Flirting with Texas (Deep in the Heart of Texas) (28 page)

“If I hadn’t, she would’ve gone lookin’ for another way to make money.” Minnie set an eight of clubs on the nine of diamonds. “In order for me to help her, she needed to stay here.” She hesitated with her hand over the cards. “I couldn’t figure out a way to keep Olive here long enough to heal from her daddy’s abuse. I wasn’t about to make the same mistake with Marcy.”

“Marcy was abused?”

“Not sexually like her mama, but neglect can be just as damaging,” Minnie said. “Daughters will go to great lengths searching for ‘daddy love.’ ”

“No wonder Pastor Robbins thought Miss Hattie’s was back in business when Marcy propositioned him,” Jenna said. “Marcy thought she
was
a prostitute.”

Minnie grinned. “Talk about something wrong turnin’ out right. I think that’s going to be the best proposition the pastor has ever gotten. Marcy will make a fine pastor’s wife.”

The news shocked Jenna. “They’re getting married?”

“I figure sooner, rather than later.” Minnie flipped down another card and cackled. “I don’t think the good
pastor can hold out much longer.” She glanced up. “So how are your weddin’ plans coming?”

It took a moment to figure out what the woman was talking about. “There are no wedding plans. Davy has found someone else.”

“That surprises me, seein’ how he’s called here at least fifty times in the last two days lookin’ for you.”

The information should have made Jenna feel something. Instead, she felt absolutely nothing. Not happy. Sad. Or even curious. While she tried to figure out her lack of emotion, Minnie collected the cards and slipped them back in the box.

“Now if this conversation is done, I think I’ll take a little nap.”

“Oh no,” Jenna got up from the chair. “You haven’t answered the most important question. Why did you send me the invitation in the first place when I’m not even a hen?”

Minnie looked up at her. “All women have a little hen in them. But you’re right. You weren’t chosen by accident. Moses Tate was worried about you being at odds with your folks, and I figured an invitation might get you home. ’Course, I didn’t have a clue that the crazy townsfolk would take matters into their own hands.”

“You could’ve explained that once I got here.”

“I could have, but I wanted you to stay around a while.” Minnie shot her a wide-eyed look. “To make up with your mama, of course. Speakin’ of which, have you called her?”

Jenna hadn’t tried to call her mother again. Her emotions had been too scrambled over Olive. And now, she wasn’t sure what to say. Sorry just didn’t seem like enough after a year of silence.

When Jenna didn’t answer, Minnie pointed a finger at the doorway. “You can use the phone in the library. It doesn’t matter who is right or who is wrong. Good mamas are hard to come by. Something you should’ve learned when you visited Olive.”

Jenna had learned a lot of things from Olive, and one of them was how lucky she was to have a good mama. She’d also learned that crime doesn’t pay and tattoos look much better on young, smooth skin than old and wrinkled.

“Olive might’ve been a good mother,” Jenna said, “if she’d had the right kind of love as a child. In fact, I was going to ask you if you could give her another chance at being a hen. I think she’s really trying to change her ways.”

“No wonder people are so fond of you, Jenna Jay.” Minnie smiled. “You are one softhearted woman. And I guess you’re right; all hens deserve a second chance.”

Jenna’s mother picked up on the second ring. It took a while for Jenna to be able to speak. Just hearing her mama’s voice caused a flood of emotion to well up in her chest and clog her throat.

“Hey, Mama,” she whispered.

“Jenna Jay?” her mother said. “Is that you, honey? What’s wrong? Did Delbert hit you? Because if he did—”

“No, Mama,” Jenna smiled at her mother’s feistiness. “Davy didn’t hit me. And I’m fine. I’m just happy to hear your voice, is all. And I’m sorry that I ran off and haven’t called.”

“Ah, honey.” Her mother started to cry. “I’m sorry, too, Jenna Jay. Your daddy and I should never have made you choose between your family and the man you love. That
was just wrongheaded. If you want Delbert, we’re one-hundred-percent behind you.”

It wasn’t hard to hear her daddy’s voice bellowing in the background. “Speak for yourself, woman. I don’t have a problem with tattoos, but those booby rings have got to go before I’m one hun-nerd percent. And tell that little girl of mine if she ever again pulls a stunt like runnin’ off to some big city and not tellin’ us where she is, I’m gonna whup her butt three shades of Sunday.”

“Shush up, Burl,” her mother said. “It’s time to let bygones be bygones. In fact, I’m thinkin’, that after the races, we should head on up to New York City and make up proper like.”

Just the thought of her parents in New York City had Jenna smiling. “You won’t have to go that far, Mama. I’m in Texas.”

“You’re in Bramble?” Her mother sounded like she was about to combust with happiness. “Well, why didn’t you say so earlier? I’ll just talk to your daddy and see if we can’t drive home today. I’m sure your sisters will want to come, too. Of course, Dallas isn’t with us. The danged college football coach of his is some kind of a slave driver and wouldn’t let him take off weight-trainin’.”

“That’s okay, Mama. I don’t want you cutting your vacation short for me. I plan on being here for a couple days, and there will be plenty of time to visit when you get back.”

“Well, if you’re sure, Jenna.”

“I’m sure, Mama. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She paused. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Jennie Bean.”

The nickname had Jenna Jay smiling as she walked
around the desk to hang up the phone. As she replaced the receiver in the cradle, she remembered what Minnie had said about Davy. Now would be a perfect time to call him and find out why he’d been trying to get a hold of her. But before she could lift the phone back up, the door opened and Beau walked in.

“I thought you were supposed to be working on a leaky faucet,” she said.

“I think that was just a ploy to get me out of the room. The faucet works fine.” He tossed his hat over to the couch. “So did you get all your questions answered?”

“I did.”

“And are you satisfied?” He strode toward her. Or more like stalked. His eyes danced with a devilish light. Which made her wonder if he was talking about getting her questions answered by Minnie or something else. His next words proved that it was something else. “Because if you aren’t, Miss Hattie’s room is now vacant, and I was thinking that after our long, hot afternoon a bath would be just the thing…”

Beau pulled her into his arms and gave her a kiss that skillet-fried her brain.

And Jenna forgot all about phone calls.

Minnie listened at the door of the library and couldn’t keep the grin from her face. Things were progressing much better than she had expected. Now that Beau had decided to face his cancer, she didn’t think it would be long before he would accept his love for Jenna Jay.

And instead of planning one wedding, the hens would be planning two.

Humming a tune, she wheeled the chair around and
headed back to her bedroom. As she passed the kitchen, a flash caught her eye. She stopped and watched as a cowboy hat bobbed above the window.

By the time she got to the door and opened it, the cowboy was pressed against the side of the house, peeking into Sunshine and Starlet’s room.

Pulling her derringer out of the side pocket of her wheelchair, Minnie pointed the small gun at the man’s back. “The hens don’t take kindly to peepin’ toms. Leastways, not unless you’ve paid for the pleasure.”

The cowboy whirled around. When he saw the gun pointed at him, the dark eyes beneath the brim of his hat widened. He looked familiar, but familiar or not, he had no business sneaking around the henhouse.

“Now if I was you,” Minnie said with a wave of the gun, “I’d hightail it out of here. Especially since I’m the kind of woman who shoots first and asks questions later.” She cocked the gun and that was all it took for the cowboy to take off like the hounds of hell were after him.

Cackling, Minnie put the gun away and was about to close the door when she noticed the black backpack sitting next to the house where the cowboy had been standing. It didn’t take her long to reach it. Although it took a little more effort to pick it up. It almost weighed more than Minnie did.

Once it was on her lap, she unzipped it.

Her eyes widened.

It looked like the cowboy was willing to pay for a peek after all.

“S
O
I
GUESS THE TATTOOED
rocker is history.”

Jenna glanced over at Shirlene, who was stretched out on the chaise lounge next to her, sipping a virgin margarita. In her silver sparkly bikini, wide-brimmed hat, and designer sunglasses, Shirlene looked like a voluptuous movie star. Jenna, on the other hand, looked like a skinny boy in the tropical-print bikini she’d borrowed from Mia.

“What makes you say that?” Jenna took a sip of beer and gazed out at the swimming pool. Or not the swimming pool so much as the man in it, who was horsing around with Jesse.

“Maybe because you can’t seem to keep your eyes off Beauregard,” Shirlene said. “Although I must admit that the man has one fine-lookin’ body.”

Fine wasn’t the word. Beau’s body was more than just fine. It was danged breathtaking in the navy swim trunks he’d borrowed from Billy. He lifted Jesse up out of the water, and his biceps and abs flexed as he tossed the hollering boy into the deep end.

Shirlene lifted her sunglasses and looked toward the end of the pool. “ ’Course, mine is finer.”

Jenna followed her gaze to the man in the crumpled straw cowboy hat who stood on the diving board. Billy jumped, and the board twanged and sent him up in the air where he tucked his knees to his muscular chest and executed a perfect cannonball. The loud splash had three-year-old Adeline squealing with delight as the wave sent her whale inner tube bobbing.

“So admit it.” Shirlene’s green eyes sparkled, and the smile she sent Jenna was smug and contagious. “Cowboys beat out rockers any day of the week.”

Jenna laughed. “Fine, but don’t tell Beau I said so. He already has an ego the size of Texas.”

“Watch me, Mama!” Brody yelled in a deep voice Jenna couldn’t believe belonged to a five-year-old. Just like his father, he strutted to the end of the diving board and jumped in. His splash was much smaller than Billy’s, but when his head broke the surface, Shirlene and Jenna applauded loudly. Sherman was next on the board and beat out both Brody and Billy. Of course, the pig’s orange life vest might’ve contributed to the wave that almost washed Adeline out of the pool.

Shirlene giggled and let her glasses drop over her eyes as she lay back on the chaise lounge. “Is this heaven, or what?”

Stretching out on her own chaise, Jenna had to once again agree with Shirlene. It did feel like heaven. She didn’t know if it was the dry west Texas heat. Or the happy squeals of children at play. Or the deep laughter of Billy and Beau. But she felt more content than she’d felt in a long time. She felt at peace. Like she was right where she belonged.

Too bad Shirlene shattered that peace with her next question.

“So what is going on between you and Beau?”

It was a question that Jenna had been asking herself a lot lately. And she still didn’t have an answer. She didn’t know what was going on between her and Beau. All she knew was that, whatever it was, she liked it.

She liked falling asleep in his arms at night. And waking up to his smiles in the morning. She liked taking a bath with him in Miss Hattie’s tub, or sharing a double-decker ice cream cone with him at the Dairy Treat, or watching a Texas Rangers baseball game snuggled against his side.

She opened her eyes. Beau was standing in the shallow end of the pool pushing Adeline in her whale. His gaze shifted over to her, and even from that distance, she could feel its intensity. Her heart did more than just skip a beat. It thumped so wildly that she wondered if it would jump right out of her chest. She tried to remember if she’d ever felt this way with Davy, but no memory came to mind. She had always been happy to see Davy, but never close to a heart attack.

“You love him.”

Jenna’s gaze snapped over to find Shirlene studying her. Her expression wasn’t exactly happy. Of course, Jenna knew how she felt. Just hearing the words made her feel more than a little sick to her stomach. She took another swallow of beer, but the lukewarm liquid only made the feeling worse.

Figuring she knew what had caused Shirlene’s sad expression, Jenna tried to ease her mind. “Don’t worry. I knew from the beginning that Beau isn’t the marrying
kind. We’re just having fun. In a few days, I’ll go back to New York, and Beau will go back to his playboy lifestyle.”

Shirlene rolled to her side and faced Jenna, the brim of her hat arching up like a bonnet. “And is that what you want to happen or is that what you think Beau wants?”

Jenna looked away. “It’s what is going to happen, Shirl. Beau’s not interested in anything long-term. He told me so himself.”

“And maybe there’s a reason he feels that way,” Shirlene said. “Maybe he just needs the right woman to come along to prove him wrong.” She reached out and took Jenna’s hand. “But she would have to be a strong woman, Jenna. Someone who can help him face all the demons in his past and some that still might lurk in his future.”

Jenna sat up. “What are you talking about, Shirl? What kind of demons does Beau have in his past?”

Shirlene ignored the question. “If you love him, tell him, Jenna. Your love just might bring Beau back—” She released a squeal as Billy’s arm snaked around her waist.

No more than a second later, Jenna was being lifted off her chaise lounge. She didn’t squeal. Her brother Dallas had done the same thing more times than she could count. So when Beau tried to toss her into the pool, she latched onto the waistband of his swimming trunks and pulled him right in after her.

Beau didn’t seem to mind. Once they were both underwater, he turned into an octopus with more hands than Jenna could fight off. By the time she resurfaced, she’d been thoroughly violated.