Cowboy, Stay with Me

Chapter One: Sunrose Creek

Lucy was covered in paint and it was only 8am.

Red paint was plastered down her white smock, blue paint was streaked through her blonde hair, and she had pink and green smudges on her cheeks.

Several toddlers were hanging all over her, demanding various things of her; each with equal insistence and enthusiasm, while all talking at once.

A six-month-old baby was wailing from the crib and the preschoolers were fighting over the Legos again. Then the office phone started ringing, but Lucy had a big grin on her face the entire time. She wouldn't have it any other way; she loved her job and adored working with children of all ages.

"Aunt Martha, honey, can you get that?" Lucy called out.

Martha had just broken her leg falling off her trail horse and was now set up comfortably in the office and was supposed to be answering the telephone.

"Aunt Martha?" Lucy called again when the phone continued to ring.

"Can I have a juice box, Miss Lucy?" Travis asked her, tugging persistently on the hem of her sundress.

Lucy smiled down at him. She knew she wasn't supposed to have favorites, but Travis was undeniably hers; there was just something so beguiling about the little troublemaker with the big brown eyes. "I think it's a bit too early in the morning for a juice box, sweetie, how 'bout a glass of water or milk instead?"

Travis wrinkled his nose in disdain. "Eewww, gross!" He turned and trundled away; off on a new mission, no doubt.

Amanda, Lucy's older sister, came hustling in from the other side of the house just then. "Sorry, sorry, I'll get the phone. Aunt Martha's in the bathroom, I think."

Lucy gave her sister a grateful smile, hefting little Lotti on her hip as she went around the playroom, straightening up as she went. It was a never-ending, thankless job, but it was truly a labor of love and Lucy found contentment and satisfaction in organizing and cleaning. There was something to be said for immediate gratification.

Martha rolled herself out of the bathroom in her wheelchair a moment later. She could have done with just a pair of crutches, but the middle-aged woman never missed an opportunity to milk an injury.

Martha was instantly besieged upon by toddlers; they absolutely loved climbing on her new chair and getting rides, and she, in turn, adored all the attention.

Lucy was beginning to fear that Martha may never choose to leave the wheelchair at this rate.

Amanda came back from the office a minute or so later, and Lucy noticed that her sister had an odd look on her round, pretty face. She kept flicking her brunette hair over her shoulder, which was her tell when she was nervous.

Lucy's blue eyes narrowed in curious suspicion. "Who was it, Amanda?"

Amanda glanced over and flushed guiltily. She straightened her cropped denim jacket like it was a suit of armor, perhaps. "No one!" She said, in an unnaturally high voice.

Lucy faced her elder sister and arced one eyebrow as she bounced Lotti absently on her hip. "Come on, Amanda, you know you can't lie to save your life. Spill! Who was it?"

Martha looked up, her own blue eyes twinkling with interest behind her spectacles. "Yes, who was it, dear?"

Amanda heaved a sigh in defeat. "Oh, uhm, it was just Matthew. He-he was just calling to warn me. . ."

"Warn you?" Lucy laughed. "What'd you mean? Warn you about what?"

Amanda met her eyes then, biting her lip in a nervous bad habit. "Warn me that I should probably find an excuse to get you to leave the ranch for the day. Uhm, You-Know-Who will be stopping by this afternoon, as it turns out."

"Who?" Lucy said blankly.

Lotti squirmed to get down and Lucy released the two-year-old who scampered off with surprising agility to go find her twin, Liza.

"Jake?" Lucy offered a guess.

Jake was a cowboy who Lucy had been politely dodging for, oh, just most of her life. He'd had his eyes set on her since they were in the sandbox, but she simply didn't feel the same way about him, sadly. She would make herself love him if she could, but forcing yourself to love someone was just as impossible as forcing someone to love you.

"What? No, why would we want you to avoid poor Jake? No, I mean the other You-Know-Who. Erm, the ex-boyfriend, a certain US Marshall we all know and-and utterly despise, of course, rotten scoundrel! May he sizzle in Hell for whatever it was he ever did to earn your undying hatred. . .?" Amanda grinned sheepishly, having managed to say more than she'd intended, as usual.

Lucy sighed and turned away to break up a fight between Travis and Johnny, an ongoing arch rivalry, mostly concerning the Legos.

"Both of you will get a five minute timeout if you don't agree to share the Millennium Falcon!" Lucy informed them both sternly, holding their little flailing bodies apart by grasping each of them by the collar.

They both simmered down at once, they knew Miss Lucy was not one to be trifled with. Grudgingly, they went back to playing on the rug.

Lucy sighed again as she watched over them for a few minutes, long enough to see that they were going to play nice for now. Then she turned back to face her sister. "So why is Sean coming here, to little old Sunrose Creek?" Lucy asked bracingly.

Amanda's own daughter, Kailee, had just tripped and hurt her knee on the hardwood. The three year old was now weeping profusely in self-pity, her blonde pigtails quivering with the magnitude of her overall woe.

Amanda smiled and picked her daughter up, bouncing her on her knee and crooning to her until Kailee became distracted from the pain. Soon she was giggling again and trying to chew on her mom's pretty brunette hair.

"Well, Matthew said that it was on official US Marshal business; that Sean has to question the stable hands at all the local ranches and farms." Amber explained. "He didn't say why; it's probably classified."

Lucy went to the crib to pick up Rosalita, who had stopped crying but was still fussy. "Yeah, is it time for second breakfast, huh, sweet girl?" Lucy murmured to her absently as she carried her into the kitchen to warm up a bottle of milk. "Well, sounds like he won't need to come in and talk to any of us then."

"Oh, Lucy." Martha disparaged her, and Lucy rolled her eyes to Rosalita, then smiled and made funny faces as she bounced the baby on her hip.

"When are you gonna forgive that poor boy and just kiss and make up, already?" Martha demanded from where she sat by the coffee table, helping some of the older kids put together a puzzle.

Amanda shot her aunt a look. "Now, Aunt Martha, you promised you'd stop meddling in Lucy's love life."

"That's true, you did." Lucy said, coming back in as she fed the baby her bottle.

"Well, I'm not meddling, dear, I'm just making a suggestion!"

Lucy looked away, out the window at the sunny front yard. It was going to be another beautiful spring day in Oklahoma.

"Look, Aunt Martha, I'm not sure why you think I was the one to dump Sean, alright? He was the one who left me. I-I thought we were gonna get married. But that was a long time ago."

Martha's eyes widened in surprise. Lucy didn't always openly admit her innermost thoughts and feelings, not easily.

"But. . .why? The two of you seemed so happy together. . ." Martha persisted, despite Amanda's many shooting glances warning her to ceasefire.

"Simple." Lucy said, turning back from the window and gazing down at the little bundle of joy in her arms. "I wanted kids and he didn't."

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Thanks for readin', ya'll!

HRH