The Cowboy Wants a Baby

She’d realized then that forensics wasn’t where she belonged. It wasn’t all bad. But the case of the teenager, and of course the whole Jason mess, convinced her to leave Dallas and come home. That, at least, had been a positive thing.

The memories had shattered her good mood, and that wasn’t acceptable. She turned up the radio until the car vibrated with Reba singing “Fancy.” Lily sang along, not caring that her voice was terrible, and that she only hit some of the notes some of the time. She loved singing in the car, and she didn’t give a hoot who saw her doing it. She had a long road ahead, and nothing like good old country music to help her along the way.

By the time she reached the tiny town of Jessup, Texas, she was sung out, rung out and starving. The town looked like a hundred others in South Texas. The biggest single store was the grain and feed. Then a Wells Fargo branch. There was an antique store next to a gun shop, and next to that Pete’s Dry Cleaning. Then she spied a little diner, Josie’s, and she pulled around back to the parking lot. She’d purposely waited to eat until she arrived in Cole Bishop’s town. Waitresses in small-town diners could be a wealth of information.

She peeled herself off the seat then shut the door; her car looked a little worse for wear, but that wasn’t because of this trip. It had only taken six hours to get here from the ranch. The sports car was almost ten years old, and the Texas weather had beaten down the old broad. But there were some good years left in her. At least, Lily hoped so.

She ran her fingers through her hair, straightened her blouse and skirt and headed inside.

It took her a moment to adjust to the dim light after so much bright sunshine. But once she did, she felt as if she’d been there before. It was a familiar setup, typical of diners all over the country. Four or five booths, a few tables, a counter, a small soda fountain. The waitresses wore jeans and T-shirts with white aprons slung low on their hips. The other truly Texas touch was the preponderance of Stetsons on the clientele.

Lily headed to the middle seat at the counter, between a wiry old cowboy who looked as if he slept in his boots and a middle-aged woman eating a salad, her paperback book open behind her plate.

The waitress, Ginny, according to her name tag came to Lily with a menu and a smile. “Afternoon.”

“Hi.”

“You headin’ to Fort Worth?”

Lily shook her head. “Nope. But maybe you can help me?”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“First, I need some chicken-fried steak.”

“Smart girl. There’s none better in the county.”

“Excellent. And I’ll have an iced tea, please.”

Ginny wrote the order, then turned and put it on a clip in the window opening to the kitchen. She poured the tea, gave the cowboy some fresh coffee and came back to Lily. “So what else can I help you with?”

Lily guessed her age at about forty, give or take. Her short cropped hair had some gray in it, her eyes had laugh wrinkles and so did her smile. It was obvious she liked the idea of a stranger in town, with all new stories to tell. Lily sent up a mental thank-you to the patron saint of private detectives, if there was one. “I’m looking for someone. His name is Cole Bishop.”

Ginny’s pencil slipped from her fingers. The woman to Lily’s right snapped her book shut. The cowboy pushed back his Stetson. The reactions were startling, to say the least.

“Are you here for the job?”

Lily had no idea what the job might be, but it seemed a likely avenue to pursue. She couldn’t imagine what could cause such a stir. “Yeah. You know anything about it?”

Ginny glanced meaningfully at the woman with the book. The best Lily could figure, the waitress was either scandalized or jealous, or else she had an upset stomach. Finally looking back at Lily, Ginny shook her head. “I don’t know that much about it.”

Right. “Whatever you can tell me would be great. I’m not sure I got all the details.”

The woman shrugged a what-the-hell. “I’ll tell you one thing. He’s a stunner.”

“A stunner?”

“Best-looking man I’ve ever seen in the flesh.”

“I see,” she said, although of course, she didn’t. What did his looks have to do with the job? Dammit, she shouldn’t have said she was going after the job. Now it was impossible to ask straight out what it was.

“And Lord knows he could have any woman he wanted just by crooking his little finger.”

The woman next to Lily nodded her agreement. “You’d think he’d want to do things the regular way, wouldn’t you?”

Have any woman? The regular way?

“So, tell me something, sweetie,” Ginny asked, lowering her voice. “Why on earth would a beautiful young woman like you want to do it?”

It? What was it? “Uh, you know. The usual reasons.”

“Usual? I don’t know where you’re from, child, but in this part of the world, there ain’t no usual in what Cole Bishop’s up to.”

Shit! “Well, that’s the thing. I was hoping to learn more about it before I went to see him. If I go to see him.”

Ginny leaned forward and opened her mouth, but the little bell from the kitchen drew her away before she could say one word. It ended up being Lily’s lunch that was ready, and once Ginny retrieved it, she seemed ready to spill the beans. To make sure the waitress knew she had the floor, Lily quickly cut a big slice of the meat and shoved it in her mouth. What she should have done first was make sure it wasn’t scorching hot. But she just smiled through the pain as she chewed.

Ginny opened her mouth again, but for the second time, she was interrupted.

“I heard that Stephanie Davidson went by his place about two weeks ago.” The woman to Lily’s right leaned forward. “She said he was a regular son of a you-know-what.”

“I do, Patsy, I do.” Ginny shook her head and frowned. “He ‘bout bit my head off a couple days back. Just because his coffee wasn’t hot enough.”

“That’s Cole Bishop for you.”

“And yet the women fall at his feet. Except for, you know. That’s just plum crazy.” Ginny realized what she’d said, and shot Lily an embarrassed glance. “No offense meant.”

“None taken.” Lily smiled, but her imagination was going hog-wild. Was the man a deviant? A pervert? A talk-show host? Maybe Eve wouldn’t want him back in her life. Maybe Lily should get in her car and head on home. What in hell was this job?

“I don’t know.” Patsy took a swallow of her iced tea, probably just to add to the drama of the moment. Even after she put down her glass, she hesitated. “I think what the man needs is a good woman. Someone who can turn him around.”

“Wait a minute. Are you saying he’s gay?”

Ginny shook her head at Lily’s question. “Not so’s you’d notice. He sees a waitress out at Hastings from time to time. And don’t she like to brag about it. According to her, he’s got the biggest—”

The kitchen bell rang, and Ginny hustled to the window before she finished the sentence. Lily figured she knew what was so big about Mr. Bishop, but in cattle country one could never be quite sure.

“Manny sure does speak highly of him, though,” Patsy said the moment Ginny returned from her waitressing duties.

“Who’s Manny?” Lily asked.

“He works for Bishop. Young man, real polite. He’s got a girl, Rita Borrego is her name, and she works at the Millers’ place. She’s a cook and pretty as a petunia.”

Lily didn’t care about petunias. She wanted to know what was going on with Cole. It was a nightmare version of twenty questions, and Lily’s turn was about up. “So, about this job…”

“Jessica Tanksley,” Patsy said, as if Lily hadn’t spoken. “She’s my sister’s boyfriend’s cousin. She went out there.” Patsy looked up to heaven for a moment, then back down. “He looked her over like he was buying a prize heifer. Asked her about a million questions. Real personal, if you get my meaning. But she must have answered wrong. The man never did call her.”

This was getting weirder by the second. Not to mention more frustrating. What kind of a job was this? He’d looked the woman over like a cow? Asked personal questions? “What about family?” Lily asked, deciding to approach things from a different angle. “His, I mean.”