West Texas Nights

by Sherryl Woods

  “No,” Val said with a sigh. Her job was too important to her to give it up because she had made a huge mistake falling in love with Slade. “I’ll make it work.”

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you’re having a rough time. I could get Harlan Patrick to beat Slade up for you.”

  Val grinned despite herself. “No, but thanks.”

  “The offer’s good anytime, if you change your mind.”

  “I won’t,” Val assured her. “Now what do you need me to do today? Should I start finalizing the media plan?”

  “That can wait,” Laurie said. “Nick’s supposed to send down the final schedule today or tomorrow. When we have it, you can start lining up interviews. We’ll do radio shows in every city, so they’ll push the tickets.”

  “Pushing tickets is not an issue,” Val said. “You’re already sold out in every city Nick has booked.”

  “Oh,” Laurie said, looking genuinely surprised.

  She still underestimated her own popularity. It was one of her charms, Val thought. She doubted Laurie would ever think of herself as the superstar she was. It wasn’t in her nature to get a swelled head or to pull any prima donna stunts.

  “I’ll do the interviews anyway,” she said, proving exactly what Val had been thinking. “I owe those guys for the airtime my songs get.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Val promised.

  “In the meantime, why don’t you go for a walk? Or drive over to Garden City and go shopping?” She gave Val a sly look. “A new pair of sexy heels might make you feel better.”

  Val stuck her foot out and stared at it despondently. “See? Boots. You’ve turned me into a cowgirl.”

  “I know. That’s why I suggested the heels. They might remind you of who you are.”

  Val wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but for lack of anything better to do, she nodded in agreement. “A shopping trip sounds good. Want to come?”

  Laurie shook her head. “I have everything I need.”

  “Not baby clothes,” she said. “Or wallpaper for the new nursery.”

  “The old nursery is just fine,” Laurie said, but she was clearly tempted. “Harlan Patrick pulled out all the stops when he built it.”

  “But that’s Amy Lynn’s room. You know you’re going to want something new for the baby. You’ll be on the road the final months of your pregnancy. You won’t have time to do this then.”

  “I could just leave it to my husband. He did okay last time.”

  “But you want a say in it,” Val teased. “You know you do.”

  Laurie held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay, let’s do it. I’ll get my charge cards and warn Harlan Patrick that I’m going on a spending spree.”

  “He’ll probably suggest we fly to Dallas and invade Neiman-Marcus,” Val said, more than a little intrigued by that idea herself.

  “Why not?” Laurie said, getting into the spirit of it. “I’ll tell him he can come along, if he’ll fly us over. Give me an hour to persuade him.”

  Val chuckled at her determined expression. “An hour, huh? You must be good.”

  “I am,” Laurie said with pride.

  In fact, it took her little more than a half hour to find her husband and talk him into playing hooky for the day to go shopping for baby things.

  “It’s a good thing Granddaddy doesn’t know where we’re going or he’d insist on coming along,” he said as they boarded his uncle’s company jet. “Nothing he likes better than stocking a new nursery.”

  A few minutes later, he glanced back from the cockpit. “You guys all set back there?”

  “Ready to go, Captain,” Laurie said. She glanced over at Val. “Are you okay with this? It’s not exactly a girls’ day out with Harlan Patrick along.”

  “Having your husband along is fine with me, but he is probably the only man I could tolerate right now. As a gender, I’ve pretty much concluded they’re dense as granite.”

  “As a gender?” Laurie teased. “Or just one particular man?”

  “Okay, Slade. There, I’ve said his name. I don’t want to hear it again for the rest of the day.” She thought about it for a second, then added fervently, “Maybe even for the rest of my life.”

  Beside her, Laurie chuckled.

  Val glared. “It is not a laughing matter.”

  “Oh, but it is,” Laurie said. “I seem to remember someone all but laughing her head off when Harlan Patrick was giving me fits. Turnabout’s fair play.”

  “Is this what I did to you?” Val asked.

  “Pretty much.”

  “How annoying.”

  “It was,” Laurie agreed. “But I forgave you, because I knew your heart was in the right place. Harlan Patrick and I belonged together.”

  “Yes, well, Slade and I don’t.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I do,” she said firmly. Maybe if she said it often enough, she’d finally start to believe it.

  Ten

  “So, how’d it go with Val last night?” Annie inquired when she caught up with Slade at midday.

  He scowled. “None of your business.”

  For most of the morning, he’d been dreading Annie’s return and the likelihood she’d be asking a question just like this one. He knew he’d gone about things all wrong, but he hadn’t anticipated Val’s violent reaction. After the way she’d chased him for months, after the way she’d taken Annie under her wing, he’d foolishly been convinced that she’d jump at the opportunity to marry him and become a mom to Annie. Her fiercely negative response just proved how little he knew about women.

  Annie’s expression fell at his blunt words. “Oh, no, Daddy. What did you do?”

  “Who says I did anything?” he asked defensively. “Shouldn’t you still be sound asleep at the slumber party or something?”

  “Nobody sleeps at a slumber party,” she pointed out. “That would ruin it.”

  Yet another example of the illogic of the female mind, he supposed. “Why don’t you go on up to the house and read?” he suggested, grasping at straws to get some peace and quiet and avoid his daughter’s judgmental gaze. “You got a whole armful of books from the library the other day.”

  “I was bored the other day. Now I’m not. I’ll read them later.” She faced him with a defiant tilt to her chin and her hands jammed into her pockets. “I thought maybe I could help you today.”

  He was in no mood to have her hanging around pestering him, asking more questions about Val that he didn’t want to answer. Besides that, he couldn’t imagine what a ten-year-old girl could do to help. She knew nothing about ranch work and next to nothing about horses. She was so skinny, she looked as if a stiff wind could blow her away.

  “Not today,” he said in a clipped tone. “Aren’t some of the other kids around here someplace?”

  He could read the hurt in her expression, but she squared her shoulders as if the dismissal didn’t bother her in the least. He could practically see the pride kicking in.

  “Never mind,” she said stiffly. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll find something to do.”

  He watched her walk away, saw her shoulders slump dejectedly, and felt like kicking himself. What kind of rotten louse took out his frustrations on a little girl who was only trying to help? For an instant he was tempted to call her back, but it didn’t take much to convince himself that she was better off finding one of the Adams kids to play with. Sticking around him in his present mood sure wouldn’t be a lot of laughs. He was sick of his own company.

  An hour later he was putting Black Knight through his paces when Hardy Jones came down to the paddock and propped his elbows on the rail. He watched the workout for a minute, then said, “As soon as you can take a break with that, I think you’d better come with me.”

  The usually jovial hand’s grim to
ne set off alarms. “What’s happened?” Slade demanded. “Is it Annie? Is she hurt? Or Val? Has something happened to Val?”

  “No, no, they’re both fine,” Hardy said soothingly. “Sorry. I should have said that straight out. But there is a problem and it does involve Annie.”

  Only then did Slade notice the spark of amusement in the younger man’s eyes that he was struggling unsuccessfully to hide. It was a look that went with mischief, not calamity.

  “Oh, no,” Slade muttered. “I’m really going to hate this, aren’t I?”

  “More than likely,” Hardy agreed cheerfully. “Just remember, it’s not the end of the world. From what I’ve heard since I started working here, there have been worse stunts over the years. Our boss and Justin were behind a few of them. Harlan Patrick survived to take charge, and Justin turned into a straight-arrow. I’m sure Annie will outlive this as well.”

  Being reminded of Harlan Patrick’s and Justin’s legendary exploits was not at all reassuring. “Maybe you’d better just tell me. That way I’ll be prepared for the shock.”

  “Not a chance,” Hardy said. “Why should I ruin the opportunity to see your face when you find out what Annie’s been up to.”

  Slade scowled. “You are a diabolical man. One of these days one of those ladies you like to flirt with is going to snag you, but good. Personally, I can’t wait to see it.”

  The notorious womanizer merely grinned. “Never happen,” he said with the total confidence of a man destined to take a serious fall.

  A tight knot formed in Slade’s belly as they headed up the road toward his house. What the devil had Annie done? Had she burned the place down? He sniffed the air, fully expecting to smell smoke. To his relief, none was discernible.

  As they rounded a curve in the road and his house appeared, his mouth gaped.

  “What the dickens has she done?” he murmured, staring at the fresh coat of bright pink paint that decorated the lower half of the house and most of Annie. She was sitting on the front steps, arms folded protectively across her middle, a stubborn jut to her chin.

  “Quite a picture, isn’t it?” Hardy inquired, laughter lacing his voice.

  “Where in God’s name did she find paint that color?”

  “Mixed it herself, from what I hear. There was a can of white paint and a can of red in the storage shed. I give her credit for ingenuity. Of course, it was indoor paint, but she didn’t know the difference.”

  “I’ll call Harlan and Cody right away, make sure they know not to worry,” Slade said, his expression grim. “I’ll have the house painted white again by tomorrow.”

  “I’m not worried,” Harlan assured him, picking that precise moment to pay a call. Obviously the news of Annie’s adventure had traveled fast. His eyes glittered with amusement. “You should have seen the multihued shed Jenny created in an act of pure rebellion years back. This is downright sedate by comparison.”

  “I don’t suppose you related that story to Annie,” Slade said, beginning to understand where Annie might have gotten the idea to do something so outrageous.

  “I suppose it could have come up,” Harlan admitted without the slightest hint of guilt. “I enjoy telling tales about my family.”

  Slade got the distinct impression he found the stories highly entertaining in retrospect. Slade wondered if the rancher had taken them in the same spirit when they happened. Probably so. That was the kind of man Harlan Adams was—tolerant to a fault.

  “Are you sure you don’t pass along these stories just to put ideas into the heads of your great-grandchildren?” he asked the old man. “Is that your way of getting even for what your children and grandchildren did years ago?”

  “It might have crossed my mind that they deserved a little payback for past misdeeds,” he admitted unrepentantly.

  “I can’t decide which of you to strangle first,” Slade muttered. “Though I suppose you’re pretty much off-limits.”

  “Pretty much,” Harlan agreed. “And my sympathy is with Annie. After all, the girl was just indulging in a little self-expression. In fact, if she hadn’t run out of paint, I might have helped her finish the job.”

  “Thank goodness for small favors,” Slade said fervently. He glanced at Hardy, who was observing the exchange with evident fascination. “Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I’ll take it from here.”

  Still grinning, Hardy took off for the bunkhouse. Harlan seemed less inclined to go.

  “Don’t you be too hard on the girl,” he warned.

  “Believe me, she’ll get no more than she deserves,” Slade said tersely.

  After Harlan had gone, Slade strode up to the porch and scowled down at his daughter. “Mind explaining what the hell you were thinking of?” he all but shouted.

  Annie’s eyes blinked wide. “Daddy, you cussed.”

  “This isn’t about my language,” he said. “It’s about this.” He waved his hand in a gesture that encompassed the half-painted house. “Why, Annie?”

  Her eyes blazed with self-righteous anger. “Because I needed something to do and I thought it would look pretty.”

  “I thought you hated pink,” he said, as bemused by the color choice as by the painting itself.

  “It’s a girl color,” she said, as if that explained it.

  Slade was mystified. “So?”

  “I’ve tried and tried to do stuff you like,” she said with evident frustration. “But you won’t let me, so I figured maybe if I did girl stuff, you’d like me better.”

  She sounded so utterly sincere, so lost and lonely, that it came close to breaking his heart.

  “Oh, Annie,” Slade whispered, and sank down on the step beside her. When he opened his arms, she scrambled into them.

  “I’m sorry, Daddy,” she whispered. “I thought it would be pretty, but it’s not.” Her voice caught on a sob. “It’s awful. And then Hardy came along and saw it and he started laughing.”

  Slade was surprised to find that he was chuckling himself. “I imagine he did.”

  She pulled away. “You’re laughing, too. Does that mean you’re not mad at me?”

  “Oh, yes, I am mad at you,” he corrected. “But as someone pointed out to me very recently, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll buy some white paint and fix it up in our spare time.”

  “You’ll help?” she asked. “Even though I’m the one who made the mess?”

  “I’ll help. But you’re going to do your share, young lady. And you’re going to be grounded for a week. You will not leave the house while I’m at work. That’ll give you a chance to do some thinking.”

  “Can I watch TV?”

  Slade thought of the soap operas and talk shows that made up a huge percentage of daytime TV. “Nope. You can read those library books.” He caught a hint of something in her face and realized she was already reaching the same conclusion that he was—that no one would be around to see to it that she abided by the rules.

  “Forget it,” he said.

  “Forget what?” she asked innocently.

  “You can’t sneak behind my back. I’ll know.”

  “How?”

  “Fatherly instinct.”

  “Do you really have that?” Annie asked skeptically.

  Her response was more on target than Slade would have liked. “Okay, I’ll get someone to stay here with you. That’s how I’ll know.”

  “Who?” she scoffed. “I’m too big for a baby-sitter.”

  He thought of Val and wondered if she was too furious with him to be called on in an emergency.

  Annie’s eyes glinted knowingly. “What about Val?”

  “We’ll see,” he said.

  “I could go over to Laurie’s, so I wouldn’t be any trouble,” she suggested.

  Slade shook his head. “No way. That would be too much like a treat. This is suppose
d to be punishment. Don’t worry about it. I’ll work it out.”

  “Okay, Daddy,” she said meekly.

  A little too meekly, Slade thought, casting a suspicious look at his daughter. Was it possible that this was exactly the outcome she’d been counting on? Was she that determined to see that something happened between him and Val? More than likely, he realized. Caught between two clever, sneaky females, a man didn’t stand a chance.

  * * *

  After he’d finished work for the day, showered and changed, Slade turned up at Val’s, hat in hand, at least figuratively speaking. Her greeting couldn’t exactly be described as warm.

  “Yes?” she said, not even stepping aside to let him in. She acted as if he were a peddler coming to sell vacuums.

  “Could we talk for a minute?” he asked. Seeing Harlan Patrick and Laurie in the background, their expressions fascinated, he added, “Outside?”

  “We’re having dinner.”

  “I’ll wait.”

  “I don’t think so. I’m tired. I’ve been shopping in Dallas all day with Laurie.”

  “It won’t take long.”

  Val sighed heavily. “Fine. Let’s get it over with.” She stepped outside and closed the door firmly behind her.

  “This won’t take a minute,” Slade promised again, fighting the desire to sweep her into his arms and kiss her until that stern, unapproachable set to her lips disappeared.

  “Maybe you should sit down,” he suggested.

  “You said it wouldn’t take long.”

  Oh, she was still furious with him, all right. She had no intention of making this easy. And why should she? He’d insulted her. That was plain enough. He began to pace, trying to find the words to convince her to help him out of the jam in which he’d found himself.

  “Okay, it’s about Annie,” he said finally. “I know I have no right to ask this, but I need someone to stay with her for a few days.”

  “Oh?”

  “I suppose you heard what she did?”

  Her expression softened and something that might have been the beginnings of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Oh, yes. It was the first thing we saw when we got back from our trip. It certainly is a cheerful color. It doesn’t suit you at all.”