The Trouble with Texas Cowboys(45)
Chapter 24
Verdie turned around in the church pew and winked at Sawyer. “I didn’t think Gladys would miss another Sunday or let y’all stay home, either,” she said.
Gladys smiled. “That would set the rumor wheel on fire.”
“Why?” Jill asked.
“They’d say that y’all were laid up in bed together,” Gladys whispered so the children sitting beside Verdie couldn’t hear.
Jill’s face burned, but she took several deep breaths and hoped to hell that her aunt didn’t notice.
“You. Are. Blushing,” Sawyer whispered softly in her ear. “Would you go to dinner with me after church?”
“As in a date?”
He nodded. “As in a normal, plain old date.”
“Are we telling Finn and Callie that we have a date and can’t take them up on another invitation to their place?” she asked.
“We will if they ask. Is that a yes?”
“It is a definite yes,” she said.
The preacher took the podium, and the whole congregation settled in for a sermon. Jill could almost hear the old men behind her getting comfortable for their Sunday morning nap.
“Good morning. It is less than two weeks until Valentine’s Day, a day of love and romance. I’ve been asked”—the preacher shuffled his notes—“to announce that there will be a Valentine’s party right here at the church on Friday, the thirteenth.”
A few people chuckled.
The preacher held up a palm. “I know it’s considered an unlucky day, but we’re going to put that wives’ tale to the side for our party and think of it as a wonderful day of romance. There will be a dinner, and Kinsey Brennan has said that she and Quaid are having a speed-dating evening for the young single folks, so get ready for lots of fun.”
He went on to announce that the nursing-home visitation had been postponed that week due to a conflict of schedule and that there would be a baby shower on Wednesday. Jill hadn’t heard the names of the prospective new parents before, but they weren’t Gallaghers or Brennans, so they were most likely sitting in the middle section of pews.
“I’ll expect everyone to respect the church and be civil to each other during our Valentine’s party,” he said seriously.
The tension level rose from a solid five all the way to a ten in seconds. The Brennans shot dirty looks across the heads of those folks in the middle section, looks which no doubt meant to tell the folks on the other side that, by golly, they would be civil only if they wanted to and not because the preacher told them to.
“And now I’d like to introduce you to Ruth and her mother-in-law, beginning with the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament,” the preacher said.
Evidently, he was going to preach on love that morning, which was a wonderful topic for the first of February in any other church at any other time. But he’d already lost his crowd when he made that statement about being nice. Still, he plowed on, raising his voice to wake up the dozing folks at the right time, lowering it to get the attention of those who were drifting away to think of something else.
Jill blocked all of it out of her mind and let herself get giddy thinking about a real date with Sawyer. It was crazy, but she couldn’t help it. They’d been through so much together, including some damn fine hot sex, but this was a date. It wasn’t friends with benefits; it was the real thing.
She glanced over at the Brennan side and locked gazes with Quaid. There were no daggers, but he was not smiling. His jaw was set firmly, and the look in his pretty eyes said that he still had a lot of fight in him. A cold chill chased down her spine. Surely the two families wouldn’t do anything to take Sawyer out of the picture.
Sawyer’s hand covered hers in the narrow space between them and squeezed gently. Could he read her mind? Was he assuring her that he could take care of whatever the Brennans threw at them?
She tried to listen to the sermon, but starting in the middle didn’t work so well, so she looked at the Gallagher side of the church. Be damned if Betsy wasn’t eyeballing Sawyer like she had something pornographic in mind. Before Jill could blink, Betsy caught her eye and smiled. She made a pistol with her thumb and forefinger, aimed it at Jill, and snapped it as if she’d pulled the trigger. Then her eyes shifted to Sawyer, and she blew him a kiss off the tips of her fingers.
Holy freakin’ shit! The Gallaghers are going to shoot me, and the Brennans are going to do away with Sawyer.
Gladys poked her on the arm. “What’s goin’ on?”
Jill shrugged. “Just my overactive imagination, I’m sure.”
She kept her eyes straight ahead until the preacher finally asked them to stand for the benediction that Quaid Brennan would deliver. Sawyer did not drop her hand when they were on their feet but held it firmly for the whole congregation to see.
Immediately Finn and Callie turned toward them, and Callie asked, “Hey, y’all want to try again for dinner at Salt Draw with us today? And while I’m thinking about it, you want to go to the antique show in Gainesville next Sunday?”
Sawyer held up her hand. “We have a date, so we’ll have to take another rain check.”
“And, yes, for next Sunday,” Jill told Callie.
“Maybe we can invite these cowboys and make it a double date next Sunday,” Callie suggested.
“Shopping?” Finn raked his hands through his dark hair. “The only way I’ll agree is if Sawyer does. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long Sunday afternoon nap for me.”
“I’ll go,” Sawyer said quickly.
Gladys raised an eyebrow. “Two dates in as many weeks?”
“It would be three,” Jill said, “but we’ll have to work the bar on Friday night. If we didn’t, I might ask Sawyer to go with me to the Valentine’s party.”
“And I’d refuse,” Sawyer said seriously.
Jill cocked her head to one side. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want none of that speed-dating shit that Quaid and Kinsey have come up with. I don’t trust them. I’d rather sling burgers behind the bar with you all evening as do that stuff. Let’s have a Valentine’s party of our own at the bar on Saturday night. We’ll talk to Polly about it.”
“You’re going on a real date?” Callie’s daughter, Olivia, asked.
“Yes, we are.” Sawyer grinned.
“Is Jill going to wear a fancy dress like Mama did when she went on a real date with Daddy?” Olivia’s eyes glittered at the memory.
“How fancy was it?” Jill asked.
“It was the Christmas parties at Wild Horse and at River Bend,” Callie explained.
“I don’t think I’ll get that dressed up for a dinner date,” Jill said.
“When you do go to a party like that, will you come over to Salt Draw and let me see you? Mama looked like a princess,” Olivia said.
“I will, and I bet your mama did look beautiful,” Jill said.
“She was the queen, not just a princess,” Adam said shyly.
“Yes, she was.” Finn grinned.
It was the smile that said Finn and Sawyer were related. Jill wondered as they moved along with the congregation to the front of the church if maybe it hadn’t been the smile that had captured Callie’s heart in the very beginning. It certainly had been that quality that she first noticed.
No, it wasn’t. It was the way he filled out those jeans, and those dark eyes that bored right into your soul, her inner voice argued.
She let the sassy voice have the last word, because she couldn’t very well do battle with the truth. Besides, today was going to be perfect. No Gallaghers. No Brennans. No feud. Not even the faintest whiff of a pig war. It was the first date with Sawyer, and first dates were always exciting.
Even when you’ve already had sex?
She smiled and thought, So, I got things backwards. Maybe that’s what it takes to make something work. God only knows, I did it all the right way before, and it didn’t last.
She refused to listen to any more doubts and fears. “So where are we going for dinner?”
“You like Tex-Mex, American, or barbecue better?” he asked.
“Tex-Mex sounds really good,” she said.
“Then Chili’s it is.” He grinned. “Need anything from the bunkhouse before we go?”
“Not a single thing.” She smiled up at him.
“I thought we might catch a matinee afterwards. You’ve got a choice of six. I’ll even promise to stay awake in a chick flick if that’s what you choose.” He guided her toward the pickup with a hand on her back.
She wore a chocolate-brown corduroy skirt that morning with a matching jacket. She’d chosen it because it reminded her of the color of Sawyer’s eyes. The pointed-toed, heavily detailed cowboy boots were stitched in turquoise that matched the turtleneck sweater she wore under a jacket.
“Have I told you today that you look mighty fetchin’ in that outfit?” he said as he opened the door for her.
“Only three times,” she answered.
“Well, then make it four.”
After he shut the door, he rounded the front of the truck, climbed inside, and started the engine. “So what is it that you like in the Mexican line of food?”
“All of it, from enchiladas to tacos and everything in between. I don’t think I told you before, but my mama is half Latino. My grandmother was a Torres from just over the border in Mexico.”