The Book Babes Boxed Set (Texas Ties/Texas Troubles/Texas Together)

by Jean Brashear

  “It’s incredible, Tom. You’ll be brilliant.”

  “That’s what Luisa said, but if I’m honest, I’m not sure I’ve still got what it takes. But I’m dying to try.”

  But she was still stuck on his first sentence. “Luisa? She knows?” Before me. She knew before me.

  “I called you the second I got off the phone, but you were in transit and I could only leave a message. Grayson’s gone, and Siobhan only wanted to make sure I was eating right and not too lonely.”

  You weren’t there when I needed you. He didn’t say it, but he didn’t have to. “So…you called Luisa?”

  His tone turned exasperated. “Why are you stuck on Luisa? No, I didn’t call her. She happened to call me just then about her project, so she suggested we go to celebrate, since—” He stopped.

  Since you weren’t here.

  Ava’s chest clenched so tightly she struggled to breathe. “I’m sorry. I should have been there. You shouldn’t have had to go to dinner with a stranger.”

  “Luisa’s not a stranger. She’s a friend.”

  My friend. Not yours. Then Ava dug her nails into her thigh. Don’t be stupid. She is your friend. She would have only wanted to return the favor because—

  Because he’d been there for Luisa when Ava hadn’t.

  The triumph of the day drained away, vanishing under the weight of guilt. I’m an idiot. I should be grateful he didn’t have to go home to a dark, lonely house with no one to share his good news.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s been a long day.” She was having trouble summoning the strength for the enthusiasm he deserved. “Can I call you in the morning, after the radio show, so you can tell me more?”

  “That’s what time?”

  “I should be finished with the show and back here by eight.”

  “Oh, hell. No, I had to schedule a meeting with her previous attorney for eight because I have classes all morning and Luisa’s project in the afternoon.”

  An uncomfortable silence ensued as both of them realized that their careers would put a whole day between them and time for the kind of conversation they could be having right now, sandwiched together in the bed, murmuring and laughing and celebrating with their bodies.

  “This is all my fault,” she whispered. “I should be there. I want to be there, but my ambition has us fifteen hundred miles apart.”

  “Don’t say that, Ava. It’s just the breaks. You have a right to a life, too.”

  “But is it coming between us?”

  Impatience warred with love. “Your writer’s imagination is carrying you away again. I love you. You love me. We’ll be fine.”

  She went silent, praying he was right. “One more week. Oh, Tom, I’m so tired.”

  “I know, love. I don’t sleep well without you, either.” His husky murmur made her heart ache. She could hear him putting on his game face. “Listen, I know you’ve got to be up early for the radio show. You sleep well, and we’ll talk tomorrow night, all right? Go to bed now, Ava. Don’t get yourself run down.”

  She wanted to hear his voice, just a little longer. “Tom, I’m so happy for you. You’re going to be fantastic.”

  His tone lifted. “Glad you’re sure.”

  “You were always sexy as hell when you were on a crusade.”

  He chuckled. “Was that my secret?”

  “Did it for me, every time.” She gripped the phone tighter. “I’d kill to be in that bed with you right now.”

  The strain was back in his voice. “It would be hours before I let you out.”

  “Tom?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Are we really going to survive this? Maybe I should quit, just keep writing the little books.”

  “Hush, babe,” he soothed. “You’re exhausted. It’s not time to be talking about big decisions like that. Just get this damn tour over with and come home.”

  “I’m dying of skin hunger, Tom. I need to touch you.”

  “Come on home, love. I’ll touch you all you want.”

  She couldn’t hang up yet.

  He chuckled. “You don’t want to hang up, do you?”

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Me, either. Go to bed, sweetheart. I’ll come visit in your dreams.”

  Tears poured down her cheeks. “Tom, I love you more than my life. I’m sorry. I hate this.”

  “Sh-h-h. Sleep now. It will look better tomorrow. I’m hanging up now, but you’ve still got my shirt?”

  Ava smiled. No one but the two of them knew that she took a shirt of his with her when she traveled and slept with it, his scent soothing her so she could sleep, not an easy prospect at the best of times. Not without Tom beside her.

  “It’s right here.”

  “Then turn out the light and dream of me, love. I’ll be doing the same.”

  “’Night, Tom.” Her heart was surely tearing in two.

  “Good night, my love. Talk to you tomorrow.”

  He hung up, but Ava clutched the receiver in her hand like a woman holding onto a piece of flotsam in a dark, lonely sea.

  Chapter Eight

  ‡

  A week later, almost too tired to attend the meeting and more than eager to stay home with Tom, Ava pulled up to Luisa’s house and debated whether to go inside. Going back wouldn’t help, though. Tom was at his office, deep in research for his case. She’d probably beat him home.

  She turned the key, slipped it from the ignition, and stepped out of her car.

  Halfway to the door, she heard another car pull up and turned to see Ellie’s SUV. She waited for her friend, putting off the moment when she’d have to go inside and pretend she wasn’t dead on her feet after arriving home late last night. The group had postponed the meeting just so she wouldn’t have to miss.

  Ellie’s step up the drive was, if anything, more sluggish than her own.

  “You look like I feel,” Ava joked.

  Then Ellie lifted her gaze, and Ava didn’t feel like joking anymore. “What’s wrong?”

  Ellie recovered herself immediately, pasting on a smile that Ava wasn’t buying. “Welcome home, stranger. How was it?”

  “Exhausting. What’s up with you, Ellie?”

  “Nothing. I’m fine.” Ellie reached her side and hugged her.

  Her friend was anything but fine. Maybe she should push, or offer to go somewhere with Ellie to talk, but she could barely put one foot in front of the other, in spite of napping all afternoon.

  Ellie shook her head. “Stop giving me that mother hen look. I’m all right.”

  “I’m not buying it.”

  “Well, that’s your problem.” Her tone tart, Ellie turned toward the door. “Come on, we’re late.” She moved past Ava and rang the bell.

  Luisa opened it immediately, smiling at Ellie, then looked past her and called out, “Hail the conquering hero—or heroine, as the case may be.” Reaching past Ellie, she pulled Ava inside, and Ava didn’t resist.

  Inside, the house smelled of chocolate. “Mmmmm, maybe chocolate will revive me.”

  Sylvie stepped forward, gesturing toward what looked to be Chocolate Decadence. “Champagne and chocolate to welcome home our lost lamb.”

  Ava sighed loudly. “I almost couldn’t drag myself into the car, but you’ve given me a reason to live. Thanks, Syl.” She reached out to hug her. Sylvie was not big on hugging, but Ava felt the need of every one of them right then. She was surprised to be hugged tightly back. She stepped away and regarded her friend, but Sylvie, as always, was tough to read.

  “I feel like Dorothy. Oh, Auntie Em, I’m home…”

  Everyone laughed as Ava sank into a big cushioned wicker chair.

  Laken was already pouring champagne. “Well, tell all, hot stuff. We’re waiting for our taste of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”

  “Don’t I wish. I feel more like what the cat dragged in.”

  “Well, here, darling. Just sit right there and sip this Veuve Cliquot and hold court.”

 
Ava lifted her eyebrows. “Veuve? I’m honored.”

  “Nothing’s too good for our star,” Luisa teased.

  Laken handed the last flute to Ellie, then lifted hers to Ava. “To our rising star. Don’t forget we knew you when.”

  Ava smiled and leaned forward, clinking her flute against theirs. Settling back to sip hers, she looked around at the group. “Isn’t it funny? We started out to read important books, and now we’re like family. I really missed you all. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be back.” She was surprised at the prick of tears, the scratch in her throat.

  “Oh, please. No tears,” Laken drawled. “You’ll get Ellie and Luisa started and then Sylvie and I will have to handle hankies.”

  “Speak for yourself, darling. I’m feeling pretty sentimental myself.”

  Ava tried not to let her eyes pop out. Sylvie and sentimental weren’t usually like salt and pepper. “I mean it. It was wonderful, and it was hell. I missed Tom so much I thought I’d die—” She shot a look at Luisa. “Thank you, by the way, Luisa, for being there for his big news when I wasn’t.”

  She saw the startled glances.

  “What big news?” Ellie asked.

  Laken chimed in. “Tom’s glory days are alive and kicking. He’s been asked to be lead counsel on a huge gender discrimination case in the Third Circuit.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means,” Luisa interjected, “that Tom’s in a position to make new law, to make another run at the Supreme Court to get the Carter decision reversed. The Supreme Court refused to hear Carter, so gender equality supporters are pushing other cases through. A case in the Third Circuit stands a good chance at being heard, and they want Tom’s expertise on their side. It’s really an honor to—”

  “Luisa—” Laken interjected. “Maybe Ava wants to tell this.”

  Luisa shot Ava a look of unease. “I’m sorry. I should have let you explain.”

  Dread formed a lump in Ava’s belly. She would never admit how much it hurt that Luisa was telling the kind of detail that once would have been her own province. Listening to her explain Tom’s case and its importance slapped Ava right up against the knowledge that Luisa had been there for Tom when his wife was off seeking her own fame and glory. This was his shot at the big-time again, something for which she knew he hungered, though he’d never admit it. And she, who’d been with him from the early days, hadn’t been there to celebrate what might be his last big case.

  She just shook her head and mumbled, “It’s all right.” Then she took a sip, but she could see the glances being exchanged.

  Sylvie stepped into the breach with her usual consummate grace. “Well, I, for one, am ready for chocolate. Who else wants some?”

  Then Laken began regaling them with the antics of the puppy she still refused to admit was hers in her heart, and the repartée flew.

  But not as it once had. Luisa’s lips were firmly pressed together. Ellie’s eyes were haunted. Ava knew her silence was unusual, but she just couldn’t summon the spirit to join in.

  Only Sylvie and Laken seemed able to carry the load of conversation, but even they showed the effort.

  Too much was changing, in ways she couldn’t quite understand. All she could tell was that her family of friends didn’t quite feel like family anymore.

  After Tom, they’d been her anchor, her defense against a world that was changing too rapidly for her to keep up.

  I want to go home, Auntie Em. I want my old life back.

  But she couldn’t quite find her way.

  * * *

  Ellie juggled the bags of groceries and her purse, hearing the phone ringing as she entered the kitchen. Dropping them to the counter, she grabbed the receiver. “Hello?”

  “Were you in the north forty?” Ava teased.

  Ellie smiled. “Just bringing in groceries.” Cradling the receiver between shoulder and ear, she began to put away the contents of the bags. “What are you up to?”

  Ava sighed. “Not much. I need to get back to work on this book, but I just don’t have much energy today.”

  “The trip was exhausting, wasn’t it?”

  “It really was. The moments with the readers were wonderful. It was all the other, the shuffling from place to place, new hotel rooms every night…I don’t envy traveling salesmen.”

  “You sound really down.”

  “Oh, I’m all right. I just—” Ava broke off.

  “You just what?”

  “It’s…oh, nothing, really.”

  Ellie could hear the tears threatening. Ava was a woman of many passions—she laughed with abandon, lost her temper on occasion, loved without reserve—but she seldom cried. “Tell me what’s wrong. Is it Tom? Was it bad, being gone?”

  “It was awful. I missed him so much. But what was worse was when I didn’t miss him—when I reveled in the attention.”

  “That’s not wrong. You’ve earned the acclaim.”

  “But I wasn’t there to hear his big news, not for hours. It wasn’t me who celebrated with him, it was—”

  “Luisa.” Ellie frowned. “Ava, you aren’t worried that Luisa—”

  “No, I—no,” Ava stated firmly. “It’s not that I think anything wrong was happening, it’s that I should have been there. I’ve been with him from the early days. I watched him lead protest marches and sit-ins. I was by his side. I saw him defend people no one else would defend, help people who had nowhere to turn. We were there together, always—and now, when he has a chance to taste that glory again, I’m off pursuing my own ambition, so Luisa shared that moment with him.”

  “You don’t worry about them, do you? I mean, they just work together on that project of hers, they wouldn’t—”

  “It’s not that, Ellie, really. I trust Tom to be faithful. It’s me who’s let him down.”

  “Did he say that?”

  “No. Not exactly.”

  “Are you having second thoughts about your career?”

  “Yes—no. Oh, I don’t know. I just never thought about the price it would demand, and now here I am with people expecting things of me and they’ve put so much behind me because I wanted them to do it and pushed hard and worked so hard…and now all I want to do is go back to the way things used to be.”

  Don’t we all? “I understand completely,” Ellie replied.

  Ava’s laughter was faint. “I guess you do, don’t you? Ellie, I’m scared.”

  Ava was the most fearless person she knew. Hearing that shook her. “Me, too,” she whispered.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I really called to find out why you looked so sad last night, and all I’ve done is cry on your shoulder. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Nothing, really.”

  “Oh, bullshit.” Ava’s voice regained its customary strength. “Don’t give me that. You looked awful last night. Tell me what’s wrong. Is Saxon giving you trouble?”

  “No,” she shot back, too hastily. “Saxon’s done nothing.”

  Ava pressed her. “Then what is it?”

  “I’m fine. I was just tired.” She still burned with shame from Wyatt’s pitying reaction. Ava’s would be no different.

  “Ellie…” Ava warned. “I know something is wrong. Don’t make me feel more neglectful than I already do. Spill?”

  “I’m fine, Ava. Just drop it,” she snapped. “I told you I was tired. And I still have groceries in the car I need to put in the fridge. Let me call you back later.”

  “I only wanted to help.”

  Ellie sighed. “I know you do. You’re a good friend. I just have to do some thinking, and I can’t—” She was horrified to hear her voice crack, the tears threatening to break through.

  “Ellie, let me come over. Or you come over here.”

  “No—” She sniffed, wiping her hand under her nose. “I can’t—I’ll be all right. Thank you for caring, but it’s something I have to figure out. I’ll talk to you later.” She started to hang up.

  “Wait—”

 
Ellie paused.

  “Promise me you’ll call me and talk about it when you’re ready. I won’t make any judgments.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “If you and Wyatt are having trouble…”

  Ellie went cold all over. “I love my husband, Ava.”

  “Of course you do. Is Saxon…” Ava hesitated.

  “Is Saxon what?”

  “Ellie, it would be understandable for you to be attracted to him. You’re not dead or blind, and Saxon’s a very sexy man.”

  The very nearness of Ava’s intuition shocked and angered her. Had it not been so close to her own thoughts, perhaps Ellie could have laughed it off. Instead, she went on the offensive. “I am a happily married woman, just like you. My family is enough for me—plenty, in fact. You are way out of line to accuse me like that.”

  “I wasn’t accusing. I’m trying to help you. Just be careful, that’s all.”

  “I’m hanging up now, Ava.”

  “Ellie, don’t—okay, okay, I’m sorry. Maybe I am out of line. I’m not preaching. I’m trying to be understanding. Lord knows Saxon Gaillard could tempt a saint.”

  “Why would you think I’m tempted? I love Wyatt.”

  “I know you do. But I also know that you’re not happy lately. Marriage doesn’t always provide everything you need.”

  “It has before. We’ve always been the exception, you and Tom, Wyatt and me. We have the good marriages.” A wave of sick despair swamped her, increasing her desperation to convince Ava—or maybe herself. “Other people have problems, but we don’t.”

  Ava’s laughter was faint and strained. “Everyone has problems, Ellie. No marriage is perfect.”

  “Wyatt and I are fine. I have to go now, Ava. Talk to you soon.” Heart beating trip-hammer, Ellie dropped the receiver into its cradle, staring at it like something reptilian and poised to strike.

  * * *

  Luisa raced from the classroom to her office, wanting a few minutes before her office hours began. A figure stepped in her path; impatiently, she lifted her head to pick her way around the obstruction.

  “Luisa, can you spare me a minute?” Sofia asked.