Rodeo Nights by Patricia McLinn Page B

the boot with enough force to rap the heel against the wooden shelf.
    “I’ll take these, too.” She added defiantly, “And let me look at the ropers.”
    She quickly agreed with Esther on a workmanlike pair in saddle-leather brown. Then, while Esther instructed Walker on tending the store— “Answer the phone, check the tags for prices if anyone wants to buy and write them down, but don’t take their money because I don’t want you messin’ with my register” —Kalli selected a pair of basic jeans.
    “Shirts are back in that corner,” Esther told her. “We got in a new one with a pleated cape-type yoke. It’s a nice cotton. The green would look real good on you.”
    Kalli spotted the jade shirt and knew Esther was right. But she opted for a plain white oxford cloth shirt and a soft rose blouse with minimal same-colored piping, both neutral enough to blend with her casual clothes in New York.
    “You take those things on back, Kalli,” Esther instructed as she gathered her purse and the parcel for the Carmodys. “Trying-on room’s around to the left.”
    “Thanks, Esther. I’ll leave a check for the boots and whatever else.”
    “That’s just fine, as long as you don’t let this cowboy here try to work my register.”
    With a laugh, Kalli slipped behind the curtain to the dressing room. But she could hear their voices.
    “You could use some shirts, too, Walker. How long’s it been since you bought decent ones? You’ll look like one of those clowns dressed in rags instead of a champion bull-rider if you keep puttin’ off spending some money on your appearance, boy. A champion ought to look like one.”
    “Esther Lodge, if you had the outfitting of me, I’d have spent all my time and money on looking like your idea of a champion and none of it being a champion.”
    “False economy to wear your clothes to rags. You need shirts, boy.” The sound of a door closing told Kalli that Walker had been allowed no time for a rejoinder.
    Slipping off her jacket and unhooking her skirt’s side closure, Kalli mulled over the exchange.
    Had Walker put off Esther for a reason other than he didn’t feel like buying shirts? She laid the blazer, then the skirt across a bench.
    Granted, rodeo champions weren’t in the same income bracket as million-dollar baseball players or football stars, but the national title was worth a good bit. Enough to not be short of money for shirts.
    If he’d held on to it.
    Could Walker have blown his winnings? Others certainly had.
    He’d been careful with money when they were married, but he’d had no choice. She’d never known him when he had money. How had he reacted?
    Unsteady fingers slowed pulling on the new clothes. Images of Walker struggling financially stirred too many possibilities. Had he let money trickle through his fingers? Or had it gushed away in generosity and wild times? If she’d been there...
    She let out a settling breath as she tucked the rose blouse into the jeans and turned to the mirror. A younger woman looked back. A woman with less armor against the world. A woman with tangled hair and cheeks blushed by sun and wind instead of cosmetics.
    The woman she used to be.
    A woman who didn’t have the strengths she had now. Who hadn’t learned the things she’d learned. Who hadn’t lived the life she’d lived.
    A woman who loved Walker Riley.
    The eyes of the woman in the mirror widened and glistened with gathering tears. She shook her head, shattering the illusion and banishing the past.
    With clear eyes, she looked at her reflection, and saw the woman she’d become. Not perfect by any means, but not a naive girl, either. Not even the clothes of yesterday could keep it from being today.
    She gave herself a little shake and started unbuttoning the blouse.
    “Kalli?” An elbow hooked the curtain, shoving it aside.
    “Hey!” Kalli’s hand closed the throat of the blouse.
    “Ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before.” But he didn’t look at her.