Frisco Joe's Fiancee

by Tina Leonard

  Jerry sobered instantly. “Damn shame, that.”

  It was a shame because Delilah was a nice lady trying to do right for women who had no other place to go. He sighed. “All right. Do you know where Annabelle’s family home was?”

  “Somewhere in central Texas.”

  This was harder than he’d anticipated. Trust Annabelle to throw up a challenge he couldn’t meet by himself. He couldn’t drive there with a broken leg, he couldn’t fly because he didn’t think he could get his leg to fit in the tiny space in front of an airline seat.

  “I need to go home and think about this,” he said. “Maybe the best thing for me to do is give Annabelle some space.” His heart had sunk the instant Valentine had told him Annabelle was gone. She’d wasted no time lighting out of Lonely Hearts Station after he’d gone.

  “I’m sorry you wasted a trip on me, Jerry,” he told his friend. “While my first inclination was to go after her, my second is that…she has my number if she wants to call me. She knows where I live.”

  “If you say so.” Jerry looked as confused as he did. “I wouldn’t have thought she’d light out that fast. But I told you what Delilah said—”

  “I know. I know. Annabelle’s a rolling stone.” And he wasn’t so sure she hadn’t just rolled right over him. Dang. “If you don’t mind taking me home, I’d surely appreciate it,” Frisco said.

  Home to Helga the Horrible.

  H-e-double hockey sticks-g-a.

  He was going to take up window-jumping.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “This place sucks!” Last told Tex and Laredo two weeks later. “I’m praying for March and some good stiff winds to blow out the bad aura around this joint.”

  “It’s the same as it’s always been at the Malfunction Junction,” Laredo said. “Quit yer bitching.”

  “It’s not,” Last insisted. “Mason doesn’t say a word. I think he’s forgotten what his lips are for. And I won’t even discuss Frisco. He’s forgotten what his heart is for, and he sold his soul to Oscar the Grouch.”

  “He’ll look good in green fur,” Tex said without much sympathy.

  “Speaking of looking good in fur, did you see the one Mimi had on the other day? I realize it was simulated, but it wasn’t cheap-simulated. She said her fiancé gave it to her as an engagement gift!”

  Last’s voice clearly communicated his disbelief. Laredo cocked a brow at him. “So?”

  “Well, it’s Mimi we’re talking about. What’s she gonna do with a full-length fur? Feed her goat?”

  “It’s really none of our business,” Tex told him sourly.

  “Well, don’t act like you’re not depressed as hell.”

  Tex pounded his hand on the table, which brought Helga running with a cloth. They all waited politely until she was done wiping up the fist print, but as soon as she left the room, Last leaned forward to whisper urgently, “Everything has gone cockeyed around here and you know it. We’ve got to do something!”

  Laredo was of half a mind to agree, but he’d been busy hatching his plan to hit the road. All he had on his mind was a merciful escape. “Talk to Ranger.”

  “Ranger isn’t going to do anything. He’s been so buggy over his military books he pays me no mind.”

  “There’s half a dozen more of us. Go bother them.”

  Last drew himself up. “If you don’t care, why should I? If no one cares, then fine. You can all just steep in your misery.”

  “What do you want us to do? Tell Mimi that Mason misses his playmate? Tie Helga up and ship her back to Europe? Find Frisco a woman?”

  “That was the original plan, if you recall. We said a woman would take care of his bad temper. And it did.”

  “For a while,” Tex agreed. “Now he’s blacker than night. I think it had the adverse effect.”

  Last shook his head. “He’s in love, stupids.”

  “What does that have to do with us?” Laredo wanted to know.

  “You could offer to help him,” Last suggested.

  “It’s really, really bad to try to help other people’s love lives. Haven’t we gotten burned on that one?”

  “Isn’t doing something better than nothing?” Last asked.

  “No,” Tex and Laredo said in unison.

  “Well, fine.” Last backed away from the table. “The problem here is, no one remembers that this used to be a happy home.”

  “Last, listen. You were the baby. You had life easier than the rest of us. Of course you remember it with lollipop-colored vision,” Laredo told him.

  Tex snickered and looked out the window.

  “Hey, that’s not true. Mom was a good mom.”

  His brothers didn’t say a word.

  “You know it’s true. And Dad was crazy about her. When she passed away, he lost all his heart to go on without her. Can’t you see that’s happening to Frisco?”

  Laredo rolled his eyes, but he was beginning to realize that Last was serious. He was a serious pain in the keister, one that wasn’t going to be relieved until he got what he wanted.

  And maybe, partially, he had the story right.

  “You’re so sensitive,” he told his youngest brother. “What the hell do you want from us?”

  “I think you should offer to drive Frisco to find Annabelle.”

  Laredo raised his brows. “How do you know he’d go?”

  “I don’t think he would, willingly.”

  “So we kidnap him and force him to be happy with Annabelle? And you say I’ve got problems,” Tex griped.

  “He doesn’t know how to win Annabelle. He’s afraid she won’t have him. But I say, he who chickens out, never wins his feathers.”

  Laredo snorted. “After we make this ridiculous offer to chauffeur our brother, and he eats our head, will you shut up and leave us alone about it? Or go write a romance novel in the privacy of your own room?”

  “I promise I will.”

  “All right. If this is what it takes to get you to go bother someone else, I’m on my feet.” Laredo looked at Tex. “Are you going with me? Two of us should be able to subdue Frisco.”

  Tex grinned. “What the hell.”

  Slowly, the three of them ascended the staircase. Laredo tapped on Frisco’s door.

  “Go away,” he called impatiently.

  “Frisco, can we talk to you a minute?” Laredo called.

  The door opened. “Is Helga nearby?”

  “No,” Tex said looking over his shoulder.

  “Come in, then. Hurry!”

  The three brothers jumped into the room. Frisco slammed the door and locked it. “I’ve started leaving by the window when I want to get away. Just like the old days.”

  “Really? You’re going to break your other leg,” Laredo said, peering out the window. “Drain pipe or sheets?”

  “I reinforced the drain pipe and keep a tall ladder hidden behind the crape myrtles down there.”

  “Good thinking. Hey, me and Tex were thinking about taking a drive. Wanna go with?”

  “Where you headed?” Frisco asked, perking up.

  “Texas wine country,” Tex said nonchalantly.

  “Oh. No, I think I’d better stay here.”

  “Don’t be such a coward, Frisco. What’s happened to you?” Laredo demanded. “You used to be so hellfire and brimstone but now you’re too quiet. I liked you better the other way. At least you had cojones.”

  Frisco was silent for a moment. “Maybe.”

  “Why are you taking it so personal, bro?” Tex asked. “You knew she had a life of her own.”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I thought she’d leave me out of it. I mean, I shared my life with her.”

  “You did? I find that hard to believe,” Laredo told him.

  “Well, I shared my bed, and my room, and—you know, she didn’t say goodbye. I mean, that brings up all kinds of insecurities.”

  “Yours, apparently. Call her, then. Ask if she would like to see you.”

  Frisco brightened. �
��I could do that. I could call her.”

  “Sure. You just put your finger on the phone and push some buttons. No problem.” Tex handed him the phone.

  “Um. Okay.” He held the phone as it if were ticking. Then he took a deep breath and dialed Information. “Annabelle Turnberry, please, in Austin or the suburbs,” he guessed. Tex shrugged, Laredo nodded and Last scratched his head.

  “That number is unlisted, sir. Can I try another number for you?”

  “No. I don’t think so. Thanks anyway.” He hung up and glared at his brothers. “That was a really dumb idea.”

  “Why didn’t you ask for Turnberry Wines?” Last asked.

  Frisco shook his head. “I can’t just call her, guys. It’s not the way I feel. A phone call is for friends.”

  Laredo sighed. “I’ll get my truck keys. Last, pack us a cooler.”

  Frisco limped to grab his already-packed duffle. “Thanks. I really appreciate this.”

  “Hey! Why are you already packed?” Tex demanded.

  “Because I was about to succumb to paying taxi fare all the way to the Turnberry Winery.” He grinned at his brothers. “But since you’ve graciously offered, I’d much rather take up the back seat of the double cab.”

  “Great,” Laredo grumbled.

  “You guys are the best brothers.”

  “Great,” Tex echoed. “Last, we’re going to tie you up and leave you for the roadside pick-up if you open your mouth between here and Austin!”

  ANNABELLE WALKED UPSTAIRS to her father’s study, entering on quiet feet. It had been nearly a year since she’d been back in their home. The housekeeper and groundskeeper had done a nice job of maintaining it.

  That was a comfort to her.

  The house was lined in dark wood with delicate floral rugs, elegant hanging chandeliers. In every room, she could hear the laughter of happier times.

  She could also feel the moments Alzheimer’s had stolen from their lives. She closed the door of the study.

  “Well, Dad,” she said out loud. “I miss you more than I knew I could miss someone. It’s really, really difficult.” Swallowing hard, she sat down in the leather chair behind his desk. Here she’d played under his feet as a child, while he conducted business calls; here she’d read many a book as a teenager, while her father met business associates. As a young woman, she had been an active hostess for her father and had discovered the business aspects of the winery came easily to her.

  “I’ve really let you down, Dad,” she whispered. “You said I was a stable one, and I went clean off the rails.”

  That was the hardest thing. She had let her father down.

  “But you’d love Emmie,” she said. “I’m not certain, but she seems to have your knack for getting what she wants.” Her breath was deep as she drew it in. “And I’m finally stumbling out of the wilderness. I won’t let you down anymore. But I wish you were here,” she said. “I met a man I fell in love with. You’d really like him, I know you would. You’d say he was full of crap and molasses, and that’s what you often said got you past your competitors.”

  She spun his chair to look out the window to the grounds below. “I’m sorry to admit I was too afraid to do anything about it.”

  A truck moved up to the monitored gate. She leaned forward, watching to see if the housekeeper would buzz for the truck to enter. The truck doors opened, and three men got out, staring over the wrought-iron security gate at the house.

  One of them was wearing jeans with one leg missing. Like Frisco.

  Frisco. She jumped to her feet, and went tearing down the spiral staircase. “Open the gate, Mrs. Dawson! Open the gate!”

  And then she flew outside, across the wide lawn, making it to the gate just as it opened wide enough for her to run through and jump into Frisco’s arms.

  He kissed her on the mouth, and she hung on in a manner that would make any rodeo rider proud. Way past eight seconds.

  And then slowly he put her down.

  “Well, that was worth the drive,” Tex said.

  “A plus,” Last said, “If you ask me.”

  Which no one did.

  She gazed into Frisco’s eyes, unable to stop holding his hands. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “Next time you decide to roll, could you at least leave a trail of bread crumbs? I was scared to death I wouldn’t find you.”

  Annabelle smiled. “I’m home now. No more rolling.”

  Frisco looked up at the big house. “Well, it’s impressive and all, but too big for one woman and one tiny baby.”

  “Oh? What do you think I should do about that?”

  “We could spend the night here,” Last suggested. “I think I see a golf course out back. A big, snakey looking one with dog legs and tricky rough. I’ve always wanted to play on a course like that.”

  “Shh,” Tex said, knuckling him. “Go get back in the truck.”

  “What I think is that we should develop our friendship,” Frisco said to Annabelle, ignoring his brothers’ conversation.

  Slowly, he edged down, his bad leg bending to the side, so that he could rest on one knee. Annabelle held his hand tightly, trying to help support him, her heart blooming so big she didn’t think she could breathe.

  “I’d like you to be my best friend, Annabelle Turnberry, in all moments in our lives, good, bad and ugly. Through ice storms, broken limbs, Never Lonely Cut-n-Gurls and babies who cry in the night.” He stared up at her, with love in his dark-brown eyes. “But mostly, I’m asking you to be my wife, because I love you, and goodness knows, you and Emmie grabbed my heart right out of my chest when I wasn’t looking and I’m praying you’ll keep it. And me.”

  “Awkward, but the best he could do,” Last whispered to Tex. “For a man unused to expressing himself, he’s doing all right, doncha think?”

  “Shh,” Tex said. “I can’t hear.”

  But there was nothing else to hear, because Annabelle got down on her knees and whispered something for Frisco’s ears alone, and then she slowly helped him to his feet. She fitted herself up under his arm, and supporting him, they walked through Turnberry’s monitored gate.

  Frisco reached out as they passed the brick columns supporting the gate and pushed a button, never looking back. The gate slid shut behind them.

  “Hey! What about us?” Last called. “What about the golf course?”

  Laredo laughed. Tex pulled his younger sibling away from the fence.

  “That was the point,” Laredo said. “They just left us behind. Be happy, bro,” he said to Frisco with a last glance at the big house. “You and Annabelle and Emmie deserve that happy-ever-after.”

  ANNABELLE LAUGHED AS Frisco tried to carry her over the threshold. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  “I’m not. I’m a big, tough, strong cowboy.”

  “I love my big, tough, strong cowboy.”

  “And I love you, whoever you were, are and turn out to be.”

  For a woman who had just discovered who she was in life, his words were powerful. “You have no idea how much you mean to me, Frisco Joe Jefferson.”

  They kissed, long and sweetly—until they heard Emmie let out a little cry.

  “She must know you’re here,” Annabelle said with a smile.

  “True happiness is when a man walks in the house to have his wife and daughter cry out for him,” Frisco said, putting his arm around her. “Take me to my demanding daughter—and then we’re going to have a treasure hunt. How many rooms does this shack have?”

  “I don’t know. More than twenty,” she said, laughing at the meaningful expression on his face. “Why?”

  “Can you count to twenty, Annabelle?”

  “If you give me a week,” she said, leaning up against him, her heart full of happiness.

  “I’m giving you a lifetime.”

  Annabelle turned to look up at her father’s portrait in the stairwell. “See, Dad? I told you you’d like him. Crap and molasses. Big promises, sweet talk and sticking
power.”

  The recipe for success.

  Epilogue

  Annabelle smiled at her husband as he lay in a hammock on the grounds of the Turnberry estate. Emmie snoozed in the hammock beside him, which made Annabelle’s heart warm in every corner. “I worried that you’d have trouble settling in here, Frisco. I was so afraid you’d miss your brothers. And Malfunction Junction.”

  “Worry not, lady love.” Without joggling Emmie, Frisco snagged his wife, pulling her down on top of him. He kissed her, slow and long.

  It had only been a month since the wedding, but every time Frisco grabbed Annabelle and kissed her like this, Annabelle felt certain no woman was as lucky as she. “You make me tingle all over,” she told him.

  “Then I’m not doing something right. You should be feeling sparks, lady. That’s what I feel when you walk into a room. And I don’t even want to put a name to what I feel when you walk into a room naked.”

  She laughed. “Have I done that?”

  “Not often enough. But we’ve got plenty of time. And I’m a very patient man. I’ll be around for any nudity twitches you suddenly develop.”

  She smiled up at him. “And if I don’t?”

  He kissed her forehead and then her lips. “I know how to work a zipper. Buttons, bra straps, none of that can stand in the way of a man determined to hold his beloved.”

  “Am I? Your beloved?” she asked, knowing full well the answer but wanting to hear it anyway.

  “Nah,” he said.

  She giggled. “Frisco!”

  “Kiss me and maybe I’ll rethink that.”

  She kissed the teasing smile right off his face.

  “Wow,” he said when they finally pulled apart. “You’re my beloved and then some!”

  “Did you feel sparks?” she whispered.

  “I felt sparks, and I felt magic, and I felt love, Annabelle. I love you so much.”

  Frisco laid Annabelle’s head on his chest. Quietly the three of them swung in the hammock, enjoying the gentle breeze. The warm afternoon sun. The happiness and peace of being together.

  And being in love.

  You were right, Dad, Frisco thought, closing his eyes as he held his new family. Home is what a man feels in his heart.