Emmett (5 page)

“I know.” Emmett hesitated. “I'll try to explain that one day,” he told his son, and somewhere in the back of his mind he was remembering the incredible softness of Melody's innocent mouth under his lips.

He paid the babysitter, packed the suitcases and took his kids home. Maybe when he was back in familiar surroundings, he could put Melody out of his thoughts.

 

Melody checked on Tansy Deverell Sunday evening. Tansy had been discharged from the hospital and had been moved to Logan's house where she had a private nurse until Kit and Logan got back so that she wouldn't be in the house alone. Spending the evening with the elderly lady took her mind off her own problems.

“I saw Emmett before they released him,” Tansy mused with twinkling eyes when she was in a comfortable bed at Logan's house. “Two nurses threatened to resign, I believe?”

“I heard it was three, and the doctor.” Melody chuckled. “Isn't he something? And those kids…!”

“Those kids would settle down if Guy would,” Tansy replied. “He's the ringleader. He leads and the other two follow. Guy's said the least about his mother leaving them, but I think it hit him the hardest—almost as hard
as it hit Emmett. They both blame themselves, when it was no one's fault.”

“I told Emmett that,” Melody remarked. “He actually listened. I don't know if he believed me or not, but he was…well, less volatile after that.”

“Emmett's always been explosive,” the elderly woman recalled. “He was high-strung and forceful when he was younger, a real hell-raiser. Adell was sheltered and shy. He just walked right over her. He was devastated when his mother committed suicide and he wanted a wife and a family right then. He picked Adell and rushed her to the altar. She never should have married him. He was the exact opposite of the kind of man she needed. She didn't want a fistful of children right away, but Emmett gave her no real choice. He's lived to regret his rashness. I'm sorry for the way things turned out for him. He's a sad, lonely man.”

“And a very bitter one,” Melody added. “He hated me.”

“Past tense?” Tansy fished gently.

“I don't know. He was very different when he left,” she replied, frowning in confusion.

“I hope he'll go home and rethink his life after this,” Tansy said. “He had a close call that could have ended tragically. The kids deserve a better shake than they're getting. If he doesn't wake up pretty soon, he'll never be able to control them when they get older.”

“I think he knows that.”

“Then let's both hope he'll do something about it. They're sweet kids.”

Melody only nodded. She didn't want to go into any details about why she could have cheerfully excluded Guy from that description.

 

“It's great to be back.” Kit sighed when she stopped by the office Monday morning with a weary-looking Logan. “You really need a vacation from a vacation. We had so much fun!” She stared after Logan, who'd gone into his office to take a telephone call.

Melody stared at her grimly. “I'm glad you did,” she said, emphasizing the “you.” “Emmett landed himself in the hospital with a concussion over the weekend. Guess who got to look after those kids.”

“Oh, Lord,” Kit said on a moan. “You poor thing!”

“I kept reminding myself that they're my nieces and nephews,” Melody remarked. “But it was a very long weekend.” She didn't mention Alistair's adventure or Guy's part in it.

“I'm really sorry. If we'd been in town, all of us could have split them up.”

“I shudder to think of the consequences,” Melody mused. “I can see them now, trying to get to each other through downtown Houston at two in the morning.”

“Hmm. You might have a point there.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to get to work, or I may not have a job. Have a nice day,” she called, pausing to blow a kiss at her husband through the open door of his office.

Melody wondered at the obviously loving relationship the married couple had, and felt a faint envy. Probably she'd never know anything like that. Emmett had kissed her, but it had been passionate, not loving. She permitted herself to dream for just a moment about how it would have felt to be loved half to death. Then the phone rang and saved her from any more malingering.

 

During the time Logan and Kit had been away, Melody hadn't been forced to call on Tom Walker. That
was a blessing. He strolled into the office later on the day Logan came back, a little curious, because he'd expected to have someone to advise in Logan's absence.

“I suppose I had you buffaloed?” he mused in a deep voice with a very faint crisp northwestern accent, his dark eyes twinkling as they met Melody's. “That was just bad timing before, when Logan left town. I'd already had a hell of a day. You caught the overflow. I'm sorry if I've put you off financial advisors for life.” There was a faint query in his scrutiny.

“You haven't,” Melody said, and smiled back. “But we really didn't have anyone with an emergency this time. Aren't you glad?”

“I guess so,” he said wearily. “It's been a long week. How was the honeymoon?” he asked Logan, who joined them in the outer office.

“Nothing like it. Get married and find out for yourself,” he said, chuckling as he shook Tom's hand.

The older man's face closed up. “Marriage is not for me,” he said quietly. “I'm not suited for it. Besides, when would I have time for a wife?” he added with a mocking smile. “I work eighteen hours out of every twenty-four. In my spare time, I sleep.”

“That will get old one day,” Logan told him. He was obviously thinking about Kit and his heart was in his face. “Time can pass you by if you don't pay attention.”

Tom turned away. “I've got a client due. I just wanted to stop by and welcome you back. I'll be in touch.”

“Don't forget, we're having dinner with the Rowena Marshal people next Saturday at the Sheraton.”

“How could I forget? Ms. Marshal herself phoned to remind me,” he said with a nip in his tone. “
After
expressing outrage that her business partner had dared
to approach us about changing their investments without her knowledge. If you recall, I was against taking their account in the first place. It's been nothing short of a headache. They should have used one firm, not split their investments between two. I tried to tell them that, too. Ms. Marshal wouldn't listen.”

“
Mrs. Marshal
,” Logan corrected.

“Are you sure? When would she find time for a husband and family?” Tom muttered. “That cosmetic company seems to keep her as occupied as investments keep me.”

“She and her husband are divorced,” Logan replied. “Or so I hear.”

Tom didn't say a word, but one eyebrow went up. “Am I surprised? How could a mere man compete with the power and prestige of owning one of the Fortune 500 companies?”

“I'm sure there's more to it than that,” Logan replied.

Tom shrugged. “There usually is. Well, we'll see what they want to do after we talk to them. If you want the account, you can have it with my blessing. Tell her that, would you?”

Logan chuckled. “What have I ever done to you?”

Tom shook his head. “See you.”

Logan watched him leave with narrow, curious dark eyes. Tom was a real puzzle even to the people who knew him best. He had a feeling his friend and the lovely Mrs. Marshal were going to strike sparks off each other from the very beginning.

He turned to Melody, who was sorting files. “Anything that can't wait until tomorrow?” he mused.

“Why, no, sir,” she said with a mischievous smile. “In fact, I think I can now run the office all by myself,
advise clients on the best investments, speak to civic organizations…”

“I can call Emmett and tell him you miss having him and the kids at your apartment, and that you'd like him to come back,” he suggested.

She stuck both arms up in the air over her head.

He chuckled and left to pick up Kit at her office.

 

Emmett was wondering if his age was beginning to affect him. He was noticing things about his kids that had escaped him for months. They didn't take regular baths. They didn't have new clothes. They didn't do their homework. They played really nasty jokes on people around the ranch.

“You haven't noticed much, have you?” the housekeeper, Tally Ray, remarked dryly. “I've done my best, but as they keep reminding me, I don't have any real authority to order them around.”

“We'll see about that,” he began irritably.

“Why don't
you
see about that? Because I'm retiring. Here's my notice. I didn't mind doing housework, but I draw the line at being a part-time mother to three kids. I want to enjoy my golden years, if you please.”

“But you've been here forever!” he protested.

“And that's why I'm leaving.” She patted him on the shoulder. “One week is all you get, by the way. I hope you can find somebody stupid enough to replace me.”

Emmett felt the world coming down on his shoulders.
Now
what was he going to do?

He phoned Tansy, supposedly to check on her progress, but really to get some much-needed advice.

“You're playing with fire, you know,” Tansy told him. “Living on the edge is only for people with no real responsibilities. Those kids need you.”

“So does the ranch. How can I keep it without additional capital?”

“Get a job that doesn't have the risks of rodeo.”

“Where?” he asked belligerently.

“Take down this number.”

She gave it to him and he jotted it down with a pencil. “What is it?”

“It's Ted Regan's number,” she replied. “He still needs somebody to manage his ranch in Jacobsville while he's in Europe. It won't be a permanent job, but it would keep you going until you decide what else you'd like to do with your life.”

“Jacobsville.”

“That's right. It's a small town, but close enough to Houston that you could bring the kids to see me. You'd have time to spend with them. You'd have a second chance, Emmett.”

He could use one, but he didn't want to admit it. “That's an idea.” He didn't add that it was going to get him closer to Melody than San Antonio was. He didn't know why it exhilarated him to think of being close enough to see her when he liked, but it did.

“Call Ted and talk to him,” Tansy suggested.

“I suppose it wouldn't hurt.”

It didn't. Ted Regan knew Emmett's reputation in rodeo and he didn't need to ask for credentials or qualifications. He offered Emmett the job on the spot, at a regular salary that was twice what he was pulling down on the rodeo circuit.

“Besides, it may turn into a full-time job,” Ted continued in his deep, Texas drawl. “My present manager just quit. I don't know if I can spread myself thin enough to manage the ranch and keep up with my purebred busi
ness. I'm buying and selling cattle like hotcakes. I haven't got time for the day-to-day routine of ranching.”

That was what worried Emmett. If he left his own ranch, he'd have to let Whit manage it for him. Whit was good, but could he hold it together?

“We'll have to talk about that later, but I will think about the offer,” Emmett promised. “And thanks, I'll take the job.”

“I'm glad,” Ted replied. “I know you'll do it right.” He gave Emmett a date to report and concluded the fine points of the agreement.

When he hung up, Emmett called the kids together and sat down with them.

“We're going to move to Jacobsville and I'm going to manage a ranch there,” he began.

Guy glared at his father with pale, angry eyes in a face as lean and strong as Emmett's. “Well, I'm not moving to Jacobsville,” he said curtly. “I like it here.”

Amy took her cue from her eldest brother, whose pale eyes dared her to go against him. “Me, too,” Amy said quickly, although not as belligerently. “I'm not going, either, Emmett!”

Emmett looked at Polk. Polk didn't say a word. He just looked at the other two, grinned and nodded.

O
nly a week ago, Emmett might have lost his temper and said some unpleasant things to the kids. But he'd mellowed just a little since his concussion. He was sure he could handle the children's mutiny. He smiled smugly. It was just a matter of outsmarting them.

“There are horses there,” he remarked. “Lots of horses. You could each have one of your own.”

“We live on a ranch, Emmett,” Amy reminded him. “We already have a horse each.”

“There's the Astrodome in Houston,” he added.

“There's the Alamo here,” Guy said.

“And the place where they film all the movies, outside town,” Polk added.

“All our friends are here,” Amy wailed.

He was losing ground. He began to lose some self-confidence. “You can make new friends,” he told them. “There are lots of kids in Jacobsville.”

“We don't want new friends.” Amy began to cry.

“Oh, stop that!” Emmett groaned. He glared at all three of them. “Listen, don't you want us to be a family?” he asked.

Amy stopped crying. Her eyes were red but they lifted bravely. “A family?” she echoed.

“Yes, a family!” He pushed back his unruly dark hair from his broad forehead. “I haven't been much of a father since your mother left us,” he confessed curtly. “I want us to spend more time together. I want to be able to stay at home with you. If I take this job, I won't be away all the time at rodeos. I'll be home at night, all the time, and on weekends. We can do things together.”

Guy stared at him warily. “You mean, things like going to movies and goofy golf and baseball games? Things like that?” he said slowly, hardly able to believe that his father actually might want to spend any time with them. That wasn't the impression he'd been giving since their mother had left.

“Yes,” Emmett said. “And if you had problems that you needed to talk to me about, I'd be there.”

“What about Mrs. Ray?”

“She's resigning,” Emmett said sadly. “She says she's reached the age where she needs peace and quiet and flowers to grow. So we'd have to replace her even if we stay here.”

Guy and Amy and Polk exchanged resigned glances. They didn't want the risk of a housekeeper they couldn't control. There was always that one chance in a million that their father might come up with someone they couldn't frighten or intimidate.

“Melody could stay with us, couldn't she?” Amy asked suddenly.

“Sure!” Polk agreed, beaming.

Guy's complexion went pale. He muttered something under his breath and got up and went to the window to stare out it. He knew for certain that Melody wouldn't want him around, even if she did like the other two. She'd never forgive him for what he'd done to her cat. Besides, he reminded himself forcibly, he didn't like her. It was her fault that he didn't have a mother anymore.

Emmett found the suggestion warming, if impractical. He'd done a lot of thinking about Melody himself. “Melody has a job,” Emmett said. It surprised him that the kids found it so easy to picture Melody as part of their lives. It surprised him even more that he did, too.

“Jacobsville isn't very big, is it?” Guy asked without looking at his father. “There's not much to do there, I guess.”

“You're old enough to start learning how to manage a ranch,” Emmett told him. “You can come around with me and learn the ropes.”

Guy's usually taciturn face brightened. He turned. “I could?”

“Yes.” Emmett's eyes narrowed. “I'll have to turn things over to you one day,” he added. “You might as well know one end of a rope from the other when the time comes.”

Guy felt as if he'd been offered a new start with his father. It was a good feeling. Guy looked at his siblings. “I'll go,” he said, his expression warning them that they'd better agree.

Amy and Polk stood close together. “I guess it would be nice to have you at home all the time, Emmett,” Amy said softly. “It would be 'specially nice if you didn't have to ride any more mean horses.”

“We don't want you to die, Dad,” Polk agreed solemnly. “You're sort of all we've got.”

Emmett's lean face hardened. “Maybe you're sort of all I've got, too. Ever think of it like that?”

Guy looked uncomfortable and Polk just smiled. But Amy slid onto his lap and hugged him. She looked up with soft, loving eyes. “I'm glad you're our daddy, Emmett,” she said.

At that moment, so was he. Very, very glad.

 

It couldn't last, of course, all that peace and affection. They moved to Jacobsville and they hadn't been in the big sprawling ranch house two hours when the cook started screaming bloody murder and ran out of the house with her apron over her head.

“What's the matter?” Emmett called.

“There's a snake in the sink! There's a snake in the sink!”

“Oh, for God's sake, woman, what kind of snake is it?” Emmett grumbled absently, more concerned about the books he'd been going over than this gray-haired woman's hysterics over some small reptile.

“It's twenty feet long!”

“This is Texas,” Emmett explained patiently. “There aren't any twenty-foot-long snakes here. You're thinking of boa constrictors and pythons. They come from the jungle.”

“Hey, Dad, look what we found in the barn!” Guy called, grinning.

He came out with a
huge
black-and-white striped snake. It wasn't twenty feet long, but it was at least six.

“
Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!
” the cook screamed and started running again.

“Go put it back in the barn,” Emmett told them.

“But it's just a king snake,” Polk protested.

“And he's very friendly, Emmett,” Amy agreed.

“Put it back in the barn or she'll never come back. I'll have to cook and we'll starve,” he explained, gesturing toward the figure growing smaller in the distance. He scowled. “As it is, I'll have to run her to the ground in the truck. Never saw anyone run that fast!”

“Spoilsport,” Guy muttered. He petted the snake, which didn't seem to mind being handled in the least. “Come on, Teddy. It's back to the corn bin for you, I guess. I had hoped we could let him sleep with us. In case there were any mice inside,” he said, justifying his reply.

Emmett could see the woman's face if she started to make up a bed and found the snake with its head on the pillow.

“Better not,” he replied. “I'll load my pistol. If you see a mouse, I'll shoot it for you.”

“The snake's a better bet, the way you shoot,” Guy drawled.

Emmett glowered at him, but the boy just grinned. He and the other kids took the snake out to the barn. Half a mile down the road, Emmett caught up with the cook and part-time housekeeper, Mrs. Jenson. After swearing that the kids would never do any such thing again, he coaxed her into coming back and finishing those delicious salmon croquettes she'd started to make.

It was a hard adjustment, being home all the time. Emmett discovered that fatherhood wasn't something he could take for granted anymore. He had to work at it. All the problems the children had at school—problems that poor Mrs. Ray had handled before—were now dumped squarely in his lap.

Polk had a terrible time with fractions, and refused to do them at all in school. Amy had attitude problems and fought with her classmates. Guy was belligerent with his teachers and wouldn't mind spending hours and hours at in-school suspension. All these problems with teachers erupted in Emmett's face, now that he had sole charge of the children.

“Why can't you kids just go to school and get educated like other children do?” he asked. He had notes from three angry teachers in his hand, and he was waving them at the children while they watched television and pretended to listen.

“It's not my fault I can't do fractions. The teacher says I'm not mathematical,” Polk said with a proud smile.

“And I have a bad attitude, on account of I don't have a mommy and my daddy is never home and I need discipline and attention,” Amy said smartly.

That stung. Emmett brushed it off and tried to pretend he hadn't heard it. “What's your excuse?” Emmett asked Guy.

Guy shrugged. “Beats me. Mrs. Bartley seems to have trouble relating to me or something.”

Emmett's eyes narrowed. “That wouldn't have anything to do with the mouse you stuck in her purse before lunch yesterday?”

“Awww, Dad, it was only a little mouse!”

“You have to stop that sort of thing,” Emmett said firmly. “We need a little more discipline around here, I can see that right now.”

“You bet, Emmett,” Amy agreed readily. She propped her hands under her chin and stared at him. “He's right, isn't he, guys?” she asked her brothers.

“It isn't our fault that the educational system is in
chaos,” Polk reported. “We're just the innocent victims of bureaucracy.”

Guy nodded. “That's right.”

Emmett sat down and crossed his long legs. “Victims or not, I'll thank you to start minding your manners at school. Or I might just forget to pay the electric bill. How would you watch television then?” he concluded smugly.

Amy sighed. “Well, Emmett, I guess we'd just have to watch it by candlelight.”

 

Melody had put the children and Emmett forcibly out of her mind several times over the weeks that followed. Christmas came and went. She exchanged cards and presents with Randy and Adell, but it was still a lonely time.

It disturbed her that she kept staring at dark-haired men because they looked a little like Emmett. Remembering how he'd kissed her before he went back to San Antonio didn't help her nerves, either. She seemed to walk around in a perpetual state of nervousness, jumping when people came into the office.

“You are a case,” Kit said, shaking her head when Melody leaped back from the filing cabinet as she came into the office after work.

“Nerves,” Melody agreed. “I have nerves. It comes from mollycoddling nervous investors all day. It's a wonder I haven't shaken my desk apart.”

“Work is all it is, hmm?” Kit asked.

“Of course,” Melody replied.

The dark-haired woman only smiled. “Have you heard that Emmett and the kids moved to Jacobsville?”

Melody stopped filing and stared at her. “They did?”

“Emmett's accident must have made him do some
hard thinking about his life. He phoned Logan last night and said he's given up rodeo to manage Ted Regan's cattle ranch in Jacobsville.”

“Has he sold his own ranch?”

“He hired a manager. I suppose he'll make more than enough to keep his own place going until the economy gets a bit better. Meanwhile, he's having plenty of time with his kids.”

“They all need that,” Melody replied. “Guy especially.”

“You don't like Guy, do you?”

“I don't really dislike him. But he hates me. He can't forget that I helped his mother leave. I can't say I blame him. Divorce is hard on little children.”

“It's hard on any kind of children, even big ones,” Kit replied. “Why don't you go home? I'll take over here until Logan's ready to leave.”

“How nice of you!”

“Well, not really. I enjoy spending time with my husband. Since we both work at different jobs now, every second is precious.”

Melody envied her that happiness, but she didn't mind an early night. She said so.

“You're doing a terrific job here,” Kit said before she left. “We both appreciate you.”

Melody grinned. “You're only saying that because I don't wear blouses cut to my knees or have a breathy voice.”

“That, too.” Kit chuckled.

Melody waved and went back to her lonely apartment. A telephone call from her brother shocked her speechless.

“You never phone me,” she reminded Randy. “I even had to call you at Christmas. Is something wrong?”

“You know me pretty well, don't you? It's not that anything is wrong. It's just that…we have a sort of awkward situation,” he began slowly.

“Randy?” she persisted.

There was an audible sigh. “I don't know how to tell you, and you can't tell anyone…especially not Logan or Tansy. Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because if it gets back to Emmett, I don't know what we'll do!”

She was getting worried. “Randy, what is it?” she said proddingly.

“Well, it's like this. Adell's pregnant.”

 

Melody remembered belatedly congratulating her brother, but the news was a complication that wasn't going to make things easier for Emmett and the kids. A new child in a mixed family always brought turmoil. It was a shame, too, when Emmett and the kids had just gotten settled into a new life in Jacobsville.

On the other hand, she was going to be an aunt again, and a real one this time, because Randy was her own blood. It would be his first child. She couldn't be sad about that. But she hurt for Emmett. It wasn't going to be easy for him to learn that his ex-wife was pregnant by the man who'd taken her from him. It was going to cause all sorts of problems.

 

Emmett stopped outside Logan's office and hesitated. He hadn't wanted to come here, but Melody was playing on his senses. He'd missed her. Christmas, even with the kids, had been oddly lonely for him this year. There was a hollow place inside him that a casual date couldn't fill any longer. He'd brooded over what to do about it, and
he'd finally come to the conclusion that he needed to see Melody again, to make sure he wasn't overreacting to her.

He'd looked for days for an excuse to show up here. He'd finally found one, in the guise of letting Logan invest some money for him. But he hadn't telephoned first. He wanted to know if Melody was as attracted to him as he was to her. The element of surprise was going to tell him that.