Page 13 of Tied to Trouble

Sleep was the furthest thing from his mind as Az veered from the stairway towards the second floor. Instead, he went out the back door off the kitchen to the raised deck outside. Snagging a lawn chair, he plopped down with a grunt and closed his eyes.

The old rambling ranch house had a pretty, peaceful garden out back. The scent of wild honeysuckle tickled his nostrils. The mulberry trees and blackberry patches in the back pasture provided the delicious pies and jellies that his mom made every year from their berries. The trills of the Northern Mockingbirds, or the Whippoorwills as they were commonly known, caressed his ears from among the Mulberry branches, even this late. Those darned birds could go on all night when they wanted to.

Soft footsteps behind him told him his mother was awake. He turned to face her when she took the deck chair next to him. “Trouble sleeping, Mom?”

Beth Newcomb wrapped the lightweight purple robe around her and tied the belt with a chuckle. Her small feet, encased in purple scuffs, were stretched out in front of her. “You know me, I always have to make sure my babies are home before I can sleep.”

“How the heck do you sleep at all those research conferences you go to then?” he teased.

She smiled, her even white teeth barely visible in the pale starlight and the sliver of the new moon. “That’s different, of course.”

The night air felt like silk on Az’s skin now that the heat of the day was past. Despite the sultriness of Missouri’s weather, it was always cooler at night, especially in the late spring. The full heat of summer wouldn’t begin until the summer solstice.

“Are you and Bill going to the Memorial Day barbecue in town this weekend?” he asked. Bill was a fellow professor who often visited from the University of Missouri in Columbia.

“Not this year,” she replied, staring out into the darkness.

Az didn’t press her. His mom hadn’t been the same since she’d lost his dad. None of them had been the same, but he was pretty sure she was lonely. His mother was still a pretty woman in her late fifties. The professional brown bob layered along her chin and slightly down her back was complemented with golden brown eyes and a slender figure. She and Bill had been an item for a few years, but wedding bells never seemed to enter the picture.

“I heard your brothers teasing you about Mandy,” she offered, changing the subject. “Were you two out tonight?”

Az hesitated. “Not really. We were both at the Saddle, but we weren’t together. She had a little too much to drink, so I took her home.”

Beth chuckled. “I’m guessing she didn’t agree with your analysis of her condition.”

“What makes you say that?” he asked warily.

She turned to face him. “I’m aware of her feelings towards you hovering over her.”

“I’m not hovering,” Az objected for the second time today.

“Son, you’ve been carrying a torch for Mandy for years, whether you believe it or not. You might want to ask yourself why it was so important for you to look out for her all these years. Because it wasn’t out of the goodness of your heart, although you’re a good man.”

Az grunted. He’d been asking himself that very same thing all afternoon. “Maybe,” he finally admitted. “I’m not sure either of us is ready for a serious relationship, though.”

Beth snorted. “Well...while you’re thinking about getting ready, you might realize that she’s thinking too. And whether or not you’re in her thoughts, or some other man is, will be up to you.” She reached out and placed a palm on his arm. “Don’t wait too long, son. The right one doesn’t come along every day,” she added wistfully, turning her face back to the stars and leaning back in her chair. “You don’t want to waste precious time you could have had together just dithering.”

Az’s stomach clenched. He couldn’t resist asking, “What about you, Mom?”

She hesitated, then sighed. “Adam was my right one, Az. No one else has ever come close. So, until that happens, if it happens, I’m better off alone than only giving half of me to another man.”

Az’s heart tugged, and he went quiet. His thoughts were so focused on Mandy that he almost missed the lights bobbing off and on across the west cattle pasture. How would a light get into one of their pastures...unless?

He jumped up. “Did you see that, Mom?”

Beth jumped up. “See what?”

“Those lights out there.”

Beth squinted in the direction Az was pointing. “Yes...yes, now I see them. What are they?”

“Hugh! Aaron!” Az yelled to his brothers as he ran for the back door. The two men met him in the kitchen.

“What? What’s going on, Az?” A concerned Hugh was striding across the kitchen floor.

“There are lights in the pasture!”

“Rustlers!” Aaron yelped. “Come on, let’s catch ’em red-handed.”

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