The Singing Cowgirl (Bear Creek Rodeo) Read online

  All three sisters nodded.

  “Let’s go out there and kick some butt!” Emily said, a huge grin on her face.

  Stephanie nodded. “One more chorus.”

  Emily grinned at her sister, knowing that singing her own words always calmed her down before they stepped onto the stage. It was like knowing she had written something they all thought was good made things easier for her. No other songs worked. Only the ones she’d written herself.

  That last five minutes seemed to take hours, and the three sisters sang the chorus over and over. It was a good warm up, because their voices used their full range when they sang it. But more than that, it calmed Stephanie. They all knew Stephanie’s voice was just a little stronger, and she should be the one leading, but her shyness made that impossible.

  When they heard the sound of their group’s name, they grasped hands and ran onto the stage, the three of them taking a quick bow in unison to the sound of the screaming crowd. Emily was a bit surprised at the screams, because really, most of them didn’t know their group, but that was all right with her. The stadium was packed, and they were going to put on the show of their lives.

  They started with some popular songs by female country artists and stuck “Cowgirl” right in the middle. It was a song about loneliness and looking for a man who made the cowgirl in them come alive. The crowd got quiet as they sang it, and when they finished, the applause went wild.

  They did a few more covers before they ended with “Lipstick on my Jeans.” As always, Emily did an introduction to the song. “Imagine you’re going to a home football game your senior year of high school. You’re with a group of friends, and after the game, you walk up to the boy you’ve had a crush on since your freshman year. He looks at you like something horrible has happened, and you look down and see that your lipstick melted all over your jeans, and you look like you’ve just butchered a cow or participated in a murder. That’s what happened to my sister Stephanie.” At that point, Stephanie raised her hand, grinning. “And she turned it into one of my favorite songs ever. We call it ‘Lipstick on my Jeans.’”

  There was a lot of laughter and even a little squealing from the women in the audience who obviously knew what kind of horror that would bring to a teenage girl. The lights were turned down low, and Emily started the song, her sisters jumping in on the third word and harmonizing with her.

  By the time they’d finished, every person in the crowd was on their feet, swaying back and forth to the song. They all bowed, and Emily waited for things to quiet before she said, “The three of us are taking turns at the craft fair with our CDs. They’re signed by all three of us, and we barely make a profit. Come get your own copy of ‘Lipstick on my Jeans.’”

  The three of them ran off the stage, and when they got to the back room where they’d gotten ready, Brittany lifted her arms above her head and started spinning, laughing hysterically. “They loved us!”

  Stephanie shook her head. “They really did. I still can’t believe it.”

  Emily collapsed onto the little couch where she’d slept earlier and just stared off into space. She was exhausted and wired all at once. She’d dreamed about this night for months, but what she’d just experienced had surpassed her wildest dreams.

  The producer of the show came in then with a man beside him. “Mr. Jackson is one of the rodeo’s sponsors, and he asked to come back and be introduced to the three of you.”

  Emily smiled, getting to her feet. Chris towered over her and her sisters. She wanted to ask if he had lifts in his boots, but she knew the three of them were particularly short. “It’s nice to see you again, Chris.”

  Chris Jackson grinned at her. “You put on an amazing show. I’ve already listened to your CD a dozen times, so I knew some of the songs, but on that stage, you girls were just magic.”

  Emily looked back at her sisters. Stephanie already had a book in her hand, but she was polite enough not to read it with the other people there. “I’m so glad you enjoyed it. We have a lot of fun out there.”

  “It’s obvious you do. Have you ladies eaten? Anyone hungry?” He wanted to get to know their lead singer better, but it felt strange, singling her out from her sisters. They were all pretty, of course, but there was something about Emily that seemed to shine above the others.

  Stephanie shook her head. She rarely spoke to men in person if she could help it. Brittany frowned. “I don’t think so. I want to get home. Stephanie wrote the words to another song, and I need to put it to music. I’m so pumped now that I think it would be a good time.”

  Chris looked at Emily. “What about you?”

  “I could eat an entire cow after that concert.” Emily grinned at him. “Mind taking one sister out and not all three?”

  “I would love to.”

  Emily frowned. “You’ll have to get me home, though. We live in The Woodlands,” she said, naming a suburb that was north of Houston.

  He nodded. “We’ll go over that way to eat, then. I guess all three of you drove together?”

  “We always do. No point in wasting gas.” Emily looked at her sisters. “You don’t mind?”

  Brittany hugged Emily. “Of course not. We all deal with the performance high in different ways. You pig out. I write music. And Steph writes lyrics. More songs!”

  “Not for me!” Emily grinned. “I’ll be home in a few hours, then.”

  “Have fun.”

  Emily rarely went out with men she didn’t know well, but there was something about Chris that made her want to get to know him better. “Where do you want to go?”

  He glanced at his watch to check the time. “It’s after ten. Not a lot is going to be open. We could hit a bar, but most of them don’t serve food this late. Or we could do something like IHOP or Denny’s or Applebee’s.”

  “Applebee’s sounds good if you don’t mind that.”

  “Not a problem. I’d rather take you out somewhere fancy, but neither of us are dressed for it, and it’s just not the right time of night to make it happen, now is it?”

  Emily grabbed her purse and walked away with him, knowing her sisters would handle anything that needed to be handled. They’d get their pay the next day, and that was the big thing. She had no idea how many people had been there, but she knew the pay was going to be better than they’d ever seen at any of the bars where they’d performed.

  “Do you live with your sisters?” he asked as they walked to his truck. He drove a Ford F-350 with an extended cab.

  “Nice truck! Yes, we live together. We always have. Our parents aren’t big on the idea of us skipping college and trying to become country music stars, but they live with it.”

  “Do you still live with them?” He opened the door and helped her up. She was so tiny, he was afraid he was going to have to lift her up.

  “With our parents? No, we all have day jobs to pay for our night jobs. We share an apartment.” She shrugged. “Seemed natural. I mean, we shared a womb, and after that, there’s nothing we can’t share.”

  He laughed. “I guess that would be the case. I’m really surprised your music doesn’t support you, though. Your songs were all good, but your original songs had me laughing out loud. Does Stephanie write them all?”

  “She writes the lyrics, and Brittany writes the music. I tweak at the end. I’ll listen to what they come up with and change a word here or there. A few of the notes to make it more natural for our style, and then we’re done.”

  “I think it’s a great division of labor. How long have you been singing together?”

  “There was a talent show when we were in fourth grade. We sang ‘Goodbye, Earl’ by the Dixie Chicks. The principal almost had a heart attack at our choice of music, but we won, and we’ve been singing together ever since.”

  “And you love it?”

  Emily nodded. “I love performing more than the other two. I think Stephanie and Brittany would just write music if they could get away with it. I feel so powerful when I get on stage. When m
y voice is drifting over the crowd and they’re cheering. I have to say, I’d do it every day if I thought I could get away with it.”

  Chris smiled. “Well, I think you have a rare talent. You need to get your voice in front of some people in Nashville, and I think you’d have a record deal pretty quick.”

  “I’m not sure we want one. We’re doing the indie thing right now, and we’re hoping it will work out for us.” She shrugged. “Maybe we’re crazy to feel that way, but we’ll try it for a little longer before we give up.” And sell out.

  “Well, I’ll sure be sharing the CDs I bought with everyone I know, and I may get a few more. You ladies need to be heard.”

  “Thank you.” She looked over at him, admiring his face in the dim light from the headlights of passing traffic. “What made you decide to come backstage tonight?”

  “I wanted to see you again. I went back there to ask you out, and then I felt like I was being silly to choose you out of three identical women, but . . . you’re the prettiest.”

  She laughed. “Our mother can barely tell us apart. There’s no way anyone thinks I’m the prettiest.”

  “I don’t know why, but I think you are. I’d have known which one you were onstage even if you hadn’t had a different color shirt. Your face just lights up a room. Or a stage, as the case may be.”

  She shook her head, refusing to believe his bologna. “Tell me about you. You said you own a ranch?”

  He nodded. “I do. My father died last year, and I inherited the ranch. My mother has been on me to marry ever since.”

  “No siblings?”

  “Nope. Just me. Mom wanted a dozen, but she said it just didn’t work out that way. So I get all the focus of her attention.” Chris shook his head. “She still lives in the house on the ranch, so we share a place. I don’t exactly live with my mother, but I live with my mother.”

  “I understand what you’re saying. You don’t live in your underwear in her basement, but you share a home, because it’s your inheritance, and that’s where she’s always lived.”

  “Exactly. I don’t belong in the Brad Paisley song ‘Online’ at all.”

  She grinned. “You really know your country music.”

  “It’s all I listen to. I go to concerts when I get the chance.”

  “Who’s your favorite singer?” she asked.

  “Oh, it’s got to be Garth. Or George Strait. And I really love Deana Carter. I love that you covered her song, ‘Did I Shave my Legs for This?’ I laughed so hard when I first heard that.”

  “It’s definitely a favorite of mine. Goes well with ‘Lipstick on my Jeans.’”

  “I’ve listened to that song at least three dozen times now. It’s amazing, and I think it really shows how mortifying something simple can be.”

  “Especially for a teenage girl,” Emily said.

  He pulled off the highway and headed toward an Applebee’s. “Do you not enjoy the process of songwriting?” he asked as he parked.

  “Not really. And I’m not needed for it. My sisters have everything covered. I never hear a word until they think they’re done, and I always have something I want changed. I guess you could say I’m the editor.”

  They got out of the truck and walked to the front. “How many siblings do you have?” he asked. “Just the three of you?”

  She nodded. “Mom was afraid to ever get pregnant again, because she thought there’d be another set of multiples, and she didn’t think she could handle three at once again.”

  “Who can blame her?” he asked, winking at her.

  Three

  Once Chris and Emily were seated and had their menus, Emily chose what she wanted and then pushed it to the side so the waitress could pick it up when she came back with their drink orders.

  “Tell me about your ranch,” she said.

  “It’s huge. My father inherited from my grandfather, and he passed it down to me. My father used to tell me how the cattle were my legacy and I needed to take more interest in the ranch. I really regret not spending more time with him before he died.”

  “What happened? Was it sudden?”

  Chris nodded. “Yeah. I was in Cheyenne doing a rodeo there when I got a call that my father had a heart attack. I caught the first flight home, and I got there in time for him to tell me to take care of my mother, and then he died. The doctors were sure he was hanging on just so he could talk to me and make sure I was done with the rodeo circuit.” Emily could see the guilt on his face as he talked about it.

  “Would you have stopped then?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No, I would have done another two years probably. I told myself I wanted to do ten years, and then I would stay home and do everything my father wanted me to do. I did eight years, and he died.”

  “I’m sorry.” She covered his hand with hers.

  He turned his hand over and squeezed hers. “Thank you. I still feel a lot of guilt for not spending time with him when he was alive, but I’m doing everything he would have wanted me to do now that he’s gone. I take care of my mother, and I run the ranch.” He shook his head. “I left my foreman in charge this week, but this is the first time off I’ve had since his death last August. I wanted to be able to see old friends at the rodeo.” And he again felt the itch to ride, but he knew it was something he could never again indulge.

  “Did your dad sponsor the rodeo?”

  Chris smiled. “He did. He brought me to this rodeo every single summer, and he couldn’t figure out where I got the rodeo bug. My mother would tell him to stop, because she’d catch me trying to climb on his bulls when I was a teenager, but he never did. He loved ranching, but he loved rodeo, too.”

  “He just didn’t love you doing it.” Emily shook her head.

  “It was more than that. He didn’t mind that I was riding rodeo. He was actually pretty proud of that. He minded that I wasn’t home learning to run the ranch and taking over from him. I ignored my legacy, and that bothered him more than anything.”

  “I can see that.” Emily sighed. “I feel like a disappointment to my parents, too. They’re so proud of our singing, but they wanted us to go to college, so we’d have something to fall back on if it didn’t work out.”

  “But you didn’t feel the need?” he asked.

  “It’s not that I’m not looking ahead. What I think is if it doesn’t work out, I will have been on my own for long enough that I can go to school on a grant. My sisters agree. We’re giving it some more time, but if it doesn’t work out, college will always be there. The possibility of a singing career might not.”

  “That makes a lot of sense to me.”

  The waitress stopped by their table, and they gave their order.

  “My future will be bright no matter what, because I’ll make it that way.”

  “And there’s no man in your life?” he asked.

  “I wouldn’t have agreed to come out with you if there was. I know this is just a late-night meal, but we’re alone. I’ve been so busy concentrating on a career, I don’t usually date. I work a job part-time, and whenever I’m not working that, I’m practicing with my sisters, or we’re performing. Or I’m working to network. I’m the business part of our relationship.”

  “Your sisters aren’t part of that?”

  She shook her head. “They work, too, and they write the songs. We’ve divided the labor of our business, and we make sure we get the job done.”

  “I’m impressed that you think of your singing as a business. So many people are just looking for that big break, and they don’t worry about the business side of things.” He took a sip of the Dr. Pepper in front of him. “Have you ever thought about taking on an investor? You could spend more time recording and writing your songs and doing your networking.”

  She shrugged. “We haven’t found anyone who wanted to invest yet, so no, we haven’t discussed it. Maybe someday.”

  “How would you feel if I offered to invest in your group?”

  “I’m not sure.
Did you ask me out to offer to be an investor, or did you ask me out because I was a girl you had your eye on.”

  “You get straight to the point, don’t you?”

  Emily nodded. “I like to know where I stand.” She wanted him to be interested in her, but that would preclude him investing. She hoped she wasn’t turning down an offer her sisters would be happy with.

  “I asked you out because you’re a pretty girl with an amazing talent, and I wanted to date you. It had nothing to do with investing.”

  “Then I’m going to have to turn you down on the investing offer. I’ve never mixed business with pleasure, and I’m not about to start now.” She was tempted, though. Very tempted. But she couldn’t date someone who was investing. It would feel wrong.

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. “I’m positive.”

  “So if I want to invest, I need to tell you I don’t want to see you in a romantic capacity?”

  “That’s exactly right. But tell me now, so I know whether I’m allowed to fall for you or not.” Her words were bolder than most women would use, and she knew it. She always knew she wasn’t most women, and she refused to fall for someone who didn’t feel the same for her.

  Chris grinned. “I guess that I’m not going to be investing, because I definitely want to see more of you.”

  “Good. That’s what I want as well.” Emily leaned back, studying him.

  “So I’m off all week and doing the rodeo thing. Do you want to sit with me? I have a nice seat as a sponsor.”

  “I wish I could. I could watch about three and a half hours at a time.” She sighed. “The rodeo stipulated that they wanted us to have CDs there for people to buy and someone had to be sitting in the booth at all times. So we all took the week off work, and we’re taking turns. We each take a two hour turn and then get four hours off. It’s hot, and we all hate selling, but it’s part of the gig.”

  He frowned. “Well, you’ll watch with me when you can?”

  She nodded. “I hate sitting at that booth, and if my sisters were being sticklers about it, it should be my job to do all of it, but we’re splitting the time.”