There was a stunned silence. Tate had to repeat some points, but finally Bill Preston put together what he wanted to do. His plans satisfied Tate and Tate soon hung up.
In a few minutes he needed to check on his newest prisoner. After that, he was going home.
Then he remembered his mother—and his promise that they would talk.
Might as well get it over with, he thought tiredly, and gave her a quick call to let her know he was on his way.
“I JUST STOPPED BY to see what you needed, Mom, then I’ve got to go. It’s been a long day.” Tate knew darn well what his mother wanted: to talk about Jodie. It wasn’t what he wanted, but he didn’t see how he could avoid it unless he avoided her.
“I heard what happened out at the Parker Ranch,” she began.
“Yeah, it was something’.”
“So Rio Walsh is a free man?”
“I don’t have anything to hold him on.”
“But you wish you did?” his mother guessed.
Tate rubbed the back of his neck. “Is this all comin’ to something, Mom? Because if it’s not...”
Emma patted the chair across from her. “Sit down, Tate,” she requested softly.
“I want to get home, Mom.”
She smiled. “Just for a few minutes. You can spare me a few minutes, can’t you?”
Tate sat, feeling totally ill at ease.
“I heard something about that fall of Jodie’s,” she stated. “I heard three men tried to kidnap her and you put a stop to it. Is that true?”
“Who told you?”
“Is it true?”
Tate frowned. “Yes, but it’s not something I want put around.”
“Why not?”
“Because Jodie doesn’t want her family to find out about it. She doesn’t want to cause any more hard feelings. So I’m goin’ to ask that you not tell anyone, Mom, and that you tell whoever told you not to say anything, either.”
“A number of people saw it happen. I don’t think you can keep it a secret.”
Tate grimaced.
His mother watched him carefully. “Just how much has she come to mean to you, Tate? The other day, at your house, I sensed—”
“She doesn’t mean anything to me,” he denied.
Emma arched a brow and reminded him, “This is your mother you’re talking to.”
Tate frowned, then shook his head, admitting, “I don’t know. Everything would be a whole lot easier if I did, but I don’t.”
“I’ve also heard something else,” Emma said. “I’ve heard you’ve been offered a position on some kind of special state task force and you’re not sure if you’re going to take it.”
“Has Jack been talking to you?” Tate demanded.
“It’s not because of me, is it? You aren’t unsure about taking it because of my medical situation, are you? Because I’m fine now. I’ve learned to manage this disease. I love having you nearby, but I’ll be fine if you decided to move away tomorrow. The only reason I had trouble before was that I didn’t know I had it. Tate, it was bad enough when you gave up your job in Dallas to move back here, but I’d really be upset if I thought...”
“It’s partly that,” he admitted, “but a lot of other things, too.”
She went quiet for a moment, while he regretted having spoken.
“I don’t want you to consider me for a minute,” she said finally. “You make up your mind purely for your own wants and desires. Just remember—I wouldn’t be alone. I have loads of friends. And an active social life. You didn’t know that I’ve been taking square-dancing lessons, did you? Or that Mark Lovell has been taking me around.”
Mark Lovell. Chief Lovell! Tate was surprised.
Emma grinned. “It’s nothing serious and never will be. But we’re both without partners and thought we could have some fun together. He’s my square-dancing buddy.”
Tate smiled. “When did this start?”
“A little over a month ago.”
“I never knew a thing.”
“You’ve been too busy. Tate, is it the sheriff’s job that’s holding you back?”
“Well, it does look a little funny to be thinkin’ about leaving so soon. I only took office a year and a half ago. How long was Jack sheriff? Thirty years?”
“But you’re not Jack.”
Tate frowned. “No. And I’m not my dad, either.”
Emma looked at him closely. “What does your father have to do with this?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out what he’d do if he were in my situation. And I don’t think he’d leave. He probably wouldn’t even consider it.”
His mother placed a hand over his and said softly, “You said it yourself—you aren’t your father.” She went to get a photograph from the piano and handed it to Tate. It was one he’d seen numerous times. Dan Connelly, dressed in what passed as a county uniform twenty years before—white Western shirt with a five-pointed Texas star pinned over the left pocket. The exact same badge Tate wore now. Dan’s handsome face was smiling with open friendliness.
“Tate,” Emma said, “your daddy was a special man and a good lawman. And he loved the work he did here. Do you truly think he’d want you to follow in his footsteps if you weren’t happy doing it?”
“I’m happy!”
“Are you? What about all that special training you’ve had? How much do you use it?”
“I use it,” Tate defended.
“Do you enjoy looking after the jail?”
Tate grunted. “No person in his right mind would enjoy that.”
“What about the long hours?”
“I don’t mind hard work. You know I don’t.”
“Do you have any time left for a private life? What if, say, you wanted to take a little time to trail after Jodie Parker—” Tate made a sound she ignored “—could you do it? A picnic, something simple. Could you invite her out and not be interrupted? And remember, I know the hours you put in.”
That was the trouble. He couldn’t lie. He couldn’t even fudge the truth. If his mother didn’t know firsthand, from having taken and delivered the calls herself, she could easily find out. “Are you telling me I should take the job?” he demanded.
Emma set the photograph back in its proper place. “No. I’d never presume to do that. It has to be your decision. I’m just trying to get you to see you don’t owe anything to anyone. Your dad gave his life for this county. You don’t have to do the same.”
Tate drew a quick breath.
His mother turned to face him. “I have a feeling Jack’s getting a little antsy out on his place. I saw him the other day. He seems...restless. You should talk to him.”
IT WAS AFTER TEN O’CLOCK before Tate unlocked his own front door and let himself into the house he did little more than camp out in.
Was it because nothing about his job—both as deputy and as sheriff—had seemed permanent to him? Was that why he’d hesitated to put down solid roots?
But maybe all he needed to put down roots was the right woman in his life. Jack had had Maureen. His father had had his mother. He could have...Jodie.
But could he? Here, in Del Norte? In this house? As his wife?
He laughed with very little humor and sat down for a minute in the recliner. Only, when his eyes fell shut, it was morning before they opened again.
JODIE SAT UP, breathing hard. Something was chasing her, about to get her. She had to—Suddenly she realized where she was—in bed, in her father’s house, on the ranch, safe and sound. The terrible menace existed only in a dream.
She fell back against the warm sheets, panting. She was hot. Was that what had disturbed her sleep? Then memory came flooding back. Rio, Phil Hammond, Tate... It was a wonder she’d slept at all!
She checked the time—2:00 a.m. Was she the only person awake on the ranch?
She longed to call Tate. Just to hear his voice. But would he talk to her, as angry as he was? Especially at two in the morning?
She’d told Rio she w
as in love with Tate. Why? As a way to keep Rio at arm’s length? Or because Rio was leaving and she never expected to hear from him again—and she’d wanted to test out saying the words?
Rio was oddly easy to talk to about such things. Maybe because he viewed society’s rules as restrictions placed on other people.
Jodie had been governed by rules all her life. Mae believed firmly in right and wrong and saw little in between. Rio existed in the shades of gray. He’d spent his whole life there.
She switched on the bedside lamp and flipped open the lid of a lacquered box, her favored cache for her most prized possessions since childhood. She withdrew Rio’s lucky coin and, turning it this way and that, let the bas-relief carvings catch the light. Was she wrong to have accepted it?
No. It was a part of her life, just as Rio was. She could no more deny either of them their place than Phil Hammond could change the fact that he had destroyed the person he loved and in so doing cut himself off permanently from his family.
She could almost feel sorry for Phil Hammond. Almost. Until she thought of the young woman he’d killed.
Rio had said she and Crystal would have been friends. Might they have been?
Jodie switched off the lamp after returning the coin to the box, then lay back to stare up at the darkened ceiling. For a time she kept her mind purposefully blank, until an earlier thought could no longer be denied.
She’d told Rio she was in love with Tate.
So... was she?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“LOOK! A POSTCARD from Darlene and Thomas!” Harriet exclaimed as she brought the mail to Mae’s house. “From Alaska. She says it’s absolutely beautiful there. And they’re having loads of fun.”
“Thomas, on a sea cruise,” Mae said, shaking her head.
Harriet laughed, still reading from the card. “Darlene says Thomas won the captain’s costume contest—he dressed up like a gangster. Can you believe it?”
Mae was speechless. All she could do was continue to shake her head.
Harriet looked at Jodie and Shannon and winked. The morning so far had not been easy. Everyone else had decided to put the incident behind them, particularly when they found out that Jodie didn’t care that Rio had gone back to Colorado. But it still rankled Mae. She’d said less than ten words to Jodie since first seeing her, having gone out of her way not to say more.
It had been Shannon’s idea that they pay a call on Mae to try to smooth the way to reconciliation. The attempt didn’t seem to be working. That was why it was so surprising when, in the early afternoon, Mae called Jodie over to request that she drive her to Little Springs to visit Christine and the new baby. She’d received word only a short time before that Morgan had brought them home.
“Daddy’s available,” Jodie said, unsure if Mae was aware of it.
“Of course he is, but I’m askin’ you. Are you going to turn me down?”
“No.”
“Then be back here in an hour with the Cadillac.”
Jodie nodded. Her great-aunt hadn’t cracked a smile. Instead, she’d worn her fierce matriarchal look and carried herself with distant dignity.
An hour later Jodie waited outside Mae’s house, the Cadillac’s engine running. Her father had told her often enough that Mae didn’t like to be kept waiting.
Had only two days gone by since she’d rushed Christine into town in this car? It seemed longer.
Mae emerged from the house and what Jodie saw made her eyes widen. Her great-aunt had taken a great deal of care with her appearance, wearing a soft pink linen dress, short white gloves, black dress shoes and a narrow-brimmed straw hat with a matching pink band. She came directly to the car and slid into the back seat, pointedly maintaining her distance.
“Aunt Mae,” Jodie said, “I really wish you’d—”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Mae said shortly.
“But we can’t go on like this!”
“Shouldn’t you have thought about that before you did what you did?” She tapped the floorboard with the tip of her cane, signaling her impatience to be off.
“I did think about it,” Jodie said, putting the car into drive.
“I said I don’t want to talk.”
Her great-aunt’s intransigence was becoming irritating. “Aren’t you the person who told me to pick a direction and stick to it? Well, I did. I decided to help Rio—and I was right!”
“Only a child needs to be right all the time.”
Jodie gritted her teeth. She had a mind to stop the car and refuse to go on until her father agreed to switch places. Obviously Mae had asked her to drive so she could take potshots at her. Talk about a person who always needed to be right!
“Anyway,” Mae continued, her jaw jutting, “this isn’t the appropriate setting. This is little Elisabeth’s official welcome to the ranch and I’d like it to be special.”
So she was playing the role of Queen on an official visit! That really made Jodie want to stop the car and get out, but instead, she turned toward Little Springs and kept her mouth tightly shut,
Everyone at Little Springs was delighted to see them. Delores and Dub greeted them at the car, and Morgan came out on his porch to invite them inside.
Christine was on the sofa, smiling softly as Erin, seated next to her, cuddled the baby in her arms. After accepting the newcomers’ hugs, Christine murmured warmly, “Isn’t this the most beautiful sight? I wish I’d had a little sister to love or a big one to look up to.”
“I always wished that myself,” Mae said gruffly. “I had to make do with two older brothers. When I was born, they thought I should’ve been another boy.”
Mae waggled a finger inside the baby’s tiny fingers. And Elisabeth instantly latched on. Mae’s face brightened with a huge smile. “Look at that! This little girl’s already showin’ some spunk.”
Mae settled in a nearby chair, and after the usual niceties were exchanged and Delores had served coffee, she dug in her purse for a box covered in green velvet. It looked old, an antique, and when she handed it to Christine and Christine opened it, she said, “That belonged to me when I was a child. I was told it was my mother’s. I thought maybe little Elisabeth might like to have it now, to welcome her into the family.”
The diminutive gold bracelet gleamed. “Oh, Mae, that’s so sweet,” Christine said.
Mae withdrew another small green box. “And this is for you, Erin,” she said, again handing the box to Christine, who opened it for her daughter. It was a narrow gold ring that matched the bracelet. “They’re a set,” Mae said. “One for you, one for your new sister. I thought maybe you could wear it on your little finger.”
Erin said, “Thank you,” very politely, and maneuvered her hand so that Christine could put the ring in place. It fit perfectly.
“One day you can pass it on to your daughter, just like Elisabeth can pass her bracelet on to hers. That’s what’s so special about being part of a family like ours. The past generations are never far away. All you have to do to feel close to them is look outside or, in your case, look at your ring and your bracelet.”
Erin nodded solemnly and again offered her thanks.
Jodie watched the gift-giving with a mix of feelings. It touched her, as it did everyone else, that Mae was being so thoughtful. But it also gave her the answer she’d been searching for—the real reason Mae had wanted her along. It was another push to get her to see the importance of family.
Christine and Erin had been on their own for years before arriving at the Parker Ranch. Now they were no longer alone. They were Parkers. An accepted part of the family.
Jodie wondered if Mae’s message had been received with as much enthusiasm by Christine as it had by her daughter. She glanced at her and caught her gazing at Morgan. All the love Christine felt for her husband was there in her eyes, increased by the addition of their child.
Would she ever look at a man with that same degree of feeling? At Tate...if they were to have a baby together?
&nb
sp; A shiver of presentiment passed over her. She and Tate? A child?
Jodie took a quick sip of coffee and tried to pretend she hadn’t just thought that, hadn’t just felt it. But she wasn’t at all successful. Each time she looked at Christine and Morgan, she thought of Tate.
A short time later Mae went to the other house with Florence. Dub and Morgan disappeared, and Erin hurried to answer the telephone, which it turned out, was a friend calling her. So Jodie and Christine were left alone with the baby, who was sleeping soundly in a portable bassinet a few feet away. Voices didn’t seem to bother her yet.
“Did I ever thank you for getting us to the hospital so quickly?” Christine asked.
“I’m only glad we made it!” Jodie returned.
“Me, too. I was worried there for a while.” She glanced at the bassinet. “But she’s worth every ounce of trouble it took.” Her gaze swung back to Jodie. “I heard what happened at the ranch yesterday. The whole town knows. Jodie—you took such a gamble!”
Jodie frowned. It stood to reason that word would spread. What had happened wasn’t the sort of thing that could be kept secret. And who’d want it to? Practically the whole county had been alerted to watch out for Rio. It was only to be expected that the whole county would be interested in the result.
She shrugged. “It came out right in the end.”
“I know, but—”
“Mae’s still mad at me. Do you see how she’s ignoring me?”
“I did notice a certain coolness. But that’s just the way Mae is sometimes. She—”
“She’s made it part of her family-loyalty campaign. She can’t understand why I don’t fall into step. I wonder if that’s the way it is in other families. I doubt it. But then, I don’t know. Being a Parker is so much like being a part of this huge beast that devours everything in its path.”
Jodie began to pace, making no pretense that she was doing anything else.
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