Heart of Texas Vol. 3 (21 page)

“I think it might be best if I came back another time,” Louise said, mouth pursed in disapproval. She marched out of the store.

Dovie turned to glare at her husband. “You can bet that five minutes from now everyone in town is going to know my husband's a sex fiend.”

Frank grinned as though nothing would please him more.

“Have you no shame?” she asked but had a difficult time holding in a smile.

Her husband took one look at her and burst out laughing.

Dovie soon joined him.

He locked his arms around her and hugged her close. In all her life Dovie had never been loved like this. For twenty-six years she'd been married to Marvin Boyd; while she'd loved him she hadn't experienced this kind of happiness.

“I don't think you need to worry that Louise will return,” Frank assured her. “She isn't going to find something for Tammy Lee here—because, my beautiful wife, you don't sell Texas trash.”

“Frank, be kind.” Dovie's own opinions made her no less guilty, but she was unwilling to confess as much.

“Hey, I'm just being honest.”

Dovie went to the small kitchen off the Victorian Tea Room and reached for two mugs. “Do you have time for coffee?”

Frank nodded. “Actually, I have a reason for stopping by.”

“You mean other than seducing me in the middle of the day?”

His grin was full of roguish humor. “Wade McMillen phoned a little while ago.”

The pastor was a favorite of Dovie's, and Frank's, too. It'd been Wade who'd suggested a solution to their dilemma. As a lifelong bachelor, Frank had feared he was too set in his ways for marriage, but Dovie had found it impossible to continue their relationship without the emotional security and commitment of wedding vows.

Wade had come up with the idea of their getting married but maintaining separate households.

In the months since their wedding Frank had been gradually spending more and more of his evenings with her. In recent weeks the nights he slept at his own house had become few and far between. He'd lived exclusively with her for most of a month now and showed no signs of leaving, although the option was available to him. Once or twice a week, he'd stop off for his mail or an item of clothing, and he'd check on the house, but that was about it.

“Wade's helping an unwed mother who needs a place to live and I think we can help out.”

“Us?” Dovie asked. Frank was by nature generous, although few people realized it.

“I had an idea,” he said with a thoughtful look, watching her, “but I wanted to talk it over with you first.”

“Of course.”

Frank carried their coffee to one of the tables, and she followed with a small plate of freshly baked peanut-butter cookies. She noticed her husband's hesitation.

“Frank?”

“I did a background check on this woman. She's clean. I was able to talk to her landlord and her former employer. From everything they said, she's responsible, hardworking and decent. Her employer said her ex-boyfriend was a jerk. Apparently he hounded her day and night, insisting she get an abortion. From the sound of it, he made life so uncomfortable she quit her job and told everyone she was moving in with family.”

“Where's her family, then?”

Frank's gaze held Dovie's. “From what I could find out, she doesn't have anyone to speak of her. Her mother's a flake, her father's dead and apparently that's just about all there is.”

“The poor thing.”

“I was thinking…” Frank hesitated. “My house has been sitting empty the last month, and…well, it probably wouldn't hurt to have someone house-sit. I don't need the rent money, and it'd be a help to me, too.”

It took Dovie a moment to understand what he was telling her. “You want to move in permanently with me?”

“For all intents and purposes, I'm living with you now,” he said. “There's fewer and fewer of my things at the house. Some old clothes and my furniture. But I won't do it, Dovie, if you object, although I'd like to help Wade and this woman if I could.”

“Object?” She all but threw herself into his arms. “Frank, I'm positively delighted!”

“You are?”

She couldn't have hidden her happiness for anything. “I love having you live with me.”

“I'd like to keep my house.”

“Of course.”

“But if it's going to sit empty ninety percent of the time, it makes sense to have someone living there.”

“I couldn't agree with you more.” This was better than she'd hoped, better than she'd dreamed.

“Naturally, it's only on a trial basis.”

“You could move back to your own place anytime, Frank, you know that.”

“I wanted to talk to you about it first, but it does seem that letting this young lady stay at the house would help her
and
me. It's a win-win situation.”

“It does seem like that, doesn't it?” He sounded as though he'd thought this through but wanted her either to concur or talk him out of it. “Are you sure you're comfortable having a stranger live in your home?”

“Why not? Anything of value has long since gone to your place.”

“Our place,” she corrected softly. “My home is your home. You're my husband.” She said the word with pride and a heart full of love. For eleven years they'd dated and during that time he'd come to her back door. Twice a week, regular as taxes. As her husband, there was no need for him to worry about avoiding gossip, no need to conceal his love. No reason for her to pretend, either.

“And you're my wife.” He clasped her hand and squeezed gently.

“Do you want to call Wade now?”

“I think I will.” He scooped up a couple of peanut-butter cookies and headed toward her office in the back of the store.

Dovie took a cookie and relaxed in her chair. She had yet to meet this young woman of Wade's, but she liked her already. This unwed mother had helped Frank make a decision he might otherwise have delayed for months—if not years.

W
ADE HAD BEEN JOKING WHEN HE'D
told Amy Thornton he was a miracle worker. But it was clear from the moment he saw her that she was in serious distress. Her face was drawn and her large dark eyes were ringed with shadows. When he found her in the church, she'd looked embarrassed and apologetic. Before he could stop her, she'd grabbed her suitcase and clung to it like a lifeline.

Wade persuaded her to come into the office, where he introduced her to his secretary, Martha Kerns. While the women talked, he made several discreet phone calls from his study. He heard Martha suggest a cup of herbal tea, and a few minutes later her footsteps as she left the room. Interrupting his phone calls, Wade peeked out the door to see how Amy was doing. To his surprise, she was sound asleep, leaning to one side, head resting against her shoulder, eyes closed.

As unobtrusively as possible, he lifted her feet onto the sofa and she nestled against a pillow. He paused to study her. In the short walk from the church to the office, she'd told him she was twenty-five, a full eight years younger than he was. Never had eight years seemed so wide a gulf. She was pretty, with thick shoulder-length auburn hair, pulled back and clipped in place. Her skin was naturally pale and wonderfully smooth. Had he touched her cheek, he was certain she would have felt like satin.

Martha returned from the kitchen with two mugs and set them down on the corner of her desk. “She looks a little like an angel, doesn't she?”

Wade didn't answer, but not because he didn't agree. Amy did indeed look angelic. Removing his sweater from his closet, he covered the sleeping woman's shoulders.

While Amy continued to doze, he made a few more phone calls and finally managed to reach Frank Hennessey. Within the hour Frank called him back.

“I'm over at Dovie's,” the sheriff announced. “We think we've come up with a solution to the housing problem.”

“You know of someone willing to give her a place to live for a few months?” Wade's original thought had been to hook her up with one of the local ranchers as a cook or other part-time helper, but he'd soon realized that her pregnancy would restrict her activities. From there his thoughts moved to the idea of her working as a live-in nanny. In March Savannah Smith had delivered a beautiful baby girl, and Caroline Weston was due in three or four months. Weddings and babies. Wade had been witness to them all.

“Actually I was thinking she might be willing to house-sit for a while.”

“Excellent idea.” Wade wished he'd thought of that himself. “But who?”

Frank cleared his throat. “Uh, Dovie and I talked it over, and we were thinking maybe she could watch my place.”

It didn't take Wade long to understand the implications. “That's an excellent idea,” he said again.

“I did a background check on her,” Frank said. “Talked to her former employer, too. From everything he said, she's a good person who's been put in a difficult position.”

“I don't know what she can afford for rent.”

“I don't plan on charging her any,” the sheriff said. “She'd be doing me and Dovie a favor. Besides, she has other expenses to worry about.”

“That's very kind of you,” Wade said. So Frank had made inquiries concerning Amy. It was all Wade could do not to interrogate him. Sleeping Beauty was in his outer office, and he wanted to know more about her.
Much
more. She didn't fit the homeless helpless mode. He wondered why she'd decided to come here, where she had no friends or relatives, no prospects of work or accommodation.

“I have a line on a job for her,” Wade said, feeling downright proud of himself.

“Wonderful. Who?”

“Ellie Frasier,” he said, forgetting that the feed-store owner was a Patterson now. Glen and Ellie were married last September; he'd officiated at the ceremony himself.

“The feed store?” Frank didn't sound as if he approved of the idea.

“As a bookkeeper,” Wade told him. “I told Ellie up front that she's pregnant, but she didn't seem to mind. Ellie said she'd like to meet Amy first and interview her. She's been looking for someone to come in part-time and take up the slack. She could occasionally use help in the store, too.” Wade was beginning to feel like the miracle worker he'd confidently proclaimed himself to be. He grinned, thinking all his miracles should be this easy.

“Dovie and I would like to meet her, too.”

“Of course.” It stunned him that Frank would open his home to a stranger like this. Frank and Dovie knew next to nothing about Amy Thornton, other than what her former employer had said. Yet they felt comfortable enough to invite her to live in his house. Wade wasn't sure he would've been as generous or as trusting. However, Frank was a lawman—a sheriff who'd seen plenty of reason to distrust his fellow man—and if he trusted Amy, Wade could do no less.

They ended the conversation by arranging that Wade would bring her over to the shop in an hour or so.

Wade returned to the outer room. Amy stirred then and sat up, looking disoriented, as if she wasn't sure where she was. “Oh, my,” she whispered, pushing the hair away from her face. “I'm so sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me. I…I can't seem to get enough sleep.”

“Don't worry about it,” Wade said, and Martha added, “You need extra sleep right now.”

“There are some people I'd like you to meet,” Wade told her.

“I don't mean to cause you a lot of problems, Reverend McMillen,” she said as she handed him his sweater.

“You're not a problem, Amy. Besides, didn't I tell you miracles were my specialty?”

“Fortunately Mr. Miracle Worker here has a lot of helpers in the community,” Martha said with a smile.

Wade couldn't have agreed with her more. He led Amy out of the office and to the curb where he'd parked his Blazer. A soft breeze rustled the leaves of maples and oaks, the faint scent of roses and jasmine perfumed the air.

“I'm taking you to Dovie's place first,” Wade said, starting the engine. “Frank and Dovie wanted to meet you—and discuss an idea.”

“An idea?”

“I'll let them explain.”

The Hennesseys were waiting for them. He watched Amy's face when she walked into Dovie's antique store. She paused as if it was too much to assimilate. He'd felt much the same way when he'd first seen the sheer
number
of things in her store. He'd been impressed by Dovie's displays, though. They were so attractive he couldn't help feeling they belonged in a magazine. When she opened her Victorian Tea Room, it'd fast become the gathering place for women all around town. Dovie used only the finest linens, the best crystal and bone china from her stock. At first Wade had felt as awkward in her store as he would in a lingerie shop, but Dovie had quickly put him at ease.