A South Texas Christmas

by Stella Bagwell

  Sighing, he said, “I don’t like the idea of lying and sneaking.” He added, “That’s not the way I work.”

  He was looking at her with a bit of disgust and Raine could feel his disapproval all the way to her bones. She told herself it shouldn’t matter how he viewed her, just as long as they discovered the truth. But as she studied Neil’s perfectly chiseled face, she realized his opinion of her mattered very much.

  “Believe me, Neil, I normally don’t go around…fibbing to people. It’s just that I understand how my mother’s mind works. If she has any suspicion that you were a lawyer, P.I., or anything like that, she’ll clam up tight.”

  He rubbed a thumb against his chin as he regarded her for long, silent moments. Raine could feel the sweep of his blue gaze and like an idiot she began to wonder what it might feel like if he were looking at her with adoration, as if she were the only woman in the world for him.

  Stop it! She silently scolded herself. You’re acting like a ninny. The man was here on the behalf of another client. He didn’t really care if her mother was Darla Carlton. He was simply doing a job. And the very last thing he would be doing was looking at Raine as any sort of love interest. Not when he could probably pick and choose any woman he wanted.

  As for Raine, she’d never been overrun with male pursuers. She’d been a shy, skinny teenager, all arms and knees and braces on her teeth. Esther had been a strict mother with very modest ideas. She’d insisted that her daughter dress down to avoid attention from boys her own age. Getting involved in that sort of relationship would only cause her trouble and misery, Esther had often preached to Raine. To say the least, her high-school years had been dull and lonely. She’d felt like a freak on the outside looking in.

  Raine had not been the sort to disobey or talk back. Esther was her only parent. Her only family. She’d never wanted to hurt her mother in any way, even when it meant that Raine was miserable herself. Her one defiant streak had been the short fling she’d had in college and its disastrous failure had only proved to Raine that she’d been so overprotected she didn’t know how to have a love affair.

  But that had been during her adolescent and ensuing teenage years. Now that she was a grown woman, things were different. She couldn’t dismiss her need to find her roots, in spite of her mother’s encouragement to let the past rest. After the fiasco she’d gone through with the private investigator and her mother’s fury, she’d tried to do a little discreet searching on her own, but she’d gotten nowhere. It wasn’t until last week, when she’d found Darla Carlton’s picture in the paper that she’d felt any sort of real hope again. Working with Neil Rankin might prove to be difficult under her mother’s eagle eye. But, if she ever wanted to find her father, it was a chance she was going to have to take.

  “Raine? Did you hear me? Do you want to go on with this or not?”

  Neil’s questions broke into her rambling thoughts, and as she looked at him, she nodded haltingly, then with enthusiasm. “I do. I really do. And it if means we have to cozy up to each other in front of Mother, then so be it. I’m a pretty good actress. I won a leading role in a college play. I think I can make her believe that we’re—in love.”

  The corners of his mouth turned downward. She made it sound like being close to him was going to be hard work. Neil wasn’t accustomed to that sort of reaction from a woman. Normally they were all more than eager to snuggle up against him. Obviously Raine was going to be a challenge, but Neil had to admit he was looking forward to the task.

  “You make it sound like this will be a role for the Oscar.”

  Picking up her coffee, she tried to appear casual, but her stomach was fluttering and if her fingers hadn’t been clutched around the cup, her hands would have been shaking.

  “Trust me, Neil, the roles will be difficult for both of us,” she told him. “Mother isn’t accustomed to me bringing home boyfriends.”

  Neil smiled inwardly at the idea of him being Raine’s boyfriend. He hadn’t been one of those since he’d taken Destiny Granger to the high-school prom.

  Reaching for his coffee, he asked in a teasing tone, “Why? Don’t you have any?”

  Her green eyes were solemn as she lifted them to his face and just for a moment, for a flash of time, the look on her face reminded Neil of his friend Linc Ketchum. Dear Linc, his longtime buddy, who’d watched his mother walk away and never come back. Could it be that Esther Crockett truly was his long lost mother and Raine his sister?

  No! Don’t even go there, Neil. It was much too early to be having such thoughts. And not for anything would he get Linc’s hopes up needlessly. No, if he believed something about Esther Crockett resembled Darla, he was going to keep the notion to himself until something more concrete came along.

  “I have dated,” she admitted. “But not very much. And only one guy on a regular basis. But that only lasted a few weeks.”

  Surprise crossed his face and she said, “I’ve been busy getting a college degree in accounting. I haven’t had time for men.” Plus she wasn’t ready to get her heart broken all over again, she thought dismally.

  “Hmm. You sound like you don’t want to make time, either. Does your mother know about your lack of social life?”

  A cynical laugh popped from Raine’s mouth. “Let’s put it this way. If I never married, Mother would be a happy woman.”

  Neil rolled his eyes upward toward the banana leaves shading their table. And if Claudia, his own mother, had never married she would have probably been happier. Certainly she wouldn’t have ruined his father’s life with her constant nagging for more, more, more. His mother’s quest for the material “good things” had turned Neil against money and women. The only way he wanted either of them was in small doses.

  “Then Esther obviously isn’t going to welcome me into her home,” he stated, then glanced at her with regret. “Raine, she’s obviously going to be suspicious of me. Or at the very least resent my presence in your life. Under those circumstances, I can’t see me getting the woman to open up about her past.”

  Raine suddenly forgot that she needed to keep her distance from the man. She reached across the scant space between them and grabbed onto his hand. “Neil, please,” she pleaded. “Don’t give up on this. On me. You’re here. And I have an intuition that something is going to happen. Something will turn up—some sort of information that will help us both.”

  She couldn’t have said it better, Neil thought. Something was going to happen. He was going to end up plunging into deep water with this woman and if he wasn’t very careful he just might not be able to swim to a safe shore.

  But her soft little hands wrapped tightly around his felt so vulnerable and the pleading light in her green eyes pierced him with a need to protect her and please her. Dear Lord, it wasn’t possible to fall for a woman in the length of time it took to drink a cup of coffee, was it?

  Hell, don’t worry about that, Neil argued with himself. He’d wanted the excuse to spend time with this beauty and now she’d handed it to him and more.

  Groaning inwardly, he said, “All right, Raine. We’ll give this a try. But the minute a war breaks out between you and your mother, I’m outta here. Got it?”

  Nodding, she smiled a slow, shy smile that melted his insides to a bunch of worthless goop.

  “Yes. I understand,” she said a little breathlessly.

  Neil could see renewed excitement building on her face and the sight made him almost forget he was fifteen years older than her.

  “So when do we start?” she asked.

  “What about tonight?” he suggested. “I’ve rented a car. I can follow you to the ranch. How far is it?”

  “About fifty miles. An hour and a half of driving will get you there. But it’s safer not to make the trip after dark. That’s when all the deer and wild hogs decide to cross the highway.”

  His brows met in the middle of his forehead. “Wild hogs?”

  Raine suddenly realized she was still holding on to his hand. The fact em
barrassed her and she ducked her head as she moved her hands away and pretended to snap her handbag closed.

  “Yes, wild hogs,” she replied. “You know. Like a big pig with tusks and tough bristles sticking up on their back.”

  “These hogs don’t belong to anybody?”

  Raine laughed. “Not hardly. The farmers and ranchers hate them because they eat the crops and forage that would normally go to cows and horses. People hunt wild hogs all the time. And they are good to eat.”

  “Then they’re not protected like our bear is in New Mexico,” he said the obvious.

  Raine shook her head, then dared to smile at him again. “No. But don’t feel too badly. They manage to keep their population high.”

  Chuckling at her implication, Neil motioned for the waitress to bring their check.

  Raine attempted to pay for her half of the small snack, but Neil refused her money. After he’d settled the account and tipped the waitress, he rose to his feet.

  “Are you leaving?” she asked with a bit of dismay.

  “Not without you.”

  He reached for her elbow to help her out of the chair and once again Raine felt the skin on her arm burning, her cheeks stinging with wild, unchecked heat. Even if she was accustomed to men touching her, Neil Rankin would still make her blood sizzle like raindrops on hot pavement.

  “I—where are we going?” she asked.

  Hearing the slight panic in her voice, he asked, “Raine, are you—frightened of me?”

  Her eyes darted up to his handsome face. “Why no. Of course I’m not afraid. Why would I be?”

  His expression turned grim as he guided her away from the café. “Probably because I’m a strange man that you’ve never met before. I could be an imposter. I could be a killer who lures women from their safe places.”

  “Stop it!” she spurted the words back at him while at the same time she jerked her elbow away from his cupped hand. “You’re not being a bit funny.”

  Neil’s brows arched. “I wasn’t trying to be.”

  She heaved out an unsettled breath that caused the material of her powder-blue dress to move against her small breasts. Neil felt the man in him perk up with far more interest than he should be feeling.

  “I know who you are. I’m the one who called your office. You’re a lawyer,” she said, then added, “Albeit, I’m not sure how good of one. And now that we’re on the subject, I’ve been wondering why you’re the one doing this search for Darla. Why didn’t your client hire a detective instead of a lawyer?”

  His glance down at her face was totally patronizing. “Because my client happens to be a very close friend. And I’m the only one he’s willing to trust with such a personal matter.”

  “Oh. Your client is a he?”

  Neil’s smile was a bit wicked. “Yes. Why? Were you going to be jealous if it had been a woman?”

  He was teasing of course, Raine thought. There was no way he could suspect the upheaval he was causing inside of her.

  “I don’t think we’ve known each other long enough for me to be—feeling that sort of emotion,” she said coolly.

  Neil chuckled as it dawned on him just how refreshing her prim attitude was after the willing, experienced women he’d known in the past.

  “Well, give it a few days,” he teased. “Maybe I can turn you a little green by then.”

  Her eyes flew to his face as he looped his arm with casual ease through hers. “Days?” she sputtered. “Aren’t you going back to New Mexico tomorrow?”

  Frowning, he urged her onto the paved walkway that edged the river. Boats of all shapes and sizes decorated with Christmas wreaths and blinking lights were floating by. Many of them were filled with tourists enjoying the warm sunshine and the sights of San Antonio.

  “Not hardly. I just arrived.”

  She balked in her tracks and he turned to look squarely down at her upturned face. She looked worried. No, Neil decided, she actually appeared frightened.

  “You mean this investigation—or whatever you want to call it—is going to take more than one meeting with my mother?” she asked with disbelief.

  Careful to keep his expression smooth, he urged her to continue walking forward. “The day is beautiful, Raine. Let’s walk and talk and get acquainted with each other. I don’t want to go into this evening blind. I need to know a little bit about my new lover.”

  The last two words were said with a purr that caused a shiver to race down Raine’s spine. Oh, this man was way too smooth for a country girl like her, Raine decided. She was going to have to watch every step she took, every word she said, and even then she wasn’t sure she would be safe from his charms.

  “We—we’re not going to pretend to be lovers!” she said in a voice pitched with fear. “That’s carrying things a bit too far, don’t you think?”

  With a soft chuckle, he patted the little hand resting on his forearm. “Not really. You’re an attractive young woman and I’m a man. Put the two together and something usually boils up.”

  Pursing her lips to a disapproving line, she stared straight ahead. “Maybe in some cases. But I have no intention of doing any boiling. In the kitchen or anywhere else,” she added for good measure.

  Her comment only produced a laugh from him and the sound was so light and contagious that Raine couldn’t help but tilt her head around to him and smile.

  “Okay,” she conceded. “What do we need to know about each other?”

  He shrugged with nonchalance, but deep inside Neil was shocked at how very interested he was in this woman’s life. She was different, very different from the women he’d known in the past. There was something sweetly naive about her. Yet on the other hand there was a sultriness to her green eyes that made him think she wasn’t all soft innocence. She was taking a big risk of ruining her relationship with her mother in order to go after what she wanted—a father. Obviously she was a woman who would hold on tight to her dreams. But was a father the only man she had in her dreams of the future? Neil wondered.

  “Oh, just the simple things,” he told her. “Like where you grew up. Your likes and dislikes, education, anything and everything. Remember, we’re supposed to be close.”

  Raine released a long, pent-up breath. “Close! Neil, I’ve never introduced a man to my mother before. She’s going to start getting ideas that we truly are serious. She’s going to question me all about you, then start warning me how dangerous you are.”

  Neil chuckled. “I’m a lawyer. I’m always dangerous,” he teased.

  She rolled her eyes. “And are you always this lighthearted? Aren’t you ever serious?”

  “Do you mean with women or my work?”

  “Women—uh, work. Both,” she finally added in a fluster.

  “I don’t get serious with women,” he said. “But I do with my work.”

  Slowly she digested his comment as they strolled along the river’s edge. It didn’t surprise her to hear this man admit to being a confirmed bachelor. Everything about him screamed that he was as free as an eagle. But Raine did wonder why he’d chosen the single life. She couldn’t believe it was simply for sinful pleasures. He was more complex than that. “So you’re not married?” she asked.

  “Never considered the idea. What about you?”

  Raine suddenly felt loneliness press heavily upon her shoulders. “No. I haven’t yet met a man who’s made me want to take that much of a step. And I’m not sure that I would know how to be a good wife.”

  His face was perplexed as he glanced down at her. “That’s an odd thing for a young woman like you to say,” he said.

  Raine focused her attention on one of the boats drifting lazily by them. The vessel was filled with a young couple and two children that were obviously their offspring. The little group was the perfect, happy family, she thought. They probably even lived in a two-story house in the suburbs or maybe a hacienda in the country. They had cats and dogs that had the run of the house and the yard, and were treated like family members, t
oo. This coming Christmas would be very special at their home. Lots of relatives would gather. There would be eating, dancing, joking and plenty of laughter.

  “Raine? Are you still with me?”

  She suddenly noticed a hand waving up and down in front of her face and with a burst of embarrassment she realized she’d been daydreaming about the very thing she’d always wanted.

  “Uh—I’m sorry. What were you saying?”

  “I was asking why you had doubts about being a wife.”

  She kept her gaze carefully away from him and on their surroundings. She didn’t want him to see just how lost and afraid she felt when it came to dealing with men and the idea of having a family.

  “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I…it’s always just been my mother and me. I don’t know what it’s like to have a man living in the house. I’ve never seen my mother be a wife. We’re creatures that live by example, and so far I haven’t been given any. I really don’t know much about the opposite sex.”

  He smiled gently down at her. “Well, don’t feel too badly. I’m much older than you and I don’t know much about what makes a woman tick. The only thing I’m sure about is that I wouldn’t want one hanging around the house all the time telling me what and what not to do.”

  Surprised by his callous remark, Raine brought her head back around to his. “That’s a terrible, chauvinistic remark.”

  He shrugged one shoulder again and for the first time since she’d met him, Raine watched a steely expression creep over his face.

  “It probably is terrible,” he agreed. “Connie, my secretary, is always telling me I’m jaded. But I saw what my father went through with my mother. No matter how much he gave to her, whether it was material things or himself, it was never enough. He worked himself to death to try to please her.”