Her Texas Rebel

by LeAnne Bristow

  “No way. He can’t go with you now.” She rubbed her temples.

  “Yes. He can. He needs time alone just as much as you do.” Dad put his thumb under her chin and raised her face to look at him. “It’ll be all right.”

  A half hour later, Sabrina stood on the front porch and watched the big Ford bounce down the dusty road. Levi refused to come back into the house and tell her goodbye. The afternoon stretched before her and she’d never felt so alone.

  Then the phone rang.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  TONY HELD HIS breath waiting for Sabrina to answer the phone. What would her excuse be today? Did she really think she could avoid him by not answering her phone?

  “Hello.” Sabrina’s voice came over the line. She sounded...upset.

  “What’s wrong?”

  The phone was silent for a moment. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  His heart leaped. He hadn’t even had to beg. “See you then.”

  Abuela set a glass of iced tea on the coffee table in front of him. “Who will you see?”

  “Sabrina’s on her way over.” Tony wrinkled his brow. His grandmother hovered over him like he was going to collapse any minute. How was he going to have any privacy here? “Abuela, when she gets here, do you and Papa mind giving us some time alone?”

  Papa looked up from his reclining chair. “Why do you need to be alone?”

  What was he going to tell his grandparents? Would they be angry with Sabrina? Abuela’s Latin temper would surely flare, but it would ebb quickly. The joy of having another child to fuss over would outweigh any hard feelings she harbored toward Sabrina.

  And what about his anger? Would any excuse she gave him make up for losing out on ten years with his son? Keeping the truth from him hadn’t made things any easier on her. How had she survived in Houston? How did she support herself with no education and a small child to raise? What factors had led to Levi’s counseling? Most of the troubled kids he came across had one thing in common: no father. It made his blood boil to know that his own son was one of those statistics when he didn’t have to be.

  Rubbing his hands on his jeans, he sat next to Abuela on the sofa. “Sabrina and I have a lot to discuss. Last week, just before I went to the hospital, I found out that Levi is my son.”

  Papa turned the television off and Abuela set her needlepoint down. She moved to sit closer to him. “What are you talking about, mijo?”

  Where to begin? Just tell them. “Levi isn’t the son of a GI killed in Afghanistan. It was just a story she made up. I’m Levi’s father.”

  Abuela’s mouth fell open. Her fiery temper was on the verge of exploding. “Ten years. She is just telling you now?”

  A stream of rapid Spanish escaped from her lips. Tony tried to calm her down. “Abuela. Stop. She didn’t know she was pregnant until after I left town.”

  Papa nodded. “That explains why she left.”

  “It doesn’t explain why she didn’t tell him,” Abuela snapped. She turned to Tony. “She could’ve come to us. We would’ve helped her.”

  How could Tony explain something he didn’t understand himself? He wanted to defend Sabrina, but the same questions had crossed his mind. “I don’t want to waste time being angry with Sabrina. I’ve lost nine years already. I don’t want to lose more because we can’t get along.”

  Was it too late for him to build a relationship with his son? Levi wasn’t much older than Tony had been the first time he met his dad. He’d been thirteen when he finally found out where his father lived. The first time he’d run away from foster care it was to take a six-hour bus trip from Dallas to Houston. The tall blond-haired blue-eyed army sergeant had been less than thrilled to meet the son he’d never wanted. He’d greeted Tony with a bus pass home and a warning to never return. Tony had never forgotten that he wasn’t good enough for Steven Elliot. Levi would never feel that type of disappointment.

  “Oh, mijo! You’ll make a good father.” Within seconds she had her arms around him and was peppering his face with kisses.

  “Mama, you’ll hurt him.” Papa pulled her away from Tony. “He’s still very sore.”

  “Of course.” She dabbed tears from her eyes. “Lo siento. I’m just so happy. We have a great-grandson, Antonio. I never thought I’d see this day.”

  Tony pulled her close and hugged her again. “Don’t apologize, Abuela. And you didn’t hurt me.”

  Papa folded his newspaper and stood. “Elaina, it’s still early. Let’s go into town and eat dinner at The Eagle’s Nest. We can bring something back for Tony.”

  Tony could almost see the wheels spinning in Abuela’s head. The last thing she wanted to do was leave. He wasn’t sure if it was because she wanted to confront Sabrina or just eavesdrop on their conversation.

  Papa recognized her hesitation, as well. He took his wife’s arm. “Let’s go, Mama. Tony and Sabrina need some time alone. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it when we get home.”

  She let out a sigh. “Fine. I’ll get my purse.”

  Their truck had just disappeared down the road when Sabrina’s car pulled into the driveway. His pulse pounded. From the moment he first saw her at the grocery store, he knew her life hadn’t been easy. Faded clothes, worn-out shoes. Until now, it hadn’t dawned on him that Levi’s clothes and shoes were new, even if they weren’t name brand. How many things did she go without so she could provide for her son? He bit his lip. Their son.

  “Hi,” she said through the screen door. Her voice was shaky.

  He pushed the door open. “Where’s Levi?”

  The smell of honeysuckle and vanilla drifted in the air as she brushed past him. “My dad took him to an auction in Dublin.”

  Tony’s throat tightened. Robert had never liked him. How many of Sabrina’s lies had been concocted by Robert in an effort to keep Levi away from him? “I’m sure he’s upset that I discovered his little ruse.”

  Dang. He didn’t want to start off their conversation with sarcasm.

  Her face fell, but she threw her shoulders back and lifted her chin. “He had nothing to do with it. The fault is mine. No one else’s.”

  “He didn’t try to stop you, though, did he?” There he went again. He needed to get a grip.

  Sabrina crossed her arms in front of her. “Maybe I should leave and come back when you actually want to have a conversation.”

  Sabrina was one of those rare people who never seemed to get mad—unless she was pushed too far. Then it was best to stay out of her way. She was almost to that point. He held up his hands in surrender. “Let’s sit down. I’ll be good.”

  Her shoulders relaxed and she strolled over to the couch, avoiding his gaze. Finally, she stared up at him. Her dark brown eyes masked any emotion she was feeling. “Where do we go from here?”

  “How about backward?” Tony sat in Papa’s chair, across from Sabrina. For the last week he’d thought of dozens of questions. But he wasn’t sure where to start. So why not at the beginning? “Start from the day I left. I won’t interrupt. I just want to understand.”

  * * *

  SABRINA RUBBED THE back of her neck. The speech she’d practiced was forgotten. Did he really want to hear the whole story? She doubted she’d make it halfway, but at least he wasn’t barking at her.

  The harshness in his eyes softened and he leaned back in the chair.

  Sabrina took a cleansing breath. “I don’t remember a lot about the first week after you left. I didn’t do much. I didn’t even go to work at The Eagle’s Nest. One morning Dad dragged me out of bed and told me to quit wasting my time waiting for you to come back.”

  Amazing how the pain was just as sharp as it had been ten years ago. She twisted the ring on her finger. “All my friends were going to the river to celebrate graduation. I decided to go to work,
instead. The gossip mill was still having a field day with our relationship. One of the ladies from my church asked for a different waitress because she didn’t want to associate with a harlot.”

  Tony leaned forward, the muscles in his jaw tense. Whatever he wanted to say, he kept quiet.

  “All I wanted was to get through the summer and go to Texas State University. I already had my dorm room assignment and everything was ready to go.” She rolled her shoulders, trying to relieve the tension.

  “Three weeks after you left, I realized I was pregnant. I didn’t know what to do. Dad was already so embarrassed by what we’d done that he barely spoke to me. I knew when he found out, he’d storm to the hardware store demanding to know where you were.

  “You’d made it clear that you hated Salt Creek and wanted out. The last thing I wanted was for your grandparents to force you to come back.”

  Tony shook his head. “I wish you had. By that time, I was already regretting leaving. I was just too ashamed to come back on my own.”

  “Call it pride, but I didn’t want to use a baby to make you want me. I wanted... No. I needed you to want to be with me because you loved me. Not because you wanted to do the right thing.”

  Tony moved from the chair to sit next to her. The heat from his leg pressed into hers and she closed her eyes.

  “I drove to San Marcos to find out what my options were. I still wanted to go to school and use my scholarship. I told them I would only be attending part time. The admissions office informed me that one of the conditions of my scholarship was to be a full-time student. Since I was pregnant, I couldn’t do that.” She took a breath. “So they revoked my scholarship. I didn’t know what to do, so I called my Aunt Patty.”

  “Her husband had a stroke right after you graduated from high school, right?”

  Sabrina nodded. “I told my dad that I was going to put off school for a while and go help Aunt Patty. He was furious. He thought I was throwing school away because I was waiting for you.”

  She paused to stop her shaking hands. “I never told him I was pregnant. Uncle Troy was retired from Fort Sam Houston, and they had a lot of friends from the base. Michael used to come by the house every weekend to see if Patty needed anything. He felt sorry for me. He even told me that if you hadn’t gotten your head on straight by the time he got back from Afghanistan, he’d marry me himself.”

  Tony’s head jerked toward her. “You mean there really was a GI you were involved with?”

  “Involved isn’t the right word. We weren’t even friends, really. He was so much older than me, but I admired him. His wife had died from cancer and they’d never had children. I think he was lonely and he thought I needed rescuing.

  “It felt nice to have someone want to be with me. You can’t imagine how scared I was. Wondering how I was going to take care of a tiny baby all on my own. I felt like a bum who was sponging off Aunt Patty.”

  “Sounds involved to me. Were you going to marry him?”

  No more lies. Sabrina shrugged. “I told him I’d think about it. He wanted to get married before he went overseas. That way, if something happened to him, the baby would be taken care of.”

  She tried to decipher the look on Tony’s face, but it was unreadable. “But I couldn’t. I didn’t want my baby to have another man’s name. Maybe a part of my heart kept thinking you’d come back to me. Whatever it was, I couldn’t.

  “He wrote me every day. Then the letters stopped coming. I thought he’d finally come to his senses and it wasn’t until his unit returned stateside that I found out. One of his buddies came to find me and bring me his last letter.”

  Tears filled her eyes. What a fool she was. Crying over one man while begging for forgiveness from another. “I never loved him, but he was important to me. He gave me hope that someday I’d find my happy ending.”

  “He sounds like he was a great guy.”

  She nodded. “After Levi was born, Patty told my dad that I’d been seeing a soldier before he got deployed and that Levi was his son. She knew I didn’t want to risk letting anyone find out you were his father.”

  Tony stood and paced the living room. “That’s where you lose me. Was I such a horrible person that you didn’t want me around my own son?”

  “No.” How was she supposed to make him understand? This was ridiculous. “I was eighteen years old. I was alone, scared and you’d broken my heart. I knew you’d come running if you found out about the baby. But if you didn’t want me, then I didn’t want you. I went with Patty’s story because it saved me from admitting to people that I wasn’t good enough for you.”

  He jerked as if she’d burned him. His mouth dropped open. “Okay. I get why you didn’t tell me then. But what about now? What stopped you from telling me when you found out I was back in town?”

  “You’re not back in town.” She avoided looking at him. “You’re on medical leave from a job that almost got you killed. Could still get you killed.”

  “That’s why? Because you don’t like my job?” He stopped pacing to stand in front of her. His hazel eyes sparked with new anger.

  She stood up, forcing him to take a couple of steps backward. “Yes. I didn’t want Levi to get attached to you and then lose you.”

  “You’re lying.” His voice was low but strong.

  “About what? About wanting to protect my son from having his heart broken?” Her voice cracked and tears welled up in her eyes again. Stupid tears. A side effect of getting angry.

  “Tell me what you’re really afraid of.” He stepped closer, just inches separating their bodies.

  The scent of his shampoo mixed with his aftershave and did weird things to her senses. She looked him straight in the eye. “I told you.”

  “Tell me the truth.”

  She couldn’t think with him so close. His golden eyes bored into hers. The truth? She wasn’t ready to admit it to herself yet, much less him.

  He cupped her face in his hands. “What are you the most scared of?”

  She wanted to turn her head away but couldn’t. “Falling in love with you again. Losing you again. Coming in second to my own son.” She closed her eyes when she said the last sentence, her cheeks burned hot.

  Her eyes were still closed, so she didn’t see what was coming. Warm lips covered hers and he gathered her close to him. Her senses were assaulted by the taste of him.

  * * *

  TONY HADN’T MEANT to kiss her. But when he felt her pulse beneath his hand and saw the pain in her eyes, he couldn’t resist. The anger he’d felt all week began to ebb against her soft lips. For a split second she stiffened under his touch. Then she kissed him back and he sank his hands into her hair and deepened the kiss.

  Fireworks exploded and the world spun out of control. By the time he pulled away, neither one of them could breathe. He pressed his forehead against hers. “You’ve never been second to anyone. Ever.”

  For what seemed like an eternity, they stood staring at each other. Finally, Sabrina pulled back. “Does this mean you forgive me?”

  Did he? He’d meant what he said to his grandparents. Nine years was a long time to lose with his son. He wasn’t about to risk more because he and Sabrina couldn’t get along. Judging by the way his lips still tingled, getting along wasn’t going to be a problem.

  Taking her hand, he sat them both on the sofa. “We can’t change the past. Let’s figure out how to move forward.”

  She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “First, I just want you to know that I’m not expecting anything from you.”

  “Well, that’s good, because I’m expecting a lot from you.”

  Panic filled her eyes. Her muscles tensed and she pulled her hands from his. “Like what? Please, don’t try to take my son from me.”

  His brows creased. “I don’t want to make trouble for you, B
ree.” He leaned closer to her. “And I would never try to take our son away from you. But I do want time to get to know him.”

  “I understand that, but I don’t know if that’s what’s best for Levi.”

  “Having a father in his life is what’s best for Levi.”

  Her eyes widened. “Not one that won’t be there all the time. Have you been shot at before?”

  “Excuse me?” He wasn’t expecting that.

  “How many times?” Panic laced her voice.

  The muscles in his jaw twitched. What was she getting at?

  She stepped back from him. “You were lucky this time. What if it happens again?”

  “I don’t take unnecessary risks.”

  “But you have been shot at before.”

  He let out a slow sigh. “Only a couple of times.”

  She gasped. “And it may happen again. If something happens to you, I’m the one who’ll have to pick up the pieces.”

  Tony ran a hand through his curly hair. “Nothing is going to happen.”

  “Sabrina, I know I hurt you. Not one day has gone by that I haven’t regretted walking away from you. I can’t change what I did. But don’t punish me by keeping me away from my son.”

  Her hands reached up to grip his forearms. “I’m not trying to punish you. I just want to protect Levi.”

  Even in the fading light, Tony could see the tears in her eyes. “I would never hurt him.”

  She pushed his hands away. “Not intentionally. But your job puts you at a risk I’m not willing to take. It’ll break his heart.”

  Tony’s eyes narrowed. “If you think I’m going to walk away from him because you’re scared, you don’t know me at all.”

  “For the first time in his life, he feels like he belongs somewhere. Now his whole world is upside down. He needs some time to adjust.”

  He took her by her shoulders. “Are you telling me he already knows?” When had she told him? Did he think Tony had abandoned him all those years ago?

  She sniffed. “Today. He found a picture of us together and he figured it out.”