Chasing Trouble (Texas Trouble) (12 page)

Chloe jumped down a few limbs closer to the ground then looked up at Chase.  Carefully, he scooted down a limb, then another, hugging the tree as he descended.  Chloe moved down a few more and was finally on the lowest limb of the tree, but Chase was still pretty high.  The cat jumped down to the ground then walked over to her and rubbed against her legs purring.  Jenny cursed and picked up the naughty animal then hugged her fiercely. 

"Bad kitty," she murmured into her fur, but kissed her head.

When she heard a loud crack then wood splintering, Jenny's heart dropped to her feet and she looked upward.  The limb Chase had been standing on had broken off and it bounced through the other limbs until it hit the ground, leaving him hanging about twenty feet above the ground with no foothold.  Jenny walked over to Terri and shoved Chloe into her arms, then started taking her shoes off.  Although she hated heights, she knew how to climb trees, and she was a helluva lot more competent at it than Chase. Even if she might throw up when she got back down.

Joel grabbed her arm and pulled her back.  "Oh, hell no, sugar, you're not going up there.  He'll figure it out."

"He's going to fall!" she said desperately.

She watched Chase start swinging his body and moving his hands down the limb until he was at the trunk.  He swung his leg around it and hugged it for dear life
.  It was too large for him to hold onto for long though, so he slid downward about five feet, until his foot caught on another limb, the one right above the lowest on the tree.  She cringed knowing that the rough bark must be scraping him up like a cheese grater.

"One more to go, Chase," she encouraged him.

He nodded, but stayed still for a minute, before easing down to a crouch then sitting on the limb.  After wobbling a second, he eased his butt off the limb to place his feet on the lower limb.  It creaked and swayed and he lost his balance, then his bare feet slipped from the limb.  His butt hit the lower limb and he tried to catch himself, but pitched forward then fell face first to the ground. 

Jenny screamed, then doctor mode kicked in
.  Handing Chloe to her friend and said, "Terri run back to the truck and put Chloe in her cage and get my first aid kit.  It's in the back on the left side under one of the kitchen chairs.  Hurry!"

Sprinting
over to Chase's unmoving body, she ran her hands over his arms and legs, not seeing any obvious signs of a break, then she ran her hands through his hair looking for lumps or bumps and there weren't any. 

"Joel, help me!  Hold his legs together, and let's roll him.  I'm going to hold his neck steady,
be careful that we go together," she instructed when he knelt beside her.  "On three...one, two,
three
," she said then they rolled him over.

The right side of his handsome face was a mass of scratches and blood and she gasped.  "Oh, Chase..."

One blue eye opened, then the other and she breathed a sigh of relief as his eyes met hers.  "I'm fine, sugar," he assured her then went to sit up
and grimaced.

"You're not fine, until I say you're fine!" she wailed and pushed him back down.  "I'm the doctor here!"

"Okay," he said and smiled.  "My butt does hurt a little, and my ego is bruised, you wanna rub it?"

She punched him in the shoulder and he flinched.  "Stop being a smart ass...you're hurt."

"I'm not hurt, Doc...I promise," he said softly trying to smile, but flinching instead.  Blood dripped down the side of his face negating that statement.  Just then Terri made it back, breathing hard from running and set the kit down beside Chase. 

Jenny quickly opened it and took out a pair of gloves
, antiseptic wipes and ointment then proceeded to clean the side of his face.  Once she had the bark fragments and blood cleared, she saw that the scrapes were superficial and no real damage had been done.  She huffed a breath then asked, "Does your neck or back hurt?"

"No, ma'am...just my butt."

"Yeah mine hurts too, you're a pain in the--" her sentence was cut off when he shoved his hands into her hair and pulled her down to him then claimed her mouth in a heated kiss. 

Joel grunted then stood up and mumbled what Jenny thought sounded a lot like "Get a room," as he turned and walked back toward the parking lot.  Chase
didn't let that stop him, he devoured her lips short-circuiting her brain.

When he finally released her, he said, "I was trying to save, Chloe."

"And kill yourself in the process...you scared the hell out of me," she whispered against his lips.

"I wanted to be your hero..." he told her
with a chuckle, but his clear blue eyes held vulnerability.  She got it now.  He was jealous of Joel, and what she'd said to him earlier in jest.  She imagined there was a lot of that between the brothers while they were growing up, and decided to soothe his male ego a bit.  He deserved it for trying to save her cat.

"You were brave to do that, Chase...thank you," she told him then leaned in and gave him a quick tender kiss
.  Pushing up to her feet, Jenny pulled off her gloves, tossed the supplies back into the kit, then extended a hand to help him up. 

"Just don't ever do it again
," she chastised.

He gave her
that
smile and she felt it all the way to her toes.  Taking her hand, he pulled and vaulted to his feet then pulled her to him for a tight hug. 

"My pleasure, sweetheart," he told her
with a kiss to her forehead.  Jenny sighed and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him back, because she couldn't resist, and because she really was glad he hadn't hurt himself badly.

Arm in arm they walked back to the moving truck, and she made him get into the passenger seat,
then slid behind the wheel.  "Give me the keys, Monkey Boy," she told him firmly and held out her hand.

"I can drive, Jenny," he insisted, but leaned up and pulled the keys from his pocket and handed them to her.

"So can I..." she told him with a twist of her lips.  "They let women do that these days."

"No, way!" he laughed then said, "I just thought since you haven't been back to
Amarillo in a while, and I know the way to my parents house, you might want to let me do it."

"Nah, believe this or not, I can follow directions too," she replied with a snort.

"Wow, a woman of many talents...how the hell did I get so lucky?"

"Just put on your seatbelt, smart ass," she said
with a chuckle before putting on her own seatbelt and cranking the truck.

On the north side of the city,
Chase's parents house was in the exclusive 'subdivision' in the city.  With each lot being a minimum of twenty acres, It wasn't a subdivision really, more like suburban estates.   Since the homes had to be at least ten-thousand square feet in the 'subdivision', according to Chase, they needed every square inch of that property.

Jenny's
mouth opened wider with each estate they passed. 

The
houses weren't houses, these mansions rivaled those seen on the TV show
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
.  Every sprawling estate they passed emphasized the yawning social separation that existed between her and Chase Rhodes.

He hadn't just grown up on the other side of the tracks, his family owned those tracks and drove the engine th
at used them.  Her stomach heave a little at the thought of staying with them for a couple of weeks, until she found her own place.

Silence
descended in the cab of the truck, then he asked, "Where does your family live?"

"Not around here," she
replied with a snort glancing over to see if he was smirking, he wasn't, so she added with a chuckle, "Drive across the tracks, go about a hundred miles then hang a left and you'll be there."

Another glance and
Jenny noticed his jaw was tight and his smile had faded. 

"I grew up here, but trust me when I say nothing was handed to me.  My daddy believed that we need to work for what we have, and I worked my ass off on the rigs and in school to get where I am...he's a workaholic,
and thinks we should be too," he told her with conviction and more than a little resentment in his voice.

"
Potter County," she finally said then added, "My parents and brother still live in the house I grew up in."

Chase's gaze swept to hers and he asked curiously,
"Your brother still lives with them?"

Jenny just
barely held back a smart comment about him still living with his parents too.  "Yeah, Nick is two years younger than me and he'll probably never move out...he doesn't have much motivation to leave."  She couldn't help the bitterness that crept into her tone.

"Do they kn
ow you're moving back to town?"

"No," she admitted and pursed her lips.  That information was something she hadn't shared with her parents or anyone else.  They didn't need to know
, maybe it would buy her some time before she was dragged back into the drama.  Jenny's life was her own now, and they hadn't kept up with her life when she moved to Henrietta, why would they care now?

"I'd like to meet them," he said surprising her.

"Why?" She cast a glance in his direction.

"Talking to your dad might help with setting up our new safety program."

Jenny groaned and tightened her grip on the wheel.  "I don't think that's a good idea...he won't be much help."

"We won't know until we talk to him, will we?"

"I know my dad, Chase, and he's bitter about what happened, feels sorry for himself...and like my brother, he's not motivated to change anything in his life.  It's been ten years since his accident, so if he was going to get back among the living, he'd have done it by now."

"People change, honey...you haven't seen him in how long?"

She huffed out a frustrated breath, hoping he'd just let the subject drop.  "Three, almost four years...since I started dating Beau."

"Why then?"

"Because when they found out that Beau had money, they thought that I was going to convince him to help them with their problems.  My brother tried to get him to fund one of his schemes.  After that, I quit going over there or calling.  They don't even know we broke up, or that I moved to Henrietta almost two years ago."

"Bowman has money?  That's a surprise...I thought he was a Ranger.  They don't get paid much, do they?"

"His dad has money...he's a rancher and has a big spread outside of town.  That's where Beau lived and worked until he joined the Rangers. 
We
lived there with his mother and dad...I worked on the ranch too and went to school."

"And after his mother died, he accused you of sleeping with his dad?"

Emotion clogged Jenny's throat making her voice gravelly, when she admitted with bitterness, "Yeah, on her deathbed...she hated me and had walked in on Ben and I hugging and put a nasty spin on it to Beau.  He believed her, and that was that."

"Well, I'm glad Bowman was stupid enough to believe that, although I'm sorry he hurt you so badly."

"I'm over it, we had other problems too, that just iced the cake," she told Chase, then admitted, "I owe Ben Bowman my career though...he helped me out of a sticky situation.  One of the loans you paid off for me was to him.  He didn't want me to pay him back, but I insisted."

Chase nodded then said,
"Take a left at the stop sign, we're at the end of the road,"

Jenny
felt like she was at the end of the road in more ways than one.  She was definitely through talking about Beau Bowman and her family. 

She hadn't planned on telling him all that,
could have refused to talk about it like she'd done with so many others, but she figured she'd better lay the groundwork in case something happened and her family came crawling out of the woodwork. 

They were all in the same city now,
and she wouldn't put it past them to try and pull the same crap they had with Beau, especially her brother.  Chase wanted to meet them... Jenny didn't think so, if she had anything to say about it.

CHAPTER NINE

They reached the end of a long paved driveway, and Jenny parked
beside a fountain in front of the huge house that was the Rhodes family estate, then sat there gawking in stunned amazement.  Architecturally, it was a dream with columns and arches across the front resembling a French Country manor, but it was so huge and sprawling, she couldn't imagine how anyone could live there and not get lost in their own home.  The electricity bill alone was probably double her monthly salary, her
new
salary.

"Wow," she murmured breathlessly.

"Yeah, it's kind of intimidating," he mumbled apologetically, then told her with a shrug, "I don't know why they bought such a big house, but it's the only home I've ever known."

"Did you ever get lost in there as a kid?" Jenny turned to ask.

"No, but when I was in trouble, there was plenty of places to hide...I needed that often.  I was a little hellion," he told her with a chuckle.

"I can't imagine that," she replied with a smirk.
  "So there's a guest house too?"  No wonder he didn't feel like he was closed in by his family.  With this monster of a house, on what looked like probably thirty acres, there would be plenty of privacy for him, especially in a second dwelling not attached to the main house.  Why they would need another home on the property was a mystery to her.

"There's another house near the back of the property for guests and visitors.  We needed it on holidays for all the relatives, and for the massive parties my mom liked to throw when I was growing up.  Now, it's mine, so the
y have to put people up in the main house if they want to stay."

"Is that where I'll be staying?" she asked him with trepidation.  They might have to form a search party to find her if she got lost in there.

"That's where mama planned for you to stay, but you can stay with me, I have three extra bedrooms, or you can stay in the pool house.  It's up to you..." he told her with a raised brow.

Jenny considered those options, then said, "I don't want to be under your parent's feet, and I don't think it would be appropriate for me to stay in your house, so I guess it's the pool house."

"The only problem with that is when the wind is blowing a certain way, the pool area is encompassed by the smell of my mama's stable," he told her with a grin.  "She built it after the other stuff was built, and didn't have much choice on placement."

Jenny groaned then asked, "There's a stable too?"

"Yeah, my mom likes to ride, it's her idea of exercise.  Farm girl, remember?"

"She sounds like a very complicated woman," Jenny told him with a smile.

"She's a mess for sure...once you get to know her though, I think you'll like her," Chase told her then looked up when the front door swung open and Curly Rhodes stepped out onto the wide veranda followed by a short Latina woman.  Curly waved at them excitedly, and hopped on her extremely high heels, her poufy blond hair dancing around her shoulders.

Chase groaned then forced a smile and waved back at her.  "It's showtime, sugar," he
mumbled before pulling the door handle.  He slid out of the truck and shut the door behind him, leaving her to stare as he walked to the porch and was ambushed by the two women.

Jenny got out of the truck and walked around the front, where she was grabbed
in a similar way and hugged like she was a long lost relative Curly Rhodes hadn't seen in a decade.

"Lord Almighty
, I'm glad you're finally here!" Curly declared excitedly in a thick drawl.

"Thank you for inviting me to stay until I find some place to live, Mrs. Rhodes," Jenny told her
politely.

"Why, honey, I wouldn't have you stay anywhere else.  I'm glad Chase talked you into taking the job!"  The woman practically vibrated with her excitement. 
From what she knew Mrs. Rhodes wasn't involved with the company business, so she wondered why she was so thrilled with her employment with them.

A sneaking suspicion flickered through Jenny's mind causing a moment of panic. Remembering the woman's insistence on the dinner party to 'thank her' for saving Chase's life, and Jenny's summation that it was a matchmaking attempt, Jenny hoped the whole job offer wasn't perpetrated by
this woman to further her campaign to get those grandchildren Chase said she wanted. 

If that turned out to be the case, Jenny had
just put a fork in her career, because she had only taken the job, would only keep the job, if she was hired due to her qualifications.  She'd have a long talk with Chase later about it.  Right now, she had to stay on her toes to keep up with the Chatty Cathy that was Chase's mama.

When she took a breath, Chase stepped forward and put his hand on his mother's shoulder then said, "Mama breathe, we just got here, don't overwhelm Jenny."

She leaned around Chase's shoulder and pinned Jenny with her gaze.  "Oh, I'm sorry, sugar.  I'm just excited.  Maria will show you to your room," she said and then stepped aside and the short Latina woman stepped forward and smiled at her.  "Hello, Dr. Anderson," she said in only slightly accented English.

Chase stepped toward the woman and picked her up
hugging her to him as he spun her around in a circle.  She squealed and slapped his shoulder.  "Put me down, Nino!" she yelled and he gently set her on her feet, then leaned down and kissed her cheek.

"But I missed you, Madre..." he said and squeezed her again.

"I was only gone two weeks, Nino," she said and huffed a frustrated sigh.

"How was Rico and your new grandbaby?" he asked and she smiled brightly
at him, her dark eyes lighting with pride.

"Perfect, my new grandbaby is perfect...
and Rico is Rico, you know?"

"He's my brother, so don't be too hard on him.  He's made you a grandmother," Chase
reminded her with a gentle smile Jenny had never seen him wear before.

"That he has, and even though he's still riding that motorcycle getting into trouble, and hasn't married the baby's mother, I love him.  Maybe one day he'll grow up," she told him with a sigh of frustration.

"He's a good man, Madre, and making something of himself...he finished college like you wanted.  Just because he doesn't want to be in a business suit, doesn't mean he's not a businessman."

"I know, he's making a lot of money with his motorcycle shop, but I just want him to settle down."
  Chase knew that Rico's motorcycle shop, although successful, was just a front for his operations with the D.E.A. to bring down big players in the Mexico/Texas drug trade.  He also knew that's why he wouldn't get married, baby or not. 

Chase was surprised he'd even gotten involved with someone.  It could jeopardize them all, if something went sour.  Rico trusted him like a brother, and that's the only reason he'd told Chase what he was doing
, so he could watch out for Maria. 

No one else in
Rico's family or the Rhodes family knew.  Not even Joel. 

"Give him time, he's just thirty..."
Chase said to divert her.

"And you're thirty-two and still wild too," she chastised with a hand on his chest then turned apologetic eyes toward Jenny.  "I'm being rude," she said and stuck her hand out to Jenny.  "
Come, I'll show you to your room, Dr. Anderson."

Jenny didn't take her hand
, she cast a glance at Chase then said, "Um...Chase mentioned something about the pool house being available?"

Curly
Rhodes puckered up her pretty face and waved her hand.  "Sugar, you don't want to stay in the pool house, it smells like horse manure most of the time."

Jenny could stand a little horse shit, she'd been entrenched in it at Ben Bowman's ranch for three years, she kind of liked its earthiness.  It reminded her of the wonderful animals who produced it.  She could especially tolerate it if it meant avoiding the drama that surely went on inside the huge mansion. 

"That won't bother me, I don't want to disrupt your household.  I'll be out of here before you know it," she assured the woman with a fleeting smile.

"You like horses?" Curly asked curiously and put a hand on her curvy hip.

"Yes, ma'am, I love them.  I used to ride all the time...I even worked on a ranch for a while."

"Well, bless your heart," Curly said
and her smile widened then she tilted her head to study Jenny closer.  "I'd never have guessed it.  You go to the stable and ride anytime you like.  My babies would love the exercise."

The invitation excited
Jenny, because it had been almost two years since she'd ridden, and she did truly love it.  Leaving the horses at the ranch had been the only thing she regretted about leaving the Bar B after her showdown with Beau. 

Hearing
a car coming down the drive, Jenny turned to see Joel's black Mercedes slowly moving toward them.  He and Terri had stopped at a convenience store a few minutes ago, because she had to use the restroom and couldn't wait.

Chase's mother squealed and danced on her heels again.  "
Well, I'll be damned," she said then walked swiftly toward the car when it stopped behind the moving truck.

Joel got out and rested his forearms on the top of the car.  "Hey, mama..." he said sounding less than excited about being there.
  When the passenger door opened and Terri slid out, Jenny watched surprise register on Curly's face.  Her perfectly arched eyebrows lifted and she looked at Joel with questions in her eyes.

"Mama this is Terri Cassidy, a friend of Jenny's...we came to help her unpack and get settled.  I'm going to drop her back in Henrietta on my way back to
Dallas tomorrow," he explained.  Jenny could feel the tension radiating off of him all the way over where she was standing.  Evidently, his mother could too.

"Really, now?  Where's Karen," she asked him with suspicion in her tone.

His jaw worked a few times, then he told her, "She's in Dallas," before running a hand through his hair.  His mother's eyes went to his hand and her mouth flattened.  "Where's your wedding ring, Joel?"

"Not now, mama," Chase said gruffly and took her arm.  "Help me get the pool house aired out for Jenny."  Curly pulled against Chase's hold, but he held her firmly, and led her back to the porch and into the house.
  Maria followed behind them, casting a glance in Joel's direction at the last moment before she went inside.

Joel's shoulders relaxed
and he dropped his forehead to rest on his arms on the roof of the car.  Jenny walked over to him and squeezed his shoulder. 

"It'll be okay, Joel..." she told him, not really believing that. 

Curly Rhodes was a very astute and outspoken woman, and she would probably grill her son like a thick steak before he got out of there tomorrow.  She felt sorry for him having to deal with his mother on top of everything else going on in his life.  Maybe Chase's idea of bringing him along was a bad one.

"Yeah, I knew she'd figure it out...I just hoped it wouldn't be this quick.  I just couldn't force myself to put that damned ring back on." he mumbled into his arms.

"I don't blame you, your ex-wife made a mockery of what it represents," Jenny told him gently.

"Buck up, Joel," Terri told him unsympathetically from
across the top of the car.  "It's not the end of the world, you'll survive.  If you don't want to talk about it, just tell her that and don't budge."

"It's not that easy," he said looking up at her.  "You don't know my mama..."

"She's just a woman, and you have a right to your privacy.  Just tell her no," Terri reiterated then huffed out a breath.  "You're leaving tomorrow, you can hold out until then."

He slapped a palm on the roof then stepped back and shut the door.  "We'll see..." he replied then
strode around the car and headed toward the front door. 

Jenny followed him,
walking beside Terri into the high-ceilinged entryway.  Her breath lodged in her throat as the opulence of the inside of the home struck her dumb. 

The foyer alone was bigger than her apartment in Henrietta had been. 
Her brain went into sensory overload noting the beamed ceiling that must be twenty feet tall, the beautiful brown and gold flecked tiles that made the room seem to glow, and the rich heavy mahogany tables lining the walls, a few topped with mirrors and the others with expensive oil paintings.

The whole effect should have been dark and intimidating, but it wasn't. 
The eggshell colored walls lightened it up and highlighted the elegance of the furniture and the vibrancy of the brightly colored abstract paintings.  Tall ornate vases full of flowers topped most of the surfaces sending out a calming aroma into the space.

"This place is amazing," Terri whispered reverently.

"Overwhelming," Jenny corrected and walked farther into the long room.  Terri shut the door behind them and followed her.  The entry opened to a room with curved walls and heavily carved white cornice work.  Painted on the high round ceiling was a mural with fanciful cherubs playing in a garden.  Salmon covered drapes trimmed in gold cording hung in the arched windows.  In the center of the room was a large round sofa of a slightly darker color with gold-tasseled pillows all the way around it.  Near one wall, by the window was a spectacular ebony grand piano.