Echo Falls, Texas Boxed Set

by Patti Ann Colt

  “There are four bedrooms and a bath on this end of the house.” Chad led the way down the hall.

  “No curio cabinets, but every table and dresser is jammed with stuff.” He opened the first bedroom door and stepped back to give her space.

  She scooted by, careful not to brush against him and stood in the room, rubbing her hands together as if they were cold. Even though they’d just met yesterday, the gesture made Chad want to warm them—against him.

  The bedroom was crammed. Furniture and boxes were stacked floor to ceiling, everything covered in a fine layer of dust. Light seeped through the brittle, age-yellowed roller blinds.

  Chad wrinkled his nose at the musty, closed up smell. He should have aired out the rooms before he brought her in here.

  She carefully avoided coming near him as she inspected the room. Irritation spiked again, making his head throb. She smelled like the yellow roses blooming in his yard—the aroma on her hands and her throat imprinted on his senses from hours of holding her while she slept. He veered away from those potent memories, took several deep breaths and did multiplication tables in his head to ease the problem behind his zipper.

  The bathroom and each bedroom got a thorough inspection. When she was finished, he shut the final bedroom door. They were at the end of the hall with nothing left to inspect.

  “It’s quite a mess, isn’t it?” She rubbed her hands over her arms, then crossed them at her waist. She had a backed-into-a-corner look.

  Chad shook his head, taking another deep breath to block his bruised pride. She’d slept on top of him and he hadn’t so much as rubbed her ass— even though he’d wanted to. The look in her eyes bugged him past reason. He deliberately blocked the route back to the family room. He wanted to push her, needed to see how far this envelope stretched, confirm how nervous of him she really was.

  Finally, Robin dropped her hands, straightened and tried to push past him. There wasn’t enough room and she brushed against him, stopping in mid-stride. She stared at his lips, her hesitation telling. Heat snapped between them like downed electrical lines. She licked her lips. The moisture clung to them, tempting and taunting.

  Chad bent his head.

  One taste. Just one.

  “Yoo-hoo.” His grandmother’s voice echoed through the house.

  Robin twisted away. Disappointed, Chad clenched his hands and let them drop to his side. Leaning back against the closed bedroom door,

  Robin shut her eyes and groaned. Her face flushed and then paled.

  Even though her eyes were closed, Chad kept the foolish grin off his face. It wouldn’t do for her to see how pleased he was. Damn if he hadn’t been that close to a tender, well-executed kiss.

  Now he knew she was interested. Knew he could push a little. Knew she’d stand her ground. He had to work on getting past those trespassing signs and that meant earning her trust. That wouldn’t be accomplished by pulling her into one of the back bedrooms and locking the door.

  Leaving her to regain her composure, Chad hurried down the hall and waylaid his petite grandmother at the edge of the family room. A twin grasped each of her hands.

  “I found these little darlings in the family room. They told me a wonderful story about magic pumpkins. I wonder where they got that, hmm?” His grandmother’s eyes twinkled in delight.

  “Haven’t a clue.” Chad bent and kissed her cheek.

  “Yes you do, Mr. Chad. You told us.” One twin danced up and slipped her hand into his. He studied her face for a moment and decided it must be Lindy.

  “Oh yeah, I did trust you two with my secret.”

  Chad winked at his grandmother.

  “So, it’s official then?” Olivia looked down at Boo.

  “What’s official?” Chad looked back to the hallway.

  Olivia squeezed Boo’s hand. Lindy jumped back and took hold of Olivia’s other hand. “That these are the official princesses of the Applegate Kingdom.”

  “I take it you’ve met?” Chad led them back to the family room, giving Robin enough time to feel comfortable before joining them.

  “Yes, Boo and Lindy introduced themselves.” Olivia sat in the recliner.

  Chad sat down on the sofa and relaxed into a slouch. The girls beamed, planting themselves next to him.

  Robin heard the drama unfold from her position in the hallway.

  Her daughters were getting attached.

  She’d almost let him kiss her!

  Alarm careened across her nerves. How could this have happened?

  A man had no place in their lives. Involvement led to a loss of control. It goaded her insecurities about letting her daughters down, abandoning them as her mother had her—for a man. Staying in control, making choices that were best for her girls and for herself and staying away from relationships were key to their survival as a family unit. Tears clogged her throat, but she swallowed hard, putting them back in their place.

  She stopped in the family room doorway. It was even worse than she’d feared. Chad sat on the sofa, her girls curled up at his sides as if they belonged there. Chad’s grandmother teetered on the edge of the green recliner leading the girls as they sang out of key with the scene in the movie.

  The lyrics of the song made her stumble and she paused, gripping the door frame. Because you couldn’t be whatever you wanted to be.

  Because the world wouldn’t open its arms. Because dreams that you dared to dream never came true.

  They never had for her.

  Chad looked at her. His gaze stirred, his eyes burning with memory of their almost kiss in the hall. He slipped from between the twins, stopped the video and turned off the television.

  Chad indicated Robin with a sweep of his hand. “Grandma, this is Robin Harmon. Robin this is my grandmother, Olivia Applegate.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Applegate.” Robin stepped into the room and held out her hand to the short woman. She had silver hair and the same deep blue eyes as her grandson.

  “Olivia, please.” Something in her warm smile made Robin relax. She had wrinkles in all the right places and smelled of Ivory Soap and chocolate chip cookies. Her bright yellow overalls were imprinted with white daisies that matched the T-shirt she worn underneath. On her dainty feet were white flats. She didn’t look like any mechanic Robin had ever seen.

  “Is that your Toyota out front? Chad says your battery’s gone bad. Life is just full of pesky car problems, isn’t it? I think we can take care of it.” She headed for the back door. “My father owned the first gas station in Echo Falls. I spent many, many hours in the grease pit. Drove my mother crazy. Wasn’t a proper place for a young lady. Not in the forties anyway.”

  “I’ll bet.” Robin followed her, not able to think of one other thing to say.

  “What’s a grease pit?” Boo grinned up at Olivia.

  “A place where you can get very, very dirty.” Olivia’s laughter tinkled. “Come along girls. You can hand me tools.” She marched off like Patton on the way to the war front.

  Robin watched dumbfounded as Lindy and Boo skipped after her. For one terrifying moment, she felt abandoned. It took a moment to settle the sudden leap in her stomach, to conquer the dark feelings. For so long the twins had only her to depend upon. Now they held Chad’s hands any chance they got and followed after this tiny woman as if they’d know her all their lives.

  Chad started to follow, but turned back to her instead. “They’ll be all right with her. She’s the best.”

  “No offense, Mr. Applegate, but I’d like to find that out for myself. They are my daughters, after all.” Disgusted she’d displayed even that much jealousy, Robin went around him to the kitchen. She stopped at the sink for a drink of water.

  Sip. Breathe. Sip again. Pull back. Settle down. Act like a responsible adult, not a nervous little twit. Chad stood in the family room doorway. He watched her, for once not offering opinions or crowding her.

  She put the glass in the dishwasher and looked over at Chad. He raised an eyebro
w, his lips turned up in a half smile. Anxiety shivered down her back, but she stopped it at the base of her spine like a beaver damming a stream.

  She ignored his solid build, the attraction in his expression, his masculine heat and walked out the door. Her feelings were bred from too many happenings—the dog, the clock, waking up flush against Chad Applegate. Now her car. Too many surprises. Too many variables. She refused to include the temptation of the almost kiss in the hallway.

  Lord, she hated surprises. She needed time to think.

  Boo watched Chad’s grandma walk to her car and open the trunk. Pulling her sister to a stop by the rear bumper of their car, she checked to make sure they were out of hearing range. “Psst. Lindy. Doesn’t she look just like a fairy good mother?” Lindy rolled her eyes. “That’s fairy godmother, Boo.”

  Boo shrugged. “Yeah, whatever. Doesn’t she? This pumpkin magic is awesome.”

  Olivia put on a pair of greasy overalls, covering her yellow and white clothing. Lindy elbowed Boo to quiet her down.

  “Shh, Boo. She’ll hear us. We don’t want to jinx it.”

  “Yeah, but if she is a fairy good mother, she makes wishes come true. She could help us make sure that our daddy spell worked.”

  “But if she isn’t our fairy godmother, it’ll spoil everything.” Lindy scratched her nose. “We know the pumpkin magic is working ’cause Mr. Chad already slept with Mommy.”

  Chad’s grandma walked to the hood of their car and bent over the hood.

  Boo lowered her voice even more. “Yeah, but that was out in the barn with Bessie’s puppies. I want Mommy to sleep with Mr. Chad in his big bed, ‘cause he said that a man and a woman didn’t share a bed unless they cared about each other. So we gotta get Mommy to care about Mr. Chad. Then he can be our daddy.”

  The back door opened. Boo saw her mother storming their way.

  “We’re going to see the puppies, Mommy.” Boo waited for her mother’s permission, then dragged Lindy in the direction of the shed.

  When the back door swung shut behind her, Robin resisted the urge to check and see if Chad followed, instead trusting the raised hairs on the back of her neck to indicate he was. She stopped by the fender and watched Olivia use a wrench to release the connections to the battery. Robin turned to watch Chad’s approach.

  Chad stopped at his grandmother’s car and lifted out the new battery, carrying it to Robin’s car and setting it on the ground.

  “Let me take the old one out, Grandma.” He reached in before she answered and removed the heavy battery from under the hood. After he deposited it in Olivia’s trunk, he placed the new one into the waiting spot.

  “I’ll have this hooked up in two jiffs.” True to her word, five minutes later Olivia backed from the hood of the car. “Go try it, honey.”

  For a second, Robin was afraid—afraid it still wouldn’t start, afraid she’d be left with another expensive repair to be made. But her need to escape, to get back to normal, superseded her fear.

  She got behind the wheel, turned the key and the engine kicked over and started. Relief made her limbs turn to overcooked noodles. She sagged against the steering wheel. Boo and Lindy came streaking from the shed clapping their hands, delighted by her success. Robin got out of the car.

  “You need new spark plugs, though.” Olivia wiped her hands on a rag. “This baby’s running too rough. Chad said you’d be out tomorrow to start sorting out the house. I’ll come out about noon and put them in for you.”

  Robin shook her head. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

  “You didn’t. I offered.”

  Robin opened her mouth to argue, but Olivia cut her off. “Please, give an old woman something to do.”

  Robin pressed her lips together and looked at Chad. He studied her with an intensity that left her reeling. She looked back to Olivia, trying to get back to level ground. “Thank you, Olivia.”

  Olivia slipped out of her overalls, handing them to Chad. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Chad loaded her tools and slammed her trunk.

  The woman patted Robin’s arm as she left, the gesture soothing all but one of her chaotic thoughts.

  God, now she really owed him.

  Chad arrived late for the weekly family dinner at his grandmother’s. He parked next to his brother’s police car at the end of driveway. Behind his Grandmother’s Caddie, the cars lined up, making the wide concrete driveway look like a car lot. Being late had its advantages, though. He could be the first to leave.

  Not that he didn’t love to visit his grandmother or eat her cooking. He did. He ate more at her house than he did at his own. But word had no doubt spread about his adventures with Robin and the girls and he wasn’t up to the grilling he was sure to get. Sighing loudly, he got out of his truck. He could have stayed home, but that would only have put off the inevitable.

  A rowdy football game was in progress on the front lawn. Chad listened to the laughter. Yells echoed down the street. His brother, Rick, and his sister-in-law, Tara, had somehow tangled with each other in their struggle for the ball and were making no attempt to rise from the ground where they had fallen. Rick’s three kids piled on top of them, laughing their heads off. Meg tried to tackle Tom, an action that ended with his diminutive sister lifted over his cop brother’s shoulder.

  Lindy and Boo would love this.

  The thought had him slipping his hat off, prepared to join the ruckus. Before he could even get his hands dirty, his mother came out on the porch and called them all in for dinner. He slipped his hat back on his head and started for the porch.

  His grandmother’s white, two-story house dominated the large corner lot in one of the oldest sections of Echo Falls. Built at the turn of the century, the structure had green shutters and a wrap-around sitting porch. Staring at the captain’s

  perch on the second story, he wished he could sneak up there and just sit. That tiny room right at the front of the house offered the best view of the stars at night. He could use some time in that room, balanced on a stool, using the telescope to watch the night sky.

  Wasn’t to be. The porch was jammed with more chairs than the driveway was with cars. The evening would be warm enough for the after dinner conversation and relaxation to end up on the porch. He would no doubt be tonight’s main topic. He shrugged. It was nothing he could stop. Maple trees lined one side of the driveway, a few yellow leaves drifting to the ground. His parents lived one block over, so he’d spent a lot of his childhood here. It was a solid neighborhood. A nosy and a noisy one, but still home.

  “It’s about time you got here.” His mother’s accompanied her complaint with a swift hug.

  Helen Applegate was a beautiful woman in her early fifties. Her silver hair and quick smile made many underestimate her killer instincts in the courtroom. Since being elected mayor last fall, her time was at a premium. The weekly dinners let

  both her and his grandmother catch up on the family’s activities.

  “I figured you weren’t done talking politics, Madame Mayor.” Chad grinned, pleased when amusement flood her face.

  “Save time for me later. I want to hear all about this young woman.”

  Chad groaned. And so the grilling begins.

  “Helen, let the boy in the door.” Bill Applegate stood in the dining room doorway, his tall frame clad in a dark jacket, an unlit cigar in hand. The laugh lines around his eyes were deep with exhaustion. He had taken over the majority of his wife’s caseload at their law firm since her election and was working too hard.

  Chad got past his mother and into the house. “Thanks, Dad.”

  “They’ll interrogate you later. Can’t save you from that, Son. Sorry.” His father’s smile erased the tiredness. Despite his words, the gleam in his eyes said he looked forward to participating in the questioning. Before Chad could muster up a no- comment statement, the chaos of getting everyone seated at the table overtook him.

  Amid finding seats, saying grace and dishin
g up plates, the subject was dropped. When his mother questioned Tom on some city police procedure, a hot political debate started. He smothered a grin. With Tara, Rick, his father and his mother all being lawyers, these types of conversations took all sorts of twists. Tom, as a cop, and Meg, the high school teacher, only fueled the debate further. Chad, the farmer, didn’t usually try to participate. This time was no exception. If he played his cards right, he could avoid the Robin questions all together.

  His grandmother watched him from her seat at the head of the table.

  Damn it.

  She had an uncanny way of reading his mind and she never gave up. Robin had left his farm only a few hours ago with the twins. Even though he knew she was coming back in the morning, he’d had an overwhelming urge to chase her car down the driveway and beg her not to go. There were any number of ways to dodge the impending conversation and he should use one. He wasn’t ready to talk. He was irritated, lonely and had a hefty dose of sexual frustration pounding its way through his body. That was something he sure as hell wasn’t going to discuss with his family.

  “Grandma says she’s pretty.”

  Meg, of all people, opened the gate. The whole room went quiet waiting for his answer.

  Realizing she’d put her foot in it, Meg telegraphed an apology to Chad with her eyes.

  “She has two kids?” Tara tried to prod the conversation forward.

  “Yeah, twins.” He couldn’t help smiling. “Those two have genius IQs and a stick of dynamite in each pocket.”

  “They sure liked you.” Olivia folded her hands and laid them at the edge of the table, in for the long haul. “And their mother certainly set you off.” Chad shoved the mashed potatoes around on his plate.

  “What did I miss, little brother?” Tom studied him as only a cop could.

  Chad knew he wasn’t going to get away with anything less than full disclosure. “I helped a woman who’d hit a dog on the highway out by my place yesterday. She had two kids.”

  “They stayed the night.” Olivia looked fully prepared to expand on his story if he didn’t.