The Texan's Secret (4 page)

She’d trembled all the way home, listening for the sound of a siren. She’d thought she was home free, but he’d followed her. Damn. What should she do now?

“Shay, where in the hell are you?”

Darcy frowned. “The witch’s been calling for you.”

“Do not call Blanche a witch.” Shay’s nerves were about to snap. She couldn’t deal with Chance, her mother and Darcy all at the same time. At the moment he was the most pressing problem. Chance was glaring at her with those beautiful dark eyes, and she almost forgot she had to get rid of him.

“Mother, I’ll be there in a minute.”

“You finally dragged your ass home. That kid is making too much noise.”

Shay cringed that Chance was listening to this.

“I was at the shop,” she called back. “Just give me a few minutes, please.”

“I want a glass of iced tea.”

“Fine. I’ll fix it.”

Shay turned to her daughter. “Go outside and play with Petey, and we’ll talk later.”

Darcy jerked her thumb toward Chance. “He has Tiny.”

Shay wondered about that. What was he doing with Darcy’s dog? And how could she get Tiny back without causing a scene? Before she could form a plan, Chance placed Tiny on the concrete and he trotted to Darcy. She lifted the dog in her arms, hugging him as he whimpered, and then she and Petey ran outside.

Now Shay had to talk to Chance. She felt like running outside, too. But she steeled herself and faced him.
This is what you get,
she thought,
when you try to rob houses—a harsh dose of reality.

“You left in rather a hurry, didn’t you?” One eyebrow lifted beneath his Stetson. She ignored the hammering of her pulse.

“How did you get my address?”

“The constable looked up your license plate. High Cotton might be a small town, but we’re not idiots.”

She bit her lip. “What do you want?”

His eyes met hers in a direct, no-nonsense stare. “The truth, Shay
Dumont.
The honest-to-God truth.” He dragged out her name as if to remind her of her lie.

She tucked her hair behind her ears. “Okay, I lied. My real name is Shay Dumont.”

“Why?” His voice was as cool as ice water, and she trembled. But it didn’t keep her from noticing how good-looking he was. Tall and lean, with everything a girl could want in between. How she wished they had met before she’d pulled such a stupid stunt.

She swallowed and wasn’t sure what to say to him. The truth would hurt too many people. “Listen. I didn’t take anything from Southern Cross, so can we please let this drop?”

“No.”

She should have known that he didn’t plan to be lenient. He’d come for the truth and he wasn’t leaving without it.
The truth.
It was a can of worms that had been festering for over twenty years, and once opened, it would stink from Houston to High Cotton. How could she open that can? She had to stall, or maybe entice the handsome cowboy. She stopped herself from laughing out loud at the ridiculous thought. What did she know about enticing?

Chance shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Let me make this easy for you.” He could see she was thinking of dancing around the truth. He had to apply pressure. “If you don’t tell me why you were trying to rob the Calhouns, I’ll call the constable of High Cotton. He’ll notify the police here and they’ll arrest you for attempted robbery and take you back to High Cotton to face the charges.” He gave her a second to digest that. “Do you want to put Darcy through that?”

Shay paled. “You wouldn’t.”

“You know I would. I wouldn’t have come here otherwise.”

She winced. “I thought you were nice, but you’re not.”

“I’m the foreman of Southern Cross and responsible
for everything that happens while the Calhouns are away.”

“I didn’t take anything, okay?” Her voice grew angry.

“I don’t know that for sure. When I came in, you had the safe open and were rummaging through it. What were you after? And how did you get the combination?”

Her head jerked up. “You saw me leave, and could see that I didn’t take anything. How many times do I have to say that?”

“But you were after something. I just interrupted you.”

Shay gazed down at her sneakers and remained silent.

The shattered look on her face twisted his stomach and prompted him to add, “Shay, I mean you no harm, but I have to know why you tried to rob Southern Cross—a house in a small out-of-the-way town.”

She still remained silent.

“If you’re innocent, I’ll forget the whole thing.”

Her hands curled into fists. “But I’m not innocent.” The words came out low, but he heard them.

He felt a blow to his chest. For the first time he realized he wanted her to be innocent, or to have a very good explanation. In a short amount of time she’d awakened his heart. He’d thought it had stopped working long ago, but one look into her green eyes had started him thinking of happy endings and the fairy tales his mother used to read to him.

Shay looked him in the eye. “If I tell you the truth, will you promise I won’t be arrested? I can’t leave
Darcy. I’m all she has.” She sighed heavily. “And, yes, I should have thought of her before….”

“Why didn’t you?” When he saw the kid, he’d wondered why she’d take such a risk. There had to be a reason. “Where is the child’s father?”

“Darcy is my adopted daughter. Her parents are dead.” Shay heaved another sigh. “I did a very stupid thing because—”

“Shay!” a woman’s voice shouted, through a fit of coughing.

Shay glanced over her shoulder. “I really have to go.”

Chance placed his hand on the door to keep her from closing it. “Not until you tell me.”

They stared at each other, one unyielding, the other determined. Shay knew she was beaten and had no choice. She had to open that can and reveal secrets that should never be told, at least to her way of thinking. It was a little late to realize her foolishness, but she had to consider Darcy now. First, though, she had to have some assurance.

“Promise I won’t be arrested.”

“If you didn’t take anything, I’ll do all I can to get Judd to drop the whole thing.”

She frowned. “Why do you have to tell him?” She didn’t want anything to do with the Calhouns. Her momentary-insanity jaunt had made her realize she didn’t belong at Southern Cross. She should have kept that door closed, as always.

“Because he’s the owner of Southern Cross, and as his foreman I don’t keep things from him.”

“Do you have the word
loyalty
tattooed across your butt?” The question slipped out before she could stop it.

His lips twitched into a grin. “Yes.”

Shay realized the conversation had switched into flirtation. This could be easy.

She flipped back her hair. “Maybe you’ll show me one day.”

“Maybe,” he drawled, and then his voice became serious again. “But first you have something to tell me.”

Damn.
She should have known this wouldn’t be easy. He probably really
did
have
loyalty
tattooed on his butt.

“Well?” He waited.

She tried to speak, but her tongue seemed glued to the roof of her mouth.

“Shay.”

Her name sounded so wonderful on his lips. It reminded her of lovers, moonlight and… What was she thinking? There was never going to be anything between her and Chance Hardin, especially after she told him the truth, and for a number of other reasons.

The words hovered in her throat and then she blurted them out. “My mother was once married to Jack Calhoun.”

Chance felt as if he’d been kicked in the head by the meanest bronc in Texas. Had he heard her correctly? “Excuse me?”

“My mother, Blanche Dumont, was Jack’s second wife. He lavished her with jewels and anything she
wanted, but in the end he took everything from her, including her wedding rings.” Shay drew a long breath. “As I told you, my mother is dying of lung cancer and she’s obsessed with Jack Calhoun. He’s all she thinks about. She’s been pressing me for months about her rings. She wants to be buried with them on her finger, so she devised this plan…. That’s what I was doing in High Cotton.” Shay grimaced. “But things went awry.”

The name finally clicked. Blanche Dumont—the stepmother from hell. How many times had he heard Judd say that? But not lately. Since Judd and Cait had found happiness, Blanche’s name was no longer mentioned. Judd had filed that away under his father’s bad taste in women.

Chance barely remembered the details. He’d been just a kid, but everyone in High Cotton knew of Jack Calhoun’s love triangle with Renee and Blanche.

“How…how were you planning on getting in the house? You didn’t…”

“Have the wreck on purpose?” she finished for him. “I may have been under pressure, but I’m not that stupid. I didn’t plan on being gone overnight, either. I would never leave Darcy that long.”

Chance was glad to hear that, but he was still grappling with the truth. Could Shay be Judd’s half sister? How old was she? And how did you ask a woman that question?

“I was distracted with my phone,” she was saying. “I was going to introduce myself as Blanche’s daughter and ask for the rings, or demand them, as my mother wanted me to.”

“The asking part would have worked. The Calhouns are very nice people.”

“My mother didn’t have a good relationship with Renee, and I wasn’t sure.” Shay shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now. Once I met her I couldn’t do it. She was too kind. But…” Shay hesitated. “When I left you in the kitchen, I had a wild idea to check and see if the rings were still in the safe, as my mother had said. The moment I saw the jewelry in the velvet box I knew it would be robbery. Just because something once belonged to you doesn’t mean it still does. I couldn’t take the rings—not even for my mother.”

Chance’s eyes narrowed. “How did you get the combination?”

“From my mother. She got it out of Jack one night when he was drunk. I was surprised it still worked.”

“Nothing much ever happens in High Cotton. It would take a real crazy person to come onto a ranch that size with armed cowboys everywhere.”

She held up a hand. “That would be me.”

Her green eyes sparkled and he had to resist that lure. “Why didn’t Blanche ask for the rings after Jack’s death?”

“She would never belittle herself to Renee.”

“But she’d ask her daughter to steal?”

Shay stepped back, her hand on the door. “You got what you wanted, now, please leave.”

Silence stretched as they stared at one another. He had so many things to say, questions to ask, but all he could do was stare into her eyes and wish there was
such a thing as a happy ending instead of pain and heartache.

“I’m sorry if my coming here has hurt you and—”

“Just keep your promise,” she replied, and closed the door.

C
HANCE
’
S STEP WAS
a little slower as he walked to his truck.
Blanche Dumont.
He didn’t know that much about her, and what he’d heard wasn’t good. Rumor was that Blanche had enticed Jack away from Renee with lies. The two women used to be friends, waitresses together, but that all ended when Jack walked into their lives. They then became enemies fighting for the man’s attention. It was a weird love triangle, and now there was Shay. Blanche’s child—a daughter no one knew about.

As Chance reached his truck, he saw two kids inside—Darcy and Petey. Darcy was in the driver’s seat, pretending to turn the wheel.

Chance opened the door. “What are you two doing?”

His voice must have come out rough, because Darcy seemed to shrink away from him. But her stubborn chin told him she wasn’t afraid. “Driving your truck to see if it’s a piece of junk,” she retorted.

“You should have asked permission first.”

“Uh-oh, there’s Mom. We gotta go.” The girl crawled out of the truck, followed by her friend, and ran to Shay, who was standing at the backyard gate.

Chance and Shay’s eyes met for a brief second as he slid into his truck. He remembered a line from a movie: “You can’t handle the truth.” Maybe it was best if he
forgot the whole thing for his friends’, the Calhouns’, sake. The truth would be a blow to all of them.

But what about Shay?

T
HE TRIO WALKED INTO THE
house in silence. Darcy and Petey hurriedly sat at the kitchen table and buried their heads in their homework. Shay glanced at her watch.

“Petey, it’s time for you to go home. Your mom should be off by now. She only works until noon on Saturday. I’ll phone to make sure.”

Petey gathered his books and Shay placed the call. Sally was divorced, working two jobs to make a living. Petey was usually at their house unless his teenage sister or brother watched him. It was a sad situation, but Shay’s was no better. She sighed. Between Darcy and her mother she had no life. But she never regretted for a minute honoring Beth’s wishes concerning Darcy. Shay just wished she knew how to handle her and how to handle her mother. She wished for a lot of things, and at the top of the list was a dark-eyed cowboy who took her breath away. A cowboy she would never see again.

“Shay?”

“She’s calling again,” Darcy remarked, writing in a workbook.

“I can hear,” Shay replied. “Stay put and finish your homework.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the girl muttered.

“Shay!”

She ran to her mother’s room. Blanche sat up in bed, propped on pillows, with tubing in her nose hooked to an oxygen machine on the floor. Her blond hair was now white. Nettie used to bleach it, but Blanche couldn’t stand the fumes anymore. She’d been a beautiful woman with blond hair, green eyes and a svelte figure. A lot of people said Shay looked like her. Shay hoped that was all she’d inherited from her mother.

As hard as she had tried, she couldn’t get the cigarette smell out of the room. Her mother had been a chronic smoker.

“What took so long?” Blanche asked, through another fit of coughing.

“It wasn’t that long.” Shay fluffed up her pillows.

“You were busy with that kid. How…many…times…do I—”

“And how many times do I have to tell you Darcy is here for good? She’s been with me for four years and is legally my daughter. Why can’t you understand that?” Shay didn’t know why she even asked the question. Her mother was very jealous and resented the time Shay spent with Darcy.

“Who was at the front door earlier?”

“Just someone wanting directions,” Shay said, hoping to keep the Calhouns out of the conversation.

“Don’t lie to me,” Blanche snapped.

Shay resisted the urge to bite her nails. “Okay. It was Chance Hardin.”

Her mother sat up. “From the Southern Cross?”

“The one and only.”

“Why didn’t you invite him in?”

“He was here to have me arrested if I didn’t tell him why I was looking through the safe. That’s not someone I want to invite in.”

“But don’t you see he could be our way to get my rings?”

Our way?
“Excuse me?”

“If you fixed yourself up, you could look halfway decent.”

“Thank you,” Shay said through clenched teeth, while straightening the bed, that was littered with glamour magazines.

“Don’t you see a woman can make a man do anything she wants?”

“I must have missed that class in school.” But she’d certainly learned it from her mother. Maybe that’s why Shay was still single.

Blanche leaned back, her eyes narrowed. “You’re a pitiful excuse for a daughter and for a woman.”

“Yes, you’ve told me that before.”

“If I had been like you, I would never have gotten Jack. But I went after him with every trick in a woman’s arsenal and I got him…until he met that bitch again.”

Shay held up a hand. “I’m not listening to the Jack, Renee and Blanche story again. I’ve heard it a thousand times. And for the record, I’m not ever going back to Southern Cross. The past is the past and we both have to accept that.”

“Get out of my room, you no-good daughter!”
Blanche screeched, and dissolved into a bout of coughing.

Shay waited until she stopped, and then walked out. This type of environment wasn’t good for Darcy, but they had few options.

What a life.

“Shay,” her mother called, before she could make it to the kitchen. Shay sucked in a patient breath and went back.

“What?”

“Did you tell Mr. Hardin why you were there and who you are?”

Oh, God, her mom never listened or let up. “Yes.”

Blanche rubbed her hands in glee. “We should be hearing from the mighty Calhouns then.”

“If we hear from them, it will be to have me arrested.”

“Oh, silly, don’t you see we have them over a barrel? You’re Jack Calhoun’s daughter and we’re going to get what’s coming to us.”

“I didn’t tell him I was Jack’s daughter. Only that you were my mother.”

“Well, that was stupid.”

“Don’t you understand I broke into their safe? They could have me arrested.”

“You were so close. I don’t know why you didn’t just grab them. You’ve let me down once again.”

Shay shook her head and walked out again before she screamed. There was no talking to Blanche in this mood. There was no talking to her in any mood. When Blanche became so verbally abusive, Nettie had
suggested that Shay put her in a nursing home. But there was a bond between mothers and daughters, and no matter how bruised, battered or bent, the tie was still there. Shay couldn’t do it in the last stages of her mother’s life. That would be cruel.

Even though Blanche had been embittered by the divorce and Jack’s rejection, she’d lived life to the fullest. In her later years that bitterness had turned to hatred—not at Jack, but Renee. Blanche held Jack on a pedestal, and Shay didn’t understand that. She didn’t understand a lot of the past, because she looked at it through her mother’s rearview mirror. Most of it had been glossed over to Blanche’s benefit.

While at Southern Cross Shay could have told Renee several times who she was, but she hadn’t. Instead, she’d lied. Somehow she’d sensed that Renee would be hurt, and Shay couldn’t do it.

Over the years she’d often wondered why her mother had never told Jack or Renee about her. When she’d asked, Blanche had said that if Jack knew, he’d take Shay from her. He was supposedly that powerful. He’d once taken Judd from Renee, in fact. So Shay never broached the subject again. But there was a tiny worry in her head—why hadn’t Blanche told Renee after Jack’s death?

Soon the Calhouns would know about her. Shay was positive Chance would tell them. What would their next move be? Could Chance keep them from having her arrested? She really liked the cowboy. When he looked at her with those dark eyes, she felt as if she were floating
in warm chocolate. She’d never felt such a strong sexual attraction before and it was an exhilarating feeling.

Entice him?

Her mother would explode if she knew Shay had tried and it hadn’t worked. Chance would protect the Calhouns to the bitter end. His loyalty was with them. Not her.

W
HEN
C
HANCE GOT BACK
to the Southern Cross, he explained Shay’s situation to Walker. They agreed to wait for Judd’s decision. Chance didn’t tell Renee what he’d found out. He felt Judd needed to be there before he did.

On Monday Renee went in to Austin to shop, and Chance was glad. Judd and Cait should be home soon, and he’d tell them about Shay.

A part of him wanted to keep her secret, but the one he was already keeping was eating him up, and he wasn’t doing that any more. Not even for a woman he couldn’t stop thinking about. If she was Jack’s daughter, why hadn’t Blanche told Jack about her? A lot of the story didn’t make sense. But he knew one thing: he was caught smack-dab in the middle.

He saddled up and headed out to check the Brahman cows that were about to calf. They kept records on each cow and calf, and had to know when a calf hit the ground. The cows looked good, knee deep in early coastal, but there were no new births. They had a tendency to all give birth around the same time. Then it was rodeo time as the cowboys branded and tagged each calf.

Chance rode back to the barn and dismounted. “Felipe, rub Chief down for me.”

“Yes, sir.” Felipe led the horse away.

As Chance reached the office, Brenda Sue, Judd’s secretary, came out. “Do you know when Judd is coming back?” she asked. “I have all these messages and I don’t know what to tell people anymore. Looks like Judd could have left a date so I could tell people, but oh no, they just take off and—”

Chance held up a hand to stop her. If he didn’t, she’d ramble on. “I don’t know when he’s coming back. Just take the messages. Okay?”

“Okay,” she replied, and muttered “men” under her breath as she stomped off.

Removing his hat, Chance swiped a hand through his hair. He’d rather deal with an ornery bull than Brenda Sue. He heard the sound of a car and turned to see Cait’s Escalade roll into the garage. They were home.

Chance went into the office, but couldn’t concentrate. He wanted to give Judd and Cait time to settle in before he hit them with the news. After several minutes, he couldn’t wait any longer. He strolled toward the house.

Cait, with one-year-old Justin in her arms, hugged him at the back door and invited him in.

“How was the trip?” he asked.

“Wonderful,” she exclaimed, wiping Justin’s mouth. The toddler was eating a cookie, with crumbs and saliva running down his chin.

Renee walked in holding Eli, a replica of Judd. Justin looked more like his mother.

“Look, Chance, my babies are home.”

“I see.”

“Okay, boys,” Cait said. “Time for a nap.”

“I’ll put them down,” her mother-in-law offered, and gathered Justin into her other arm. As she did, Judd came into the kitchen.

“Hey, Chance,” he said in his booming voice. Judd was a big man with an even bigger presence. He was very much like his father, but Chance would never tell him that. Judd and Jack hadn’t had a good relationship.

Chance had had a good relationship with his own father until…

“Do you have a minute?” He couldn’t think about his parents. He had other things to handle.

“Sure. Let’s go to my study.”

Chance looked at Cait, who was nibbling on a cookie. “This concerns you, too.”

“Oh, I’m honored I get to attend the powwow.” Cait had black hair and the Belle blue eyes. She was a natural beauty, but Chance knew she could match any man in mental strength—even Judd.

“Don’t be funny.” Her husband slipped an arm around her waist. It was evident how much they loved each other. Chance hoped one day to find an everlasting love like that.

Cait kissed Judd’s cheek and they walked down the hall to his study. Judd sat at his big mahogany desk and Chance and Cait settled in the burgundy wingback chairs. There were family photos on the desk, along
with a sculpture of a magnificent horse. Pictures of prize Brahman bulls and thoroughbred horses hung on the walls.

“Is everything okay on the ranch?” Judd asked.

“Yes. Everything is running smoothly,” Chance replied.

“Well, what has you looking like an old hound dog that’s been beat a few times?”

Chance removed his hat and placed it on the arm of the chair. “There was an incident here at the ranch I thought you should know about.” He told them about the accident and Shay.

“Damn it! She had the combination to my safe?” Judd jumped up, pulled back the picture and opened the safe. He searched through it. “There doesn’t seem to be anything missing. What was she after?”

Chance took a breath. “The jewelry, or more precisely the wedding rings.”

Judd frowned. “What the hell are you talking about? What jewelry? What rings?”

Chance hesitated, hating to shatter Judd’s world.

“Come on, Chance. What are you dancing around, but not saying?”

“Shay wanted her mother’s wedding rings.”

Judd’s frown deepened. “Who’s her mother and what would her rings be doing here?”

Chance swallowed and said, “Blanche Dumont.”

“What?” the rancher visibly paled.

Chance rushed into speech to ease his friend’s confusion. “When Shay gave a false name and left in a hurry, I felt I should find out who she really was and
why she was rummaging through the safe. I found out more than I wanted. Blanche is dying of lung cancer and she wants to be buried with the rings your father gave her. She pressured Shay into coming here. Evidently your father gave Blanche the combination one time when he was drunk.”

“I knew I should have changed it, but no one ever knew it but Dad and me.” Judd reached into the safe and pulled out a black velvet box. Placing it on the desk, he said, “Dad told me her jewelry was in the safe, but he never said what to do with it.”

At Judd’s forlorn tone, Cait got up and went to his side. After rubbing his arm, she reached down and opened the box. Glistening jewels sparkled up at them.

Cait opened a small velvet box that rested among the other pieces. She gasped when she saw the diamond-studded wedding and engagement rings. “Wow, your dad was very generous.”

Judd sat down with a thud. “A thought just crossed my mind. I hope I’m wrong, but how old is this Shay?”

“Probably somewhere in her late twenties,” Chance replied. “I’m not sure, but Walker has a copy of her driver’s license. He’d know.”

Judd reached for his cell and pushed a button. He spoke to Walker and then hung up. “He’s on a call. As soon as he gets back to his office he’ll check.”

“You’re thinking she might be Jack’s daughter?” Cait asked.

“It’s a possibility, if she’s in her late twenties.” Judd drummed his fingers on the desk. “I don’t want Mom
to know anything about this until I can get it sorted out.”

“What don’t you want Mom to know?” Renee asked, appearing in the doorway.

Judd was immediately on his feet. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

“Don’t be silly. I’m not a child.” Before he could stop her, she walked into the room, her eyes on the jewelry.

“Are the boys asleep?” Cait asked, and Chance knew she was trying to distract her.

“What?” Renee was clearly distracted, but not by Cait. “Oh, yes, down like little angels.” Her eyes never left the jewelry. “Judd, I know you love Cait, but isn’t that a bit extravagant? Cait’s not much of a jewelry person.”

His sigh seemed to come from deep in his chest, as if he’d accepted the inevitable. He had to tell his mother the truth.