by Linda Conrad
Rosie chuckled but nodded her head. “It’s a thought. I’d just assumed she wouldn’t want to do anything so…girly. But maybe I should ask. If I run into her and Travis later in town, I’ll ask her then.”
The next thing Summer knew, Rosie had flung her arms around her in a big bear-hug. Automatically Summer pulled back, but Rosie wasn’t having any part of that.
Clinging to her for a second, Rosie whispered, “I’m so glad Travis found you. I think you’re going to be real good for Jenna.”
As much as Summer had dreaded being touched for the last five years, she found herself relaxing into Rosie’s hug. Surprised by her own reactions, Summer bit her lip and found her eyes welling up. Here was a woman she hadn’t known long, and she felt more comfortable with her than she had with innumerable old friends back home after the accident. Those supposed friends who’d turned away after the tragedy, when they found out about her mob in-laws.
Rosie finally let go and then hustled out the door with a big wave. Not sure what do with all her new emotions, Summer turned and began whipping up breakfast. She’d planned to make something different for Jenna and Travis, and remembering the steps would keep her from thinking too much about anything else.
* * *
“If the mama is Measles, why don’t we call the baby Mumps?”
Travis followed Jenna through the kitchen door, laughing at his daughter’s little joke about the filly’s new name. But the moment he spotted Summer standing at the stove, he stopped laughing and held his breath, waiting while his pulse spiked.
Long and thin, Summer’s build was slight but still curvy enough to cause his blood to boil. He noticed his fingers curling at the sight of her ash-blond hair hanging down her back in a tempting mass of ringlets. Oh, how he would love to run his hands through that satiny halo in the throes of passion.
Even from behind, Summer made his mouth water.
And then she turned. “Morning. I hope you two are hungry. How was the filly this morning?”
Unable to catch his breath, he stood like a lump and watched Jenna run to Summer’s side.
“She’s beautiful!” Jenna didn’t hug Summer around the waist as she would have done with Rosie, but she stood very close to her, waving her arms as she talked.
“The baby’s running and eating and everything! I love her.” Jenna suddenly realized something was cooking on the stove and stood on tiptoe to see what was going on.
“Whoa.” Summer dropped her spatula and pulled Jenna backward. “Careful. The stove is hot. Don’t burn yourself.”
“What’s ya cooking? It smells good.”
Summer chuckled and went back to work. “Rosie taught me how to make flour tortillas from scratch. I’m making breakfast tacos. Do you like them?”
“I don’t know. I like how Rosie makes tacos.”
Travis finally came to his senses and went to the stove. “You’ll like how Summer does it, too. I’ll bet they’re good. Now, go wash up. All the way to the elbows, please.”
Jenna frowned but raced off to the bathroom down the hall, where a step stool would allow her to easily wash her own hands. Travis grunted his approval and turned to the sink, using the heavy-duty soap to wash up.
“I’m making a variety of tacos, some very mild for Jenna. Potato and egg. Egg and cheese.”
He chuckled. “That kid loves peppers. Anything hot and spicy. She can stand things with a lot more fire than I can. It’s amazing.”
“Oh, okay. Well, I’ll set out jalapenos and she can add them if she likes. If you’re ready to sit, I’m ready to serve.”
Suddenly Travis didn’t want her serving their breakfast. He wanted to serve her. He wanted to take care of her and bring her special foods until she smiled. She didn’t smile nearly enough to suit him. But he had a feeling Summer wouldn’t have any part of that. She was too proud. Her ego would get in the way.
At that moment Jenna dashed back into the kitchen and dragged her chair from under the table, out where she could climb onto it. After she was seated, Travis helped shove the chair closer—just as Summer set steaming plates on the table.
“You’ll be joining us, won’t you?” He stared into those unique blue eyes and nearly lost himself in a tidal wave of longing.
“Um, I’m not really hungry.”
“Sit,” he ordered. “And have something to eat. You look like a good, strong wind would blow you away.”
Summer froze where she was and scowled.
Jenna dug into her breakfast and paid no attention to the electricity snapping between the two adults in the room.
He knew Summer had to be tough in order to keep on living, after everything she’d been through. But she would soon find out he was much more determined. Setting his jaw, he went to her side and ushered her into an empty chair at the table. Then he grabbed a plate and utensils and put a place setting before her.
The last thing he did was try a smile. “There you go. Now, eat. Please.”
By the time he’d taken his regular seat, Summer had put a tentative spoonful of egg into a tortilla. She was so beautiful with her pride at cooking something new. Her spine was straight, her chin high.
He came to a quick decision. He didn’t want to spend a moment out of her presence. The last few days had been interminable without her. Today she would be coming with him wherever he went.
“Today is our day to visit the needy in town.”
Jenna ignored the comment. She was used to their monthly forays in charitable giving, but Summer looked up. “Yes, I know. Rosie and I have everything ready. I’ll help you pack the car before you go.”
“Thank you. But it’s before we go. You’ll be joining us.”
“But I have a lot to do right here.”
With one forceful shake of his head, he shot down that excuse. “It’s important for Jenna that we present a united effort. Besides, I’d like for you to meet some of the townspeople.” And he wanted to spend the day with her, getting to know her better.
He wasn’t leaving her any wiggle room and knew she might be feeling trapped. “Tell you what,” he said. “After I drop Jenna at my aunt’s later, we can stop by Stockard’s and check on your car. We’ll kill two birds with one trip that way.”
To his surprise, Summer brightened and said, “I guess it’ll be all right. We can leave after we do the dishes and load the SUV.”
Well, that was easy. Too easy. He had a niggling feeling she had just gotten something she’d been after all along. But for the life of him, he couldn’t imagine what was going on behind those innocent-looking, wide blue eyes.
* * *
After a few hours of driving around town, Summer’s head was spinning. They’d delivered a week’s worth of meals to a widow and her three youngsters. Another batch of Rosie’s cakes and pies went to a single father who worked from home as a carpenter. His teenage sons were glad to help and offered to take some of the desserts around to the elderly who lived in the neighborhood.
People everywhere Summer, Travis and Jenna went were overjoyed, not so much with the donations, but with Travis for remembering them. There were needy people living in Chance. But it looked as though none of them were suffering or isolated.
They dropped Jenna off at her great-aunt’s house and bumped into Rosie on their way out. It seemed Travis’s aunt would be assisting with the flower arrangements and clothing for the wedding. In passing, Rosie mentioned to Summer that she was definitely going to ask Jenna to take a prominent part in the wedding.
Travis heard the exchange but didn’t have much to say until they were alone, back in the SUV and on their way to the mechanic’s garage. “I’m not sure if Jenna should become that involved in the wedding. I don’t want her getting any more hurt by Rosie’s leaving than she is already.”
He turned his head. “Was it your idea?”
“Yes. But I think if Jenna becomes more involved with the wedding plans, it might be easier for her to envision Rosie leaving. If she’s having a problem with
Rosie going away, it could be partly because she doesn’t know where she’ll be going. Um, like she doesn’t know where her mother went.”
A charged silence shot through the SUV, electrifying the air.
Finally, Travis cleared his throat. “Perhaps you’re right. I don’t believe Rosie will completely turn her back on Jenna after she leaves. Not like her mother has. The newlyweds will show up for holidays, and I’m positive Rosie would always remember to send birthday cards.”
He drew a breath and swallowed. “It won’t be the same situation at all.”
Summer took a big risk and said what was on her mind. “Do you ever hear from Jenna’s mother? Do you know where she is?”
“No. But in an emergency I could find her. I set up a nice trust fund for my ex-wife when she left, so I wouldn’t worry about how she was getting along. She can’t touch the principal but spends the income. The bankers know her whereabouts.”
“That was nice of you. To set that up, I mean. Uh…did your ex hurt you very much when she left?” Had she really said that? What was the matter with her?
“Never mind,” she added quickly. “That’s none of my business. Forget I asked.”
“No, it’s okay. It hurt that I’d been so wrong about her in the beginning. But it was my fault, not hers. Callie was never cut out to be a good mother and, if I’d been a little less pushy, I would have seen that about her all along.”
Summer didn’t know what to say. Maybe it would be better to stay silent.
She looked up through the windshield as Travis prepared to turn into Stockard’s parking lot. At first her mind was still involved in what they’d been discussing, and she blindly stared out without really seeing what was right in front of her.
Then she did. The same white pickup! She’d been looking for it all morning. And there it was, turning out of the Feed and Seed Store across the highway from the mechanic’s shop.
“Oh!” The exclamation was out of her mouth before she’d thought about it.
“What? What’s the matter?” Travis stepped on the brake.
Silently, she glared at the man in the pickup, trying to assure herself he was really the one.
The man she knew as Bobby was driving this time and glanced up, getting a look at her face, before turning down the highway in the other direction. He’d seen her—must have. Oh, no.
“Summer, are you all right? What’s wrong?” Travis completed his turn into Stockard’s yard.
“Did you see that truck? Do you know the owner?”
“What truck?”
“The one that just passed us. The white one with the writing on the side in red.”
“No, sorry. But there’re probably several people who own trucks like that around Chance. Why?”
Now she’d done it. What was she going to say? “I just thought the man driving looked like someone I know. But…”
Travis shook his head as he put the SUV in park. “You’d better not go around saying things like that in public. How likely is it that you would recognize anyone in Chance, Texas, when you haven’t ever been here before? It’s a small town, and people gossip, Summer. And the gossip isn’t always based on reality. I expect they’re already talking about you showing up with no family or friends in a town like Chance that’s so far off the main roads. I don’t really care what they say, but I doubt you want anyone to start hinting that you’re a little eccentric or crazy, do you?”
Chapter 6
Summer was still shaking from the silent confrontation of gazes with a man she hadn’t faced in five years. Her quarry. The criminal who hadn’t yet seen justice for his crimes.
A P.I. she’d hired back home had said this second man had changed his name—several times. That’s why it had taken so long to run him down. Simply asking about him by name would probably not work to uncover his whereabouts. What should she do?
“Looks like the sheriff is here,” Travis remarked, as he pulled into a parking spot on the other side of the garage.
Maybe she should talk to the sheriff about the man. All along that’s what she’d been planning to do when she finally found him. Turn him in to the nearest lawman and call the police back home.
But how could she do that, when she didn’t have the foggiest idea what name he was using or where he lived or worked? She would sound crazy—just as Travis had said.
“Don’t get too friendly with the sheriff, Summer. He’s not particularly forthcoming with anyone connected to the Chance family.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
Travis grimaced as he put his hand on the door handle. “Long story.” He hesitated, his hand frozen, and turned to her instead of getting out. “My father actually brought the sheriff in from another part of the state to run for the office nearly thirty years ago. They became friends. Then, fifteen years later, this sheriff arrested Dad for the murder of my mother—even though the circumstantial evidence against him was pretty slim.”
“Rosie told me none of you believe your father was guilty of the crime. Why did the jury find him guilty?”
Travis shrugged. “The best I can figure is they believed my father had the only motive. He’d been having an affair, and the prosecutor convinced everyone that my parents must’ve had a huge argument over it that became violent.”
“But you and your family don’t buy that idea?”
“Mom knew all along that Dad had other women in his life from time to time. Somehow my father didn’t get the fidelity gene from his parents that the rest of the family seems to have. My mother lived with the knowledge. So, why would they argue over another woman all of a sudden? And besides, my old man would never hit a woman—especially not Mom. Despite how everything looked, I know he loved her.”
Summer nodded but didn’t have anything to say. What could you say about a dead man’s motives?
Travis turned and stepped out of the SUV, so she unbuckled to follow him. But she had decided against mentioning anything to the sheriff about her quest to find her man. Not until she felt more positive about her identification and knew where he was staying.
The sheriff tipped his hat to them as they walked up to Jimmy. Then the sheriff simply got into his cruiser and left without a word. She noticed Travis visibly relaxing his shoulders as the sheriff drove off.
“Travis. Ms. Wheeler. Nice afternoon.” Jimmy Stockard tilted his head toward them. “What can I do for you?”
What could he do for her? How about her car?
“What’d the sheriff want, Jimmy?” Travis strolled beside Jimmy back into the shade of the bay.
Summer noticed her car inside the garage, but it wasn’t up on the rack.
“He was asking about Ms. Wheeler here. I was surprised when he didn’t stop you to say hello.”
“Me? What did he want to know about me?”
Jimmy raised his palms and shrugged. “Not much. Just your name and where you were staying. I got the impression he was simply checking on the strange car with the Connecticut plates. Wouldn’t think anything of it if I were you.”
Travis turned to her. “Don’t worry about the sheriff. Most of the town is probably gossiping about the pretty new woman in Chance. He was just curious. You’re not a criminal. Nothing for Sheriff Austin McCord to have on his radar.”
Was everyone in town talking about her? What if word of her being in town got back to the man she’d been chasing? Would he run? Would he try to head her off?
It was all she could do not to wring her hands. To keep from becoming hysterical, she tried to change the subject.
“Jimmy, why aren’t you working on my car? Is it too far gone to fix?”
Travis touched her shoulder and brought her attention around to him. “Meant to mention that Jimmy called me yesterday to say he’d had to order parts. And he wasn’t sure how long it might take to have them shipped in.”
Her mouth dropped open. “It slipped your mind?”
Travis grinned sheepishly. “Lots going on.”
She closed her eye
s for a second and counted to ten. “Do you need a down payment to order the parts, Jimmy?”
“No, ma’am. Travis said to put it on his order for ranch spare parts. That’s good enough for the supplier and for me. After I get the parts in, I should be able to get your car back in shape in a couple of weeks. Or maybe three, depending on how backed up I am then.”
Summer ignored Travis for the moment, but she was gathering up steam to tell him what she thought of his trying to have things his own way—privately. “Can you at least give me an estimate of what the work will cost?”
Jimmy threw Travis a quick glance but answered her. “Won’t know for sure until we get into the job. But since you’re working for Travis, I consider you good for whatever.”
She nodded to Jimmy and stormed past Travis, heading back to the SUV. She didn’t want his charity. It would bring her too much guilt. Despite his charitable side, her boss was the most arrogant, self-important man she’d ever met.
All the more reason not to let herself get too close to him or Jenna. Good thing she was finding out about him now, before it was too late.
* * *
Travis kept his eyes on the road but could feel the tension in the air. “I’m sorry I didn’t remember to tell you about Stockard’s call. I was in Austin when his call came in, and it slipped my mind.”
Not totally true, of course. He’d dreaded mentioning his “arrangement” with Stockard, knowing she wouldn’t take it well. He’d eased back into his old ways and had been trying to control her even though he knew she hated it. But he needed to keep her here until the two of them could explore what was going on between them. Every time she came near, his pulse spiked and his groin tightened. His mind had deliberately blocked the whole call.
“Can’t we consider it an advance on your pay?” He was grasping at straws here.
“You bet we will. And I want a full accounting of every penny you spend on my behalf. I don’t need your charity.”
Yeah? But maybe she did—just a little. He wouldn’t mention that fixing up her old, beat-up Ford would cost almost as much as if he’d simply bought her a new one—an idea that was gaining traction in his mind every minute.