Tex Times Ten (6 page)

Last shrugged again, his face wreathed with mirthful devilment.

Tex glared.

“I checked your roses yesterday,” Last said. “Such tight little buds. So afraid of coming out of their little satiny cocoons.”

“Damn it!” Tex leaped on his brother, tossing him to the ground. They went rolling and kicking and punching and cursing through the straw and
heaven knew what else as they tried to kill each other.

“Hell’s bell’s!” Navarro said as he walked in with Archer.

“Should we let them blow off some steam?” Archer asked. “Or do we get a bucket of cold water and separate them?”

On the floor, Tex and Last were locked in a titanic wrestling match for brotherly superiority.

“Lotta anger in there,” Navarro observed calmly. “I’ll set my watch for another two minutes.”

“However, Last is the baby,” Archer pointed out. “Mason would not like Tex beating up on the baby.”

“All right. Set for a minute, then.”

Cissy walked in and stood in the middle of the aisle, frozen by the sound of grunts and the image of immaturity on the floor. “What is happening?” she asked Navarro and Archer.

“Warm-up for bull-riding,” Navarro said with a grin. He tipped his hat. “I’m Navarro Jefferson.”

“I’m Archer Jefferson.”

“I’m Cissy Kisserton,” she said, and they both eagerly shook her hand. “Does Tex always warm up like that?”

“Oh, yes,” Archer assured her. “Gotta loosen up the joints, stretch the muscles. You know. It’s why Tex is so good at what he does. He insists upon this routine before every ride.”

Tex let out a particularly loud yell and a potent curse. Cissy gasped.

Navarro said, “Time,” and Archer called, “Oh, Tex, Cissy’s here with a basket of chocolate chip
cookies for you,” and Tex leaped to his feet as if he’d been shot out of a cannon.

Last rolled over and eyed Cissy, slowly getting to his feet. “Howdy, ma’am,” he said politely, his tone that which one uses for royalty. “I’m Last Jefferson. I do not believe we’ve met, but may I say that what I’ve heard about you pales when compared to meeting you face-to-face.”

“That’s so sweet,” Cissy said, charmed. “How kind of you.”

The three other Jefferson brothers groaned.

“Tex,” she said, “here’s some cookies I baked for you.”

He puffed up instantly. Let Last see that he was capable of intimate acquaintance with a woman! “My favorite. Thank you, sugar.”

And then he kissed her on the lips. Lightly. As if he did it all the time.

She glared at him.

He blinked at her fast, trying to signal an SOS.

“Tex Jefferson, if these were fortune cookies, they’d say ‘If you ever do that again, you won’t have a bright future,”’ she whispered. “Or any future. Or parts of your body left to ride with. Get the picture?”

“Hey, you save me, I save you.”

“When did we make that deal?” she demanded. “Isn’t there an expiration on implicit deal-making?”

“I don’t know! Work with me, okay?”

He took her silence as stiff acquiescence. “Now, you run along,” he told her. “A barn’s no place for a pretty girl like you.”

His three brothers groaned, and Cissy squashed his
toe with her shoe as she walked by. He saw stars but still managed to watch her walk out of the barn. Swish, sway, moving like magic. Fact was, he’d rather she stayed, but with these brothers of his around, he wouldn’t be able to relax, and then he’d make a huge mess of everything. He could feel them weighing his every move, assessing his manliness and aptitude with the ladies. It was all he could do to act normal, when he felt so many puzzling things about Cissy.

“Hey, smooth operator,” Navarro said, “share some of those cookies with us.”

Tex snatched the basket away. “No dice. Y’all are getting on my nerves. Especially you,” he said to Last. Last stared at him silently. His youngest brother had straw sticking out of his hair, and Tex figured he didn’t look much better. It was just his luck that Cissy would walk in when he was rolling around on the ground. “In fact, if y’all can’t be helpful, why don’t you get the hell out of here. I’m not liking you very much at the moment.”

Silently, they filed out. Tex set down the basket he’d been protecting and looked at Cissy’s handiwork.

It was the most thoughtful thing a woman had ever done for him, right up until she’d squashed his toe and threatened his manhood.

Which he richly deserved.

He didn’t act like himself around Cissy, and it was worse with his brothers around. There was no relaxation. His brain was on full buzz the instant he saw her, heard her, smelled her.

And yet, he couldn’t seem to do anything to rev down his senses.

Maybe Last was right, the little turd.

It was too horrible to contemplate.

And then he realized something. Cissy had known he was riding for Delilah tonight or she wouldn’t have brought the cookies. She hadn’t seemed surprised at all when his brothers talked about warming up. Stretching. What had Last said about Cissy being in big trouble if Tex won for Delilah’s salon?

He stared at the cookies, suddenly suspicious.

“Nah,” he said. “She wouldn’t dream of it!”

There were times to be prudent. There were times to kick back and enjoy the good things in life.

The scent of the cookies wafted to him, warm and inviting and the sweetest thing a woman had ever done for him.

Last’s face popped into his mind, chiding him, deriding him about the tight little rosebuds. Last would probably say this moment of paranoia was brought on by Fear of Intimacy.

Tex popped a cookie into his mouth, chewing happily, tasting love and happiness and the good feeling the work of a woman’s hands can bring. No fear of intimacy here; he’d consume every bit of her offering.

And he kept consuming until the basket was empty. “Now all the love’s in my tummy!” he told his pride. “And I feel…ill.”

After Cissy left the barn, she headed over to the Lonely Hearts Salon to speak to her benefactress, Delilah. Cissy’s conscience would not allow her to take the money without confessing what she’d done back in March.

It wasn’t going to be easy.

When she walked into the salon, the hush that fell was ominous. Sprayers quit spraying, gossip stopped, foils ceased being pulled for highlights. She was, after all, from the enemy camp and, therefore, the enemy. Delilah’s salon had been the first in town, and was legitimate. And her girls were honest.

Cissy refused to lower her gaze. “Could I speak to Delilah?” she asked the room at large.

“I’ll get her,” someone said.

Cissy waited uncomfortably until Delilah called to her from a hallway. “Come this way, Cissy. Join me and Jerry in the kitchen. I’m trying to whip up a fruit salad.”

Cissy gave a slight wave to the women in the salon and crossed into the part of the building that was used as a house for the stylists. Well separated from
the salon, it was quiet and cozy. Just like she’d always imagined it would be.

She would have liked working for Delilah.

“Hello, Cissy,” Jerry said.

“Can I offer you some tea?” Delilah asked.

Cissy shook her head, nervous. “No, thank you.”

“Take a seat,” Jerry told her.

“I better stand, I think.” Cissy looked into both of their kind faces and felt terrible. “I have something I want to tell you before I accept the donation.”

They looked at her, waiting patiently.

Cissy took a deep breath. “When Laredo rode your bull, I gave him a bad tip.”

They were silent.

“I told him Bloodthirsty Black went left out of the chute so he’d be unprepared and fall off.” She didn’t mention that the Jeffersons had figured her out before Laredo ever got into the chute. Her intentions were what mattered.

“Well,” Delilah said, “I’m glad you told me.”

“I had to.”

Delilah nodded. “I hope you’re able to send someone who can find out something about your family, Cissy.”

Cissy stared at her. “I feel that I should return your donation.”

“No. You’re far more honest than many people in this town. And you have a real need. You deserve it.”

Jerry nodded in agreement.

“Thank you,” Cissy said softly.

“Anyway, the Cissy you are now wouldn’t do
such a thing. The Cissy I see before me is a changed girl, one I’d be proud to have working for me when you finish your contract with Marvella.”

“I’m not changed. Not really,” Cissy said miserably. “There are some days when I feel so mean.”

“Trapped animals are mean. In that kind of situation, so are humans. Anyway, your sweet side is winning. And I think it has a lot to do with that cowboy.”

She could only be talking about one man. “Tex?”

Delilah shrugged with a smile.

Cissy shook her head. “Actually, I think I’d be making big headway into the sweeter side of my personality if he weren’t around. He seems to bring out conflicting emotions in me. I see him, and I want to smile. But then he opens his mouth, and I want to slap him. Or he does something, and I want to kill him. Truly, I don’t think he’s the good influence you think he is.”

Jerry and Delilah laughed.

“Isn’t love grand?” Delilah said to Jerry. They shared a conspiratorial wink.

“Love?” Cissy backed away from the table. “Um, I have to take one of Marvella’s guests around town for a quick tour. Thank you for letting me talk to you, Delilah. I guess we’ll see each other tonight.”

She left in a hurry. Love? No, love was not what she felt for that quixotic cowboy. Okay, so maybe at one time she might have confused herself on that point, but ever since he’d shown his true colors by saying he couldn’t handle her squadron of children, she’d known she would never love a man like him.

Conspirators, that’s what they were. She was in conspiracy, but she wasn’t in
love.

The way she felt about Tex, it was every conspirator for themselves.

“S
HE POISONED ME
!” Tex told Navarro, Last and Archer as they hovered around him in one of Delilah’s upstairs bedrooms. He lay in a bed, feeling real green around the gills.

He heard a sigh of impatience from his brothers.

“Oh, yeah, Cissy Kisserton is the kind of woman who would put a lot of thought into poisoning a man,” Archer said. “I sensed she was that kind of girl last month when we were on the road trip with Hannah and Ranger. Hell, Tex, practically the only thing she did on the whole ride was read those, you know, ladies’ mags with the recipes and columns to the lovelorn. She’s into cooking and womanly stuff, not poisoning freaky garden gnomes.”

Tex closed his eyes. “Laxatives. The chocolate kiss of death. She probably has her own special recipe.”

“Yeah, she’s got those black widow sensibilities,” Navarro said. “I bet she even calls that recipe her Love Potion for Sad Sacks.”

“No, Tex,” Last said impatiently. “You’re just once again thinking of a way out of intimacy with a woman. Every female knows that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Of course, that’s what their mothers tell them so they won’t realize the real way to our hearts. But I digress. So she baked for you. And you pay back her kindness by developing
a phantom gut ache. You know, Tex, you are so uncomfortable around women that it’s annoying!”

“Women!” Tex tried to sit up and then fell back with a groan, the cramping in his stomach too intense. “I’ve got a date with ten women in a few minutes!”

“Well, there you have it,” Navarro said with disgust. “Once again, you are right, little Jefferson therapist. I wish I’d put money on the fact that he’d figure a way out of going out with ten beautiful women. I’da made a fortune.”

“I didn’t do this on purpose!” Tex said, clutching his stomach. “She poisoned me so I wouldn’t win tonight.”

“How you gonna ride a bounty bull when you can’t stop moaning and groaning?” Archer demanded. “None of us are prepared to do this for you, I can tell you. We’re here to have a good time.”

“Well,” Last said philosophically as he glanced into the mirror. He checked his hair, tucking it behind his ears, and then borrowed some mouthwash from the medicine chest in the bathroom. “I, for one, do not intend to let down ten women, who are friends of ours, who helped us out during one of the worst floods ever to befall Union Junction. No, I don’t.”

“Me, neither,” Navarro said, copying his brother’s penchant for the mouthwash. “I’m positive they won’t be too disappointed to get three strong, whole Jeffersons instead of one puny one.”

Archer looked at him with shame. “You’re on your own, sickly one. We’ll see you later, bro.”

“Don’t worry,” Last said as they walked out the
door. “Once again, we don’t mind taking up your responsibilities.”

“Why?” Tex asked on a groan. “Why was I born into this family? Never again do I want a big family!”

When this was all over, he was going to become a hermit. Once he’d delivered Cissy from Marvella, as Hannah had pleaded with him to do—and did what he could to find out what happened to Cissy’s family—he was going to buy his own hundred acres and live there. Alone.

He’d had enough of family ties.

O
N THE WAY TO THE CAFETERIA
, the brothers ran into Cissy Kisserton. “Hey, Cissy,” they said.

“Hi,” she replied.

They smiled at her with sneaky enthusiasm. “Guess where Tex is?”

She looked at them. “Why should I care?”

“Because he’s rolling around in bed claiming you poisoned his cookies with laxatives,” Last said cheerfully. “He thinks you want him to lose tonight.”

Navarro grinned. “Or that you didn’t want him to go out with those ten rivals of yours. So we’re going to do it for him.”

“Yeah, it’s a total sacrifice on our parts,” Archer said. “He’s such a pig that he ate every one of those cookies, and then he wonders why he’s got a boiler-maker between his ribs. His loss, our gain.”

“What a dope,” Last said. “We sure hope you don’t feel compelled to feel guilty about this, Cissy.”

She backed up a step. “Well, not really. Where is he?”

“Upstairs in a room at Delilah’s. Feeling sorry for himself, mostly. If you go up the backstairs, you’ll find him in the third room on the right. You’ll know it by the sound of pain,” Last said cheerfully. “See ya tonight, and good luck to your salon’s bull.”

“We woulda said Tex would win tonight, but now we figure the handicap is in play,” Archer said. “All bets are off due to irregular circumstances.”

“I see.” Cissy flew up the stairs.

Last glanced at his two brothers. “Hey, did it seem like she was in a hurry?”

Archer stared after the beautiful woman. “Yeah, it did.”

“Almost as if she…cared about our pinheaded brother?” Last wondered.

“It did seem as if she was in a rush to get up there.” Navarro stared at his brothers, sharing their surprise.

“Then again, didn’t Tex mention that she took care of her nieces and nephews? Maybe he arouses her mothering spirit.”

“What else would she see in him?” Archer asked. “Tex doesn’t have the first clue about romancing a woman.”

C
ISSY HURRIED UP THE
backstairs and went to the door the Jefferson men had mentioned. She knocked on it. “Tex?”

“What?”

“It’s Cissy. Can I come in?”

“No.”

Either he really thought she’d poisoned him, or he was in pain. She doubted he had company, but it was probably best to clear that hurdle. “Are you alone?”

“Yes, and staying that way for the rest of my life!”

“Whatever,” she said under her breath. “Here goes nothing.” Opening the door, she poked her head in. The room was dim, and in the bed she could see a lump. Quietly, she shut the door. “Tex? Are you all right?”

“Funny you should ask. How did you get in here?” he demanded, rolling over to look at her.

“Same way you got into my room when you weren’t welcome. Can I get you something?”

“I think you’ve done enough.”

“I did not poison you.”

He turned to look at her again. “What makes you think I think that?”

“Your brothers told me.”

“Of course. Judases to the core.”

She sat on the bed next to him. “Can I get you some Tums or something? I’m sure Delilah’s got something I could ask her for.”

“I’m fine now. In fact, I’m starting to feel much better. ’Course, there for a while, it was touch and go.”

She smiled. “I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not. You’re happy to see me miserable.”

“Well, maybe just a little. It takes your attitude down a notch.”

He looked at her. “I ate every one of those damn cookies. Every single one.”

“And then you wonder why you got a stomachache, Einstein.”

“Actually, I’ve decided it was something else I ate that had been sitting in my truck too long.”

“With all the food at Mayfest, you snacked on something out of your truck?” She felt his forehead, which actually felt pretty good to her. Maybe because it was him.

“I was a little hungry. This was before you’d brought the cookies. Actually, it was before the raffle, even. It seems like hours ago.”

“Go to sleep,” she said. “You’ll need all your strength for the rodeo. I’ll get you some ginger ale. Later, you can apologize for spreading stupid rumors about my cooking. And use your good manners to thank me for wishing you good luck with the cookies. You know, I could have baked for Ant, since, technically, he’s my rider.”

“Do you believe that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach? My brothers say that’s what women think.”

“Well, my Gran always said that’s the way it works.”

“In that case, you were trying to kill me,” he said with a sigh. “You were trying to tell my stomach exactly how you felt about me, and my heart has heard the news.”

She rolled her eyes. “You did this to yourself. I’m going to get that ginger ale now.”

He closed his eyes and put a hand on her wrist. “No. Stay with me.”

She hesitated. “Um—”

“You’ve heard what babies men are when they’re sick.”

He didn’t look like a baby. He looked like a six-foot-four-inch hunk stretched out on the bed, staring at her with dark hair falling into those gorgeous eyes. This was a man who could make a baby any time he put his mind to it. Her pulse sped up uncomfortably.

“Or we could buck the trend,” he suggested, and she had the suspicion that he was ogling her a bit. “Let me baby you, baby.”

Her pulse kicked into crazy time. “I think that might stretch the boundaries of our conspiratorial relationship—”

“Cissy, shut up,” he said, pulling her into the bed and tucking her against him. “You have no sense of humor whatsoever. Now, let me get some rest.”

Her eyes went huge. He was warm all along the back of her, and there were places on him touching places on her, intimately.

“Hmm,” he said. “You make my stomach feel better. Like a hot water bottle. By the way, do you want me to lose?”

“No,” she said, and he said, “Good girl,” and then dropped a featherlight kiss on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes tightly. No. He had not kissed her. His chin had touched her, or his cheek, or his nose, but it was nothing more than that. Or he was really ill. That was it—a comfort kiss.

But it was clear his brothers were wrong about
Tex’s fear of intimacy. He wasn’t afraid of being close to her.

Tex might not be afraid, but
she
was afraid of being close to him. Stiffly, she lay in his arms. She thought about her marriage, which hadn’t been much of a marriage. And then she thought about her family. Nine little faces and Gran. Her three siblings, whom she was terrified she might never see again.

Tex breathed softly into her hair and muttered something that sounded like “poison.”

She unstiffened and made herself relax by thinking about the riverboat she’d been on last month with Hannah and Ranger and the riverboat captain, Jellyfish. Even though she’d been there only a short time before Marvella found her, she’d been happy. Something about that riverboat had made her feel relaxed and at peace, the same way she felt at Gran’s. Maybe it was the water. Maybe it was the sensation of gentle movement. But there was peace and beauty all around, surrounding her with calm. She could see why Hannah had married Ranger there. She wished she could have been at the wedding.