A Piece of Texas Trilogy

by Peggy Moreland

  Addy stared, stunned by Zadie’s suggestion, then turned and all but ran for the door, her cheeks flaming in embarrassment.

  “Where you goin’ in such a rush?” Zadie called after her. “I thought you was gonna stir that stew?”

  Anxious to show Addy the surprise he’d bought for her, Mack tossed his hat onto the kitchen counter. “Hey, Zadie. Where’s Addy?”

  Scowling, Zadie slammed the oven door. “How would I know?” she snapped, tossing up her hands. “Nobody tells me nothin’, jist zip in and outta my kitchen like they was bees chasin’ honey.”

  Mack lifted a brow, surprised by her sour mood. “If you’re upset with me because I didn’t tell you where I was going, I’m sorry. I was in hurry. Had some business in town I needed to take care of.”

  She spun to face him and planted her hands on her hips. “Did I ask you where you was?” Before he could answer, she marched to the refrigerator, her nose in the air, and yanked open the door. “Everybody askin’ where everybody else is,” she muttered under her breath, as she dug around inside. “A person would think I’s a secretary instead of the cook.”

  When she turned from the refrigerator and nearly bumped into Mack, she scowled again. “I thought you was in an all-fired hurry to find Miss Addy.” She pushed out a hand, shooing him away. “Well, get on with you. I’ve got dinner to cook.”

  Deciding it was safer to leave than question her further, he went in search of Addy. He found her in her bedroom, standing before the French doors, staring out.

  “Addy?”

  She jumped but didn’t turn around. “Yes?” she said uneasily.

  He noticed that she was wringing her hands and wondered if it had anything to do with Zadie’s sour mood.

  “Did you and Zadie have an argument or something?” he asked.

  She tensed. “Did she say that we did?”

  He bit down on his frustration, wondering if the women in the house had conspired during his absence to drive him crazy. “No. But she nearly bit my head off when I asked her where you were.”

  “What else did she tell you?”

  Puzzled, he shook his head. “Nothing. Just chased me out of her kitchen.”

  She turned then, and he saw the tears that brimmed in her eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked in concern.

  “It’s my fault she’s in a bad mood. I yelled at her. Zadie,” she clarified, then sniffed and dragged a hand beneath her nose. “I just wanted to stir the stew, and she snatched the spoon away from me, and I…I—” She lifted her hands, then let them drop helplessly to her sides, tears welling in her eyes again. “Something inside me just snapped. I’m so bored,” she said miserably. “Nobody will let me do anything. Zadie. Mary. They treat me like I’m an invalid or an idiot, and I don’t know which is worse.”

  “They just don’t want you to overdo.”

  “Overdo?” she repeated, her tears instantly drying. “Much more of this sedentary lifestyle and I’ll atrophy! I’m used to being busy. At home and at work. Eight-hour shifts of nonstop action in an Emergency Room in no way prepares a person for this kind of inactivity. Much more and I’m going to go crazy.”

  “Do you want me to talk to them?”

  “Yes. No.” Groaning, she dropped her face to her hands. “I don’t know. I just want to do something, anything, and they won’t let me.”

  Though it was a struggle, Mack managed not to laugh. “I’ll talk to them. Tell them to let you help when you want.”

  She dropped her hands, her face stricken. “Promise you won’t tell them that I said anything. I mean…well—” She began to wring her hands again. “They’ve been so nice to me. I don’t want them to think I’m ungrateful.”

  He drew a cross over his heart. “You have my word. They’ll never know this discussion took place.”

  She sagged her shoulders. “Thank you.”

  Hiding a smile, he draped an arm around her and headed her for the door. “Come outside with me. I want to show you something.”

  She hung back, her gaze on the nursery door behind them. “But what if Johnny Mack wakes up?”

  He urged her on. “There are monitors all over the house. Mary or Zadie will tend to him if he does.”

  When they reached the front porch, he stopped. “Well?” he asked, indicating the vehicle parked on the drive. “What do you think?”

  She stared, her jaw going slack, then whipped her gaze to his. “You bought a new car? But you already have a Mercedes and a truck. What do you need with another vehicle?”

  Before he could explain that the car was for her, she took off at a run. When he caught up with her, she was behind the wheel, her head tipped back against the leather headrest, her eyes closed.

  She inhaled deeply, her expression rapturous. “Smell that? New car. Nothing in the world compares.”

  Chuckling, he circled the hood and climbed into the passenger seat.

  Flipping open her eyes, she leaned forward to examine the controls. “Oh, my gosh. Satellite Radio! That is beyond awesome.”

  “So you like the car?”

  “Like it?” She sank back against the seat with a dramatic sigh. “This is the original lustmobile.”

  He dug the keys from his pocket and offered them to her. “Give it a try.”

  She tucked her hands beneath her thighs. “Uh-uh. No way. What if I wrecked it?”

  “Don’t worry. It’s insured.” He nudged the key against her arm. “Go on. Try it out.”

  Worrying her lip, she eyed the key like a druggie would his next fix, then snatched it from his hand. “Okay. But if I wreck it, it’s your fault.”

  She started the engine, then fell back against the seat, her body limp. “Oh, my God,” she said weakly. “I don’t think I can stand it.”

  “Stand what?”

  “It started on the first try.”

  Laughing, Mack pulled the seat belt across his chest and clicked it into place. “I take it the sled doesn’t.”

  She rolled her head to the side and gave him a bland look. “I’m lucky if it starts at all.”

  “Well, you won’t have to worry about that anymore,” he assured her.

  She snorted a laugh. “Yeah, right. The sled has to last a couple more years, at the least.”

  Mack laid a hand on her arm. “This is yours, Addy.”

  She stared, her face going slack. “Mine?”

  He laughed. “Yes, yours.”

  She switched off the ignition and shook her head. “I can’t accept something like this.”

  “Why not? You need something to drive.”

  “Well, yeah. But I’ve got my sled.”

  “Which is in Dallas,” he reminded her.

  She opened her arms, indicating the car. “But I can’t afford something like this.”

  “Yes, you can. I told you. I’m a wealthy man.”

  She shook her head again. “You may be, but I’m not.”

  “You’re my wife,” he reminded her. “What’s mine is yours.”

  She stared, eyes wide, then gulped. “You mean you’re just…giving this to me?”

  “Seems like.” Smiling, he reached to turn the key. “Now how about taking us for a ride?”

  Later that night Addy lay in bed listening to the sounds coming from the nursery. The wooden creak of the rocking chair; the low, husky rumble of Mack’s voice as he talked to Johnny Mack. Any minute now she knew he would be bringing the baby to her to feed. She could’ve easily climbed from her bed and saved him the trip, but she hated to deny him this special time with Johnny Mack when he seemed to enjoy it so much.

  So she lay there listening, while Mack carried on a one-sided conversation with her son, and let her thoughts drift back over the day.

  She still couldn’t believe Mack had bought her a car. And not just any car, she thought with a shiver of excitement. A Lexus SUV. How had he known that was the vehicle she’d always wanted, the one she’d lusted over, dreamed of owning? To her, it was the perfect mommy
car. Luxurious enough to satisfy even the most discriminating woman’s need for extravagance, yet roomy and durable enough to use for driving carpools and hauling groceries. It was the perfect car for a family.

  Family?

  She stared wide-eyed, considering. But that’s exactly what she had begun to think of them as, she realized. A family. She knew it was wrong for her to think of them as such. It wasn’t at all the arrangement she had made with Mack. He had offered her a marriage of convenience, without any sexual or emotional obligations, a name for her baby. So why would she allow herself think of them as a family, when it was clear that wasn’t what Mack had wanted or what she had agreed to?

  Growing pensive, she glanced toward the nursery. She couldn’t see Mack and the baby, but she could hear the creak of the rocker, Mack’s low crooning, and knew they were there in the darkness. Did he think of them as a family? she wondered. He was definitely crazy about Johnny Mack, spent as much time with the baby as he possibly could. And he seemed to genuinely like Addy. He was kind to her, generous, thoughtful. But he seldom touched her. Not like a husband would his wife. He treated her more like a…a sister or perhaps a close friend.

  You need to be doin’ your duty to Mr. Mack and not sleepin’ in that room by yourself.

  Heat crawled up her neck as she remembered Zadie’s comment. What on earth would possess Zadie to say such a thing? Surely she knew that Mack and Addy’s marriage wasn’t a real one, not in the traditional sense. Heavens, how could she not know? Mack and Addy had been strangers prior to him coming to Dallas. And they’d married less than forty-eight hours after they’d met! Strangers didn’t marry for love—those kinds of feelings developed over time—and Addy wouldn’t sleep with a man she didn’t love…or at least think she was in love with.

  And duty? She rolled her eyes. She would never sleep with a man out of any sense of duty. There had to be something stronger before she’d ever consider giving herself to a man. She had to feel something for him, an emotion, a connection of some kind. Definitely something more than a sense of duty.

  The rocker creaked to a stop, and she mentally slammed the door on her thoughts, knowing that Mack would be bringing her the baby. Hearing the pad of his feet on the carpet, she quickly scooted up to a sitting position and held out her arms. “Is he hungry?” she asked, forcing a smile.

  He leaned to give her the baby. “Starving.”

  Chuckling, she looked down at her son and arranged her nightgown for him to nurse. “He’s turning into a little pig.”

  Yawning, Mack stretched out across the foot of her bed. “He’s definitely putting on some weight.”

  She folded back the blanket to trail a finger down a dimpled thigh. “Three, maybe four pounds would be my guess.”

  “Bill can tell us for sure when we take him to his appointment tomorrow.”

  She glanced up in surprise. “You made Johnny Mack a doctor’s appointment?”

  “Yeah. I saw Bill in town this afternoon, or rather yesterday afternoon,” he corrected, with a glance at his wristwatch. “He said we could bring him in around noon, if that’s all right with you.”

  She looked down at the baby and swallowed hard, knowing he would be receiving his first series of shots and dreading it for him. “He won’t hurt him, will he?”

  He choked a laugh. “Bill’s been taking care of babies for years. He knows what he’s doing.”

  She tucked the blanket protectively around Johnny Mack’s legs. “I know. It’s just that—”

  “He’s your baby,” he finished for her.

  She gave him a sheepish look. “You probably think I’m one of those crazy, overprotective mothers.”

  “No, I think you’re a mother who loves her son very much. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  She started to reply, but a cramp knotted in her foot. “Ow,” she cried and drew up her knee.

  Mack pushed up higher on his elbow. “What’s wrong?”

  With the baby in her arms, it was impossible for her to reach her foot, so she kicked her leg free from the covers and flexed her toes hard. “I’ve got a cramp.”

  “Here. Let me.”

  He gripped her foot between his hands, pressed his thumb deeply into the arch and began massaging. After a few minutes the cramp began to ease.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said in relief. “Thank you.”

  He sank back down to his elbow again, but kept a hand curved around her foot, his fingers stroking up and down its length.

  He didn’t seem conscious of the action, but Addy was. Heat radiated up her leg, gathered in her stomach.

  She knew she should break the contact, but she couldn’t. The silky glide of his fingers was mesmerizing, sensual, erotic. The heat that had gathered in her stomach churned hot and molten, climbing higher and higher until it parched her mouth, burned behind her eyes. She was aroused, she realized slowly, and was stunned that Mack could bring her to such a level with something as simple as a foot massage.

  She stole a glance at him and was relieved that the shadowed darkness kept him from seeing her face clearly and possibly knowing her thoughts. She knew it was crazy, insane, but the desire to make love with him was there in her mind, a yearning that throbbed deep in her womb.

  “We could grab a bite to eat after we see Bill,” Mack said, continuing the conversation. “Give you an opportunity to see a little bit more of Lampasas.”

  She stared, wondering how he could talk about something as mundane as lunch, when all she could think about was undressing him. Did he not feel what she was feeling, want what she wanted? How could he not, when it was all she could do to breathe?

  Because he wasn’t attracted to her.

  The answer was so obvious and so brutally humbling, it was like having cold water thrown in the face.

  And why would he be attracted to her? she asked herself miserably. She’d just given birth. She still had a good ten pounds to lose, her breasts were as big as melons and her scent—if she had one—was Eau de Baby. What man in his right mind would find her in the least bit alluring?

  Disheartened, she eased her foot from his grip and lifted the baby to her shoulder to burp.

  “I don’t know,” she said evasively. “Maybe we should wait and see how Johnny Mack feels after he gets his shots.”

  Bill appeared in the doorway to the reception area and waved them back. Since Mack had the baby, Addy was left to gather up the diaper bag and her purse and follow.

  By the time she reached the exam room, Bill had the baby and was cooing to him. He glanced up as she entered. “Hey, Addy. How are you feeling?”

  His warm smile put her immediately at ease. “Fine, thank you.”

  “Have you had your checkup yet?”

  She shook her head. “No. I thought I’d go to Dallas and see my own doctor.”

  “Why wait?” Bill plucked the phone from its cradle on the wall.

  “Oh, no, really,” she said, panicking at the thought of being examined by a stranger. “That’s not ne—”

  Bill held up a finger. “Hey, Sally,” he said into the receiver. “Mack and Addy are here with the baby. Do you think Kathy could squeeze Addy in for a postpartum exam?” He listened a moment, then nodded. “Good. I’ll send her right over.”

  He hung up the phone and turned to Addy. “Kathy—she’s my wife, by the way, and a darn good OB-GYN—can see you right now, if you hurry.” With the baby cradled in the crook of one arm, he opened the door and pointed to a second set of doors at the end of the hall. “Right through there,” he said. “Just tell Sally—the lady behind the reception desk—that you’re Addy, and she’ll fix you right up.”

  “But what about Johnny Mack?” Addy shot a terrified look at Mack. “I can’t just leave him.”

  Mack placed a hand at the small of her back and urged her out the door. “Don’t worry about Johnny Mack. I’ll be here with him.”

  “But, Mack—”

  “Better hurry,” Bill w
arned. “Kathy runs a tight ship. Put her behind schedule and she gets in a hell of a mood.”

  Before Addy could argue further, the door closed in her face.

  Following the physical portion of her exam, Addy followed Sally to the doctor’s office, thinking that having a female OB-GYN wasn’t such a bad idea. She’d felt more comfortable and a whole lot less self-conscious being examined by a woman than she ever had with Dr. Wharton.

  As she took a seat opposite the doctor’s desk, the office door opened and Kathy strode in.

  “Everything looked fine,” she reported, as she sat down behind her desk. “The stitches from the episiotomy have all dissolved and the incision has healed nicely.” She flipped open the file the nurse had left on her desk and scanned the lab reports. “Blood count looks good,” she said. “Iron level more than sufficient.” She closed the file and beamed a smile at Addy. “I’d say you’re good to boogie.”

  Addy blinked. “Excuse me?”

  Chuckling, Kathy sank back in her chair. “Sorry. I’ll translate. You can resume your normal sexual activities.”

  Heat crawled up Addy’s neck. “Oh. Well…I, uh…Mack and I…well, you see…”

  Kathy did her best to hide a smile. “I’m not saying that you have to have sex tonight. I’m merely telling you that you’re physically ready, if the situation should present itself.”

  If possible, Addy’s face heated even more. “Yes. Right. Of course.”

  Smiling openly now, Kathy stood and extended her hand. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Addy. You’re everything Mack said you were and more.”

  Addy gaped. “Mack talked to you about me?”

  Kathy rounded her desk to escort Addy to the door. “Not directly. But Mack and Bill have been joined at the hip since they were kids. If something is going on in one’s life, the other knows about it.” She stopped in the doorway and shrugged. “What Bill knows, I know. The man couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it.” She gave Addy an assessing look, then nodded. “And I have to agree. You’re perfect.”