“Oh, Jeb, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’d been over for a long time but we kept going through the motions. It was time for both of us to move on.” He smiled but didn’t turn back to look at her. “She’s already remarried and is quite happy from what I hear.”
“And you?”
He shrugged. “I’m starting over. Moving back here was the first step.”
“Are you going to start a new practice?”
“I might.” He hedged a little, turning back to see her face. “I’ve been helping Cap Winston out here and there, although he’s already hired on a new young man to take over.”
Virginia harrumphed under her breath. “Yeah, he’s been out here a few times to see the stock. Not sure I trust someone so wet behind the ears.”
“He’s young, but he’s good. I’ve seen him work through some pretty sticky situations.”
She nodded. “Well, if you’re going to be helping out, then I’ll definitely call him instead of trying to find a bigger vet out of Dallas.”
The screen door banged open behind them. Catching a glimpse of pink skirts, Jeb jumped to his feet and started backing down the stairs. Virginia’s mother still sometimes popped into his nightmares, not the gun-wielding Marine father he’d dreamed of someday asking for his daughter’s hand.
“You’re just in time for supper, Jebadiah.” Miss Belle flounced over to grab his hand and tug him back on the porch. “Boys, come and help your mama.”
He’d much rather help Virginia inside than escort Miss Belle on his arm, but evidently he didn’t have a choice. She might have been a petite eighty-year-old grandmother but she dragged him right inside as easily as if he were a toddler and not almost two feet taller than her. On their way out to help their mama, her two boys paused long enough to shake Jeb’s hand. He hadn’t seen either of them since the funeral, both big, strapping young men though they couldn’t match him for height. Both of them were successful and well mannered—as if Virginia and Ty would have allowed them to grow up rude or shiftless. Ty must be beaming with pride at them both.
“So that’s why you insisted we set an extra plate.” Virginia’s only daughter smiled at him. “Welcome, Mr. Garrett. If you need to wash up, come on into the kitchen.”
Sharon hadn’t wanted kids. At the time, he’d regretted the decision, always hungering for the chance to be a father. But after their ugly split, he was relieved they hadn’t had children in the mix, even though they would have been adults by then. He hadn’t expected all of Virginia’s children to be home, but knowing the family, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Of course they’d all rally around her after the accident, even though Conn and Miss Belle lived in Missouri.
They all know me. I’m just an old family friend.
Which was true, but as Jeb washed his hands and prepared to sit down at the Connagher table, he had a feeling he ought to be upfront with at least Virginia’s boys.
How are they going to take the idea of me courting their mama?
Virginia’s sons helped her settle into her chair at the head of the massive table. The girls had outdone themselves. Ham and roast beef with mashed potatoes and creamy mac and cheese, green beans and two kinds of salad. It all smelled and looked appetizing, which confirmed that the young women had done the cooking, not her own mother.
Miss Belle could open a can of green beans and turn it into something even the dog wouldn’t eat.
All her children were laughing and gathering around the table. Victor and his girlfriend sat by Conn and his. On the opposite side of the table, Vicki sat between her two men, Jesse and Elias. There were two open seats remaining: the opposite head of the table and the one immediately to her right. Staring down at the far end, her throat suddenly clogged with emotion. Ty’s seat. How he’d love to come tromping in from the fields, plop his filthy, dusty butt into his chair and grin down at everyone gathered around his table. Airs and pretense hadn’t been his way. He’d have washed his hands, sure, but his old boots would have been caked with mud and God knows what else, his jeans faded and stained, his shirt streaked with sweat and dirt, and he wouldn’t have cared.
A big hand touched her right arm, startling her. She turned her face up, surprised to see concern on Jeb’s face. “Are you all right, Ginny?”
“Fine,” she muttered, grabbing the sling with her right hand to adjust her injured arm, pretending it was paining her and not her lonely heart.
He moved around to her other side and adjusted the pillow they’d used against the arm of the chair to provide support. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.” She glanced down the table and noticed everyone staring at her. “What?”
“I’ve never heard anyone call you Ginny before.” Vicki had a speculative look on her face that instantly sent Virginia’s hackles up.
“Of course you haven’t,” she said tartly. “You weren’t in school with me about forty years ago. Everyone knew me as Ginny growing up.”
“You went to school with Mr. Garrett?”
“Jeb,” he said in a low agreeable voice. “She sure did, though I was a year ahead.”
“Did you ever date?”
“Beulah Virginia Connagher, that’s none of your business,” Virginia retorted, trying to put a halt to this conversation with the lowest blow she could manage in front of company. Vicki hated her real name. “But no, we never dated.”
“Not for trying,” Jeb replied again in that agreeable voice.
Stunned, she couldn’t even muster a glare. He’d never tried to date her. Sure, they’d been friends her whole childhood. Everybody had assumed they were an item. But they’d never ever actually dated. “We. Never. Dated.”
There’d been that one time…but that hadn’t been a date. And she’d put the whole nightmare incident out of her mind. Evidently he hadn’t.
Despite the ice in her voice, he merely smiled. Well, mere wasn’t the appropriate word. When he smiled, his whole face crinkled up, deep lines around his eyes and mouth that said he was a man who’d smiled often through the years. His mustache wasn’t as big as Ty’s had always been and he wore a neatly trimmed goatee that framed his mouth, making his amusement and pleasure all the more obvious.
“You see,” he continued, “The Garretts and Healys were friends from the beginning, so I was always escorting Ginny to various dances and parties, along with our parents of course. I almost asked her before I left for college, but I wanted to have my degree and be settled into a practice before I committed anything, so I waited until she got back from a yearlong trip to Ireland. Meanwhile, Tyrell moved into town, started working as a farm hand at the Healys’, and the next time I came home, I realized it was too late. I’d waited too damned long, and he’d won her hand before I could even ask.”
She wasn’t surprised that Conn’s romantic heart had been snagged by the tale, a bemused smile on his face. But even her hard son, Victor, seemed interested in hearing more about his mother’s nonexistent love life. “That’s not how it went at all.”
“We all managed to stay friends, though.” Jeb went on as though she hadn’t said a word. “Ty had a way about him that wouldn’t let people hold grudges. We even went out on a double date together years later, me with Sharon—my ex—and Ty and Ginny. So in that regard, we did date.”
“Why don’t we say grace?” Virginia tried to change the subject, uncomfortable in a way that surprised her. She’d known Jeb had fancied her all those years ago. How hard had it been for him to see her married to someone else? For them to go out on a double date? She’d already been married by then, but he’d asked her to accompany him and Sharon as if he needed her approval of his bride first.
Had he really pined for her? Surely not. The man had been married to the same woman for at least twenty, twenty-five years.
Everyone reached out their hands. Which meant she had to slip her right hand in
to Jeb’s big palm, while her son gently laid his hand over her left hand in the cast. She hadn’t held a man’s hand in a coon’s age, even for something as innocent as prayer. His fingers were strong, gripping her firmly as though she might try to yank her hand away and he wanted to hold on. It brought out latent urges in her. She wanted to clamp her hand harder around his, to punish those fingers for touching her before she’d given explicit permission. Only so she could invite his touch again.
Conn began the prayer before Victor could, which made her want to curse in a most un-Christian-like way. Dr. English Professor went on and on, leaving her hand pressed against Jeb’s for far too long. Long enough that the shared heat made her palm sweat just a little. The promise of so much more.
The rattle of silverware made her jerk back to attention. Jeb tightened his fingers even more, keeping her hand pressed to his. She met his gaze and then couldn’t look away. Molten dark chocolate eyes locked onto hers, narrowed with intense concentration. It was like he was silently trying to tell her something. No, yelling at her, without saying a word, demanding some reaction from her.
He’d moved her. The fact shook her to her core. No man had ever moved her except Ty.
That’s a lie.
A lie I can’t face.
She firmly pulled her hand from his and looked down at the table. She put a bright smile on her face. “I’m so glad you’re all here, even if the circumstances aren’t the best. Thank you all for coming.” And then she endeavored to not even look at Jebadiah Garrett again.
Chapter Four
Unbelievable. Jeb tried to eat and smile as the family chatted around him but he couldn’t taste the food and each bite tried to choke him. She doesn’t even remember. Or worse, she doesn’t want to remember.
He’d tried to put her out of his mind too. After all, he’d been married for nearly twenty years and had dated Sharon for years before that. Once he’d committed himself to her, he’d stayed loyal and true. Oh, sure, he’d daydreamed about the various ways Ty and Virginia might split up over some ridiculous fight, and then beat himself up with guilt that he’d wished such heartache on his best friend and secret love. After his own marriage, he put such traitorous thoughts behind him. He’d tried his best to be the husband Sharon wanted, and for the most part, he’d succeeded for years.
Even while he died a little more each day.
Being her husband required that he slowly kill off the real man hidden away inside him. His hopes and dreams withered away and crumbled to dust. He’d lost his passion for just about everything, even his practice. After Ty died, he’d redoubled his dedication to Sharon, determined to prove once and for all that he loved her and only her. Not that it’d helped.
The man who’d once loved Virginia had died a long time ago and only a shell of him remained.
Luckily, a tiny seed of the old Jebadiah was still buried deep within him. A seed that had finally sprouted and that he learned to nurture and shelter ruthlessly. In the end, he’d lost his wife, but he’d found himself again. He’d hoped to find Virginia, too, and rekindle that teenage love.
But she didn’t even remember the few precious moments of stolen passion that had kept him going all these years.
“What do you think, Miss Belle?” Vicki said with a mischievous smile on her face. “Do you think he’d do?”
Beside him, Virginia made a choking sound that had Victor rising up out of his chair ready to perform the Heimlich maneuver until she waved him off curtly.
“I do believe we’ve found the perfect specimen.” Miss Belle winked at Jeb and he dropped his fork with a clatter. “What do you say, Jebadiah?”
“To what?” He carefully avoided Virginia’s gaze. He had a feeling she’d be frantically waving him off.
“Don’t you even say it, Mother.” Virginia’s low voice rang in the room, causing everyone to cease their talking and look down at her. She flushed but didn’t back down. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Miss Belle laughed gaily and rose from her chair. “Balderdash.” She turned and sashayed down the table straight for Jeb, swishing her skirts like a young girl. “I know exactly what I’m talking about.”
He wasn’t fooled one bit and kept a wary eye on her. He might have even flinched when she laid a hand on his shoulder. “I dare you.”
“Dare me to what, ma’am?”
“It’s high time that you officially ask my daughter out on a date.”
Virginia turned a cutting look on him that he felt keenly even though he refused to look at her. “Don’t you dare, Jebadiah. Don’t let her trick you into anything.”
He could play it several different ways. He could be the jovial bumbling idiot and pretend he’d been bamboozled by the wacky yet deadly sharp Miss Belle. Or, he could play it cool and pretend that he had absolutely no interest whatsoever in the prickly woman.
Or, I could admit the truth.
He turned and met Virginia’s furious scowl with a wide, easy smile. “How could I be tricked into anything when that was my plan from the moment I drove onto the Connagher ranch? How about it, Ginny? Will you do me the honor of joining me for dinner one night?”
It was a curious thing to watch her face transform. For a moment, her lips parted slightly and she sucked in a deep breath. Her eyes widened. She didn’t say anything right away, but stared at him like she’d never seen him before.
But then her face hardened and before his eyes, she turned into a different woman. Her lips tightened, firm and unforgiving. The light in her eyes died down to a flat coldness. She looked at him like she’d just found a rattler threatening one of her prize foals.
“Oh, Mama, please do!” Vicki gushed, ignoring the look on her mother’s face. “It’ll be fun to talk about old times.”
Old times. Like when she’d set her mind on another man and never once looked back at her best friend. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She’d looked back once, but she didn’t even remember it.
“I couldn’t possibly.” Virginia picked up her fork and turned her attention to her plate. She didn’t spare him another glance. “My arm, remember? I can’t even find a T-shirt that’s not a bear to put on by myself, let alone anything appropriate to wear out.”
“Good thing your daughter’s a designer,” Vicki replied, winking at Jeb. “I’ve got just the thing for you. How about next Saturday, Mr. Garrett? That way she’ll have another week to recuperate.”
Miss Belle patted him on the shoulder and then skipped toward the kitchen to retrieve dessert. “After a few days with me, she’ll be itching to escape anywhere.”
“Even a date.” Virginia sneered the last word. “But she’s right. In a few days, I’ll do anything to get out of the house. So I guess it’s a date, Mr. Garrett.”
She said it mockingly, ignoring the happy squeals of her daughter. For a moment, she met his gaze again, and Jeb didn’t even recognize her. He’d known Virginia had a steely inner core. That’s what had always attracted him the most. She was a woman who knew what she wanted and went after it until she got it, whether it was a fine horse ranch or the lanky cowboy she’d set her heart on. But this woman…
She looks at me like she can’t bear the sight of me. When I first arrived, she’d been glad to see me. Now she despises me. Why the change? And how can we possibly have a few hours alone without her trying to gut me?
Chapter Five
March 1974
Sitting in a “restaurant” that just happened to also have a hopping bar oblivious to drinking age laws wasn’t Virginia’s idea of a good time, although Sissy sure was eating it up. Jeb’s sister—two years her junior—had pleaded and begged her to come along to the open house at Texas A&M for any interested incoming freshmen, and she hadn’t been able to tell her no.
After returning from a long trip to Ireland, she’d been avoiding Jeb and all the old crew that had hung out togeth
er after school. Guilt churned in her stomach every time she thought about him, which only ticked her off more. I don’t owe him anything. I certainly don’t owe him an explanation. I’m engaged. End of story.
Except she didn’t have a ring. All she had was Ty’s promise. That was enough for her. But would it be enough for Jeb? Why would he even care anyway?
When he walked into the bar with a handful of existing students determined to show all the giggling silly girls how fun college boys could be, she knew she’d been set up. Jeb had been behind this crazy trip the whole time. His sister suddenly disappeared with the group, headed across the room to the bar, leaving her alone with him in a darkened corner of the restaurant.
“It’s good to see you, Ginny.”
She fought to keep a civil tone of voice, even though she was chomping for a fight. She’d been chomping for a fight for years. “I shouldn’t be surprised you’re part of the welcoming committee. You always have a winning smile ready to bring people over to your side. How many idiotic drunk high school girls have you taken home lately?”
His brow arched. “Jealous?”
She snorted. “Hardly.”
“I am.”
She spluttered. “You? About what?” He leaned across the table, searching her face for so long she figured he wasn’t going to reply. “I see news travels fast. Sissy always did have a big mouth. Yeah, I’m engaged to Tyrell Connagher. Why that should—”
“I’m still a virgin,” Jeb broke in. “I guess you can’t say the same any longer.”
She could feel the blood draining from her face so fast that she swayed, suddenly dizzy. Was it so obvious? She’d been so careful, tiptoeing around Miss Belle and Daddy just in case. Stupid. Even if Miss Belle hadn’t sensed the change with her extrasensory abilities, then she evidently would have seen it written all over her daughter’s face.
Shaken, she didn’t even protest when Jeb took her arm and led her outside. The patio tables were empty even though the parking lot was full. Everybody was too busy partying at the bar to enjoy the stars.
Never Let You Down: The Connaghers, Book 4 Page 4
