Tex Times Ten (16 page)

And when it was over, for him, it would be over.

But she had pride. In her world, there hadn’t been happy endings. There were ladies at the salon who received callers who never materialized into permanent relationships, and there was a husband who lied, and siblings and in-laws who disappeared. These moments of pleasure with Tex were her happy ending.

She didn’t want him to feel that he couldn’t walk away from their short-term marriage. He didn’t have to protect her forever. “I can take care of myself,” she whispered against his chest.

But he heard her. “Of course you can. That’s what I like most about you. You’re not the kind of girl a guy has to worry about.”

He meant that, of course, to be complimentary. He just didn’t realize that she’d fallen in love with her cowboy.

It was the shrieks of joy that awakened Tex from a sound sleep. He shot to his feet, wondering if the children were back. Swiftly, he checked his jeans and his hair to make sure everything was back in place.

Cissy was going to wear him out—did the woman ever sleep?

Now she was running off the riverboat toward people he didn’t know. She flung herself into their arms, and they embraced her. Hawk and Jellyfish were bringing up the rear, and Tex went to meet them.

“How did you manage that?” he asked as he shook hands with Hawk and Jellyfish a safe distance away from the happy reunion. “You can’t get to South America and back in two days.”

Jellyfish slapped Hawk on the back. “Brother Miracle Worker knows everybody between here and the border. He had this great idea to stop at the military base and ask questions. Request assistance. Grovel for tips.”

“I didn’t grovel,” Hawk said with a grin. But it was clear he was proud of himself.

“So everything in America is locked up tighter
than a drum, right?” Jellyfish continues. “But not for him. It appears that he has some kind of special—”

“Let’s just get on with what happened,” Hawk interrupted. “No one wants the details. They were on the base, Tex. On the base.”

“Why didn’t they call if they were on American soil?”

“Because they were being debriefed. They were getting some medical care and being checked for dehydration and disease, stress, the usual drill. Apparently, they did try to call Cissy, but Marvella told them some sob story about how she’d deserted her and was shacked up with a bad man who threw old ladies into rivers.”

“Oh, yee-haw,” Tex said.

Jellyfish and Hawk laughed. “At that point,” Hawk continued, “they decided not to call Gran. They didn’t want to worry her since they knew she’d want to call Cissy with the good news. And they sure as hell didn’t want Marvella telling Gran what she’d told them.”

“Wise choice. The lady’s had her hands full.”

“We figured Cissy and her family would like riding back with you to Union Junction.”

He frowned. “Might as well, since I hadn’t planned that far ahead. I certainly had no idea you’d return so soon. But, yeah. I’ll take her family back home.” He didn’t say he’d take Cissy anywhere because he wasn’t sure where she’d want to go.

“So, I can’t accept this money.” Hawk handed over the cash that Cissy had given to Tex.

“Why don’t you give it to Cissy?”

“I have another job lined up,” Hawk said, giving Jellyfish a last slap on the back. “And I want to see my arroyo before I go. Keep it cool, Brother Jellyfish, Brother Tex. When next we meet.”

He took off walking to the road. Jellyfish and Tex looked at each other. “I’d offer him a ride, but he’d say no.”

“That’s right,” Jellyfish agreed. “Our Native American brother does not ask for favors, and he doesn’t say many goodbyes.”

“Probably a good thing for everyone to practice sometimes.”

“How’s my boat?”

Tex grinned. “I love your boat.”

“Dude. Buy my boat.”

The smile slipped off Tex’s face. “What would I do with that caravel of tourism?”

“I don’t know. Cissy loves it, though.”

“Yeah, well. Riverboats are not part of a cowboy’s life. Not permanently. Thanks, though.”

“Well, come on. You should meet your in-laws.”

“My in-laws!” He looked at Jellyfish, and Jellyfish looked at him strangely. “I mean, my in-laws,” Tex amended. “Of course I should meet my in-laws.”

But what he noticed was that Cissy hadn’t brought her brother and sisters over to meet him. She hadn’t even glanced his way. And suddenly, he knew why.

She was going back home. Without him.

“T
HANK YOU FOR BRINGING ME
home, Tex,” Cissy said as she walked Tex to his truck four hours later.
It had all happened so fast. She’d said goodbye to Jellyfish and thanked him for letting her hide out there. He’d offered her a job, and she said she’d be back soon, after she reunited her siblings with their children. Cissy wrote a check for the cash that Delilah had given her and mailed it back to Delilah, with grateful thanks for her help.

Tex loaded everyone into his truck, and it was nearly a silent ride to Gran’s. Her siblings and their spouses were tired and they slept in the back seat. She read magazines. Tex drove.

The children went ballistic when they saw their weary parents. Cissy had never been so grateful for any sight in her life. She cried, and then she cried again. All she could do was thank God over and over for this precious miracle. And the look in Gran’s eyes made everything worth it.

Tex leaned up against his truck, and every once in a while she saw him wipe his eyes. “Thank you,” she mouthed to him.

He nodded, and after the children had settled down a bit, she walked over to him. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? Can I offer you anything?”

“I’m going, actually.”

She looked into his eyes, seeing what she’d always known would be there. The Great Goodbye. “Is that what you want?”

“You need time with your family. I’d just be underfoot.”

“Not underfoot, exactly…”

He put his hand in her hair at the nape of her neck,
caressing her. “Babe, listen. I’m happy I got to see everybody reunited. You can’t imagine what witnessing a real family reunion means to me. But you’ve waited a long time for this, and you need to enjoy it. I don’t want to be in the way.”

She nodded. “It’s not that you’d be in the way, but I understand what you mean.”

“We’ll see each other again some day.”

Her gaze lowered for an instant. “Thanks for everything, Tex. You gave me back my family.”

“I’d best head on to mine. Tell everyone I said goodbye.”

“All right.”

He kissed her palm, waved, got in his truck and drove away.

And it was all she could do not to cry big, fat, slobbery, sentimental tears over the man. But she had a family to put back together, and he had a ranch, and life went on.

O
N THE RIDE HOME
, Tex thought a lot about what had happened between him and Cissy. On a scale of one to ten, he’d had to give their partnership a ten. They’d made a bargain, they’d kept their bargain, and when they achieved their goals, everybody had walked away happy.

He slipped his rope ring into his jeans pocket. Last was going to bug him to death, but he didn’t care any longer what his brother had to say. He and Cissy had the closest thing to a true marriage he’d ever be able to manage.

In fact, it had felt real.

Walking into the house, he found all his brothers sitting at the long plank table in the kitchen eating dinner. They stared at him as if they’d never expected to see him again. And then they glanced at one another.

“Hello to you, too,” he said, annoyed.

His brothers mumbled a hello.

“Where’s Cissy?” Last asked. “You by yourself?”

“Hawk and Jellyfish brought her family back. They’re going to take some time to re-bond,” Tex said easily. “I’d be underfoot, and I’ve got work to do here, anyway. So I figured I’d come back for a while.”

“You’re not wearing your wedding band,” Last observed. “Did you lose it in the river when we were horsing around with the kids?”

“No,” Tex said casually. “I’m fixing to go dig up my garden. I’ve decided to take Mimi’s advice and start fresh. Uprooting plants is going to be grimy work and it should take me a couple of weeks to get everything settled. I’ve got a bunch of plans, and I can’t wait to get started.” Tex felt good that he had all the answers. There was no need for his brothers to know more than the bare minimum.

“Um, sit down and eat with us,” Last said.

“Pass. I’ve got to do this. It’s really on my mind.” Leaving the room, he practically flexed his fingers. This was going to be a cleansing. His garden redux. It was time for him to put everything that was unproductive about his life behind him so that he could move forward.

He stopped in his tracks, seeing blooming flowers and small evergreen bushes where his stunted rosebushes had once struggled. Pink and white begonias, red geraniums. Little signs proclaiming future wildflowers that would bloom behind these more formal plants. His garden was cultured and planned with fresh plants and compost and even a collection of wire-on-stick dragonflies. Orderly and successful and beautiful. There was a redwood picnic table nearby, with cast-iron tiki torches set into the ground. “Holy cow,” he muttered. “I don’t believe it.”

His solitary Tex-only spot was gone. It was no longer his place.

“Tex,” Last said from behind him. “I was going to tell you we made some changes, man. But I didn’t expect you home tonight.”

Tex stood silently, too angry to speak and too lost to find words.

“I didn’t expect you here at
all,
” Last told him. “Married guys usually don’t return home after a couple of days.”

He’d heard it said that every man needed a “cave.” This small plot had been that, a place just for him.

Now it had been taken over by his brothers.

“Look, Tex, I get a funny feeling you’re more upset about this garden than anything else in your life.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, why are you not with your wife? That’s bullcrap about her needing time with her family and you having work to do here.”

“No, I really do have work to do.” Tex held his temper back with difficulty. “And my marriage is none of your business, Last. I know you’ve appointed yourself the family therapist, but you know what? I don’t need any help.”

“Gardening might be good for the soul, but it wasn’t doing anything for yours. Maybe you should face facts.”

“So you helped me by doing this?”

Last looked at him. “I was sick of looking at your scary sticker-land, to be honest. This is inviting. This says the Jefferson brothers aren’t totally Malfunction Junction.”

All the years that Last had been the baby, Tex and his brothers had looked out for him. They’d protected Last’s feelings and covered his ass. But little brother had grown too big for his britches. “Get the hell away from me if this is your idea of an apology.”

“I’m not apologizing!”

“I didn’t think so. So why are you in my face?”

“I’m just giving you an explanation, bro. I didn’t want you stomping all my hard work into the ground just because you couldn’t let go.”

“Let go?”

“That’s right. A man shall leave his home and cleave to his wife,” Last paraphrased from the Bible. “Nothing in the book of successful marriage suggests spending honeymoons apart.”

“You don’t know everything, Last,” Tex said, his fury boiling over. Grabbing his brother by the collar, he jerked Last’s shirt up over his head so that he couldn’t fight. Then he dragged Last over to the
newly painted gardening shed and powered him inside. Locking it, he walked away.

Last banged on the door and then opened the side window to yell out, “You can’t fool me, Tex! I know an empty garden when I see it!”

Maybe, Tex thought. But that was between him and Cissy.

“D
O YOU LOVE HIM
?” Gran asked Cissy after they’d helped put the overexcited children to bed. Cissy and Gran had spent the later part of the evening marveling at the miracle that had brought their family back together. After the children went to bed, Cissy and Gran had brought out the fragile painted teapot and the oatmeal raisin cookies, taking them to the wicker table on the enclosed patio. They sat together on the floral-print sofa, enjoying this quiet time together.

“I don’t know, Gran. Yes, I love Tex. But I know not to be in love with him. My heart isn’t listening to my good sense.”

Gran nodded. “He did do a lot for you.”

Cissy sipped her tea. “That was the nature of our agreement. There were things each of us needed. When all the requirements were met, the marriage agreement was over.”

“And yet couldn’t there have been the foundation of a real marriage?”

“I don’t hope for that. Tex is the kind of man who treasures his bachelorhood and his lifestyle. He is a nice man. I believe he would always do whatever he could to help me in any way, any time I asked him. But that’s not really love,” Cissy said. “It’s obli
gation. And chivalry. It’s what cowboys do. They work hard. They rescue. They take care of weaker things.”

Gran sighed. “Do you like this new blackberry tea?”

“I think I do. Where did you buy it?”

“I didn’t. Tex brought it to me.”

“He did?”

“Yes. When he slipped me money for the children before he took you to the riverboat.”

Cissy was so surprised she couldn’t speak for a moment. “I had no idea.”

“I imagine not. As you said, cowboys take care of weaker things.”

She shook her head. “I don’t like to be an obligation or a woman a man has to take care of.”

“It does go against the grain,” Gran agreed. “Especially for you. You’ve taken care of us for so long that I believe you’ve begun to think you can’t let anybody take care of you.”

“I feel like you do take care of me, though,” Cissy protested. “Having my family back together was all I ever dreamed of.”

“Still, I’d like to see you have something just for you. I wouldn’t mind seeing you give your marriage a real chance.”

“I learned a long time ago not to expect more than what I was given.” Cissy touched Gran’s hand. “Don’t worry for me. There was so much more than I ever expected with Tex that I can’t be sad. It’s over. I truly don’t expect to see him again.”

“Will you divorce, then?”

“I suppose. That was always the plan.”

“What will you do now?”

Cissy poured herself and Gran more tea. “Jellyfish offered me a job on his boat. He’ll be taking a new tour up the river in a week. I can stay here, or I can go on and work. It depends on how much you feel that you need help.”

“Truthfully, I feel that the kids will want to spend time with their parents and vice versa. Those kids are going to be in shock for a long time. Good shock, of course, because I know in their hearts they had stopped believing in a miracle.”

“I know they had,” Cissy said softly. “And it broke my heart.”

“You know, your folks would have come back if they could have, Cissy. They didn’t mean to leave you kids behind. Drunk drivers are every mother’s nightmare—”