Man of Honor, A

by Tina Leonard

  Valentine's parties and dates, Tessa was working the cash register for Nan - right in the line of fire.

  "I'd heard you were working for Nan, but I had to see it with my own eyes to believe it," Hester stated, her gray hair fuzzy and windblown. She wore no makeup, merely her perpetual scowl.

  Tessa despised the coldness that flooded her body at the sight of her mother.

  "Hi, Mama."

  "You know I need help with the flower shop." She gestured to the opposite end of the street at her store that sat whatnot-style on the corner.

  "I'm run off my feet at Valentine's, and you're over here helping a woman who'd love to stab me in the back at the first opportunity!"

  Tessa sighed.

  "Mama, Nan's a nice lady who isn't up to hurting anybody. She needed help, and I needed a job."

  Hester smacked her hand down on the wooden register stand.

  "I need help. And you don't know about Nan, so keep your nose out of it. Mind your manners, Tessa. I don't like your tone of disrespect."

  The customers parked under hair dryers were peering their way. Embarrassment prickled Tessa's skin.

  "I'm not being disrespectful. Can we have this conversation another time?"

  "Don't sass. We'll talk when I want to. How come you didn't tell me you were back from your latest pleasure trip?"

  "Mama, I got back from Madrid in July. You know that. I worked in Dallas for a friend for a few months and then came back here."

  "Spy-boy dumped ya for good, then?"

  Tessa bristled. She stared at her mother. "I wasn't dumped, and please don't call him that."

  "Oho! Fine talk for a young lady who's ringing a cash register while her lover sails the high seas and docks his ship in every port."

  "Mama!"

  "Well, you know it's true, you twit. It's an abomination to all the hard work a mother does raising her child to flaunt the polite rules of respectful and decent society. And then to have you so casually sitting in one of Crookseye Canyon's hot gossip spots as if you have

  nothing to be ashamed of - why, it just turns my stomach."

  "I'm sorry you feel that way."

  Hester shook her head, her whole body quivering in disgust.

  Nan made her way over a bit unsteadily to stand beside Tessa. "My knees are more worrisome in this cold, I will say that," she remarked conversationally.

  "I imagine you've got a brisk flower business going with the holiday, Hester."

  "Busy enough that I don't need my daughter working for you. Nan. I could use her at the shop. "

  Nan nodded.

  "I know I'm fortunate to have Tessa here. Maybe you could hire some of the college kids who are home for the weekend."

  "Don't tell me how to run my business. And I can see through your sweet-as-sugar routine. You did this just to humiliate me, hiring my daughter when everyone knows a daughter ought to help her own mother! It's as good as shouting to the whole town that I'm an unfit mother!"

  "I don't think it got shouted until you came in here and did it." Nan's tone was mild, but her eyes snapped blue sparks. "How about if you come over later and we'll sit down and talk, Hester. In the spirit of old times."

  "If you're looking for the ghosts of the past to change my heart, you're going to be sadly mistaken. And this conversation is between my daughter and me. You never had any part in my life before and you won't now."

  "So be it." Nan shrugged.

  Tessa winced. The two women had been best friends in high school until the boy Hester loved fell in love with Nan and married her right after graduation. Heartbroken, Hester quickly married a local boy who was going into the Marine Corps, only to be further disappointed when he was never home. He saw the world; she arranged flowers in the family store. It was the underlying reason Hester felt so much ill will toward Hunt. To Hester, Hunt was gallivanting around the world while Tessa was left behind. Conceivably, a lot of her mother's fears had a basis in fact, Tessa acknowledged unwillingly. Even if she knew where Hunt was, she couldn't be with him permanently, and he would never settle in Crooks- eye Canyon. His job kept him from the ranch and the town where he felt closed in, and that was what he wanted.

  Cold moisture slicked her palms. Her face heated.

  "Mama, can we talk about all this another time?" Reaching behind her, she pulled the wooden stool closer so she could sit down.

  Hester's eyes fairly popped as Tessa's stomach shifted into prominence.

  "You're pregnant."

  Her horror clearly begged a denial. An explanation. Tessa stared into the shocked, angry expression, straightening her spine as she did.

  "Yes."

  "Oh, my Lord. That's why you've been hiding from me all these months."

  Hester's face went white; her mouth pinched. Her hand flew to her chest before wiping nervously at the plain silver cross she wore around her neck.

  "Oh, dear sweet Lord. Dear Father in heaven, the pure, undiluted sin of it all."

  Hester's eyes turned up in her head as her hand scrabbled at the wooden counter before she slid to the plastic floor mat in a dead faint.

  Rossi gestured to the window of the motel, his attention on the ambulance across the street. "Mira."

  Salvador didn't care much for watching the town's people go about their daily errands. It held endless fascination for Rossi. At six in the morning, he'd pulled a cap low over his forehead and went to buy doughnuts at the next-door shop. It was as if Rossi had to sample all things American. Salvador could not have cared less. He wanted one thing, and one thing only. Biding his time in this run-down, one-story hotel with its dingy decor was like any other squalid room in the world he'd visited. He was content to surf the five-channel TV.

  "Mira," Rossi said again. "Andale."

  Salvador reluctantly rose and went to peer out the thick vinyl blinds at the ambulance crew who were loading an old woman onto a stretcher. His heart stilled at the sight of the woman whose golden fall of hair he could see at a thousand paces. The first thing he intended to do when he had her safely on the airplane was touch her hair. How could anything shine so brightly even in this darkest corner of the world?

  The ambulance pulled away, leaving the code breaker's woman standing in the street surrounded by spectators. Then they all went back inside the building. Beautiful Woman Beauty Shoppe the sign read. She did not need to visit such a place. He frowned.

  "She works in there. With the old one," Rossi murmured.

  "How do you know?"

  Rossi picked up binoculars, sighting the narrow parking strip in front of the shops.

  "The car the old woman drove yesterday is parked in the spot that says Owner."

  Satisfaction settled over Salvador again at being so close to the code breaker's woman.

  "I can only hope you are right. For once, your love of all things American may have paid off. "

  "I am always right. And I do not love all things American. I love everything in every country." Rossi put the binoculars back up to his face, sighting it now on the flower shop down the street, which was filled with people buying roses.

  Salvador didn't care about flowers or doughnuts or anything American except the woman. He threw himself back on the unmade bed and went back to flipping the five fuzzy channels with the remote. They knew where she was during the day and they knew where she was at night. All they had to do now was wait.

  "I suppose I should go to the hospital and make sure Mama's all right."

  Tessa didn't want to and felt terrible voicing her feelings. She felt like a bad daughter.

  "Take my car," Nan replied. "I'll work here for a while, then you can come back and pick me up." She put a soothing hand over Tessa's. "Don't let this upset you. I know it's hard not to, but guilt won't solve anything."

  It was her duty to make sure her mother was all right. If not for their relationship, then for the baby inside her.

  Her child would want to know her grandmother, and Hester would feel the same one day.

 
; "I swear, Hester Draper can arrange the most beautiful posies in the world, but how a woman with such a mean spirit can make things so beautiful, I'll never know. I've always thought all the toxins she spews would kill the flowers as soon as she breathed on them. And yet" - Nan shrugged " - she is gifted in doing such a difficult thing as arranging flowers, whereas me, I only do hair. Can't make a daisy look as pretty as a rose, not with these gnarly hands."

  Tessa shook her head.

  "Mama's been very disappointed that I can't do flowers the way she can."

  "Don't take it so hard. It's not a daughter's duty to be exactly like her mother. Hustle down to her store, snatch a couple of stems of whatever and take'em to her. Like as not, she'll tell you she's not on her deathbed and doesn't need a flower to clutch between her stingy hands. Just ignore her, Tessa, and tell her you love her."

  Tessa's eyes widened. She hesitated as Nan handed her the keys to her car.

  The elderly woman raised her brows with a resigned shake of her head. "You would love her if she'd let you. If she'd let anyone."

  "Yes." It was true. Her mother was bitter, but that didn't mean Tessa hadn't longed for her love. Not having it only made her more resolved that her child would always know her love.

  "Thanks, Nan," she said softly.

  "Be careful on the roads."

  Tessa nodded and left the store, dreading the visit to her mother – and yet praying that nothing was seriously wrong.

  Except for her unborn child, her mother was her only blood relation.

  The thought of being left on earth without at least one blood connection made her suddenly feel very alone.

  Cord rode his horse hard, trying to release some of the worry building inside him. If he divided the problem he had on his hands into sections, it felt bigger than just saying, "I've got a helluva mess here."

  Wanting Tessa was something he should not feel, so he forced his mind off her. To think clearly, he could not allow himself to spend every minute with his mind on her although he'd nearly lost it when he'd heard her outside calling for the puppy. Remembering Ellie, he turned his horse toward the house. It was probably time for the dog to go outside.

  What would Hunt want me to do? How can I help him?

  He could keep Tessa safe, even from himself. But he wanted Hunt home, and safe, too. Even if it meant watching Tessa go with his brother.

  Cord wanted two things: His brother home, and Tessa. This was a serious dichotomy, a forked path that required one route to be irrevocably chosen.

  The correct path was clear. He would gladly watch Tessa reunite with Hunt if there was any way possible for that to happen - even if he was dying inside.

  Looping the reins over a rail on the porch, Cord went inside to get Ellie. The puppy didn't protest when he scooped her up in his hand. She wasn't interested in being deposited on the snowy sidewalk, however. The pup remained at his feet, sorrowfully shivering. Cord

  sighed, reaching down to sweep the snow aside.

  "Your mistress says you don't like to get your paws wet and cold. Is that good enough for you?"

  It must have been, because she began sniffing the sidewalk, then the snow. Cord watched as the puppy proved its mistress wrong by bounding ungracefully through the snow and around the side of the house. He followed, figuring Ellie could drop into a snowdrift with her exuberant curiosity, which appeared to be in high gear.

  Under Tessa's bedroom window, the dog found a patch of drier earth.

  Protected by the eave of the house and positioned on the southernmost side, this area was good for planting roses and other delicate plants. It also looked out toward the pasture, so Cord's mother had enjoyed gardening here the most.

  The dog sniffed the ground with interest. Cord frowned, wishing she'd hurry and do her business. Standing outside the room where Tessa slept made him think about her, and he was trying to keep his mind otherwise occupied.

  "Come on," he told Ellie impatiently.

  He reached down to scoop her up - halting at the sight of the single, large shoe print indented in the mud where the dog had been standing.

  Puppy prints decorated the soft earth now, but the larger imprint was still clear. It was fresh and not made by the boots that Cord wore.

  Someone had been standing outside Tessa's window. Recently.

  There were no other prints, so either they missed one when they covered their tracks or they hadn't been very careful.

  Cord's gut tightened. Someone had been on his property.

  Spying on Tessa.

  Carefully, he held his boot over the shoe print, measuring.

  He frowned, a sudden strange vibration humming through him. Suddenly, he knew. Striding around to the front, he went inside, put Ellie on the floor and walked quietly down the hall. He closed his eyes for a moment before slowly opening the door to Hunt's room.

  His brother sat upright in the bed, grinning at him, his hair shaggy and ruffled and dyed blond. He hadn't shaved in weeks, so a full brown beard raggedly concealed the lower half of his face.

  "Hey, bro," Hunt said.

  Chapter Seven

  Relief tore through Cord as he took in the leaner, tougher version of his brother. A sheet covered the lower portion of his body as if for modesty, but the man lounging against the pillows looked fit and relaxed.

  Brother in the flesh, thank God.

  "I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again."

  Hunt laughed.

  "They say a bad penny always returns. So I have." He scrutinized his brother.

  "How'd you know I was here?"

  Cord shrugged.

  "Call it a hunch." He didn't mention the footprint on the ground outside Tessa's room.

  "Staying long?"

  "Leaving very soon, as a matter of fact. I was in New York and decidedI wanted to sleep in my own bed for one night before I head to California."

  Cord held back the urge to tell his brother that he had many reasons to stay.

  "What's in California?"

  "A new face."

  He met Hunt's eyes in shock.

  "Witness protection?"

  "Sort of. It's a safeguard, but it'll allow me to do my job without the risk of being recognized."

  "Oh, God." Cord leaned against the wall and stared at his younger brother.

  "You took a risk coming here."

  Hunt shrugged.

  "Figured you might want to see the old me one last time."

  Fear and longing for their secure, easy boyhood twined inside him even though the past was so far away it felt like a mirage. Cord was a protector. So was his brother, but it was different. He craved the peace of the caring shepherd and his flock; Hunt craved a much larger mission. Cord's heart was heavy for he knew that the face of the brother he'd grown up with, the face he loved, would be no more. But one day, the enemy might catch up to Hunt. So he understood the precautions Hunt had to take; he just wished it could be different.

  "Two goons came to tell me you'd died an honorable death."

  His brother's eyes honed in on him.

  "I suppose you knew I was fine."

  "I was pretty certain they were hoping I'd buy their story and give them some information they could use so they could get to you."

  "I'm sorry."

  Cord clamped his jaw together, hearing the apology for all the worrying he'd suffered. That price had been small in the overall picture.

  "I sent them on their way with nothing. But they wanted to know where to locate Tessa."

  "Damn it!" Hunt got out of bed, his lower body encased in faded jeans that fitted his lean body closely. There wasn't a spare ounce anywhere on him. He reminded Cord of a cheetah, ready to run, either for prey or for escape.

  "They're pretty desperate to be taking these measures." He drew in a deep, contemplative breath. "I didn't want Tessa in danger. It's why I left her like I did. Getting the hell away from her was the only thing I could do to draw attention from her. I thought." He faced his brother. "Thanks for rescu
ing her and getting her home."

  "All I had to do was purchase a ticket and tell her to get on a plane. You did the right thing by disappearing." He knew Tessa well enough to realize she would have protested leaving Spain without Hunt if she'd thought he was in danger there.

  Hunt looked out the window before meeting his brother's gaze, "You were right all along. I shouldn't have put her at risk like that. I knew there was no place in my life for her, but... I liked her being with me." He swallowed. "Is that why she's here? Because of the goons?"

  Cord nodded, hearing the deeper question in Hunt's voice.

  "She came back to Crookseye when her job in Dallas ran out. Since she wouldn't go to her mother's, I thought it best she stay here."

  "No, she wouldn't go home." Hunt glanced back out the window, regret in his tone. "But I didn't mean for you to end up looking after my responsibilities."

  Cord thought about the child that Hunt didn't know he was going to have, the child who would never see his father's real face. Telling Hunt might change the course of the future - but to what purpose? To put Hunt in greater danger? Tessa in jeopardy, and even her baby?

  Did you ever stop to think that if Hunt found out, he might try to come home? He might try to contact me? That could put him at risk. Worse, it could put my baby at risk. And that is something I will not do.

  Tessa had not wanted Hunt to know. It was her right to tell him. He couldn't go against her wishes, not when it was her life, her baby, her decision. Her greatest fear was that Hunt might put himself in a precarious position because of the child. Yet the unspoken words

  burned on his tongue as he met his brother's gaze as honestly as he could.

  "Your responsibilities," he said slowly, "are my responsibilities."

  "Thanks, bro." Hunt smiled, relieved. "I care about her too much to put her in harm's way again. I should have listened to you, but ... she's special."

  "It doesn't matter now. If any of us could see the future, we'd be able to make better choices. Anyway, she wanted to be with you." He took a deep, pained breath.