by Julia London
“You don’t have to do that,” she said as she punched in the obligatory information.
“I know. But I’d hate to see you spill gas on that dress.”
Ella glanced down at her vintage store special, red and blue stripes with a cinched waist. She smoothed the lap of it as Lyle filled her tank, then looked up and noticed Lyle eyeing her suspiciously. “What?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Something’s a little off about you lately.”
“Off!” Ella laughed. “You are mistaken, sir. It’s a beautiful spring morning—what could possibly put me off?”
“Are you stoned?” he asked.
“Yes. High on life,” she said, laughing. “Of course I’m not stoned.”
“Well, something’s made you awfully perky lately. I’d finally gotten used to Miss Grump pulling in here every other morning.”
Ella laughed brightly at that absurd depiction of her morning somberness. “How many times must I explain that I am not grumpy in the mornings? I just need coffee before I can function.”
“Oh, you’re grumpy,” he said. “A month ago you threatened to punch me in the mouth when I offered you a donut.”
“Okay,” Ella said, lifting a finger, “to be fair, you suggested I take a few donuts to keep me warm at night, because obviously something needed to.”
Lyle suddenly grinned. “Well, chica, it appears I wasn’t wrong,” he said, and winked at her.
Ella flushed and averted her gaze. She hadn’t told anyone about Luca, but Lyle was very good at reading people. Plus, he probably saw Luca’s various vehicles turning down her road on a regular basis. “Shut up, Lyle,” she said playfully.
“I don’t know what you’ve got going on exactly, but it’s put a spring in your step. I just want you to know if it doesn’t work out, my offer still stands. Think about it—unlimited access to Funyuns.”
Ella laughed. She had a huge soft spot for this gray-handed man. “As enticing as that sounds, I’m going to keep to myself and my house for now.”
“I’ll get through to you one of these days,” Lyle said, and slipped the nozzle back into the pump.
Lyle was right, there was a spring in her step. More like a Tigger bounce.
Ella said good-bye, then got in her car and drove to the Baptist Church. She was finally meeting with her potential new client—the Baptist Ladies Auxiliary club. Then she was scheduled at Byron’s office, followed by the Magnolia.
Luca was not a frequent visitor to the Magnolia, but last night, as he was leaving her house, he’d complained about her busy day, then asked if she would mind if he showed up at the Magnolia tonight. Ella had felt an instant twinge of reluctance. It had taken her a moment to understand why—but then she’d realized she didn’t want the real world to intrude on them. “And do what?” she’d asked, pretending to be distracted.
Luca shrugged. “Look at you.”
“That would be kind of weird and stalkery.”
“I’ll bring Hallie,” he suggested, and had kissed the hollow of her throat.
“How will that make it less stalkery?” she’d murmured dreamily.
“Because I won’t look like a stalker. I’ll look like a good brother. Let me come, Ella,” he’d said quietly, and damn it, he’d kissed her softly on the mouth.
“Okay,” Ella had said at last. “But don’t be weird.”
“Not to worry, darlin’. I won’t be any of those things, because we are not dating.”
“Never,” she said, and taking him by the hand, had escorted him to the door and waved good-bye to him.
Ella’s initial meeting with the president of the Ladies Auxiliary went well, and the president promised her she would invite her to meet the whole group. Ella drove into San Antonio, said hello to Byron, watered his droopy plants, then sat down to work. Her phone pinged, and she glanced at the ID. It was Stacy. She texted At work. Can’t talk.
Stacy did not text back, and Ella forgot about it.
She left Byron’s office late in the afternoon with a cheery wave and a “see you Friday.” Byron just looked at her, then picked up a cupcake that had seemingly appeared out of thin air.
When she arrived for work at the Magnolia, Mateo was already behind the bar. He gave her a look when she came in. “You look cute,” he said.
“Thank you.” She curtsied.
“Hey, Ella!” Chrissy appeared from the wait station carrying a tray. “You look so pretty today! I love that dress.”
“Vintage,” Ella said, and gave the hem of it a swing.
Chrissy nodded approvingly. “Looks like country living agrees with you after all.”
“You know what? I think it does, too,” Ella said, and then, before she could catch herself, she laughed.
Chapter Twenty-two
When Luca pulled up to the gate at Three Rivers Ranch and waited for it to open, he noticed a Jeep barreling down the road toward the gate in the opposite direction. As the gate opened, the Jeep pulled alongside him. The magnetic sign, RURAL MAIL CARRIER, was attached crookedly to the Jeep’s door. The window on the driver’s side came down, and a brassy red head popped out of the window. “Luca Prince, how the heck are you?” Big Barb shouted at him. She plunked her arm down on the open car frame and leaned out.
“Hello, Big Barb,” he said. “How are you?”
“I’m great! Been out of town?” she asked, squinting at him.
“Excuse me?”
“I only ask because I haven’t seen your truck the last few mornings when I’ve brought the mail. But I’ve seen that Sombra!” she announced. “Guess you’ve got the only plug in Cimarron County.” She laughed loudly.
Luca had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes.
“I thought maybe you were staying up at your place in San Antone,” she said.
Good Lord, Big Barb was the most meddlesome meddler south of the Red River. “Nope,” he said.
“Oh, I figured out you hadn’t been, cuz I’d seen your truck at the Gieselman place. Every Tuesday and Thursday, about the time I deliver the mail.” She cocked her head to one side.
Luca said nothing, refusing to give her anything she might repeat around town, and waited for her to make her point.
But Big Barb was a pro at the gossip game and changed course. “Your poor mamma seems to be doing better. She didn’t yell at me today.”
“Then I guess things are looking up,” he said.
“I gotta say, I’ve been worried about her. I heard that Sarah Jenkins-Cash heard from someone in her bridge group that Margaret Sutton is going round saying your dad ran through all his money and left y’all with nothing.”
Luca’s grip tightened on the wheel. “You probably shouldn’t believe everything you hear.”
“Oh, well, I don’t,” she said cheerfully. “I don’t believe anything anyone tells me. You have a great day, Luca!” she sang out, and pulled her Bozo head back into the Jeep and drove off.
Luca was used to talk about his family, but he was so annoyed with Big Barb that he gassed the truck and peeled away from the gate, rocketing down the drive to the house.
After he’d parked, he wandered around inside looking for a sign of anyone before he found Hallie in the kitchen making scrambled eggs.
“Hey, I’ll have some of those,” Luca said. “Where’s Frederica?”
“Mom reduced her schedule. She’s here three days a week now.”
“Wow,” Luca said, and looked at his sister. “After all these years? Is that really necessary?”
“There’s no talking to Mom about it,” Hallie said with a sigh. “So where were you last night? I could have used some company.”
“I was out,” he said, and went to the fridge to pour himself some milk.
“With Ella?”
“Maybe.”
“You two are a thing?” sh
e asked.
“Hallie—”
“I’m just curious, Luca. I like her. I’m sort of surprised, that’s all.”
“Why?” he asked, a little more sharply than he intended.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Because she’s not like the other women you’ve gone after. You know, tall, blonde, and leggy.”
“Ella is very attractive,” Luca said.
“I know that,” Hallie said. “I’m just surprised you see it.”
He cast a withering look at his sister, although he supposed she had a point. He had always drifted toward the model types. Or the types that showed up to the parties he tended to frequent. “I like her, okay?” he said, and tugged on an end of Hallie’s hair.
“You what?” She looked up at him, her eyes searching his. “Luca . . . that is great,” she said quietly.
“Don’t get excited,” he said, then instinctively looked over his shoulder. He preferred to keep his life private. In other words, his love life was not up for discussion with his grandma or his mother. “Don’t say anything,” he muttered.
“Why not?”
“You know why,” Luca said. “Have you met our mother? Where is she, anyway?”
“In her room,” Hallie said, and shoveled eggs onto a plate. She took the carton from the fridge, pulled two more eggs from it, and dumped them into the hot pan.
“Hey, I’ve got good news for you,” Luca said as he took a seat at the bar. “I’m going to take you out to dinner tonight.”
“What? No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I have plans.”
“I thought Chris was in Houston.”
“For your information, I happen to be in the middle of bingeing all four hundred seasons of the Bachelor. It’s taking a lot of time that I don’t have.” She sniffed.
“Come on. This will be more fun than that. I’m going to call Brandon and have him meet us. We’ll talk about the fund-raiser. It’s coming up, you know.”
“That’s right, and you’re going to be very happy you agreed to let my wedding planner manage this event,” she said, and turned off the flame and dumped the second batch of eggs onto another plate. “She has the best ideas.”
Hallie had told him about the planner after the family meeting, and he’d said okay, but he was afraid to think of how much this was going to cost him. “Are you coming or not, Hallie? I haven’t seen you do much of anything lately but open bottles of wine.”
“Hey!” she said, and jabbed a finger in the air in his direction. “Do not judge my coping mechanisms!”
Luca ate his eggs and did not judge her coping mechanisms.
“Where are you going, anyway?” she asked as he stood up to bring his plate around to the sink.
He grinned and turned around. “I knew I could talk you into it.”
“I haven’t said I would come.”
“You’re the best, Hallie,” he said, and caught her with one arm around the belly and kissed the top of her head. “The Magnolia.”
She slapped his arm away with one hand while the other held a fork full of eggs.
“Get away from me, charmer.”
“I’ll pick you up at seven,” he said, and sauntered out of the kitchen.
On his way to his room and a shower, he passed the master bedroom and paused to peek inside. Seeing no one, he took a few steps down the hall before he heard his mother call him back.
Luca backed up and went into her room. She was sitting in the bay window, her legs stretched in front of her. On her lap was the mysterious wooden box his dad had left her. “What are you doing, Mom?” he asked.
She looked out the window, to the vast expanse of Prince land. “Thinking.”
Luca shoved his hands into his pockets. “About . . . ?”
“Life. Death. You know, all the important things.” She sighed and shifted her gaze to Luca. “How soon is too soon to start drinking?” she asked idly.
“Mom,” Luca said.
“I’m kidding,” she said. “Sort of.” She stood up and put the box aside. She walked over to Luca and put her arms around him. He couldn’t remember any longer at what point he’d grown so much taller than her, but she seemed so small to him now.
“I owe you an apology,” she said.
“For . . . ?”
“The things I said to you that night.”
Christ, not this again. Luca had no desire to talk about it. “You already apologized,” he said.
“I did, but your grandmother said my apology was like the apology of a guilty person on Dateline and that no one believes courtroom apologies.”
Luca smiled. His grandmother was right about that.
His mother dropped her arms and walked across the thick carpet to the long bench at the foot of her bed. “I know I’ve always been hard on you, Luca, but it’s because I love you so much. I want you to succeed.”
“I know, Mom.”
“Chet says you’re not going in to work,” she said, and glanced up at him.
Luca shrugged. “Victor has it handled. He doesn’t need me to interfere.”
“That doesn’t matter. You’re the boss, and that’s your business.”
“Actually, it’s really Uncle Chet’s business. He’s still involved.” He sighed and ran the palm of his hand over his crown. “You know as well as I that he never trusted me to actually run that business. He and Victor don’t need me, and honestly? I’m in the way. I don’t want a Sombra dealership.”
His mother sighed wearily and looked down at her feet. “You could learn it. You have to have a purpose in life, Luca. People who don’t have purpose end up drunk and old.”
“I have purpose,” he said stiffly.
“I wish my father had never set up those trusts for you kids. It makes it too easy not to pursue—”
“Mother,” he said quietly.
The tone of his voice prompted her to stop speaking and look at him.
“We’re not going to do this again,” he said firmly. “I don’t want to hear it anymore. I know who I am, and if you don’t like it, that’s your problem. Not mine.”
“That is obviously not what this is about.”
“That’s what it’s always about,” he said. “The fund-raiser is happening. The conservation is happening. You may as well accept it.” He didn’t wait for her to argue—he turned and walked out of her room.
She did not call him back.
Luca went to his room at the end of the long hall. What she thought of him shouldn’t matter to him at this point—he was a grown man, long past the point of needing his mother’s approval. And yet, like the little boy who used to sing silly songs to make her laugh, he still craved that approval.
He understood that his mother would never be proud of him. But he had resigned himself to the fact that he would never stop wanting her to be proud of him.
* * *
• • •
The Magnolia Bar and Grill seemed awfully crowded at six on a Tuesday. Ella was at the hostess stand when Luca and Hallie met up with Brandon. She was always beautiful when she smiled, but tonight, she was glowing as she chatted with Hallie. Luca had not seen the dress she was wearing before, and he had a hard time looking away from it. It fit her so well that he idly began to think of her body and the way they fit together when they made love.
“I’ve got a corner booth if you’d like,” Ella said when another couple entered the restaurant. With her head, she indicated they should follow, and led them across the room to the booth. She introduced them to Chrissy, the server, and with a quick little smile for Luca, she returned to work.
Brandon watched Ella walk through the throng of tables.
“Eyes front,” Hallie said. “She’s spoken for. Luca saw her first.”
“I’m starting to figure that out,” Brandon said, and turned his gaze
to Luca. “You’re dating her?”
Funny that he and Ella hadn’t exactly defined what they were doing. It was a running joke between them, but frankly, Luca hadn’t felt the need to define it. Brandon’s question made him wonder. “We’re hanging out,” he said with a shrug.
“You?” Brandon said again.
“Would you please not say you like you discovered I’m the one that pissed in your cereal? Is it so hard to believe?”
“Well, yeah, a little,” Brandon said. “You generally don’t ‘hang out,’” he said, putting air quotes around the word.
Did everyone think he was a player? “Well, I am now. I like her,” Luca said, and his gaze fell on Ella again and the swing of her hair around the middle of her back.
“She’s pretty,” Brandon said.
They ordered dinner and drinks, and talked about life since Luca and Hallie’s father had passed away. When Brandon asked Hallie about Chris, Luca was surprised to hear her hesitate—she was always so effusive in her praise of him. “He’s good,” she said with a shrug, and looked away.
It was half past nine when Luca waved Ella over and convinced her to slide into the booth with them next to Hallie, where she could keep one eye on the door. The establishment closed at ten, and Three Rivers typically rolled up the streets by eight. The place was beginning to empty out.
Brandon leaned across the table and fixed his gaze on Ella. Luca feared he’d had enough wine to wander past charming and into the territory of annoying. “Ella, right?” he asked.
“Yep. Ella Kendall.”
“She’s living out at the old Kendall place,” Hallie said.
Brandon suddenly sat up. “What, you live there? We used to run wild around that place,” he said.
“Has Luca told you what they are planning for the land around your house?” Hallie asked.
“He has,” Ella said.
“Great! So you’ll be at the fund-raiser, right?” Brandon asked.
“Well, I, ah—”
“You have to come,” Brandon said. “You’ve seen Three Rivers Ranch, haven’t you?”