by Mindy Neff
One day, and he was already thinking about the future.
Chapter Six
Sunny got up early the next morning and drove to Houston. She was authorized to use all the supplies and equipment she picked up, but the trip made her a nervous wreck because she wasn’t exactly following procedure.
Unused to bending the rules, she felt as though she had guilt written in neon letters across her forehead.
Oh, sure, this was for the good of the community, the economy, the government. When it came right down to it, though, she had to admit she’d gone out on a limb for Jack.
Unrequited love. It was the pits.
She was back by noon, and when she walked into her mother’s house, Mama was cooking—one of the things she did best.
The smells of fried okra, ham and corn bread filled the air, and Sunny’s stomach rumbled. Simba, who was happily lapping up any morsel dropped on the floor, leaped over a dish of water, his hind leg not quite clearing it, and ran to Sunny.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. That dog is entirely too big to be indoors.” Anna stooped to mop up the spilled water. “Did you finish your errands, dear?”
“Yes. Here, Mama. Let me do that.” Sunny scratched Simba’s ears, then started to grab a roll of paper towels.
“I’ve got it,” Anna said, sending Simba a wry look that nevertheless revealed she was crazy about the huge animal. “Honestly, though, I can’t see what was so important that you had to take off at the crack of dawn.” She tossed the dishrag on the countertop, pulled out a pan of corn bread from the oven and set it on a hot pad. “I imagine Jack could have used your expertise out at his ranch, instead of you running all over creation. Ranchers start their day early, you know.”
“I was running all over creation for him.”
“Oh?” Anna set out three plates on the drop-leaf kitchen table. “Then I’m sure he’ll be pleased. He’s such a nice man. You’d do well to take a good look at that while you’re here.”
“Jack and I are history, Mama. You know that.”
“Only because of your stubbornness.”
Sunny wanted to scream. Instead, she breathed deep. “I can’t change what happened ten years ago. But I have a life now. I’m highly respected in my field. I’m here only because you asked me to come and I had vacation time accumulated.”
“And you were upset over Michael. In times like these you need your family. Sit. We’ll have something to eat. Home is where you come when you need a pair of arms to comfort you, or some help putting meat on your bones.”
Sunny sighed. One minute her mother was dismissing her career and the next was making her feel cherished. Sunny and her mom might not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but love wasn’t one of them. She just wished…well, she didn’t know what she wished for. Friendship on an adult level, perhaps. Fewer lectures.
How her mother kept working Jack into the conversation, subtly pushing, grated on Sunny’s nerves. She was tired. She’d been traveling. And her emotions were plenty stirred up over Jackson Slade without any help whatsoever from Anna Carmichael.
“I don’t need any more meat on my bones. And why have you set three places?”
“Because she’s expecting her favorite son.”
Sunny whirled around and grinned. “Storm!” Her brother stood in the doorway, wearing his khaki sheriff’s uniform. She raced over and leaped into his arms, nearly tripping over Simba, who was determined not to be left out.
“You’re her only son, you idiot. I might have known you’d be here to mooch a meal. Did Wanda’s Diner close up or something?”
“Wanda’s is great. But no one beats Mama’s cooking.” He hugged her a little tighter, then let go and leaned down to give Simba a scratch. The dog gave a quick lick and looked away. “I don’t suppose you’ve taught this miniature horse any guard-dog talents other than licking yet?”
“I don’t have to teach him anything. One look at his size and people cross the street and give me plenty of room.”
He gave Simba another pat, then placed a kiss on Anna’s cheek and sat at the table. “Thanks for the invitation, Mama.”
Anna clucked around him, serving his dinner and filling his glass with iced tea. “You know you don’t need an invitation to come home for a meal. I’ve always got a pot of something on the stove. And you have to take care of yourself, keep up your strength.”
Mama catered to Storm, Sunny noted. The way she’d catered to Daddy. Anna definitely treated men differently from women. They got the choicest piece of meat, were served first, coddled because they worked so hard.
Of course, Sunny understood the underlying worry her mother displayed over Storm. After he’d been shot several years ago while on duty as a Texas Ranger they all counted their blessings that he was even here to fuss over.
Her brother helped himself to a slice of corn bread and a slab of ham. “See there? I’m not mooching. Mama recognizes that being the sheriff is hard work.”
Sunny rolled her eyes. “Yeah, hard fending off all the ladies speeding through town just so you’ll stop them and they can bribe you out of giving them a ticket.”
Storm’s brows lifted. Where Sunny was fair like their mother, Storm had the dark, handsome features of their father. “Bribe’s a pretty strong word, Pip.”
The nickname, short for pip-squeak, made her insides soften. She’d nearly lost this guy. She couldn’t imagine life without him. Having Daddy gone was bad enough. Losing Storm would have been intolerable.
She reached for the bowl of okra and spooned the fried vegetable onto her plate. “I probably work harder than you do. You’ve got a cushy, air-conditioned car you ride around in all day, hang out at the diner, have ladies bring you casseroles. I’m out in the middle of hot dusty corrals probing in cow orifices.”
“Nice dinner-table conversation,” Storm said with a grin. “You’re jealous ’cause Mom loves me best.”
Sunny laughed, realizing he had no idea how that remark had cut. He didn’t see it. “Don’t be so sure, Stormie. She cooked for me, too.”
“You two stop picking at each other and eat,” Anna said, touching each of them gently on the shoulder before she rounded the table and sat down, a pleased expression on her face as she watched her children enjoy a meal.
Anna was a toucher. She could deliver disapproval and unasked-for advice as though it were her due, yet she petted, brushed, stroked or squeezed during the deliverance and at every other opportunity. It was an unconscious trait—sort of like Simba’s walk-by lickings.
“I hear Slade found another dead cow,” Storm commented, sipping his iced tea.
Sunny’s brows drew together. “How’d you hear that?”
His eyes shot to Anna, who was overly busy buttering a slice of corn bread.
Naturally. “I’d just as soon keep this quiet until I’ve had a chance to investigate,” Sunny said.
Storm nodded. “I understand. From my standpoint, I don’t want to deal with a horde of media if there’s nothing to it.”
“My thought exactly,” Anna said. “That’s why I’ve kept talk of it within the family.”
“Can’t control what Slade’s employees do, though,” Storm said. “I couldn’t really blame them if they got spooked and spread the word, in which case a media circus would be a given.”
“I asked Jack to have a talk with his men. He feels certain they’re loyal.” Sunny hoped that was the case—at least until she got a better handle on things. The supplies she’d picked up that morning would go a long way toward speeding up her job. “No one wants to see Hope Valley tagged with the stigma of infected cattle.”
Storm looked across the table at her. “How are you doing?” he asked quietly.
She knew what he was asking. Unlike their mother, Storm had taken Sunny’s side ten years ago. To keep him from paying Jack a visit with his fists had required all her persuasive skills. He would wonder now if it bothered her to be working closely with Jack.
“I’m good. Time heals, yo
u know?”
He gave her an odd look. “Mom said you’re not with Michael anymore.”
Michael? Damn it, she’d nearly forgotten about him. Why had she automatically assumed Storm was subtly probing with regard to Jack?
“Guess she didn’t leave us much to catch up on, hmm?”
Anna reached over and put a hand on Sunny’s arm. “Your brother would want to know these things.”
“I know, Mama. I wasn’t criticizing.” After all, Anna hadn’t told Donetta, Becca or Tracy Lynn about the breakup. She was good at keeping things to herself when it counted. However…
“Since we’re speaking of passing along information, you could have warned me that Jack wasn’t even aware I was coming to town or why.”
“Men’s egos are so fragile, Sunny. We wouldn’t want him to think we were butting into his business.”
Sunny nearly choked on a swallow of iced tea. “You crack me up, Mama.”
Anna folded her arms. “I’m glad I can provide you with entertainment.”
If not for the pleased spark in her mother’s eyes, Sunny might have thought she’d hurt her feelings. And she would never deliberately do that. Sunny knew what it was to wear your emotions on your sleeve. “Well, that’s exactly what you did. Butted into his business. You also didn’t tell me Jack’s wife had died.”
“Surely I did. I told you just yesterday she wasn’t there.”
“But not that she was gone forever!”
“Well, it’s not polite to discuss the deceased.”
Storm looked up from his plate, but clearly wasn’t about to get in the middle of this conversation.
“Besides,” Anna continued, helping herself to a slice of ham, “Lanette had already run off, abandoned her sweet child and served Jack with papers. They’d been divorced more than two years before he got the call about her dying. Did the decent thing, too, and paid for her burial.”
So much for not talking about the deceased, Sunny thought. She moved her glass back and forth over the table, smearing the circle of water where the glass had sweated. She’d known Jack had gotten married, and she’d known he’d moved his family back to Hope Valley three years ago.
Would she have made an effort to come home for an extended visit if she’d known Lanette was no longer around?
It was one thing to run into an ex when he was committed to another woman. It was a different thing altogether if he was a free agent.
Sunny considered she’d done well for herself over the years. The urge to show that to a man who’d thrown her away was something she figured was pretty universal. Most women would gain a certain satisfaction from flaunting their successes, and Sunny was no exception.
She’d enjoyed impressing Jack with her skill as a veterinarian yesterday. Had liked catching those long, curious looks when he didn’t think she was watching.
Did he regret letting her go? Wonder what might have been?
This line of thinking was getting her nowhere. He’d hurt her. Etched scars on her soul that had yet to heal. The first couple of years had been devastatingly hard. She hadn’t known a person could suffer so horribly, and for so long. Thankfully, she’d had school to distract her, but the agonizing pain of betrayal had constantly lurked below the surface like a raw wound that refused to heal.
Because she’d lost the man she’d been so certain was her soul mate.
Eventually, she’d mastered her emotions, put them into perspective. Yet she’d measured every man’s actions by Jack’s, had erected a wall around her heart. Even with Michael.
And Jack Slade was the last person she could allow to pierce the wall. He’d laid the first brick.
She glanced at the rooster clock over the sink. Time was ticking away, and she should be back out at the Forked S. The sooner she got to the bottom of things, the sooner she could concentrate on herself and the direction of her life.
As though reading her mind, Anna asked, “Will you be going to see to Jack’s cattle this afternoon?”
“As soon as I get my things together.”
“What time shall I expect you back?”
The circle of water on the table grew larger. Blotting it with her napkin, Sunny lifted her eyes. “Um, I won’t be home tonight. I’m going to go stay at the Forked S.”
Anna gave her a look that only a mother could. Disapproval fairly ricocheted around the room. “Stay, as in move in?”
“It makes sense. I’ve got a lot of work to do, and time is critical.”
“But moving in with an unmarried man, Sunny?” She was clearly scandalized. “Good girls don’t go living with men.”
The minute Anna said the words she seemed to regret them. Sunny had practically lived with Michael. It hadn’t been a full-time arrangement, but close.
“I meant here in Hope Valley. Things are different here. Besides, you’re barely back in town. We’ve not had a chance to visit.”
“I’m here to see about a cattle problem,” Sunny reminded her. “Wasn’t that the purpose of your call?”
“Yes. But that doesn’t mean you have to live with the man. Or that you can’t spend time with your mother and your family.”
“It’s not as though I’m going across the state line. I’ll just be up the road at the Slade ranch.”
“Well, I guess you figure that since you’re nearing thirty you don’t need to listen to your mother or worry about what others think.”
“I try not to worry about what others think.” That’s your department. Her mother’s attitude hurt, though Sunny should have been used to it. Anna had been preaching her what-will-the-neighbors-think speech ever since Sunny and Storm were babies. Storm ignored it. Sunny felt the words like little drips of acid on her heart. For once she wanted to be loved enough, to be considered important enough, that it didn’t matter what the neighbors thought.
“I’d better get going. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“You’ll come back for dinner?”
“I’ll call.” She leaned down and gave Storm a kiss on the cheek, then did the same for her mother. “You know, Mama, it works two ways. You can drive over to the ranch to see me, too.”
JACK WAS JUST COMING OUT of the house when Sunny pulled up in the drive and got out of the Suburban, Simba leaping down beside her.
He’d been expecting her.
He hadn’t been expecting the suitcase she hauled out of the back seat.
She walked up to him, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, her cheeks already slick with perspiration from the heat. Her chin lifted as she stopped in front of him, noticed that his gaze was on the suitcase.
“Are you going to give me a hard time about this, as well?”
“Can’t very well give you a hard time, sugar b—sugar, if I don’t know what this is.” Simba nudged his palm and he obliged the huge dog, scratching his ears.
“I decided it would be expedient if I came out here to stay while I’m conducting my examination. The sooner I get it done, the sooner I’ll be out of your hair and you can get your beef to market.”
“I’m all for expediency.”
She glared at him as though she expected him to contradict her. Must have run into some opposition from her family, he figured.
“Want me to take that for you?” He nodded toward her suitcase.
“Just point me toward the bunkhouse and I’ll handle it from there.”
“You’re not staying in the bunkhouse, Sunny.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Well, I do. I’d get precious little work out of the men if they had to try to sleep while having a woman bunking in with them.”
He took the suitcase from her and went back into the house, where he led the way up the stairs. Simba nearly knocked him over, racing ahead of them as though he had a personal invitation. They’d soon see how well Twinkie got along with a horse-size dog who thought he was a cat.
Cora came out of Tori’s room with an armload of linens. Simba trotted right past her, sneaking a
lick on her elbow without stopping.
“Goodness! Mind the cat, Tori,” Cora called. “There’s a dog on the loose.”
“Sunny will be staying with us for a while, Cora,” Jack stated.
“Oh. Well, that’s lovely.” Clearly, she couldn’t wait to phone Anna and get the story. Anna and Cora were as close as kin, had been since they were girls in grade school.
When he heard his daughter’s delighted shriek, he paused at her door. Tori was happily introducing the cat to Simba. Twinkie wasn’t at all sure about the intruder, but Simba vibrated all over, his tail wagging, a silly canine grin on his mug, as if he’d just found a long-lost member of his family.
Jack felt his heart soften. Seeing his daughter smile, show some spark, was a relief. Sometimes he thought she was just too good for her own good. She was excruciatingly polite, soft-spoken, went out of her way to be helpful—as though she was striving for perfection.
Nine-year-old little girls should be full of mischief and fun.
“Hey, kiddo.”
Tori stopped trying to corral the cat, and looked up. “Hi, Daddy. Twinkie’s not being very sociable.”
“Cats are conditioned to be fearful of dogs.”
Tori covered Simba’s ears—evidently, the way she’d seen Sunny do. “Simba’s not a regular dog. Twinkie has to know that.”
“Give her a little time, sweetie,” Sunny said. “Simba, lie down now.” The dog immediately plopped onto the oval braided rug. “That’s a good boy. You be sweet and let Twinkie come to you in her own time.” Simba’s ears lowered, and he laid his nose on his front paws, his brown eyes going from Tori to Twinkie, then back to Sunny.
Tori giggled and looped an arm around Simba’s neck, snuggling with the huge dog. “Are you here for a visit, Sunny?”
“Actually,” Jack said, “Sunny and Simba will be staying with us for a bit.”
“I’m going to take care of your daddy’s cattle.”
Tori sat on the floor, legs crossed, a hand-held electronic game beside her. “You’re a veterinarian, aren’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“What happens when somebody brings you a sick snake?”