Song for a Cowboy (Kings of Country 2)

Chapter 5

“You’re all here?” Emmy Lou said, handing her earpiece to Melanie and walking across the grass football field. “Why are you all here?”

“Besides I’ve been home for less than twenty-four hours and I want to spend more time with you?” Krystal leaned forward, crossed her arms on the rail, and smiled. “I don’t know. I guess I was curious about this whole football-cheerleader song thing.” She blinked her eyes innocently. Without her signature smoky eye and dark-red lips, she looked young and—almost—innocent. But Emmy knew her twin. “Isn’t that right, Clementine?” Krystal cooed to her fan-adored, three-legged Chinese crested dog. The dog’s tail went wild. “See? She’s so excited to be here.”

“O-okay. Thank you for the support, Clementine.” She turned to Travis. “And you?”

“I figure there will be another awkward exchange between you and Brock.” He shrugged. “I brought popcorn.” He pulled a bag of microwave popcorn from under his seat, propped his booted feet on the chair in front of him, and tipped his green-and-yellow tractor cap back on his head.

“At least he’s being honest.” Emmy pointed at her twin sister.

Krystal leaned back against her seat, Clementine in her lap. “Fine. I’m here because I, too, am curious to see what’s not going on between the two of you.” She was smiling ear to ear.

“Unbelievable.” She turned to Jace. “Can you please, please get her to listen to me?”

Jace held his hands up. “I’m no magician, Emmy. I tried. Believe me, I tried.” He reached back and grabbed the bag of popcorn from Travis.

“He is the only one who has a reason to be here.” She pointed at Sawyer, standing silently at the end of the row. “He’s working.”

“I thought today was your day off, man?” Travis asked, grabbing the bag back from Jace and holding it out for Sawyer. “Didn’t you say something about going to a tractor pull or something?”

“Are you kidding?” Emmy asked, horrified, as she faced Sawyer.

“He is kidding.” Sawyer sighed.

“Oh.” Emmy had a hard time not laughing then. “Sorry, Sawyer.” She shook her head. “If today was his day off, I’m sure he’d be somewhere far away.” She shot her siblings a look. “Instead of here, making things awkward for no reason. Because he, unlike all of you, probably has a life outside of my excessively dysfunctional—”

“Personal life?” Travis finished.

Krystal sat back and stared at Sawyer. “Do you wish you were far away from us, Sawyer? Here I thought we’d become your family, sort of. I mean, we are totally dysfunctional—you know that, but we also have a certain charm…and snacks.” It was her turn to steal the popcorn bag. She and Clementine peered inside. “Okay, we had snacks.” She glared at Travis and Jace. “When you’re not being our big, brooding, strong-and-silent bodyguard, you know, deep down, you’d still hang out with us—even if you weren’t paid to do so.” Her gaze swiveled back to Sawyer, head cocked to one side, eyebrow raised. “You know, like friends. Or family. You might as well be, at this point.”

Sawyer’s eyes narrowed the tiniest bit.

Emmy wasn’t sure what to make of the odd look that passed between Sawyer and her twin. It didn’t last long.

“I’m going to…check the exits,” Sawyer murmured, already heading up the stairs, his black “King’s Guard” T-shirt stretched across his broad back.

“See if there’s more popcorn,” Travis called after him. “Or a beer. Am I right? A beer would be good.” He nudged Jace.

“Pass.” Jace rarely drank.

“The concession booths aren’t open.” Emmy shook her head. “There is no one here.” She pointed around the stadium—right as players began running onto the field.

“You were saying?” Krystal sat back, resting her feet on the bar. “Just pretend we’re not here. And afterward, we can go talk about everything that doesn’t happen…over barbecue. I really really want some barbecue.”

Emmy did a quick once-over of the players. No Brock. Thank goodness. Not yet, anyway. Four days ago, he’d played her daddy’s song on his guitar and disappeared. There’d been no way to ask her father why he’d left or what had happened without her father getting suspicious. And since she wasn’t going to think about Brock anymore, she had no interest and didn’t need to know more information. Instead, she’d spent the rest of the morning enjoying the kids.

“Barbecue? Sounds like a plan. Ribs.” Jace nodded. “And brisket.”

“And beer. A cold Lone Star Beer sounds good.” Travis nodded.

“Nope. Iced tea. Sweet.” Krystal scratched Clementine behind the ear. “With lemon.”

“A beer, over ice, always beats iced tea.” Travis kept on nodding.

“And pecan pie.” Jace nodded. “With some vanilla ice cream.”