The Debra Dilemma (The Lone Stars Book 4) (27 page)

“My mother was a Frost.” She hated that her voice was small, but she cared what these women thought. She wanted them to like her for her and not for her money.

“Huh.” Grace crossed her arms. “Please tell me that ugly Frost Bank building downtown wasn’t your idea because it looks like a cross between a giant missile silo and a lotus flower.”

Debra’s shoulders relaxed.

“No…thank God. No one asked me.” Come to think of it, they probably should have, because she was pretty sure that she owned something like thirty percent of that bank. She was beginning to realize she’d relied on her business managers for too long. She really needed to take a more hands on approach. Starting with the New Year, she was going to ease her way into the family businesses, but she wasn’t giving up Safe Place because she loved it there. She swept her arms out in front of her. “Behold, my family’s legacy—ugly jewelry and an even uglier glass building.”

“I’m afraid that my family’s legacy is that god-awful marble fountain in front of my house.” Grace cringed. “The Texas School for the Blind wouldn’t take it, we tried to auction it off for charity, but no one would bid on it. I even offered it to this little town, Pep, Texas, population thirty-five, who are trying to keep their Catholic church alive by selling homemade sausage out of the church kitchen. I sent the priest some pictures and he said that he’d rather see the doors closed permanently than have that abomination out front.” Grace nodded. “I know how he feels.”

“Even Jesus doesn’t like that fountain,” Sweet Louise laughed, “that’s saying something.”

“In a fit of desperation, I called Austin Recycling and asked where I should drop it off for recycling. The man laughed for a good five minutes and then hung up on me.” Grace shrugged. “I’ve considered blowing it up, but explosives seem like a bad idea around children, plus, I’m pretty sure the explosives would have no effect. That fountain is bulletproof.”

“Okay, you win. That is worse than the Frost building.” Debra shouldn’t have been relieved that her friends wouldn’t judge her based on her bank account, but she was. Would she ever be able to allow herself to trust them completely, or would she always be on her guard waiting for the other shoe to drop?

“What are you going to do with all of this stuff?” Patty looked around like she couldn’t take it all in.

The best thing about these women was that they weren’t impressed by and didn’t care about the millions of dollars in diamonds sitting in front of them. They only cared about helping Debra. It was amazing to have people around her who only liked her for herself.

“I’m going to keep some, donate some to museums, and sell some for charity. Since Patty won’t take it and I’m assuming no one else wants it,” Debra looked around but no one would make eye contact, “I vote the baseball diamond goes in the sell for charity pile.”

“Okay,” Grace walked to the end of the table and pointed to the spot in front of the head-dining chair, “from this leaf to this end of the table is charity. From that leaf to the middle is museum, and the rest is the keep pile.”

“You’re very optimistic that we’re going to find enough keep stuff to commit half of the table to it.” Debra wasn’t so sure. Her family might have had money, but clearly some of its jewelry-buying members had been blind or just plain stupid.

“What can I say, I’m a ‘world is my oyster’ kind of girl.” Her eyes turned huge. “Oh look,” she nodded to the giant platinum and diamond oyster pin complete with giant pearl perched inside, “there’s my oyster and it seems to be the actual size of a Pacific oyster.”

“What’s this?” Summer picked up a black velvet ring tray with three rows and no less than fifteen engagement rings. “What? Someone couldn’t decide which ring so they bought the whole store?”

Debra smiled. She’d forgotten about those. “No, those are my great, great Aunt Henrietta’s engagement rings.”

“Damn, she must have loved getting married. That’s a lot of rings. What happened to her husbands?” Grace stood over Summer’s right shoulder and stared down at the rings.

“She never married, but she was asked quite a lot.” Debra had loved those rings. Those she would never part with. Her mother was forever taking them out and trying them on. She’d always let Debra play with them as often as she’d wanted.

“There are some really beautiful pieces here. A man with good taste in jewelry is hard to find.” Sweet Louise bent closer to get a better look at the rings. “Some of these rings are Art Nouveau and some are Art Deco.”

“And some are downright ugly.” Patty pointed to a pair of yellow gold intertwined dolphins holding up what had to be a four-carat round cut diamond with their snouts.

Summer nodded. “That is an unfortunate engagement ring choice. I’m so glad she didn’t marry dolphin man. What’s the difference between Art Nouveau and Art Deco?”

“Art Nouveau started in the late nineteenth century and is characterized by sinuous, organic pieces with erotic and morbid undertones while Art Deco started in the nineteen twenties and is exemplified by bold geometric patterns.” Laney walked into the room on the arm of a tall, sandy-haired man with eyes the color of sapphires. “Sorry, I’m late. Look who I found milling around in the hallway.”

Sweet Louise hugged the man. “Seth, come on over here and meet Patty and Debra.” She turned to Patty. “He couldn’t make it last night and neither could Laney.”

Laney held her hand out to Patty. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’ve heard so many good things about you.”

Patty took her hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you too. You’re future mother-in-law is very proud of you.” She nodded toward Sweet Louise.

“I’m pretty proud of her too, and her son’s not bad either.” Laney pulled up the chair next to Patty and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Laney. Nice to finally meet you. Devon has said nothing but good things about you.”

Patty shook her hand. “Nice to meet you too. Not to sound redundant, but he’s said lots of nice things about you too.”

Laney grinned and nodded to the table. “So, what are we doing with this table full of bling?”

“We’re sorting it out to keep, donate to museums, or give to charity.” Patty pointed to the pile of jewelry. “I’m pretty sure there’s enough diamonds on this table to wrap around the sun twice.”

“That’s interesting. I read somewhere that researchers actually melted a diamond with a YAG laser. It was by accident, but it’s still interesting because no one thought that diamonds could melt. Since a YAG laser is nowhere near as hot as the sun, I bet that rope of diamonds around the sun would melt.” Laney thought about it for a second. “I bet they’d re-form though.”

Patty looked a little confused. “Huh?”

“Don’t mind her. Laney likes to inundate us with facts,” Grace grinned, “that I’m fifty-percent sure she makes up.”

It was Laney’s turn to grin. “Maybe and then again, maybe not.”

Sweet Louise tugged Seth Charming by the arm over to Debra. “Meet Seth Charming, the newest member of the Lone Stars starting offensive line.”

Debra smiled and held her hand out. “Nice to meet you.”

Instead of shaking it, he brought it to his lips and kissed the back. “The pleasure is all mine.”

His accent was East Coast Blue Blood—something she was more likely to hear in Connecticut or Martha’s Vineyard or The Hamptons than Austin.

Sweet Louise smacked him on the back of the head. “She belongs to Warren so keep your charm in your pants or she’s liable to punch you in the neck.”

“You’re no fun.” Reluctantly, he dropped Debra’s hand and turned to Sweet Louise. “I can’t help if I’m drawn to the most beautiful woman in the room.”

He threw Patty a dazzling smile as he walked to her. He had a lot of really white teeth. He bowed gallantly. “It’s such an honor to meet you. I heard what you’ve been doing to help others. You’re wonderful.”

Patty blushed so hard it looked like all of the blood in her body was hanging out in her cheeks. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She nodded.

Seth pulled up the empty chair on the other side of Patty and her eyes turned huge.

Something about him was familiar to Debra, and it wasn’t that she knew him from hanging around Lone Stars Stadium. It was something else. The neurons in her brain found the right memory and things clicked.

“You’re Muffy and Skip Charming’s youngest boy.” She’d met him when he was a child. He was old East Coast money. What was he doing playing football? His kind raced yachts and gambled in Monte Carlo. While they may put the occasional gentleman’s wager on a football game, they most certainly did not play football.

“Yes, I believe your father and my mother were friends.” His accent reminded her of snotty boarding schools and polo ponies.

“You mean they were lovers. Yes, my father had many of those.” If she remembered correctly Muffy Charming hadn’t taken their breakup well. She’d had to go away for a while, which was rich people speak for rehab.

Debra’s father had spent a good deal of his adult life breaking her mother’s heart.

“So did my mother.” Seth bit out. Apparently he had about as much love for his mother as she did for her father. He put the charm away and held out his hand. “Bygones.”

Now here was the real Seth Charming. She shook his hand. “Absolutely.”

“What are you guys doing?” He glanced around the table. “That’s a really fine example of Art Deco.” He pointed to a ring with a huge round diamond inlaid into a background of triangle shaped sapphires.

“That’s my favorite. My mother told me that Aunt Henrietta really loved that ring and the man who gave it to her. He told her that he didn’t want an answer until he returned from the war, and he would hold onto the wedding ring portion for good luck.”

Summer put her hand over her heart. “That is so romantic. Why didn’t she marry him?”

“He never came home.” Debra could remember playing “wedding” with her dolls and she’d always used that ring in the ceremony. She’d always wondered what had happened to the wedding ring.

Grace put her hand over her heart. “It’s so sad, he died at war.”

“Which war?” Sweet Louise’s eyes misted over. “So sad.”

“I don’t remember. Henrietta’s beaus spanned two world wars, four continents and several oceans. Chicka got around.” The ring was so beautiful and exactly the one Debra would have picked out for herself. “He didn’t die in the war. He ran off with a French cancan dancer and then stepped on a rusty nail and died of tetanus.”

“That is the worst story that I’ve ever heard.” Seth picked up the ring and tried it on his ring finger. It slipped down all of the way. “Was Henrietta a substantial woman? Because she had enormous sausage fingers.” He held the ring up so that they could all see that it fit.

“More like you have teeny-weeney, itty-bitty baby-girl fingers.” Devon walked into the room and went right to Laney. He put his arm around her and she snuggled into him. Every time he saw her his eyes lit up. It was lovely to watch. “Based on the way you can’t hang onto the ball, I’d say you have those weird little T-Rex hands.”

“Be nice to our new team baby. Maybe if you’re nice to him he’ll catch the ball.” Warren walked into the room and his eyes did light up as soon as he saw Debra. Her heart pitter-patted in her chest. It was wonderful.

“What’s with all of this hate? Where’s the love?” Seth was all exaggerated sadness. “My feelings are hurt.”

“Oh my God.” Warren caught sight of all of the bling on the table. “That’s a crap load of diamonds.” He turned to Debra. “Is that all from the house safes?”

“No. This is the safety deposit boxes, too. My personal bankers had it delivered an hour or so ago.” She snuggled into him the way that Laney had to Devon.

“Damn, y’all, my woman has personal bankers.” Warren radiated pride. So the money thing was becoming easier for him.

“That’s nothing. I have a personal chef.” Laney pointed to Devon. “Speaking of which, I’m hungry. When’s dinner?”

“The chicken is almost ready, but the ribs and brisket need another forty-five minutes.” He kissed her lightly on the lips. “I smoked seven chickens because I knew you didn’t have lunch. And momma made your favorite potato salad and Grace brought okra and tomatoes and Summer brought three different kinds of brownies so you feel free to fill up.”

“I made lemonade.” Debra felt like she needed to point that out.

“I brought my appetite.” Laney held up her hand like she was hailing a cab.

Based on what she’d heard of Laney’s cooking, that was for the best. She might have rivaled Patty as the worst cook ever.

“I brought my hungry family.” Patty chimed in. “Sorry, I didn’t know I was supposed to bring anything.”

“Honey, please. We’ve got you covered. We brought enough food to feed an army.” Sweet Louise waved it off like it was nothing.

“Fix me a snack?” Laney smiled sweetly up at Devon. “Pretty please.”

He about tripped over himself nodding. “I’ll be right back.”

Laney rolled up her sleeves. “Let’s get this table full of bling sorted out, quickly because some of it is so bad that it’s making my eyes hurt.”

“Sweet Louise, are you sure I’m the only one you’ve taught your
How to Dominate Men
lessons to? Because it looks like Laney has it down.” Debra loved having strong, but loving female role models in her life. They really did make her better.

“Honey please, my future daughter didn’t need any help. All she has to do is walk into the room and my sweet son loses his mind. For a man who is known for his agility, he trips over the furniture. It’s hilarious.” Sweet Louise grinned. “So funny.”

Grace picked up one of the gold Rolexes on the table. “Does anyone know what time it is?” She shook the watch like that would make it work.

Warren flipped up his sleeve and checked his Patek Philippe. “It’s seven fifteen.”

Grace set the watch down. “CoCo should be here any minute. Her new boyfriend is dropping her off. She said they’d be here at seven fifteen.”

Devon checked his watch. “It is now seven sixteen. I think we need to have a little talk with his boy.” He turned to Debra. “Do you have any large caliber guns or hunting knives? I’d like to meet this kid at the door.”