One Tough Texan

by MJ Rodgers

  “You got a visitor.”

  Matt immediately took note of Charlene’s phraseology. If it had been a client, she would have given the person’s name. A pesky sales type was a solicitor. But Charlene had used none of those labels. Nope, she had said, visitor.

  And in Charlene’s vocabulary, visitor meant family, friend or foe.

  “Which is it?” Matt asked, knowing Charlene loved this game and that the only way out of it was to indulge her.

  “She’s a surprise. And she’s listening in on this here conversation, so you might as well invite her on in, being as she’s knows you’re in there and all.”

  Matt shook his head. He’d told Charlene that he’d wring her neck the next time she pulled something like this on him. And damn it, he didn’t care if she was his favorite aunt—as well as his secretary. She was going to get her neck wrung.

  “Bring her on in, Charlene,” Matt said, flipping off the intercom as he turned to face the door.

  Charlene hustled through a moment later, her arms gyrating around her five-nine wrestler’s body as if she were a baton twirler leading a band. When Matt saw the petite, graceful woman in the silk suit and high heels who glided in beside her, he suddenly found he couldn’t move a muscle.

  Charlene caught the unguarded expression in the instant it flashed over his face. Her resulting smug look said she knew she was in no danger of being strangled this morning. She marched out the door, closing it behind her.

  “Been a long time, Matt,” Jamie said, stepping forward.

  Jamie’s slightly husky voice felt like pure raw silk against Matt’s ears. Her long, butter-colored hair churned down her shoulders in soft, thick waves. Her eyes were the precise shade of .the spring bluebonnets blooming over the Texas hills.

  Matt’s insides ached like a big, old scar at the beginning of a brand-new rain.

  He gave no verbal response to her greeting. He couldn’t. He simply nodded and motioned her into a chair.

  He remained standing, purposely refocusing his eyes on the papers strewn across his desk. But the shock of her being here had his mind drifting back to that day five years before, when he’d come home to San Antonio after a four-year stint in military intelligence. He’d been pleasantly bone weary from traveling around the world dabbling in a daring deed or two. He was. looking forward to kicking back and being a plain, old cowboy again for a few weeks before accepting his new job.

  And then, suddenly, there was Jamie, standing by the railing on his mama’s and daddy’s ranch.

  Matt had stopped dead in his tracks and stared. For how long he had no idea. The moment was fixed-would always be fixed-in an endless space of time.

  She was wearing a light cream silk dress that bared her slim shoulders and billowed up her thighs in the hot afternoon breeze. Her smiling face was lifted to the sun like a worshipping flower.

  Matt’s eyes followed hungrily as the sunlight rained hot kisses across the milky skin of her face and throat and churned through her long, butter-colored hair.

  She turned directly to him, just as though she had been waiting for him. The instant their eyes locked, Matt knew with a certainty and a clarity he had never experienced before or since that this was the woman-the only woman-for him.

  And then his brother, Cade, stepped onto the porch and introduced Jamie as his fiancée. That was the day Matt had learned the true meaning behind the words “brotherly love.”

  “So, how you been, Matt?”

  Jamie’s question snapped Matt’s mind into the present.

  He had himself back in control. He treated her to that polite, formal mask that he’d been wearing ever since Cade’s introduction had made anything else between them impossible.

  “Something I can do for you, Jamie?”

  An amused smile twisted her lips. “There you go. Right to business. One day you’re going to smile at me or ask me how I’ve been, Matt Bonner, and it’ll probably shock me right off my chair.”

  His reserved manner always seemed to amuse her. She had never understood how hard it was for him to keep his distance.

  From that first day, she’d tried to kid him out of his formality, get him to loosen up, let down his guard. She should count her blessings that she hadn’t succeeded.

  “I assumed this wasn’t a social call,” Matt said evenly. “And that your time was valuable.”

  She looked as bedeviled and disappointed as always, when her teasing with him didn’t get the response she’d hoped to elicit.

  “I know your time is valuable, Matt. I suppose I should’ve called first and not just dropped in like this. Truth is, I need you to locate someone for me.”

  “I’m not a regular private investigator. I deal exclusively in finding lost loves. Mothers looking for children they had to give up for adoption years before. Children looking for the mothers who gave them up. Childhood sweethearts who’ve lost track of each other. Brothers and sisters who were separated as children and scattered to the winds. These are the folks I try to bring back together.”

  “I realize that, Matt. Liz talks about you and your cases all the time.”

  Matt should have known his sister would. Every time he had dinner at his folks’ ranch, Liz went on and on about Jamie and what she was doing. Liz’s friendship with Jamie was as strong as ever, despite the fact that Jamie and Cade had untied the knot.

  “It’s knowing of your firm’s specialty that brought me here,” Jamie said.

  Matt’s curiosity had him asking the next question before he thought it through. “You’re looking for a lost love?”

  “He’s someone I met a long time ago. Before Cade.”

  Matt circled his desk and sat down. Just great. She was looking for a man. The last thing he wanted to hear about was one of her old lovers. And the last thing he wanted to do was to go out and find him. If she was determined to look up this guy, then she was just going to have to do it without him.

  “I’ll give you the names of a couple of local P.I.’s who can help you,” Matt said.

  A thick, uncomfortable quiet followed his words. He didn’t look at her. He rummaged through the Rolodex, searching for the names of those other P.I.’s.

  “I don’t understand,” she said at the end of that quiet. “This is just the kind of case you handle. Why are you sending me to somebody else?”

  “We’re in a crunch here at the present.”

  “Charlene said this was your light season.”

  “It’s still right busy.”

  “Matt, are you angry at me?”

  Her question brought his eyes briefly to her face. “Why would you think I was angry?”

  “Even Cade still gives me a smile and a hug.”

  Matt didn’t even want to think about what that smile and hug must be costing Cade. He knew what it would be costing him if he had lost Jamie.

  “I am not angry at you, Jamie.”

  “Then, what is it about me that you seriously don’t like?”

  Matt reached into his right desk drawer. He drew out a pad of paper and set it on the desk. He jotted down the names of the P.I.’s. When he looked up at her, he was careful to keep a polite, distant look on his face.

  “There is nothing about you I don’t like,” he said simply, formally and only too truthfully. He held out the paper. She didn’t take it.

  “Then why won’t you help me?”

  “Because, I couldn’t face my brother if I were instrumental in getting you together with some other man.”

  Her eyes darkened with puzzlement. “Why would that matter to Cade?”

  Lord, she said that with such innocence! There had always been a lamentable streak of emotional naiveté about Jamie, which continued to floor-and at times infuriate-Matt.

  “How would you feel if I introduced Cade to your best friend and the two of them started dating?” Matt asked.

  Jamie laughed and her eyes sparkled with the amusement. “Not a good analogy, Matt. Liz is my best friend.”

  He could feel
the joy of her laughter bubbling inside him. He always could. It was just another one of the reasons he had avoided her company over the past five years.

  “You know what I mean,” he said, recognizing the old retaliatory gruffness that had begun to take over his tone.

  “Matt, I hope Cade falls madly in love with someone who makes him real happy.”

  “You’ll feel differently if and when something like that actually happens.”

  “No, I won’t. I love Cade, but just as a friend.”

  “Folks who have been married and then divorced can never be just friends.”

  The corners of her mouth lifted in amusement. “Is that a fact? And this wise and worldly proclamation is coming from a man who’s still single at the ripe old age of thirty-five, right?”

  Her amusement at this observation rubbed a particularly sensitive spot. He delivered his next words with a growl.

  “Are your memories of this other lover what caused the breakup of your marriage to my brother?”

  He regretted his retaliation as soon as he saw the immediate dimming of that merry light in her eyes. She said nothing for a moment, then a small sigh of regret escaped her lips.

  “I talked to Liz, your folks and Cade when I called out to the ranch this morning. Cade was the one who first suggested I stop by the office to get your help. I told him I’d have to pay you. He laughed and said that was all right because you were probably going to be mercenary enough to take my money. So you see, Cade’s okay with this.”

  Like hell he is, Matt thought. Cade has his pride, Jamie. He couldn’t tell you how he really felt. You don’t know what it’s like to love, if you think it can be just switched off like that.

  Matt had fully intended to use Cade as the reason for not taking her case. He could see now that wasn’t going to be possible. Cade’s pride and her obtuseness were both working against him.

  Only thing he could do was find this lover of hers and get this business over with quickly. He put aside the paper with the names of the other P.I’s and poised his pen over a blank sheet.

  “Who is he?”

  “Tony Lagarrigue. L-A-G-A-R-R-I-G-U-E.”

  Matt wrote it down. “Middle name or initial?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Age?”

  “Same as me. Thirty.”

  “Birth date?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Last known address?”

  “Sweetspring, Texas.”

  “Your hometown?”

  “I’m surprised you remembered.”

  She’d be even more surprised to know he couldn’t forget one single damn detail about her. And why he couldn’t.

  “When did you last see Tony Lagarrigue?”

  “When he left Sweetspring.”

  “And how long ago was that?”

  “Fifteen years.”

  Matt put down his pen. “Are you saying you haven’t seen him in fifteen years?”

  “Yes.”

  Matt hadn’t expected this relationship to have been one that ended so young. Surely, no one took a fifteen-year-old infatuation seriously? At least not fifteen years later. Maybe he had been reading more into this than what was there.

  “Why do you want to find this Tony after all this time?”

  Jamie paused to finger a cheap gold-colored locket hanging around her neck. Matt was surprised to see her wearing it. Her jewelry was normally exquisite and genuine, like the lady.

  “I’m curious about what’s become of him,” she said.

  “How long did you know him?”

  “A few weeks.”

  “What happened during that time to make Tony so memorable?”

  Jamie frowned and looked down at her hands. Matt recognized the gesture and hesitation for the stall it was. He’d never known Jamie to have to think about her answers before. After a moment she raised her eyes to his. There was almost a haunted look to them-something he’d never seen before, either.

  “Tony’s family moved to Sweetspring when I was fifteen. We got to know each other. He took me to my first school dance. Then his family moved away. They left so fast, I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye. I’ve always wondered what happened to Tony. Where he went. What he’s doing now.”

  “This fifteen-year-old Tony apparently made quite an impression on you.”

  She smiled. “He did.”

  Matt hated the guy already.

  “Who were his folks?”

  “His mama’s name was Erline. She was a homemaker.”

  “And his daddy?”

  “Oscar. He sold insurance.”

  “What else can you tell me about them?”

  “Not a whole lot. Tony took me by the house and introduced me one day when he walked me home. Their names were on the mailbox. I only saw them the one time. They were real nice folks.”

  “I don’t suppose you have a picture of Tony?”

  “Not a real good one,” Jamie said, slipping her hand into her purse and bringing out a small white envelope. She handed it to him.

  Matt wondered how many thirty-year-old women still had a picture of their fifteen-year-old heartthrob in their purse. Damn this adolescent Don Juan who could leave her with such lasting memories!

  Matt knew he was thinking like a jealous fool. Well, hell, he was a jealous fool.

  Matt dug into the envelope and pulled out a full-length vertical shot of a kid in dress shirt and pants. The picture had obviously been torn in several pieces and taped back together. It was an unposed indoor shot taken under artificial light by a Polaroid camera. Tony was looking slightly off to the left but his features were in focus.

  “He was fifteen, then,” Jamie said.

  Matt studied the photo. Tony Lagarrigue had dark hair, dark eyes, blemish-free skin, clean features, straight teeth. Matt knew it was too much to hope for that this guy was now bald and fat.

  “I’ll need to keep this for now,” he said.

  “Okay.”

  “You realize it’s likely Tony’s married and bouncing a kid or two on his knee?” he said.

  “More than likely,” she agreed, calmly.

  “And yet you still want me to find him?”

  “I don’t want to cause him any trouble, Matt. I just want to see him again and talk to him.”

  “To reminisce about old times? Or to see if that fifteen-year-old flame is still burning?”

  “Do you always grill your clients this way?”

  She had asked the question calmly, without a trace of rancor or reproach, despite the fact that she had been entitled to both. His comment had been way out of line.

  Matt took a deep breath and silently cursed himself.

  He moved his chair until he was facing the computer monitor that occupied the far edge of his desk.

  Matt had positioned his screen so that someone sitting in front of his desk—as Jamie was—couldn’t see the system he was accessing and how he was accessing it. A moment later the reply flashed in front of him.

  “There are two Anthony Lagarrigues holding state drivers’ licenses. One is twenty and the other is sixty-two. Obviously, neither is your Tony.”

  “You have computer access to drivers’ license files?” Jamie asked, obviously surprised.

  “I’m a private investigator,” Man said cryptically and then quickly moved on. “Let’s try Oscar and Erline.”

  Matt entered the request.

  “No Oscar or Erline,” he said. “I’m going to check something else.”

  He keyed in a special access code that got him onto another computer system.

  “There are two Anthony Lagarrigues with Texas telephone numbers,” he said after a moment. “But from their addresses it’s obvious they’re the same two we found in the drivers’ license search. There’s no listing for an Oscar or Erline Lagarrigue. He won’t be easy to find if he’s moved out of state.”

  “But you’ll find him.”

  Matt heard the complete confidence riding her tone. He l
ooked up to see the warm smile she was sending him. The sunlight from the window slipped into the blue of her eyes and turned her skin to cream, her hair to gold dust.

  God, he ached to touch her! But he couldn’t. Not ever. For there was still Cade. There would always be Cade.

  Matt knew it made no difference that Cade and Jamie had split. Had the situation been reversed and Matt had been the one who lost Jamie, Cade wouldn’t dream of taking a step toward her, no matter what he felt. A brother did not move in on his brother’s wife. Or ex-wife. There could be no worse betrayal.

  “How much will you need as a retainer?” she asked.

  “My regular fee is a hundred dollars a day plus expenses,” Matt heard an annoyingly gruff voice say and realized that it was his own. He had no idea why he had even quoted that amount. His regular fee was a heck of a lot more than that.

  His behavior was becoming as erratic as his pulse.

  “I’ll write you out a check,” Jamie said reaching into her

  purse again. “How much in advance?”

  He had no intention of taking money from her. A man didn’t take money from a woman who stirred the kind of emotions this one had always stirred inside him. He looked away from her to the papers on his desk and pretended interest in one.

  “When I start on the case, I’ll let you know,” he said.

  “When you start on the case?”

  “I have other matters that need attention. It’ll be a few days.”

  “I was hoping you could get started right away.”

  “You haven’t seen this guy in fifteen years. Surely you can wait a few more days?”

  “No, I…I don’t want to wait. I’ve taken this week and next as vacation. I don’t have much time to find him.”

  There was an uncharacteristic tone in Jamie’s voice that returned Matt’s eyes to her face. He watched her shift in her chair. She stared down at the half-written check.

  And that was when Matt saw what he realized he should have seen from the first, would have seen from the first if his damn emotions hadn’t been getting in the way. Jamie didn’t just want to see this guy. She had to see him.

  Matt leaned across the desk toward her. “What is it? Why can’t you wait?”