“What are you thinking? Your brow is wrinkled like it is when you are judging,” he said.
“Nothing,” she said. How could she explain to him that anything worth having is worth fighting tooth, nail, hair, and eyeball for? Evidently his mother and father didn’t have that kind of love. She’d grown up with two tough parents who disagreed on many occasions but it had made the marriage stronger not weaker.
Don’t judge his situation by your own half bushel, Granny Etta’s words haunted her and were as plain as if she were sitting right beside her on the beach. She remembered the day she’d asked Etta what she meant by that adage.
“It means that you don’t have all the facts and probably never will so you can’t use your own knowledge, family, or background to judge another person. You’ve got a half bushel of sense but it’s not to be used to compare someone else’s situation. Do you understand?” Etta had asked her that day.
“I think so,” a much younger Jodie had replied. An older one enjoying the calm sloshing of the water as it washed in and out understood it much better.
He reached for another candy. “One more and I’m quitting. I’ll have an inner tube around my middle like Grandfather did. I’ve been doing all the talking this evening. Tell me about you, Jodie.”
“Born twenty-six years ago in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Lived in Sulphur my whole life. Plan on dying there. Pretty simple.”
The wind picked up speed and a solid bank of black clouds appeared out of nowhere. One lightning bolt and a rumble of thunder was all the warning they got before enormous rain drops poured from the sky. Jimmy grabbed Jodie’s hand, and they ran back to their rooms. Jimmy had rented cabana rooms with patio doors that opened right out onto the beach. Even though the distance was only a few yards, they were soaked by the time they reached their doors.
“My candy!” she wailed as the ocean waves claimed the heart-shaped box washing it out to sea.
He shivered as he unlocked first her door and then his. “It was almost empty.”
“I wanted to save the box,” she said.
“I’ll buy you another one,” he told her. No way was he sprinting in the cold February rain and lightning to fight the ocean for a paper box of ruined candy.
“Some gentleman you are,” she said.
He held the door for her. “A smart one not a foolish one.”
When she turned around to smart off to him he was already gone. She could hear him mumbling through the wall separating their rooms and was glad they didn’t have a connecting door. She went straight to the bathroom and turned on the water. Her mouth watered for another piece of chocolate. For that alone she battled the urge to walk across the patio they shared, march into his room and start an argument. He should have had the forethought to pick up the box when the rain started.
What exactly are you fighting against? And why are you looking for reasons to not like that man? her heart asked. Had it been blessed with a real voice, Jodie expected it would have been screaming at her.
“He’s not for me. It’s only because we are together all the time that I find him remotely desirable. If we’d grown up on the connecting farms, I’m sure we would have hated each other,” she said.
She had one towel wrapped securely around her head and one around her body when the phone rang. She sat on the edge of the bed and answered it. “Hello.”
“Get some clothes on and come on over here. While I was out I bought food and a movie. Picked up a DVD player at the hotel office,” Jimmy said.
“How do you know I don’t have clothes on, and what makes you think I want to watch a movie?” she asked.
“You do love to argue, don’t you? My bathroom is right on the other side of the wall. I can hear the shower. I waited until it stopped before I called but I didn’t give you enough time to get dressed. That’s how I know. It’s been four hours since you ate, and I’m sure the candy is the only thing that saved you from dying of pure starvation so you have to be hungry. That’s how I know. I thought you might like a movie because you mentioned last week that you hadn’t had time to see Wild Hogs. Anything else before you put on your pink jogging suit?”
“Think you’re so smart, don’t you?”
“I bought shrimp from a vendor outside the grocery store. Crab boil is in the pot and I’m dropping in tiny red potatoes and corn on the cob right now. Next the shrimp go in. How long are you going to be?”
“Five minutes and don’t you overcook that shrimp.” She’d pulled the suit, along with underpants and a bra, from her suitcase as she talked. If she’d had anything else to lounge around in, she would have worn it just to prove him wrong.
The pot on the two-burner stove had been used many, many times judging from the dents and misfitting lid but neither Jodie or Jimmy cared. He dipped the food from the aromatic boiling water and piled it into a bowl that didn’t match either one of the plates he’d found in the kitchenette’s cabinet.
“Want to watch the movie while we eat or after?”
She tucked a jar of cocktail sauce in the crook of her elbow and twisted the cap off with her right hand. “While we eat or it’ll be so late we’ll both fall to sleep during it.”
He put the movie into the DVD player and adjusted the volume on the television set. Then he piled his plate as high as she had. “Leave room for cheesecake. What do you want to drink?”
“Dr. Pepper,” she said.
He pulled one regular and a diet from the refrigerator and carried them to where she sat on the floor. Her back was against the foot of the bed, her knees serving as a table for her plate, water still dripping down her back from wet hair, and no makeup. He thought she was absolutely stunning.
She popped a small potato in her mouth and peeled several shrimp while she chewed. “This is scrumptious,” she said between bites. “A perfect Valentine’s dinner for two.”
“Even though the ocean ate your candy?”
“But we have cheesecake so all is well.”
A grin split his face and his dimples deepened. The woman could get under his skin worse than anyone he’d ever met, and turn right around and make his heart and soul float like they were riding on clouds. One thing was for sure, there was never a dull moment with her. Jodie, grown up, was as sassy as Jodie, little girl. He loved both even if he never did a thing about it.
After the last shrimp was eaten, the movie finished, and the dishes stacked in the sink, he walked her from his room, across the patio and to her sliding glass doors. “I enjoyed the evening, Jodie.”
“Me too. I can’t think of a Valentine’s Day when I had so much fun,” she said.
It was one of those moments when his soul flitted about on a cloud. He took a step forward, tucked his fist beneath her chin, and leaned in for the kiss. She tasted like Dr. Pepper, cocktail sauce, and chocolate swirl cheesecake.
She wasn’t ready for the kiss and hadn’t prepared herself for the shock of it. Just like the first one, she had the instant feeling that her soul and body had separated. The body enjoyed the kiss. The soul was dancing on raindrops.
“I’m not so sure we should do that again,” she said breathlessly when it ended.
“I’m very sure we should. Good night, Jodie,” he whispered softly.
Shivers played chase up and down her backbone and it had nothing whatsoever to do with the cool night air.
Chapter Eleven
Jodie almost swooned when Roseanna drove into the driveway of the Cahill ranch house. She hadn’t realized how homesick she truly was until Jimmy mentioned flying home for a few days. Rosy had met her at the airport and driven her home.
“Glad to be back?” Roseanna asked as she parked.
“You’ll never know.” Jodie stepped out into the howling north wind, bitter cold and with the smell of snow. She turned her face away from the gale, fighting it to get inside the warm house. She wouldn’t complain if the snow was a foot deep by supper time, she was so glad to be home.
The aroma of frying sausage, eggs, hot bi
scuits fresh from the oven, and hot maple syrup met her when she swung open the door. She threw her coat over a rocking chair near the blazing fireplace and went straight to the kitchen.
She wrapped her mother and father into a three-way hug and inhaled deeply. God, it was good to be home. If she hadn’t given her word to serve as judge, she’d be tempted to call off the rest of the tour. Hotels, restaurants, and hours of riding weren’t nearly as exciting as they had been when she was younger.
“Where’s Jimmy?” Bob Cahill asked.
“Change of plans at the last minute. There was some kind of business in San Antonio that he needed to be at. I didn’t understand the whole thing but he caught a connecting flight out of Dallas, and we’ll meet back there on the twenty-third. Lord, I’ve missed y’all. Is breakfast about ready?”
“It sure is. Rosy, you eating with us?” Bob asked.
Roseanna reached for a stack of plates and set the table. “You bet I am. Trey has some early morning thing at the school so he’s already gone.”
“So fill us in,” Bob said after grace was asked.
“Not much to tell. We travel. We eat lots of fast food. We sleep and we work. I’m almost glad I’m not doing a year’s worth of this, Daddy,” Jodie said as she ate.
“And what about that time in San Antonio?” Roseanna asked.
“I’ve got a whole new respect for the time you were married to Trey the first time. The rich and shameless live a different lifestyle than we do. I got along with the staff a lot better than the relatives. Enough about that. I want to hear about home. Are Melanie and Jim getting settled in? Are the girls in school here yet? What’s going on with Greta and Kyle and the rest of the gang?”
A company limo waited for Jimmy at the airport. He lounged back and shut his eyes, catching a brief nap on the way to the office building in downtown San Antonio. He really didn’t want to be in Texas right now and couldn’t imagine what kind of business was so pressing he had to attend the meeting. Cathy was evasive when she relayed the message from his mother and grandmother, refusing to give any details.
He combed his hair with his fingers in the mirrored walls of the elevator and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. What was Jodie doing right now? Would she and Roseanna have reached the ranch? He’d offered to rent a car for her but she’d refused, saying that her sister would come to the airport and deliver her back to it. She’d be back to the flight waiting area at the right time to board the plane and fly back to Florida in five days.
A familiar ding let him know he’d reached the penthouse floor. The doors opened at the end of the conference room. A long, narrow mahogany table with legs big enough to support the second floor of a mansion surrounded by twelve chairs occupied the middle of the floor. Three walls were paneled in a rich red wood. The fourth was a solid expanse of glass overlooking San Antonio. The sky was gray that morning with a hazy fog obliterating the view. Only four people waited: Amelia, Lorraine, Cathy, and the company’s head attorney.
Amelia was her usual self in a fitted black suit with a white silk blouse and diamonds in her ears. She looked up and her expression looked like it did when Jimmy was in grade school and brought home a B on his report card.
Gold hoop earrings and a matching choker necklace complemented Lorraine’s navy blue suit with gold buttons. Her attitude was almost amusing. A snide little grin tickled the corners of her mouth, and she actually reminded Jimmy of the old cat that found the bird cage open. Something was surely going on and apparently he was about to find out just what it was.
Cathy motioned toward a chair that had been pulled out for him. She was all business that morning. Charcoal gray suit, silver jewelry, notebook open in front of her.
Frowning, he greeted the women in his life with a customary kiss on the forehead for each one and took his seat beside his grandmother. “What is this all about?” he asked. Not once in the twenty-six years of his life had he been called home for a meeting in the conference room.
“I’ll explain,” Barry Wentz, the lawyer, said. “Unless one of you wants to lay down the foundation first.”
“Just remember, James, we did what we did because we thought it was best for you,” Amelia said.
“Because we wanted your life to be as uncluttered as possible,” Lorraine added.
Cathy added her two cents’ worth to the confusing mixture. “And because you didn’t need that factor to confuse you.”
Jimmy looked at the lawyer.
“Okay, as you know your mother and father were married against your grandparents’ wishes. When your father died, your grandparents brought you and your mother back to San Antonio to live.”
Jimmy nodded. So far it was just past history.
“You have more family, James, on your father’s side. Your paternal grandfather has recently died in Sulphur, Oklahoma. I don’t know how much you remember but that is where your father, William, was working when he died. There was a life insurance policy and you were listed as the sole beneficiary with your mother acting as trustee. In a letter he left behind he stated that he knew she would go back to her own wealth and would never need the money, but he wanted to leave you something in case he wasn’t around. So first of all, the insurance policy was triple indemnity if death occurred by accident, and here it is. A copy of the policy and the check from that with the interest from the past year. You were actually entitled to it on your twenty-fifth birthday.” He pushed a folder across the table.
Jimmy opened it, glanced at the $300 thousand dollar check and briefly scanned the insurance policy. Everything was in order.
“Now to the rest. Your paternal grandfather lived north of Sulphur on a ranch. It has a section or 640 acres of land. He died two weeks ago in a nursing home where he’d been for more than twenty years. The ranch is grown up from the aerial photographs we’ve had taken. It’s got an old three-bedroom frame house on it but no doubt it’s in dire need of repairs. No one has lived in it since your parents lived there briefly with you when your grandfather first went to the nursing home, and that was twenty-one years ago. He’s left the ranch to his only grandson, which is you. I suggest we put it on the market this week. There’s also another insurance policy which will amount to a few thousand dollars.”
Jimmy felt like someone had kicked the breath from his lungs. He’d had a grandfather all these years and the knowledge had been kept from him. “Why wasn’t I told about my family?” he asked tersely.
“Because I didn’t want you to be around those people,” Lorraine said.
“Why?”
“They were just farmers. Your grandfather fell and broke his hip so we went to that godforsaken place to help with the ranch. It was just supposed to be until your grandfather could come back to the ranch but he had a stroke and your father was killed in that accident.”
“But I could have gone to see him,” Jimmy said.
“Didn’t you hear your mother?” Cathy said. “You didn’t need to be around those people. You are too sensitive as it is.”
“You knew too?” Jimmy asked.
“Of course. I take care of all your finances, remember? I knew about the trust fund and the land years ago.”
“Do I have other relatives in that area?” Jimmy asked the lawyer.
“Yes. Your grandfather had a niece who lived in the house on the next farm over. From all the reports we have she was faithful enough to visit him in the nursing home on a regular basis. She and her husband leased the land for a few dollars a year and she kept an eye on the property for your grandfather. She was given power of attorney while he was living. I guess she thought he’d leave his property to her for her efforts. I hope she’s not too disappointed. Her last name is Parsons. They have a son named . . .”
“Kyle,” Jimmy finished for him.
“How do you know about Kyle?” Lorraine asked.
“He’s a friend of Jodie’s,” he almost whispered. “I’ve had cousins and family all this time and you kept me from them. I can’t believe this.�
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“I told you, we did what we thought was best for you. It would have been confusing for you to live in our world and visit in that one. I hated it there. You would have too,” Lorraine said.
“Why are you telling me this now? You’ve kept the trust fund a big secret. Why tell me about the property and the fact I have family at this point? Why didn’t you just keep me in the dark about that too?”
Lorraine looked him right in the eye. “Because of that woman you are traveling with. You said you were going there for a few days so she can visit her people. It might come up in conversation about your grandfather. Crowe isn’t a common name even in those parts and it’s a small town. Everyone knows everybody else and what their business is. We were afraid you’d find out from someone else.”
“Someone would remember at some point because you look so much like William,” Amelia added.
“I can’t believe you’ve kept all this from me,” he mumbled.
“Grow up,” Cathy said. “If you weren’t so weak, it wouldn’t have been necessary. You are twenty-six. It’s time you put away your toys and entered the adult world. We can use you in the corporation but you’re out there playing writer. There’s no future in that, James. Call the realtor. Sell the land. Forget about the past, and we’ll give you an office with a lovely view.”
Jimmy looked at the lawyer. “This land. It’s mine. My name only and no one else’s? And the money is mine?”
“That’s right. I have two real estate agents ready. You can go over their contracts and see which one you want to use. Here are the deeds, tax reports, and all the financial papers. The section of land is adjacent to his niece’s ranch. I wouldn’t expect to make a lot of money from it since it hasn’t been taken care of properly all these years.”
Jimmy gathered all the papers together. “It’s not for sale.”
“Whatever are you going to do with land in that . . .”
Jimmy gave his mother a look that stopped her mid-sentence. “First of all I’m going to look at it, and second I’m going to call Kyle Parsons and ask him to round up everyone I might be kin to so I can meet them. After that I’ll make a decision.”
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