After Tex

by Sherryl Woods

  “He’s your landlord, right?”

  “He owns the property, if that’s what you mean. As for keeping it up the way a landlord should, forget it. He’s never done a lick of work around that place. He says repairs will cost more than it’s worth.”

  Old anger burned in Jake’s belly. He hadn’t just heard this story before, he’d lived it. He reached in a desk drawer and took out a legal pad. “What’s the address?” he asked grimly.

  “You’ll help me, then?”

  “Oh, yes,” he said. Maybe it would make up for the impotent rage he’d felt years ago.

  “I can’t pay much.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he told her. “Think of this as repayment of an old debt.”

  Janie looked confused. “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “Let’s just say I have an old score to settle with Mr. Wilson and let it go at that. Now tell me everything that needs doing around the place, how many times you’ve made the requests, what his responses have been. Do you have any of it in writing?”

  Janie laughed. “You could sum up his responses in one word—no. As for putting it in writing, I tried that, but he ignored my letters. All I’ve gotten is that same verbal response when I’ve cornered him in the general store or the diner. Most of the time, he pretty much avoids me.”

  “Why haven’t you moved?”

  “Where would we go? There’s not a lot of property around Whispering Wind that I can afford. I have my own business, but, face it, you can only do so many perms and dye jobs in any given month. The ladies of Whispering Wind aren’t the kind who’ll come in regular once a week for a shampoo and set. That would be an extravagance. Between food and clothes for Tommy, who’s growing like a weed, there’s not a lot left over to save for a house, especially when I wind up getting the roof on that rental patched once a month with my own money.”

  “Do you have receipts for that?”

  “Every one. I threatened to take the money out of the rent, but Mr. Wilson said he’d toss us both out on our behinds if I did that. Said such things were specifically forbidden under the terms of the lease.”

  Jake nodded as he made notes, then looked up and gave her a reassuring smile. “Okay, Janie, I’ll take care of it. Don’t pay the man another dime unless I tell you to. I’ll stop by this evening and take a look at what needs to be done.”

  “Do you think you can get it fixed up?”

  “One way or another, you won’t have to live like this much longer,” Jake promised. Not if he had to buy a decent place himself for her and Tommy to move into. In fact, doing just that and setting things in motion to have Josh Wilson’s property condemned was going to make his day.

  At ten-fifteen Thursday morning Megan got a call from Tess’s school. Tess was in the nurse’s office throwing up. It was clear that something was expected of Megan, but what? This was the first time she’d been in this position.

  “Should I come and get her?” she asked the nurse.

  “That would be best. She doesn’t seem to be running a fever, but clearly there’s some sort of upset. Maybe a day in bed would do her good. I know she missed some school with her sprained ankle, but if she has the flu, it would be better for her and the other kids if she weren’t here.”

  Megan had been planning to have a conference call in fifteen minutes with Todd and the syndicator about the taping schedule. For a half second she considered sending Mrs. Gomez into town after Tess, but then abandoned the idea. She could remember one occasion when she’d been sick with the flu and the school had called the house. Tex hadn’t come, though she had dearly wanted him to. It had been Mrs. Gomez who’d made the trip, and while she was probably better able to cope with Megan’s illness than Tex would have been, his refusal to come had hurt her. Already insecure about her importance to him, she had felt even less certain that she could count on him.

  Running into the kitchen, Megan explained to the housekeeper what had come up. “I’ll take my cell phone along and try to reach Todd. If I don’t get him and he calls here, please explain what’s happened and ask him to reschedule the call with Dean Whicker for later this afternoon.”

  “Of course. Would it be better if I went for Tess?”

  “No. I think I’d better go.” She regarded Mrs. Gomez with puzzlement. “It’s funny, though. Tess seemed fine at breakfast.”

  “Perhaps it is nothing more than stress. These have been difficult days for her. Even children feel the effects of grief more than we realize.”

  Megan nodded. “You’re probably right.”

  On the way into town she finally managed to get Todd on her cell phone.

  “I thought I was supposed to make that conference call,” he said, when he heard her voice. “You’re early.”

  “We need to postpone it.”

  “What?”

  “Tess is sick. I’m on my way into town to pick her up at school. See if you can get everyone together a couple of hours from now.”

  “Fine, if you say so.”

  “Todd, I know things aren’t running as smoothly as usual. Give me a break here. This isn’t easy for me, either.”

  He sighed heavily. “I know and I don’t mean to make you feel guilty.”

  “Of course you do,” she replied. “Not that you can make me feel any worse than I already do. I have one solution in mind, though. We’ll talk about it later, after the conference call.”

  “Okay, whatever. I’ll let you know what time works for everybody. I can’t wait to break the news to Micah. She’s already ticked that you had me set up the call instead of her.”

  “She’ll live. Meantime, you can reach me on my cell phone for the next hour or so. I’ll be at the house after that.”

  When she walked into the school office a few minutes later, she was directed to the nurse’s office. She found Tess sitting on the side of a cot, looking more bored than ill. Her color looked fine, too. She seemed surprised to see Megan.

  “You came?”

  “Did you think I’d just leave you here?”

  “I figured Mrs. Gomez would come.”

  Megan sat down next to her and picked up her hand. It was cool enough, as was her forehead when she touched that. “No fever.”

  Tess shrugged and avoided her gaze. “I guess it was one of those stomach things. Probably something I ate for breakfast.”

  “You’re feeling better now?”

  “I guess.”

  “Well, the policy is to send you home, so let’s go.”

  “I could stay, I guess.”

  “Afraid not,” the nurse said. “I can’t let you back into class until we’re sure you’re okay. If you don’t feel any worse overnight and you don’t have a temp, come back in the morning.”

  “Have you got your books?” Megan asked.

  Tess shook her head. “I had to leave class in a hurry.”

  The nurse gave Megan a smile. “I’ll run down and get them for her and see if there’s any homework she should be doing.”

  Tess regarded Megan worriedly. “Are you mad?”

  “Why would I be mad? You can’t help being sick.” A sudden suspicion crossed her mind. “Can you?”

  Tess’s cheeks flushed.

  Something in her expression set off alarms. “Can you, Tess?”

  “Maybe I did make myself throw up,” she admitted in a tiny voice.

  Megan stared at her. “But why, Tess? Why on earth would you do that?”

  “To see if you’d come,” she admitted.

  Megan pulled Tess into her arms. “Oh, baby, of course I’d come. I may not be much good at this mom stuff yet, but I will always be here when you need me.”

  Tess sniffed. “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  “I guess you’re gonna ground me for a month now, huh?”

  “No, but I am going to take you for ice cream and make you eat it without hot fudge sauce.”

  Tess’s eyes widened. “Really?”

  Megan grinned. “Reall
y.”

  “Can Jake come, too?”

  Megan hesitated, then shrugged, feigning indifference. “Sure. Why not?” She tucked a finger under Tess’s chin and forced her to meet her gaze. “Just don’t make this a habit, okay? It worked once. It won’t work another time.”

  Tess’s grin spread. “Got it.”

  As soon as the nurse returned with Tess’s books, they drove into downtown Whispering Wind. At Jake’s office, Megan sent Tess inside to invite him to join them for ice cream. As she sat propped against the bumper of her car, her cell phone rang.

  “Megan, I’ve got that meeting rescheduled for two o’clock your time. Will that work for you?” Todd asked.

  “That’s perfect. I’ll be home by then.”

  “How’s Tess?”

  “She’s had an amazing recovery,” she said dryly. “I’m sure she’ll feel even better after we’ve had ice cream.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “It was a test. She wanted to see if I’d come when she needed me.”

  “And you’re rewarding her with ice cream?”

  “No hot fudge sauce. That’s punishment enough.”

  “My mom would have tanned my hide,” Todd said.

  “I like my plan better.”

  “You actually have a plan?” Todd inquired skeptically.

  “No. To be perfectly honest, I’m winging it, but I prefer to think there’s a method to it.”

  “She’ll turn into a spoiled brat,” Todd warned.

  “Who made you father-of-the-year?”

  “Unless you have another candidate in mind, I’m as close to you as any husband on your social horizon. I figure that makes me a sort of absentee dad.” He sounded more than a little disgruntled by the prospect.

  Megan grinned. “Actually, that’s what I intended to talk to you about this afternoon.”

  “Marrying you?” he asked in a horrified tone.

  “No,” she said with a laugh. “Not being quite so much an absentee.”

  “Oh, no,” he said as her meaning sank in. “I’m not coming to Wyoming, Megan. You can get that notion right out of your head.”

  “We have cable TV,” she assured him. “All the modern conveniences.”

  “You also have blizzards and wild animals and who knows what else.”

  “We’ll talk about it later,” she said soothingly. “You spend the next couple of hours getting used to the idea.”

  “You can’t convince me to come,” he repeated. “No way.”

  “We’ll discuss it after the conference call.”

  “I’ll hang up,” he said.

  “No, you won’t.”

  “I will.”

  “Todd, it is not in your nature to hang up on your boss.”

  “I’ll make an exception. Forget it, Megan. You can’t pay me enough money to get me to Wyoming on a permanent basis. I’ve never been near a horse, much less a cow. I want my beef straight from the meat section at the corner grocery.”

  “You haven’t lived till you’ve had it barbecued over an open pit.”

  “A gas grill on a deck in the Hamptons suits me just fine. There’s not an ocean within hundreds of miles of where you are. I checked the map.”

  “Just wait. You’ll love it.”

  “Megan, listen to me, please. I—will—not—love—it.”

  “Sure you will. Have I ever lied to you?”

  “Let me count the times,” he muttered. “I am not discussing this. Not now. Not later. Goodbye.”

  Megan turned off her cell phone, a grin on her face. She thought it had gone pretty well, all things considered. He hadn’t quit. She figured it would take three days, tops, to convince him it was his duty to come to Wyoming to bail her out of a jam.

  Getting him to stay was going to be a little trickier.

  15

  “So Megan came to school to get me and then she figured out that I wasn’t really sick, but she wasn’t mad,” Tess told Jake as she perched on the corner of his desk, legs swinging. “Ain’t that neat?”

  “Listening to you talk, it seems to me she ought to have left you in school long enough for another grammar lesson,” he observed.

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind. The bottom line is that Megan brought you into town for ice cream, even though you’d faked being sick. Have I got that right?”

  “Yep. She said you could come with us. Wanna?”

  Jake might disagree with the reason for this so-called special occasion, but he wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to see Megan. “Where is she now?”

  “Outside waiting, I guess.” Tess offered him a disgusted look. “Probably on the phone. She spends more time on the phone than any teenage kid I know.”

  Jake barely restrained the urge to chuckle. “And how many teenage kids do you know?”

  Tess scowled. “Maybe not that many in real life, but I see ’em on TV,” she informed him airily. “That’s all they do. Yak, yak, yak, mostly about boys and stuff. What a waste! I’m never gonna date and I’m sure as heck never gonna get married. It’s nothing but heartache.”

  “You’ll change your mind,” Jake assured her, wondering if he should insist that Megan restrict Tess’s television viewing to Saturday morning cartoons. “Come on. Let’s go find Megan and get that ice cream.”

  Tess regarded him wistfully. “Do you think you could get her to forget about that dumb ol’ hot fudge rule? I’d really, really like a sundae. Besides, what kind of punishment is that, anyway?”

  “If I were you, I’d count your blessings and leave well enough alone, kiddo. If it were up to me, you’d be locked in your room waiting for Mrs. Gomez to deliver bread and water.”

  Tess looked shocked. “You would do that to a kid?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  “Just pull a fast one on me and you’ll see.”

  Tess gave him an impish grin. “I pull fast ones on you all the time and you never even guess.”

  He stared at her, gaze narrowed. “Such as?”

  “You think I’d tell on myself after that bread and water threat?” she asked incredulously. “What do you think I am—nuts or something?”

  “I guess I’d better be on my toes from now on.”

  Looking smug and far from ill, Tess danced out of his office ahead of him. They found Megan standing next to her car, her cell phone dangling in one hand, an unreadable expression on her face.

  “Trouble?” he asked.

  “Not exactly. I just broke the news to Todd that I wanted him to come out here.”

  “And?”

  She shrugged. “Let’s just say he’s resisting the idea for the time being.”

  “Can’t you just order him to take the next flight?”

  “It’ll be better if I let guilt work him over. He’ll come to the right decision all on his own.”

  As Tess ran off toward the ice cream parlor down the block, Jake glanced at Megan. “I hear you’ve had quite a morning.”

  “Let’s just say that parenting isn’t a walk in the park. I’d rather throw together an impromptu gala dinner for four hundred anytime.”

  He gestured toward the eight-year-old, who was waiting impatiently for them to reach her. “Are you sure this is the right message you’re sending?”

  Megan sighed. “Jake, if I thought I knew how to do this, I’d probably have kids of my own by now. I’m winging it.”

  “You’re teaching her it’s okay to manipulate you,” he pointed out.

  “No. I’m teaching her that I’ll be there when she needs me. She knows this won’t work again.”

  “It doesn’t mean there won’t be a next time,” he warned. “She’ll just be more clever about it. She’s already told me she’s pulling fast ones on me that I haven’t even recognized.”

  Megan grinned suddenly. “Guess that means I’m better at this than you are,” she said with an air of triumph. “At least I knew what she was up to before we ever left the nurse�
��s office.”

  With that she sashayed on ahead of him, giving him the full effect of swaying hips and kick-ass attitude. If he’d dared, he would have yanked her straight back into his arms and kissed that smirk right off her face. Just thinking about it was enough to turn him on. Acting on it would tie him in knots for the rest of the day and leave him hot and aching and lonely all night.

  Better to let her have her moment of victory, he concluded with genuine regret. The day would come—in the not too distant future—when he would have his moment of triumph, and the setting would be a whole lot more intimate than the main street of downtown Whispering Wind.

  Dean Whicker didn’t mince words. “I’m not wild about this latest batch of tapes you sent in,” he told Megan, Todd, Micah and the director during their postponed late-afternoon conference call. “You rushed, and it shows. Now, I understand there are extraordinary circumstances here, but if this keeps up, I may have to look into ways of ending our syndication deal. Whicker Television has always stood for quality programming. I won’t send out other slipshod episodes like these.”

  “You can’t cancel our deal,” Megan protested weakly, fully aware that he could if he wanted to badly enough. If he’d wanted to pick the one threat that could thoroughly rattle her, he’d done it.

  “We have a binding, three-year contract,” Todd pointed out.

  “Any good lawyer can find a million and one ways to end a contract,” Whicker said. “I’m sure you know that, Megan. Look, I’m not saying this is what I’m going to do. I’m just putting you all on notice that I don’t like what I saw when I ran those tapes. You’re all professionals. You know what it’ll take to fix the problems. Do it.”

  He hung up before any of them could respond. Megan was heartsick. She knew she owed all of the others an apology, but she wasn’t sure she could get the words past the huge lump in her throat. Finally, swallowing hard, she said, “Look, I’m sorry. I know this is my fault, but we’re going to work this out, guys. I swear to you.”

  “How?” Micah asked bluntly. “If we’re going to be taping at weird hours, I’ll have trouble booking guests. Besides that, it’s already clear that we can’t cram so many shows into a single day. It’s tough on you and it’s tough on the crew.”