“Starved, Mama,” I answered, earning a smile. “Want some help?”
“Glad to see you’ve still got your manners,” she mused, and my sister groaned.
“I was working my way back up to favorite, but you haven’t even been here five minutes and that’s blown all to hell.”
“You never were the favorite,” Mitch said matter-of-factly. “I am.”
Mulaney made a face and grabbed the glass pitcher of sweet tea from the refrigerator. “Can’t you do something with your husband?” she asked Juliana as she exited to the formal dining room. We had a big round table in the kitchen, but it wouldn’t seat this crowd.
“You know he’s much better than before I was in the picture,” Juliana said.
Mitch hooked his arm around her waist and kissed her passionately. “That’s right, baby. Wouldn’t be the man I am without you.” Seeing how happy they were brought on an intense wave of joy and longing. Muriella and I had that. I looked across the room at her. She’d visibly paled at the display, her uneasy gaze darting to mine before looking away.
A chorus of “cut it out” and “gross” came from their girls, who filled cups with ice and took them to the dining room without being asked.
“Worked like a charm.” Mitch and Juliana high-fived at their parenting skills. They’d done a damn good job with those girls. We were proud as peacocks of them, and Leona had already decided she was going to follow in her dad’s footsteps and be a veterinarian. Gabby wanted to be an actress, but Uncle Stone wasn’t quite ready for that.
We sat at the dining room table with a folding card table lined up at one end to handle overflow. The Christmas tree shone through the large opening between the living room and dining room.
Granddaddy sat at the head of the table and said grace before everyone started passing around fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried okra, creamed corn, purple hull peas, and cornbread. There was no such thing as a small meal in the Jacobs household. The ladies of my family had outdone themselves.
“So, Muriella. Why’s my brother not good enough for you?” Mulaney asked, wasting no time getting to what was on her mind. Apparently, playing nice was off her agenda.
“Damn it, Mulaney.” I glared at her across the table, and she didn’t even bat an eye. She leveled her gaze on Muriella, who was seated next to me.
She treated my sister with the grace of a lady, fashioning a pleasant look on her face. “I’m glad you’re protective of him.” She looked at me, her expression bittersweet. “And it’s not Stone who isn’t good enough for me. He deserves the very best, and I can’t give that to him.”
I opened my mouth to say that Muriella was as wrong as she could be, when Mulaney interrupted. “Then you should figure out how to.” I didn’t disagree with Mulaney in this case. Sometimes simple answers were the best.
“I appreciate the advice, but I know what I’m doing.” Muriella didn’t quite snap at her, though her patience was waning. I knew it wasn’t my sister, but her inner struggles rising to the surface. I was proud of her strength.
“This fried chicken is delicious, Mama,” Mitch interjected, attempting to defuse the tension. He wasn’t afraid of conflict, but he didn’t like it, and Mama never let us bring our problems to the dinner table. This was the time when we enjoyed good food and each other’s company. As soon as it was over, we solved things together.
“I made it,” Grandmama corrected, and I couldn’t stifle the snicker that escaped me. She shot me a look that would have frozen the sun before winking at me.
“Thank you for cooking my favorite, Grandmama,” I said, earning another groan from Mulaney.
“It’s everyone’s favorite, Stone.”
“She still made it for me,” I returned petulantly. Didn’t matter how old we got, my brother, sister, and I could act worse than we had as kids. Probably always would.
“You’d argue with a fence post,” Mulaney said, shoving potatoes in her mouth.
Mitch said, “Um, that’s you, sister dear.” He pointed his fork accusingly in her direction, spot on in his assessment. Even when my sister figured out she was dead wrong about something, she wouldn’t give it up. I had to give her props; Mulaney stood her ground, no matter what.
“Hello.” My mother waved a hand in the air. “We have people here I’m trying to impress.” She jerked her head not-so-discreetly toward Muriella, Daniel, and Vivian.
“I assure you we feel right at home, Mrs. Jacobs,” Daniel said. Vivian and Muriella exchanged looks.
“This is fairly tame compared to our dinners,” Muriella added, and my heart swelled at the genuine smile on her face. “We don’t know how to eat without giving each other a hard time.”
Mama beamed at her. “Well, I’m glad you feel at home.”
“Thank you for having me. I should have already said that,” Muriella said, and Mama reached for her hand. It was a stretch, but they connected.
“You don’t know how happy we are to have all of you.”
“Where’s the pie?” Gabby piped up. Her plate that had been full a few minutes earlier, but was now completely empty. She was a string bean, could eat anything and not gain a pound, just like her Aunt Mulaney.
“Muriella’s going to come help me with that while y’all start clearing these dishes,” Grandmama said with the kind of authority only she possessed.
Muriella hesitantly followed my grandmother out of the room. The telltale banging of the screen door indicated they were out of the kitchen and making the short jaunt to my grandparents’ house.
“Think that’ll be a come-to-Jesus meeting?” Mulaney smirked when they were out of earshot.
“Would you cool it?” I scolded.
“Lord knows you haven’t been able to seal the deal. Ruby is your only hope.”
“Mulaney, don’t disrespect your grandmother, calling her by her first name,” Dad said, his first chance at having the floor since we’d arrived. Mulaney had dominated the conversation, as usual.
“I’m not—” My sister was interrupted by a loud knock on the front door.
I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what was about to happen. “Guess he decided to show after all.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Muriella
Stone’s grandparents had a cottage not far from the main house, but my feet protested at making the walk in the heels I was wearing. As soon as we stepped inside, though, all that was forgotten as the scent of freshly baked pecan pie greeted me. I was beyond full after lunch, but Miss Ruby’s pie made me hungry again.
I followed her into the kitchen, where she indicated for me to sit at the round distressed wood table near a large bay window overlooking her garden. I’d expected flowered wallpaper and pastel-colored appliances as old as I was, but they were nowhere to be found. The space had been updated to include modern décor and professional appliances. My favorite feature was the hammered copper sink.
“This ain’t your grandma’s kitchen,” Ruby said, taking a seat in the chair next to me at the table. She didn’t even bother putting up the pretense of looking at her pies. We weren’t here to check on them. We were here to talk.
“Definitely not what I expected,” I admitted, and she appeared to take that as a compliment.
She sat back and folded her hands in front of her, looking down at them and collecting her thoughts. “I’ve never been one to tell my children what to do. Doesn’t do a lick of good. We’re all wired so when somebody tells us what we oughta do, we go right on ahead and do the opposite.” She grinned at me almost wickedly. “I’m going to tell you a story, and the only other soul on this earth who knows it is Stone’s granddaddy, Price.”
“Okay,” I said hesitantly. It seemed Stone had learned keeping secrets from his grandparents.
“Price chased me around like a lovesick fool from the time we were in diapers. Had me the whole damn time and didn’t realize it until we were in high school.” She shook her head, but her green eyes were affectionate.
&nb
sp; “My family couldn’t buy a gnat a suitcase. We grew cotton and had a few head of cattle when times were decent. The Jacobs might as well have been the Rockefellers around here. So naturally my mama and daddy saw a way for me to have a better life. Instead of growing cotton in our backyard, I’d have thousands of acres of it, not to mention the horses, cattle, and oil.
“I loved Price, though I was too stubborn to admit it. When I was a girl, the expectations on women were a lot different than they are now, and I wasn’t having any part of that. I didn’t want a life of being a wife, raising children—the same old stuff that’s been happening here for a hundred years. No, I was getting out of Burdett. You weren’t going to catch me beholden to some man, four kids squalling all the time while I slaved keeping up a household. Nuh-uh.” She shook her head and waved her index finger back and forth.
“Price went off to Austin right after we graduated high school to get an early jump on college. He didn’t want to go all that much, but his folks insisted. He’d asked me to come with him, but what the hell was I gonna do in Austin? I couldn’t afford college and wasn’t keen on becoming dependent on him for everything.” Miss Ruby’s expression made it clear just how appalled she was at the idea.
“Besides, I had bigger plans nobody knew about. The night after he left, I hitched a ride to Dallas with Mac Hollis, and from there I caught a bus to New York City. Didn’t tell a soul where I was going; only left a note for my parents telling them not to worry and that I’d call someday.” A mischievous smile touched her lips as she gazed out the window. That young girl was still alive and well inside her.
“Honey, let me tell you. I had a lot of spunk, but I’d hardly been across the county line. You see what this place is like, and it ain’t that different than it was sixty years ago. I had three dollars to my name and nobody could understand my Texas accent. When I got to the city, a nice lady at the bus station helped me find my way to Nicolette Joy’s Manhattan offices.”
“The Nicolette Joy?” I interrupted. She was an icon in the fashion industry. Her designs set the standard for generations of female designers after her.
“The very one. I told you we were poor. I mean so poor that Mrs. Hastings, who owned the fabric shop in town, would give me scraps of fabric and let me use her sewing machine to make my clothes. People making their own clothes back then wasn’t all that unusual, but she said my dresses were unique, looked like they belonged on a runway. Because of Mrs. Hastings, I had the confidence to go to Nicolette Joy for a job. It never occurred to me I might not get in or they wouldn’t hire me. That’s the way of an eighteen-year-old, I suppose. Turns out a little bit of good old-fashioned luck never hurt anybody either.”
“What happened?” I leaned forward, desperate to hear more.
“Ran into her in the lobby of her offices. The dress I was wearing stopped her in her tracks. She crooked her finger at me, asked me a few questions, and that’s how I became a designer at Nicolette Joy.”
“Just like that?” I asked incredulously.
“Just like that. It’s unbelievable to me even now, but I promise you, it’s the God’s honest truth.” Ruby held up a hand as if taking an oath. “At first it was a whirlwind. I was Nicolette’s pet. I met all kinds of fabulous people, went to swanky parties—had everything I thought I wanted. But there was this tiny little problem. New York wasn’t Burdett. I found myself working more and more to cover up how homesick I was, how much I missed Price. I refused to think about him moving on, although I figured he’d met some girl in Austin and forgotten all about me. Two years later, I couldn’t stop myself from looking him up. I called, and the second I heard his voice, the waterworks started. I didn’t say a word, didn’t have to. He knew it was me, and the hope in his voice when he spoke my name was all I needed to know. He hadn’t forgotten me. But I hung up.”
I realized she was coming to the part of the story she wanted me to hear, and I prompted her to go on. “Why did you do that?”
She shrugged as if she didn’t really have the answer. “After that, I dated casually, but no one ever lived up to my Price. Nicolette introduced me to a nice gentleman. He was a good deal older and wealthy beyond imagination. He spoiled me, but he wanted something from me I couldn’t give. Finally, when I’d been away from Burdett about four years, and I was still miserable in my heart, this gentleman said to me, ‘Ruby, there’s not a thing wrong with going back home. You proved to yourself you could succeed, but what good is it if you’re unhappy?’ I packed up my things right then, thanked Nicolette, and flew to Austin on his private jet.”
Miss Ruby was quite the lady. I’d learned of her sassiness through our letters, so why her adventures surprised me, I didn’t know. Only she would leave Texas hitchhiking and come back on a private jet.
“Price’s graduation from college was that day. I went straight to the auditorium and watched him get his diploma. When we saw each other after, he asked me two questions: was I there for him, and was I leaving again. I answered yes and no. We drove straight back to Burdett, got married under that tree right over there, and never looked back. Everything I thought I didn’t want was exactly what made me the happiest.”
“I hear what you’re trying to tell me, but this situation is different,” I protested.
“It is, and it isn’t,” Ruby countered. “Stone told me you feel you have to give him up. I can see that isn’t what you want to do, but it’s a sacrifice you’re willing to make because you love him. I gave up the people and the place I loved because I was stubborn and ignorant. You’re being stubborn with your eyes wide open. The difference in our situations doesn’t really matter if in the end we both come to the same conclusion.” She pursed her lips and pushed back from the table, standing. “We’d better get these pies over there, or Lord knows what will happen.”
I sat there for a minute, turning over in my mind what she’d illustrated for me. I didn’t need Ruby or anyone else to tell me exactly what would happen once I left my family—I might possibly die of a broken heart. But there were things she didn’t understand, that none of them did. I prayed I could return to Vivian and Daniel. But Stone…I wasn’t so sure. Not when I’d be a murderer.
“You comin’?”
I blinked up at Ruby, who had two pies in her hands. Scrambling to my feet, I wordlessly offered to carry the desserts for her. She shook her head, already on her way back to the big house. I was on her heels, halfway across the yard, when I saw Stone and…it couldn’t be.
“Carlos?”
His stride grew longer as he picked up the pace. “Muriella,” he whispered when he was before me. My gaze darted around him to Stone, who was right behind him.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I figure there are some things you two need to catch up on. Why don’t you go back to Grandmama’s house? You’ll have plenty of privacy.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Stone
“Care to tell me why your lawyer’s here? Brought a judge with him? Who says he’s throwing out the eminent domain case on this property?” Mama’s voice rose with every word as Grandmama and I walked back into the kitchen of the main house.
She was there with Dad and my grandfather, who was standing with his arms folded beside my attorney and the judge. Granddaddy looked about ready to strangle them both.
“Discretion isn’t your forte, is it, Zegas?” I asked moodily.
“Did you tell me to keep this between the three of us?” He motioned to Granddaddy, himself, and me.
Mama was the first to recover her manners. “Sit down. Let me fix both of you a plate.” She pointed them toward the dining room.
Both men moved to the dining room table and sat obediently. I paid Kane Zegas handsomely and all I got was lip. But in my mama’s house, what she said was law, and Zegas seemed to get that just like the rest of us.
“I think you’d better start talking.” Dad took his chair next to the head of the table. I sat opposite.
“I told him no
t to say anything.” Granddaddy squeezed my shoulder before he took his place at the head. “Randall Hedley was stirring up some shit again.”
“Talk louder so I can hear,” Mama called from the kitchen.
“What the hell is going on?” Mulaney led the rest of the herd into the dining room.
“Better off to just hang on until everyone is settled,” I said to Zegas and the judge.
Mama set a plate in front of them. Gabby and Leona brought them each a glass of tea.
“I told you keeping this from everyone would come back to bite you,” Grandmama said to Granddaddy.
“Does this have to do with that napkin nonsense?” Dad ran a hand through his hair.
“Started that way. We hadn’t settled it in all these years. I don’t know why that boy thought we’d do it now,” Granddaddy grumbled.
Mitch stalked straight over to me and shoved his finger in my face. “I knew you were lyin’. You said this thing with Hedley was nothing. We were going to lose the ranch?”
I swallowed hard as I stared at him. Juliana grabbed his arm and tugged. “Let him explain.”
“I’ve already given him the opportunity,” he said without taking his hard glare off of me.
“Give him another one.”
Zegas took a swig of tea. “I have to say this is the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten.” Who knew he was decent at diplomacy?
“There’s plenty more,” Mama said with a polite smile.
Mitch stood with his arms folded as he leaned against the opening between the dining room and the kitchen. Juliana hooked an arm around his waist, and his shoulders lowered a fraction.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this? I know some asshole lawyers that would put Randall Hedley where he belongs.” Mulaney leaned back in her chair on two legs.
“This one got the job done,” Zegas shot back.
Granddaddy rested his arms on the table. “Thought Randall was just stirring up trouble. Next thing I know, I get a written offer in the mail from the state saying the property has been condemned for eminent domain.”
Three Dates (Paths To Love Book 2) Page 28
