by Anna Jeffrey
Sarah Nelson’s daddy was the only plumber in town and Alejandro Gonzales owned the only landscaping business. “Yeah, I know ’em.”
“Both of those girls are good enough to get scholarships.”
His Mandy was a natural-born caretaker. “Good Lord, Mandy. Everybody in Treadway County already thinks you’re a hero, including me. Next thing you know, they’ll be hanging your picture alongside the rest of the school dignitaries.”
She smiled. “Wouldn’t that be fun? But that isn’t what I really care about. What I really want is to get those two girls some help to go to college.”
Before they could take the conversation further, Pic glanced at the digital clock on her vanity. “We’re gonna have to give up something, darlin’. We’re not gonna have time for supper, the rodeo and the dance all three.”
“We don’t have to go to Stephenville. I’ve got some cold chicken. Or I could bake a frozen pizza. We could eat, then go back to bed and watch a movie.” She left the bathroom. “I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder.
She returned a minute later with a blue robe she had bought him to wear at her house. Wearing a robe made him feel silly, but he had already resigned himself to it back when she had gone to the trouble of buying it for him. After all, he couldn’t walk around her house butt-naked. He shrugged into it. “You don’t want to go to the rodeo? And the dance? I know how much you like to dance. And it’s your birthday.”
She smiled, rose on her tiptoes and kissed him. “We don’t have to. After all, my birthday really isn’t until Sunday.”
He laughed. “Well, we can’t go dancing on Sunday. All these Baptists around here think it’s bad enough to go dancing on Friday or Saturday night. They’d have to have a prayer meeting for us.”
She pulled the panels of his robe together over his front, then tied the belt in a neat bow. “I love you in this color. It makes your eyes look that much bluer.” She looked up, studying his face. “I’ve got some eye drops that might be good for your eye.”
He lived in a world of men. Nobody fussed over him the way she did. “It’s getting better. Listen, if we’re not gonna go to Stephenville to celebrate, what if we go up to Fort Worth tomorrow?”
She straightened his robe at the shoulder, then slid her arms around his middle. “How long are you staying with me?”
For more than a year, when he had the opportunity to get away from the ranch and she wasn’t too busy with her many tasks, he had started staying at her house two or three days at a time. Since she lived in town and was a teacher, as soon as the locals had noticed his lengthy visits, the gossip had flown. He and Mandy had endured it until it wore itself out and nowadays, everyone in Drinkwell accepted that they were a couple and they openly slept together without the benefit of marriage. But the biddies still talked about them being “shacked up.”
His own arms automatically went around her and they stood there, front to front. “I dunno. You going to church Sunday?” He bent his head and kissed her, a playful peck on the lips.
She leaned back against his arms, looking up at him with eyes soft with emotion. Less than an hour ago, they had been dark with passion and fire. From outward appearances, no one would ever guess how hot and sexy she was. Even now, if he got it up again, he could coax her back into bed.
“I was planning to,” she said.
“Then I’ll go home Sunday morning.”
“You don’t have to rush away. You could go to church with me and really shock everyone.”
“Darlin’, if I set foot in that church, the roof might fall in.”
She gave a playful gasp. “That’s a corny old cliché. And don’t be irreverent. Lightning might strike you.”
“You know how I feel about it. No fancy building compares to being out in the north pasture with the sun rising over the mesa.”
“I know. And nothing some loud-mouthed preacher’s got to say will ever compare to seeing a new baby calf get on its feet for the first time.” She mimicked in a gruff voice what she had heard him say a hundred times. She looked up and into his eyes. “See how well I know you?”
“Tell you what,” he said. “Let’s leave early tomorrow. I’ve got the drawing I did for Drake’s office in the bed of the truck. It’s Saturday, so he and his wife should be at home. We could stop by their house for a few minutes.
“Then we could go on up and maybe hit that museum you’re wanting to go to. There’s a playday in the coliseum and Troy’s got a horse in it. We could watch him, then go see a movie downtown if you want to. We could eat supper at that steak joint up by the courthouse. How’s that for a birthday celebration?”
She gave him a impish grin. “Texas de Brazil? Oh, my God. My friends will be green with envy. But are those security guys going to be following us around?”
He shrugged. “They’d drive us up there if we wanted them to.”
“What will they do with themselves while we’re in Fort Worth all day?”
“They’ll do whatever it is that they do. They still get paid no matter what.”
“Good grief, Pic. That must be costing a fortune.”
“I’ll tell you what Drake told me. Necessary expense ’til they get this business with Kate’s arsonist figured out.”
As they left the bathroom, Pic’s phone warbled from the bedroom floor. He picked up his jeans, unclipped the phone from the belt and glanced at the screen. “It’s Drake. Looks like he’s in his office. I left him a message earlier.” He keyed into the call. “Hey, Bro. How’re things?”
“Good. Planning a quiet weekend. Got your message. What’s up?”
“Thought I’d better give you a heads up. I talked to Blake. They’re taking Kate off their persons-of-interest list.”
“Humph. About time. After they had to let that Barrett kid go, I wondered if they’d ever make another arrest.”
Pic sank to the edge of the bed. “They haven’t arrested anybody else, but I think they’re hot on somebody’s trail. What bothers me is they’re still looking at Troy. And they still haven’t been able to interview that Dorinda Fisk.”
Dorinda Fisk was a cougar at least twenty years older than Troy. Troy was reputedly only one of “her boys.” Pic wasn’t acquainted with her, but Dad and Drake were. Her husband was a powerful senator from Dallas who hated the Lockhart family. Fisk and Dad had locked horns many times. He had barely been re-elected to his current term due to Dad’s donations and heroic efforts to see him defeated. For months, Fisk had prevented his wife from having a conversation with Kate’s insurance company investigator and with Blake. Fisk was strong enough to stand off even the Texas Rangers.
“Have you talked to Blake?” Pic asked his brother.
“No. I thought Troy had cleared things up. I thought he had stopped fucking around with Dorinda.”
“Not quite. I don’t think he’s spending as much time with her as he was. He just drops by when her husband’s back in Washington.”
A big sigh came over the line. Pic visualized his brother’s eyes rolling.
“And how’s that not spending as much time with her?” Drake asked. “That’s what he was doing in the first place. Y’all need to stay on top of this, Pic. Who knows where it’s going? You need to try to have a conversation with Troy. Tell him he needs to leave that woman alone. See if he can explain why he’s still a person-of-interest.”
“I’ve already had conversations with him. How many times do we have to tell him? But I guess I can do it again. Maybe Sunday when I get back to the ranch. Or even Monday. Dad and I’ve got our hands full getting ready for the picnic.”
“You aren’t at the ranch now?”
“I’m at Mandy’s house. We’re going up to Fort Worth tomorrow. Spending the day celebrating her birthday. If you and your wife are gonna be around, I was thinking we’d stop by. I want to deliver the picture I drew for your office.”
“Great. I can’t wait to see it. I know right where I’ll put it.”
The family me
mbers and Mandy were some of the few people who knew of Pic’s pastime. He had done a 12x16 colored pencil drawing of some horses from the Double Barrel’s remuda crossing the Brazos River in the late afternoon sun.
“Come for brunch,” Drake said. “How’s Dad?”
“Good. Mom hasn’t been down, so things are pretty calm.” The black-haired woman darted back into Pic’s mind. “Although Mom did send a woman to the ranch to take pictures of some kind.”
His brother laughed. “You’d better watch out. When she starts sending women around, it can be dangerous.”
“Yeah, I’ll watch my step.”
They exchanged a few more words before disconnecting. Mandy looked at him with inquiring eyes. “Is Drake ordering you around again?”
Pic shook his head and chuckled. “You know how he gets. He orders everybody around.”
“There’s nothing new about that, is there? What’s happened now?”
“One of those good-news, bad-news situations. The insurance company and Blake and Jack are dismissing Kate on that barn fire. But they’re still looking at Troy.”
Mandy’s mouth fell open. “My Lord. I can’t believe they honestly think Troy set his sister’s barn on fire. They’re practically joined at the hip.”
“I don’t think they really think it, either. I imagine they’re using Troy, trying to get to somebody else. Hopefully, it’ll blow over, but I’m gonna have to have another heart-to-heart with him. Something’s going on with him. I haven’t mentioned it to Drake, but Troy’s been a different guy lately. He’s got this maverick attitude. He says stuff like ‘I don’t belong here’ and ‘I’m not a part of all of this.’ All of a sudden, he’s got a burr under his saddle because Dad and Mom never adopted him.”
“He’s twenty-nine years old. What difference does it make at this point?”
“I know. And he’s always been included in everything.”
“Your mother treated him like her own kid. As mad as I’ve been at her, I have to respect her for that. I don’t know if I could’ve taken in the child of my husband’s mistress, even if he was an orphan.”
The story was old news. It had been hashed and rehashed, cussed and discussed by everybody in Treadwell County. Driving drunk, Troy’s mother had been killed in a grinding collision with an eighteen-wheeler. With no one but distant family who lived somewhere in Mexico, there had been no one to take in her eight-year-old child. He had been tagged an orphan and set to be placed in the foster system until Dad stepped in and confessed to being his father. Dad had even gone the DNA route to prove it to CPS.
Until then, no one knew Dad had been providing financial aid to Troy’s half-Hispanic mother for years and even spending time with Troy. He had brought Troy home to live at the Double-Barrel and according to those who had known Dad and Mom as a couple back then, nothing had ever been the same between them.
At the time, except for having a new brother in the house, Pic had paid little attention. He was thirteen. He was nearly grown before it dawned on him that Troy’s mother had been pregnant at the same time Mom was pregnant with Kate and how crushing it must have been for his mother to learn that. But Mom had held her chin high and soldiered on. She had treated Troy no differently from the way she treated Pic and Drake. And the three natural Lockhart siblings treated him like a blood brother.
“I get the feeling that he’s distancing himself from us,” Pic said. “What I don’t know is why.” He stood and dropped his cell phone into his robe pocket. “I’ll run him down when I get back to the ranch. See if I can find out what’s going on.”
Mandy stood, too. “You finished the drawing?”
“Yep. It’s out in my truck. I picked it up from the frame shop in Stephenville yesterday. It turned out okay. That frame shop did a nice job, too. It’s wrapped up and sealed or I would’ve brought it in and shown it to you.” They started for the kitchen, holding hands.
“Betty sent a woman to the ranch?” Mandy asked.
Red alert. Mandy was well aware of his mother’s penchant for choosing women for her sons. “Uh-huh. She’s a photographer. She wants to take pictures for a magazine article.”
“Ah. That sounds interesting. What kind of article?”
“I was already late getting away from the house, so I didn’t get the details.”
“How old is she?”
“Hell, I don’t know.”
“So she isn’t middle-aged.”
Uh-oh. Mandy’s instincts were sharp as knives. He released her hand and looped his arm around her shoulders. “C’mon, Mandy. You know I don’t pay any attention to stuff like that. Or to Mom’s shenanigans.”
“Then what’s the big deal? How old is she?”
“I dunno. Our age, I guess.”
“Is she pretty?”
“I didn’t look that close.”
“So she’s about our age and she’s pretty. What does she look like?”
“I dunno. Black hair, brown eyes. Shorter than you—”
“So you didn’t look that close, but you can describe her in detail?”
“Now, Mandy. That doesn’t mean anything,” Pic said.
“That isn’t entirely true. Your mother is up to something. After she got found out trying to get me fired, I thought she might back off.”
He stopped, turned her to face him and kissed her, then lifted his mouth from hers and placed his forehead against hers.
“I don’t know why she thinks I’m not good enough for you,” Mandy said.
“I think you’re good enough and that’s all that counts.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Cute little nose,” he said, smiling.
“I wish you could come to town more often,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s been so long since you were here last.”
“I know, darling’. The more Dad piles on me, the more the ranch is taking my time. I always knew he was busy, but I never dreamed all that he dealt with every day. And until Drake took over the investments, Dad handled that on top of running the ranch.
“At least with him and Drake doing that part, I don’t have to. The damn paperwork is already eating me alive. Seems like we’re fighting something or somebody all the time. Remember last year when a damn van ran over that little herd of Double-Barrel cows that had gotten out of the fence? Those people filed a lawsuit, so I spent the last two weeks on the phone with the lawyer up in Fort Worth.”
“But you didn’t know the cows were out.”
“Doesn’t matter. Texas isn’t an open range state, so if your cows get out and cause a wreck, you’re screwed.”
They reached Mandy’s cheery kitchen that was decorated with all kinds of rooster and chicken stuff. She pulled the pizza out of the freezer. “Pizza sounds better than cold chicken,” she said. “I’m going to add some extra cheese.”
While she readied it for the oven, Pic walked back to the living room and picked up the jeweler’s sack from the end table where he had left it. Returning to the kitchen, he handed it to her. “Here ya go. For my gal on her special day. Plan A was for us to take the plane and fly somewhere special. Some place up north where it’s cooler. But everything caught up with me and I couldn’t get it put together.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, wow. A tiny sack from Melville’s.” She looked up at him with a twinkle in her eye. “I think I’ve seen one of these sacks before.”
For her birthday last year, he had bought her a pair of diamond earrings from the same store. To him, Melville’s was just another jewelry store, but it apparently had a reputation. He shrugged and smiled. “You’re worth it, Mandy. To me, you’re worth more than money can buy.”
She rose to her tiptoes and kissed him. “You don’t have to buy me an expensive present to tell me that.”
She carried the sack to the table and sat down. He took a seat adjacent to her and braced his hand on her chair back, happy to see her happy. She opened the sack carefully and lifted out the small navy blue box. The word “Melville’s” was scrawled across the top.
“I think I’m going to like this,” she said, grinning.
She carefully opened the box and the gift he had chosen glittered up at her under the light that hung over the kitchen table—a small heart made of rubies, enclosed inside a diamond circle the size of a quarter and attached to a gold chain. Her palm went to her cheek. “Oh, my Lord, Pic.” She stared at the pendant a few seconds. “I hate sounding so dumb, but you shouldn’t have spent—”
“Now don’t say anything about what it cost.”
Mandy was frugal. She worried about spending his money as much as she worried about spending her own.
“But, Pic—”
“Shh, Mandy. You know I can afford it. Besides, who else am I gonna give pretty things to? Ruby’s your birthstone, right?”
She carefully lifted the necklace out of the box. “Yes, but real ones cost as much as diamonds.”
“I’m pretty sure those are real. If they’re not, I’ll take my shotgun to that jeweler.”
“Now you sound like your dad talking.” She leaned forward and kissed him, her eyes shiny with moisture. “It’s exquisite. Thank you so much.”
“Don’t cry now.”
She sniffed and shook her head. “I’m not.”
He got to his feet. “Let’s put it on you. See how it looks.”
She stood, too, and gave him her back for him to fasten the necklace around her neck. She turned back to face him, straightening the chain and touching the pendant with her fingertips. “Looks good with the robe, huh?”
He chuckled. “Looks okay.” He pushed the loose robe off her shoulders until her bare breasts showed. “Hm-hm. Looks good without the robe, too.”
Her eyes still damp, she laughed. “Something tells me you aren’t looking at the necklace.”
The sound of the oven timer interrupted. She gathered her robe around her, stepped out of his reach and dragged the pizza from the oven.
Chapter 7
Late Friday afternoon, in the quiet of her luxurious new home, Shannon Piper Lockhart finished up the tour she had just given her best friend Christa Johnson. In a whirlwind of events after she and Drake had married, he had bought the large home on Camden Lake that Jim King, her high school classmate, had built on speculation before the market collapsed. This was the first time Christa had visited.
