Chasing Cowboys

excerpt from
Chapter 1: Charley

“I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy . . .”

You should have been there the day Lacey Anderson walked into Parker’s hunting for some cowgirl clothes because someone at her new law firm had told her she wasn't in San Francisco any more and she would need some Western wear if she wanted to be a Reno lawyer. She looked lost. And mad at someone, probably the person who had thrown her into this alien cowboy world.

I watched her from behind the counter. At Parker's we generally let folks browse a while before we offer to help. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. Something about her was so familiar, but what it was had me stumped. She was a city girl all right, probably right at home at Macy's and those fancy downtown emporiums, but I doubt she had ever set foot in a big Western store.

Then she spotted Cody, the new kid who sure looked like a cowboy and would be able to help her, but what she didn’t know was Cody had just arrived a few weeks before from some town in Iowa. He knew a lot about corn and pigs but not much about horses, except that he wanted to be a cowboy in the worst way and he already had his cowboy clothes, but of course Lacey thought he was a real cowboy and that's where all the trouble began.

I studied Lacey from the moment she entered the store, but then Donna Cooper walked in, her big blonde curly hair lighting up the place, and she began showing me her new rodeo wave, the one she had been perfecting for months so she could become the next Miss Reno Rodeo. Typical. All day nothing happening and then bang, we had two shows going on at once.

“Charley Meyers,” Donna said, looking so serious, “you’ve seen lots of rodeo queens, tell me if you’ve ever seen one wave like this.” Donna thinks I’m an expert at anything to do with cowboys and rodeo. It’s true I’ve worked on ranches most of my forty-five years, and done my share of rodeo. Now I'm just a part-time or seasonal cowboy, like a lot of folks, and working at Parker’s gives me a steady income and a chance to observe people.

“Never saw that wave before,” I said. “I like the way you put your whole body into it.” Donna flashed me that megabucks smile of hers. Then she said something about the Queen of England needing to work on her wave, and I told her to try on a new white hat that had just come in and practice in front of a full-length mirror. Any other day I could have stayed there and talked to Donna for hours. Just then, however, the San Francisco lawyer lady was walking up to Cody and I didn't want to miss anything.

I hustled over near the aisle where Cody was straightening some shirts, pretending I was looking for something. I got there just in time and didn't miss a word. The only problem I had was trying not to laugh at those two youngsters.

“Excuse me, do you work here?” Lacey said to Cody. Her voice would have melted the butter you just pulled out of the freezer, even with the edge on it from wanting to be somewhere else. I liked the way her big city perfume mixed with the leather and hardwood smells of Parker's.

Cody stopped fussing with the shirts and turned around. There in front of him, close enough to reach out and touch, stood a young woman with long legs, straight dark hair of medium length, and green eyes. She wore a navy business suit and would have been properly dressed for an appointment with a very conservative, very important client. She looked so out of place, Cody must have thought she was looking for something for a friend, or maybe had wandered into the wrong store.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, in that flat Midwestern voice that was all heartland and good manners. Somebody had raised him right.

“They told me I need some Western clothes,” she began.

“Yes, ma’am?” he encouraged her, aware now that she was not in the wrong establishment.

“Well,” she continued, “you see, I need everything.”