Read Online Cowboy Fever by Joanne Kennedy - Free Book Online Page B

The sign at the other end of the street read “Welcome to Purvis. Next Services 30 miles.”
    The outside of the boutique looked about as interesting as the dry cleaner and the dentist’s office that shared the building, but once you stepped inside the door, a tinkle of bells signaled your entry into an alternate universe where all the men were cowboys and the women were buckaroo belles. Log walls lined the interior, and beamed ceilings held wagon-wheel chandeliers that lit rack after rack of Western shirts, rakish hats, and tight trousers. Everything was spangled, fringed, beaded, and bedazzled.
    â€œHoney!” Jodi’s mother slid off a high stool and jogged over to wrap her daughter in a rose-scented embrace. Jodi closed her eyes and breathed in the familiar perfume while her mother gave her three quick squeezes and stepped back, holding Jodi’s shoulders and scanning her from head to toe.
    â€œYou look fine ,” she declared. Her dark hair, streaked with silver and cut in a springy pageboy, bounced as she nodded approval. “You don’t look sick at all. Not a bit.” She gave Jodi a firm shake and stepped away. “I know this is a small town, but that doesn’t give Darla Black license to make stuff up. She just needs to dig deeper and find some real gossip.”
    â€œI knew it,” Jodi groaned. “She’s spreading it all over town that I’ve got cancer, isn’t she?”
    â€œWell, I have to admit, I thought something was wrong with you too when I got your e-mail, but I figured it was mental.” Peggy Brand cocked her head and gave her daughter a bird-like, inquisitive once-over. “What’s got into you? I’m thrilled to have you, but you never had a shred of interest in fashion. You really want to work here?”
    â€œYou said you needed help.”
    â€œAnd I do. Sales have gone through the roof.” Her mother pointed toward the ceiling and made a noise like a rocket to illustrate her point. “I can’t keep up.” She swept her arm around the room to indicate the racks of clothes and accessories. “But this just isn’t you. ”
    â€œWell, ranching wasn’t you either, but you put up with it for Dad’s sake. And for mine.”
    Her mother stepped back, narrowing her eyes. “What are you talking about?”
    â€œI got to thinking about things, that’s all. And I realized I hadn’t been fair to you.”
    â€œYou were grieving too, honey, and you needed someone to blame.”
    â€œSo I picked you? And that’s okay? No.” Jodi shook her head. “I was wrong.”
    It was true. When her father suffered a riding accident that left him paralyzed, it seemed to Jodi that her mother had been paralyzed too—at least where the ranch was concerned. She’d been suddenly incapable of lifting a finger to keep it running. At fourteen, Jodi had been mired in teen self-obsession. It hadn’t occurred to her that the situation was as difficult for her mother as it was for her.
    â€œI blamed you for everything, Mom.” She pulled a beaded necklace from the clearance basket and threaded it between her fingers, her eyes pricking with hot tears.
    â€œI know it was hard for you. You two were so close.” Her mother pulled a pink T-shirt emblazoned with a rhinestone-studded bucking horse silhouette from a box beside the counter and folded it rapidly.
    Jodi pulled a fringed Western shirt with pearlized snaps off a nearby rack and held it up to her body as if checking it for size. “I was such a little snit, though. All I could think of was that you’d sold the horses.” She took a deep breath. It was still hard to talk about this stuff, even after five years. “I know you only did what you had to do.”
    â€œIt was hard for everybody.” Her mother set the shirt on the counter and pulled out another. “But it’s over and done.”
    â€œNot