Texas Heat (20 page)

“Danny will protect me.” Gina giggled. “See you, Riley.”

When Riley entered Sunbridge by the back door, Cole was just finishing his warmed-up dinner. Maggie was perched on a stool trying to make conversation.

“Sorry I'm late, Aunt Maggie.”

“I was getting worried. Did you stop off somewhere? Your dinner is in the oven. Martha had prayer meeting this evening, so I'm chief cook and bottle washer.”

Riley glanced at Cole. He quickly averted his eyes, but Maggie saw the look. “I had to drop Gina off. She missed the bus and her bike had a flat.” He knew he sounded defensive. He always did when he was around Cole.

“Gina's a nice girl. I know her parents well. What in the world happened to her hair?”

“She was on the summer swim team and the chlorine in the pool turned it all colors,” Riley said as he removed his dinner from the oven. “Boy, am I hungry.

Maggie didn't bother pouring Riley a glass of milk. She set the pitcher in front of him and knew he would drink it all. His father always had an enormous appetite. She noticed that Cole stayed on his stool staring at Riley as he wolfed down his chicken and pan-fried potatoes.

“Is either of you going to the homecoming dance?” Maggie asked lightly, trying to draw her son into the conversation. Cole shrugged. Riley grinned as he attacked his blackberry pie.

“I'm going to ask someone to the dance tonight,” he said. “Maybe she'll go and maybe not. I thought I'd try. If she says no, I'll go stag. This is real good pie, Aunt Maggie.”

“Martha will be glad to hear that. I think she cooks just for you two boys. Don't keep us in suspense, Riley. Who are you going to ask?” Maggie asked, leaning over the counter to smile at her nephew.

Riley wiped his mouth and laid down his fork. “Kelly Jensen,” he said firmly, his eyes on his cousin.

“Ha!” Cole laughed. “Fat chance.”

“The way I look at it”—Riley grinned—“is I'll know firsthand what rejection from a girl feels like. It'll be an experience for me. I know what rejection is, but this is different. Who are you going to ask, Cole?”

“I'm not going, and they don't allow stags at homecoming.”

For a moment Riley's face fell. Cole was doing it again. Trying to make him feel unwanted, like an outsider. The boy's spine straightened. He'd had about enough of Cole Tanner. “I guess going stag is okay if you're on the football team,” he said firmly. “The only reason you aren't going is because you can't get a date. You've made an ass of yourself with every girl in school. Tell Aunt Maggie why I was late. Go ahead—tell her!”

“Shut up!” Cole said, jumping off the chair.

“I don't have to shut up. I live here, too.” Riley looked directly at his aunt. “Gina asked Cole for a ride and he refused. I had to take her home.”

Maggie's eyes widened. She'd never heard the boys go at it before. Riley was usually quiet, defensive, and, if anything, inclined to stick up for Cole no matter what. She wasn't sure she liked this openness. Where would it lead—to fights, punching, downright war?

“How could you do such a thing, Cole?” she asked.

“Gina's parents are my friends. What happened to good manners?”

“You just take his word for it, just like that! You don't bother to ask me if it's true or not. Some mother!” Cole slammed from the kitchen, the door banging against his heels.

Maggie was off the chair in a second. She sprinted through the door and grabbed Cole by the ear, literally dragging him back into the kitchen. “Now, we can settle this one of two ways. Either you tell me the truth—or I will call Gina's parents and get the truth.”

Riley wanted to fall through the floor. Cole's face flushed crimson, but he stood defiantly trying to jerk free of his mother. Maggie waited.

“I lied, Aunt Maggie. I thought you would be angry if I was late for dinner again.”

Maggie's heart turned over. She knew Riley was lying and she knew Cole expected him to lie. Cole said nothing, just stood there smiling impudently. With a sigh, Maggie let go of him and turned away.

“Go to your room, Cole.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Cole said with a sneer.

When the door closed behind him, Maggie placed a gentle hand on Riley's shoulder. “I wish you hadn't lied for him. You don't have to, Riley. He has to make it on his own or he'll never be a worthwhile human being. You must have been particularly fed up with him this evening to say what you did.”

“I was and I'm sorry. I'm nervous about asking Kelly. What will I say if she turns me down? I never asked a girl for a date before.”

“It's not easy for a girl, either. Most times, girls have to sit and wait for a guy to call. They get all frazzled that the wrong one will call, and then there are excuses to make—and girls do make excuses. Not out of meanness or anything like that. It's more like trying to save the boy embarrassment. Girls are sensitive, for the most part.”

“I'm going to see her tonight. We're going over to Patti's house to watch a movie.” Riley's cheeks reddened. “I don't know if I'll have the courage.”

“Then why don't you call her? It'll be easier over the phone. Trust me,” Maggie urged.

“Then I'd better call her now, before she leaves to come pick me up. Jeez, I hope I'm doing the right thing. Kelly's one of the most popular girls in school. She's captain of the freshman cheerleaders and she's on the honor roll. She'll probably make National Honor Society in her junior year.”

“I know.” Maggie grinned. “But she's still a girl. Those are things she does. It's not who she is, Riley. Go ahead—call her from here. Do you want me to leave?”

“Heck no. Stay here. I need all the support I can get. If I get tongue-tied, just take the phone from me and tell her it's a wrong number.”

Maggie's heart pumped furiously as she watched her nephew dial Kelly Jensen's number. A movement at the door made her turn. Cole, standing outside listening.

“This is Riley Coleman. Can I speak to Kelly, please?” Riley took a deep breath and rolled his eyes back in his head.

“Kelly? ... Hi, it's Riley. I'm calling because I . . . I was wondering if you would like to go to—to the homecoming dance with me. Of course, if you're busy or have a date . . .” Out of the corner of his eye he could see Maggie shake her head no. He groaned inside, then his eyes widened as he listened to Kelly's reply. “You will?! That's yes? Yes, you'll go with me? It was just hard to hear for a second. My aunt is rattling the dishes . . . Okay! Great! Yeah, see you later.... Yeah.”

Maggie laughed. “See! It wasn't all that bad.” She rattled dishes to make her point. “Do you like this girl, Riley?”

“Me and every guy in school. She's nice, but she hasn't dated one particular guy. She goes to all the parties and . . . Aunt Maggie, I'm sorry about Cole.”

“I'll talk to Cole after I clean up here. You'd better get ready if you're going out tonight.”

Riley hugged his aunt and grabbed an apple and a bag of potato chips off the kitchen counter. He was almost to the swinging kitchen door when he returned for two bottles of Coke.

“Bottomless pit.” Maggie sighed as she attacked the dishwasher. When she finished in the kitchen, she made a phone call.

“Gina, this is Mrs. Tanner.” The silence on the other end warned her to be careful. “Gina, I want to apologize for Cole. I'm sorry he left you to get home on your own.” She felt awful taking such an approach to the situation, but she had to know for sure what had happened.

“It's okay, Mrs. Tanner. Riley picked me up and brought me home. I guess Cole was a little mad at me. I was needling him.”

“That's still no excuse. I'm sure Cole will apologize tomorrow.”

“It's no big thing, Mrs. Tanner. Don't make a big deal out of it for Cole. We all have bad days.”

“It's nice of you to be so forgiving. Give my regards to yours parents.”

“I'll do that. Good night, Mrs. Tanner.”

Maggie marched upstairs, tromped down the hall, and entered Cole's room without knocking. “I want to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“I want to know why you let Riley lie for you this evening. Why couldn't you be man enough to stand up and tell the truth. I called Gina myself and she confirmed it.

“Gina is a big mouth. What difference does it make. She made me mad. If I was going to go out of my way to take her home, the least she could do was to be appreciative. All she did was needle me.”

“About what? What could she needle you about that would make you leave her by herself when it was getting dark?”

Cole could feel the blood rush to his head. He actually felt lightheaded. Through tight lips he snarled, “She was giving me the business about being a gun-toting, military snot. Stand straight, aim, fire, that kind of crap. She made me mad.”

Maggie listened to her son. She felt he was lying, but what could she do? She couldn't force him to tell her the truth. All she could do was try to understand and be there for him if and when he decided to confide in her. She sighed. “All right. Good night, Cole. Lights out by eleven.”

Cole pounded his fist into his pillow. He was enraged that his mother had called Gina, humiliated that Riley should have tried to cover for him, and even a little scared by the tone of his mother's voice when she'd said good night. It was as though she'd dismissed him, didn't care about him, maybe even wished he weren't her son.

“Damn it!” he exploded. “Why can't anyone ever take my side? She's supposed to be my mother, not his!”

“Texas! I never thought I'd be this glad to be here,” Susan
sighed wearily as she dropped down onto a banquette in the baggage area. “I feel about a hundred pounds lighter. I'm very grateful to you for bringing me home, Rand.”

“My pleasure. I have a perfectly good reason to visit Sunbridge and see Amelia again. I miss her. You're very fortunate to have a place to come home to, Susan.”

“Yes, I know.” Susan smiled at her cousin. “I loved living in England with you and Aunt Amelia. I never could have pursued my music in Texas the way I did there. But I suppose, in many ways, Sunbridge is home. And I'm looking forward to putting myself under Aunt Amelia's wing.”

Rand laughed. “In a few weeks' time I'll remind you you said that. After you've had enough coddling and pampering and you begin to complain the way you always did when you were a child.”

“Aren't we all children? Even you, Rand, all grown-up and terribly capable. You've lived an exciting life, successful in business, heir to a fortune and huge estate; you were even an officer in the RAF. Quite diversified, quite accomplished. Tell me that you don't become a small boy again around your mother. It's almost impossible not to. When I was here in July with Mam and Aunt Amelia, I felt as though I were twelve years old again.”

“And now there's even Maggie to pet and watch over you. Spoiled thing,” Rand teased.

“Maggie's been wonderful about all this. She made me feel so wanted. You know, we weren't always close, but we managed to keep in touch. She's had more than her share to cope with over the years. All of us have, in one way or another.”

“And now Maggie is a part of Sunbridge. Or is it the other way 'round?” Rand said quietly.

“Maggie is right where she wants to be. I think—and this is my personal opinion—that it would take an act of God to get Maggie away from Sunbridge. Don't you?”

“Yes. It's as though she were meant for it.”

“She was. Is. When you and I closed up the flat in London yesterday, I didn't feel anything. It was just five small rooms and an overworked piano. Half the furniture wasn't mine. Just walls. Perhaps it was my fault. Maybe I should have tried to make the place homier. But Jerome and I were rarely there, and it seemed such a terrible effort. We did get all my things, didn't we?”

“Every last stitch. All that's left belongs to Jerome.”

“He'll go back eventually. If for no other reason than to auction the piano. But my point is, Maggie could never pack up and leave Sunbridge the way I left my apartment. I think it would kill her. She had to leave once. It must have ripped her heart out. But she's happy now, and that's what matters.”

“Our baggage is here,” Rand said abruptly. “I'll have a porter take it to the curb. You wait with it till I pick up the rental car. Are you certain you'll be all right? Are you warm enough?”

“I'm fine, Rand. Really. I can manage. Stop hovering. You're reminding me of how awful I must look.”

“Little mother, you're a beauty.” Rand winked and offered her a dashing smile.

“And you're a pretty liar.” She giggled. As they followed the porter, with Susan straggling behind, she was amused by the admiring glances Rand received. His height and imposing good looks always caught feminine eyes. And Susan knew Rand's attractiveness was more than skin deep. He was a genuinely nice person, kind and considerate; she knew how bad he must have felt to break it off with Sawyer. The breakup of a relationship could be devastating. She knew.

“This way, Susan.” Rand came back and took her arm. “We'll have you home in no time.”

 

“Does it look good to you?” Rand asked as he pulled the car beneath the shelter of the portico.

Susan sighed. “It looks beautiful!”

“Then let's get a move on and make you part of that wonderful household. Maggie's probably chewing her nails and Amelia is wearing out her shoes pacing the hallway. Go ahead. I'll bring in the baggage and park the car.”

Susan's steps were light when she climbed the stairs leading to the portico. Maggie burst through the door and hugged her sister while her eyes searched the car for Rand.

“Come inside,” she said. “It's chilly out here. You look exhausted. Tea. Some good sugar cookies and an afghan. Soft music and a nap.”

“Maggie! I'm not an invalid. I'm pregnant. But I'll take all those things for now because I am tired. Tomorrow, though, will be different.”

“One day at a time. I made a doctor's appointment for you on Friday.”

Maggie was readying the tea tray under Martha's supervision when Rand walked into the kitchen. The spoon clattered against the sugar bowl Maggie was holding. How handsome he was! “Rand, it's good to see you. Thank you so much for bringing Suse home. What did the doctor say?”

“That she's to stay off her feet, get plenty of rest, fresh air, and good food, nothing fattening. She's dangerously close to miscarrying” Rand stepped closer to her. “I'm so glad to see you, Maggie.”

“I . . . I . . . wasn't expecting . . . I thought I would have ... Christmas is when you were coming back. What I mean . . .”

“I'm confusing things for you is what you're trying to say?”

“In a way.” Maggie could feel herself drifting toward him, the sugar bowl still clasped in her hands. Her pulses were hammering so loud she was sure he could hear them. “We had this humongous pumpkin for Halloween,” she said inanely.

“Really.”

“Martha and I carved it. We toasted the pits.”

“Amazing.”

“This is difficult for me.... You see . . .”

“It isn't easy for me, either.”

“This wasn't supposed to happen.”

“It usually works that way.”

“Mam wouldn't . . . approve.”

“I know.”

“There's Sawyer. I don't know if I can handle that.”

“I don't know if I can, either.”

“I missed you after you left.”

“I thought of little else but you,” Rand said, taking the sugar bowl from Maggie's hands. He set it on the tray and picked the tray up. “Our patient's tea is getting cold. We have three whole days to discuss what we have to discuss.”

“Three days? That's not very long.”

“A lot can happen in three days. In some cases it's almost an eternity. It's seventy-two hours.”

“Seventy-two hours sounds better than three days,” Maggie mumbled as she followed Rand into the study, where Susan lay propped up on the sofa.

“I'm letting you wait on me today, but that's it,” Susan said, reaching for her teacup. “Oh, Maggie, it feels so good to be home. I know you're anxious to hear what happened, but I can't go through that right now. I don't know if I'll ever be able to talk about it.”

“You're home now, Susan. There are no demands, no restrictions, no orders to be followed. All you have to do is take care of yourself and your baby. I'll do the rest.”

“What did Mam say?”

“She wants you to call her, and if you need her, she'll be glad to fly down.”

“I don't think that's necessary. Christmas will be soon enough. She's so happy up there with Thad. I don't want her worrying about me.”

“That's exactly what I told her, but you know Mam. Later, after you nap, you can call and reassure her.”

“Where's Aunt Amelia? I thought she'd be waiting for me.”

Maggie met Rand's glance. How was she to tell her sister that Amelia was never home, that she had other things now to occupy her time? This was going to present a problem, one
she'd
have to deal with.

“When do you think Aunt Amelia will be home?” This time there was an edge to Susan's voice.

“Probably around dinnertime,” Rand said soothingly. “This is a good chance for you to nap so you'll be fresh when she gets here. She's been working long days, or so Maggie tells me.”

Rand added another log to the fire while Maggie covered Susan with the afghan. “Sleep, little Susie,” Maggie whispered as she bent to kiss the wan cheek. Then she and Rand quietly left the study.

“Would you like some lunch, Rand?” Maggie said when they were in the foyer.

“No. I would like to take a walk to clear my head and maybe get rid of a little of this jet lag. Want to join me?”

“I should stay here with. . . . All right. I guess I owe you the treat of showing off our Texas foliage. Most of it is gone now and—” Maggie stopped, realizing that if she didn't watch it she'd soon be babbling like an idiot. “I need a jacket, though. Wait.”

Wait. As though he had anything else to do. As though there might be anything else he'd
rather
do than wait and take a walk with Maggie.

“I'm ready,” Maggie said, buttoning a dove-gray suede jacket. A brilliant scarlet scarf that boasted the name Billie at the end was thrown carelessly around her neck. Rand thought she was beautiful.

“How are the boys?” he asked as they left the house.

“At each other's throats most of the time.”

“What happened with Cranston?”

“We agreed to agree. I have Cole until the next semester. Then Cranston will reevaluate the situation.”

“What about your divorce?”

“January. Nothing has changed. We both tried to . . . oh, patch it up, I suppose, but it was for all the wrong reasons. Once you realize that, things go forward. I think Cranston and I can be friends now.”

“Is that what you want?”

“For a while I didn't think so. I thought a lot about family and the commitment we both have to Cole, but now . . . yes, it's what I want. It's such a relief to say those words out loud.”

“How's Amelia doing, and the great inner city?”

Maggie laughed. “The great inner city is coming along beautifully. Everything is under control. Cary is happy and tired when he gets home at night. I think that annoys Amelia a little. There isn't much time for partying during the week, but they make up for it on the weekend. To be honest, I rarely see them. I stopped by the house Amelia is renovating; you heard about that, didn't you?”

“Her mother's old house. Yes, she seemed quite excited about it.”

“She's doing a wonderful job and spending a fortune. She's doing most of the work on the inside herself and contractors are working outside. I think they finished up this week. She wanted all outside work done before the bad weather set in. It's amazing, Rand. She gets up at five in the morning, has breakfast with Cary, and then goes straight to the house. I don't know if I could be that dedicated.”

“Look, there's an old log,” she said, striding ahead. “Why don't we sit down for a while. The sun is warm.”

Rand stared after her, watching her long-legged stride in low-heeled boots beneath a wide, circular skirt. Fashionable, he thought. Always fashionable.

Maggie patted the space next to her on the old tree. “Tell me what you've been doing since you left.”

“Getting along. Marking time. Waiting for Christmas.”

“You just said the same thing three different ways.” Maggie laughed.

“I did, didn't I?”

“What will you do when you go back?”

“Get along. Mark time. Wait for Christmas.”

“Why go back?”

“That was the deal.”

“What if I said the deal could be changed?” Maggie said hesitantly.

“I'd still go back. I think we both need more time.”

Maggie picked at a piece of loose bark with her fingernail. “I suppose that is best. The family . . .”

“Will that make a difference to you?”

“Of course it will make a difference. Mam will ... Mam won't approve. Cole . . . God only knows what he will think, do, or say. He's become very close to Sawyer. Which brings us to my daughter. I haven't heard from her since she left? Have you?”

“No, I haven't.”

“Why are we talking like this?” Maggie asked in a hushed voice.

“Because we're two people who are drawn to each other. We're also adults and know that other people can get hurt by our actions.”

“There was a time in my life when I would have plunged in regardless of the consequences. I don't think I can do that now,” Maggie whispered.

“It's Sawyer, isn't it?”

“Of course, it's Sawyer. It's Mam, too. And myself most of all.”

“It's over between Sawyer and me.”

“You know that and I know that, but I'm sure Sawyer still has feelings for you. Very strong feelings. She loved you, Rand, heart and soul. I know it hasn't been easy for her. Once in a while Cole will drop something. Mam is worried about her.”

“Sawyer is twenty-six years old. People do live when a relationship ends. First they grieve, then they get angry, then they accept it.”

“You sound very knowledgeable. Have you been through it yourself?”

“In my own way. Only I was doing my grieving before the relationship with Sawyer was over. While I was coming to terms with the fact that I didn't want the same things Sawyer wanted. There was anger and finally acceptance.”

“I think that's the way it was with Mam and Pap.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don't know. I do know I'm very attracted to you. When Cranston was here I found myself comparing him to you. When you said you'd write, I started watching the mail. I had to fight with myself to keep from calling you. I don't want anyone to be hurt. I know that sounds strange coming from me, but it's the way I feel.”