Well so much for being out of the hot seat, Sheri thought drily.
“True, that brings us back to our list.” Norma Sue slapped Sheri on the back and smiled her mile-wide smile. “The best thing for a broken heart is to get back in the saddle, and so we think we’ve got the field narrowed down for you. I have to tell you that it hasn’t been an easy job. You know as well as we do that there’s not just any man out there who can keep up with you, Sheri Marsh.”
Lacy grinned. “I think most of the guys are scared of you.”
Esther Mae halted her forkful of apple pie midair. “That’s probably right. I asked Simon Putts about takin’ you out on a date—you all should have seen his face. He went pastier than Norma Sue’s dumplings.”
That did it! Sheri bolted up from the table so fast it shook. She couldn’t take Esther Mae asking somebody on a date for her. And Simon Putts of all people? Why, the name fit him like a glove. “Okay, listen up,” she said. “You all have had your fun, but for the last time lay off me. I am more than capable of finding my own cowboy. If and when I’m interested in finding him—”
“Well, we never said you couldn’t find a cowboy,” Esther Mae interrupted. “You just can’t seem to find the right cowboy. You know, the one. We know your heart was broken—”
It was Sheri’s turn to interrupt, frustrated beyond words. “Okay, okay. Yes, my heart is hurting because of J.P. I hope you’re all satisfied that I’m admitting it.” She was steadily backing toward the door, feeling as if a noose was tightening around her neck. She needed her freedom. “And since my heart was broken, that should make you realize I’m not, and I repeat once more, I am not looking for the one. I’m not looking for anything. Goodness, y’all, I’m kinda confused right now.” There, she’d admitted more than she wanted, and they were still looking at her as though she was the next star of their runaway hit, How to Marry Off a Girl in Ten Days Whether She Wants to Or Not!
Just in the nick of time she bumped into the door.
“What’s your hurry, Sheri? You don’t have a pedicure for another hour,” Lucy said.
Sheri glared at her soon-to-be former best friend Lacy, pushed the swinging door open and spun through it. Lacy’s chuckles followed her out to the sidewalk.
They were out of control! Really. This was just not right. Happy single people ought to have the right to walk the streets of Mule Hollow just like everyone else. That’s right, without the worry that they were going to be unduly set upon by the matchmaking posse. Somebody should do something about it. People could get hurt…like her!
Why, it just wasn’t right for them to think that everyone in Mule Hollow was their own special puppet, to be led here and there as they saw fit. Sheri marched down the sidewalk indignantly. How would they like it if the tables were turned on them? They wouldn’t like it one bit if a person manipulated them! Oh, no, they wouldn’t. It would serve them all right if someone pretended to fall in love because of their scheming. Just when the posse began to pat each other on the back they would find out the joke was on them.
That’s it!
Sheri stopped dead in her tracks. Her anger dissipated as she thought about what just flashed through her thoughts.
It was a brilliant plan.
A way-past-time-for-it kind of plan.
But it seemed deceitful. The thought dimmed her initial pleasure. Then again, she told herself, this was a lesson the ladies needed to learn. And it seemed that they would only learn it through something as drastic as her budding plan…since they certainly weren’t hearing what she had to say.
It was true. Sheri stood in the center of Mule Hollow’s Main Street, gazing down the colorfully painted buildings lining both sides of the street. She had to admit…there hadn’t been a shake-up like this could be since Lacy came to town and painted the two-story beauty salon flamingo-pink, then followed it by talking everyone into painting the rest of town all colors of the rainbow.
It had been the lonesome town’s single cowboys who’d been shook up on that day. But this, this plan would shake up the matchmaking posse so they would leave her alone and quit plotting the demise of her single status.
Getting back in the saddle was how Norma Sue had put it. Well, for a girl who’d loved being in the saddle until J.P. threw her off, she was struggling on new terrain here and they weren’t helping.
She’d tried to beg off, hadn’t she? She tried asking them nicely and she’d tried demanding them to leave it be. But nooo, that little group of happy do-gooders just closed their ears as though she’d said nothing and gone on with their plans.
It was past time for talking, Sheri realized. It was time for action, and she was all over that like a bee to a honeycomb. It would be a much-needed distraction for her while providing a greatly-needed service for the small group of happy singles of Mule Hollow.
All she had to do now was find exactly the right man for the job.
That’s right. She needed a man, and not just any man. She needed a man with as little desire for marriage as she had. She thought about her idea for a moment, letting it settle in and get comfortable. She would do this.
She certainly would.
She would find the perfect man to help with her little charade—a man whose name was not Simon Putts. No, this would be a man the ladies could picture Sheri with. He must be a man who valued his freedom and his freedom of choice with as much regard as she did.
All she needed to do now was figure out which of the cowboys in Mule Hollow would fit that specification. The two of them could teach the posse that when it came to running her life, Sheri was the one in control.
And she wasn’t giving that up for anyone.
Ever.
Pace Gentry watched the scenery pass as he drove the last leg of the trip from Idaho to Texas. He’d crossed the border a couple of hours back and should have been feeling his mood brighten. After all, the long drive would come to an end within the hour. But it wasn’t that simple. The end of the drive would also mark the end of the only life he’d ever known. The only life he’d ever wanted. And with that in mind, his mood had slipped lower with each passing mile.
Until a short few months ago when he’d realized God had different plans for him, he’d been about as content with his life as a man could be. He lived a simple life, for the most part alone but free on some of the most beautiful, untouched land God ever created. But that part of his life was done.
He blamed his surly mood on the fact that he was road weary. But he knew that wasn’t it.
He’d signed on for this new life. He’d trusted the Lord to lead the way, to open doors that would put him where he was supposed to be. But in order to live life on God’s terms he’d had to give up a simple life that hadn’t ever required him to step too far out of his comfort zone.
That was about to change.
And truth be told, that made him uneasy.
Sheri changed into her running clothes the moment she got home from work. She needed a run in the worst way. More than the run, she needed to vent.
“Boy, did she ever need to vent,” she mumbled, yanking the lace of her running shoe into a tight bow, then attacking the other one just as violently.
If she’d thought walking out of Sam’s was going to deter the posse, she’d been oh so wrong. Those ladies were nothing if not tenacious. That’s right, they’d just followed her down to the salon she and Lacy owned and spent the rest of the