A Knight In Cowboy Boots (2 page)

Chapter Two

Galveston
- Three weeks later

“Did I tell you my boyfriend rides the rodeo circuit?” Peggy asked from where she sat cross-legged on Maddie’s double bed. A strawberry blonde freckled on every inch of exposed skin, she tickled Jesse’s chin with the rabbit’s foot on her key chain as Maddie pawed through her lingerie drawer.

“Uh-uh.” Though she hadn’t known the young college student quite two weeks yet, Maddie had already learned it took only minimal noises on her part to keep Peggy talking.

“He’s given up bulls this year,” Peggy said, her easy rambling a comforting white noise, like the hiss of the air-conditioner.

Did she really need pantyhose? It was only May, but
Galveston
was so humid Maddie thought she might melt every time she stepped outside. So unlike
Cheyenne
where the heat was comfortably dry.

“It’s really paying off. Without the bull-riding injuries, he hasn’t missed any rodeos, so he’s making better money than ever.” Peggy interrupted her commentary to ask, “Whatcha looking for?”

“A pair of pantyhose without a run. Would you mind checking the bottom of the wardrobe?” Maddie gestured behind her at the armoire that just missed being an antique. “Sometimes I stick the pair I was wearing in my shoes.”

Peggy tickled the tip of Jesse’s nose with the furry foot—getting a delicate sneeze as a reward—before she unfolded her sun-browned legs to dig through the wardrobe.

“I really appreciate you watching Jesse tonight,” Maddie said as she searched the next dresser drawer. “You’re sure I’m not keeping you from a study group or something?”

“Nope,” Peggy said, her response almost a parody of her Texan drawl. “No study group tonight. And Jesse’s such an easy baby, I’ll get more homework done here than I would in my own room.” Peggy shared the big house next door with six other college students who were always knocking on each others’ doors as they came and went.

“Aha!”

Maddie turned in time to see Peggy tug a pair of pantyhose from the bottom of the wardrobe, followed by a flash of silver.

“What’s this?” Peggy bent to pick up the five-by-seven, silver-plated, double picture frame that had piggy-backed on the nylons.

Maddie had blocked the pictures from her mind, but seeing the frame so unexpectedly hit her like she’d been gut-punched. Blinded for a moment to her surroundings, she closed her eyes as the images it held flared in her memory. Her beautiful dark-haired sister Laurel rocking a week-old Jesse appeared in Maddie’s mind as clearly as if they’d been right in front of her.

“This is you, isn’t it?” Peggy asked.

Maddie couldn’t stop the image from shifting to the other picture—the one of Vince on a park bench with Maddie behind him, her arms draped around his neck, his face in profile as he laughed up at her. She slammed a mental door on the image before it could tear her heart out. Some memories were too painful to be borne.

“Is this Jesse’s daddy?”

Maddie opened her mouth to say “of course not,” then realized Peggy thought she was the woman in both pictures.

Not waiting for an answer, Peggy said, “I figured Jesse’s daddy had red hair. Must’ve been someone else in the family.”

“Yeah,” Maddie agreed, unable to force any other words around the lump in her throat. She didn’t just miss Vince; she struggled every day with the guilt of his death. Knowing her had taken him into Derek’s path and made him a target. Maddie retrieved the pantyhose from where they’d fallen. Jesse had rolled onto his tummy and was starting to crawl backward across the bed. She pulled him back to the middle, then patted his diapered rump before rucking up a leg of nylon between her thumbs.

To her relief, Peggy put the frame back in the wardrobe without further questions. At least about that. “Where you goin’ tonight?” she asked as she sat on the other side of the bed.

“I’m going to check out three or four of the hotel bars downtown. I thought I’d start with The Inn. See what kind of clientele they have, then work my way across town.”

“Hunh!” Peggy snorted her disgust. “Nothing but cattle barons and oil millionaires there.”

“Really?” Maddie had a moment of déjà vu. How many times had she listened to
Laurel
chatter when they were younger as she’d dressed for a date? The gut-punched feeling tried creeping back. She stood and pulled her pantyhose into place, forcing her emotions back into line.

“Yeah, Russell Maddox owns The Inn,” Peggy said. “He’s old oil money, so that’s where all the oilmen like to stay. Tips are prob’ly good though.”

“Good to know.” Maddie reluctantly scratched the hotel off her mental list. A few of the oil men she knew from running Hewitt’s oilfield office in
Wyoming
also had interests in
Texas
oilfields. If she wanted to settle in
Galveston
, she had to stay away from places where she might run into them.

“What about the Gull?” That was her sentimental choice. Vince once told her he always stayed there when he was in
Galveston
.

“That’s a nice place. Prob’ly good tips. Mostly boring business types though.”

Maddie smiled as she smoothed her skirt. An Oceanography major at Texas A&M’s
Galveston
campus, Peggy was, in all likelihood, doomed to spend her life around even more boring scientific types. But then maybe boring was in the eye of the beholder. As long as Maddie could pay her bills, the customers could be as dull as they wanted.

Though she’d prefer to hole up with Jesse, she couldn’t do that indefinitely. Maddie’s conscience wouldn’t let her dip any further into what remained of the forty thousand dollars from
Laurel
’s life insurance, currently sitting in a high-security storage vault with -hour access. Not when
Laurel
had made such sacrifices to pay the premiums—because that was what a responsible parent did, no matter how much it had stretched
Laurel
‘s already transparently thin budget. Even if the policy was only twenty thousand—not enough to be confused with winning the lottery—but with a double indemnity clause if she were murdered. No, Maddie vowed she wouldn’t touch any more of it unless it was an emergency. So she had to go to work. And as much as she hated it, that meant leaving Jesse with someone.

Thank God she’d met Peggy. The girl was such a better alternative to a daycare where too many people—too many strangers—would come and go every day.

Maddie finished touching up her lipstick, ran a brush through her shoulder-length, chestnut hair one last time, then turned in front of the mirror to make sure everything was tucked in that should be.

Peggy swung her legs back onto the bed to sit Indian style. Jesse immediately crawled into the nest her crossed legs made. “You know you’re gonna sweat to death in them pantyhose.”

“You waited until now to tell me that?” It was such a kid sister thing to do, she almost asked Peggy how old her big sister was. “Do you think I could get by without them?”

“Sure. Your legs aren’t all pasty white like they were when you moved in, so why not?”

She might be able to get by. Maddie sat on the edge of the bed and stripped off the pantyhose.

“With legs like yours, why aren’t you wearin’ a shorter skirt?” Peggy asked. “I sure would.”

“Because I may end up applying for a job at one of these places. Short skirts may help waitresses rake in tips, but they usually bring a bartender nothing but trouble.” Maddie spoke from experience. Bartending was a trade she’d learned before Hewitt Oil hired her.

She watched Peggy shrug in the mirror. “Well, the top’s nice, the way it’s all drapey. You could still get lucky.”

Peggy’s tone left no doubt about what she meant by “getting lucky.” With a deliberate effort not to snarl from between clenched teeth, Maddie said, “I’m not looking to get lucky.”

“You oughta be, honey. Even when we’re just sitting ‘round, havin’ a beer, you’re all tensed up. I catch myself clenching my teeth sometimes, just waitin’ for you to pop like an overfilled balloon. You need to get rid of some of that there tension. Don’t she, Jesse?” She tickled Jesse’s toes with the rabbit’s foot and got a giggle out of him. “See, even Jesse thinks so. Get out there and find you a job, but if some nice looking fella wanders in, let him sweet talk you into kickin’ up your heels.” And then she winked. As though Maddie could miss her meaning.

She had to fight her resentment of Peggy’s innocent attempt to help her. Maddie had intended to spend the rest of her life with Vince. She didn’t want another man, especially not a one-night stand. In the mirror, she caught her lips tightening into a thin line and forced her jaw and face to relax.
Crap
. Peggy was right about the tension. She’d have to work on masking that better.

She reassessed her top in the mirror. The
Texas
nights were warm enough to justify the spaghetti straps. The cowl neck revealed just a hint of cleavage, but maybe it was too much. How many of Peggy’s not-so-subtle innuendos would she have to endure if she changed it? Too many, Maddie decided. She spritzed herself lightly with Estée Lauder’s Beautiful and looked around for her shoulder bag. “I doubt I’ll see anyone even remotely suitable to ‘kick my heels up’ with. There never is when you’re looking for it.” Not that she was, but she didn’t want Peggy detailing the reason she should be.

“Well, if you do meet someone, don’t feel like you got to hurry home. I don’t have a class until ten tomorrow.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Appearing to agree would end the conversation quicker than protests. “Where the hell is my purse?”

Peggy reached over the far edge of the bed, fumbled around for the strap then, grunting with the effort, swung Maddie’s bag up onto the bed. “You got the kitchen sink in there?” she asked, setting it on the bed within Maddie’s reach.

“No, I carry a cannon,” Maddie answered tartly, knowing Peggy would never guess she was only exaggerating a little.

Maddie leaned over the bed and kissed Jesse’s plump cheek goodbye. “Be good for Peggy, okay? I love you, Charlie Brown.”

She paused at the door, the typical quiver deep in her stomach whenever she left Jesse making itself felt. “Be sure to keep the door locked and don’t open it for anyone.”

Peggy rolled on the bed until her head hung over the edge of the mattress, the ends of her hair sweeping the floor. “Before I met you, I thought only big city folk were this paranoid about their kids, but you can count on me.” Still upside-down, Peggy recited Maddie’s cardinal rule: “No strangers near Jesse.”

Maddie gave her a tight smile. It was impossible not to trust Peggy. Jesse would be fine. More important, he would be safe. She was able to hold onto that almost to the front door of the building where she saw someone she didn’t know enter without being buzzed in as one of her neighbors went out.

*

Thursday night. Maddie figured the bars would be busy enough to judge the type of crowd they attracted but not so busy she couldn’t strike up a conversation with the bartender.

At the Gull, she studied the autographed photos that lined the top of the mirror behind the bar while she waited for the bartender to get to her. She smiled when she recognized Ty Murray’s face next to Mike Lee’s. Both
Texas
boys. Both bull riding champions. Maddie took it as a good sign. She could fit in here.

Vince had liked The Gull enough to stay here when he was in
Galveston
, so it felt right that she should work here. He would have sat at the bar, as he always did when he was alone. As she was doing now. Maybe he’d sat on the stool next to hers. She watched the bartender mixing drinks. Had he served Vince? If he’d worked there long enough, it was possible, but with the number of people that passed through a hotel, the odds were against him remembering someone who hadn’t stayed there in over a year.