I startled myself as I breathed a sob. Liam pulled me tightly in to his side and placed a kiss in my hair.
“I didn’t come here to upset you. If you want, I would be happy to do a DNA test, but there is no doubt in my mind you are my daughter.”
“Now hold on, Mister,” Davis warned again. Mr. Hadley turned to address him.
“I would have insisted on being in her life if I’d only known Cathy got pregnant. She never told me. I would have come for Kelly the minute Cathy got on the drugs. I would have come for my daughter when her mother died. I want nothing more than to get to know her, and hopefully let her meet my family if she wants to.”
“Kelly?” Ellen called, moving around Liam. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, then I met her gaze. “Yes, yes…I’m fine.” Turning to my father--yes, I knew, in my heart, he was my biological father--I said, “Do I have any brothers or sisters?”
He shook his head. “After I went home to Arlington, I married my high school sweetheart. We’ve been married nineteen years. We found out several years ago that she couldn’t have children. I told her about you, when I realized…” he finished on a whisper. “She’s over the moon, and she’s hoping you will be open to meeting her, and getting to know us. I promise you, Kelly, that’s all I want. I want for us to get to know each other, and hopefully build a relationship.”
I had a father. I never, ever imagined I would ever know who my real father was, and now he was standing in front of me. I had my mother’s complexion and her delicate features, but there was no denying I had his thick, dark hair and his brown, wide-set eyes.
Davis cleared his throat, resigned. “Well, boys, daylight’s burning. Liam, saddle-up and let’s get going. I’ll bet Momma’s got some lemonade made, and it’s a perfect afternoon to swing a bit,” he said with a half grin as he nodded to the large porch swing at the end of the porch. Then he nodded once to my father. “I’m Davis, Liam’s father. Nice to meet you. We’ll be back after a bit, throw some steaks on. Stay for supper, and we’ll see who can out-spoil a grandchild.”
And with his comment, he turned his horse and headed toward the creek. Liam turned to me, his eyebrows raised in question. I nodded, smiled through my tears, and rose on my tiptoes to give him a quick kiss.
“You good?” he asked, glancing back at Mr. Hadley--my father.
I nodded. Yes, I was good. Looking to the porch, I could tell Liam was processing how many people he was leaving around me to step in if I needed them. Ellen smiled encouragingly from the porch, her arm lovingly back around Chelsea. Aaron and Bud lingered on the porch, inconspicuously lounging in chairs on the far end and always watching protectively over us.
And for the first time in my life, my daddy took my hand in his large, warm grasp and led me to the front-porch swing, where we spent a hot, sunny Texas afternoon.
Epilogue
Fifteen Years Later
M
om! You are so embarrassing,” Marley called, rolling her eyes. She and Sammy sat at the end of our row, huddled under a blanket and only peeking out when the crowd noise reached a fever pitch.
“What? You didn’t see it? The referee totally missed a facemask call! It was right in front of him, an obvious penalty--he swung Masen in a three-sixty before he pulled him down!”
“And I’m sure he can hear you, over all the other screaming fans,” she huffed back at me, arms folded over her chest.
“I’m pretty sure they heard her. I’m pretty sure they heard her in Oklahoma too,” Tana teased, bumping me in my side.
“Like you don’t yell at the refs during Sean’s games,” I fired back.
“Well, that’s my man’s paycheck. This is only high school football.”
My eyes were then drawn back to the field as the crowd roared around us. “Go, Baby…go, Baby…run!” I screamed as I watched Masen once again catch a quick pass in the flat, turn and fake out a slower defensive back assigned to him, then barrel toward the end-zone.
“Sweet Jesus, Mom, my ears,” Marley complained, holding her mitten covered hands to her toboggan.
“Number twenty-one, Masen Covington in for the touchdown,” the announcer boomed. A chorus of female voices squealed in front of us in the student section as our cheerleaders did handsprings and jumps down the track beside the sideline.
“Mom…Mom, did you see? Masen totally rules!”
I turned to find my youngest child, our tomboy Tessa, tucked under her father’s arm.
“Where have you two been?” I asked, already knowing the answer. Whenever Liam watched Masen play, he couldn’t sit still. He and the other Covington men – Davis, Ethan and Buck, paced and worried at the top of the bleachers under the press box.
And wherever Liam was, Tessa was sure to be there. The only person she adored more than her daddy was her big brother. She proudly wore an exact copy of his jersey with “21” and “Covington” splayed on the back. And since her big brother had bought her a pee-wee helmet in the team colors, she hadn’t removed it unless we made her.
“Okay, that was painless,” Tana quipped, tapping her ears as if restarting them. “Now this is over, where are we gonna eat?”
“Cain and Able’s,” Tessa shouted, her hands raised over her head.
“You always want to eat there, turd,” Marley answered.
Liam leaned around Tana to kiss me, then turned to her. “Sean gonna meet us?”
“No, you know how it is in the season. He has a team thing, then they are flying to Green Bay tonight for the game tomorrow.”
“How about the County Line? Sean’s not here to side with me, but I’m hungry for some barbeque. Well, come on and spend a night with the fam,” he winked, throwing Tessa back over his shoulder.
We all pushed out of our seats in the bleachers – three entire rows of Covington clan, including my father and stepmother, to make our way up the isle to the top walkway. The only ones missing in our usual group were Sunni and Colt. After being married for ten years, Colt had finally hung his chaps up and retired from professional bull riding. Since Sunni had him home on their ranch and out of harm’s way, she’d decided it was time for a baby. They were at home with their two-month old, Jessie.
The players were all congregated on the field, holding hands, swaying to our school song as the opposing team looked on. It was Texas high school football tradition at its finest. I’d missed all this school spirit and tradition in my high school days, and yes, I was reliving the sweetness of my missed youth through my kids. I made no apologies for it.
Liam turned as he gained the top of the stairs, then glanced back to see what was holding us up. My eyes, now filled with tears watching the seniors sway with their arms around each other in the middle of the line, met Liam’s. He’d caught me absorbing yet another memory. His sweet smile reinforced his patience and understanding with my “mom moment.”
“Where’s Aunt Jen?” Marley asked, turning to survey the crowd. “She disappeared right before the end of the game.”
I scanned around us, then caught sight of her red sweater cap with the full trim of arctic fox blowing in the strong wind on the field. She had her purse on one arm, her booted foot cocked out at an angle, demurely tracing her toe over the white numbers painted on the ten-yard line as she smiled up at one of Masen’s coaches.
“I’ve got it,” Tana said, flipping her phone out. I watched as Jen dug in her purse, then found her phone and struggled to balance her purse and quilt as she answered, looking up into the stands in our direction.
“Yo, bitch, quit prowlin’ and get your cute cougar-ass up here. We’re starving,” Tana drawled as Sammy and Marley giggled at her. After a moment of eye rolls and nodding, she dropped her phone in her purse and turned back to us.
“She’ll meet us there. Add two more to the table count,” she huffed.
“That hot new coach?” Marley asked, starry eyed.
“What the hell?” Liam’s eyes narrowed on our beautiful, doe-eyed middle child. Liam was not dealing well
with our daughter’s sudden obsession with humans of the opposite sex. He switched his gaze to me, and I met it with a smirk and a small shake of my head.
“Aunt Jen deserves her fun. Why shouldn’t she look? And you’ve both got hot guys,” Marley defended Jen.
“You sayin’ your old-man’s hot?” Liam asked, amused.
“Ew, gross, dad,” Tessa complained.
I smiled at Liam, my heart warming. Yes, he was totally hot, even if he was a Texas State Senator, a businessman, and father of three children.
“I know I have a hot guy. But what about you?” I asked Tana, bumping her in the arm.
“Jury is still out,” she said, sighing.
“When the hell are y’all gonna seal the deal?” Ethan barked, hugging Chelsea from behind.
“When he decides it’s no longer good for business to be the lone-wolf, hot, single-dude quarterback,” Tana answered sadly.
Liam chuckled, then turned to Ethan. “Actually, when he gets his head out of his ass.”
“Dollar for the cuss jar, Daddy,” Tessa warned, holding her finger up.
“I think your college fund is sound, sweetie-pie. Ivy-league worthy, if he is anywhere near as hardheaded as G-paw,” Ellen said as she fell in rank with the younger Covingtons.
“The cuss jar can go. I think I’ve toned my mouth down pretty well for politics, if I can hold it to only a couple of ‘asses and sons-of-a-bitches’ a day,” Liam retorted.
“We’ll see if that gets ya in the Governor’s chair, Coving-stud,” Tana replied.
Liam was still the hottest thing in Texas politics. He loved the camera, and the hero stories followed him. But I think the greatest things drawing the voters to him was his true love for the game and the pursuit of the office.
He caught me studying him as we approached our vehicles in the parking lot and grinned his cocky grin.
“Baby, what are you thinking?”
I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the late afternoon crisp fall air and the smell of fall and football. “Just about how happy I am, and how I finally feel like I’m home – I belong.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You are home, Baby.”
Later, it seemed our party, once seated, took up the entire restaurant. And it almost did with the addition of Masen and a few of his buddies from the team. I took them all in, Liam’s family, my family, and the family we’d built together, and couldn’t help but think about how far I’d come.
I was aware Liam had been watching me since we left the game. As the buzz of conversation lulled, he lifted his chin at me and remarked, “You know, you’ve always been my greatest asset – my beautiful wife. Every picture of you in the papers in a smart suit, a ball gown, a cocktail dress or every time you gave another speech about violence against women or cut a ribbon at a women’s shelter meant another vote for me. Anytime a pregnant photo showed up, or a photo of you with the kids, it put me out there in the best light.” He paused as he pulled Tessa over into his lap, then turned back to me. “I hope you know I couldn’t have lived this life, served in office, or wouldn’t have been this man or have this beautiful family without you,” he murmured, pulling me in to his lips.
I sighed. And I was finally secure in the knowledge he was right.
I felt the tears gather in my eyes as I watched my father raise his glass to me as Liam finished.
I turned back to Liam and cleared my throat. “Think another baby bump watch will get us in the governor’s mansion? Because that is now definitely on the list of things to be printed in the next “Texas Monthly,” I added, looking down to my belly.
“Are you sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’?” Liam asked, his eyes wide.
“You’re quick, Coving-stud. Way to go,” Tana drawled, throwing a napkin across the large table.
Our end of the table had already been listening to Liam’s declaration to me, and my big news. When Tessa stood up in her chair, arms raised over her head, which was still covered in her pee-wee football helmet, she caught the attention from the other end.
“Yipee! A baby brother! I always wanted a baby brother,” she squealed to Marley’s dismay.
Yes, my young teenage daughter was horrified. Evidently, she hadn’t realized at her tender age her parents, in fact, did have sex.
“Mom! How could you? I mean, gross! This is beyond embarrassing,” she cried dramatically. “All my friends will know,” she said, looking down at the table in a panic.
“Cool, dude. Congratulations,” one of Masen’s friends fist-bumped Liam, who was still recovering from the news.
Masen bumped his head on the table, clearly feeling the same as his sister.
“What? Dude, your mom is still totally hot,” another teammate added, slapping Masen on the back.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Marley asked, her cheeks red. “How are you even going to do this, with Masen graduating, me going to high school, and Tessa’s going to middle school soon. You’ll be starting all over!”
As Liam reached to grip my hand, his eyes so full of love it overwhelmed me, Tana startled me as she slid her arms around my shoulders. She’d moved silently from her chair to stand behind me as our kids performed their freak-out.
“Like she does everything else in her life,” she said, brushing the top of my head with a kiss. “With Texas girl grit, and a bit of grace.”
Author’s Notes
Thank you for allowing me to share Kelly and Liam and their story with you. As an Indie author, reviews are the most important advertising tool for us, so if you would, go on Amazon or Goodreads and leave a review to help others to find me.
You can “like” my Facebook page, Shelley L. Stringer, Author, and follow as I post updates about upcoming book signings and new releases.
As always, a thank you to my loyal readers, and to my girl posse…my beta’s Brooke Carlson, Julie Bradford Lama, Ashley Ward, Pam Ward, and Angela Turkett. An Indie couldn’t publish without beta’s, and mine are the BEST!
Thanks, also, to a couple of friends whose dangerous jobs frequently require them to work the Texas/Mexico border. Your “off the record” stories and accounts made much of the backstory in this book possible. Our DPS officers in Texas do a fantastic job of keeping us safe.
About The Author
Shelley L. Stringer was born and raised in North Central Texas. Married to her husband for over thirty years, she began writing when their oldest of two sons graduated and left for college. She has an Associate in Science in English from her local community college, and began writing in 2011 as a challenge from a friend. The middle child of three girls, her oldest sister says of Shelley, “She always had imaginary playmates as a child, and a vivid imagination.” Shelley grew up reading romance, and was influenced by Charlotte Bronte and Kathleen Woodiwiss. Her published works include the popular Southern Series including "Southern Comfort," "Southern Secrets," and "Southern Spirits," and her Texas books, "Texas Hellcat," and “Texas Girl Grit.” You can follow Shelley L. Stringer, Author on her Facebook page for updates and new release information. Her next work-in-progress, "The Killer in Her Mind," is about a serial rapist and a young writer on whom the killer fixates. Set in and around Dallas, Texas, it will be the sixth novel for Ms. Stringer.
Texas Girl Grit: Sequel to Texas Hellcat (Texas Series Book 2) Page 32
