“Lookin’ for a re-ride or somethin’?”
Callan didn’t wait. Instead he walks over, sure in what’s about to happen, turns and swings. He only gets about two swings in when the crowd pulls them apart. Kasey is spitting blood, trying to get back at Callan but he walks away reaching for a bottle of whiskey.
I’m not sure what just happened and I’m not sure anyone else is either. All I know is that what I just witnessed was something that no guy has ever done for me before. Callan, I’m sure not wanting to but the good ol’ Southern charm of this champion bull rider, defended my honor, or what little I have left of it.
I looked over at Kasey and shook my head at what my eyes were watching.
“What the fuck was that about, Alanna, did you fuck him too?”
“As if that’s any of your business, asshole. Why don’t you go back to your Virgin Mary preacher’s daughter and see if she can get you off.”
What the hell has gotten into me? All I know is that I need to find Callan, and need to find him now.
Chapter Six
Midnight Kisses
Jessie had a great plan when I called her this morning and told her what happened at the party last night. We lost track of each other and Harrison ended up giving me a ride home. I never did find Callan that night but I think that was for the better. It gave me time to put a plan together.
Jessie said that a way to a man’s heart is food. That I was good at. Only daughter living on a farm, I knew how to cook.
My specialty? Macaroni and cheese.
Mom helps me out that morning because she loves to cook as well. She’s taught me all her favorites and every recipe handed down through generations of her family. It’s what we’ve bonded over throughout the years and what I will miss when I leave. My mother is a good-hearted woman making this place a home for us. I’ve never heard her raise her voice but she also doesn’t have to. She’s the ruler of this roost regardless of how much of an asshole my dad is.
“Are you making enough for Callan?” Mom asks when she notices how much cheese I’m grating.
I stop mid-grate. “Yeah,” I’m afraid to look at her. “Is that okay?”
She smiles. “I was hoping you would. He’s had a rough few months. He needs a good home cooked meal.”
It takes me another fifteen minutes and I ask, “Mom, do you remember why the James’ brothers left town?”
She frowns and wipes her wet hands on the front of her apron. “I do. And I never believed those rumors. I can’t believe that Thomas girl lied about it to protect Jet’s son.”
“Jet? As in the Sheriff Henley?”
Mom nods.
“So the Sheriff’s son rapes the Mayor’s daughter and blames it on the troubled James’ boys?”
Mom nods again, her eyes sad. “To think about how she ruined their lives makes me sick. All over protecting someone else.”
“You never believed her?”
“No. I’ve seen those boys around since they were in diapers. Yeah they’re wild and love to cause trouble but they’re boys. They’d never do something like that, they were raised better than that.”
Mom was right. You can be bad and you can be evil. If you ask me, from what I’ve seen, Callan is neither. He’s good and pure. I see it in his eyes.
When mom and I finish the macaroni and cheese, add creamed spinach, garlic bread and peach cobbler. We sit down to eat when I begin to wonder if Callan is going to show up today, especially after last night and the fight with Kasey.
I’m in my room around ten that night and see his headlights come around the bend and the dust cloud that kicks up. It’s late, probably too late for him to be working out there but dad more than likely doesn’t care. He just wants the work done.
When I see Callan go inside the barn, I scurry down to the kitchen, careful not to wake my parents and heat up a plate for him. I put the peach cobbler in a bowl with two scoops of ice cream.
When I step outside, I notice it’s raining. Rain pelts my face and I hear the distant thud of a hammer in the barn.
I’m wearing my night shirt, all part of my plan and holding his plate of food with the dessert and hoping he has me for dessert instead. One can hope.