“That’s terrible. You never told me that. And he got your house?”
“Uh-huh. He specializes in divorce law. Turned out to be very good at it. Anyway,” she said dismissively, “that was a long time ago. You can’t let men make you crazy. Let them buy you dinners and jewelry, use them for sex, but don’t let them get to you. They’re not worth it.”
“Might be too late for that,” Holly said. “But I’ll try.”
“Listen, I’ve got to go into a meeting, but I’ll call you in a couple of days—”
“Yeah, but!” Holly interjected, afraid Amanda was about to hang up. “Wait a sec! What am I supposed to do until then?”
“Do? Go for a run, read a book, ride your horse. Relax! You’ve been working like a dog trying to become an expert quilter in less time than it takes to grow tomatoes. Now you’ve finally got a chance to kick back. Enjoy it while you can, because I’m sure it won’t last long. After all, a girl’s—”
“Got to work,” Holly said. “I know.”
CHAPTER 41
On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in March, on the outskirts of Alpine, Texas, Donny Bebee tilted his gray Stetson a little lower on his gray head and crossed the street to the tavern.
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust from the bright sunshine to the dim lighting of the bar, so at first he didn’t see that someone was sitting in his usual spot, near the far end of the bar and right under the flat-screen TV. When he did realize that a man about his same height and age, wearing a light gray sports jacket and the whitest shirt he’d ever seen, was sitting on his barstool, Donny cast a look in the bartender’s direction, figuring that John would ask that man to move to another spot.
Instead, John looked at him and said, “Hey, Donny. Like to introduce you to a friend of mine. Actually, he’s a friend of David’s, my little brother.”
“The one who came to visit a couple weeks ago?”
“That’s right. This is David’s boss, Hub-Jay Hollander. Owns the hotel over in Dallas.”
Donny was confused about what a man who owned a fancy hotel in Dallas would be doing all the way out here in Alpine, sitting in his seat, but he was too polite to come right out and ask, and there were still eight minutes until the show started, so he inclined his head and said, “Pleased to meet you.”
“Same here,” Hub-Jay Hollander replied. “I was wondering if I could buy you a drink.”
Donny frowned and looked at John again, but the bartender shifted his shoulders and tilted his head to one side, silently indicating that everything was okay, so Donny sniffed and said, “I’ll have a Lone Star.”
“Sounds good. Can we make it two?” Hub-Jay looked at John, holding up two fingers.
Donny sat down, feeling awkward. The stranger sitting in his seat didn’t say anything until John set the two open bottles in front of them, then walked off to the far end of the bar and started polishing glasses.
Donny glanced at his watch. Six minutes left. Why hadn’t John turned on the TV?
“I realize I’m interrupting your routine,” Hub-Jay said. “And I apologize. But I need to talk to you about something concerning your son, Howard.”
Donny frowned. “How do you know Howard? Is he all right? Did something happen to him?”
“Howard’s fine,” Hub-Jay assured him. “At least for right now. But he’s sick. He has polycystic kidney disease. His kidneys are only working at twenty-seven percent of their normal capacity, so he gets tired easily, sometimes feels dizzy. It’s affected his blood pressure too. He’s had to drop out of his college classes for the time being.”
Donny frowned. “How do you know all this about Howard? Are you some kind of doctor? John said you own a hotel.”
“I do. I’m a friend of Mary Dell’s.” Hub-Jay paused for a moment, and looked like he was trying to decide what to say next. “Mary Dell and I are engaged.”
“Engaged? I don’t think so. Last time I checked, Mary Dell was still married to me.”
Donny narrowed his eyes, taking in the starched white shirt and the even more starched white handkerchief that peeked from the pocket of Hub-Jay’s gray jacket.
“You don’t look like Mary Dell’s type to me.”
“You know, let’s just forget about that for now.” Hub-Jay spread his hands a little and made a single, short chopping motion, like he was trying to sever the words he’d just uttered from what he said next. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. What I came here to tell you is that, in a while—could be a few weeks or could be a few months; there’s no way to know for sure—Howard’s kidney function is going to drop below twenty percent. When that happens, he’ll have to go on dialysis.”
“That’s where they hook you up to all those tubes and stuff, don’t they? To clean out your blood?”
“I don’t know too much about how it actually works, but that sounds about right. He can live on dialysis, even for many years, the doctors say. But there are still some risks, infections and such, and it would radically alter Howard’s life. He’d have to go for dialysis three times a week for several hours each time.”
Donny’s expression was perfectly still and unreadable as Hub-Jay spoke, but his mind was reeling. It was a lot to take in at one time, especially since the news was being delivered by a man he’d never laid eyes on before, who purported to be engaged to Mary Dell. But he couldn’t let himself get sidetracked by that right now. He needed to understand what had happened to Howard.
“What about a transplant?” Donny asked. “They do those for kidneys, don’t they?”
“Yes, but the waiting list for donor kidneys is years long. Howard’s best bet for getting a kidney before he has to go on dialysis would be to find a live donor whose kidney is a good match. The best chances would be a parent. Mary Dell isn’t a candidate because she carries the disease herself.”
Donny was quiet for a moment, trying to sort through everything he’d just heard. “Did Mary Dell send you out here to look for me?”
Hub-Jay took a quick swallow from the beer bottle and shook his head. “I decided to come out here on my own. She’s going through a lot right now and I didn’t want to get her hopes up unnecessarily.”
Donny’s gaze drifted past Hub-Jay’s right shoulder where a neon sign blinked blue and green, declaring that it was five o’clock somewhere.
“Look, I realize this has come out of the blue. You disappeared a long time ago. Probably you had your reasons.” Hub-Jay reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a business card. “Maybe you want to take some time to think it through and get back to me. Nobody is saying you have to do this . . .”
That final sentence severed Donny’s reverie.
“What the hell are you talking about? Howard is my son. If he needs my kidney, he can have it.”
Donny stood up, pulled a five-dollar bill from the back pocket of his jeans, and tossed it onto the counter next to his untouched bottle of Lone Star.
“I can buy my own beer.”
When Donny stalked past, John looked up from his glass polishing. “Your show’s about to start. Where you going, Donny?”
“Dallas.”
CHAPTER 42
During the week it would take to complete the testing, Donny and Hub-Jay developed a relationship of sorts, more than an understanding but less than an alliance.
They decided not to alert Mary Dell or Howard to Donny’s presence in Dallas, agreeing that, until they knew for certain if Donny’s kidney would be a match, this information could only increase the anxiety in an already anxious situation. Hub-Jay offered to put Donny up in the Hollander Grand while he was undergoing tests, but Donny said he’d pay his own way, thank you very much. However, he didn’t object when Hub-Jay made some calls to friends and found Donny a reduced rate at a clean, quiet motel that was close to the hospital. The two men had no reason to like each other and didn’t, but their mutual concern and connections allowed them to put those feelings aside in the interest of helping Howard.
But Ma
ry Dell didn’t know any of that. She was in Too Much.
Mary Dell’s original purpose in returning to the ranch and bringing Howard with her, over his protests, was so he could rest under Taffy’s watchful eye while Mary Dell completed a marathon filming session, catching up on the days she’d missed. But even though the show had now been canceled, she didn’t feel she could leave Too Much just now. As if she didn’t have enough to worry her, Rob Lee had chosen this moment to revert to his old behavior. He was moody, silent, indifferent to his work, and borderline hostile in his dealings with both the ranch hands and the family, and he had started spending evenings at the Ice House again.
“I just don’t understand how so many things can go wrong at once,” Mary Dell said during one of her daily phone conversations with Hub-Jay. “A month ago, I was flying high. Apart from Jason being hit by a bolt of lightning, I’d have been hard-pressed to think of a way my life could be any better. And then, poof! Everything went to hell in a handbasket. And the worst part is, there’s nothing I can say or do to change any of it.”
Hub-Jay murmured sympathetically. He understood how she felt.
“I tried to talk to Rob Lee the other day—he’s so depressed—but I might as well have tried talking to a wall,” Mary Dell continued. “Howard’s mad at me too. He wants to go back to Dallas, but I’m afraid to leave him on his own right now. He’s so tired all the time. His skin itches all the time and he’s getting headaches. I don’t know if this is all new, or if he’s getting worse, or if he was just masking the symptoms before, afraid I’d be worried.”
“And you would have been,” Hub-Jay said. “Just like you are now. But the doctors are on top of it. And you’ll both be up here next week for your appointment with Dr. Brewer, right?”
“Right,” Mary Dell said, her voice conceding the logic of his reasoning. “And I’m sure he’s fine. It’s just hard to wait. If I didn’t feel like I had to keep an eye on Rob Lee and try to pick up his slack here, I’d put Howard in the car and drive to Dallas right now. I miss you.”
“Miss you too,” he said. “I wish I could come down there right now.”
“So you can hold my hand? Don’t be silly. You’ve got work to do.”
She laughed, but not convincingly, and in her voice Hub-Jay thought he heard a silent accusation. But that might just have been the voice in his own head.
He felt the same way he’d felt on that day when she’d told him she was leaving Dallas, the day that he’d come to understand that he was in love with her and not just because he suddenly realized how much a part of his life she’d become. No, the moment he understood the depth of his feelings for Mary Dell was the moment she first came under attack from that weasel, Jason. When she’d told him about the disrespectful, contemptuous way she had been treated, Hub-Jay had instantly and instinctively been overcome by an almost violent compulsion to defend her honor, to protect and care for her, accompanied by a maddening frustration at his inability to do so.
Hub-Jay liked to think of himself as sophisticated and reasonable, a gentleman. But when it came to issues of Mary Dell’s happiness, safety, and honor, there was no doubt in his mind that, should the occasion arise, he’d tear off his coat, roll up his sleeves, and beat the crap out of any man, anywhere, who even dared to speak ill of her. That was how he knew he loved Mary Dell. Because he’d never in his life felt the urge to throw a punch on behalf of any other woman.
In fact, when he’d returned to Dallas and gotten word that Mary Dell had been fired, his first instinct was to go to the corporate offices of HHN-TV, track down Jason, and kick him so hard his cousin fell down. But during the drive between the hotel and the HHN headquarters, Hub-Jay experienced a brief moment of clarity. That was when he remembered that, as satisfying as it would be to beat the stuffing out of Jason Alvarez, a man in his position had a much more effective and potentially lethal weapon at his disposal—his Rolodex.
Of course, he shouldn’t tell Mary Dell about that yet, though he very much wanted to. He hated the idea that she was down there in Too Much all alone, suffering and sad and under the impression that he didn’t care enough to put business aside and come to her aid, if for no other purpose than to stand by her.
When Mary Dell was explaining to him how humiliated she felt when people came into the shop, asking when the new season would begin, and she had to tell them she’d been canceled, he wished he could share what he was up to, or at least hint at it, so she would know that he wasn’t just sitting on his hands while she was being attacked.
Just as he was about to give in to that urge, Mary Dell asked if he could hold on for just a moment. Fred, one of the ranch hands, had come in wanting to talk.
Fred had a tendency to mumble, so, at first, Hub-Jay couldn’t hear everything he said, but he understood that Fred was unhappy, threatening to quit because he and Rob Lee had exchanged words when Fred had expressed his unhappiness at having to do Rob Lee’s work in addition to his own.
“Hub-Jay, I’ve got to go,” said Mary Dell. “There’s some kind of problem with Rob Lee. But I’ll call you later,” she said, and hung up before Hub-Jay could say good-bye.
“I know you got problems right now,” Fred continued. “I don’t like to bother you, but things are pretty bad. I don’t appreciate being cussed at just for telling what’s true and trying to do my job, or having to carry somebody else’s weight. It ain’t fair. I’m not the only one who feels that way, Miss Mary Dell. Cody’s about ready to quit too.”
“That’s all right, Fred. You did right in coming to me. I’ll talk to Rob Lee,” she promised. “And I’m going to make sure you and Cody get a bonus next payday to help make up for all the extra work you’ve been doing.”
“It ain’t the money or work so much, Miss Mary Dell. It’s the respect.”
“I know,” she said soothingly. “And I’m sorry. You know I appreciate you and Cody, couldn’t run the place without you. Tell you what; why don’t you two go home early today. I’ll find Rob Lee and tell him he’s got to finish up your chores.”
“You can’t do that, Miss Mary Dell. Rob Lee ain’t here.”
“Where’d he go? Into town?”
“No, ma’am. I don’t know where he’s gone off to. I come into the tack room looking for him this morning, around about ten o’clock. He was dressed, sitting on the edge of his bed, but he looked like holy hell. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was a mess and he was just staring off into space. Made me wonder if he’d ever been to bed.
“I stood at the door, waiting for him to notice me. When he didn’t I finally asked if he’d ordered new barbed wire so we can fix that spot on the fence where the cattle broke through. He just started going off on me! Things heated up pretty quick. He took a swing at me, but I dodged it. Then he jumped in the truck and drove off so fast the wheels were spittin’ gravel. Ain’t seen him since.”
“Oh, no. Fred, I am sorry. You all right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Like I said, I dodged the punch. I know Rob Lee’s had a hard time since he come home from the war, and I’ve made allowances for that, but there comes a point—”
“I know, Fred. I’ll take care of it, all right? One way or the other, I will.”
“All right. Thank you, ma’am. Hate to bother you.”
Fred ducked his head and backed out of the room, closing the door behind him. Mary Dell picked up her phone, thinking she ought to call Hub-Jay and apologize for being so abrupt, but changed her mind and hung up before the call could connect.
She would call Hub-Jay, but later. Right now, she needed to find her nephew.
CHAPTER 43
After going out to the barn to make sure that Rob Lee hadn’t returned while she’d been talking to Fred, Mary Dell went up to the house to get her car keys.
It was only four o’clock in the afternoon and Rob Lee was a grown man. Aside from shortchanging his work duties, if he felt like disappearing for a few hours on a Friday afternoon, there was no reason he couldn’t. But someth
ing about the story Fred told her, his description of how Rob Lee had looked, plus the way he’d been acting ever since the party, combined with an overall sense of anxiety that Mary Dell couldn’t quite explain, made her decide to go looking for him. After telling Taffy that she was going out and not to hold supper for her, Mary Dell backed the Eldorado out of the carport.
Before Mary Dell could pull out of the driveway, she met Holly pulling in, coming for a late afternoon ride. Mary Dell got out of the car to ask if she’d seen Rob Lee anywhere.
“Not since Tuesday,” Holly replied. “I mean, I knew he was here on Wednesday and Thursday—I saw him saddle up Sarabeth and ride off—but he didn’t say a word to me. Seems like he’s been going out of his way not to.”
Mary Dell could see Holly was upset, but at that moment, Rob Lee was her biggest concern. Something wasn’t right with him. Maybe Holly knew what it was.
“Did you two have a fight or something?”
“No. Or if we did, then he didn’t tell me about it. But then, Rob Lee isn’t much of a talker.”
“He wasn’t always like that,” Mary Dell said. “When he was a little boy he could talk the paint off the walls. Such a prankster, always getting in trouble at school. But Rob Lee never cared. He’d take his detention like a man and spend the time planning his next practical joke.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes. He was a scamp, but such a good little bad boy that you couldn’t stay mad at him for long. Devoted to family too. The kids in school knew they’d better not say anything mean to Howard unless they wanted to deal with Rob Lee. He was real close to Howard when they were growing up, being born on the same day and all, but not as close as he was to his momma.
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