The Hard-To-Tame Texan. Lass Small

shrugged. “I haven’t anything at all on my calendar. It would give me something to do.”

      “I really appreciate your help. I shall try to be quick in finding someone else to help him. Do what you can.”

      JoAnn sighed. “Okay. I’ll get my luggage.”

      “Let Tom. He has nothing to do, and it would please him to help you.”

      

      Nothing to do? Tom’s own mother assumed Tom had nothing to do? He had no time, at all!

      At that moment, Tom was at Rip’s plane getting ready to board when his cellular phone burped. He was surprised. People very rarely called him! He looked at Rip and said, “My phone!”

      Rip observed Tom with curiosity and said, “Yeah.” A beep was a beep. So—

      So Tom pulled the phone into reality and lifted it as he said, “Tom.”

      And his mother said, “Darling, I need you here.”

      “Yes.” Then Tom refolded his phone and put it back into his pocket as he said, “Mother needs me. Let me go with you later?”

      “Yeah. Meanwhile, I’ll go on out...looking.”

      “You need someone else with you. Ask Ben or Wilkie?”

      “Okay.”

      “Thanks. Be careful.”

      “Yeah.”

      

      

      So Tom’s Jeep pulled up to the door of the Keeper place. And there was his mother and... Why, it was JoAnn! His mother looked okay. She wasn’t stressed. JoAnn grinned.

      His mother said to Tom, “We need your muscles to get JoAnn’s luggage into the house. She’s going to have the room just down the hall from us. There on the left. That guest room.”

      Tom blinked. He’d been called back...to move...luggage? There was a whole, entire house crew for such. His mother was going into the winky-dink time?

      Tom said, “Okay.” And he went the ten steps to JoAnn’s car and effortlessly lifted out her two bags. He carried them to the door and found his mother waiting for him to open the door for them.

      Okay.

      He put down the suitcases and escorted the ladies back inside. Then he retrieved JoAnn’s luggage.

      As he reentered the house, he asked JoAnn, “You been visiting?”

      “I got here just a while ago. We’ve been talking and drinking—tea.”

      His eyes twinkled and he moved his lips so his grin was interrupted.

      JoAnn said, “So you’re out here and working on the place?”

      “Just another ranch hand.” He exchanged an amused glance. He hadn’t seen JoAnn for some time. She looked pretty good to his eyes. How about her showing up with luggage! How come?

      “You on the circuit?” Then he bit his lip. She was about thirty. She might be embarrassed by her visiting... with him there. Was his momma waving her under his nose? He looked at her again and thought, okay.

      But his mother was saying rather sternly, “I asked JoAnn to come in order to bring Andrew up to time. He believes he’s the only one who has even been on the tableland.”

      Tom scoffed, “He’s a pilgrim.”

      “Yes.” His mother sighed and walked farther down the cool hallway.

      JoAnn followed. She had stiffened a bit with Tom’s impulsive inquire if she was back on the circuit. She had never been on the circuit! She was a current, independent woman and she didn’t need the circuit to find a willing man! With her daddy’s money, she didn’t need to go looking for any man!

      She became somewhat aloof.

      Redheads can get hostile real quick like. Tom sighed inside his body and began to verbally tape over his stupidity. He said, “That’s some automobile you got out there.”

      “It’s a dream.”

      He asked, “Take me for a ride this evening?”

      JoAnn replied vaguely, “I’ll see.”

      She gave him a very independent look. Or was it... a...rejecting one? Well, if it was, it shouldn’t surprise Tom any. He’d missed so many perfect women who’d gotten married off to somebody else, that he wouldn’t be at all surprised to be dumped by this one just about immediately.

      Andrew Parsons came carefully down the hall with a cane helping his left leg walk. He was lonely and bored. He’d heard female talk. So he snooped. He smiled courteously and lowered his head in a minimal bow as he apparently meant to go on by them.

      Mrs. Keeper said, “Good morning, Andrew. Allow me to introduce you to my new guest.”

      That red hair—Andrew’s eyes sparkled. He stopped with courteous interest, his eyes on the redheaded one. He hadn’t even noticed Tom. Andrew had no real interest in Tom anyway and found him unsuitable because Tom had never been at all interested in Andrew’s adventures.

      The reason Tom wasn’t interested was because he’d been out on that tableland how many thousands of times? To search, to herd, to just be alone out there. That had been when he first had his own horse. He’d gone out to help watch a herd stay in the area allotted to them in the wet times when the grasses were lush.

      Tom went out on the tableland to find steers that had avoided being rounded up. To find calves that cows had dropped and discarded. And just recently, to look for whoever it was out there who’d shot that great bullet and knocked Andrew’s horse over...dead.

      Tom had observed the changings of the land in the gentle, subtle seasons. The tableland was fragile and beautiful. He took pleasure in the looking around and loved the land.

      Tom had little endurance with the pilgrim who saw the tableland as bleak and useless, craggy and waterless. Andrew hadn’t looked well enough. There were springs out yonder, if a man knew where to look.

      And nobody who lived around there was ever going to give away the secrets of the hidden places.

      So now a cranky Tom inquired of the pilgrim, “When you clipped our fences, did you see any of our No Trespassing signs?” Now that was about the most blatant comment Tom could make to the pilgrim.

      His mother was appalled and stood straighter.

      Andrew replied kindly, “I didn’t see any signs. Perhaps you should have larger ones?”

      Tom looked levelly at the pilgrim and said, “But you did see that the area was fenced. That should have been some sort of clue it is private land?”

      His mother put her hand around a portion of Tom’s arm and subtly shook it, indicating that he was being rude enough and to cut it out.

      Tom turned his head slowly and just looked stonily at his mother.

      She inquired, “Will you be here for lunch?”

      Tom replied, “No.” He just walked on off, but he tilted his hat barely enough to JoAnn, as he went out the door, got into his Jeep and left.

      It was probably Tom’s doing exactly that which caught JoAnn’s attention, causing her to blink. So Tom wasn’t as wimpy as she’d thought. How interesting.

      She looked at Andrew. She considered him. Mrs. Keeper had indoctrinated JoAnn on exactly what all Andrew had done. JoAnn wondered how in the world Andrew had ever gotten along in this current time. He was obviously interested in her. She tended to attract male attention. It was boringly her red hair that lured men. They always wanted to know if her hair was red...everywhere?

      The very idea of such interest exasperated JoAnn.

      So she