Flirting with Texas (Deep in the Heart of Texas) (17 page)

Beau flopped down in the chair across from the desk. “Well, we should be glad that Sheriff Hicks doesn’t either. Or we could have a big problem on our hands. Who do you think made the complaint?”

Minnie didn’t know, but after talking with Moses Tate
and then Marcy, she had a good idea. Still, she wasn’t ready to let Beau in on that. Not until she found out what Beau’s plans were.

“Couldn’t say,” she said, “but lucky for us that Jenna showed up and got the sheriff’s mind on other things.”

“Yeah,” Beau grumbled, “lucky us.”

Minnie held back her laughter. Within seconds of seeing Beau and Jenna together, she’d known which way the wind blew. Now all she needed to do was make sure it blew them together instead of apart.

“Of course, you being here didn’t hurt anything,” she said. “Men pay more attention when a man talks than a frail, little old woman.”

Beau snorted. “You’re about as frail as a cornered bobcat.”

She ignored the comment. “Still, it was sure nice havin’ you here to defend the henhouse. Lord only knows what would’ve happened if you hadn’t convinced the sheriff that we are a respectable bed and breakfast.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “We are a respectable bed and breakfast, right, Minnie?”

She flapped a hand. “Of course we are.”

“Then why did you send the invitation to Jenna?” he asked. “Jenna overheard you talking with Moses on the phone and is now convinced that she’s adopted and the daughter of a hen. She even plans on staying here a couple more days to prove it.” He leaned up, resting his elbows on his knees. “So is it true?”

Minnie tried to hide her smile. One down and one to go. “Why else would I send her an invitation?”

“Damn it, Minnie.” He got to his feet and started pacing. “You and the townsfolk can’t just screw with people’s
lives. Jenna was happy in New York with her boyfriend. Now she’s all tangled up in this mess.”

“A woman who is happy doesn’t hop in the tub with another man.”

Beau’s face turned bright red. “That was just an accident.” He pointed a finger at her. “And I’m warning you, if you invited her here for something other than learning about her heritage, I’m going to turn you in to Sheriff Hicks myself.”

“Go sell that to someone else, Beauregard. You love me and the hens too much to hand us over to the law. Besides, I’m not going to do anything to harm Jenna. The invitation was sent as a way of helping. Family is important. Something you tend to forget.”

“Just make sure you’ve got the right information on Jenna, is all. She might be assertive, but she’s as gullible as the day is long.” He walked over to pick up his hat. “Could you call Moses and tell him that Jenna’s staying the night and I’ll have his truck back to him by tomorrow morning? I’m meeting the guy with the rental car around nine at Josephine’s.”

“You don’t need to rent a car. You’re welcome to use any vehicle on the place, including that big van Brant got us to transport guests. Since Sunshine doesn’t drive, Baby is as blind as a bat, and Starlet lost her insurance after the last accident, we’ve been needing a driver.”

He paused in the process of putting on his hat. In Brant’s clothes, with his silver hair covered, he looked just like his brother. His wounds were almost as deep.

“I won’t be back, Minnie,” he said. “I have other commitments.”

“Don’t lie to me, Beauregard,” she said. “Your family
might accept your excuses, but I refuse to. You’re leaving because you can’t face Texas without facing your own mortality.”

Beau’s mouth, that rarely went without a smile, pressed into a hard, firm line. Minnie wasn’t trying to be cruel. But she figured that people had pussyfooted around Beau for long enough.

“I know you went through a lot with your cancer,” she continued, “but that doesn’t give you the right to ignore your family while you’ve been off traipsin’ around the world. I figured you deserved a break. But two years is a long enough vacation, Beauregard. It’s time to come back to your family and your business.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, Minnie. But if I’ve learned anything in the last two years, it’s that my family and my business can do quite nicely without me. And as for running from my mortality, aren’t we all?” He pulled his hat down on his forehead. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a hammock and a couple cottonwood trees.”

Minnie let him go. Beau wouldn’t be swayed by guilt. His family had tried that, sending him family pictures and those cell phone videos. No, Beau needed something stronger to hold him in Texas. Something that would make him forget the cancer he had suffered through and still feared. Something that would bring out the protective nature that was inside all the Cates boys.

After pouring herself a stiff drink of brandy, she picked up the phone and dialed. Moses always answered his cell phone on the second ring. For a man who napped most of his life away, he was twice as alert as most folks. Alert enough to notice who Marcy had been talking to earlier that afternoon. Alert enough to help Minnie carry
out the plan that was forming in her mind. A plan that might take care of two hens with one stone.

“I need some help, Moe?” she asked.

He stifled a yawn. “Anything for you, Millicent.”

“I need you to spread a little gossip.”

“Ain’t much for gossip,” he said.

“I think you’ll enjoy this.” Minnie sat back in her chair and smiled. “Texas has a whorehouse in it.”

“I
THINK
I’
VE FIGURED OUT
your erectile dysfunction.”

The muscles in Beau’s neck tightened, as did his grip on the steering wheel of Moses’s truck. He tried to take deep, calming Ojai breaths like he’d learned from his yoga teacher in India, but it was getting harder and harder to keep his cool around the woman. Especially when she paid absolutely no attention to his warning about staying the hell away from him. The night before, she had sat next to him at dinner, pressuring him to give the hens a raise. Then she had followed him into the billiard room where she’d distracted him so much by bending over the pool table in her short shorts that she had beaten him two games out of three.

At the end of his patience, Beau had hopped up early this morning with every intention of sneaking out before she woke. But who was waiting for him on the porch the moment he stepped out the door? A bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Jenna, who insisted she needed a ride into town. The only thing that saved his sanity was knowing that he was only hours away from leaving her and Texas far behind.

“I think it stems from your commitment issues,” she continued. “You don’t have any problem getting things started—like the henhouse, bull riding, and Peggy Sue. It’s the act of completion that you can’t accomplish.”

Beau’s gaze snapped over to her. She had ditched the shorts and midriff top for her western wear, which should’ve been a good thing considering that her mile-long legs and cute little belly button were now covered. But full coverage didn’t keep Beau’s libido in check. Through his haze of annoyance, his brain was still thinking about whether or not she had a bra on under her plaid shirt and how it would only take a quick yank on the snaps to find out.

Jenna’s eyes scrunched up in thought. “I think if you committed yourself to something—saw it through to completion—your little sexual problem would be solved.”

“I don’t have a little sexual problem,” he said through his teeth.

“Okay, a big sexual problem.” She cranked down the window, and the wind blew in, playing with the strands of her wheat-colored hair. “At any rate, I think you’ll have to deal with your commitment issues before you’ll be able to reach—”

“Look,” he cut her off before she could completely emasculate him, “could we talk about something else? Anything else.”

“Fine. But I think you need to face the subject, instead of avoiding it. Problems don’t get solved by ignoring them.”

“And I guess you believe that all problems are fixable.”

“I haven’t run into one yet that isn’t,” she said. “Although some problems take a little more work and dedication. Two things you seem to know nothing about.”

“Maybe I just haven’t found something I want to dedicate my time to.”

“So you’ve never been in a serious relationship?”

Beau glanced over to find her watching him intently. He could’ve told her about Cari Anne, but then he would have to tell her about the cancer that had caused them to break up. And he wasn’t about to be on the receiving end of Jenna’s pity. Or worse, to become another one of her causes.

“I’ve learned to never take relationships, or life, too seriously,” he said. “Something you should’ve figured out with Davy. Speaking of which, there’s a problem that you didn’t solve, your parents accepting Davy.”

She lifted a hand and held back her flyaway hair. Beau’s gaze dropped to the front of her shirt, and the image of her breasts all naked and water-slick flashed through his mind.

“Well, I’m about to,” she said.

He was so caught up in his bathtub fantasy that he lost track of the conversation. “You’re about to what?”

“To fix the problem between Davy and my parents.” She turned and met his gaze. Her eyes were the same color blue as the May sky outside the window. “I’m going to marry him.” She sent him a weak smile. “I should’ve thought of marriage before. It makes perfect sense. My parents will have to accept Davy when he’s part of the family.” She paused. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that the Scroggs might not even be my real family.”

Beau hadn’t been thinking that. He’d been thinking about Davy replacing him in the bathtub, and it did not sit well with him.

“Well, I’ve thought of that too,” she continued, completely oblivious to his vexation. “But I’ve decided that just because the Scroggses adopted me that doesn’t make them any less of my family. In fact, it makes me love them even more for opening up their home to the child of a prostitute.”

He closed the bathroom door on Davy and Jenna with a resounding bang. If she wanted to marry the nipple-ringed dude, more power to her. Beau had a life to get back to. An exciting life that included women much less annoying than the one sitting next to him.

Ignoring the tight feeling in his chest, Beau pressed down on the accelerator. The sooner he dropped Jenna off, the sooner he’d be back to his happy-go-lucky self. Fortunately, she finally shut up and remained quiet for the rest of the trip, no doubt dreaming of her wedding plans.

When they reached Bramble, Beau pulled up in front of Sutter’s Pharmacy where Moses was sitting on the park bench sleeping. Not wanting to wake him, Beau left the keys in the ignition and hopped out. As he looked around for the SUV the rental car company was supposed to have dropped off, he realized that Jenna was still in the truck.

It seemed that Miss Van Damme was having trouble opening her door.

Beau’s mood brightened considerably as he walked around to the passenger’s side. She had just leaned down to put her shoulder into it when he tugged open the door. She fell out and would’ve landed on the pavement if he hadn’t caught her in his arms.

Today, she smelled like the lilacs that grew in Miss Hattie’s garden. It was an intoxicating scent that had him taking a deep breath. Jenna lifted her head and bumped
the brim of his hat. In the shadow it cast, her eyes looked an even deeper blue.

“So I guess this is good-bye,” she said.

“It would seem that way.”

“You headed to Mexico?”

“I haven’t made up my mind.”

She nodded, then reached up and adjusted his hat. “So take care of yourself, cowboy.”

“You too, Blondie,” he said, wondering why the words seemed so hard to get out of his throat.

They stared at one another for a few seconds more before she arched an eyebrow. “So are you going to let me go?”

Suddenly, Beau realized that his hands were wrapped around her waist like a kid trying to hold on to a greased pig. He released her and stepped back. A moment later, Jenna had her hat on and was strutting down Main Street.

Beau stood there watching, trying to figure out why he didn’t feel as happy as he thought he would. The miserable feeling intensified when she glanced over her shoulder and smiled. He had been mistaken when he thought she had an ordinary smile. There was nothing ordinary about Jenna Jay. Not her smile. Or her wrestling ability. Or those damned legs that seemed to go all the way up to her waist.

“She’s a bit of a spitfire, that one.”

Beau turned to Moses Tate, who was still slumped on the bench with his hat tipped low. A weathered hand lifted and pushed back the hat, revealing a wrinkled face and piercing eyes.

“Her sister Hope is a spitfire, too,” Moses continued. “But Hope has always cared about what people thought
of her. Jenna Jay don’t give a hoot. She has a mind of her own and won’t be bullied by the townsfolk’s craziness.” He shook his head as his gaze followed Jenna. “With that one, the more you push her in one direction, the more she’ll head in the other. Something I don’t think her family has figured out yet.”

Considering the fact that her family wasn’t blood, it made sense that they wouldn’t understand her nature. And Beau had to agree that Jenna Jay was one obstinate woman. He watched as she turned the corner by the post office, and a thought struck him. Maybe that explained her interest in a tattooed band member. Maybe dating Davy was just Jenna’s way of rebelling against her parents. Of course, it made no difference now. Beau was leaving.

“ ’Course, it’s better to be obstinate than selfish,” Moses said. When Beau glanced over, he found the old guy glaring at him. He watched as Moses took a squashed plastic Solo cup from his shirt pocket and spit a stream of tobacco in it.

“And you’re pretty dadgum selfish if you’re thinkin’ about leavin’ the henhouse. Especially now with the rumors flyin’ about it being a whorehouse.”

Beau slammed the truck door. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. Sheriff Hicks seems like a reasonable man, and he’s not going to close the house down based on rumors.”

Moses studied him for a moment before putting the cup back in his shirt. “And maybe that ain’t the only reason you should stay.” He looked back up. “Did you know that Doc Mathers has been goin’ out to the henhouse on a regular basis?”