The Singing Cowgirl (Bear Creek Rodeo) Read online

  She raised an eyebrow. “He was really that much better than you?”

  He shrugged. “He’d probably say I was better than him, but I look at things more objectively than he does.”

  She smiled at that, looking up when someone stopped at the table again. It was a teenage girl. “Hi, I’m sorry, but we’re out of CDs.”

  “I was hoping you could sign my shirt.”

  Emily smiled. “I can do that.” She grabbed the Sharpie she’d made her sign with and went around the table. “You don’t have a fabric marker, do you?”

  The girl shook her head. “No, but your Sharpie will work.”

  “Do you want me to sign big or small?”

  “Big. All across my back. And just your name. Nothing else.”

  “All right.” Emily wasn’t going to complain. No one had really come to her and asked for her autograph before. It was fun. She signed her name with a flourish. “There. All done.”

  “Thank you, Miss Kelly!”

  Emily grinned. Most people who talked to her in a professional capacity defaulted to calling her Miss Kelly rather than figuring out which sister she was. She walked around behind the table and sat next to Chris again. “No one has ever asked me to sign their shirt before.” She blinked back the tears that threatened.

  “It meant a lot to you, didn’t it?”

  “It did. How could it not?” She reached for his hand and squeezed it. “Agreeing to be the opening act for this rodeo might just be the best business move we’ve ever made.”

  “I’m sure it was.”

  She glanced up, and there was a man standing there. “I run Rebel’s Saloon in Houston. I was hoping I could get you and your sisters to do a show for us. We pay a portion of the gate. Interested?”

  Emily smiled. “I’m the right sister to talk to. Do you have a date in mind, or do you want to get back to me about that?”

  “How about a week from Saturday? The rodeo will be over. Are you booked for that night?”

  Emily reached into her purse and pulled out her planner, where she kept every booking. They usually were given Thursday nights, because Saturdays were saved for the bigger names. Maybe they were becoming one of those bigger names. Rebel’s Saloon was a dream come true no matter what night of the week. “We’re free. I’m surprised you don’t have someone booked already.” They were the type of club that booked live performers a year in advance.

  “Yeah, we were supposed to have the Dirty Duo playing,” the man said, naming one of the biggest country acts in Texas. “Half the duo just went to jail for a DWI, and we’re not going to let them perform. We need someone to take their place.”

  Emily swallowed hard. “We’ll do it. Call me with details.” She found a piece of scrap paper and wrote her name, number, and their website. Hopefully he’d use it in some of the promo she knew they always did.

  “I’ll call you Monday morning.”

  “Perfect. We’ll keep the night free.” She jotted down Rebel’s Saloon on her planner and stood up to shake hands with the man.

  As soon as he was out of earshot, she grabbed Chris’s hand, squealing softly. “Rebel’s Saloon!”

  He grinned. “You’re going places, Emily. You really are.”

  Five

  All three sisters were there for the delivery of the CDs that evening, and they thanked the delivery man. The line was already forming beside their table, and all three sisters started signing CDs. Chris was back watching the rodeo as the three of them took care of business, wiping the sweat from their faces as they wrote their names as fast as they could.

  They sold the CDs just as fast as they could sign them, and an hour later, Emily was flexing her fingers. “I’m glad I’m not a writer. Can you imagine typing all the time, and then having to sign the CDs? I’m sure carpal tunnel would kill me.”

  They had a short lull, and Stephanie, who had gotten ahead of the other two with her signing, ran to get all three of them something to eat. Emily looked over at Brittany. “I have a secret that I just have to share with you!”

  Brittany frowned. “What’s the secret? You’d better not be running off to marry that guy you’re hanging out with. We can’t do this without you!”

  Emily shook her head. “He’s only kissed me on the cheek. Until I get a real kiss, I refuse to even contemplate abandoning you and running off with him. The guy who runs Rebel’s Saloon came and talked to me. They need an act for a week from Saturday, and we’re booked.”

  Brittany’s jaw dropped. “Rebel’s Saloon? Are you kidding me?”

  “Nope. He’s calling me Monday with all the details, but we’ll get a down payment, and then we get a portion of the drink orders for the night. We’re on our way.”

  “I never dreamed . . . Rebel’s Saloon!” Brittany let out a little scream. “Sorry, had to get that out of my system.”

  “I totally understand.” Emily hadn’t been able to stop grinning since she’d talked to the man. “So do we tell Stephanie or leave her in the dark?” she asked as Stephanie walked back up. “Oh, Steph! I didn’t see you there.”

  “Yes, you did. Spill it!”

  Brittany grinned. “I want to tell her!”

  “Then tell her!” Emily said with a grin. She understood completely.

  “Guess what we’re doing a week from Saturday?”

  “By the look on your faces, I’d say the Grand Ole Opry.” Stephanie shrugged. “Tell me.”

  “Rebel’s Saloon.” Brittany said the two words and laughed when Stephanie’s jaw dropped.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “Nope!” Emily said. “Not even a little bit.”

  “Do you mean to tell me that ‘Lipstick on my Jeans’ is going to be played at Rebel’s Saloon? My song?”

  “Our song,” Brittany said even as she nodded. “We’re playing!”

  Emily stood up, knowing there was a group hug coming. “It’s hard to believe we’re going to have the opportunity to play there.”

  Their hug was interrupted by a deep voice. They all turned together.

  “Emily, I want you to meet my friend, Matt. He’s the bull rider I was telling you about.”

  Emily smiled, ignoring the gasp she heard from beside her. She had no idea which sister found Matt enticing, but it was one of them. “It’s nice to meet you, Matt. I’m Emily Kelly.” She waved her hand toward her sisters. “And these are my sisters, Brittany and Stephanie.”

  Matt looked between them before turning to Chris. “Why didn’t you tell me they were identical triplets?” He looked astounded for a moment.

  Brittany stepped forward. “I’m glad he didn’t. It’s fun surprising people.”

  Matt smiled. “I guess it would be sometimes. Chris gave me one of your CDs. I really love your music.”

  Emily let Brittany take the lead, because she was obviously attracted to the man. “My sister Stephanie and I wrote all the songs.”

  “I’m very impressed, and you won’t hear me say that often.”

  Brittany nodded. “I appreciate the compliment. We love what we do.”

  Emily walked back to stand beside Stephanie, knowing she would suddenly feel out of place. If she could feel the connection between Brittany and Matt, then she knew Stephanie could. Like most multiples, they were tied together in a way that couldn’t be described. “You okay?” she whispered.

  Stephanie nodded. “I’m the romantic. Why are you two suddenly finding men and I’m not?”

  “No idea,” Emily said. “Maybe because we’re not afraid to talk to men?”

  Stephanie shrugged. “I’m not attracted to either of them anyway.”

  Emily wasn’t attracted to Matt at all, but Chris was another story. “I don’t see anything special about Matt,” she whispered.

  Stephanie grinned. “But Chris is sexy?”

  “You don’t think so?” Did her sister not have eyes?

  “Nope.”

  “Huh.” Emily couldn’t understand it, but she wasn’t going to argue with Stephanie. She didn’t need the competition from a girl who was just as pretty as she was and even more talented.

  Chris called out. “What time do you girls finish tonight?”

  Emily glanced at the time on her phone. “Another thirty minutes.”

  “Maybe all five of us could go out tonight? It’s not super late, so we’re not going to be limited with our choices.” Chris didn’t really care who went as long as Emily was there.

  Emily sensed that Brittany would be all for it. “Steph? Please?”

  Stephanie shook her head. “I got a good idea for a rodeo song today. I’m going to go home and work on it.”

  Emily lowered her voice so only her younger sister could hear her. “Do you mind if we go? I’ll go home with you if you mind.”

  Stephanie laughed, but it sounded hollow. “You go and have a good time. I’ll work on my song, and then Brittany can write the music.”

  “You sure?” Emily asked, hating that her sister would feel left out.

  “I’m sure. You have fun.” Stephanie shrugged. “In fact, we have enough CDs signed for the rest of the night with as slow as things are getting. You two go, and I’ll meet you at home.”

  “We’re at least going to help you put the CDs in the car.” There were several large boxes. They could all put one in the car to make things easier for Stephanie.

  Chris and Matt must have heard what she said because they each grabbed one of the boxes and waited for someone to lead them to the car.

  “We need to keep them around,” Brittany said to Emily, who nodded emphatically.

  “I can get behind that!”

  Emily and Brittany each grabbed a box and carried it to the car. All four of them walked back to Stephanie. “What else can we do to make this easier for you?”

  “There are only one and a half boxes left. If you take the full box, I’ll run out of CDs, so just leave me. I can handle the rest of the night.”

  Emily hugged her sister close. “Thanks for letting us go.”

  “You owe me one,” Stephanie whispered in her ear.

  Emily nodded, going to stand with Chris, Brittany, and Matt. “We’ll see you at home,” Emily called, her fingers entwining with Chris’s as the four of them walked toward his truck.

  Brittany was walking beside Matt, and the two of them seemed to be very involved with their conversation.

  “Where are we going?” Emily asked.

  “I figured we’d go out to eat. Maybe somewhere with dancing. We don’t need to be dressed up.”

  Emily smiled. “That’s good, because I’m in the shorts I’ve been wearing all day.” The three sisters had talked about what to wear for the vendor fair part of the event, and they’d all decided that dressing up in the heat of the summer might just kill them. They all wore khaki shorts and tank tops. They weren’t dressed up, but they made sure they looked nice. “I’m sweaty all over. I refuse to go somewhere dressy.”

  He grinned. “I’ll make sure that we don’t go somewhere dressy. There’s a little bar on the way to The Woodlands. We’ll dance there. No one will notice how we look.”

  Emily got into the front seat with Chris, while the other two took the back seat. She turned to look at Matt. “Chris tells me you’re raising your younger sister.”

  “No, my niece. Chris always wants her to be my sister. My brother and sister-in-law died in a car wreck a few months ago, and I took her on.”

  “How old is she?”

  “She’s five. My housekeeper is home with her tonight. I’m taking the week off for the rodeo.” Matt didn’t seem to mind answering questions about her.

  “What’s her name?” Emily asked curiously.

  “Olivia. She’s a handful.” Matt grinned as he said it. “She wanted to come to the rodeo with me today, but I wanted to meet you. I told her she can come tomorrow. She doesn’t need to be running around a rodeo all week anyway.”

  “That’s true,” Brittany said.

  When they reached the bar, they found a table, and they all ordered appetizers to share. They sat around talking, enjoying getting to know one another.

  When they were finished eating, Chris took Emily’s hand and led her to the dance floor. “I know you can dance on stage, but can you dance on a dance floor?” he asked, a grin on his face.

  “As long as I just have to sway back and forth, I sure can.” When his arms came around her, Emily sighed happily. She didn’t know what it was about this man, but she didn’t quite feel complete until he was touching her. She’d never seen herself as a woman who needed a man in her life, but all at once, after knowing him for less than three days, she wondered what life would be like without Chris in it.

  As they slow danced, she smiled, resting her cheek on his shoulder. It felt so good to be this close to him. There was no need to speak as they swayed back and forth to the music.

  When the dance was over, they returned to the table, and Emily couldn’t stop smiling. Not only did she have a gig at the most happening place in Houston, she was with a man who made her heart sing. How could life get better than that?

  “I should have taken you to a karaoke bar,” he said with a grin.

  “Would you have chosen a song?” She loved karaoke, but she couldn’t imagine him singing, which was most of the fun in her opinion.

  “No way,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t sing in public. Sometimes in the shower, but who doesn’t?”

  She laughed at that. “I don’t usually sing in the shower to be honest. I have enough time on stage with a microphone that I don’t need shower acoustics.”

  “I guess that’s true.” He shrugged. “I think Brittany and Matt are really hitting it off.”

  She nodded, looking at where the other couple was slow dancing. “I think so, too! Stephanie is feeling left out.”

  “I guess I should have brought another friend . . .”

  Emily grinned. “It’s not your responsibility to make sure my sisters have love lives.”

  “I guess that’s true.” He leaned toward her. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Does Brittany need glasses or does she wear them to look different.”

  “She wears them to look different. She doesn’t want to be identical off stage. We could all cut our hair differently, but then we wouldn’t look exactly the same on stage, which really does work for us.”

  “I can believe it. I know when I first saw the CD with all three of you on the cover, I did a double take. Or would that be a triple take?”

  She shook her head. “We’ve always been something of a novelty. There really aren’t a lot of identical triplets out there. Identical triplets only occur in twenty to thirty out of every million live births. I know this because people always comment on it, so I made sure I knew the stats.”

  “Wow. I had no idea it was so rare. I mean, I know I’ve never seen identical triplets before you three . . .” He shook his head. “Did you grow up in this area?”

  “Yeah, we grew up in Katy.”

  “I’m sure people watched you three. Were you best friends with each other, or did you have other close friends?”

  “We always had other close friends, but I would call Steph and Brit my two closest friends. We had no choice.”

  “Makes sense to me.”

  The other couple returned to the table, and they were staring into one another’s eyes. Chris felt like he’d done something good there.

  Emily rubbed her arms. “After being outside all day, I’m finding the air conditioning too cold. I’m a mess.”

  “Why don’t we go outside for a minute, then?” Chris asked. He’d wanted to get her alone all day anyway. It seemed that wherever she walked, someone wanted to talk to her about her music or get her autograph.

  Emily nodded, one last look at her sister. “We’ll be right back.”

  Brittany nodded. “Don’t hurry on my account.”

  It was hard for Emily to believe Brittany was falling so fast and hard, but it seemed like she was. When they got outside, she walked toward the truck, just wanting to be away from the noise and the crowd. She loved to have lots of people around usually, but it had been so constant for the past few days, it was getting to be too much.

  When they were finally far enough away from the building and she could no longer hear the music, she turned toward Chris. “I love crowds, but I don’t know how much longer I can handle one today. It’s been constant, and I need to chill out a little bit.”

  He smiled, reaching out and tracing her cheek. “I’m kind of the same. But no one is stopping me as I walk, begging for my autograph.”

  “That’s probably good,” she said with a smile. “If they were stopping both of us, we’d never be able to walk four feet.”

  He looked into her eyes for a moment, wondering how she’d feel if he kissed her. It’s all he’d thought about since they’d left the rodeo.

  Emily stared up into his eyes, very aware of him. When he lowered his head to hers, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. He deepened the kiss, and she clung to him, moving even closer to him. “I’ve been waiting for you to do that since I met you,” she said softly.

  “Well, you could have grabbed me and kissed me, you know.”

  “I know. I wanted to see how long it would take you to get up the guts.”

  He laughed. “Too long apparently.” He leaned down and kissed her again, more slowly and passionately this time. When he finally raised his head, he sighed. “I’d better get you back inside. Your sister is going to worry.”

  Emily didn’t much care if her sister worried, but she didn’t tell him that. She just wanted to keep kissing him forever.

  Six

  On their way home, Emily tried to figure out how to have more privacy with Chris that night. As much as she loved her sister—and as many double dates as they’d gone on in high school—it just didn’t feel right to be kissing Chris goodnight with her sister right there. Maybe she could hang back in the truck while Matt and Brittany went to the door.