“That was what, thirty years ago?”
“Try forty-five. They had my sister and two brothers pretty quick, and I came along as a complete surprise.”
Jill laughed. “That’s why your sister bosses you around. You were her real, live baby doll.”
The waitress came back with their sweet tea and took their orders. Sawyer leaned over and kissed Jill on the tip of the nose. “Now tell me about your parents.”
The Gallaghers were right there, but they weren’t important, not anymore, not when Sawyer’s eyes were locked with hers and his hands were on hers on top of the table.
“They went to school together their whole lives. Daddy’s folks lived out on the ranch, and her folks lived on the outskirts of town. She was determined not to marry a cowboy, and Daddy was determined that his future was in the military, so Mama says they were suited for each other. They were going to travel the world, but after basic training, Daddy got stationed in Wichita Falls for the first two years, then he was deployed to the Gulf War, and he never came home. I was just a baby, so Mama went back to southern Texas with me. She met my stepdad a few years later. He’d come to town to set up a new bank for his company, and they met at a party. They fell in love, married, and we moved to Harlan, Kentucky, but I came back to Texas to visit my grandparents every summer.”
“Kind of got in your blood, did it?”
“Grandpa said the ranchin’ bug skipped my daddy and landed on me.” She smiled.
He raised her hand to his lips and kissed each of her knuckles, slowly, one by one. When his lips touched the last one, there could have been Angus bulls roaming around in the restaurant and she wouldn’t have seen them. The Gallaghers, as well as all the other customers, vanished. She and Sawyer were the only two people in the whole building—hell, maybe in the whole state.
The waitress brought an appetizer of salsa and crispy tortilla chips. Sawyer picked up a chip and dipped heavily into the salsa. “Open up, darlin’.”
He slipped it inside her mouth and then did the same for himself while she chewed. When they’d both swallowed and sipped at their tea, he leaned across the table again and kissed her on the mouth. “A hot kiss with a cold tea back, can’t beat it.” He grinned.
“It’s amazing all right,” she said softly.
Their food arrived, and Jill filled a fork with her chicken enchiladas for Sawyer to taste before he got the taste of his beef tacos in his mouth. “See, the sour cream sauce is great.”
“Not bad.” He kept his hand on her forearm an extra few seconds. “But Mama’s are better.”
“I’m starting to wish we’d driven to Comfort, Texas, for dinner,” she said.
“It can be arranged any Sunday you want to go. Of course, we’ll be on the road about ten hours. Five down there, five back, but we’d have a wonderful two-hour dinner with the folks, and just think of all that time we’d have, just the two of us in the cab of a truck without any distractions,” he said.
“Well, thank you. It might be a nice date later on in the month. We could leave early on Sunday morning and not have to be back until Monday at noon if Aunt Gladys would do the Monday morning feeding for us,” Jill said.
When they were ready to leave, Jill glanced over at the Gallagher table to see the whole bunch of them staring at her. She smiled and hung her thumb in Sawyer’s belt loops, letting the rest of her hand fall onto the upper part of his firm butt. The heat coming from Betsy’s glares was even hotter than her fingertips on Sawyer’s butt. It didn’t take a degree in advanced psychology to know that whatever plans the Gallaghers had made to ruin her day had backfired and that there would be consequences.
* * *
Sawyer didn’t hesitate when he bought tickets to the movies that afternoon. They were seeing the newest romance film, and in that very moment, Jill knew she’d found the cowboy of her dreams.
“I can’t believe you like love stories,” she said.
He threw an arm around her shoulders and stopped inside the lobby at the concession stand. “Popcorn?”
“I couldn’t put another bite of food in my mouth right now, and I never drink at a movie, because if I have to go to the restroom, I’m afraid I’ll miss something important,” she said.
“Then we’ll have ice cream afterward. And about love stories? Have you ever watched NCIS on television?” He found seats for them at about the halfway mark in the theater.
She moved all the way to the center of the row to get the best view possible. “NCIS is on the top of my favorites list, but what’s that got to do with romantic movies?”
“Tony?”
“What about Tony? I think Michael Weatherly does a fantastic job of playing that character.”
“I’m Tony when it comes to movies,” Sawyer said.
“Ohhh,” she said. Tony was always spouting off a reference to a movie, old ones particularly.
“So you like them that much, huh?”
“When Mama visits in the spring, she’s bringing my collection. I’ll have to build shelves or else run you out of your office for all of them.”
“I’m not using the wall space. You can cover all of them with shelves if you want,” she said. “Oh, my!”
“What?” he asked.
“Those roses are still in there. I bet the water is soured and they’re dried up and stinking.”
“Time to throw them over the pasture fence.” He grinned. “Where’s the daisies? I noticed that you’d finally taken the bowls out of the bunkhouse.”
She was glad he couldn’t see her scarlet cheeks. “I couldn’t throw them away. They are getting pressed between layers of wax paper in the pages of several books.”
“All of them?”
“Yes, every one of them.”
“Excuse me.” A lady flipped down the seat next to Sawyer and settled in for the show.
“So sorry.” A man with a half-gallon-sized container of popcorn sat down next to Jill.
The seats behind them and those in front of them quickly filled up, and the smell of buttered popcorn filled the air. It was an expected aroma in a movie theater, but something wasn’t right. She could feel it down deep in her gut. The feeling was verified when Sawyer squeezed her shoulder and leaned over to kiss her gently on the ear.
“Don’t look now, but we’ve got Gallaghers behind us and Brennans in front of us. Kinsey is sitting by me, and her knee is pressing against mine.”
“What in the hell is going on?” she asked. “We’re not part of their pig war. And why are both families here? Did they band together against us?”
“Shhh, the movie is starting,” Quaid said beside her. “Well, imagine this. You are going to the movies with me after all.” He offered her popcorn.
Jill ignored him and cupped her hand over Sawyer’s ear. “There really is a rat in the woodpile. I can understand the restaurant. We talked about it in church, and someone could have easily overheard, but they had to be stalking us to show up here.”
Sawyer pulled her to her feet. “Excuse us. Got to make a popcorn run. Oh, hello, Kinsey. Didn’t recognize you in the dark.”
“We’ll gladly share.” Kinsey smiled.
“Wouldn’t want all the Gallaghers behind you to think we were takin’ sides,” Jill said.
“So what do you want to do now? See another movie or what?” Sawyer asked when they were finally out of the theater and in the lobby.
“Let’s get out of here and go to the antique stores. Callie said they’re open on Sunday afternoons. We could just browse for a little while and then go home and take a nap.” She shivered and said, “Quaid beside me. Tyrell right behind me. I may never like popcorn again.”
Sawyer chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
“Do you think that they are like Tony and love to watch all movies or that this is going to be a real chore for all those guys?”
A smile played at the corners of her mouth. “I’m not sure there’ll be a theater still standing in a few hours, with both of the feuding families in the place. I hate that you’ve lost your money on a movie we won’t even see.”