“Well, I think Mario is right,” Trey spoke up. “Sierra looks thin and pale. We’ve all noticed it. So what’s wrong, honey? Still mooning over Chad Newbern?”
She looked at Trey, a big, brawny civil engineer with forearms the size of Popeye’s and an even bigger heart.
“I don’t want to talk about him,” she said flatly.
She didn’t even want to think about Chad, much less talk about him. Sierra had dated the man for two long years and then, suddenly, two months ago, he’d told her he wanted out of their relationship. He’d explained how he wanted more excitement in his life and Sierra was left with the clear conclusion that she’d simply been too boring to satisfy him. The whole incident had left her ego in shreds.
“Why not? It’s obvious you’re still thinking about the loser.”
A grimace tightened her jaw as she looked directly across the table at Alex Calloway, the smooth lawyer of the bunch. A look of pure boredom etched his handsome features and Sierra had the most unladylike urge to kick his shins beneath the table. Of all her friends, Alex had a way of irritating her the most. Sarcasm should have been his middle name and there were times he could be so callous Sierra wanted to bop him over the head. Yet, on the other hand, he could turn around and be a real peach whenever he wanted to be.
Sierra had never considered him as more than a good friend and she supposed it was that complex personality of his that had kept her from falling for his tall, lanky good looks. And thank God for that, she thought. Alex was a heartbreaker of the worst kind.
“You don’t know what I’m thinking,” she bit sharply back at him.
“Well, I certainly believed old Chad was gonna be your husband someday soon. I was expectin’ you to waltz in here and tell us wedding bells were fixin’ to ring,” Trey spoke up. “Instead the jerk runs out on you.”
“Yeah. And after all you’ve done for the cad,” Gayle added disgustedly. “There’s nothing as sorry as a sorry man.”
Trey scowled at Gayle, but none of the three men at the table bothered to speak up and defend their gender. Instead Mario looked sympathetically at Sierra and said, “Well, at least you got him off alcohol. And he’s got a steady job. You can feel good about that.”
“Yes, sir,” Trey spoke up brightly, “you fixed Chad Newbern when he was pretty broken. You can feel proud of yourself for helping someone to get on with his life.”
It was true that Sierra had been proud of the progress Chad had made since she’d first met him two years ago. At that time, he’d just been discharged from the navy for medical reasons and he’d been devastated over losing a career he’d wanted so badly. He’d taken to drinking to get the loss off his mind, until the liquor had taken hold of him.
Sierra had been touched by his wounded spirit and slowly but surely she’d helped him get over the drinking problem. In the process, she’d fallen in love. And she supposed her biggest mistake had been thinking that Chad had fallen in love, too.
“Yeah,” Alex drawled as he lifted his beer mug to his lips, “Sierra’s not just a social worker, she’s a miracle worker. She’s good at patching things. No matter how rotten they are.”
“Alex!” Gayle scolded. “Can’t you see that Sierra is hurting? She needs our support.”
A mocking slant spread over Alex’s firmly chiseled lips. “What Sierra needs to do is stiffen her spine before someone else walks all over her.”
Sierra gripped her beer mug with both hands and stared down at the thick sudsy bubbles as she did her best to blink back her tears. Maybe Alex was right, she thought with a sigh of defeat. It seemed as though every boyfriend she’d ever had in the past only stuck around long enough for Sierra to “fix” him, and then he was gone with the wind. What was wrong with her anyway? Didn’t she have any lasting appeal to the opposite sex?
Straightening her shoulders as best she could, Sierra pinned her warm brown eyes on Alex’s mocking face.
“Like you do to your opponents in the courtroom?” she asked coolly.
The mocking twist of his lips suddenly tilted upward to a droll smile. “You play the game to win, Sierra. You don’t play it to lose.”
For a moment awkward silence fell over the table, then finally Trey said, “Sierra, you’re a beautiful young woman. You’ll find the right man for you one of these days. Just keep that pretty little chin of yours up.”
Sierra appreciated Trey’s kindness, but she’d never gone so far as to think of herself as beautiful. Her sisters, Gloria and Christina, were beautiful. They were tall and willowy and sophisticated. Sierra barely measured five foot three. And though she was curvy, she was very petite. Many of her old high school friends still called her Runt and the long black mass of curls flying around her head didn’t help her little-girl image.
“Thanks, Trey,” she said. “But I don’t think I’ll be looking for a long, long while. Right after Chad and I broke up, I made a pact with my sisters. We all vowed to steer clear of men completely. If we broke our promise, we’d have to do some unholy task like mow the lawn or wash cars. Believe me, I’m not going to end up like Gloria and Christina. I plan to stick to my pledge.”
“Oh, don’t let this make you cynical,” Mario spoke up. “Trey is right. You’ll find the right person. Maybe tomorrow. Who knows?”
Mario was smiling at her with encouragement and she tried her best to smile back. Thankfully the waitress chose that moment to arrive with their food and the subject of Sierra’s love life was dropped. She focused her attention on the meal as though she was thoroughly enjoying every bite.
However, she was relieved when the five of them said their goodbyes and she hurried across the parking lot to her waiting car. She wasn’t in the mood for conversation with anyone. The spring afternoon was windy, but bright and warm. A walk in the park would do her good. But, at the moment, all she wanted to do was go home and cry her eyes out.
“Just a minute, Sierra. I want to talk to you.”
Hearing Alex’s voice right behind her, Sierra paused from opening the car door to turn and look at him. He was a tall man, at least six foot, with warm brown hair combed straight back from his forehead and clear green eyes that were usually glinting with a heavy dose of cynicism. He had the sort of hard, tough features that intimidated people, which she supposed was an asset in his line of work. Yet his face matched his lean, leathery body perfectly and, in spite of his lack of feelings at times, she had to admit he was a very attractive man.
“Why?” she quipped the question. “So you can stick the dagger in farther and twist it? I’ve really had enough, Alex.”
Turning back to the car door, she jabbed the key in the lock and twisted it. Yet before she could pull the door open, Alex’s hand was on her shoulder and she frowned as he tugged her back around to face him.
“No,” he said in a voice as smooth as steel. “I don’t think you’ve had nearly enough. It’s ridiculous the way you were back there in the grill, crying into your beer like all your tomorrows have ended.”
The disgust on his face not only hurt Sierra, it infuriated her and her pink lips parted as she stared up at him. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Alex. You wouldn’t know what love was, even if it gave you a good slap in the face.”
He rolled his eyes and she breathed in a deep breath hoping it would calm her rising temper.
“Oh, please!” he groaned with disbelief. “You call what you had with Chad ‘the loser’ Newbern love? You needed to get rid of him ages ago. I’m glad he finally got enough sense to see it, too.”
Her jaw clamped tight, Sierra turned her face away from his. “I’d really like to know who named you perfect man of the year,” she said through gritted teeth. “Whoever it was had a screw loose.”
“I don’t profess to be perfect,” he shot back at her.
Sierra’s gaze flew up to his. “If you know so much about love, Counselor, why don’t you have a woman draped permanently on your arm?”
His lean features scowled at her. “Maybe because I’m sm
art enough to realize that I don’t need a woman just to make me happy. Hell, I don’t even need one to help me stand upright. I can do that all by myself. The way you should be doing instead of clinging like a needy vine to every loser who comes along and gives you a second glance.”
Pain ricocheted through her body. She was used to Alex being tough at times, but she wasn’t ready for this kind of scolding. He was her friend, for Pete’s sake. Couldn’t he see she needed sympathy and understanding right now?
Swallowing at the knot of pain in her throat, she reached up and grabbed at the curls blowing into her misty brown eyes. “I’ve got to go, Alex.”
“Not yet. I—”
“You’ve made your point.” She shrugged her shoulder away from his hand. “I’m going home. I’ll see you later,” she said numbly, and before he could stop her she opened the car door and quickly slid behind the wheel.
Throwing up his hands with disgust, Alex stepped back and watched her drive out of the parking lot.
Damn man, Sierra thought as she drove through the residential streets of Red Rock. He could be so pompous at times that she wanted to slap him. But she couldn’t help loving him as a friend. During college Sierra had gone through some rough ground. Alex had always been there to lend her a hand and keep her morale boosted. Then later, after college, when her two older sisters had become estranged from the family and each other, Sierra had been devastated. Being a social worker, she’d always believed she could help the most torn families get back together, but she’d not been able to make her sisters see eye to eye and that had left Sierra feeling even more useless. Alex had been around to promise her that things would get better. And they had.
Gloria and Christina had both come home to stay. Everyone was talking and laughing again. Gloria was pregnant with her first child and planning a June wedding with business magnate Jack Fortune. Christina had just announced her engagement to Derek Rockwell. Both her sisters were happy and in love.
Sierra had believed she would be the next in line. She’d been dreaming of going to her sisters and telling them that she, too, would soon be walking down the aisle. But that likelihood had ended, along with all the rest of her starry-eyed plans for the future.
Five minutes later, Sierra was trying not to think about anything pertaining to marriage as she turned down a neat residential street and parked in front of an old two-story house shaded in the front and the back by spreading live oaks.
A cattleman had built the house back in the 1880s. The story went that his wife had loved throwing parties and the couple had needed a second house in town to accommodate their guests. Down through the years, the owners of the house had changed, and modern bathrooms had been added, but basically the structure had remained the same. The floors were all polished oak and the walls and ceiling intricate tongue and groove.
The place needed a bit of repairs here and there and the board siding was faded to a chalky-white, but since the owner was an old friend of the family, Sierra got a great deal on the rent. And she loved the space and the character of the house, even if the old rooms seemed lonely at night.
Inside, she went straight to her bedroom and changed her printed cotton dress for a pair of blue jeans and a white T-shirt. After she’d slipped on a pair of loafers and tied her black curls into a ponytail, she went out to the living room to go through the mail she’d left stacked on an end table near the couch.
By now her earlier anger at Alex had dissolved and as she ripped into the envelopes, regret began to settle on her shoulders. Even if Alex had been nasty to her, he’d been doing it out of kindness. She shouldn’t have been nasty back to him. That was beneath her usual demeanor and she hated that she’d lost her temper with him. Maybe she should give him time to get back to his office, then call and apologize, she pondered.
She was still debating whether to pick up the phone, when a knock sounded on the front door. Since she rarely had visitors in the middle of the afternoon, she was fully expecting to see a salesman when she opened the door. The last person she imagined to see standing on the porch was Alex Calloway.
“What are you doing here?” she asked bluntly.
With a slight grimace, he ran a hand through his brown hair. “May I come in?” he asked.
Sierra had already forgiven him, but she didn’t want to be too quick in letting him know it. He was always accusing her of being too soft. Maybe now was the time to show him a tougher side of her.
“Why? So you can continue to insult me?”
His brows lifted and fell as he eyed her grim face. “No. And I don’t want to have this conversation standing in the doorway.”
Heaving out a breath, she pushed the screen door wide and gestured for him to come into the house. He walked to the middle of the room and jammed his hands into the pockets of his chinos. The khaki-colored pants were topped with a long-sleeved, dark green shirt and matching green tie flecked with spots of bright yellow. His clothing was far from the high-powered designer suits that were seen on many of the affluent lawyers in San Antonio. But Alex wasn’t into impressions, especially the outward kind. He was more interested in making his clients feel comfortable and gaining their confidence. That was something Sierra had always appreciated about him.
“I thought you had a client to meet with this afternoon. Isn’t he waiting?” Sierra asked.
Alex was a trial lawyer with an office in San Antonio. Since he’d gotten his license to practice four years ago, he’d gone it alone, preferring to have his own business and do things his own way than to be a part of a large firm. Sierra admired his independence, but she often questioned him about the location of his office.
San Antonio was twenty miles away. Alex lived here in Red Rock. His hometown needed him much more than a city that was already full of lawyers.
“I told Pauline to keep him entertained until I got there,” he answered. “She will.”
Pauline was a perky, middle-aged woman who ran Alex’s office single-handedly. The legal secretary was the only woman Sierra had ever met who could put Alex in his place. Yet he was always quick to sing Pauline’s praises. Which was a smart thing on his part. Sierra seriously doubted he could find another paralegal who would put up with his demands.
Sierra went over to the couch and sank onto an end cushion. Since the day was warm but not hot, she’d opened the windows and turned on the ceiling fans. The blades far above Alex’s head were turning in lazy, squeaky circles while beyond the window screens two mockingbirds jabbered at each other. It was a lazy, Texas afternoon, but at the moment every nerve in her body was focused on the male strutting back and forth in front of her.
“So, why are you here?” she asked again.
He paused to look at her. “To say I’m sorry and that I acted like a jerk to you.”
Sierra was swamped with relief and she couldn’t help but smile back at him. “You did act like a jerk, but I forgive you. Actually, about the time you knocked on the door, I’d decided I needed to call you to apologize. I wasn’t exactly nice to you, either.”
His hands still in his pockets, he walked over to the couch and took a seat next to her. “Forget it, Sierra. I just want you to—well, I don’t like seeing you like this. We’ve been friends for years and how many times have I watched some good-for-nothing bum walk all over you? Too many,” he added before she could answer. “Trey is right. You’re a beautiful young woman, you shouldn’t be settling for less.”
Alex thought she was beautiful? He’d never said anything like that to her before! Alex had always had his pick of gorgeous women. To think that he’d even bothered to consider her looks was a shocker.
Feeling suddenly awkward, Sierra’s gaze dropped to a spot on the floor. “Alex, I’ve never purposely set out to pick a loser for a boyfriend. It—it just turns out that way. I guess I just have horrible judgment of men.”
She lifted her eyes to see him shaking his head. “Why do you even need a man in your life, Sierra?”
Gasping, she rolle
d her brown eyes toward the ceiling. “Are you crazy, Alex? I’m a woman and I have normal, healthy needs just like other women my age. We want affection, love and companionship in our lives. Let’s face it. Living single gets pretty lonely at times. You should know that.”
“Look, Sierra, there’s nothing wrong with having a man around now and then. You just don’t need to—well, long so much for wedding bells. I thought you women had moved beyond that old-fashioned notion of marriage, anyway.”
She shook her head in dismay. “Alex, you just don’t understand.”
He arched an accusing brow at her. “It’s your sisters who have you all upset. They’re getting married in the next few months. And now your chance is gone because Chad, the loser, skipped out on you. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?”
Feeling as though she were under a microscope, Sierra got to her feet and began to walk around the large, sparsely furnished room. “Maybe. Just a little,” she mumbled. “For five years my sisters were both gone from home. Gloria lived in Colorado and Christina lived in California, but you know all of this. I’ve whined to you about it so many times before. You understand how much I missed them and how awful it was for my parents to lose two of their daughters.”
Alex nodded. “I remember the rift between your sisters was awful—it tore your parents’ hearts out to have the family broken in such a way. And all that time, you stayed behind and did your best to help your parents in any way they needed. Now your black-sheep sisters come home and smooth out their differences. All is well. They’re forgiven. Both of them find the loves of their life.”
“Yeah,” Sierra tacked on with a measure of bitterness. “And me—the boring, good little daughter loses hers.”
The last of her words were spoken in a choked voice and she paused at one of the open windows to compose herself.
Across the room, Alex cursed and jumped to his feet. “Hell’s bells, Sierra! Chad wasn’t the love of your life! You and I both know it!”
She glanced over her shoulder to see him striding toward her. His face was a picture of impatient disgust and she realized their conversation in the parking lot had suddenly come full circle.
Fortune's Heirs: Reunion Page 35