Page 2 of Surly Cowboy


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Ford’s teacher—a Miss Bair who was easily a decade younger than Lee—stepped into the hall. She smiled at Ford and then Lee and Martha. Lee didn’t want to be in her shoes, and he gave her a smile back so she’d know they were going to agree with her.

Lee was, anyway.

“Evenin’,” he said when no one else spoke. “I hope you weren’t waiting long for me. I live pretty far out.”

“Not at all,” Miss Bair said. “Come on in.”

Martha went first, then Ford, and Lee held the door for the teacher and entered last. She’d set up some chairs around her desk, and he sat in the last one.

“Did Ford tell you what happened today?”

“I heard most of it,” Martha said. “Lee hasn’t gotten much information. I didn’t find the note or hear the message you left until about forty minutes ago.”

“Ford?” Miss Bair prompted.

The boy squirmed in his seat, and Lee put his arm around his son. “Hey,” he said real quietly. “Remember the roof? And the stars?”

Ford looked up at him, his innocent eyes so wide and so beautiful. He nodded, and Lee smiled at him. “Go on then.” He ignored Martha’s questioning gaze and glanced at Miss Bair.

She smiled at him, but Lee felt no spark of attraction to her. She had dark hair too—his preferred type—and nothing. Absolutely nothing like what he felt when he looked at Rosalie.

He had to call her again. Stop by her office. Something.

Travis’s wedding was in ten days. Could he ask Rosalie to go with him? Maybe he could offer to pay her, or pay for her dress, or something.

Nope, he told himself.You’re not paying a woman to go out with you.Either she’d say yes or she wouldn’t.

But not if you don’t ask.

“…so I told Simon to leave her alone,” Ford said.

“Wait,” Lee said, coming back to the conversation at hand. He really couldn’t let his mind wander in situations like this. “Simon Alvarez?”

“Yes.”

Lee glared at Ford and then Miss Bair. “I thought Simon and Ford weren’t going to be allowed to be together.”

“It was lunch recess, Dad.”

“I don’t care,” Lee barked. “You’re not supposed to be near him.”

“He was teasing Lily,” Ford said, his eyes welling with tears. “He had her up against the kindergarten fence, and I helped her.”

Lee opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He looked at Martha, and she stroked Ford’s hair off his forehead. “But you hit someone, baby. That’s not how you solve problems.”

“Your mother’s right,” Lee said, swallowing afterward.

“But it got Simon to leave Lily alone,” Ford said, looking from him to Martha and back. “And then I was able to help Lily to the office. She was having a panic attack.”

“Whoa,” Lee said. “What?” He looked at Miss Bair, who wore a look of sympathy on her face. “Is she okay?”

“She’s asthmatic,” Miss Bair said, giving Ford a maternal smile too. She wasn’t mad at him, Lee realized, though she certainly couldn’t condone him hitting another student. “Once the nurse got her inhaler, she calmed right down.”

Lee nodded, suddenly so tense. “So now what?”

Miss Bair leaned forward and put her fingertips on Ford’s knee. “What did we decide, Ford?”

“That I won’t hit people,” he muttered. “Whether it’s to help someone or not.”

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