Sweet Texas Kiss (Sweet Texas Secrets)

by Monica Tillery

  She crossed her arms protectively over her chest and jumped back. “I didn’t know you were home yet.”

  Without makeup and with her hair hanging in loose waves around her face, Macy was disappointingly gorgeous. All his life, Gavin had wanted to be married, have a family, build a life with someone, preferably in this very house. Having a beautiful woman in the kitchen looking right at home as he planned dinner was too close to ideal for comfort. If she hadn’t been the one person standing between him and his dreams, he’d own up to how much he’d like to slide his hands under her shirt, or how her wet hair would feel between his fingers. Instead, he kept those thoughts to himself and arranged his expression into one of neutral disinterest.

  “Obviously.” What next? He didn’t want to encourage too much friendliness. “How was your visit with Mr. Procter?”

  Her face lit up, a brief moment of joy so beautiful it reminded him of when they were kids. “It was amazing. The kids were awesome, so much more mature and thoughtful than I expected. It was a good visit.”

  “Did you check your purse to make sure you still had your wallet when you left?” It was again immature, but knocking the wind out of her sails a bit made him feel better. He’d be mature when she was gone.

  She rolled her eyes. “Is everything about me a joke to you? The kids were great, the afternoon was great, the only bad thing about it was having to come home to you.”

  He took a long sip of water from the bottle. “You didn’t have to.”

  “If you hate being with me so much, you should get out of my house.” She turned and stalked away, stomping through the living room and up the stairs.

  He didn’t want to watch her as she left, but somehow he wasn’t able to tear his eyes away from her retreating form. Fortunately, he didn’t give in to what his body begged him to do and blindly follow her; he would’ve tripped over the cowboy boots she’d left on the floor. Did this woman know how to pick up after herself?

  Loud music blasted from her room upstairs after she slammed the door. Seriously, it was like living with a teenager. There was no way she played music that loudly when she was home alone.

  Silence—cold, lonely silence—was the norm for folks who rattled around in five thousand square feet of bedrooms and living rooms by themselves.

  • • •

  The next day, Grayson slipped into the seat opposite Gavin in the booth at Sweet Ridge’s popular new lunch spot, Praline Park Café. The midday crowd noshed on salads and sandwiches, happily chatting, highlighting the fact that the Cooper brothers were alone in their troubles. Gavin absentmindedly tapped the envelope of photos from his father’s safe-deposit box as he scanned the menu.

  “Hey,” he greeted his brother. “I haven’t ordered anything yet. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to try the guacamole here.” The Cooper family made it their mission to sample guacamole whenever the opportunity presented itself, a tradition going back to childhood. It was the only way to make sure that Guac Olé produced the best dip, and if they ever tasted one that was better, they made a family game out of figuring out why.

  Grayson laughed. “I’ve had it here, and it’s nothing compared to ours. I’ve been working out a way to branch into commercial services, and part of my proposal is compiling a list of restaurants in town where Guac Olé dips would fit best. This place is on top.”

  “I’d think most places around here would be open to it.” Gavin scanned the menu, trying to decide between a cheeseburger and a club sandwich. When the waitress approached, they both ordered the café’s signature own vanilla rose iced tea.

  “I agree, but I won’t be happy until I get things in motion. Unless they’re making it in-house as some kind of specialty or prepping it tableside, I don’t see why any local restaurant wouldn’t want to serve our dip, so it seems like a no-brainer. Once I get every place in town on board, I’ll start a new list of avenues we can explore to get Guac Olé on every table in Texas, and then the country. Honestly, though, until I figure out how to get my shares back from Becca, it’s a little harder to be as enthusiastic about it.”

  “Yeah, going from the brink of owning the whole thing to not even owning a single share sucks. Makes you wonder not only what Dad was thinking, but if all the work leading up to now has even been worth it. He had to have known that a big part of the reason you’ve always been so invested in the company was that you knew you’d own it someday.”

  The waitress returned with their iced teas, and they each ordered the café’s colossal cheeseburgers. Grayson took a sip of his drink and sank back into the vinyl cushion lining the booth. “Believe me, I’ve thought about sending out résumés more than once this week. I didn’t make Guac Olé my entire life to lose it all like this. If I’m going to just work somewhere, it could be anywhere. I feel like a fool for carrying on like nothing has changed, when it’s clear that I’m completely replaceable. And by a floor supervisor with no marketing or upper-management experience, at that.”

  Gavin put the envelope of pictures on the table. “I Skyped with Gage last night and sent him copies of all the pictures. I can e-mail you the scans, as well, if you like. He’s going to try to make arrangements to meet with Charlotte Wilkinson, who sounds like a real piece of work, and maybe we’ll have some answers soon.”

  “Maybe Charlotte is the mystery woman. Then we can at least put together some of the pieces and start to figure out what Dad was thinking.” Grayson slipped the pictures from the envelope and flipped through them, carefully considering the details of each before moving on to the next. If only the pictures and their dad’s request for Gavin to pick them up made more sense. It felt like he was trying to explain the sudden changes with the inheritance, but there were no answers. And the token gifts remained a mystery, as well. Grayson’s strawberry charm had nothing to do with losing the business, Gage’s key hadn’t opened anything they’d tried yet, and Gavin still had no idea what the glasses were for. Their father had been an up-front and open man with them all their lives. What had changed?

  The waitress delivered their burgers, refilled their drinks, and left them to enjoy lunch. The burger hit the spot, the perfectly cooked patty melding with melty cheese and crisp toppings to momentarily distract him from the family’s troubles. If the mystery woman in the pictures was Charlotte, they’d know that their dad was motivated by romance. The problem with that theory was that Gavin couldn’t recall Dad ever mentioning Charlotte’s name. For such a personable and well-regarded man, Jack Cooper had surprisingly few romantic relationships in the years after his wife’s death.

  Well, Gavin would root for Gage to convince this Charlotte to sign over his land, but Grayson probably had the best chance of the three of them of getting his originally promised inheritance. Surely, he could make Becca an incredible offer for her shares, and he’d be back on top. She had no experience in running a company, had been living on a floor supervisor’s salary, and would likely be thrilled to be bought out. Only he would have trouble remedying his situation. He had been too cold to Macy to hope that she’d relent and let him buy the house. She got under his skin, catching him off guard and making it impossible for him to keep his cool and strategize. And being under the same roof with her meant that he had to be on guard, keeping his old attraction to her in check while trying not to let his anger toward her for her role in Tori’s death take over.

  Things would be so much easier if she’d just go back to the hotel.

  “I stopped in to pick up donuts from Betty Lou, and she said she saw you and Macy together.” Grayson dipped a crispy fry in the restaurant’s house-made honey mustard-barbeque dipping sauce and popped it in his mouth. Grayson picked up donuts from Betty Lou’s any chance he got. The Cooper boys couldn’t get enough of Betty Lou’s famous donuts now that they were free to pop into the diner whenever they wanted. They never got to go to Betty Lou’s when they were kids, as much as they’d begged their parents. Dad had declared that the family needed to cut costs and dug in his heels about skipping
small extravagances like diner donuts, which seemed like a lame excuse to Gavin at the time. But in the Cooper family, Mom and Dad were the bosses and there was no arguing once they laid down the law.

  “How’s that going?”

  “It sucks. She’s staying at the house, and she won’t leave. I can’t get away from her. And as though it’s not bad enough to have her living under the same roof, I’ve seen her in town every day since we ran into her at Silver Spurs. It’s ridiculous, like every time I turn around, she’s right there.”

  “Have you thought about just coming out and asking to buy the house? It’s probably too bold to try to get her to just sign it over, but don’t you think she’d sell it for a reasonable price? I mean, there’s no way she wants to commute to Nashville, and I doubt she wants to quit her job. I know she has to wait the twelve months, but maybe you could rent it from her in the meantime.”

  “I doubt it. She wanted me to move out, but I convinced her to let me stay, and I haven’t exactly been welcoming. It’s so hard to be cordial to the woman who owns the house that should belong to me, and with our history, I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around even seeing her again. I wouldn’t be surprised if she held on to it, even if she never sets foot in town again, just to spite me. I’m probably going to have to move out, so I may need to start looking at real estate.”

  “Any chance you can turn it around?” Grayson asked. Did he not hear Gavin just say how poorly things had been going?

  “Turn it around how? Suddenly start being nice to her?”

  “Yes. Exactly. Maybe turn on the charm. Too bad you can’t seduce her.” Grayson looked thoughtful—maybe trying to romance a woman to get what he wanted was a real possibility. For Grayson. “I know you used to have a crush on her. Maybe try to bring up those old feelings to see if you can at least start thinking of her in a positive way again, just long enough to make nice and get her to sell you the house.”

  “That’s probably pushing it. She never knew I had a crush on her, so it would seem like it was coming from out of the blue. Even if I tried to rekindle the friendship, I think she’d be suspicious. I’ve been pretty rude to her.” Gavin took a sip from his drink. “Plus, I’m a horrible actor, and I don’t think she’d buy it.”

  “Then don’t act.” Grayson sat back, like it was that easy. “Just get over yourself for once and maybe be human, treat her like the friend she used to be. You never talk about Tori, but it might do you both good. It could be helpful for you to have someone else who was close to her to talk to, you know? That’s something you two have in common that nobody else has. You could apologize and offer to start over, really turn on the charm.”

  “Easier said than done. We haven’t been friends for a long time, and too much has happened to change that.”

  “Seriously? If you can honestly say that you still worry about her being valedictorian instead of you, then I’d understand.” Grayson polished off his fries and chewed thoughtfully. “Otherwise, you’re just grasping at straws. As far as I can tell, you’ve been able to achieve everything you set out to do, and anything that’s still left undone is because of you. Not her.”

  “Okay, fair enough. No one has ever asked me if I graduated first in my class.” He had to laugh. Talking about it out loud made the whole thing seem incredibly petty, and he didn’t really care who finished first in high school anymore. He’d carried the resentment for her role in Tori’s death around for years, though, and it wasn’t as easy as simply dropping that. “It doesn’t change the fact that she cheated to get ahead and didn’t even apologize. Or go to college, which seems to me to be the natural next step after working so hard to graduate first in our class. And she’s not acting like getting our dad’s house is strange in the least.”

  “Being second instead of first doesn’t matter, so what’s the problem then?”

  Gavin didn’t believe in wearing his heart on his sleeve, so naturally Gray had no idea what kind of crap he’d just stepped into, and given their predicament with the will, he didn’t have the option of letting little bro wander around spreading the shit on his boots everywhere. He’d have to share his reasons; only a complete asshole would let his family continue to believe that he couldn’t get along with Macy just because she was valedictorian instead of him.

  “I blame her for Tori’s death.” He glared at his little brother. “Happy now?”

  Grayson sat back, as though the glare physically hit him. “What? I thought she died in a car accident.”

  “She did.”

  “Well, how is that Macy’s fault?”

  Gavin was instantly sorry he’d opened this can of worms.

  He kept his eyes trained on his hands, not answering. What could he say? Tori was gone, and Macy didn’t stop her, end of story.

  Finally realizing Gavin wouldn’t say any more, Grayson spoke up. “I think you’re going to have to put that aside, as tough as it might be. Surely Macy having to live with whatever she could or couldn’t have done to save Tori is punishment enough. You’ve got to forgive her.”

  With a sigh, he finally looked up at Grayson. “I don’t think I can.”

  “Well, as far as I’m concerned, any argument you lay out is irrelevant. Do you want the house or not?” Grayson spread his hands. The situation really was as simple as doing what he had to do to get what he wanted or letting it go because of ancient history. Could he forgive Macy? It was so hard because she would never take responsibility, much less apologize. And she didn’t exactly owe Gavin an apology, so he wasn’t going to get satisfaction. The best he could do would be to try to forget it, try to move forward, away from the past.

  “Of course I do. It’s all I’ve always wanted.” The thought that someone, anyone, else could own it was devastating.

  Gavin had never stopped to consider that he’d have to justify his claim. Even when his dad was healthy, Gavin knew that he would someday own the family home, had never pictured a future in which he didn’t. The house was synonymous with the Cooper name and legacy. He couldn’t hand it over to Macy without even trying to fight for it.

  “Then you’re going to have to make your peace with everything and make up with Macy.”

  Gavin rubbed the back of his neck, tensing with the thought. “I don’t know, man.”

  “I don’t see any other way. Plus, it’s not like you have to make it work long-term. Just figure out a way to get along with her while she’s in town.”

  “You’re right. She’s got to go back home soon.” Gavin finished his burger, starting to get comfortable with the idea as he realized it could really work. “I could probably manage to be nice to her for a little while. Long enough for her to warm up to me and hear me out. I’ll offer her a fair price, take the house off her hands, and everyone will walk away happy.”

  “Sounds easy enough.” Grayson nodded his thanks to the waitress as she topped off his iced tea. “All you’ll have to do is treat her like the friends you once were.”

  “I’m a charming guy, right? This should be no problem.” Gavin wiped his hands on a napkin, ready to get through the workday and try out Grayson’s idea.

  His little brother scoffed. “Don’t rely on your charming personality, dude. You want this to work.”

  • • •

  Kelly was outside her flower shop, polishing the window in front of the display of Sweet Ridge Founders’ Day arrangements.

  “Hey, girl. What’s going on?” she greeted Macy.

  “Hey, Kelly. I was just going to grab some coffee from Betty Lou’s before I head over to the Cooper house.”

  “Are you going to put it on the market?” She squinted into the sunlight.

  “You know, I was going to. Now that I’m here, I’m not so sure what I want. It’s probably stupid, but something is stopping me.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “If I was smart, I’d just go home and forget all about it. My contract for America’s Next Country Star is up soon, and my agent is hunting for new opportunit
ies. It looks like they’ll be offering me another five years, and I’ll probably take it, but you never know. I do know I’m not getting anywhere wandering around Sweet Ridge. It’s like I’m avoiding going back.”

  “Maybe your gut is telling you to do something besides work in Nashville.”

  “Maybe. Part of me wants to just crawl into bed at the hotel and watch TV. Lord knows it would be easier than staying at the house with Gavin.”

  “I wondered if he would move out. Guess not. How’s that going?” Kelly picked loose leaves off the rim of a bucket of daisies, looking much more casual than the subject, or her interest in it.

  “It’s really strange. We were friends in high school, but that doesn’t matter at all. Sometimes he’s mean to me, and sometimes he can be nice. Mostly it’s stressful to practically live with him, but I don’t want to let him make me so uncomfortable that I rush into making a decision I’ll regret.”

  “Sounds like sticking around for a while is a good idea. If nothing else, it’s got to be nice to have a little break, right?”

  “Sure, it is. I just don’t want to get too comfortable here.” Macy sighed. “The truth is that I’m tired. I love working on the show, but it only films part of the year, and auditioning for other shows is exhausting. It’s too tempting to draw things out here and put off going back.”

  “I had no idea.” Kelly stopped rearranging the flowers and laid a sympathetic hand on Macy’s arm.

  “Nobody knows, really. If you’re on TV, people assume that everything is perfect. It’s not.” She should be happy for the opportunities that she still had, and she was, but she wasn’t fulfilled. Not like when she and Tori were collaborating, anyway.

  “Then maybe Mr. Cooper leaving you the house was the perfect thing. You can have a place always ready for you whenever you need a getaway.”