Coming Home to a Cowboy

As soon as the doorbell rang, he dropped what he was doing and leaped up like a frog. “I’ll get it!”

Bridget stayed where she was, at the stove, stirring the sauce. Within seconds, father and son entered the room.

“Hi,” Kade said to her, his presence creating electric energy.

“Hi,” she replied, and kept stirring. One simple exchange, one greeting, and he made her feel like an anxious virgin all over again.

“Check out what I’ve done so far,” Cody said to his dad. “I still have lots more to do to finish it, but I’m going to keep working on it whenever I can.”

Kade took a seat, openly admiring the pages that had been completed. “Oh, wow. This is amazing.” He glanced up. “Have you seen it, Bridget? His drawings are of the three of us. We’re the stars of his adventure.”

She summoned a smile. She’d seen it, all right. Cody had turned them into a crime-fighting trio. “That’s quite a costume I have on.”

Cody chimed in. “I wasn’t sure how to draw you, Mom. So I used other comic books with superhero girls in them as my guide, and they were all wearing these types of outfits. Only I made yours more Western.”

“I think it’s a wonderful likeness,” Kade said to Bridget. “Like Dale Evans with a spark of Marilyn Monroe.”

“Who are they?” Cody asked as Bridget narrowed her eyes at her son’s dad.

“They’re old-time actresses,” she told him. “And really, Kade, Dale Evans?”

He chuckled. “I couldn’t think of another country girl.”

She made a face at him, simply to stop him from staring at her the way he was. And it could have been worse, she supposed. Cody could have drawn her to look way more momish, instead of putting her in a catsuit with fringe and country boots.

“It kind of looks like Veronica Lake, too,” Kade said to Cody. “She’s another old-time actress. She had long blond hair like your mom’s, only she sometimes wore it covering one of her eyes. That helped make her famous.”

When Cody shrugged and went back to his work, Bridget asked Kade, “So what’s the deal? Are you an old-movie buff?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. But I’m also an old-pinup buff. When I was a teenager, I used to go into a poster shop that had tons of classic pinups lining the walls, and I got fascinated with them. The interesting thing about Veronica Lake is most of her pinups were from the shoulders up because her hair was such a hot commodity. She was small, too, like you. I don’t even think she stood five feet.”

“I’m five-three.” Bridget defended her stature, even though he wasn’t criticizing her. If anything, he was looking at her with far too much attraction in his eyes.

He said, “When I go home to visit my family, I think I’ll go see Veronica’s star in Hollywood. And Marilyn’s.” He teased her with a wink and a smile. “I probably better check out Dale’s, too, just so her feelings don’t get hurt.”

She shook her head, caught in his flirtation and trying not to let it show. “What about Roy and Trigger?”

“Trigger doesn’t have a star. Lassie and Rin Tin Tin do, though.”

Cody glanced up. “What are you guys talking about?”

Kade replied, “The Walk of Fame. The sidewalks in Hollywood that have pink-and-gold stars with famous people’s names written on them. There are some famous animals’ names on them, too. Even some of the Muppets have stars. Come to think of it, Godzilla has one, but as far as I know, he’s the only monster so far.”

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