Chapter 1 The Drunken Loser

“My parents are so ridiculous,” Hallie said. “They keep pressuring me to have a man in my life as if I’m useless on my own.”

She walked down the busy streets of Austin, Texas with her best friend Jessica. The two of them were out for ice cream and some much-needed catching up.

“That’s so old-fashioned,” Jessica said, her voice full of sympathy.

“I know! Now they’re talking about retiring, and Terry will take over the ranch just because she has a husband, and supposedly this makes her mature and responsible.”

Hallie licked her strawberry ice cream cone, which provided relief from the blistering rays of the sun and comfort against the unfairness of life.

Although it was September, the heat coming off the pavement had all the burning intensity of summer.

“Well, she is the oldest child,” Jessica remarked. “I guess that’s how it goes.”

“But she doesn’t love the ranch like I do. Honestly, I don’t think she even cares about the ranch. Sorry, I know I’ve complained about this before.”

“It’s okay,” Jessica said patiently. “You didn’t exactly hit the sister jackpot with Terry.”

Hallie and her sister were just completely different people. They had never been close.

Terry wasn’t one of those older sisters who let her hang out with her group of friends or taught her about boys and makeup. When they were in school, Terry had always wanted Hallie to stay out of her way and not ‘cramp her style’. As if there was any style to cramp!

“You don’t know how lucky you are to be an only child,” Hallie added.

“Actually, I do,” Jessica said with a wicked smile. “I get all of my parents’ love and attention to myself. Of course, there is a downside now that my parents are expecting me to have kids, and there’s no one else to pass the responsibility to.”

“Your parents are just as bad!” Hallie exclaimed. “Unbelievable!”

Jessica laughed. “I don’t think they realize I have no intention of settling down for quite a few years.”

“Well, when you do, you won’t have any trouble finding someone,” Hallie said.

Jessica was a real city girl, sophisticated and smart. It was surprising how well they got along, considering Hallie had grown up in the country. They met in their first year of college, and Hallie knew that the day she happened to sit beside Jessica in the cafeteria was the luckiest day of her life. They instantly started chatting and got along like a house on fire.

“Why don’t you look for a job here in Austin?” Jessica asked. “Then we could do this more often.”

The two of them had done everything together in college, from studying for tests to flirting with boys at all the sorority dances. But now Hallie was living back on her family ranch since she hadn’t yet looked for a job after graduating, and she only saw Jessica once every few weeks.

“I just don’t know if I can let Terry run the ranch into the ground,” Hallie said. “She’s such an idiot. And speaking of idiots…”

The bar crowd was already out on the busy sidewalks even though the sun hadn’t yet sunk below the horizon.

The two women suddenly stopped walking. Just in front of them, a group of young men created a commotion as one of them decided to lie down on the pavement while laughing hysterically.

“You can’t live with your parents forever,” Jessica teased as they stepped onto the road to get around the boisterous group of men.

Hallie was distracted by the fellow who was lying on the ground. Even if he hadn’t been making a scene, he stood out with his handsome face and his cool, shoulder-length hairdo like some kind of guitar player or surfer.

“Come on, get up, Luke,” one of his friends was saying.

“You can do it,” the others encouraged him, although some of them too were in danger of falling as they swayed drunkenly.

“I can’t get up without my hat,” the man lying on the sidewalk said in a more serious tone. “I’m a cowboy, and I need my hat!”

Hallie rolled her eyes. She could not believe how many tourists came here to experience the cowboy lifestyle only to make complete fools of themselves.

“I’ll get it,” said one of the man’s buddies, stumbling after the cowboy hat, which was rolling down the sidewalk like a tumbleweed.

“Look, this is a man,” Hallie said, pointing at the fallen tourist. “How is having something like this in my life going

to make me a better person?”

She shook her head in disdain, but for some reason she stopped to have a better look at him. He had lustrous brown hair, a few locks falling in an attractive way over his forehead. A tight muscle shirt showed off his tanned arms.

“It’s nice here,” he murmured, his wide chest heaving slowly as he relaxed.

“Wait a minute…” A hilarious, possibly crazy idea was forming in Hallie’s mind. She was about to walk on, but then she turned back towards the drunken guy.

“Oh, no,” Jessica said. “That’s not a good idea.”

“How do you know what my idea is?”

“I think I can guess.”

Jessica had always been smart, too smart…

“My parents think men are soooo special,” Hallie said, placing a hand on her hip, “A woman is nobody until a man chooses her. Well, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they meet my new boyfriend!”

“Hallie, no!”

But Hallie was already off, trying to catch the white hat that was rolling away from one of the stumbling drunks. Jessica took off after her, running daintily in her kitten heel sandals.

Hallie quickly got ahead of the hat and let the wind bring it right to her.

“Got it!” She proudly lifted up her prize.

“Hallie, this is a terrible idea,” Jessica exclaimed, grabbing her arm. “This guy is really drunk. He could be dangerous.”

“No, he’s not. Look at him he’s pathetic.”

“Well, you shouldn’t do that to your parents. Be the bigger person. Take the high road.”

“I am done being the good girl and taking the high road,” Hallie declared, “I’m going to teach my parents a lesson once and for all.”