Since her hands were outstretched in a theatrical welcome to match that opening line, Emily Anne went to her, took her hands, and air-kissed both cheeks.
“Hello, Momma. My, you look so lovely!” She turned to her men. “Doesn’t my mother look lovely?”
Mel and Connor both stepped forward, flanking her. Mel took off his sunglasses. “She does, indeed, precious.”
Connor took his off and hung them on the neck of his white T-shirt. “It’s easy to see where you get your beauty from, angel eyes.”
Her mother’s smile didn’t waver as she looked from one man to the other.
“Darling, you brought guests. That is, I thought you were bringing just one guest. One very special guest.”
“Oh! I’m sorry. Where are my manners? Momma, I want you to meet Mel Richardson.”
Mel nodded, and smiled, and said, “I’m pleased to meet you, Mrs. Bancroft.”
“And this is Connor Talbot.”
Connor likewise nodded, and smiled. “Mrs. Bancroft, a real pleasure, ma’am.”
“I’m pleased to meet you both, I’m sure.” Although Emily Anne thought that her mother didn’t sound all that sure.
When her mother focused on her, she said, “Darling, I’ve been led to understand you have news for us? Exciting, happy news?” Then she gave a sly smile, and took a moment to make eye contact with a couple of matronly women that Emily Anne vaguely recognized.
One, she was nearly certain, was Mrs. Judges, the wife of the pastor of the Evangelistic Christian Revival church in Comanche.
She’d seen the woman once, living up to her name by haranguing a young lady for having a nose piercing. What the woman was doing here at her family’s home, Emily Anne couldn’t possibly imagine.
The Bancrofts were Catholics.
“I do, Momma, but I thought to wait until we’re alone, later, to share it with you.”
Her mother must have misinterpreted her response as an expression of shyness. She spread her arms wide, as if to include all—hell, there had to be fifty people, easy—crowded into the backyard. “Oh, nonsense. Don’t be shy! Come, sweetheart, share your news with us all. You’re among friends and family here.”
Emily Anne caught sight of her father. The man was over by the grill, and met her gaze. In his eyes she saw apology, and resignation.
Remind me to tell my men that if I ever get pushy with them the way my momma is with my daddy, they should give me a good spanking. In the next instant she understood that her men would never let her set a foot in that direction to begin with.
She met her mother’s gaze and looked at her smiling face, and realized, rather suddenly—or maybe, at last—that it wasn’t Emily Anne’s happiness that her mother was most concerned with. It was…appearances.
Her appearance, being fat, all these years must have been quite a cross for her mother to bear. When she thought that she might have the chance to have a famous country singer for a son-in-law she wanted Emily Anne to take Billy J back. Not because it would be best for Emily Anne, but because it would be best for her.
Irene Georgina Bancroft was more worried about how she looked in front of people who didn’t matter, instead of how she loved, and was loved by, those who did.
Her men proved right then how well they knew her. They stepped closer and each of them put a hand on her.
“Precious, think, first. Be sure this is what you want to do.”
“I’m sure.”
She flicked a glance at Connor. He said, “All right then. We’ve got your back.”
Emily Anne knew that no matter what happened in the years ahead, they always would. She was the luckiest woman in the entire world!
She turned her attention back to her mother. There was only love and joy in her heart when she said, “All right, Momma, since you insist. I’m very happy and will forever be grateful, that both Mel and Connor have asked me to marry them. I said yes, of course.” She slipped her arms through those of her men. “So Momma, meet my two fiancés.”
“Oh, my darling, that’s so…what?”
Emily Anne figured it was the heat that had slowed her mother’s hearing.
“We haven’t picked a date, yet, of course.” Emily Anne had heard all the gasps as those standing closest heard her announcement and immediately repeated it in heated whispers to anyone who missed it. “But that’s just a matter of sitting down and deciding.”
For once the censure of the many didn’t bother her in the least.
In the back of the crowd, one voice, shrill and brittle said, “What do you mean she’s engaged to two men!”
“Well, I never!” Mrs. Judges had somehow sidled up to stand right next to her mother. Emily Anne couldn’t resist.
She gave the sour old bitch the biggest smile. “No, ma’am, I’m sure. In fact, I think it’s a real blessing to you that you have even one husband.”
“Emily Anne!” Her mother looked mad as a wet hen, her cheeks ruddy and her eyes flashing her ire. Then she looked around and finally seemed to realize what a disaster her planned celebration had turned out to be.
Her outrage slid into embarrassment, and her bottom lip quivered.
Emily Anne felt sorry for her mother for the first time that day. She stepped forward, slipped her arm around her mother, and said, “Come on, Momma. Come inside for a bit and catch your breath.”
She didn’t worry about leaving her men amidst a veritable sea of strangers. They were, both of them, more than capable of looking after themselves.
And besides, they’re armed and would prove to be very dangerous if challenged.
Yes they were, and in a way she’d never felt before, Emily Anne knew that so was she.
Chapter 21
“Oh my God, Emily Anne Bancroft! You did not!”
Emily Anne just grinned at Chloe Rhodes. The owner of The Lusty Glow Day Spa looked up from working on her manicure and just stared at her, mouth agape.
“I most certainly did so! I introduced both of those hot hunks to my mother as my fiancés. It was priceless, because she’d gone and made a big production out of inviting all these people to what was supposed to be our family Fourth of July picnic. Just as Connor suspected, it seems that word had gotten back to Momma that Billy J had been ‘warned away’ from me by a man who introduced himself to him as my fiancé. So Momma thought to ‘accidentally’ be having a big to-do when I came home and made my announcement about being engaged.”
“Oh, my God!” Chloe stopped working on Emily Anne’s nails. She put her hands up as if to cool her hot face.
“You know that despite everything, Chloe, I do love my mother. But I know how her mind works. It wasn’t my friends she invited to help me celebrate my engagement. It wasn’t even her friends, not really. She invited folks she wanted to impress, folks who are considered important in the community. And why? All because Billy J had said my ‘fiancé’ was old and rich. My mother wanted her moment in the sun. She wanted to be able to point to her ‘rich’ son-in-law! I would have introduced them to her privately but she wanted to be in the spotlight. Trust me when I tell you, she was most definitely in the spotlight, but the reality of it was, I’ll bet you, a lot different than she’d pictured it to be.”
“Oh, my God!” Chloe said again. She was laughing and shaking her head at the same time. Emily Anne had to smile.
“What a disaster!” Chloe said. And then, likely because she’d been thinking about it for a moment, she said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute…back up for a moment. You introduced them both as your fiancés, and they went along with that?”
Emily Anne put on as innocent a look as she could muster. “Oh. Did I forget to mention that just before we arrived at my folk’s place, those two private dicks proposed to me?”
“Emily Anne! Shame on you, girl, you did that on purpose! Oh, never mind. I am so happy for you! Congratulations!” Chloe jumped up and came around the manicure table and threw her arms around her.
Emily Anne kept her hands out of the
way but returned Chloe’s hug. Chloe Rhodes, soon to be Jessop, had been her very first friend here in Lusty. They’d come to town within just a couple of weeks of each other, and had taken to each other from the first moment they’d met.
She remembered the first look she’d ever had of Chloe, the day she’d shown up at Lusty Appetites to see her sister Carrie. Later she’d learned that Chloe had recently broken up with a man over in Divine, and that breakup, though it had been her doing, had wounded her mightily.
It had taken her new best friend a long time to get over that break-up, and then, of course, had been that horrible incident at Carrie’s apartment.
Emily Anne’s thoughts took an abrupt turn. Oh my gosh! Divine! Chloe used to live in Divine.
Everything she’d heard those two private dicks say to her, and everything she’d experienced at Discretion came rushing back at her. She put it all together with everything Chloe had told her and shook her head. “I am such an idiot,” Emily Anne said. “You used to live there, didn’t you? You know what? I think this whole thing is all tying up together in a very weird way.”
Chloe blinked. “I’m sorry, you’ve lost me. I used to live where?”
Emily Anne just shook her head again. Did getting engaged make a woman’s brain more flighty than usual? She wouldn’t be surprised if it did, because Emily Anne had certainly felt more flighty than usual lately. “Sorry, I was thinking about Divine. You used to live there, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I used to live there. Is something going on in Divine?” Chloe tilted her head to the side as if she didn’t quite follow Emily Anne’s line of logic.
Who could blame her? To go from talking about getting engaged to mentioning where her friend used to live was quite a leap in topic.
When Emily Anne didn’t immediately answer, Chloe said. “I lived there for more than a year. I moved to Divine from Dallas with the man I was involved with at the time. I’m pretty sure I told you about him? Beck O’Malley. But it didn’t work out for us, as you know. Then I moved here to be with Carrie, and met my firemen.”
Chloe looked more thoughtful than sad. That was perfectly understandable since not long after she came to Lusty, all hell had broken loose for her, personally. But then Grant and Andrew Jessop had claimed her for their own, and her friend smiled more, way more, than she used to.
“I remember when you came to town. I hadn’t been here very long, myself. You told me a little about what was going on with you at the time. Not all of it, of course. You didn’t tell me about him until much later.”
“I remember.” Chloe smiled so wide and her eyes sparkled. “I actually heard from Beck recently. He called me, and he sounded…” She sighed. “He sounded happy. In love. I have my fingers crossed that he’s finally found the woman that was meant to be his.” Then she laughed. “And believe it or not, he’s in a ménage relationship with her and another man, too. How bizarre is that?”
Emily Anne smiled. The name Beck had rung a bell for her when she had been at Discretion. At the time it had seemed odd because it wasn’t a common name at all and she couldn’t recall where she’d heard it before.
The gorgeous Amazon she’d sort of met during her visit to Discretion a couple of months before, Lucy Carter, must be the woman Beck had told Chloe about. Emily Anne grinned when she recalled how Lucy had wanted to give him and another man a bit of a shock at some motorcycle rally. There was no doubt in Emily Anne’s mind whatsoever that the leather and lace she’d purchased that day would certainly have done that.
Talk about bizarre. Emily Anne didn’t mention that she’d met Beck’s new woman. Not yet. As thoughts began to swirl in her head, as the…well, the synchronicity of everything hit her, she had an idea. Something she wanted to do, that she knew she probably could do because of where she was headed right after getting her nails done.
Very aware that her best friend was looking at her as if she thought her behavior was odd, and it certainly was, Emily Anne nodded. “That’s good, then, isn’t it? That he’s found someone, and he’s happy.”
“Yes, it is. Very good. I hated hurting him like I did, but I knew I didn’t love him the way a woman should love the man she plans to spend the rest of her life with.” Chloe picked up Emily Anne’s right hand and picked up where she left off on the manicure. “So, what made you ask me about Divine, anyway?”
“As soon as I’m done here, I’m going with Mel and Connor over to Divine. They have a meeting—as a matter of fact, it’s about that creep who stole your inheritance.”
“Ralph Baxter, currently going under the phony name of Bruce Smith.” Chloe nodded. “Jake told me that the detectives were closing in on him, that after all these years it turns out he was living close to Divine.” She shuddered and Emily Anne knew there was a lot of emotion behind that instinctive reaction. “Every time I think of that, that I might have actually passed him on the street and not even known it, I want to be sick.” She sighed and got back to taking care of Emily Anne’s nails. “Your men told me, not long after they were hired by the Town Trust, that they think he murdered someone. I really hope they nail the bastard.”
“From what I understand, today could be the day they actually do just that. They’re meeting a bunch of people at that dance club the guys took me to on our first date, to bring them up to speed on the investigation and come up with a plan to nail him.”
“The Dancing Pony? Is that the place?”
“That’s the one! Anyway, while they’re busy having their meeting I’m going over to Discretion to buy a few more things.” She gave Chloe a big grin. “One of these days you are going to have to go there with me. Summer has such beautiful, and beautifully naughty, things. You need to plan a day off so we can do that.”
“I’ll do just that. I’d like to finally visit that boutique, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather do that with.”
“Great, we’ll plan on it. Anyway, after their meeting, when the guys are free, we’re heading to a jewelry store in Divine, to pick up my ring.” Emily Anne went soft inside every time she thought about it. “They had it designed for me, especially, even before they popped the question. Can you imagine?”
“Your men probably went to Clay Cook Jewelers, and asked Clay to design and make it for you.” Chloe indicated the ultraviolet lights, and Emily Anne put her hand under them. She handed Chloe her left hand and Chloe began to put the final clear coat on the nails. She worked quickly and competently as she talked. “Mr. Cook is getting quite the reputation as a genius when it comes to jewelry design. I should know. That’s where Grant and Andrew got my ring, too.”
“Oh, your beautiful opal and twin sapphire ring!” Emily Anne sighed, her eyes immediately going to the jewelry in question. Chloe wore the ring on a chain while she was working, to keep it safe. “I can hardly wait to see what they came up with for me.”
“Maybe after they put that ring on your finger, they’ll take you out to dinner there, too, in Divine. O’Reilly’s has some of the best steak I’ve ever eaten. Of course, Rudy’s is good, if you’re in the mood for Mexican food.” Chloe pointed to the other UV nail lamp, and Emily Anne set her left hand under the lights, too.
“What time did you say they were having that meeting over at The Dancing Pony?” Chloe asked.
“I think they’re getting together with Summer’s husbands, Ace and Kemp, at around noon or so. Mel seemed to think they’d be at least an hour there, while they discussed strategy. He said not to worry if I didn’t make it back in an hour, exactly—he and Connor would just sit and chat with the man who owns the place.”
“They know Ethan Grant?”
“Yeah. I’ve met him once, too.” Emily Anne looked at Chloe. She had the feeling her friend’s interest was a lot more than just casual. And then she remembered that the case her men were on was for her, after all. She probably just wanted to feel as if she was really in the loop. Emily Anne knew that if the shoe was on the other foot, she would certainly want to know everything. “Chlo
e? I’m sure that Mel and Connor will be in touch as soon as they nail the guy. I know it’s important to you.”
Chloe sighed. “You must think I’m being silly. It happened so many years ago. But this was a man that my parents called friend. Not only that, my father trusted him to take care of us if anything ever happened to him and mom.
“Ralph Baxter came to our house for dinner so many times, and we—Carrie and I—we called him Uncle Ralph. He bought us Christmas presents, even. Sometimes, when I think about it all, I just get so damned angry, you know?” She swatted at a tear as if, Emily Anne thought, she swatted at a pesky fly. “I’d like to smack that son of a bitch right across the face for what he did to Carrie and me. Not just because he stole from us, either. I mean, yeah, there was a time when some of that money would have come in damn handy. But mostly, his betrayal was a personal betrayal. When I needed him to be that family friend and help me, when I couldn’t find my baby sister and had no one else to turn to, he turned his back on me. He turned his back on us both. He was so mean, too! He told me to fuck off and never call him again.”
“Maybe you’ll get the chance to do just that—smack him in the face.” And Emily Anne made a mental note to talk to Mel and Connor as soon as they picked her up. There had to be some way they could arrange for Chloe to have a moment with that horrible, awful man. After everything that Chloe had been through, it seemed only right that she have the chance to get a little of her own back.
“I can only hope,” Chloe said. She straightened up and smiled. “Okay, so enough of my bellyaching. Listen to me going on about crap that happened a lifetime ago, when you, young lady, just got engaged to marry two very hot men!” The first light shut off, and Emily Anne held her right out for Chloe to inspect, and then put some lotion on. “So, tell me, have the three of you picked a date for your wedding, yet?”
* * * *
Love Under Two Private Dicks [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 22
