“A hero? A knight in shining armor?”
“Something like that. It was selfish to ask you to come in and slay these dragons for me. I’m sure you had dozens of answers to that article in Texas Men.”
“Nope. Just yours.” His eyes twinkled.
“You folks ready for that pie and coffee now?”
Dori glanced up at Alice, who stood patiently balancing a tray holding two coffees and apple pie à la mode. Dori blushed with embarrassment. She’d forgotten all about the order, which Alice must have held in the kitchen while she waited for the most diplomatic moment to deliver it. The truckers had probably been watching the whole scene between Dori and her new beau with great interest, too.
“Certainly,” Dori said, sitting up straighter and placing the rose out of sight on her lap. “Thanks, Alice.”
“Sure thing, honey.” Alice took elaborate care setting up Tanner’s napkin and fork. She put down both cups of coffee and then positioned Tanner’s pie squarely in front of him. “If that’s not warm enough, or if the ice cream’s too melted, just send it back and I’ll fix you another one,” she said.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Alice glanced from him to Dori. “I hope so. I truly do.”
After Alice left, Tanner made no move to pick up his fork.
“Start eating,” Dori suggested, “before the pie gets cold or the ice cream turns into soup. You can’t put off enjoying pie à la mode.”
He pushed the plate aside and concentrated the power of those incredible blue eyes on her. “I’m learning that life’s like that, too. Which is as good an explanation as any for why I’m not leaving.”
Her heartbeat quickened. “Look, I didn’t realize how nasty Jimmy Jr. would get if somebody actually showed an interest in me. I guess I was hoping he was mostly hot air.”
“Maybe he is. I think we should find out.”
She shook her head. “No. Go back to Dallas and pick out somebody else from your bushel basket of letters. I know there must be a lot, with someone who looks like you.”
The corner of his mouth tilted upward, which made him even more appealing. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Heat climbed into her cheeks again, but she braved it out. “I guess it was.”
“And encouragement. Apparently, you find me reasonably acceptable so far.”
That was the understatement of the year, Dori thought. From the way he filled out the shoulders of his Western shirt, she could imagine how he looked without it. The image was enough to make her faint with desire. “I…think you’re very attractive.” She made a grab for her coffee to hide her nervousness and promptly scalded her tongue.
“And I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in a long time.” His quiet declaration brought her startled gaze back to his face. “You don’t even know how beautiful you are, do you?”
“You’re embarrassing me, Tanner.”
“Why? You should be used to having people tell you you’re beautiful. These truckers should mention it about every five minutes, if they have eyes in their heads.”
“Well, they don’t mention it. So there.”
He regarded her thoughtfully. “They might be afraid Devaney would find out and have a fit. How about him? Did he ever compliment you on your looks?”
“He used to say I was ‘passably pretty.’”
Tanner grimaced. “What a guy.”
“Well, that’s a fair description of me, after all. I wasn’t even elected homecoming queen, just one of the attendants.”
“You married Devaney right out of high school, didn’t you?”
Dori nodded. “My folks tried to talk me out of it, but at eighteen I thought I knew everything. Jimmy Jr. was the catch of the town, three years older than me and the only son of James Devaney who owned the biggest business in Los Lobos. I had you drive past there on the way in.”
“I wondered if that was on purpose.”
“It was. I wanted you to see how important that name was in Los Lobos, because I thought it would help explain everything, when the time came.”
Tanner leaned back against the booth. “I think I get the picture. Devaney snapped you up when you were still naive enough to believe he was a prince and you, being ‘passably pretty,’ were lucky to snag him. He probably thought he’d undermine your confidence enough to keep you shackled to him.”
Dori had considered the very same thing, but hearing Tanner say it gave her self-confidence a big boost.
“But the thing he knew then,” Tanner continued, “and what he understands even more now, is that you were the catch, Dori. If he had nothing else going for him, he had vision. He could imagine how you’d grow more beautiful every day. Only he didn’t count on your spirit being stronger than his.”
She drank in his words as if she were dying of thirst. “It’s been so hard, Tanner. Especially after he took Little Jim away.”
Tanner leaned forward. “And when am I going to meet your son?”
With a great effort, she brought herself back to reality. Not looking at him made the next statement easier. “You’re not. I want you to head back tomorrow and forget all about me.”
He regarded her quietly. “No can do.”
She kept her face averted as she swallowed the lump that rose in her throat. “Of course you can. Just get up right now and walk out of here. Be smart, Tanner. Do it.”
He cupped her chin and guided her face around until she was forced to look into his eyes. “I hate the idea of dealing with a jerk like Devaney, and I’d rather not have to. But when I walked into the Double Nickel tonight and saw you, I felt as if I’d won the lottery. I can’t allow Jimmy Devaney, Jr., to spoil my chances with you.”
She stared at him, her senses reeling from his touch and the magnetism of his gaze. I felt as if I’d won the lottery, he’d said. “What time is it?” she murmured.
Looking perplexed, he nevertheless released her chin to glance at his bare wrist. An untanned strip of skin revealed where he normally wore a watch, but for some reason it was gone. He frowned and looked up at the clock on the wall behind her. “Almost ten. Why?”
“No. Tell me exactly.”
“Nine fifty-nine.”
She smiled at him. “I thought so.”
“I suppose that’s significant because it has two nines in it?”
“It’s a really lucky number for me, Tanner.” A Mac Davis song provided a backdrop to the murmur of voices in the café as she gazed at him and dared to hope that he represented a change in her fortunes.
“A lucky number for me, too, I guess. From the look on your face, you’ve decided to let me stay.”
She took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“Then how about a little walk in the moonlight, Ms. Fitzpatrick?”
“I’d love it.”
He reached for his billfold, pulled out some money and tucked it under his saucer. “Let’s go.” He held out his hand to her.
Dori picked up her rose and scooted across the seat toward him. Before she took his hand, she glanced at the denomination on the folded bill he’d left for Alice, and she gasped. “Tanner, that’s way too much.”
“I don’t care. It was worth every penny. Come on.”
Dori snatched up the money and shoved it at him. “Take this back. I’ll settle with Alice on Tuesday.”
“No. I—”
“Tanner, are you trying to dazzle me by throwing money around? Because that doesn’t impress me one bit. I told you that in my letters.”
Tanner looked away and rubbed a hand over his face. When he turned back, he smiled and took the money she held out, but she could tell it wasn’t an easy thing for him to do. “Thanks, Dori. Thanks a lot.”
“Sure thing.” As she left the booth and walked out of the café with her hand in his, Dori vowed to watch Tanner’s spending habits carefully. She appreciated generous tippers as much as any waitress, but not if a person couldn’t afford the extra. Tanner might be gorgeous, courageo
us and kind, but if he couldn’t handle money she wanted to know it before she or her heart made any promises.
3
TANNER SCANNED THE AREA looking for any sign of Devaney when he and Dori walked out into the café parking lot. The air was surprisingly warm for the middle of October, and Dori’s exhusband was nowhere in sight.
Dori glanced up into the sky. “There is a moon tonight,” she said. “I was hoping it could be full, but instead it looks sort of—”
“Like a guy with a beer belly,” Tanner finished for her.
Dori laughed and he wondered how many jokes he could come up with so he could make her do that again. Her laughter contained a ripple of sensuality that suggested moments to come, experiences they didn’t know each other well enough yet to share. A diesel pulled away from the gas pumps and its air brakes wheezed before it rumbled down the road toward the interstate. The fumes didn’t add much to the ambience, and Dori’s highly visible white uniform was making Tanner uneasy. He wasn’t going to back away from a fight, but he’d rather not be ambushed now, before…before what? Before he’d even had a chance to kiss her? Maybe.
She glanced up at him shyly. “I’m out of practice with this sort of thing, but I remember when I was in high school, Jimmy Jr. and I used to drive out one of the back roads to be alone.”
He gave her a quick look.
“Not that I’m suggesting we rush into anything physical,” she added quickly. “In fact, I think that’s a big mistake couples often make.”
“Probably,” he agreed with some reluctance.
“But we could take that moonlit walk you mentioned, and get to know each other.”
“Are you sure you trust me enough to go out to a deserted back road with me?”
Her expression was adorably serious. “Nowadays that could work both ways. Maybe I’m planning to plunge a knife into your heart and steal you blind. Women do that sort of thing, too.”
He realized that. Figuratively speaking, he’d suspected those were the motives of the past couple of women he’d dated, which was why he was here with Dori, who professed not to care about material wealth. That reminded him of his role as a hand-to-mouth construction worker. “But that would be a waste of time, trying to steal from somebody like me,” he said. “You’re the one who should be careful, considering you have the more valuable assets.”
Dori gave him a wry smile. “I’m certainly not a virgin anymore, Tanner.”
“I didn’t expect you to be. Little Jim had to come from somewhere, didn’t he?” He looked around the parking lot. “Where’s your car? You can show me this lonely road where we can be alone.”
She ushered him over to a somewhat battered white Pontiac Sunbird convertible. “I think it’s warm enough to put the top down,” she said once they’d climbed into the car and she’d laid the rose across the dashboard. They each unlatched their side and she lowered the canvas top. Then she reached across his knees, brushing them just enough to make him a little crazy, and opened the glove compartment.
The city women he’d known had always been concerned about their hair becoming disarranged, so her preparations for driving with the top down intrigued him. She took out an elasticized piece of fabric from the glove compartment and wound it around her hair at the nape of her neck. He would have loved to do it for her, but watching her efficient movements as she worked with the silky strands was almost as inspirational. Before this evening ended he hoped he’d be allowed to run his fingers through her glorious hair. Surely that wouldn’t be pushing her self-imposed limits. After all, the whole purpose of Texas Men was to bring couples together, and not just for conversation.
She backed the car out of the parking space and headed toward town, but before she reached the main drag she swung left onto a two-lane road. A small subdivision on the right gave way to cotton fields anchored with square little structures, some with lights glowing from the windows.
He turned his head to watch strands of her hair work loose from their tie and whip around her cheeks. “Where do you live?” he asked.
“On the other side of town. I found a small house for rent not far from the Devaneys’. Little Jim’s bedroom window is on the second floor, and I can see his light from my backyard.”
Tanner’s heart wrenched, imagining Dori standing in her yard staring at that shining square of light that represented her son’s presence. “It sounds as if you came out of that divorce with nothing. How did that happen?”
“My own stupid fault. I was so sick of Jimmy Jr.’s using his money to get what he wanted that I asked for the minimum child support and no alimony. Jimmy Jr. thought I’d come running back after a few months of poverty. When I didn’t, he got tired of waiting and sued for custody of Little Jim on the grounds that he could give him a better home. He won. That’s it.”
Partway through the explanation Tanner began regretting that Devaney hadn’t instigated a fight in the parking lot. Tanner would have loved an opportunity to punch the guy right now.
“When I wrote to you, I didn’t put all my cards on the table,” Dori said.
Neither did I. Tanner’s conscience pricked him. “For example?”
“What I said is true, as far as it goes. I am looking for male companionship.”
Her statement sounded so formal, he couldn’t resist teasing her. “You could get a little boy dog.”
She blew out an exasperated sigh. “You know what I mean.”
“Not really.” He gave her an amused glance. “You have all those truckers to talk to nearly every day.”
“All right! I miss being held, being kissed and…all that. Is that plain enough for you?”
“It’s music to my ears, Dori.” And damn stimulating to the rest of me, too.
“But don’t you get the idea that I’m easy!”
“I would never get that idea.”
“I mean it! Because my real reason for wanting to get married again has nothing to do with sex.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I’m being perfectly honest with you, Tanner. Stop making fun of me.”
“Sorry.” But he was having trouble controlling his thoughts as they skimmed down the moonlit road and the houses became few and far between. The air streaming past his cheeks was cool, but not cold. It was a perfect night for lovers, and here was Dori talking about kissing and…all that.
“I’ve been getting advice from friends, and they think if I remarry and establish a two-parent household, I’ll stand a better chance of getting Little Jim back. That’s the real reason I wrote to you, Tanner. So if that makes you mad, I’ll turn this car around and head straight for the Double Nickel.”
Tanner knew he couldn’t sound as disappointed as he felt or Dori really would cancel the whole thing. Her son was obviously the most important person in the world to her, and he couldn’t blame her for wanting him back. Her solution was logical and practical, even if it took the romance right out of the situation they were in. He was simply the means to an end.
Hell, if she wanted a husband in a hurry, he could propose now and in no time enjoy those conjugal rights he’d been dreaming about ever since he first saw her. No time for courtship or falling in love, but a whale of a good time in bed, no doubt. Dori wouldn’t welch on that part of the bargain, and she might even enjoy it.
He spoke carefully. “If all you really want is a husband, then why don’t we fly up to Vegas and get married tonight? By tomorrow you can begin filing those papers to get custody of your little boy.”
Her screeching stop and abrupt U-turn caught him by surprise and he whacked his shoulder against the car door. “Hey! Take it easy!”
“I won’t,” she said through clenched teeth. “And you can go straight to Dallas and be damned!” She peeled out in a spurt of gravel that sent the rose tumbling into his lap.
He was thrown back against the seat as she bore down on the gas. “What? What did I say? I was only trying to give you what you wanted!” He wondered if she always drove like a
maniac.
“That is not what I want.”
He glanced at the speedometer and decided it would help his peace of mind if he didn’t look at it again as the wind created by her speed buffeted them. “But you said—”
“My goal is to provide a two-parent household for Little Jim. But I intend to do it right. What you have in mind is like throwing up a house with warped wood and rusty nails, hoping the whole thing will hold together after you slap some stucco over the crooked parts! My daddy’s in construction, too, and he taught me that nothing’s worth building unless it’s built to last!”
Tanner forgot about the perils of taking a Texas farm road at ninety miles an hour as her statement hit him like a bowling ball aimed at his chest. He’d been waiting a lifetime to hear a woman say that. “Turn the car around.”
“Not until you take back what you said.”
“I take it back! I didn’t like the idea, either, but I felt so sorry for you, wanting custody of your little boy, that I—”
“Sorry for me?” she cried, and stepped down harder on the gas. “That’s worse!”
“Okay, not sorry! Forget sorry! Sympathetic! God, Dori, I want to help! Stop this damned car so we won’t be killed before I can explain!”
Fortunately, the road was deserted, because Dori burned rubber as she slammed on the brakes, throwing them both hard against the seat belts. She turned her head in his direction. Her dark eyes blazed and her jaw was set. “Okay, start explaining.”
He took a steadying breath. “You drive fast.”
“Only when I’m mad. And never when Little Jim’s in the car. Now talk, and you’d better not make any more immoral suggestions, or so help me, I’m taking you straight back to the Double Nickel.”
Unsnapping his seat belt was a calculated risk. If this didn’t work and only increased her anger, he’d be socked around like a punching bag when she peeled out again. He took off his hat and set it, along with her rose, on the dashboard before facing her. “I’m sorry I suggested getting married before we could learn to know each other, learn to love each other.” He closed the gap between them slowly, as if she were a wild animal whose confidence he must win. “You’re right. That would be a mortal sin.”
Holding Out For A Hero Page 3