The Real Deal (It Started in Texas Book 4)

by Lee, Liz

  Ida Mae crossed her arms again and leveled a long stare in his direction.

  “You want your wife back. Like she’s your property or something.”

  Sam felt his testicles shrivel. The terrorists had nothing on this woman. She’d totally misunderstood. “Hell no. I want her back because I love her and she loves me.”

  Ida Mae kept on with that long, hard look, and then she shocked the hell out of him. She smiled. Not a little smile either, but one of those giant lights-up-the-room grins that leaves others warm and sure that they’ve done the right thing.

  “Sam, I believe you’re right. Because of that I’m going to help you.”

  Yes! Sam smiled back, his heart thudding fast to catch up with the beats it had missed at the thought that Ida Mae might thwart him.

  He was happy. Hopeful. Ready to go find Patty and talk some sense in her.

  But then Ida Mae continued. “No guarantees, though. Love doesn’t work that way. Do-overs are nice, but they don’t pan out all that often. Especially when one of the partners in a marriage that was supposed to last forever walks away.”

  His heart dropped again. Nothing like bitter truth to kill hope. She was right. He’d screwed up. Ruined everything. “But you’ll still help.” His voice was gruff and it cracked on the word help, and Sam hated that Ida Mae had shredded him so easily.

  She met his eyes across her desk, and Sam saw compassion and something else. Something that looked a bit like admiration.

  Ida Mae knocked on the desk three times as if solidifying her decision then nodded at him slowly. “I will help. Let’s start with the library probably isn’t your best bet for making a love connection, son. At least not right now when Patty’s conflicted over you.”

  Okay, she had him there. Dumb move on his part. Which was kind of the status quo where his relationship with Patty was concerned.

  “You want Patty back? Prove it,” Ida Mae continued. “Show her what she means to you.”

  He could do that. “Like flowers?”

  The disappointed look was back and Sam swallowed. He hated feeling like he was in the middle of a live gotcha interview with no knowledge of the subject or background. But he had no one to blame but himself. This was his fiasco and he’d take his medicine. Right now Ida Mae was not only his medicine, she was his potential miracle worker.

  “Son, she’s got all the flowers she’ll ever need in her backyard. She spent a lot of time in that yard while you were galavanting across the world. Turned it into her own little paradise.”

  Yeah. He knew that. Dumb again. Second verse, same as the freaking first. “So what then?”

  Ida Mae leaned forward spearing him with her steady gaze once more. “If I have to tell you, Sam, I’m afraid you don’t have much hope of success.”

  Sam liked Ida Mae, but she sure was making this tough.

  “Maybe you can offer me a hint,” he said hopefully.

  She shook her head as if he were crazy for asking. “You say you love Patty and she loves you. Whatever you do needs to be focused on that fact.”

  She stood then and moved to the office door, clearly ending their conversation. “You’ve got some thinking and planning to do. If you want to run your ideas by me, feel free.” She handed him her card and his driver’s license.

  He stood and followed her to the door, but he couldn’t leave without knowing one thing. “Why are you willing to help me?”

  Ida Mae didn’t respond right away. When she did, he didn’t like the answer.

  “Patty loves you still,” Ida Mae said. “It can’t be a good thing for her to spend her time with Jason Adams if you’re still in her heart. She either needs to exorcize you, or she needs to step out of the dating ring.”

  So not exactly on his side.

  “We belong together,” he said, and Ida Mae shrugged sadly.

  “There’s a whole world of people who belong together who live life alone, son. Life is not a fairy tale. We make our own happy endings. You go home, come up with a plan and let me know what you’ve figured out. We’ll talk later. Go on before she sees you and you lose the one chance you’ve got.”

  Those words did the trick. He left the office, wincing as his bum leg screamed at him for sitting still too long. But even that pain didn’t ruin the first bit of hope running through him in months.

  Two early elementary aged boys reached the other side of the glass door at the same time he did, and he held it open for them.

  “Thanks, Mister,” they both said before they barreled around the corner from Ida Mae’s office. The children’s section. Where Patty was. He smiled, determined.

  And when he walked out of the library into the soft warm wind of a Texas fall day, he had an idea of where to turn for help.

  Chapter 3

  Once he got home, Sam turned to Google. Terrifying. Then Cosmo. Entertaining. Then Disney movies. Depressing.

  Frustrated, he finally picked up the phone and called the one man in his time zone he knew had found honest to God true love.

  Three rings and then, “Nelson.”

  Maybe this would work. “Hey Tex. I’ve got a favor to ask.”

  “Sam, my man.” His old co-worker, Donovan Nelson, sounded genuinely happy to hear from him.

  Once Sam explained what he was looking for, Donovan’s silence spoke volumes.

  His answer offered little help.

  “I don’t know, Sam. This might be a Kacie Jo question.”

  Shit. Kacie Jo didn’t care much for him. He scrambled to ask the question in a different way.

  “I just need to know what made the difference. What made her see you were serious?”

  Donovan’s answer shocked Sam and scared the hell out of him.

  “I gave myself to Kacie Jo. I made myself completely vulnerable. I was willing to lose everything for her. Know what I mean?”

  In theory. The idea of that kind of vulnerability left Sam’s palms sweaty. Not because he’d never been vulnerable where Patty was concerned but because he had. It didn’t get much more vulnerable than where they’d been.

  “Anything easier?”

  Donovan laughed. “Sorry, Sam. I think that’s pretty much the common denominator. You want your wife back, that’s what it’s going to take.”

  Sam thanked Donovan and sat in his living room on the chair that had seen better days twenty years ago. Patty got the good stuff when they separated. Not that he’d fought for anything. God, he’d been such an idiot.

  Maybe calling Donovan hadn’t been the right answer. Things were different for him and Patty. They’d been married for all of their adult lives.

  The classic sweep her off her feet answer would be a hell of a lot easier than what Donovan suggested. And maybe it would still work.

  He fished out a notebook and pencil and started brainstorming. A couple hours later he thought maybe he had a plan.

  Patty wanted to dance a jig. She handed the tablet over to Ida Mae, and her friend smiled.

  “Let me guess. We’ve got a new reader.”

  Patty laughed. “Two. And another that graduated to chapter books.”

  “You are a miracle worker,” Ida Mae said as they high fived.

  “I gave the moms the certificates. Both signed the agreement to read with their kids twenty minutes every day, and both said they’d be back next week.”

  “Good job, Ms. Jackson. Good job indeed.”

  God she loved this. Loved the feeling that she really was making a difference. Loved everything about the library.

  “You had a visitor while you were working.”

  Strange. Patty picked up one of the new Reader Rabbit programs and skimmed through the accompanying book. Some people thought they should turn to ereaders only, but turning the page gave the kids such a thrill. She’d use the hybrid method until they quit printing paper.

  “Who?” The question was almost an afterthought.

  “Sam.”

  Patty’s heart fell to her toes, and she dropped the book. He
r throat went dry, her face hot. She practically ran to the office window to search the library for a sight of him.

  “He’s gone,” Ida Mae said, and Patty’s heart fell again. Ugh! What was wrong with her?

  “Good. I don’t want to see him,” she said even though the news that he’d gone made her heart hurt.

  “Uh-huh,” Ida Mae said as if she didn’t believe her, which is what happened after years of friendship. “That’s what I told him.”

  Great friend. Wonderful. Heartbreak body guard.

  Patty started to say thank you, but Ida Mae continued.

  “You need to know he’s set on winning you back.”

  Ouch. An instant ball of pain wadded up in her throat and made it hard to breathe for a moment.

  No, no, no. Patty closed her eyes. She didn’t need to know any such thing. Patty didn’t say the words because she didn’t trust herself to speak. If she said a word, the tears balled up in her throat might actually make an appearance. And she’d cried enough over her ex-husband.

  Patty picked the reading program up off the floor, happy for something to focus on. Slid the book and the tablet into her purse. The purse she could afford because of Jason. Her good friend Jason. The man who wanted to be her fiancé. Because, as he said, they would enjoy each other’s company.

  She’d moved on.

  Blowing out a cleansing breath Patty reclaimed the peace she’d worked hard at. After a few seconds, she had her emotions firmly under control. “Sam can plan all he wants, Ida Mae. I’m not interested.”

  “You sure?”

  Ida Mae’s question was far too knowing. The woman had been with her through the last months of her marriage, the tears of separation, the pain of divorce and the fear when Sam was captured by terrorists. She was one of Patty’s best friends. Patty wouldn’t lie to her.

  “I have to be, Ida Mae. I deserve more than a part-time husband, and Cadyn deserves more than a sometimes dad.”

  “What if he’s changed?”

  The question made her heart dip then soar in disastrous hope. She pushed the emotion away.

  “Sam Jackson doesn’t change, Ida Mae. He’s the very same man he’s been since we were kids. Thank you for caring, though. You know I love you.”

  Ida Mae hugged her and smiled sadly. “Love you, too, Patty. Love you, too.”

  When Patty left the library, she flicked the radio on and almost laughed. DJ Karma was a bitch sometimes.

  The Sam and Patty Jackson special. Their favorites from high school. Of course. It was like the powers that be were conspiring against her. She reached forward to flick the radio off, but then decided torturing herself was worth it and headed to the one stop she always made between the library and the house as she sang along to the music guaranteed to tear her up.

  Anderson House Chocolatiers. The Victorian house on the town square always drew her in. She parked then stepped past the orange and pink azaleas onto the cricket-y wood steps and inhaled the scent of fresh-cut grass. This. This would make her feel better.

  The bell over the door tinkled in welcome when Patty walked inside.

  “Hey there, Patty,” Annie, the retired woman who worked the counter weekends because she wanted something to do while her husband played checkers down at the senior citizen center, said.

  Annie was short with silver hair and glasses and a penchant for telling stories about “back in her day” that ended with how she snagged the best man in town when he came home from the war and how a good marriage was hard work.

  Usually Patty loved listening to Annie’s stories of true love’s triumph. The narratives gave her hope. Today, no way.

  “Your usual?” Annie asked as Patty headed to the case of homemade truffles. Three. No more. They treated these specialties like gold. Totally worth it.

  “Same as always,” she said then grabbed her cash as Annie tied the small brown box with a blue bow. Waste of packaging since the minute Patty got in the car she was digging in.

  She slid the money across the glass counter, but Annie surprised her. “Already paid for.”

  Patty blinked. “What? Who?”

  Annie shrugged. “Can’t rightly say. Someone who knows you pretty well, I suppose.”

  Warmth enveloped her and she sighed. Jason. How sweet. He was so perceptive. It was like a sign. Just what she needed after the emotional upheaval earlier.

  She called out a quick goodbye to Annie, thankful to get away without a long conversation.

  Once she got in the car, Patty slipped the box open. A piece of paper floated to the floorboard, and she picked it up looking forward to a sweet message.

  Instead there was a number. Or maybe it was a series of numbers. Maybe the lottery even. 195039.

  Odd. She’d have to ask Jason what it meant.

  She bit into the first truffle and moaned. Chocolate might not fix everything, but it sure made life better.

  Before she left the gravel covered parking lot she hit the call button on her steering wheel. She might as well thank Jason now.

  He answered on the third ring. “Hey Patty. I’m neck deep in paperwork. Let me get back to you.”

  Stable. Always a phone call away. So sure of himself. She smiled. “Okay. Thank you, though. That was a sweet gift.” She laughed to herself at the pun.

  “Hmmm,” he said.

  “I don’t get the numbers, though. Maybe you can tell me later tonight.”

  “Not that I don’t appreciate your thanks, but what gift would you be talking about?”

  She blinked. “The chocolates. I had no idea you knew.”

  “Chocolates.”

  Oh crap. Not him. If not him then….Oh crap. The ball of pain was back in her throat.

  “I gotta let you go. I’m driving. I’ll talk to you…”

  “Tonight,” he said. She heard his grin through the phone and wished more than anything she felt like smiling. “Looking forward to it. Maybe you can tell me about the chocolates. I tend to be a fan, you know.”

  The phone call ended, and she drove on, almost auto-piloted it.

  Sam. He knew. He was the only one.

  The minute Patty got home she called her mom. No way did she trust herself to have the conversation while driving. She wasn’t sure about having it while sitting at the kitchen table looking at the truffles like they were loaded weapons.

  Her parents had learned to love Sam. The breakup had hurt them almost as much as it devastated her. But they’d understood, and they’d held her while she cried even as she signed the papers that ended the relationship that had marked all of her adult life.

  Mom picked up after three rings. The worry in her voice showed her mother’s knack for honing in on the emotional upheaval in Patty’s life even though they lived thousands of miles away now.

  Patty didn’t bother with pleasantries.

  “Sam’s back.”

  Her mother didn’t speak at first, and Patty wondered if she hadn’t heard.

  “Mom?”

  “I’m here, sweetie. Let me go get your dad and put the phone on speaker.”

  Good idea. Patty tapped a pencil on the table while she waited. Through the phone she could hear her mother yelling for her dad to come in the kitchen and to make sure his hearing aids were turned on. Her father had lost his hearing on the flight lines of military bases across the world. He liked to keep the hearing aids turned down sometimes if her mother was chatty. It made for interesting conversations.

  “Hey Patty-Cake,” her dad said when he made it to the phone. The childhood nickname told her he knew she was upset.

  “Hey Daddy.” She took a deep breath then told her parents about the truffles and the weird note with numbers.

  “That is odd,” her mother said. “Do you think he got addicted to those painkillers while he was recovering this time?”

  “Velma, those are not the actions of an addict. The numbers mean something.”

  Patty could almost see her mother nodding. “What do they mean, Patty?” she a
sked. “Did you have a secret code or something?”

  She wanted to laugh. No, she and Sam hadn’t had a secret code. They’d had the law of attraction on their side when they happened to be in the same zip code, and the rest of the time they’d had separate, successful lives. And she’d gotten tired of that life. She’d wanted a husband, not a sometimes boyfriend.

  “I don’t know what he’s thinking. Why would he do this? He only talks to me when he’s coming to pick up Cadyn.”

  “Joe, you need to call him and tell him to stop this nonsense.”

  Patty wished that response would work. She wanted someone to ride to her rescue. Save her from the bad guy.

  “This isn’t something we can fix, Velma,” her father said. Then his voice changed, softened. “Patty, you know Sam’s the only one who can answer your question. If you want to know, you’ll have to contact him. Just know you might not like his answer.”

  “Don’t call him,” her mother said as her father finished. “If you call him you’ll get all torn up again.”

  “Velma, she’s forty years old. She gets to make her own decisions. Patty, you do what you think is right, and we’ll support you one hundred percent. If you want me to call him and tell him he’s broken enough of your heart, I will.”

  “No.” God no. “I think I’m going to ignore this.”

  “That’s a good plan,” her mother said. “Treat him like the bully in school. Ignore him, and he’ll go away.”

  Patty groaned. She wished dealing with bullies were that easy. Stupid social media had turned that problem into a high school assistant principal’s nightmare.

  “If he’s got something he wants to say, Sam’s not going to be ignored,” her dad said proving how well he knew Sam. “That boy is a force of nature when he’s on a mission.”

  She swallowed and nodded at her dad’s words. That Sam was the one she’d fallen for. The one before twenty, before…everything changed. Before Cadyn. Then his jobs got bigger, she went back to school and started spending summers teaching workshops. His absences grew longer, and they made family vacation dates. Two weeks every six months or so. Sometimes a month. Skype dates with Cadyn. Her parents had shared their worry over the non-traditional family, and she’d lied. Told them it was what they both wanted. That quality time was better than quantity time.