Cowboy at the Crossroads

He jerked himself to attention as he realized she was saying his name. “Yes.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

He hung up the phone with a frown on his face. What was wrong with him? Nothing, he told himself. He just felt like this because of Blanche and her crude suggestion. He wasn’t attracted to Dr. Becca Talbert. Not at all.

CHAPTER FOUR

BECCA WASN’T SURE what to pack, so she took a few of everything, but mostly jeans and tops. With her suitcases in the living room, she stopped to call Grandpa George—Jackson’s father—as well as Rose and Owen. Then she called Dr. Arnold’s office to let them know her whereabouts in case they needed to contact her. Hanging up the phone, she decided that part of her problem was the fact that she had to justify her whereabouts to so many people. At her age, she shouldn’t have to do that. Their love was overwhelming her. Was that ungrateful? She hoped not. She loved her family, but she needed to be free, to experience life on her own. And that was exactly what she was going to do.

With her bags loaded in the car, she drove toward Triple Creek Ranch. Once she left Houston proper, the scenery along the route was serene and peaceful, so unlike the busyness of the city. Again she parked in the drive near the house and walked to the front door. It swung open before she could ring the bell. A frantic Cord stood there, holding Nicki in his arms. The child’s face was buried in his shoulder and she was crying. Cord stared helplessly at Becca.

“Good morning,” she said brightly as if everything was normal. “My bags are in the car. Do you mind getting them?”

Cord seemed dumbfounded. “Sure,” he answered distractedly, and slowly set Nicki on her feet.

Nicki wrapped her arms around his leg and began to cry louder. “I wanna go to my room. I wanna go to my room.”

“Becca’s here, baby. Don’t you want to say hi to Becca?”

Nicki rubbed her head against his leg. “No. Don’t like her.”

“You liked her yesterday.”

“No, I didn’t. I wanna go to my room. Daddy, please.”

Becca could see Cord weakening. “Would you get my bags, Cord?”

Didn’t she notice he had a child attached to his leg? Then Cord realized this had to be one of her maneuvers to get him out of the way. He disentangled himself from Nicki, but she ran after him crying, “Daddy! Daddy!”

Becca caught her before she could follow him to the car. She carried Nicki, kicking and sobbing, into the house and sat her firmly on the sofa.

“Leave me ’lone,” she whimpered, and reached for Dolly.

Becca held her face between both hands, rubbing her thumbs over the girl’s wet cheeks. “No, I’m not leaving you alone. I’ve come to spend some time with you and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“Don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“’Cause.”

“’Cause why?”

“’Cause you’re mean.”

“We had fun last night. I was a chicken, you were a cow and Daddy was a horse. Remember?”

“Yeah.” She hiccuped.

Cord came into the room and set down her bags. As soon as she saw him, Nicki threw out her hands and started to cry again. “Daddy, I wanna go to my room.”

Cord took a ragged breath. “Baby, we’re not going to your room.”

She drummed her legs on the sofa in a temper tantrum. “Daddy, please! Daddy, please!” she wailed.

Becca stood and walked over to Cord, whose face had turned a grayish white. “Just leave, Cord. I’ll handle her.”

“Becca.” Her name sounded more like a groan.

“It’ll be all right. I promise.” She gently pushed him toward the door. As she did she noticed that two women had come to stand in the doorway, one tall and thin with gray hair, the other short and on the plump side.

Cord looked back at Becca. “This is Mrs. Witherspoon, the nanny.”

The plump lady stepped forward and shook Becca’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Dr. Talbert.”

“And I think you’ve met my sister, Edith,” Cord said.

“We call her Edie.”

Becca smiled at the older woman. “Yes, it’s good to see you again, Edie.”

Nicki’s wails drowned out her words.

Becca gave Cord a knowing look, and he slowly made his way out the door, preceded by the two women.

Nicki’s cries continued and Becca sat beside her. She could understand now why everyone was so reluctant to make Nicki leave her room. This type of behavior was hard on the nerves. She waited for a moment, trying to figure out the best approach to this situation. Her attention was drawn to the doll clutched in Nicki’s arms, and she started to talk.

“Dolly, do you know what you and I are going to do today? No? Well, I’ll tell you. We’re going outside. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. It’s a beautiful day. Of course, I’ll have to put some sunscreen on you. Your skin’s so light and we have to protect it. My skin, I don’t have to worry too much about. I just get brown. Still, it never hurts to be careful with the sun. When I was little, I was in the sun all the time. My mother called me a brown-eyed Susan. I never knew what that was, and it confused me. My name’s Becca, not Susan. What do you think of that, Dolly?”

The wails stopped, and Nicki opened one eye and stared at Becca. “Dolly can’t talk.”

“That’s a pity because I like Dolly.”

“She don’t like you.”

Becca brought one hand to her chest. “That breaks my heart.”

Nicki opened her other eye. “It does?”

“Yes.”

“What does that feel like?”

“It feels sad. Does Dolly feel sad?”

“Yes.”

“Everybody’s sad sometimes, but it’s not good to feel sad for too long.”