West Texas Match (The West Texans Series #1)

by Ginger Chambers

  He tried to capture her lips with his, but Shannon turned her face away.

  “What about Jodie?” she challenged.

  “Jodie’s a sweet little girl.”

  “Who thinks she loves you!”

  “Now, can I help it if I have such animal magnetism that women can’t resist me, including sweet little girls?”

  “She thinks you love her, too.”

  “An’ I do.”

  Shannon twisted, trying to break his grip. “You’re not acting like it right now!”

  “Just ’cause I love her don’t mean I can’t love you, too. Come on, just one little kiss. It ain’t gonna hurt you none.”

  His head dipped again, his mouth striving to find hers, sliding over her cheeks as she strained to avoid him.

  Then suddenly she was free. A force had broken the two of them apart, causing her to fall back against the wall. When she looked up, she saw Rafe standing over Rio, who he’d knocked to the floor.

  “That does it!” Rafe exploded. “Pack up your things, cowboy, and get the hell off this ranch! You’ve got fifteen minutes.”

  Rio scuttled to his feet. “I didn’t hurt her none. She was just playin’ hard to get!”

  “Fourteen,” Rafe ground out, counting down.

  Rio looked from Rafe to Shannon and back again. “You ain’t gonna fire me, are you, Rafe? You don’t mean it, do you? All on account of a woman?”

  “Two women,” Rafe corrected him. “And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t try to talk to Jodie again.”

  “She ain’t gonna like it that I’m gone,” Rio warned.

  “She’ll survive.” Rafe grabbed the young cowboy by the back of his belt and the scruff of his collar and lifted him off the floor. Then he marched with him to the door and tossed him onto the dirt beyond the narrow porch. Rio hit hard, but rolled to his feet. “Now get going,” Rafe ordered.

  Rio started to say something, thought better of it, turned tail and stumbled toward the bunkhouse.

  When Rafe reentered the room, his eyes moved over her. “You all right?” he asked stiffly. She could see that he was still exerting tremendous control.

  She nodded, momentarily unable to speak. Rafe began to pace the floor. After watching him a moment, she found her voice. “He’s right about Jodie. She’s going to be upset that’s he’s gone.”

  Rafe stopped to spear her with his gaze. “Don’t you think she’ll be upset when she hears about what was going on?”

  “Of course she will!”

  “Then if she’s going to be upset one way or the other, it might as well be about what Rio was doing.”

  “You’ll tell her the truth?”

  “Do you want me to lie?” he flashed back at her.

  “No,” Shannon admitted huskily.

  Rafe took off his hat and ran his fingers though his hair. As he shoved it back on, he spotted Rio’s hat on his desk. He strode over, picked it up, returned to the door and sent it sailing into the yard. “Arrogant little bastard!” he swore.

  Shannon moved cautiously along the wall. With emotion running so high—her own included—she didn’t want to do anything to precipitate a worse situation.

  Rafe turned and saw her, saw the care with which she moved, and his expression changed. “I’m not blaming you,” he said. “I don’t think you did anything to bring this on. It’s just Rio, the kind of person he is. He’s a good cowboy. Does what he’s supposed to, when he’s supposed to. But that’s about it. I think Jodie’s well rid of him.”

  “There could still be trouble.” Shannon thought of the way Jodie had sworn her love for Rio.

  “I’ll deal with it,” Rafe said.

  “Like you deal with everything else?”

  “I said, I’ll deal with it.”

  Shannon was held by his gaze for several long seconds, then she made as dignified a dash for the door as she could. She paused only long enough to say softly, “Rafe...thank you for what you did just now.”

  He made no reply.

  ~*~

  That evening, as word spread about Rio’s dismissal and its cause, Shannon received various commiserations.

  Mae’s anger at Rio was banked down with the same kind of iciness that Rafe had shown. Only, Shannon had the impression Rio was lucky it was Rafe he’d dealt with and not Mae. Otherwise, he might not have left the ranch in one piece.

  “You’re a guest in my home,” Mae said with controlled dignity. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am that something like this has happened.”

  “I still can’t think what Jodie sees in him,” Gib said later. “It’s a good thing she’s not here right now—she’s baby-sitting for Dub and Delores—but when she gets back...” Gib shook his head, his expression anxious.

  Darlene, too, stopped by after dinner. “Rafe did the right thing,” she said softly. “Sometimes a person does have to step in and force a change. Jodie isn’t going to thank him for it right now, but she might in the end. Maybe if we’d done something like that with Richard and Ann... We should’ve at least tried to get them to talk to each other more. And if not, given them our blessing to end the marriage sooner, to stop the hurt all the way round.”

  “Good riddance to bad rubbish!” Harriet declared as Shannon took refuge in her comfortable kitchen. She set a cup of hot tea down in front of her and told her to drink it. “Was Rafe angry when he caught Rio kissing you? I heard he literally threw him out the door.”

  “Trying to kiss me,” Shannon corrected. “Yes, he was angry.”

  “And he threw him out the door?”

  “Yes.”

  Harriet clapped in appreciation. “Just what Rio deserved!” she said.

  “I’m worried about Jodie.”

  Harriet’s features lost some of their animation. “She doesn’t know yet, does she?”

  “Hopefully not.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “I know, but I still feel bad about it. She really thinks she loves him.”

  “It’s puppy love. First love usually is. It feels like the real thing, but most times it isn’t.”

  Shannon took a sip of tea. “How do you know so much?”

  “I’m a writer, remember? I just know these things.” She laughed. “Actually, it’s from personal experience. Before I met LeRoy, I thought I was in love with someone else. A boy I grew up with. But when he was away at college, he met someone and married her. I learned about it when he brought her home to introduce her to his parents.”

  “You must have been devastated.”

  “I was, but I got over it—eventually. Then I met LeRoy and found out what true love really is.”

  Shannon kept her gaze on the table. “There’s something I haven’t told you. You know the man everyone thinks was just my boyfriend, the one who died in the airplane crash...well, he was more than that. He was my fiancé. We were going to announce our engagement at Christmas, when everything had settled down after the election.”

  “Oh, my God,” Harriet breathed. “That must have been awful for you. No wonder... Does Mae know about this?”

  “Yes.”

  “My God,” Harriet said again.

  “He was my first love,” Shannon said softly. “And it was real.”

  Harriet sat forward. “What I said just now, I didn’t mean...”

  Shannon shrugged it away.

  But Harriet said, “Leave it to me to open my big mouth and put my foot in it. Who am I to say when someone truly loves someone else? It could be the first time or it could be the eighth or tenth. And there are all different kinds of love, too. Look at Rafe. I don’t think he ever fooled himself into believing he really loved Rosemary. I’ve never told anyone this, but Rosemary confided in me. She told me that she loved Rafe, but she was afraid her love wasn’t enough. She saw, just like I did, that it was the same for him. No one knows the real story, but I think they just agreed to call everything off before things got all complicated with legalities.”

  “I really lov
ed James,” Shannon insisted. Then she heard her use of the past tense and quickly changed it. “I really love him. He was sweet and kind and he had a great sense of humor.” She paused for a second. “He had blond hair—like Rio’s but lighter and not so curly—and dark blue eyes. And he liked to play tricks on people. Nothing that hurt anyone, just funny things that broke the stress. Everyone who knew him liked him.”

  She heard the tension in her voice. It had increased as she continued to talk about James. As if she was trying to convince herself how wonderful he’d been. She took another sip of tea and felt Harriet watching her.

  After a moment Harriet said, “And you’re sure Mae knew about James?”

  “She told me she did.”

  Harriet frowned. “And yet she brought you here to meet Rafe.”

  “She denies everything.”

  “She would. She must be getting desperate.”

  Shannon smiled weakly. “Thanks.”

  Harriet thumped herself lightly on the forehead. “I just did it again, didn’t I?”

  “I was teasing.”

  “Does Rafe know?”

  “Only that James was a friend.” Shannon stood up, suddenly restless. “I guess I’d better get back. I’d like to be around when Jodie gets home. I don’t want her to think I’m trying to avoid her.”

  Harriet rose with her, then impulsively reached out to give her a hug. “I’m sorry about everything I said,” she murmured sincerely.

  “How could you know?” Shannon replied, then just as impulsively asked, “What is true love really?” Then, stunned that she’d said such a thing, she shook her head.

  Harriet answered slowly, “I looked up the word ‘love’ in a dictionary once. It said, ‘a deep and tender feeling of affection.’ But I think it’s a lot more than that. It’s caring so much for someone they’re your other half. If they hurt, you hurt. It’s wanting what’s best for them above all else. It’s being willing to work like crazy to understand how the other person feels. It’s wanting to work that hard. It’s being together at the end of the day and realizing you’d rather be with them than with anyone else on the face of the earth.” She shrugged. “Sex is a part of it—a good part—but not the most important.”

  Shannon stared at the woman she’d come to consider a friend. Other people might have made light of her question, but Harriet had given a considered answer, as if she understood what Shannon herself had yet to understand.

  “I won’t forget,” Shannon promised softly before hurrying out of the house.

  ~*~

  Shannon heard a pickup roll down the curving drive and knew it signaled Jodie’s return. Dub Hughes was bringing the girl home from minding his grandchildren. Shannon peeked outside and saw lights in all the houses. Everyone, it seemed, was waiting, holding their collective breath.

  The truck door slammed shut, as did, seconds later, the front door to Gib’s house. In the cool night air the sound of two people yelling instantly followed. Jodie must have received the news about Rio from another source.

  Shannon met Mae’s gaze. The older woman sat in one of the straight-backed chairs in the living room. “She’s home,” Shannon said needlessly.

  “Gib will last about five minutes,” Mae said, “then she’ll come over here.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’ve been that girl’s substitute mama almost since the day she was born. You don’t think her real mother wanted anything to do with her, do you? All she was interested in was sex and money. She found her a fella just like her to give her the first, and I supplied the last. Got rid of both of ’em.”

  Rafe came into the room. “Got rid of who?” he asked. His gaze lingered on Shannon.

  “Ruby and that skunk she took off with.”

  Rafe settled into a chair himself, his movements contained. “You better go easy on the girl,” he remarked.

  “She has to know the truth,” Mae snapped.

  “Yes, but try to understand—”

  “I understand, all right. I understand she’s got her mama’s blood running all through her, and if she’s not careful, she might end up just like her.”

  “Only if you push her too hard,” Rafe said.

  Mae glared at him. “I’ll do what I think is best.”

  “You always do,” Rafe answered tersely.

  The front door swung open, and Jodie, tears streaming down her cheeks, ran into the room. Gib trailed behind her.

  “You did it, didn’t you?” she shouted at her great-aunt. “You got your way! You’ve wanted him gone for months and months and now he is!”

  “Jodie, don’t talk to your aunt like that!” Her father’s face was strained.

  “I’ll talk to her any way I like!” Jodie shot back. “She doesn’t deserve my respect. She’s a spoiled old busybody spinster! She’s jealous of me and Rio. She could never get a man of her own and now she doesn’t want me to have one, either!”

  “Jodie!” Gib recoiled from his daughter’s venom.

  “She’s always been jealous of me!”

  Rafe drawled, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  Jodie bit her bottom lip as she looked at her cousin, who was still seated in the chair.

  “I’m the one who fired Rio,” Rafe said. “I’m the one who told him to get out.”

  “On her orders!”

  “No. Because he was acting like a horse’s ass. I saw him with my own eyes, Jodie. He’s not worth all this trouble.”

  “It’s her fault, too,” Jodie said, swinging around to point at Shannon. “I thought she was my friend, but all she wanted was Rio—for herself!”

  “That’s an awful lot of women wanting one man,” Rafe said easily. “Sounds like something Rio would say himself. I saw what I saw, Jodie. And Shannon wasn’t asking for it.”

  “Of course you’d take her side!”

  “I’m not taking anyone’s side. Rio was forcing himself on her. If he was here, you could ask him.”

  “Praise the Lord he’s not!” Mae inserted.

  Jodie directed another hurt-filled look at Shannon before turning back to Mae. “That’s pretty convenient, isn’t it? All of you say something bad happened, you told Rio to go, and now I can’t ask him about it because he’s gone! And I’ll probably never get to see him again!”

  “I knew that cowboy was trouble the first time I laid eyes on him,” Mae claimed, lifting her chin. “And it turned out to be true.”

  “Aunt Mae,” Gib said, “that ain’t helpin’.”

  “Be quiet, Gib. If you’d done your job properly in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this spot right now.”

  Gib looked down at the stone flooring, his hands working at his sides.

  “Tell her to shut up, Daddy,” Jodie pleaded. “For once, tell her to shut up!”

  Gib said nothing. Jodie’s face contorted and more tears began to flow. “I’m not afraid of you, Aunt Mae,” she said brokenly. “Not since I’ve grown up.”

  Mae laughed harshly. “And since when has that been? You haven’t grown up, child. You’re still like a tiny little baby we have to take care of. A baby to clean up after when you’ve had an accident, which is exactly what this is!”

  Shannon saw Rafe stiffen. “Mae!” he said sharply.

  Jodie paled, causing her scattering of freckles to stand out in stark relief. “All right, Aunt Mae,” she said flatly, “you win. Rio’s gone. Problem solved. I just hope, in the end, you’re happy.”

  Then she walked out of the living room, her head up, her shoulders straight. She even managed to close the front door without making a noise.

  The three people left in the room were too surprised to speak. All that fire, then sudden acquiescence. It didn’t seem right to Shannon.

  “She’s plannin’ somethin’,” Gib said huskily, echoing her concern.

  “Sure she is,” Mae agreed. “But it won’t do her any good. Gib, you watch her close. Don’t let her out of the house for a while.”

  “What
am I supposed to do? Tie her up?”

  “Just keep her inside,” Mae answered crisply, and Gib, caving in yet again to her authority, hurried after his daughter.

  “You went too far this time,” Rafe said softly, uncoiling his length from the chair.

  “I only said what needed to be said. That girl gets away with too much!”

  “You know damn well you can’t gentle a horse by making it hate you. You can break its spirit, but it’ll never be any good to you later on.”

  “I know what I’m doing,” Mae insisted.

  Rafe shrugged, he left the house without another word.

  Mae got up and crossed to the fireplace, where she adjusted the arrangement of small decorative items lining the mantel. Her movements were precise, her expression stubbornly tight.

  “I know what I’m doing,” she repeated firmly to Shannon.

  Shannon kept her doubtful view to herself.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Rafe sat on his front porch listening to the sounds of late night. Sleep wasn’t something he was getting a lot of these days, and particularly after what had happened earlier, he knew there wasn’t much use going to bed.

  If he still smoked cigarettes, he’d shake one out of its pack and light up. One sure would be nice about now. But he’d broken himself of the habit the year he turned thirty, and he wasn’t about to go back to it.

  Deep in his bones he could feel that something was about to happen. It was like riding herd on a bunch of nervous cattle at the approach of a big storm. Electricity seemed to dance unseen in the air, setting both man and beast on edge.

  He glanced down at Shep curled in sleep on the floor next to his chair, and he smiled at the sight that gave lie to his previous thought. Wasn’t much bothering the old fellow. If he had any sense, he’d try to learn something from the dog. But then, maybe when he got as many years on him as Shep had in dog years, not a lot would bother him, either.

  Everything around the compound had been quiet for some time. The lights were off in all the houses, and as far as he could tell, he was the only person still up.

  Mae was probably asleep. In one way, like Shep, she’d earned the right to untroubled nights. In another, after the brouhaha she’d stirred up this evening, she should be having just as much trouble as he was.