ONCE IN A BLUE MOON (BLUEBONNET, TEXAS Book 2) (23 page)

God, I hate small towns.
But it looked like I wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.

My poor car overflowing with groceries, I headed home. Time to invest in something larger and give up my sports car driving days. Babies and convertibles just didn’t mix. I added it to my mental to-do list.

I had an hour until Cassi and George arrived. I adored all Cassi’s kids but twelve-year-old George ranked right up there with Ty. George was Cassi’s dyslexic, far too serious, token middle child—since you didn’t really get a middle child with four. I made it a point to take him to do something semi-frivolous a couple times a year just so he didn’t forget too quickly how to be a kid.

On the drive home my mind wandered back to The Bitch and how bad their marriage must have been. There was no doubt in my mind she’d deprived him sexually, but what else had she deprived him of?

I had no idea what to do, and no one to ask. I’d had enough of familial interference. A rocky relationship can overcome just about anything if the sex blows your mind. And ours definitely qualified. Lucky Rule Number Thirteen:
Good Sex is Important. And while we’re at it, size does matter
. I grinned to myself. Her loss had definitely been my gain.

I needed that Thanksgiving update. In his parent’s driveway, I slipped my clogs back on, tightened my jacket and climbed out. Hopefully Miss Maggie liked cheesecake since I’d bought all the ingredients to make it.

"Well hi there, Miss Newlywed," Delaney teased as I approached the porch where she sat reading a textbook.

"Aren’t you cold?" I asked, climbing the steps. The wind had died down, but it had to be at least forty out here.

"Nah. It helps me stay awake." She shrugged and held up a thick textbook. The strong family resemblance left me wondering what mine and Ty’s baby would look like. Delaney had a heavy spattering of freckles like Zack, where Ty’s were lighter and blended with his tan. Zack’s long red hair was also straight. So were her messy ringlets a Boudreaux trait or had they come from her own mother?

"Is your mom around?" I wanted to kick myself the minute the words left my mouth. "Oh God! I’m so sorry!"

"It’s alright." But the light in her eyes was gone.

"No it’s not." I swallowed my tears and took a deep breath. "Every time I turn around I want to cry," I confessed with an embarrassed chuckle.

"You and Jessa both," Maggie said, opening the screen door. "Practice for all that your kids will put you through some day."

Ouch!
A direct hit. I shot Delaney another apologetic look, but she waved it off. Her kindness only made me feel worse.

Maggie held open the door. "Come on."

I stepped inside, clamping a hand to my growling stomach. "Oh my goodness. I’m sorry! The smell of food does that to me."

With an understanding pat on my shoulder, she led me to the kitchen.

"We’re having company. To paint the nursery,” I explained, “but thank you."

"Have you picked a theme?" Maggie asked, waving to a chair across the table from her.

The same one I’d sat in the last time I’d been here. Delaney had followed us into the house, and took a seat next to me.

"Beatrix Potter."

"So what are you painting?" Delaney asked.

"The nursery. We’re doing each wall a different color."

"Jessa’s doing ponies and Zack painted a mural in Travis’s new room." Maggie beamed at me from across the table.

Horses, how original.
I smiled back at her.

"I stayed the night with him last night, and he was so cute!" Delaney laughed. "
‘
No Aunt Dee, I sleep alone. You stay down here.
’ He barely let me tuck him in. You know Jessa made Zack change that rodeo mural in Trav’s room. Apparently he’d painted Travis on the back of a bull and she didn’t want him getting any ideas."

I laughed, relaxing enough to lean back in my chair and cross my legs. "So she didn’t want him being a bull rider, huh?"

"Jessa comes from a rodeo family and her baby brother is a bull rider." Delaney’s smile was absolutely conspiratorial. "He’s cute, too."

"So did Jessa, like, barrel race or something?" Might as well find out what made my arch nemesis tick.

"No." Delaney giggled. "She used to be a saddle bronc rider."

"Oh my God," I said with a laugh. "You’re kidding? That tiny thing?"

Delaney smirked a bit but Maggie looked positively grim.

"You’re not? I didn’t even know they let women do that."

"Five time world champ." Maggie’s smile could only be described as tense.

I sat and let that interesting tidbit soak in, then Delaney added fuel to the fire.

"Zack placed a personal ad...on the Internet."

I couldn’t hold back the snort of laughter. "I’m sorry," I said between giggles, noting the pained expression on Maggie’s face. That settled me down. "I...I’m very sorry, ma’am. I think it’s the baby hormones. They’re making me crazy."

"You can call me Maggie, if you’d like."

In those seven little words. I realized just how hard the last year must have been on her.

"I thought you were a hometown girl?" Delaney teased.

 "I do my best
not
to pay attention to what goes on around town." I smiled at Maggie, hoping she’d understand what I was trying to say. I still didn’t have the full story on Delaney, and couldn’t imagine how hard a time they’d all had. I tried to picture sweet Mr. Boudreaux cheating on her, but it seemed so out of character.

Then Zack’s modern-day mail-order bride. Ty’s divorce and me. Polly Blanchard’s Wild Child. Miss Pregnant Bad Girl. The matriarch of the Boudreaux clan had taken more than her fair share of hits lately. I sighed. "Thank you, and I’m sorry for laughing. I had no idea..." On that sobering note, I trudged forward. "Is it okay if I bake some desserts for Thanksgiving?"

"That would be wonderful, dear. What about your sister?"

"She’s not coming home." I didn’t bother to elaborate. "I have to get home and get my spaghetti sauce on. Cassi’ll be here soon and I’ve got a car full of food." Maggie made to stand, and I waved her off. "I can find my way out."

On the front porch, I paused, the screen door still held open by my fingers. My car wasn’t where I left it.

Pregnancy was rotting my brain.

"Something wrong?" Delaney asked from behind me.

"I freaked for a minute when I saw my car was gone," I laughed. "I suppose Ty came and got it for me."

"I’ll walk you home."

I had a feeling this was more than a walk home. We stepped off the porch and she offered me her arm. I took it and accepted her friendship. We slowly walked up the driveway to the gravel road that ran from the county highway all the way around to dead end at the huge barn beside Zack’s house.

"It’s difficult for her, you know," Delaney began.

I could feel myself decompressing as we walked. Days of tension slowly drained as I soaked up the silence, occasionally perforated by something as mundane as a cow’s lowing or a horse’s whinny. "I do now. I honestly didn’t mean to laugh, but I had no clue about Zack and Jessa."

"Maggie loves Jessa but she didn’t always. And Maggie’s always been
somebody.
A Kendall. A Boudreaux. Someone important, and that means something to her. It hasn’t been easy having me around."

"Huh, my mom was a drunk." We both laughed softly "Can I ask? What happened?" I watched my mules grow dustier and dustier with each step.

"About how I came to be? Daddy slept with my mom. Once." She sighed heavily, a far-off look in her eyes. "She was a nobody and I’m an embarrassment. I never even met Dad until late last Spring when Mom got sick."

"I’m sorry." I thought of my own mother’s death. How little I’d mourned her and how often I’d cursed her drunken irresponsibility. "You two were close."

"The closest." She sniffled, looking away, and I squeezed her arm. "I try not to talk about her since I know it bothers Maggie. Sometimes I think she wishes I didn’t exist."

Delaney was just a baby, for Pete’s sake. "I doubt that, but you can talk about her with me, and if there’s anything I can do to help school-wise. Books, anything, you let me know."

"Thanks. That’s really sweet of you."

"School’s important." I pulled her close and we kept walking. "Do you get angry? Over all of it?"

She nodded, her curls bobbing up and down vigorously.

"So do I, sometimes. When life gets really unfair and shit. You
know
life’s not fair but that doesn’t mean you have to like it." I grinned and she grinned back, just a little.

At the other end of the road, a door slammed, and Jessa stepped off the porch, heading toward us. We kept on walking. She could just catch up. At this rate, I’d never get the bedroom painted.

Ty stood on our porch, leaning against one of the rails, his customary gentle smile on his face. "Why so glum, baby girl?"

Delaney shrugged, a watery smile on her face as we trudged up the steps. I nudged her toward Ty who hugged her.

From behind me a voice said, "What’d you do to her?"

"Lay off, Jessa!" My head snapped up and I frowned at the sharp crack of Ty’s voice. I’d
never
heard him talk to anyone like that. He held out an arm, and the three of us had a group hug.

"I didn’t mean to upset you, honey."

"You didn’t. It just sometimes hits me." She pushed herself off Ty’s chest and wiped her face.

"The holiday’s are gonna be tough, but we’ll muddle through, right?" Ty squeezed her, his face tender and my heart melted all over again. At the same time, I felt sad. The man he was with me was a shadow of the man he was with his family.
Rhea, again.

Delaney nodded and looked at me. "You want some help? With the nursery?"

"Do I need to come back later?" Jessa asked from behind me.

I opened my mouth to respond—nicely, no less—but Ty beat me to the punch. "Can you behave?"

"Ty!" I scolded.

"I just came to apologize. I’m not staying."

He opened his mouth, but I beat him this time. "Ty," I warned. He clamped his lips shut and looked at me, his jaw twitching. He was angry, I realized in shock. I studied him, a bit awed then gave him a tiny smile. "Relax." Turning to Jessa I added, "Come on in. I’ve got to get these groceries put up, and yes, Delaney, I’d love help painting."

Ty had already put most of the food away, so I turned the kettle on for some tea while we quickly finished up.

"Why don’t you take off. The game’ll be starting soon."

"Are you sure?" He’d used that stern tone again and kept glancing at Jessa.

I smiled and tugged at the front of his shirt. He wanted to protect me. "I’m positive."

"Alright then, if you’re positive," he added.

"I am. Now go have fun with your brother. I’m making spaghetti so you can eat whenever you feel like it." I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Now get, and let us talk."

I fixed our tea and the smell of oranges and vanilla filled the little kitchen. Pot in one hand and a box of biscotti in the other, I headed for the table.

"Ty looks so happy." Delaney smiled up at me.

"Thanks." I set everything down and turned to the cabinet for cups. "Jessa, would you like a cup of herbal tea? It’s decaf."

"Please." She’d been awful quiet ever since Ty snapped at her. I also got the distinct feeling she was soaking in everything she saw. I returned with the cups, sugar and half and half.

"I’m sorry for being such a mistrustful bitch," Jessa said softly, her eyes on her cup.

"I stepped in the middle of something, didn’t I?" Delaney accepted a cup and nibbled on a biscotti.

"Yeah. I opened my big mouth more than I should have this week. I really...God I hate to cry!" Jessa caught a bad case of the sniffles in the middle of adding sugar to her tea.

"Apology accepted." I stood and grabbed a box of tissues from beside the sink, plopping them next to her.

She took one and mopped her face.

"You do that so delicately, Jessa," Delaney teased.

Delaney was a peacemaker.
Every family has one, except mine.
That’s not true. I’d been the peacemaker, as well as chief cook, bottle washer and nose wiper for Angi.

"Shut up, Dee." She threw her wet tissue at Delaney.

"It’s okay," I said. "We’re both pregnant, so hey, we’ll chalk it up to hormones."

"It’s just—" she sighed and sat quietly a moment sipping her tea, "—this is good! It’s just that I was worried about Ty marrying you so soon after Rhea, and now, he’s all pissed at me for thinking he can’t take care of himself." Jessa looked up at me, her eyes now bloodshot. "I won’t interfere anymore, though. I can tell you love him and you two are really trying."

I sat, quietly absorbing the fact that she could see what I couldn’t even say.

"You love Ty?" Delaney asked.

Eyes on my cup, I nodded, too embarrassed to look up. I’d never told a soul about
when
I fell in love with Ty. "When I was in the sixth grade Jimmy Merk—ya’ll don’t know him, do you?" I asked softly.

They both shook their heads.

"Well, he asked me to the Middle School Mixer. I was so excited! He was the star of our middle school basketball team." I snorted with laughter at how the most horrible, life altering experience of my twelfth year was so unimportant now. "He was also a jerk, and to this day is still an asshole, by the way.

"At least Mom had been half-sober when he picked me up, and Angi was asleep."

"Who’s Angi?" Jessa asked.

"My baby sister." I should have known something was wrong when we walked. No dad to pick us up, no corsage, nothing. He didn’t want his parents to find out he was running with Polly Blanchard’s daughter.
What was that about the sins of the parents?
"So there I was in this butt-ugly, homemade dress. I was so proud of that dress. It wasn’t bad, it was just cheap, ya know. And cheap always shows.

"Anyway, he dumped me on the bleachers and ignored me—"

"Why didn’t you just walk home?" Jessa asked.

"I was twelve...and still dumb in the ways of men. Finally he comes up there and drags me behind the bleachers. Kisses me and tries to reach down my dress. Well, this stuff doesn’t stretch, so he can’t, and he’s tugging on the neckline and getting angrier and angrier."