Cupid's Arrow

  By B.J. Daniels

  Copyright 2011 B.J. Daniels

  Smashwords Edition

  Table of Contents

  Cupid's Arrow

  Love Signs

  Surprising Kate

  Chase Calloway kissed his heart goodbye one Saturday night at the Rocking J Bar and Café in Willow Bend, Montana.

  It wasn’t something he’d planned to do. As a matter of fact, since his breakup with AnnaRose, Chase had been having a stretch of bad luck when it came to women.

  Everything he understood about women he could fit into the toe of one of his worn Western boots and still have room for his foot.

  As he pushed open the door to the Rocking J, the band broke into a song. Chase worked his way through the crowd to the bar and ordered a beer.

  “Women,” he mumbled as Phil, the bartender, set a mug of draft in front of him. “I’m done with ‘em.”

  Phil laughed. “Won’t last. Believe me, I know.”

  Chase shook his head. “Nope, this time I mean it. I’m steering clear of women. Walkin’ heartache, that’s what they are.”

  A drum roll sounded behind him. Chase turned as a spotlight splattered on the stage, the band started up and a young woman stepped into the circle of light and began to sing.

  Tapping his boot toe to the music, Chase reached back on the bar for his beer. That’s when he saw him.

  Cupid.

  All chubby cheeks and angel wings. Sitting on a Jim Beam bottle behind the bar.

  Chase blinked. “What the--.” He watched Cupid pluck an arrow from his miniature quiver and lay it gently across his tiny gold bow.

  In a way, Chase and Cupid were old friends. In his 27 years, Chase had fallen in love a dozen times, but he’d never fallen so far he couldn’t climb back out.

  True, sometimes he fell a little harder and farther than he’d planned and came out scraped up and beat up, but on the whole he’d never really fallen—not one of those head-over-heels-dives-off-a-steep-cliff-all-the-way-to-the-bottom falls he considered the real thing.

  It was a good, clean shot. Chase heard the singer’s voice, soft yet clear and true. He saw the way her golden brown hair curled around her face, making her gray eyes wide and innocent.

  He was thinking that there was almost something familiar about the singer when… ping! Cupid let his arrow fly.

  The arrow pierced his heart and he let out a gasp.

  “You all right?” Phil asked.

  Chase shook his head. “I don’t think so.” Behind the bar, Cupid was going for a second arrow.

  “You want another beer?”

  “How about a shot of that Jim Beam,” Chase pointed to the bottle on which Cupid was perched.

  Phil reached for it.

  Cupid made a face, holstered his arrow and in a blink was gone.

  “No, on second thought, I’d better stick with beer,” Chase said quickly.

  Phil studied him for a moment. “You sure?”

  “Yeah.” Chase watched the Jim Beam bottle for a moment, expecting Cupid to come back for him—and at the same time, wondering if he’d really seen the little matchmaker there at all.

  The mind had a funny way of playing tricks on you. And yet, his heart did feel strange. He took a sip of his beer and watched the woman on stage.

  He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. She looked to be in her 20s, slim and pretty. But it was her voice that drew him to her. And those eyes. They were so familiar.

  As she finished her song and stepped back into the shadows. Chase took another drink of his beer. He stopped in mid-motion.

  Cupid was back. Only this time, he was sitting on the edge of Chase’s beer glass, his dimpled little pink legs handing down into the foam, a tiny arrow dangling from his bowstring.

  Before Chase could stop him, Cupid pulled back and let ‘er rip.

  Chase tried to deflect the blow, but the arrow passed right through his hand, straight to his heart as the young woman onstage began to sing again.

  Cupid was looking way too pleased with himself.

  “Phil!” Chase called.

  The bartender came down to stop in front of him as he dried a glass with the corner of his apron. “Yeah?”

  Chase dropped his voice to a whisper. “Do you see anything? Anything unusual in my beer?”

  The bartender looked down into the glass of beer, then up at Chase. “Like what?”

  Chase pushed his hat back and laughed. “Never mind. It’s nothin’.” He told himself this wasn’t really happening. He was just tired.

  Or maybe it was the beer. Or the long winter he’d spent out on the ranch. His father used to say you could always tells those folks who had wintered-in. They came out in the spring as loony as a greased goose on ice.

  Chase found himself staring at the singer onstage. He’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life.

  “Heartache, here I come again,” he mumbled.

  “I beg pardon?” Phil asked. He seemed afraid to leave Chase alone now.

  Chase looked at him and grinned. “I was just wondering if you knew who that gal is singin’?”

  Phil nodded, smiling as if Chase’s behavior was suddenly all too clear. “I told you swearing off women didn’t last.” He glanced toward the stage. “That’s Wynn Bishop’s daughter, Rainey. Heard she just got back to town.”

  Chase let out a curse. No wonder those eyes had looked so familiar. Rainey.

  He looked at his beer. Cupid was still there, churning up bubbles with his tiny bare feet and looking down right cocky.

  “Wipe that grin off your face,” Chase whispered to the little messenger of love. “You blew it this time, old buddy. There’s no way I can be in love with Rainey Bishop. She can’t stand the sight of me. You’re going to have to fix this. Take it back. Right now or I’ll--”

  Cupid winked, then slipped off the rim of the beer glass and, with a splash, dived beneath the foam.

  Chase lifted the glass, held it up to the light. The amber liquid shone like sunlight on a summer day. Unclouded. The little bugger was gone.

  “Get your chubby little behind back here right now and fix this.”

  “Something wrong, Chase?” asked a female voice from behind him. As he glanced over his shoulder at AnnaRose, he pushed his beer away. He didn’t know what was going on, but he had the good sense to know he was in trouble.

  The last time he’d seen AnnaRose, all he’d seen of her was her backside going out the door. That was right after she told him she’d found true love in the form of a ranch manager by the name of Lee Thompson.

  And as if summoned, Lee came ambling off the dark, smoky dance floor, put his arm around AnnaRose and gave Chase a wary, “Howdy.” Just then Rainey finished her song.

  Since Chase had last seen AnnaRose, he’d thought of a lot of things he hadn’t said to her and he’d promised himself that if he ever ran into her, he wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

  But when he looked at her, all the old hurt was suddenly gone. She’d been right to look for love somewhere else.

  “Nice to see you AnnaRose. Lee,” he said with the tip of his hat and slipped off his bar stool as he excused himself to head backstage as Rainey finished her set.

  * * * *

  Rainey remembered the day she’d given up on true love. It had been the day after Valentine’s Day. She’d been seventeen and heartbroken. Since then men had only reaffirmed the fact that true love didn’t exist. At least not in the male species.

  Why would there be so many sad love songs if true love really existed? She’d sung enough country-western songs to get her Ph.D. in love-gone-wrong.

  As she finished her set and stepped backstage, she almost collided with a cowboy waiting in the wings.

  * * * *

  Chase had a bad feeling that Cupid had messed up this time. Clearly Cupid was unaware of Chase’s history with Rainey. But there was only one way to find out. Maybe the little cherub had already shot Rainey with one of his elixirs of love. Hopefully he’d emptied his quiver on her because Chase figured it would take at least that under the circumstances.

  “Hi,” Chase said when they collided backstage. He gave her one of his grins and said, “You probably don’t remember me,” as he looked into her eyes for any sign that Cupid hadn’t really botched this one. Heck, she might already be madly in love with him.

  “I remember you Chase.” It was her tone of voice, as well as that spark in her eye that told him Cupid was probably still swimming in his beer and not doing his job.

  She remembered him all right. Something told him this wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d hoped. Unless maybe Cupid’s potion hadn’t done it’s work yet. He looked deeply into her eyes, hoping to find even a spark of infatuation burning there.

  Funny, he didn’t remember her eyes being such a bottomless blue. There were even tiny flecks of gold. He felt his heart beat a little faster.

  “Is something wrong?” Rainey asked.

  What could be more wrong? Rainey had been that skinny kid who lived next door who I used to hang out with, my best buddy who helped me build a tree house and was always up for fishing in the creek or catching bugs or trying to ride our bikes off homemade jumps that often got us hurt.

  It was when she changed that our friendship had ended. Chase blamed her.

  Chase hadn’t seen her in years and was now taken aback. If I thought she’d changed at seventeen, it was nothing compared to now. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Her eyes shone as silver as the hatband on his Ste
tson. And the curves beneath her Western shirt and jeans were definitely new. She took my breath away.

  “Chase Calloway at a loss for words?” she asked, clearly amused by how flustered she made me. It wasn’t the first time, I realized.

  When he did find his voiced, he said, “You’ve grown up.”

  “Yes, Chase. It happens. But I’m surprised you came backstage to tell me that. Unless there was something else?”

  He tried his grin on her. It didn’t seem to have any effect at all.

  “No, actually, I’m standing here because… Well.” He laughed. Maybe the best thing to do was to tell her about Cupid’s mistake. She’d probably get a kick out of it.

  “You’re going to think I’m crazy. But the strangest thing just happened,” he said. He turned to glance back at the bar, anxious to see Cupid again, hoping the little cherub would direct at least one arrow at Rainey and help him out.

  No such luck. Cupid seemed to have flown the coop.

  He turned back to find Rainey looking at him none too kindly. “You’re not going to believe this,” he said, still debating if he should tell her about Cupid. “I was sitting at the bar and… Could I buy you a drink or something?”

  “No, thank you.”

  “You aren’t wild about me, are you? Probably that garter snake in grade school, right?”

  Rainey shook her head.

  “That padded bra stunt in junior high?”

  She shook her head again. “But you’re getting warm.”

  Chase frowned. “Valentine’s Day Dance in high-school?”

  “Sure you want to take this trip down memory lane? I’m not sure I do.” She started to step past him, but he stopped her.

  “Rainey, it’s just that you were—“

  “Your best buddy, the tomboy next-door.”

  “Yeah and then you changed.”

  She shook her head at him. “Didn’t you realize that some day that skinny little kid might grow up and want more than being your best buddy?”

  “I didn’t want you to change.”

  “Sorry Chase. At least you haven’t changed a bit.” Her smile had an edge to it, but still he felt his heart melt and puddle at the bottom of his chest.

  “If it makes you feel any better, something happened tonight while I was listening to you sing and…well, I have a feeling I’m about to pay for everything I ever did to you or any other woman for that matter.”

  “Really?”

  He turned to leave. “By the way, you sing real pretty.” He tipped his hat and headed out of the bar.

  * * * *

  Rainey hated that she hadn’t been able to get Chase Calloway off her mind since last night. It annoyed her. But she kept going over their conversation and what he’d said about paying a price for the way he’d treated women.

  “He was probably just drunk,” she said under her breath.

  “Sorry, did you say something?” her father asked. They were sitting out on their front porch, her father reading his newspaper, Rainey mentally kicking herself for letting Chase get to her again.

  They both looked up at the sound of a vehicle coming up the road to their ranch house. The very last person Rainey expected to see pull up in the front yard on a late Sunday morning was Chase.

  Her father squinted into the sun. “That looks like Chase Calloway. I wonder what he could want.”

  Rainey noticed her father’s slow grin. “Don’t get any ideas, Dad. Chase Calloway is… Well, let’s just say his mama named him right. He chases every woman in the county.”

  “Is that so?” Her father chuckled. “But you wouldn’t want him to chase you.”

  Rainey bit back a retort as Chase climbed out of his pickup and headed toward them.

  “I’ll just say hello and excuse myself,” her father whispered.

  “You leave me alone with him and I’ll never forgive you,” she muttered through clenched teeth.

  “Hello, Chase,” Wynn Bishop said, getting to his feet.

  “Hello, Mr. Bishop.” Chase pulled off his hat, shook her father’s hand and turned his gaze to her. “Rainey.”

  “Well, if you two will excuse me,” Wynn said, winking at Rainey as he passed. “I just remembered. I have to make a call.”

  Rainey shot him a dirty look.

  He patted her shoulder and said, “I bet Chase would love a glass of that iced tea you made.”

  She went into the house and, when she returned with a clean glass, she found Chase leaning against the porch rail looking out at the foothills. He seemed…nervous. She thought she must be mistaken. Chase Calloway, the cowboy of charm, nervous? Ridiculous.

  He glanced up as she let the screen door slam behind her.

  “I had to see you again,” he said. “So I could explain what’s going on with me.”

  She handed him a glass of ice tea and sat down in one of the porch chairs. “I suppose you can sit down if you want. I wouldn’t imagine this explanation will take too long, right?”

  He was looking at her as he’d never seen her before. It had been almost ten years, since high school. She didn’t think she looked that different.

  Chase paced the porch for a moment. She sipped her tea, wondering at the way he was acting. Finally he sat down on the edge of the steps in front of her.

  “Do you remember that one summer day, the day of the big thunderstorm? You and I were in the tree house we’d built and we sat there and watched lightning crack the sky and we talked about what we wanted to be and you told me how you loved singing and…Do you remember that day?”

  Rainey nodded, surprised this was what he wanted to talk about. She remembered only too well. For years she’d waited for the day when Chase Calloway would fall in love with her. And that day, they’d seemed so close, huddled in the tree house, sharing secrets, she’d thought it might happen.

  “You were my best friend,” Chase said, looking away. “I may have teased you, but I didn’t want you to change. Don’t you see?”

  Rainey gazed out at the rolling fields that ran to the horizon. The night of the Valentine’s Day Dance she’d cried herself to sleep convinced she was an ugly duckling. “So it’s change you’re struggling with?”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that,” he said and pulled off his Stetson to rake a hand through his dusty blond hair.

  In the days after the dance, Rainey had been so hurt that she’d made a wish on a star that Chase would know what it felt like to have his heart broken. She told herself that one day her braces would come off, her chest would develop and Chase Calloway would take one look at her and fall head-over-heels in love with her.

  And she would cast him aside for someone more handsome, more charming and it would crush him, the way he’d crushed her at the Valentine’s Day Dance.

  She’d wanted him to feel the pain of lost true love. She wanted his heart to ache as badly as hers. Maybe worse. Definitely worse.

  Now as she looked at Chase though, she regretted that wish. She didn’t want him to hurt. But unfortunately, she still wanted him to fall head-over-heels in love with her.

  “I wonder if that tree house is still there,” she said.

  “Let’s go find out,” he said.

  They walked through the field, the sun warming their backs, the smell of dust blending with the sweet scent of fresh-cut hay. Down by the creek, the cottonwoods grew tall and thick. The big old one where they’d built their tree house was still standing, but only the skeleton of the tree house remained, silhouetted against the sky.

  “Is there any chance that we could start over?” Chase asked, looking up at the tree.

  His face, though older, still held that boyish charm she had loved.

  When he turned toward her, she looked into his eyes, searching for her answer. She couldn’t bear the thought of getting her heart broken again. But she was smarter now, right? That thought made her smile to herself. If she was smarter, she’d know better than to trust Chase Calloway.

  “I don’t know, Chase.”

  Then he grinned that grin of his and she felt her heart lift off like a helium balloon.

  “What do you have in mind?” she asked.

  * * * *