Tangled Up in Texas

by Delores Fossen

  “It’s not,” she assured him, and closed the window.

  Of course, I’m with Shaw now was a bit of a stretch, but there was no denying the attraction between them. He would be a wonderful distraction at a time when so many things in her life weren’t so wonderful. But Shaw might get hurt because the one thing that wasn’t going to happen was her getting into another serious relationship. Even if Shaw had been inclined toward seriousness—or having children—there’d be no proposals or engagement rings. Her runaway fiancée days were over.

  Besides, the aftermath of this whole diary mess almost certainly wasn’t over. And it might be just the tip of the iceberg. Sunny had checked the other boxes in the attic, and she couldn’t tell if anything else had been taken. There were some of McCall’s boxes, untouched. Ditto for Hadley. Only Sunny’s had been opened, but that didn’t mean Sunshine hadn’t taken other things. It was possible there were notes or maybe mementos that could come back to haunt her.

  Of course, nothing could haunt as well as those diaries.

  It was impossible for her to remember every detail she’d written during those teenage years. All those thoughts, feelings and secrets that wouldn’t stay secret once printed. But Sunny could remember the highlights.

  Getting her period, for example.

  Yes, she’d poured out details of cramps and having to share that time of the month with her sisters. Things had gotten so bad in the house that Sunny was surprised Em hadn’t made a PMS-alert flag to ward off anyone who might venture near the puberty- and hormone-crazy Little Cowgirls.

  There were also pages and pages in the diaries about the embarrassing kiss with Shaw. Dreams and what-if ramblings where she’d imagined kissing him without the injuries.

  She’d also written about sexual fantasies. Well, as much of sexual fantasies as a teenage girl could have. But there was one biggie that she had no trouble recalling. The biggest of them all that would be the shocker. It was the page she’d written shortly before she’d had sex with Shaw. Specifically, page 111 of the sixth diary.

  Yeah.

  That.

  The lawyer she’d hired had to get back the diaries before that page was published. In fact, she couldn’t figure out why Tonya hadn’t zoomed right in on it and made it the headline. But maybe the reporter was holding it back, planning to save it for impact once she’d garnered a whole bunch of readers from this first article.

  Since the possibility of that was just plain depressing, Sunny picked up her phone to send Shaw another text. Bennie started another birdbath fire so to get rid of him, I told him we were together and that you’d get jealous if he came over again. Just wanted to give you a heads-up in case gossip gets back to you. How’s the meeting going?

  She’d tacked on that last question, but the meat of the text was the “together” part. Even though Shaw had agreed to do her a favor by pretending they were a couple, she still felt awkward about it. The awkwardness shifted to uneasiness when he didn’t answer right away.

  Minutes crawled by. Enough time for her to fix Slackers’s feather and add a few tropical-looking insects buzzing around his head.

  Sunny hadn’t realized just how on edge she was until she gasped when her phone dinged with Shaw’s reply. City girl stepped in shit and stormed off. Was sorry to see her go.

  Even though it was only a text, Sunny could practically feel the sarcasm. She could also feel her edginess increasing, when the little dots kept blinking on the screen to indicate that Shaw was still writing the rest of the message.

  Eons seemed to pass before it finally came. Maybe we should talk?

  For only four words, they packed a wallop. Sunny immediately thought that the stolen diary mess had been too much for him, that he wanted to call off the favor.

  Sure, she texted back hesitantly just as another message came in from Shaw. I’d like to see you. I want to kiss your.

  More dots came, lingering and flashing, and while it was no fun waiting, Sunny was smiling again. Unless this was the start of a joke, it didn’t feel like Shaw was ending things.

  Sorry about that, he messaged a moment later. I was texting you when Austin came in, and I had to stop. I’d intended to say I want to kiss your mouth that’s dewed with moisture, but after the long wait, I should probably say a different part of your body, just to give you more incentive for me to come over and see you.

  She released the breath she’d been holding, and her body got that really wonderful shimmering feeling again, the heat tingling and spreading to multiple parts of her. It was delicious, coated in naughtiness. And exactly what she wanted.

  Come over, she texted. Any and all incentives are optional.

  All right, so that was probably past the flirty stage, but he’d pressed there, too. Maybe would continue to press.

  She frowned again.

  She had a chastity belt of sorts. Her surgery scar. It was still too tender for full-scale groping, but even if she had been physically grope-ready, she didn’t want Shaw to see the scar. She could barely stomach looking at it herself and didn’t especially want to share that with anyone. Not even Shaw. Still, she doubted that would stop them from more of those fully clothed kisses.

  Sunny was heading to the bathroom to freshen up when her phone rang. Not Shaw this time but McCall. Since this could be about the stolen diaries, Sunny immediately gave herself an attitude adjustment and answered the call.

  “I saw the article in the Tattle Tale,” McCall said. “God, Sunny, I’m so sorry.”

  Coming from McCall, the sympathy was genuine. “Your lawyer friend is trying to sort it all out.”

  “Good. I’ve actually hired her, too. I’ve heard from another reporter that Tonya’s planning on writing an article about Hadley and me. Apparently, there were some things about us in your diaries.”

  Sunny groaned. She was certain there were all kinds of things about her sisters scrawled on those pages. Everything from whatever squabble happened to be going on all the way to their boyfriends.

  “I’m sorry,” Sunny muttered, and she wondered how many more times she was going to have to say that. She wished she’d burned the damn diaries when she’d left for college.

  “After being followed around by cameras for years, I seriously doubt anything fresh and new can come to light about me,” McCall assured her.

  Sunny wasn’t so sure. “I remember writing about you lusting after and wanting to have sex with Shaw’s brother, Austin. For real sex and not the pretend relationship that Sunshine was always pressing for you to have with him.” Sunshine had done that because viewers had sent in lots of fan mail the few times Austin had appeared on screen.

  “Shit,” McCall said, a rare use of profanity for her. “It won’t matter to me, but I’ve heard Austin might be having custody problems with his late wife’s parents. They want to raise his girls.”

  That put a huge fist-sized knot in her stomach. Apparently, that particular tidbit of gossip hadn’t made it to Sunny yet. Good grief, tawdry publicity from the diaries definitely wouldn’t help with something like that, and she needed to press the lawyer to make sure Tonya didn’t get that in print.

  “I wrote about Hadley, too,” Sunny added.

  “Hadley won’t care. In fact, she’ll say the publicity will help her business.”

  That was possible. Judging from what Sunny had seen in the box of underwear Hadley had sent, her sister didn’t cater to prudish clients.

  “And Hayes,” Sunny went on. “I also wrote some stuff about him.” Though, like Hadley, Hayes hadn’t kept many of his escapades secret so there’d be no shocking or sappy revelations about him.

  “Actually, that’s one of the reasons I’m calling,” McCall said. “I didn’t want to worry you, what with everything else going on in your life, but Hayes is missing.”

  This time the knot wasn’t from dread but from fear. Not an overabundan
ce of fear, though. Hayes had gone missing before. Well, not actually missing. As Hayes had put it, he just hadn’t wanted to be found.

  “Apparently, he had some kind of blowup on the set where they were filming a commercial,” McCall explained. “He left, and no one, not even his agent, has heard from him.”

  Sunny didn’t ask about the blowup or the commercial. Those were somewhat the norm, too, when it came to Hayes. He had a reputation for being a bad boy actor with a face so alarmingly handsome that it made people give him leeway that he should in no way be given. What someone needed to do was get that chip off his shoulder. Still, Sunny couldn’t assume this was another case of her brother just being irresponsible and not wanting to be found.

  “I’ll make some calls,” Sunny assured her. “I’ll see if I can track him down.” She was about to hang up, but then Sunny remembered something else. “Did you take your silver name necklace with you when you left home?”

  McCall made a soft sound of surprise. “No. You know how much I hated that thing. It’s probably somewhere in the chest of drawers with the other things I left behind. Why?”

  “Just wondering.” Sunny thought of her own necklace that had been on the floor the day she’d arrived. A couple of days later, she’d checked the room for McCall’s and Hadley’s but hadn’t found them. Of course, Hadley might have tossed hers. Or she could still be wearing it as Yeldah, the Ukrainian peasant.

  When Sunny ended the call, she put aside her freshening-up plans and got started in on tracking down her brother. She went to find Em. Even when Hayes was at his worst, he’d still stayed in touch with Em. McCall knew that, of course, and had almost certainly already spoken to Em about it, but it was possible her grandmother knew some of Hayes’s friends for Sunny to contact.

  Sunny threaded her way through the house. No Em, but Ryan was working on his laptop at the dining room table. It appeared to be some kind of advanced math homework.

  “Em?” she asked.

  “She’s in the backyard dealing with the fire aftermath. She’s making Bennie scrub out the birdbath and fix the mosquito traps.”

  Sunny thought of the dozen or so lantern-sized stainless steel canisters that Em had sitting around her gardens. “What’d Bennie do to the traps?”

  “Some of the foam from the fire extinguisher got on them. Em gave him a bottle of silver polish and said they had to be buffed to a shine.”

  Well, that would be interesting work considering that the traps were usually filled with mosquitos and other biting bugs.

  Thankfully, Ryan didn’t ask if she was okay, which was progress. She didn’t want him worrying about her, and his concern had seemed to ease up a bit.

  Maybe.

  When Sunny gave him a closer look, she did see something there in his eyes. “Uh, can I use the SUV tonight? I have a date.”

  She wanted to smile, but since Ryan suddenly seemed as uncomfortable as a bug on a blistering hot rock, she kept her expression blank. Ryan had been going into town to get groceries and run errands so he must have met someone. However, this was the first she was hearing about it, and Sunny made a mental note to pay more attention.

  “Of course, you can use the SUV. Is the date with anyone I know?” she asked.

  Sunny didn’t think it was a good sign that his glance flicked away. “Kinsley.”

  Sunny pulled back her shoulders so fast that she got one of those twinges she’d been carefully avoiding. The angry, crying girl certainly didn’t seem to be Ryan’s type. Not that she knew what his type was, but she certainly wouldn’t have guessed it’d be Shaw’s most recently discovered sibling.

  “Kinsley’s having a hard time,” Ryan went on, obviously trying to justify this date. “We’re just going to go to the ice-cream shop and then hang out.”

  Sunny paused, considering what wise advice she could give him about this and drew a blank. “Sounds fun,” she settled for saying.

  It didn’t, not at all. It sounded depressing, what with everything Kinsley was going through, but maybe this would help Ryan get his mind off his father.

  Still...

  It made her wonder if Hugh had ever had “the talk” with Ryan. Since Ryan was almost seventeen, that should have come years ago, but Hugh being Hugh, maybe it hadn’t. Good grief. Should she say something now? Maybe. But this certainly wasn’t Ryan’s first date.

  Was it?

  She’d never heard him talk about actual dates, though he’d had friends in San Antonio who he went out with as a group. Not especially socially savvy friends but rather those from the smart-kids clubs that he’d belonged to when he’d still been in school. Sunny didn’t want to judge Kinsley, but...all right, she was judging her because Kinsley didn’t look like the smart-kids-club type.

  “Are we about to talk safe sex?” Ryan asked. His mouth twitched as if fighting a smile.

  Sunny definitely didn’t have to do any smile fighting. She was now the one who was as uncomfortable as a bug on a hot rock. However, she tried not to show it. “Maybe. Do you need to talk about it?”

  “No,” he quickly assured her. “Do you?”

  Coming from anyone else, that would have sounded snarky or even cocky, but the question seemed genuine.

  “I just want to make sure things aren’t moving too fast for you,” Ryan went on. “Kinsley mentioned that you and Shaw had been in his barn.”

  “Kinsley told you about that?” Sunny hoped she hadn’t told anyone else. Even though the horse was already out of the barn, she didn’t want Kinsley spilling anything about it. “What exactly did she say?”

  Ryan shrugged. “Only that Cait and she had left Shaw and you in the hayloft.”

  Sunny felt the blush rise in her cheeks and then heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. She whirled around to the parlor doorway, expecting to see Em or even Bennie. But it wasn’t.

  It was Shaw.

  Though he wasn’t the throat clearer. Nope, that sound had come from the woman standing beside him. The one with a malarkey-eating grin on her face.

  Her mother, Sunshine.

  CHAPTER NINE

  SHAW HAD HOPED to give Sunny some kind of advance notice about her visitor. That’s why he’d told Sunshine to wait in the foyer when he’d seen her going into the house. He would have had an easier time telling dust not to settle because Sunshine had stayed right on his heels when he’d gone in search of Sunny. And he’d found her. Heard her, too.

  Talking about being in the hayloft with him.

  Oh, yeah. Sunshine had to be mentally jotting that down so she could feed it to Tonya for her next rake-Sunny-over-the-coals article.

  Sunny snapped toward them so fast that he was surprised she hadn’t cracked a bone or two. Or winced from her incision and recent stitches. But there was no wincing, only a hard look for her mother. Sunny rarely looked mean, but she was managing to do that now.

  “You stole my diaries,” Sunny growled, the meanness making it into her voice, as well.

  Ryan got up, going to Sunny’s side in a show of support. Maybe willing to do more, too. He seemed ready to rip Sunshine a new one, but the boy was going to have to stand in line. It was his life that had been dragged over the coals with that article, too, and Sunshine had given Tonya the ammunition to do it.

  “Well, hello to you, too, Sunny.” Sunshine went closer, aiming some air kisses on Sunny’s cheek.

  The woman wasn’t stupid and knew Sunny wanted no such greeting from her, so maybe this was Sunshine’s way of twisting the knife. He’d heard plenty of rumors about the ways she’d manipulated and exploited her daughters, but this was low even for Sunshine.

  “You must be Ryan,” Sunshine said, extending her hand for the boy to shake.

  Ryan didn’t take her hand, and Shaw had to give it to the boy—he was holding up his end of the mean looks aimed at a woman who deserved every one of them and m
ore.

  “You stole my diaries,” Sunny repeated, stepping in front of Ryan and pushing her mother’s hand away.

  Sunshine sighed and used her batted-away hand to give her massive tumbling blond hair an adjustment that it in no way needed. As usual, there wasn’t a strand out of place, probably because she’d doused it with hairspray. Ditto for the makeup. It had likely taken hours to make sure both her makeup and clothes suited her former beauty queen image. Today, it was slim ice-blue pants, a matching sleeveless top and silver stiletto sandals. He could practically see the cloud of eau de whatever haloing around her.

  Or maybe that was the smoke from hell seeping up to claim her miserable soul.

  “I didn’t steal your diaries,” Sunshine said, looking Sunny straight in the eyes. “That’s what I came all the way here to tell you. I didn’t take them and I don’t know who did.”

  Sunny didn’t miss a beat. “You’re lying. Who else would have been able to get into the house and up into the attic?”

  “Any number of people, I’d imagine.” Sunshine’s voice was cool and completely unruffled. “Think of all the episodes that were shot in this house.” She glanced around, lifting her hand to emphasize her point. “Every inch of the interior of this place was filmed at one time or another. Including the attic.”

  “The diaries weren’t there when Little Cowgirls was filmed,” Sunny quickly pointed out.

  Sunshine shrugged. “In season four, episode two, the cameraman filmed you sneaking into the attic to try to get a peek at what your brother was doing. There were boxes up there then. Boxes marked pictures and such. A reporter like Tonya could have seen the reruns, sneaked in, found the diaries and sneaked right back out without anyone seeing her.”

  The woman had a point. One that Shaw wished she hadn’t been the one to make.

  “You were here at the house about the time the diaries were likely taken,” Sunny pressed.

  Sunshine did another lift of her slim shoulder. “Unless you had a security camera that I don’t know about, you have no idea when they were taken. Heck, it could have been a ‘fan’ who snatched them.” She put fan in air quotes. “One who slipped in years ago and took them.”