Page 9 of Cowboy Heat

He’s back to smiling. He’s good at that. “I appreciate the offer,” he says to Mimi. “But I think it’ll be in my best interest to make that Walmart run sooner rather than later.”

Mimi starts to make a fuss, but I jump in and take his elbow to steer him away.

He stops us from going anywhere long enough to tell Mimi goodbye. “It was nice to meet you, doc.”

Mimi smiles. “Nice to meet you too, Mr. Montgomery.”

We don’t hang around past that, and we’re on the front porch in a jiffy.

“Do you need me to drop you by anywhere else?” Beau looks at his car. It seems strange against the willow tree in the background across the street. Like it’s been cut and pasted into an old picture where it doesn’t quite belong. Just like Beau.

I shake my head. It still hurts a little. “The bill may be nicer here, but the doctor is insisting I stay a while for observation.”

“Still better than the hospital, though,” he points out.

“Plus the free meal is actually pretty good.”

He chuckles, then goes all serious. “You sure there isn’t something else I can do to help?”

I’m touched, and surprised, but also stubborn. “I think you’ve helped me enough. I’ll return the favor tomorrow. Do you still want to meet at nine, or do we need to push it back?”

Beau takes a moment to answer. He’s looking at me, and I move just a bit under his gaze. There are shadows clinging to half of him. It makes me uncomfortable. “If we could do ten instead, that would be better,” he finally says.

I nod. “Ten it is.”

Beau doesn’t turn away, so I tell him goodnight. He says the same, and it’s me who leaves the porch first.

I’m back in the foyer when I see Mimi peeking through the living room window, watching the man.

Her expression isn’t playful or teasing, though; there’s a somberness to it. A concern.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

She nods to the window. “I’m just wondering how that poor man got hurt. Do you know?”

“What do you mean? He wasn’t in an accident tonight.”

“He’s got a limp, Kissy. He’s got scars too. Didn’t you see them?”

I hurry to the window, but Beau’s already in the car.

We watch him drive off.

“I didn’t notice a limp, and a lot of people have scars, Mimi,” I admit. “It shouldn’t be our business if he has them too, right?”

Mimi sighs. She lets the curtain go so it covers the night back up. “I don’t think those are normal scars, Kissy. He’s been hurt good, and he either tried to hide that or you’re caught in your head again and not seeing him fully. Either way, you take care around that one. If you don’t know how he got hurt like that, then I suspect you don’t know much about him at all, do you?”

I don’t answer, and she doesn’t need me to either.

We both know that my knowledge of Beau Montgomery is limited.

Still, hours later while I’m lying on my childhood bed in the guestroom, I find myself wondering.

CHAPTERFIVE

Beau

I don’t getto the main house on Blue Lolita until well past midnight. Partly from my trip to Walmart lasting longer than I thought and then getting lost when I came back.