by Tina Leonard
“Like what?”
“Like…Delilah has decided to move her salon to Union Junction.”
“Really? What about the Union Junction stylists?”
“They’re delighted. It will be just like it was in the beginning, before Delilah had to let half of them go. Besides, they’re wanting to get busy with their pet rescue project, so having extra hands will be awesome.”
Valentine wasn’t convinced. “Thank you for trying to make me feel better about setting Delilah’s kitchen on fire, but it is hard not to be really embarrassed. I’m a baker, for heaven’s sake. How can I burn down the place I love most in a home?”
“If the kitchen is the room you like best then you haven’t been to bed with a Jefferson—”
Valentine blushed.
Mimi sipped her tea, then said, “Well, you aren’t the only one who has awkward moments, as you can see. I’m sorry, Valentine.”
“It’s fine.” Valentine smiled. “Mimi, do you have something to ask me?”
“No. I was simply saying that Crockett could probably change your mind about your favorite room.” Mimi sighed. “I don’t know why, but I never think of you with Last. I always picture you with Crockett. Isn’t that odd? My mind just conjures the two of you together. It’s as if you two and Annette should be a family. Come here, butter cake,” she said, picking Nanette up.
Miffed at being disturbed from playing with her friend, Nanette let out a howl. “Back you go,” she told Nanette. “Bang away.”
Valentine sat down on a stool opposite Mimi and began rolling out dough. She didn’t want to touch the comment about Crockett so she said, “They play so well together.”
“I know.” Mimi turned away from her daughter and back to Valentine. “I almost forgot. The other good thing that has happened is that Marvella offered to buy Delilah out.”
A bad feeling hit Valentine. “How is that good?”
“She’s going to rebuild and refurbish and open the building up as a shelter for women in need. With a bakery on one side and a few shops on the other. That way, tourists will be more tempted to come to town, and any women who stay there will have gainful employment. It’s pretty much what Delilah was doing all along with her salon, only now it will be on a major scale. The town fathers are quite delighted, as is Delilah. She’s thrilled that Marvella has changed, and that their relationship is on the mend.”
“I’m glad,” Valentine murmured. The Jeffersons would be happy to know their enemy had turned over a new leaf. And speaking of brothers… “When do the boys get out of the hospital?”
“Crockett sooner than Last. Last is under observation for a concussion and some other things. Crockett only has a broken leg, and it turns out he’s the worst patient of the two.”
“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
“Neither would Mason. Now that all the brothers, except for Calhoun, have left the ranch with their families, it’s pretty much up to Mason to care for those two. And believe me, it isn’t pretty.” She laughed.
“I feel as though I should be doing something to help!”
Mimi shook her head. “This is not the time. Trust me. It’s good bonding for them, don’t worry.”
Valentine pressed molds into the dough, thinking about Crockett and Last and all the complications between the three of them. “Have you ever known that something wasn’t going to work out, no matter how appealing it might be?”
“You mean Crockett.”
Valentine winced. Was she that obvious? “I mean, any relationship. I’m speaking in generalities.”
“Sure.” Mimi shrugged. “I have some passing acquaintance with relationships that don’t work out.”
“Well, that’s what it is with…a certain man and me,” Valentine admitted. “Even if I allow myself to fantasize about him, I can never see a way it would work out so that everyone is happy.”
“Maybe no one needs to be happy except you and…this man.”
Valentine raised a brow. “And what about the budding maestra on the floor? She needs to be happy. I have to consider her feelings, too. One day she’s going to be old enough to ask questions.”
“Personally, I dread that day,” Mimi admitted. “I’ve got some answers to give myself.” She brightened. “Although my childhood was full of question marks, and I turned out fine. Maybe I’m worried about nothing.”
“I like to consider every angle,” Valentine said. “I’m kind of cautious like that.”
“Women are naturally more cautious. Most men like to dive right into everything. We do a lot more soul-searching.”
“Oh, dear,” Valentine said. “One angle I hadn’t considered. I’m planning a Father’s Day picnic-party for Last—for all the fathers—and it’s in a few weeks. I wonder if he’ll be in any shape to enjoy it.”
“Now that I don’t know.”
“Mimi,” Valentine asked slowly, thinking of Brian’s absence from the father’s picnic, “not that it’s any of my business, but…do you think Nanette will wonder why her father never comes to see her?”
Mimi cocked her head as she looked at Nanette, who she was holding. “As I said, I have a lot of answers to give when she starts asking. I’m hoping she won’t ask for a long time.”
Maybe she wouldn’t. And maybe Annette would never care that there was no father figure in her home. She might be satisfied knowing there were bunches of men around who loved her. I have a wonderful life: baby, bakery, everything, Valentine thought. There is nothing missing in my life.
Except a father figure for Annette. And in a blinding moment of clarity, she realized she wanted a real, whole family for her daughter. Unlike what she and Nina had known growing up; unlike the way Mimi remembered her childhood. Valentine wanted a complete family for Annette.
The phone rang, and since Valentine’s fingers were doughy, Mimi answered it. “It’s Crockett.”
“Oh. What does he want?”
“Crockett, Valentine wants to know what you want,” Mimi said. She listened and then glanced at Valentine.
“He wants you to marry him,” Mimi said.
Chapter Eleven
“I’m not sure how to take that,” Valentine said.
Mimi laughed and shook her head. “I think he’s got medicine head.”
That sounded reasonable. Her heart, which had begun beating frantically, slowed to a regular pace.
Mimi cupped her hand over the mouthpiece. “The only brother that I can think of who proposed when he was out of his head was Ranger.”
“But they’re always a little out of their minds, aren’t they?” Valentine asked.
Mimi nodded. “Crockett’s speech is slurred, though. This is a different type of out of his mind.”
Pharmaceutically induced or not, Valentine didn’t like it. She’d already been propositioned by Last when he was under the influence, and she wasn’t about to fall for that again. “Tell him no thanks.”
“Valentine says no, thanks, Crockett,” Mimi said, looking pleased to deliver the news. “He wants to know why not, Valentine.”
“Because he’s proposing unromantically, while he’s lying next to his brother, over the phone.” She mangled the cookie she was pressing and started over, rolling the dough.
“Last’s asleep,” Mimi said. “But Last told Crockett it was okay to ask you.”
Valentine got up, snatching the phone from Mimi. “You did not ask Last if you could marry me!”
“Ish okay,” Crockett said tiredly.
“Oh.” Valentine’s anger disintegrated. He sounded terrible! “Are you all right?”
“Think so. Going to sleep now.”
The phone clicked off. Valentine stared at Mimi. “He sounds dreadful.”
“I’ll tell you a little secret—Jefferson men make the worst patients on the planet. Simply the worst.” Mimi giggled.
“But I feel sorry for him.”
“Don’t. They have half of Lonely Hearts Station checking on them—trust me.”
/> “All female, probably.”
“Yes,” Mimi said, “and the hot doctor that they’re all crazy for is taking care of them.”
Valentine had never considered that every single Lonely Hearts salon stylist and Never Lonely Cut-n-Gurl would be streaming in and out of Crockett and Last’s room. “Drat!” she said, rolling another poorly shaped cookie. “My mind is just not on this today. I’d better make chocolate chip cookies instead.”
“Mmm. My favorite,” Mimi said. “I’ll grease the pans since the kids are enjoying themselves.”
“Mimi,” Valentine said, taking a bowl from the fridge, “don’t you think it was odd that Crockett asked me to marry him?”
“Oh, not odd. Very Jefferson. When they get something in their mind, it lodges pretty firmly.”
Valentine set the bowl on the counter. “So you’re saying, even if his proposal happened because he’s out of his mind on medication, he really does want to marry me?”
“Yes. I think he likes you a lot. He’s probably trying the notion on. Whether he asks once he’s sober, I don’t know.” Mimi glanced at her. “Why? Would you like that?”
“I don’t know,” Valentine said softly.
“Well, there you have it,” Mimi said with a grin. “Yet another Jefferson male in a conundrum. And he’s hurt, which he’ll probably consider a positive sign, Curse of the Broken Body Parts and all.”
“But Last is hurt, too.”
Mimi frowned. “That must be why Crockett asked you to marry him! He’s competing to be the first one to ask!”
Valentine stared. “Because Crockett’s not certain which of them has got the actual Curse?”
“Exactly.” Mimi brightened. “Competition is a good thing.”
“Not to me. It means he doesn’t really know if he cares about me. He just wants to beat his brother. That’s how Last got hurt, trying to best his brothers.”
“Don’t mistake me, the Jefferson brothers would give each other a hand and their last dollar. But competing is the way they show affection.”
“Well, I don’t like it. I want to be loved, not competed for like a trophy.”
Single motherhood had made her very serious, Valentine realized. Once upon a time, she might have enjoyed two men fighting for her, a lighthearted flirtation, a casual relationship. But the stakes in her life were higher now. She had a child. She had a business to run, which required careful planning. There was no room for her to be flighty.
For her sake, and especially for Annette’s sake, any man Valentine loved had to be sincere. Dedicated. The Jefferson males were sincere and dedicated in some things, but when it came to matters of the heart, they could be very elusive.
The phone rang again, but this time Valentine answered. “Hello?”
“Valentine? I’ve been thinking—”
“So have I,” she said. “Crockett, I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man in Union Junction.”
SHE’D HUNG UP ON HIM. Last stared at the phone, then glanced over at his sleeping brother. So Crockett had proposed to Valentine, had he?
And she was obviously turning him down flat.
Very tough on a man’s ego. Last grinned, feeling better than he had since he’d gotten stomped by Bloodthirsty. He couldn’t remember ever hearing about any of his brothers being rejected, particularly not by a woman.
The Jeffersons always did the rejecting.
He laughed, feeling better by the moment. Suddenly, he didn’t feel like the one who could never live up to the standards set for him. Knowing one of his brothers had crashed and burned was a fine verification that they did not always win.
Then he sobered, even as the wonderful feeling of validation stayed with him. He glanced over at his brother curiously. Crockett lay in the bed, his leg raised, his face drawn and craggy as he slept. He looked terribly tired. In fact, even asleep, he seemed depressed, Last decided as he squinted at his brother.
He loved his brother dearly, and though he was happy to be a witness to Crockett’s rejection, Last did want him to be happy. The fact was, this man had run into a ring to protect him from his own bad decision, a choice born of pride and stubbornness.
In his heart, Last wanted all his brothers to be happy. He always had. All their lives, he’d tried to be the one who kept the family together. God, he’d wanted them to be normal after their mother had died and Maverick had left.
“Damn it,” he muttered. There was no Santa Claus, no tooth fairy, and no pot of gold under a Texas rainbow. It was just his brothers, and hard work, and in the end, love and compassion for each other.
Last wanted Crockett to be happy. And it appeared that Valentine made Crockett happy, or at least she did at this point in time. Mason used to say that the brothers wanted Molly on Monday, Trixie on Tuesday, Willow on Wednesday…blah, blah, blah. But he’d been right. At least until recently, the size of their commitment to females could fit between a mouse’s ears.
Why Valentine would make Crockett happy, Last couldn’t really understand. She was a wonderful mother and baker, but other than that the woman was a veritable tornado of disaster, an epic saga of her own making.
He could honestly say he was not in love with her. He loved her like a sister, like he loved Mimi, but he knew now that wasn’t enough for either of them.
Frowning, he wished he could remember their night together. The male chauvinist in him wanted to say that a hellacious night of pleasure had resulted in his daughter, but it was strangely more like in vitro fertilization. He simply couldn’t remember. They were tied together by their child, not by memories.
“I’m sure I was a stallion in bed,” he told his sleeping brother.
Oh, hell, what a lie. But he had a daughter that he loved beyond all reason. And for her sake, he was going to make some changes.
He was going to cede the field to Crockett.
“This may be the first sound judgment I’ve had in a while,” he told his slumbering lump of a brother. “But I love you. You’re a dope, like all of us, but you are my brother, and you would have killed yourself to save me from my own folly.”
As Last said it, tears warmed his eyes. He wanted happiness for his brother. He wanted happiness for his child, and he wanted happiness for Valentine. Nothing else mattered. Under Bloodthirsty’s hooves, he’d known Crockett was the first one in the ring to save him. It had been the ultimate gift of brotherhood.
This lesson of sacrifice Last had learned by example, and he’d never forget it. No longer the baby, Last was a different person, and he knew exactly what he had to do.
“THERE,” VALENTINE SAID, after she’d hung up the phone, “that takes care of that.”
Mimi’s eyes were huge. “I’m not sure Crockett knows what to do with female rejection.”
“He probably won’t remember proposing, but I will always remember that my mind was made up. It’s good to have a plan.”
“But what if the plan doesn’t work?” Mimi asked worriedly.
“He’s not in love with me,” Valentine pointed out. “Crockett chases, he teases, he gets moody, but he never shows any emotions. Not really.”
“You have to read his actions. That one is deep.”
She thought about the round-fannied figurine she’d seen in his kitchen. “Must be very deep. Truthfully, Mimi, I don’t think Crockett can care for only one woman. Maybe none of the bachelor brothers can. You know, when I took that birthday cake to Mason, and he pulled out the thong from the center—”
“Thong?” Mimi’s face turned pale.
“Yes. I baked it into the cake—Mimi, are you all right?”
Mimi laughed a little nervously. “Of course. Who was the cake from?”
“I don’t know. It was anonymous. She paid cash, and I assumed Mason would know who sent it, but he didn’t. What’s wrong?” Valentine asked, seeing that Mimi looked distressed.
“I’m fine.” Mimi shook her head, got up from the table and began gathering Nanette’s things.
“Mi
mi, have I upset you?” Valentine asked.
“Absolutely not. You are a dear,” Mimi said airily. “I’m so glad you have your feet on firm footing where Crockett is concerned. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you in any way.”
“Thank you for stopping by,” Valentine said. “I enjoyed our chat.”
That brought a slight smile to Mimi’s face. “It’s wonderful to have another woman around who has a young child. I feel as though we’re sisters.”
Valentine smiled. “Me, too. The girls will be such awesome friends, I’m sure.”
Mimi nodded, kissed Annette goodbye and left with Nanette in her arms. Valentine stared after her, worried.
Something had definitely been on Mimi’s mind, something that had to do with the cake. She would never know, of course, what had made her friend suddenly turn pale. Maybe she hadn’t been feeling well.
“And on that note,” Valentine said to Annette, bending down to gently pull her up, “you and I need to get home. I have some more Father’s Day planning to do, and you need a nap, little one. Hopefully, your daddy will feel well enough to picnic.”
Crockett, too. Even though she had turned down his proposal, she almost wished it had been a real one. “Your uncle is such a dramatist,” she told Annette as she locked up. “Tomorrow, we’ll go see your father—you’ll be more cheering than a bouquet of flowers and then I need to make a special trip to Delilah’s and see if there is any way I can help her. I owe her an apology.”
What she wouldn’t say out loud to her daughter was that she was looking forward to seeing Uncle Crockett most of all. Because medicine-head or not, he had proposed.
Though she tried hard not to admit it, the moment Crockett had jumped the rail and dashed into the ring to save his brother, he had taken her heart with him.
But she’d been right to turn him down. There was Last, the family’s disapproval and Crockett’s mystery lady to consider. On top of all that, a woman should have a proper proposal before she decided to spend a lifetime with a man. It didn’t have to be on bended knee, but it should be in person, and romantic, and memorable. She wanted her once-in-a-lifetime proposal to be the stuff of dreams. Her sister, Nina, had received a surprise, romantic proposal from Navarro. Their marriage was built on love and respect.
