’t matter.
She could hope.
“…I’ve never wanted a big wedding anyway. I just want to be with him. I hope he gets stationed all over the world.”
“You’ll have to send me postcards from all of the exotic locations.”
“I promise. Enough about me.” Beverly turned in the seat and scrutinized her. “What’s going on with you? Still a housewife in training?”
Carolyn scowled. Beverly constantly harped on how Carolyn was a “slave” for her family whenever she came home, and then she pointed out they managed just fine when Carolyn wasn’t around. “Since you’ll be a housewife long before I will, Bev, maybe you’d better pay more attention to what your mother does around the house.”
“I already know how to do all that stuff. It’s just my mother likes to do it so I let her.”
I like to do it too.
Beverly poked Carolyn’s leg. “We were talking about you. Anything new with wild man Carson McKay?”
She blushed.
“I knew it! Tell me!”
“We’ve spent some time together.” She slid Beverly a sideways glance. “I told my family I went over to your house Monday night when I was with him.”
“I can’t believe you’re sneaking around with Carson. I’m so happy for you.”
“Really?”
“You deserve some fun. So what fun things did you two get up to?”
Carolyn blushed again.
“No,” she breathed. “Did you really…?”
“Yes.”
“All the way?”
“Yes.” She bit her tongue to keep from adding—and more than one time!
“And?” Beverly demanded.
“And it was perfect.”
Beverly squealed. “I told you!”
“Well, now I believe all the hype about it.”
She laughed. “Are you meeting him here tonight?”
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. “He’s been busy the last couple days.”
“He didn’t call you and tell you his plans?”
“What would happen if my dad or one of my brothers answered the phone? Even if Carson didn’t say who he was, there’d be questions about why a man is calling me and if I am seeing someone why I haven’t introduced him to my family. And if they found out he’s from the McKay family? I’d end up locked in my room for the rest of my life.”
“Gotcha. I still don’t understand about the West/McKay feud thing.”
“Me neither. No one talks about it so Carson and I ignore it.”
“Speaking of ignoring…I hope you’re not mad that I’ll be leaving with Mike for a while.”
“I’ll be fine. But I have to leave as soon as the dance ends so if you need a ride home, make sure you’re waiting by the car.”
“My folks didn’t even notice Mike brought me home last time, so don’t wait for me. Besides, maybe Carson has already made plans to get you away from the dance so you two can be alone.”
Carolyn laughed when Beverly waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
The pasture next to the dancehall was filled with cars. Carolyn told herself she wasn’t searching every vehicle they passed for Carson’s truck.
Beverly grabbed her arm after she lost her footing beside a gopher hole. “I don’t know why I bothered to wear heels to walk through a cow pasture.”
“Because you’re trying to impress your man.”
“Nothing impressive about manure stains on satin pumps.”
“And it’s your unlucky night because I don’t have a helpful household hint on how to remove those stubborn stains,” Carolyn said wryly.
“That’s what I love about you, Carolyn. Your ability to laugh at yourself and at me.” Beverly wrapped her arm around Carolyn’s waist. “As happy as I’ll be to see Mike, I’d really like to just hang out with you tonight and talk. I thought we’d have the whole summer to catch up and now it looks like—”
“You’ll be getting ready to become Mrs. Mike Flannery.”
Beverly giggled. Then she groaned. “I don’t know why I giggle every time I hear that.”
“What time is Mike supposed to be here?”
“In half an hour. Let’s go up to the bar and see if we can sweet talk the bartender into serving us.”