Laurie looked into those wide blue eyes, shimmering with unshed tears, and thought of other blue eyes she’d like to be staring into about now. How had she gone for so long without Harlan Patrick around? Could she ever do it again? She took the baby from Val.
“What’s wrong, darling girl? Are you missing your daddy?”
Amy Lynn stared back at her. “Da?” she said wistfully.
Laurie grinned. “Val, did you hear that? She said her first word. She said, ‘Da.’”
“Are you going to call Harlan Patrick and tell him that?”
“I can’t. It’s nearly midnight. He’s probably been asleep for hours. Ranchers get up at the crack of dawn.”
Val grinned. “Something tells me he wouldn’t mind losing a little sleep for this news. Besides, you’ve been missing him like crazy. Call. Maybe then both you and the little one here would actually get a good night’s rest.”
Laurie thought it over, then nodded. “You’re right.” She reached for the phone and punched in Harlan Patrick’s number. It seemed like an eternity before he answered, his voice thick with sleep.
“Yeah, what?”
Laurie held the phone up to Amy Lynn’s mouth. “Say it,” she whispered. “It’s your daddy.”
Amy Lynn studied the phone quizzically, then said loudly, “Da?”
Laurie heard Harlan Patrick’s hoot even before she put the receiver back to her own ear. “You heard?”
“She said ‘Daddy,’ didn’t she?”
“Close enough,” Laurie agreed. “Isn’t she the most brilliant child on the face of the earth?”
“Absolutely. Just one question, though. What’s she doing up at this hour?”
“She was missing you.” Her voice dropped a notch. “So was I.”
“The same goes for me.”
“You haven’t called.”
“That’s because I’m working for a slave driver. Once Justin gets a notion in his head, he pulls out all the stops.”
“Exactly what are the two of you up to?”
“Justin’s not up to much, if you ask me. I’m doing all the physical labor. He seems to have designated himself as supervisor. The man has no shame at all. He’s blatantly using me.”
“And what does he have you doing?”
“Building a house for him and Patsy out here at White Pines. It won’t even be close to finished before the baby’s born, but he wants to surprise her with the frame at least.”
“I had no idea you knew how to build a house.”
“Actually I’m not so sure I’d want to live in any house I built, but I can swing a hammer and follow directions. Besides, it was a fair trade for what I want from Justin.”
“Which is?”
“He’s doing a little research for me.”
Laurie’s heart climbed into her throat. “He’s looking for my father, isn’t he?”
“He’s trying,” Harlan Patrick admitted slowly. “Don’t get your hopes up, though. So far, all he’s run into are dead ends.”
“At least he’s trying,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
“I told you I’d do what I could. Now tell me about the tour. Is it going well? I saw the piece on TV the other night. Mom called me when she heard the promotion for it. I think that show’s ratings probably went through the roof here in Los Piños. Grandpa Harlan called right afterward. Then Sharon Lynn called. The consensus was that you looked beautiful and sounded brilliant.”
She laughed. “You all aren’t biased, by any chance?”
“Maybe just a little,” he agreed, then yawned. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s late and I’d better let you go. I just wanted you to know that your daughter and I were thinking about you.”
“Are you at the hotel?”
“No, we’re still in my dressing room. I’m heading back there now.”
“Sleep well, darlin’.”
“You, too. I miss you.”
“Not half as much as I miss you. Give my girl a kiss for me.”
“You want to tell her good-night?”
“Absolutely.”
Laurie took Amy Lynn back from Val and held the phone to her ear. “Here she is,” she told Harlan Patrick.
She could hear the low hum of his voice as he talked to Amy Lynn, saw her puzzled frown and then a gurgle of delight as she realized once again that it was her daddy.
“Da,” she repeated joyously, patting the phone. “Da!”
When Laurie tried to take the phone away, Amy Lynn’s face screwed up. “Da,” she echoed piteously.
“Tell him bye-bye,” Laurie coached.
Amy Lynn waved instead.
“She’s waving,” Laurie told him.
“I don’t want to miss any more firsts,” Harlan Patrick said. “I want to be there.”
Laurie sighed. She understood his longing. “I know.”
“I’ll see you both soon,” he promised.
“Good night, Harlan Patrick.”
“Night, darlin’.”
Neither of them seemed to have the will to sever the connection. Finally, with a sigh, Laurie placed the receiver back on the hook.
“Feel better?” Val asked.
“No.”
“Hearing his voice doesn’t do it for you?”
“It only made me miss him more.” She regarded her assistant and admitted the painful truth. “This is why it won’t work, you know. It hurts too much to be apart. We’ll just end up making each other miserable.”
“Did it hurt any less when you thought you’d never see him again?”
Startled by the question, Laurie paused thoughtfully. “No,” she conceded finally.
“Then isn’t it better to know that you will be together again, that this misery is just temporary?”
“You’re right,” she said, excited by the discovery. “I hadn’t looked at it that way.” She gave her assistant a hug. “Thank you.”
“That’s why you pay me the big bucks,” Val said.
“Do I pay you big bucks?”
“Not big enough,” Val retorted, then added with confidence, “But you will.”
“Yes, I imagine I will,” Laurie agreed. “And whenever I start wallowing in self-pity, remind me again of the alternative.”
“It’s a deal.”
“How many more days on this tour?”
“Seven more days, six more concerts, then back to Nashville.”
“Back to Texas,” Laurie corrected.
“But—”
“Make it happen, Val. Whatever you have to do.”
Val grinned. “In return for those big bucks you’re going to start paying me, consider it as good as done.”
Fourteen
Three days after that middle-of-the-night call from Laurie, Harlan Patrick was hammering the last nail home in the frame for Justin’s new house when his cousin drove up.
“Excellent timing,” he called down to him from his perch on the skeletal rooftop. “Have you actually put up one board in this place?”
Justin shifted his Stetson back on his head and stared up through reflective sunglasses. “No need. You’re doing just fine.”
“What brings you by, since it’s obviously not to help out?”
“I found Buzz Jensen.”
Harlan Patrick felt his heart begin to thud. “Alive?”
“Oh, yeah.”
He didn’t like the sound of that.
“I’ll be right down.”
He climbed down the ladder braced against what would eventually be the kitchen wall and headed for a cooler he’d filled with ice and soft drinks. Regretting that it wasn’t a beer, he popped the top on one can, took a long swallow, then met his cousin’s gaze.
“Okay, give it to me. Is he in jail or something?”
“No, but he is married again.”
Harlan Patrick took that news in stride. “I suppose that’s to be expected. He left Laurie’s mom a long time ago.”
Justin stirred uncomfortably. “But the way I understand it, he never divorced her because she didn’t believe in divorce.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“No. I checked it out myself. Mary Jensen told me she’d refused to give him a divorce.”
“That means the man’s a bigamist,” Harlan Patrick said.
“With a happy new family in California, none of whom apparently have a clue about his past in Texas,” Justin confirmed. “Unless he found some way around the legal system that I can’t figure out.”
“Well, hell,” Harlan Patrick muttered. “This is a wrinkle I hadn’t counted on. What am I supposed to do now?”
“I don’t see that you have any choice. You promised Laurie you’d find her father for her. You’ve done that and you’re going to have to tell her.”
“How’s she going to take it when she finds out he’s got this whole new family? Hell’s bells, how are they going to take it when they discover that he’s been living a lie? What kind of can of worms are we opening here?”
“That’s the trouble with searching for the truth,” Justin noted. “Sometimes you find out a whole lot more than you ever wanted to know.”
“Maybe you’re wrong,” Harlan Patrick said. “Maybe Buzz Jensen did get a divorce.”
“Without Mary knowing about it?”
“It’s possible,” Harlan Patrick persisted.
“Doubtful,” his cousin countered. He removed his sunglasses and met Harlan Patrick’s gaze. “What are you going to do?”
“What do you think? I’m going to California.”
“With Laurie?”
“Not on your life. I’m going on my own to check things out first. I’m not taking her there until we know the whole story.”
“And then?”
He raked a hand through his hair. “I wish to hell I knew.”
Five hours later, just past dinnertime, he was driving up to a small ranch-style house on a hillside just north of Los Angeles. The lawn was well tended, window boxes were filled with brightly colored flowers and toys and bicycles were scattered across the yard. A sedan that needed a paint job and a newer pickup sat in the driveway. Evidence of normal, everyday people just trying to get by, he concluded.
With a sigh of regret, Harlan Patrick climbed out of his car and walked toward the house. If this hadn’t been the only way to get the answers Laurie needed, he wasn’t sure he could have brought himself into these people’s lives to tear apart their tidy little world.
When he rang the bell, the door was answered by a teenage girl who bore such a striking resemblance to Laurie that it almost took his breath away. He’d always assumed Laurie had inherited her looks from her mother, but it was clear now that she had a good bit of her father in her, too.
“Hi,” she said with the same flirtatious, infectious grin that Laurie had used to captivate him years earlier. “Who’re you?”
“Harlan Patrick Adams.”
“Well, hey, Harlan Patrick. I’m Tess. What can I do for you?”
He had to hide a grin at the blatant suggestiveness she managed to put into those few little words. “I’d like to see your father if he’s at home.”
“Sure,” she said at once. “Would you like to come in?”
Her open, trusting nature made him feel like a heel. This was going to be tough enough without going inside. “No, thanks,” he said with a smile. “I’ll wait right here.”
“Hey, Dad,” she bellowed. “Somebody here to see you.” She regarded Harlan Patrick with interest as they waited. “I could get you something to drink if you like. Maybe a soda?”
“Nothing, thanks.”
A middle-aged man came from the back of the house. He gave the girl a stern look. “How many times have I asked you not to shout all the way through the house? You could have come and told me we had company.”
“I didn’t want to leave him standing on the doorstep all by himself,” she said. She gave Harlan Patrick a last wistful look. “See you.”
“Bye. Thanks for your help.”
After she’d gone, Buzz Jensen faced him. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m Harlan Patrick Adams,” he said quietly. “From Los Piños.”
As he mentioned the name of the town, he saw the man’s shoulders sag with defeat. Dread spread across his face. He came out onto the front stoop and closed the door behind him.
“Why are you here? What do you want?”
“Just to talk, if you don’t mind.”
“Is it Mary? Has something happened to her?” There was genuine concern in his tone, that and a hint of panic.
“No. It’s about Laurie.”
The man staggered visibly. “Nothing’s happened to her, has it? I would have heard. It would have been on TV.”
Worried by the man’s sudden pallor, Harlan Patrick took his arm and guided him to a lawn chair. “Are you okay?”
“Just surprised, that’s all. Tell me what’s happened.”
“Laurie’s fine.”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “Then why are you here?”
“She’s been asking a lot of questions lately. She’s been thinking about you, wondering why you left all those years ago.” Harlan Patrick looked the older man straight in the eye. “I love her, sir, but, you see, she’s afraid I’ll leave her the way you did. She needs to understand what happened back then before she can trust me or any other man.”
“Hasn’t she asked her mother?”
“She has, but it’s not enough. There’s a bond between a father and daughter. I’m only beginning to realize it myself.” He met the older man’s gaze evenly. “You see, Laurie and I have a baby girl.”
He seemed startled by that. “You’re the one, then. I saw that tabloid picture of her and the baby. I wondered who was responsible for getting her into trouble.”
“I never knew about the baby, not until that picture. You have to believe that. There is no way I wouldn’t have been there for her if I’d known.”
Buzz Jensen nodded in sudden understanding. “You’re one of those Adamses, aren’t you? I should have guessed it straight off. Named after your granddaddy. Honor’s a big thing with an Adams.”
“Yes, sir. So is family.”
“Is that why you’re here, instead of Laurie. You want to buy me off or something?”
“No. I wanted to see you, talk to you, make sure that arranging for Laurie to see you wouldn’t lead to more hurt for her.”
“I would never hurt her,” he said indignantly.
“You already have,” Harlan Patrick reminded him quietly. “That’s the problem.”
Buzz Jensen uttered a sigh of acknowledgment. “I suppose you’re right.”
“What about your family? Do they know about Laurie? Will they be hurt by all of this when the whole story comes out?”
“My wife knows,” he acknowledged.
Harlan Patrick hesitated, then forced himself to ask, “Does she know you never divorced Laurie’s mother?”
He nodded. “She accepted that we couldn’t be married.”
Harlan Patrick was relieved to know the man wasn’t a bigamist, after all. That didn’t make the situation a whole lot less complicated, though. “What about your kids?”
“They don’t know about it.” His expression turned defiant. “I don’t want them to.”
“I don’t see how you can avoid it,” Harlan Patrick countered. “Not if you see Laurie. They’ll have questions.”
“You can’t bring her here,” he said adamantly. “It’s as simple as that.”
Harlan Patrick was shocked by the decision. “You won’t see
her? Not even after what I’ve told you? How can you do that to her?”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t see her. I said she couldn’t come here. If you want to set up a meeting for somewhere else, I’ll go.” His eyes filled with tears. “I never thought I’d have the chance to see my baby girl again. I thought I’d go to my grave knowing that I’d failed her and that she’d never forgiven me.”
There was so much pain and sincerity in his voice that Harlan Patrick had no choice but to believe him. “She never knew about the cards and letters,” he told him then. “Her mother kept them from her until recently.”
Buzz Jensen’s hands shook as he reached over to clasp Harlan Patrick’s hand and relief washed over his face. “Thank you for telling me that. You don’t know how hard I prayed that it was something like that. I didn’t want to believe she’d just forgotten all about me.”
“No, sir, Laurie never forgot.” He stared straight into the older man’s eyes. “But the time has come to help her let go.”
“Just tell me what you want me to do.”
“If you can leave first thing in the morning, I’ll take you to her.”
He nodded. “I’ll make the arrangements.”
“Seven o’clock, then. I’ll pick you up.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Buzz Jensen promised, his expression eager despite the questions the people inside were likely to have about the stranger who’d come calling.
Later, alone in a nearby motel, Harlan Patrick thought back over the meeting and tried to reassure himself that it was all going to work out. Or was he just setting a whole lot of people up for heartache?
* * *
As she left the stage after the last Louisville concert, Laurie was totally, thoroughly drained. All she wanted was to take a long hot shower and crawl into bed. Before she could do that, though, she had a group of VIP fans waiting to meet her backstage.
Val arranged these meet-and-greet sessions at the behest of local radio stations. When she wasn’t so tired, Laurie actually enjoyed them. Tonight, though, she could barely keep her eyes open. An idea for a new song had come to her the night before right at bedtime, and she’d stayed awake most of the night fiddling with it. A half-hour nap before tonight’s show hadn’t made up for the lost sleep.
West Texas Nights Page 17