Blame it on Texas

by Amie Louellen

  “Delicious,” Delilah murmured. She licked her lips as Craig watched her, his gaze never leaving her mouth.

  “I’m sorry,” Craig said.

  “Me too.” She pulled his mouth to hers and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

  Ritt ran a hand across the back of his neck. Shelby looked everywhere but at the happy couple. He wondered if other people had felt the same way when he and Shelby had been so close. He felt like a peeping Tom in his own house.

  He cleared his throat.

  After what seemed like half an hour, but truly could have only been a few seconds, Craig lifted his head. “No more arguing. The wedding is going to happen whether the dresses are midnight or navy.”

  “Yes,” she murmured.

  So.” Shelby rubbed her hands together. “I’ll start the cakes tomorrow morning. And they’ll be ready for your wedding Saturday afternoon.”

  Craig and Delilah nodded.

  “I’ll need access to the church and the name of the florist who’s doing the flowers.”

  “The church has already been arranged. You’ll have access to the kitchen both Friday and Saturday morning. Here’s the card for the florist.”

  “Thanks, Shel,” Craig said, bussing her cheek. “You’re the best.”

  “I don’t know what we would have done without you,” Delilah added.

  Ritt was beginning to wonder that himself.

  Shelby hand dried the last of her new pans, all the while decorating the wedding cake in her head. She needed to get her ideas down on paper before she lost the details of the design. The time restraints alone would necessitate a more simple design, but more often than not, simple was synonymous with elegant.

  She heard a thump, a clank and a muffled curse. Ritt.

  He’d disappeared right after Delilah and Craig had left, making Shelby believe that he was avoiding her.

  She sighed. It was for the best. After that kiss…

  One of them had to keep their wits about them.

  So Ritt had gone out to work on his truck while she planned a wedding cake and wondered when she’d be able to leave. Now she knew she was stuck here until Saturday evening, but considering he was the best man, she knew he’d be involved in all sorts of wedding activities that would take his attention away from finally signing the divorce papers.

  Her stomach pitched. It was what she wanted, she told herself. To be free.

  From outside, Ritt’s truck started. Shelby peeked out the kitchen window, hoping he wasn’t leaving. The hood was up and his long, denim-clad legs the only part of him she could see.

  She tried not to sigh in relief that he was staying. The whole idea was ridiculous.

  She found a pen and paper and started sketching the cake. There would need to be a focal point, one cake taller than the other two. That way each flavor would stand alone.

  The shrill ring of the telephone cut through her thoughts. She set the notebook aside and went to the phone base, but the receiver wasn’t there.

  She’d let the machine get it. She sat back down and started drawing once again.

  The phone continued to ring, then the answering machine picked up. Seconds later her mother’s voice filled the kitchen.

  “Hey, baby girl. Sorry I’ve been incommunicado, but you know…”

  Shelby jumped from the stool and raced around the kitchen, looking for the phone.

  “Got your message and well, we’ll talk when I get back.”

  Get back? Where was she going?

  Shelby lifted the stacks of newspapers on the kitchen table, checked under the pile of bath towels in one chair to no avail. She raced to the living room.

  “I’m going to be hard to reach for a couple of days.”

  “Mom! Mom!” Like she could hear her.

  “Me and Mickey are going island camping overnight—have you met Mickey?”

  “Don’t hang up,” Shelby yelled to no one.

  “He’s a k-e-e-p-e-r.”

  Shelby growled and started digging through the couch cushions.

  “Oh, gotta go.” Her mother’s voice sounded distant, as if she had taken her mouth away from the receiver.

  “Don’t hang up!”

  “They’re ringing the bell for last boarding. We’ll talk when I get back. Ciao, baby girl.”

  A-ha! She found the phone under a fishing magazine on the coffee table. She hit talk.

  The phone clicked, and the line went dead.

  With shaking hands she punched the redial button. The phone rang and rang, but no one picked up. Only her mother could disappear in the blink of an eye.

  Shelby collapsed onto the sofa in defeat.

  The screen door slammed, and Ritt called out, “Shel, you okay? I heard shouting.”

  He hadn’t even bothered to wipe the grease from his hands. A trickle of sweat ran down the side of his face, starting under the band of his baseball hat and dropping off the edge of his firm jaw.

  Shelby groaned again. “Mom called.”

  “What’d she say?” He took off his cap and wiped his face on the bottom of his T-shirt.

  Shelby tried not to stare at the rock-hard abs hidden underneath that lucky cotton. But her mouth went dry of its own accord. How she wanted to go over there and run her hands up under that thin fabric and feel the warmth of him.

  “Shelby? What’d she say?”

  “Huh? Oh.” She dragged herself out of the fantasy world and into reality. “I couldn’t find the phone.”

  His long legs ate up the distance to the answering machine. He punched the playback button and listened to her mom’s message.

  “There you go,” he said, a triumphant smile on his face.

  “What are you talking about? She said she’d call back in a couple of days.”

  “If she was innocent, then she wouldn’t need to call back. She would have denied it, and that would have been that.”

  Shelby shook her head. “This is my mother we’re talking about.”

  “True, but I still think she would have defended her innocence, even if she promised to call back.”

  Most likely he was right, but there was no way in hell Shelby was giving up that easily. “Whatever.” Not the most brilliant comeback, but the best she could do under the circumstances. He was standing too close to her. And smelled so good.

  “You just can’t believe that she would do anything wrong, can you?”

  “I didn’t say that.” She sniffed. Her mother had done plenty wrong, but most of it boiled down to her hippie-bohemian-new age philosophy. Shelby didn’t even know who her father was. She was certain her mother knew but wasn’t telling. With her luck he was some aging rock star with more children than sense.

  That was the exact reason why she needed this divorce. She wanted respectability and honor. She deserved it. She had worked damned hard building her business. It was time to move on.

  Shelby pushed herself up from the sofa. “I’m going into town to get the ingredients for the cakes.”

  Ritt shook his head, his expression telling her without words that he thought she was running away from their conversation. Like she cared what he thought.

  “Whatever.” She grabbed the keys to the rental and headed out the door.

  Two hours later she pulled into the drive, thankful to be done. Well, she still had to bake the cakes tomorrow. An exhausting prospect, but well worth the joy of her friends.

  She was barely out of the car when Ritt came out to help her take the groceries inside.

  Bag after bag, they hauled her purchases into the house. “Damn. All this for one cake?”

  She shrugged. “They wanted all three flavors, then I’ve got icing to make and the groom’s cake. I figured chocolate cupcakes. You think that’ll be okay?”

  Ritt nodded. “Chocolate was always Craig’s favorite.”

  “Yours too.”

  “Yep.”

  She was all too aware of his steady gaze on her as she loaded the perishables into the fridge and stacked
the other supplies on the counter.

  Once the chore was complete, she propped her hands on her hips and surveyed the kitchen. “Now for dinner.”

  He shook his head. “No way. You’re not cooking in my kitchen again.”

  “I baked cakes in it yesterday.”

  “Totally different.” He took her by the elbow and steered her toward the door. “Let’s head over to the diner.”

  Walking into the diner was like stepping back in time. Others thought so too. All eyes were on them as they sat down in the booth.

  “Land sakes alive.” Fannie George greeted them as they scooted into a booth. Fannie was as much a part of Ned’s Diner as the chili cheese fries. “I never thought I would see this day.”

  “Hi, Fannie.”

  “Shelby McCoy, what brings you to town?”

  Shelby opened her mouth to correct her, but closed it instead. She was Shelby McCoy, for a little while longer anyway.

  Ritt adjusted his hat and sat back in his seat. Was he waiting to see what she would say?

  Strange, but it seemed almost as if Ritt wanted to stay married to her. Could it be that what Craig said was true? That Ritt felt she hadn’t given them a chance after she lost the baby?

  Nah, that couldn’t be. He was toying with her, kissing her, then leaving her all alone on the couch. He was tying her in knots and he knew it.

  “I’m here for…the wedding.” She couldn’t very well tell Fannie she had come to get a divorce from Ritt. The whole town assumed that had been taken care of a long time ago.

  “Ain’t that somethin’? Delilah and Craig finally getting hitched and you and Ritt back together. Love is a wondrous thing.” Fannie winked like she held the secrets of the world in that one simple statement.

  “We’re not—” she started with a shake of her head.

  “Fannie, I’m parched. Can you bring me an iced tea?” Ritt smiled at the woman with all the charm of a movie star.

  “Of course, sugar. Shelby, you want a tea?”

  “Unsweetened, please.”

  Suddenly she felt put on the spot. No one drank unsweetened tea in this diner. “Calories, you know,” she mumbled by way of an explanation.

  Fannie threw back her head and laughed. “You almost had me goin’ there. I’ll be right back with y’all’s drinks.” She stuck her pencil back behind her ear and sashayed to the counter.

  “You don’t have to try so hard to prove that you don’t belong here anymore.”

  Shelby blinked, hurt by his words. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”

  “What is it then?”

  “Do you know how many tablespoons of sugar are in one glass of that tea?”

  “Why can’t you relax and enjoy yourself? You used to.”

  But that was a long time ago, when she had to accept her plight in life, daughter of a hippie mother and an unknown father. Shelby had only lived in Randall for two years, having moved around time and time again as her mother looked for whatever was missing from her life.

  Well, she had a great life now. She was no longer searching. She had found her niche, baking and decorating cakes. And she was good at it. She had clients lining up for her confections. With her business growing she had only one choice: get her divorce from Ritt before he realized he could have half of what she had worked so hard to build.

  Shelby sniffed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Ritt studied her with those all-knowing eyes. One look and he stripped away her every layer of protection and delved beneath to the scared little girl she had buried inside.

  “Here ya go.” Fannie slid their drinks in front of them and waited patiently for them to order, not realizing the moment she had interrupted.

  They ordered their usual. Even after all this time, Shelby remembered how Ritt liked his cheeseburger and the fact that he preferred mustard to ketchup on his fries.

  She pushed all thoughts of calories from her mind and drank three classes of tea as they ate. Not because Ritt was right and she needed to relax, but to show him that she could.

  It was well past eight when they pulled into his drive.

  Neither one spoke as they entered the house. A sweet sadness swept through Shelby. How many times had they come home like this? But back then if they’d had the house all to themselves, they would have made out like crazy on the living room sofa, with the hurry of getting caught and the urgency of youth.

  She sneaked a peek at Ritt from under her lashes. His jaw was a bunch of twisted muscles. Was he thinking the same thing? How wonderful it was back then. How awesome and perfect.

  “It would have never worked, you know.” Her words surprised her. She hadn’t meant to say them.

  “We’ll never know now.” He stalked away, skulking into the living room and turning on the TV.

  “Ritt, I—” So many things came into her mind all at once, but only one truly needed saying. “I’m sorry.”

  He kept his gaze fixed on the baseball game as if his very existence depended on it. “Me too, Shelby. Me too.”

  Ritt kept his eyes forward until he was sure she was gone.

  Damn it but if he had any sense in his head, he would sign the papers before she drove him completely insane. But he didn’t have any sense. Hadn’t had any where she was concerned for a long time.

  Having her this close but still out of reach was killing him. He should have kicked her out on her fanny that first night and saved them both a lot of trouble.

  The phone rang, and he reached over to answer it, not bothering to check the caller ID. If he had any luck in the world, it would be her mother calling back to admit she had taken his parent’s bribe. But his luck didn’t seem to be holding out today.

  “Ritt?”

  “Hi, Mom.” Just what he needed.

  “Hey, sweetie. Your dad and I wanted to call and check on you.”

  Ritt smiled. Like most mothers, his had a sixth sense when it came to her children. She always knew when something was bothering him or his kid brother, Kyle.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Tell me again and maybe this time I’ll believe you.”

  Ritt took a deep breath. “Shelby’s here.”

  A second beat between them before his mother answered. “Oh, Ritt.”

  He swallowed hard, feeling like he was nineteen again and his heart was breaking anew. “She wants a divorce.”

  “We’re coming home.” His mother’s voice was stern with love and determination.

  “No. Don’t. I’m fine.”

  “You don’t sound fine.”

  He didn’t, but if he kept pretending he was, that Shelby wasn’t rubbing salt in old wounds, then maybe eventually it’d be the truth. “I just need some time.”

  “Are you going to give it to her?”

  “I don’t think I have much choice.” He didn’t bother to tell his mom that Shelby had sent the papers long ago and he’d been putting this moment off for months. Or that he had been desperately trying to devise a way to win her back.

  “Wayne, turn around. We need to go home.”

  Ritt sat up straight, planting his booted feet on the hard planks of the floor. “No. Seriously, Mom. She’ll be gone before you get here.”

  “You need us, and we’re coming home.”

  Ritt shook his head at her resolve. He did need his family right now, but he could always drive to Lubbock and spend the week with Kyle. “I’m fine,” he said.

  “We’ll be home in a couple of days,” she said despite his protests. “Maybe by Sunday afternoon.”

  “Sunday night.” He heard his father yell.

  Ritt smiled. “You don’t have to, you know.”

  “Yeah, sweetie, we do.”

  He knew his mom would answer that way. “Be careful.”

  “We will. And Ritt…we love you very much.”

  “I know. I love you too.” He hung up the phone and turned to Shelby who stood in the doorway from the hall. How long she’d been there he wasn’t sur
e.

  “I take it that wasn’t my mom.”

  Ritt grabbed his beer and sat back. He adopted his I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude and flashed her a cocky smile. “Nope. It was my mom.”

  Shelby shook her head. “Why do you do that?”

  He took a drink of his beer to soothe his suddenly dry throat. “Do what?”

  “Get all…” she waved a hand in front of her, clearly at a loss for words. “Get all cocky and arrogant.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  She slammed her hands onto her hips. “You do.”

  “Not.” He hated how juvenile he sounded, but he couldn’t let her know his secret. That it was the only defense he had against her.

  “Whatever.” At least she sounded as childish as he did. “I’m going to bed.”

  It was barely nine o’clock, but he didn’t point that out.

  He stood and stretched. “Fine by me,” he said, starting for the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  He stopped two steps shy of his goal. “Wow, Shelby. You sound suspiciously like a wife.” Then he slammed through the door and out into the night.

  It was after three when she heard him, his careful footsteps shuffling through the kitchen. Something rattled, as if he’d bumped into the curio cabinet where his mom displayed her collection of blown-glass figurines.

  Clyde barked.

  Ritt hushed him.

  She heard another small crash and rose from the bed.

  He was drunk, and she’d better go help him before he destroyed his mother’s house.

  “Shelby.” He opened his arms wide as he caught sight of her. His grin stretched from ear to ear and if she hadn’t known better, she’d have thought he was actually glad she was there.

  But she had heard the solemn tone when he had talked to his mother. Her presence was taking its toll on him. Did he think he was the only one hurting? A myriad of emotions swamped her. Being back in Randall brought up more memories than she cared to relive. Some good, some not so good. And others…well, they were heartbreaking.

  “Come here and give me a kiss.”

  Shelby crossed her arms in front of her and planted her feet. She hoped the stance looked secure and firm when in reality it was to keep her from taking him up on his offer. “You and I both know that’s a bad idea.”