Texas Cinderella

by Victoria Pade

  When he judged their meal ready he urged her to the small table nearby where two places were set. There was also a rice cooker and a plate that displayed three small bowls of what appeared to be sauces.

  “Sweet, hot and spicy, not so hot,” he described the sauces, aiming a long middle finger at each one and for some inexplicable reason, causing Tanya’s focus to be on that finger rather than on the sauces. Or that finger and the thought of how even that was somehow sexy….

  Then he retrieved the bottle of wine from where she’d left it after pouring her glass, and as they both sat down to eat Tanya determinedly reined in her mental wanderings.

  “Did you wait tables or work in a fast-food place or a diner—or what—through college?” he asked after they’d tasted the food and Tanya had complimented his culinary skills.

  She was a little surprised that he’d listened closely enough to what she’d said to recall her comment about having worked in the restaurant industry.

  “We’re supposed to be talking McCords and the jewelry business and the diamond, remember?” she reminded him before she got carried away thinking the fact that he was paying attention to what she said was anything special.

  “The whole day was stuff you can use—the clinic is funded by my mother’s charities and donations from McCord’s Jewelers. I work there and oversee the rest of the staff to make sure the quality of care is the best that it can be. Now work is over for both of us,” he decreed.

  Tanya supposed she could concede to that. His small talk was staying within the bounds of propriety—it was only her own thoughts that had strayed. And while she would have liked to go on gathering material, she’d seen the day he’d put in and she had the sense that he needed a plain, ordinary, small talk-filled dinner, so she let him have it his way.

  “Okay,” she said, after another bite of the Asian-influenced cuisine. “Yes, I worked in a fast-food place—I was the bagel butterer on an assembly line at a sandwich shop. I also waited tables at one of those places that only serve breakfast—but I don’t think you could call it a diner. And there was an upscale, fancy restaurant where I did some hostessing.”

  “So basically, you worked your way through college completely in the food industry.”

  “Basically, but not entirely. I also worked as a motel maid before I did any of that. But only for three days—”

  “Three days?”

  “That was all I could take. You can’t imagine what kind of mess some people will leave in a motel room and the morning I found a dead guy was the day I quit—”

  “You found a dead guy?” he asked, trying not to be amused.

  “He’d died in his sleep, of a heart attack. But that was it for me—that was when I went with the restaurant work. Then, as soon as I could get on with a news station even just running errands, I grabbed it.”

  “I take it the scholarship wasn’t all that great?” he said apologetically.

  “No, it was,” she assured him, not wanting to sound ungrateful. “I wasn’t complaining. The scholarship paid my full tuition. But I had to earn money for books and fees and living expenses.”

  “I know you weren’t complaining. I think I was just feeling guilty because I partied and played my way through college.”

  “You partied and played your way through middle school and high school, too,” she reminded him.

  He smiled sheepishly. “That I did. In fact, I was thinking about you last night—about what I remembered of you growing up—”

  “Not much, I’ll bet,” Tanya said, pushing away her plate because she’d eaten all she could.

  His smile widened as he sat back, apparently finished eating as well. “Actually, I remembered that you were the you-shouldn’t-do-that kid.”

  “You’ve lost me,” she said, not sure what he was talking about.

  “My most vivid memories of you are of looking up from something Buzz and I were about to do and seeing this big-eyed kid who had appeared out of nowhere to stand on the sidelines, very stoically shaking her head at me, and saying, you shouldn’t do that…”

  Tanya laughed. “I don’t remember that.”

  “Oh, yeah. I remember because you were usually right. Of course I just thought you were some annoying little kid sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong. But you were still right. The day Buzz and I tried out our dirt bikes on the front lawn—we were thirteen so you had to be—”

  “Six.”

  “And you said, you shouldn’t do that, the gardener will get mad…”

  “And you did it anyway.”

  “And tore up the lawn. And the gardener did get mad, and so did my parents. I was grounded for two weeks. Then there was the time when we set up a ramp at the edge of the pool. We had new scooters and we were sure that with enough height we could jump the shallow end. There you were, doing your you-shouldn’t-do-that thing again. I’m pretty sure I said something rude to you and told you to go away. You wouldn’t go away and I figured I’d show you that you were nothing but a dumb kid. I ended up in the pool, destroyed the scooter and broke my leg. That cost me another two weeks of grounding.”

  Tanya laughed. “I honestly don’t remember ever saying you shouldn’t do anything.”

  “Then there was my party—”

  “I remember the party. You were seventeen, I was ten. I watched from the bushes until my mom caught me. But I still don’t recall a ‘you shouldn’t do that.’”

  “Oh, yeah. I had permission to have twelve people over to swim that night. But nobody was going to be home so Buzz and I handed out flyers to everyone we knew and some people we didn’t. We paid an older guy to buy beer and we were sneaking the kegs in the back and talking about what a huge, blowout bash the party was going to be. And again you appeared from out of nowhere to say—”

  “You shouldn’t do that?”

  He pointed an index finger at her. “The you-shouldn’t-do-that kid.”

  They both laughed.

  “That one cost me a month out of my summer—I was going to get to stay home while my family vacationed in Italy but because of the party, my parents decided I couldn’t be trusted and made me go with them.”

  Tanya shrugged. “Guess you shouldn’t have done that,” she joked as she stood and began to clear the table.

  She half expected Tate to remain seated there while she did the work but he got up, too, and, side by side, they cleaned the dinner mess.

  “What about you?” he asked as they did. “Did you go through your teens toeing the line like you thought I should have?”

  “I kind of did, actually,” she answered. “We might have grown up in the same general vicinity for the most part but, believe me, my life was completely different than yours. From the minute I was old enough to work I was expected to show responsibility by getting a job. So when I was here I worked in the ice cream shop—more food service. When I was with my grandparents I worked—”

  “When you were with your grandparents? I didn’t know you spent time away from here.”

  “Quite a bit of time. But that’s a whole other story.” And since the dishes were loaded into the dishwasher, his kitchen was in order again and it was getting late, she said, “A whole other story I’ll save so we can call it a night—I promised my mother I’d be back before she went to bed and you must be tired yourself.”

  “Trouble sleeping, remember? But I wouldn’t want you to keep JoBeth up waiting for you.”

  And worrying that she was staying any later than was necessary…

  Tate walked Tanya to the door and put his hand on the knob to open it for her. But rather than doing that, he stayed in that position while pausing to look at her with the door still closed.

  “This was nice,” he said as if that surprised him.

  “It was. Thanks for dinner. You get points for today and points for your cooking talents, too.”

  “Points? I didn’t know there was a scorecard.”

  “Not literally.”

  “And why did I g
et points for today?”

  “Because what I saw of you was so eye-opening.”

  “In what way?”

  “I don’t remember the ‘you shouldn’t do thats.’ But I do remember you doing some wild and reckless things in pursuit of fun and frolic—which was all I thought you were about. Mr. Good-Time. But today I saw for myself that there is more to you….”

  Why had her voice gotten softer by the end of that? Why had it sounded almost intimate? And why was she staring up at him and thinking that she really was seeing him through new eyes? And that she liked what she was seeing so much more than when she’d thought he was just a handsome face….

  “Anyway,” she said, trying for a more normal tone and to halt the thoughts and feelings that were suddenly running through her. “I admired what I saw of what you did today and it will definitely be a part of the collage of the McCords.”

  He smiled. “I was impressed with you today, too,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if you were all talk or not, but you dug right in. And you didn’t even flinch when old Nesbit came wandering out of recovery in the buff.”

  Tanya laughed. “That I won’t be reporting on,” she said. “Though you were really quick with that chart you held in front of his dangling participles so the lady I was giving juice to didn’t see much.”

  “Dangling participles? Things were definitely dangling….” he said wryly, laughing too.

  Tanya was having a much better time than she wished she was. It made it hard for her to make herself leave. And Tate wasn’t encouraging it—he was still standing there with the door closed, looking down at her.

  And it wasn’t just any look in those clear blue eyes. He was looking at her in a way other men had looked at her. Just before they’d kissed her…

  Was he thinking about it? Tanya wondered.

  Because she was…

  You shouldn’t do that—the phrase that had been repeated so much tonight echoed through her head. And she knew it was true, that kissing him wasn’t what she should do. Or let him do.

  Even if something in her was shouting for him to go ahead and do it….

  Then he cocked his head just a bit to one side. But Tanya couldn’t tell if he was even aware that he’d done it because he was staring so intently, so deeply into her eyes.

  He leaned forward. Barely. Almost not at all.

  Her chin went up about the same amount, on its own.

  Shouldn’t do that…

  Except that she wanted to.

  She really, really wanted to….

  But maybe the mere thought that they shouldn’t do that somehow transmitted to Tate, who finally took heed of it. He straightened up again and turned the handle to open the door so she could go out.

  Which was exactly what she knew she had to do. She had to get out of there before she did something stupid….

  “Tomorrow?” she said as she stepped across the threshold, stopping only when she felt the cooler night air on her face to turn and look at him from a greater distance than had separated them in the house.

  “I have surgeries scheduled all day and dinner with the family tomorrow evening. But I’ve left orders for all the family albums to be dragged out of storage—I thought maybe we could go through them tomorrow night after dinner. That should give you a fairly decent family history.”

  Why did tomorrow night seem so far away? And why was she thinking about how endlessly the hours would drag on instead of being aggravated by the fact that the entire next day would be wasted?

  But that was how it was and she couldn’t help it. She could only hope the time would pass quickly….

  “Okay,” she heard herself say compliantly. “If that’s how it has to be.”

  “Unfortunately…” he said so quietly that she had the feeling he regretted having to wait, too.

  But that couldn’t be, Tanya told herself. He’s engaged—don’t forget that….

  She said good-night then and headed in the direction of her mother’s bungalow. But since she hadn’t heard the guesthouse door close, just before she stepped onto the path that led through trees and bushes and would take her out of sight, she glanced over her shoulder.

  There was Tate, standing in the doorway watching her.

  And thinking what? About kissing her?

  Had he almost kissed her or had she been wrong about that?

  She must have been wrong.

  But right or wrong, there would be no kissing of Tate McCord! she told herself.

  Still, she thought he had almost kissed her.

  And even though she knew it would have been a mistake, even though she knew it couldn’t happen, as she slipped out of his sight down the path to the bungalow, she was wishing that this might have been one of those times—like all those others—when he’d ignored the you-shouldn’t-do-that and done it anyway….

  Chapter Five

  “K atie. Hi,” Tate said into his cell phone when it rang on his way to work Tuesday morning and the display let him know in advance who his caller was.

  “I hope I didn’t wake you,” Katie replied to his greeting.

  “No, I’m about five minutes away from the hospital. How’s everything?”

  “Okay. As well as could be expected, I suppose,” Katie said.

  Tate had known her long enough to think he knew all of her moods, but he couldn’t pinpoint this one. Trying to, he said, “You sound tired.”

  “I didn’t have the chance to tell my parents that the engagement is off until last night. You know how it is—there have been dinners and parties and people around since I got to Key West and I had to wait for a moment alone with them.”

  “And I don’t imagine that they welcomed the news,” Tate guessed, not eager to tell his own family for just that reason.

  “No, they certainly didn’t welcome it. They were actually very impatient with me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tate said sympathetically.

  “It was no worse than I thought it would be, but still…” Katie sighed. “After all this time they were sure their dreams were finally coming true. I knew they weren’t going to be happy to have me wake them up.”

  “What about you?” Tate asked point-blank because he still wasn’t getting a clear read on Katie’s feelings. And while he knew breaking up was for the best, he was concerned about her.

  “Well, I am tired—you were right about that. We were up arguing until very late and I had an early hair appointment this morning so I couldn’t sleep in. But otherwise…”

  There was a pause that didn’t convince Tate that Katie was merely worn out.

  Then she continued. “I’m a little at loose ends. You were always sort of my guy,” she said with a laugh that helped him believe she wasn’t doing too badly despite the fact that she might be a little down in the dumps over the way things had turned out.

  “Even when we weren’t together,” she went on, “there was always just that thought that we’d probably end up with each other some day. And it isn’t as if I don’t care about you, Tate—”

  “Same here.”

  “But I truly do think there’s more out there for both of us.”

  Why did Tanya pop into his mind at that exact moment?

  But Katie was still talking and he forced himself to pay attention.

  “—it just isn’t easy to start over. I keep thinking that I haven’t ever been in a single, long-term, committed relationship with anyone of my own choosing. That was part of the argument last night—I said I needed to be able to decide who the man for me would be. But just between us, the whole time I was wondering if I’ll know how to choose someone for myself.”

  Tate laughed. “I’m pretty sure you just go with whoever you have the strongest feelings for,” he said. And again—for no reason that made sense—Tanya came to mind.

  “What about you?” Katie asked then. “How are you?”

  “I’m doing all right,” he said.

  “You sound better than all right. You sound a little more like you
r old self. Were you that glad to get rid of me?”

  “Come on, you know better than that,” he chastised. “And I didn’t get rid of you. If anybody got rid of anybody—”

  “I’m saying it was a mutual decision. And now you can, too—that’s why I wanted to talk to you first thing this morning. My mother is threatening to call yours. I asked her to wait but I don’t know how long she will. So don’t put off telling Eleanor or it’ll be my mother who does.”

  “I’m having dinner with the family tonight. I’ll tell them then.”

  “I hope it goes smoother with yours than it did with mine.”

  “Even if it doesn’t, it’ll all blow over before long,” Tate assured her as he pulled into the doctors’ parking lot of Meridian General.

  “It’s nice that we can still chat like this, though,” Katie said then. “And be friends…”

  “That isn’t going to change—we’ve always been friends, we always will be friends. You know if there’s anything you need from me you just have to ask, right?”

  “Same here,” she echoed his earlier words. “I should let you go, though, I just heard the parking lot attendant say good morning to you so you must be at the hospital. I’ll try to keep my mother from calling yours at least until tomorrow.”

  “Thanks.”

  “And I’ll see you at the Labor Day party—I should probably apologize to you ahead of time for anything my parents might say to you at that.”

  The McCords were throwing one of their lavish soirees to mark the end of the summer season and Katie’s family was always at the top of the guest list.

  “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine,” Tate assured her once more.

  “I hope so,” Katie said. “I hope everything will be fine for us both.”

  “It will be.”

  “Well, one way or another, I just wanted you to know that you’re free to tell whoever you want now. And thanks for letting me go first with the families.”

  “Sure.”

  They said their goodbyes then and Tate turned off his phone as he parked in his assigned spot.

  But the freedom he now had to get the word out that he was no longer engaged to Katie was still on his mind.