Tex Times Ten. Tina Leonard
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in bed now. You’ve missed speaking to them.”
Cissy shook her head. “I really just wanted to hear your voice. I’m feeling much better now.”
“Cissy,” Gran said, “there’s just no way out of that contract with Marvella, is there?”
“No.” Although for a few days last month, Cissy had hoped and prayed that she’d escaped with Han nah Hotchkiss’s help. Tonight, her friend would be come Hannah Jefferson. And Cissy couldn’t go to the wedding because she had to work. An iron-clad contract with Marvella and a desperate need for money to send to her family was enough to make certain Cissy stayed exactly where she was. “It’s good money, Gran. I’m glad you bought the kids new crayons. They couldn’t have a better teacher than you.”
And that was the truth. If there was a happy place to grow up, it was Gran’s. “I have to go now,” she said softly. “Tell the children I’ll call on Sunday.”
“You do that. And Cissy,” her grandmother said, “there’s a light at the end of this tunnel. We just haven’t seen it yet.”
“I’m sure it’s there.”
“Clearly, I’m going to have to dream up a handsome-prince-rescues-my-Cissy scenario for you. I just don’t know any handsome princes.”
“I don’t know any that provide rescue service. Good night, Gran. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She hung up the phone, feeling better and worse all at once. Lost in thought, she was startled when the phone rang under her hand. “Hello?”
“Shishy?” a voice said.
Cissy frowned. “This is Cissy.”
“Thish ish Tex.”
“Tex…Jefferson?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You sound…like you’ve enjoyed the wedding.” Her heart began pounding. Why would that handsome cowboy be calling her? It was as if her dreams were coming true…but of course, the dreams she dreamed couldn’t possibly come true for her.
“I haven’t enjoyed anything!” he said urgently, though his voice was hushed.
“What is your problem?” she demanded. “You sound like you’re in a pipe.”
“I’m not in a pipe! I’m in a jam. I need you to save me!”
Her brows shot up. “Oh, gosh, thank heaven. There for a minute I thought my Prince Charming might actually be calling me.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Saving cowboys isn’t exactly my specialty. And besides, it sounds like you’re about three bottles past salvation.”
“These wimmin want me. That’s the problem!”
She laughed. “Tex, that’s a male oxymoron.”
“Oxy-what? I’m not in the mood for big chat, Cissy. I need you to come get me out of here before they find me!”
“Where are you?”
“In a broom closet on the riverboat!”
She sat on the bed, beginning to enjoy his dilemma. “Hiding from women.”
“Yes!”
“Pawn them off on your brothers. How was the wedding?”
“I dunno. I fell asleep.”
“And then you found the champagne.”
“Well, yes. And then they grabbed me. And so I found more champagne. But it’s starting to taste sharp to me. I need a good old-fashioned beer.”
“Who grabbed you?”
“The women from the other two salons.”
Oh. Her rivals. Hannah’s stylist sisters. “Most men don’t complain about women wanting them, Tex. Is there a problem you want to share?”
“No,” he said, his voice tense. “It’s what they want to do with me that’s the problem.”
“And that would be?”
“Raffle me. And my brothers. My brothers are going to kill me, because I agreed. But there was just so much pressure, Cissy!”
He was starting to sound better now that he was putting voice to his anxiety. Cissy crawled up in her bed and leaned against the headboard. “What kind of pressure?” Although she could imagine, since he was a gorgeous guy.
“I don’t know. Pressure!”
“I have to take a report to Marvella, Tex. You go sleep off your pressure, okay? I think you’ll be fine in the morning.” She should have known that the only reason he’d ever ring her phone was if he was three sheets to the wind and heading downstream fast.
“Cissy, listen to me. This is really all your fault.”
“Mine?”
“Yes. Because you told my brother that Bloodthirsty Black pulled left, when he didn’t. Laredo could have been killed!”
“He could have been killed, anyway, since he couldn’t ride a bull. How is that my fault?”
“Because you work for the wicked witch. And Hannah suggested a cowboy raffle to get you out of your contract. Only Marvella turned down the idea, and now the other salons have picked it up. And I got roped into taking part.”
“You wouldn’t want to be on this salon’s team, Tex. It’s definitely not the team of good sportswomanship.”
“I know. And what will happen if I get won? Have you ever considered that, Miss Kisserton?”
“Oh,” she said. “You’re figuring that someone in this salon might buy you.”
“Marvella,” he said, sounding squeaky. “I mean, what if?”
She laughed. “I don’t think she wants you, cow boy.”
“She might. To ride BadAss Blue for her. Or some other enslavement. Think, Cissy. I could end up dancing on her hot tub wearing nothing more than a pair of jeans! Or she might make me be a butler for an evening, her personal boy-toy.”
“The possibilities are endless,” Cissy said. “But I think you’re overrating your appeal.” Actually, he wasn’t, but Cissy wasn’t going to reward his vanity or his paranoia.
A knock on her door made her jump. “Who is it?”
“Marvella.”
“Hang on,” she whispered to Tex. “Marvella wants to talk to me. Come in,” she called.
Her nemesis walked in, dressed in a conservative navy-blue dress, her white hair piled high and iron-sprayed. “I’ve been waiting for the report.” She eyed Cissy’s clothing with approval, and then the phone Cissy was holding with disapproval.
“I’m sorry. I got an unexpected phone call. Fifty customers downstairs, including the mayor and a police captain from the town over. Drink tab is up by fifty percent. And the cowgirl-loving ship captain is back, paying court to Valentine. He likes her phone-voice so much he hasn’t yet figured out she can’t ride a horse.”
“Good.” Marvella nodded. “Who are you talking to?”
Cissy swallowed. “Tex Jefferson.”
“Excellent.” Her voice turned soft and cooing. “Please tell Tex I say hello. And that I’m so hoping he’ll ride BadAss Blue for me at this month’s Mayfest. I’m also thinking of doing a children’s petting zoo, if he can think of some animals I could rent for the event.”
Cissy’s jaw went slack. “I told you,” Tex said in her ear. “She’ll think of a way to