by Sharon Sala
16
“What did they say?” Henry asked when Marcus hung up the phone. “Are they all right? When are they coming home?”
Marcus smiled. “She found him! They’re both fine. They’ll be home soon, within the week I’d guess.”
“Madre de Dios,” Juana muttered, making the sign of the cross, then promptly burst into tears.
Henry snorted. “Women!” And then he added, “Marcus, did Jenny say how the boy was feeling?”
Marcus smiled again, only broader. “Didn’t have to,” he said. “I could tell for myself that he’s feeling fine.”
“What makes you think that?” Henry asked.
“Because he more or less asked for Jenny’s hand in marriage. That’s how I know.”
Juana’s tears freshened, only now she was laughing and crying, all at the same time.
Henry scowled. He’d like to have had the luxury of venting his emotions in the same manner, but had to settle for a gruff comment instead.
“’Bout time,” he said. “Damn kid’s been in love with her for more years than I can count.”
Marcus stared at him. “You mean this has been going on for that long? Why in the world wasn’t I told?”
“Wasn’t anything to tell,” Henry said. “I said Chance loved her. I didn’t say he ever did anything about it.”
Understanding dawned. “Juana, did you know about this, too?”
She nodded and began a tirade in Spanish that she promptly had to rewind and begin again in English.
“He is her world. Where he goes, Jenny is always there. She laughs when he is happy and cries when he’s sad. I warned her over and over not to expect too much from a man with secrets. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. It seems the man has finally faced that.”
Marcus nodded. He was beginning to understand the depth of his daughter’s love for this man.
“Well, one thing’s for damn sure,” Marcus said. “I won’t have to traipse any more fools through the Triple T, trying to find one Jenny likes. No wonder she didn’t seem interested.” He grinned. “Thought I was doing her a favor. She probably wanted to strangle me.”
“Not half as much as she wanted to do away with that Turnbull fella,” Henry said.
They looked at each other, remembering the panic that had erupted when the horse had nearly killed Chance and Jenny. And then the fear they had all gone through, thinking that Chance might not survive.
Marcus rubbed his hands together. “Well, that’s all behind us. They’ll be home soon. And if my guess is right, we’ll be planning a wedding. Damn, but Jenny’s going to be the prettiest bride! I’m going to throw the biggest reception Texas has ever seen. Juana, start making some calls. Check on catering prices. See if the church…”
“Don’t you think you should wait for Jenny?” she asked. “After all, it is her wedding.”
He sighed. “You’re probably right. But, just in case, make a few calls, anyway. Never hurts to get an idea of what’s available…don’t you think?”
Henry and Juana looked at each other, shook their heads, and burst out laughing. Marcus Tyler might have come to a better understanding with his daughter, but some things never changed. He still wanted to run the show.
Chance pulled Jenny’s car into the motel parking lot. After their phone call to Marcus, he’d left Jenny in the shower and had gone to gas it up for her. She’d convinced him that three people sight-seeing would be more comfortable in her car than his truck. He was looking forward to tomorrow’s outing. If he was lucky, Victoria would be able to answer whatever questions he had left about his past. Then he could rest easy and he and Jenny could go home to the Triple T.
He slipped the room key in the lock, opened the door, and then froze. Jenny was standing in the middle of the bed, dressed but for one shoe that she clutched over her head in a position of readiness to attack. Her face was white as a sheet, her eyes wide and panicked.
“Jenny! What in hell…?”
She bit her lower lip and pointed.
“What, honey? I don’t see anything.” He started toward the dresser.
“Look out, it went back there! I saw it!”
“Saw what, darlin’?” He couldn’t imagine, but from the look on her face, it must have been a lion.
“The mouse. It was in the closet. I picked up my shoe. It stared at me!” She shuddered and did a nervous little two-step in the middle of the bed as Chance walked toward the dresser.
“There it goes!” she screamed, pointing at a tiny ball of fur that shot out from behind the dresser just as Chance moved it.
Luckily for Chance, he ducked to swat at the mouse just as Jenny chucked the shoe. It missed him, hitting instead the corner of the door, just as the mouse exited into daylight and safety.
She screamed, buried her face in her hands, and sank down onto the middle of the bed.
Chance stared. This was a Jenny he’d never seen. He wanted to laugh, but sensed that hilarity was not a wise move at this time. He decided to retrieve her shoe instead.
“Here, darlin’,” he said, crawling onto the bed. He fished her bare foot out from under her, and put on her shoe.
“Thank you,” she said, and looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.
“You’re welcome,” he said, and brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes.
“Chance?”
“What, darlin’?” he asked, gathering her into his lap.
“Can we please move to another motel?”
He couldn’t help himself. The laugh came, and with it, the knowledge that no matter how long he loved Jenny, she’d probably always be full of surprises.
“We sure can,” he said. “I should have thought of that myself when you got here. This isn’t the kind of place you should be in,”
“Thank you,” she said, and curled her arms around his neck.
He could feel her shaking. “You’re welcome, again,” he said. “Do you want me to pack everything up for you while you wait in the car?”
She nodded.
“I can’t believe you’re afraid of mice, Jennifer Ann. You’ve fought bigger battles all your life.” His voice was teasing as he tried to get her in a better frame of mind. “You rode that crazy horse and nearly killed yourself, and you’re afraid of a little, bitty, furry critter no bigger than—”
She shuddered again. “Don’t talk about it, I know it’s silly. But I can’t help it.”
“It’s not silly, sweetheart. It’s just surprising. Remember old Melvin Howard? You nailed him so hard…”
Jenny crawled out of his lap and grabbed him by the shoulders, nearly dancing with excitement. “Chance! Chance! Do you know what you just did?”
“What?” Maybe he should have tried to kill the mouse and not chase it away.
She threw her arms around his neck and propelled them both backward onto the bed. “Oh, Chance! You remembered something that happened to me when I was thirteen years old. Melvin Howard made a pass at me at the bus stop and…”
The flesh crawled up the back of his spine and raised goosebumps on his forearms. His voice lowered to just past a whisper as he stared into the past. “It was raining…wasn’t it?”
Jenny began to cry. “Yes, darling. It was raining. And you were so mad. I thought you were mad at me.”
“My God!” Chance muttered, and pressed his face against her shoulder. It was the first, but he sensed it would not be the last memory that would slip back to him. It was happening! He was really going to regain himself.
“Come on, Jenny. Let’s get you out of here, and then we’re gonna celebrate. I know a great place to eat. It’s called The Barn Door.”
She frowned at the rustic sound of it.
“It’s great! Take my word for it, okay? And we can break in the new bed at the motel later on. Remember, we have to keep practicing and practicing until we get it right.”
The image he painted in Jenny’s mind did just what he’d intended. It got her mind off of mice and onto him. He seated
her in the bed of his pickup, left the door to the room open, and packed all of their belongings, with Jenny giving orders from the back of the truck.
A feeling of warmth flowed over him as he packed her toilet kit. If he wasn’t mistaken, he’d just found a packet of birth control pills. He smiled, thinking of the day when they would not be necessary.
Finally he was through. “Wait here,” he said. “I’ll check out, and then you can follow me to the new motel. I’ve seen several nice ones, but one caught my eye the first day, as I came in on Interstate 20. I think staying in a Garden Oasis would be a welcome change from this place.”
“Garden Oasis…in West Texas?” The smile was back in her voice.
“You can find all kinds of things in West Texas, darlin’. Even an oasis…if you know where to look. Are you willing to follow me and find out?” He grinned, admiring the look he’d just put on her face.
“I’d follow you anywhere, Chance McCall, and you know it. I followed you here, didn’t I? I think I can manage to make it a few blocks farther…especially if it’s an improvement over this place.”
“Say, Jenny, did you bring a swimsuit?”
She shook her head.
“Then I’ll make sure that the Best Western Garden Oasis has a pool. I always did want to go skinny dipping with a pretty girl.”
“Not in public, you fool.”
On his way to the motel office it dawned on him that she hadn’t refused to go skinny dipping with him. She’d just refused to do it in public. He smiled. Loving Jenny was never going to be dull.
The desk clerk frowned as the crazy man from twelve B walked in. He would come right in the middle of “Days Of Our Lives.” It was her favorite soap and Lawrence was about to pull another dirty stunt on Carly. She kept one eye on the television and the other on the man who was waiting impatiently at the counter.
“What can I do for you?” she asked.
“I want to check out.”
She turned and stared, her soap forgotten. “Oh…then I guess you’re ready to leave Odessa?”
He didn’t answer.
“So, where’ll you be heading now?” she asked, as she fumbled through her files to total his bill. Again, silence answered her question.
She pulled her glasses down the ridge of her nose with one obviously fake fingernail and frowned. “I’ll have your bill figured in just a minute. Let’s see, part of the time you had two in a room so that makes…”
“There are roaches…and mice…and I only got clean sheets every third day. You rent rooms by the hour…and you’re worried about the fact that for two nights I had my fiancée in the room with me? I…don’t…think…so.”
His words had the desired effect. “Here’s your total, sir,” she said quickly. “Do you want to put this on your credit card or pay in cash?”
“Just use the card number I gave when I checked in,” he said. “Do I need to sign anything?”
She shoved a hand-written bill toward him. “This’ll do it for me. You have a nice trip, now. And come back to see us real soon.”
Chance resisted the urge to say, Not in this lifetime, lady!
The desk clerk breathed a sigh of relief as Mr. Twelve B finally exited her life. When she turned around she realized that she’d completely missed Lawrence’s latest dastardly deed.
“Well, shoot,” she said, and slumped back into her chair.
Logan Henry cruised the street in front of the motel that matched the phone number he’d called earlier. The parking lot was empty. That didn’t surprise him. It didn’t normally have customers until the sun went down. He should know, he’d been one of those customers more than once. That had been in earlier days when half of his night had been spent laying women and the other half drunk, trying to forget their faces.
He shook off the memories, and headed for the office.
The desk clerk frowned as the bell jangled over the door again. If she missed this entire episode, she was gonna be pissed.
“Can I help you?” she asked sharply.
“Maybe,” he said, leaning over the counter. Logan toyed with the idea of flirting to get his answers and decided on bribery instead. He’d never been that desperate for a woman in his life. “I’m looking for a little information.”
Her eyebrows rose as she watched the big man’s hand sliding toward his pocket. She smirked and sidled up to the counter. “I’m just full of information,” she answered, and then stared pointedly at his wallet.
This one would be easy. Money always got results. “I’m looking for someone,” he said. “A man, maybe six feet or more. He’d have dark hair and eyes.” He started to give her some further description when he realized that he had no idea what in hell his own son looked like now. The knowledge was unsettling. “Well, have you seen anyone fitting that description…say in the past few days?”
Something about the man’s face reminded her of Mr. Twelve B; and that in turn reminded her how scary the sucker was when he got mad. Even if he was gone, she didn’t think this guy had enough money to pay her to make twelve B mad. She didn’t want him coming back and accusing her of anything. A lady had to be careful nowadays. “Not much of a description,” she said, and pushed herself away from the counter. “It’d fit just about half the male population of Odessa. You want a room?”
Logan Henry couldn’t believe it. He pulled out a wad of twenties and began peeling them off, one at a time. “Dammit! Are you certain you don’t remember anything?”
She fidgeted at the sight of all that money, but the memory of the big man who’d resided in twelve B outweighed her greed. She turned beet red, shoved her glasses up against her face, and pointed at the door.
“What kind of a place do you think this is? And better yet, what kind of a woman do you think I am? I can’t be bought, mister. By God! I’m not for sale.”
Her breast was heaving beneath her hot pink jumpsuit as she watched the man leave her office. The announcer’s voice on the television behind her caught her attention and she turned in fury as she heard, “and so are the days of our lives.”
“Well that just figgers,” she drawled as she slammed her butt down in the chair, and dialed the phone.
“Georgie,” she asked, “did you watch ‘The Days’ today? Well, thank God! I’ve had such an afternoon, you wouldn’t believe. I missed everything after Lawrence was about to…”
Logan Henry slammed the car into reverse and backed out of the parking space. His driving mirrored his mood as he left tracks of his tires on the pavement. The smell of hot rubber sifted through the air, and then the constant Odessa wind moved it away.
Chance was too quiet. Jenny’d noticed it happening right after they’d called Marcus. He’d managed to laugh and respond to all her remarks at the proper times as they took a room at the Best Western Garden Oasis. But the more time passed, the quieter he became. Finally, Jenny could stand it no longer. If she was the cause, she had to know.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked. “’Cause if you are, you’ll have to tell me what I did wrong. I know being afraid of a little mouse caused a lot of upheaval, but honestly Chance I just can’t help…”
Chance scooped her up from her seat in the middle of the bed and cradled her against his chest. He stared long and hard at the uncertainty behind those somber blue eyes.
“Jennifer Ann, if I ever hear you say anything so stupid again, I’ll wring your little neck. I’m not real up-to-date on what my past personality has been…but if I was that goddamned picky about my life, I don’t want it back.” He hugged her to soften his words. “No, I’m not mad at you. And I’m sorry if you thought I was…even for a minute.” He leaned down and kissed her gently, lingering longer on her full lower lip than absolutely necessary.
He stepped backward, lowering them both into a chair. Jenny settled comfortably across his lap and leaned her head against his shoulder. She picked absently at a shirt snap as she waited for his explanation.
Chance sighed. He nuzzled the top of her
head, inhaling the fragrance of her shampoo, smiling to himself at the way she curled into his lap like a contented cat. My Jenny! The thought was intoxicating.
“So?” she persisted. “You’re going to have to communicate. That’s what caused all this separation to begin with. You keep secrets.”
The tone of her voice told him more than words could ever have done. He’d hurt her…many times. But that was then, this was now. She’d never be victim to secrets again. At least, not from him.
“Who called me, Jenny? It wasn’t Marcus. We talked to him. And I called Victoria a few minutes ago and let her know our new location and phone number. The call we didn’t answer wasn’t from her either. There’s no one else who knows I’m here.”
“So?”
“So, who’s still out there watching me…that I don’t remember? What if there’s a part of me I don’t know about that could hurt me, or us? We still don’t know everything there is to know about my past. What if I’ve done—”
“Just shut up, Chance!” Jenny said sharply. “I don’t want to hear anymore of these ‘what ifs.’ If you don’t know yourself any better than that, then you’re just going to have to take my word for it. I can tell you that I’d bet my life you’ve never done anything of which you should be ashamed. You’re not that kind of man!”
The fierce look of protectiveness was back. He’d seen it when she’d come storming in the door of the motel and caught him hugging Victoria. And he’d witnessed it when she’d stepped in and assumed control of the conversation between him and the Beltons, when they met outside the nursing home. He’d been so stunned by their appearance, he’d been speechless. It hadn’t taken Jenny long to come to his defense. She might be little, but she was mighty, and she was all his.
“You know what, honey?” he said.
Jenny saw that familiar grin spreading across his face and knew he was about to tease her. It always happened when she got too intense, and that was often.
“What?” she muttered.
