Heart of Texas Volume One (14 page)

“Oh, this place and that,” she said, and while she was pleased by his interest, the less he knew about her venture into Bitter End the better.

“You went there, didn't you?” he asked, lowering his voice.

“There?”

“Don't play games with me, Savannah. You're no good at it.”

Her cheeks flushed hot pink. Richard was right, she'd never been any good at games. He was curious about the ghost town and this wasn't the first time he'd bombarded her with questions. Some about roses, others about the town itself.

“Did you go inside any of the buildings?” Richard asked. “They're still standing, right? Imagine that after all these years. What stories those walls could tell! It amazes me, you know, that Bitter End could be sleeping in those hills with only a handful of people even knowing about its existence.”

“It is rather remarkable,” Savannah agreed.

“I bet the buildings were in sad shape?”

“I didn't investigate the town itself,” she said. The cemetery was as far as she got. Whatever was there had driven her back before she'd set food in the actual town. But she'd know the answer to her brother's questions soon enough. Today was it, she'd decided. She was going back for a second visit, despite all Grady's efforts to keep her away.

“So where exactly is it?” Richard asked.

“Oh, sort of east of here,” she said vaguely. “I had a hard time finding it.” That was all she planned to say on the matter.

“Weren't you afraid?” he teased.

She wasn't sure how to describe her wariness. “Not really,” she said, downplaying the eerie sensation she'd experienced on her first visit. She added the beaten eggs to the small skillet as the butter sizzled.

“I really don't think visiting the place again is a good idea,” Richard surprised her by saying. Not that
she
wanted him there, but a few days ago, he'd certainly been dropping hints to that effect. He buttered the toast when it popped up and sat down at the table, awaiting his breakfast.

“I
have
to go back,” she said, surprised she had to fight Richard on this, too. Grady and Laredo had formed an uneasy partnership in their efforts to keep her from returning. “There're bound to be other roses,” she explained, although it wasn't necessary. All three men knew her reasons. “I might find an even rarer form. I can't tell you how thrilled I was with my original discovery.”

“Think carefully before you go back,” Richard said, smiling gratefully when she set the plate of steaming eggs in front of him. “You'd be wise to heed Grady's advice, Savannah. A ghost town isn't any place for you to go exploring alone.”

“Earlier you said you wanted to come along. You—”

“I said that?” He flattened his hand against his chest. “Not me. I'm as chicken as they come. You won't catch me anywhere close to Bitter End. I have a healthy respect for the supernatural.”

Savannah refused to be dissuaded, but she didn't intend to discuss it further. She'd do what she did the last time—steal away before anyone knew she was gone.

 

G
RADY SAT IN HIS OFFICE
and pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping that would help him focus on the long row of ledger numbers. He hadn't slept more than a couple of hours the entire night. Instead, he'd been leaning over the toilet, examining parts of it that were never meant to be viewed from this perspective.

Hard liquor had never agreed with him. Especially in quantity. After he'd embarrassed himself and Savannah, he'd holed up in his office with a bottle of cheap whiskey. The good stuff had disappeared, as he'd told his sister—but he hadn't been in any mood to appreciate the difference.

This morning his head throbbed with a vengeance. He couldn't think, couldn't work. Richard had been back less than a week, and already Grady was reduced to a useless piece of… He didn't finish the thought.

The phone pealed and he slammed his eyes closed as the sound pierced his brain, shattering what little serenity he'd managed to recover. He waited for Savannah to answer.

No one knew he was in his office, and that was the way he wanted it.

The phone rang a second time and then a third. Where the hell was Savannah? If not her, Richard? Rather than suffer the agony of a fourth ring, Grady grabbed the receiver.

“Who the hell is it?” he snarled.

A shocked silence greeted him, followed by a sob, then tears and “Mommy, Mommy.”

Damn. It'd been Maggie for Savannah, and he'd frightened the poor kid half out of her wits.

“Maggie,” he shouted, wanting to apologize for his outburst. Apologize was all he seemed to do these days. He felt faint stirrings of hope when he heard someone pick up the receiver.

“Maggie, listen—”

“It's Caroline,” she interrupted coolly. “And this must be Grady.” She didn't give him a chance to respond before she added, “What exactly did you say to Maggie to upset her like this?”

“I didn't know. I thought…” Even his tongue refused to work properly.

“Obviously you
didn't
think.”

He could hear Maggie softly weeping in the background.

“I'm sorry, Caroline,” he said. “Hell, I didn't know it was Maggie. I certainly didn't mean to frighten her.”

“What's gotten into you, Grady?”

He braced his forehead against his hand. If the answer was that simple, he would've save himself a great deal of embarrassment. The truth was he didn't know any longer.

“You made an ass of yourself last night.”

“Nice of you to remind me.” Leave it to a woman to kick a man when he was down.

“You had too much to drink.”

“You brought me one of those beers,” he felt obliged to remind her.

“So this is all
my
fault?”

Grady closed his eyes at her outrage. “No,” he admitted, feeling about as low as a man could get. “I accept full responsibility.”

The silence stretched between them until Caroline slowly released a deep breath and asked, “Where's Savannah?”

“I don't know. I expected her to pick up the phone.” Clearly so had Maggie, who continued to weep noisily in the background.

“Is she all right?” Caroline asked.

“She was this morning.” And not afraid to set him down a peg or two, although he knew he'd asked for it.

Maggie's cries subsided into soft muffled sounds.

“What are you doing home?” he asked Caroline. She should be at the post office, but then, he wasn't the one to talk, seeing as he should be out on the range with Wiley. Or working in the barn with Laredo Smith.

“Maggie wasn't feeling well this morning, so I took the day off.”

“How's she doing?”

“She's feeling better—or she was,” Caroline said pointedly.

“I'd like to talk to her if you'd let me, so I can apologize.” He wasn't sure he knew
how
to talk to a five-year-old, but he didn't want her cringing in terror every time she was out at the ranch. She was a sweet little girl and Savannah was deeply attached to her.

“I don't know if she'll talk to you.”

“Ask her, will you?” His hand tightened around the receiver while he waited. In the background he could hear Caroline reasoning with the child. He was somewhat amused when he heard her compare him to the beast in
Beauty and the Beast.
He made a lot of loud noises and sounded mean, Caroline said, but deep down he was really a prince who'd been put under a spell.

Caroline returned to the phone a couple of minutes later. “I'm sorry, Grady, but I can't convince her to give you a second chance.”

“I can't say I blame her,” Grady said with a sigh. “I was pretty rough when I answered.”

“She called to tell Savannah she had a tummy ache.”

“My kind of sympathy wasn't what she was looking for, was it.”

The sound of Caroline's half chuckle did more to lift his spirits than anything had that day.

“I guess you could say that,” she said softly.

“I have been a beast, haven't I?”

“You could say that, too.”

“Since she won't let me talk to her, will you tell Maggie I'm sorry? I promise I won't shout at her again.” He didn't know if it would do any good, but it was the best he could manage. The next time Maggie visited the ranch, he'd try to square things with her.

“I'll let Savannah know you phoned,” he said, reaching for a pen. If he didn't write it down, he'd forget, and he didn't think Caroline would be willing to forgive him that on top of everything else.

They exchanged goodbyes and he replaced the receiver.

With an effort he glanced down at the ledger and reached for the calculator, determined to make good use of his time. He couldn't laze in bed until noon like his worthless brother.

 

L
AREDO ASSUMED HE
'
D FIND
Savannah in the rose garden, but she was nowhere in sight. Nor was she in the house. He'd done everything short of knocking on her bedroom door.

Grady had disappeared, as well, but that was more a blessing than a matter of concern.

Unsure where to search next, Laredo headed back to the barn. It was one of the last places he expected to find Savannah. A niggling sense of fear refused to leave him. She'd looked pale that morning, and although he hadn't been eager to clash with Grady so soon after their last confrontation, he wasn't about to let him harass Savannah.

The barn door creaked as he pushed it open. Light spilled into the interior and Savannah spun around. Her eyes instantly widened with guilt.

Laredo had no idea what she'd been doing, but clearly it was something she didn't want anyone knowing.

“Savannah?”

“Hi.” Her smile was a bit sheepish.

“What are you doing in here?”

“Nothing. I was—”

“Savannah,” he said and held out his arms, needing to reassure her. She didn't hesitate, not so much as a second. He brought her into his embrace and hugged her. “Don't ever play poker, sweetheart. Your expression's a dead giveaway.”

Her arms circled his waist and she pressed her face to his shoulder. “I'm so sorry about what happened last night,” she said.

This was the first chance they'd had to discuss the incident, but Laredo preferred to drop the entire thing. He'd been at fault, too, eager to put her brother in his place for embarrassing Savannah. And he'd been angry after his chat with Hennessey, knowing Grady had instigated the sheriff's questioning.

“Let's put it behind us, okay?”

He felt her deep sigh. “Is that what you want?” she asked in a solemn voice.

“Yeah.”

“I'm willing to forget it—except for one thing.” She tilted her head back and gazed at him with wide adoring eyes.

“What's that?” Laredo didn't know what he'd done to deserve having such a beautiful woman look at him that way.

“I could put the…incident behind me if Grady hadn't cheated me out of my sweetheart dance.”

“Not all of it.”

“I begrudge every second he stole from me.”

Laredo kissed the top of her head and reached behind him to take hold of her hands. “Don't you hear the music?” he asked.

“Music?” Her eyes narrowed as if she was straining to hear before she realized what he was doing. She smiled then, and it was all he could do not to cover her mouth with his.

“I believe there
is
music in here,” she said, her face alight with happiness.

“There must be.”

Laredo danced her about the barn floor, making turns so wide that her skirt flared straight out as they whirled around. Savannah threw back her head and laughed with such pure joy Laredo was soon smiling himself.

They whirled faster and faster until they were both winded and ready to collapse with laughter. Savannah pressed her hand to her throat as she drew in a deep breath.

“Okay, confess,” he said once he'd caught his own breath. He leaned against the wall and watched as the amusement left her.

“Confess?”

“What were you up to earlier?”

He watched as she shifted her feet a couple of times before she lowered her head. “You'll be angry with me.”

Laredo didn't think that was possible. “Why?”

“I was about to break the promise I made you. I—I'm sorry….”

Then it dawned on him. She'd been gathering equipment to sneak away to that damned ghost town. He exhaled sharply, grateful he'd found her when he had. He was disappointed, too. He'd expected Savannah to be a woman of her word.