Texas Tender (15 page)

“It was stupid of me to believe all the things Van said, but after losing my mother and Webb, I was desperate for someone to lean on.” She focused her clear blue eyes on Will. “Aunt Ella makes me feel like it's a character flaw not to be stoic in the face of any kind of misfortune, no matter how devastating. Van would hold me when I was lonely and let me cry on his shoulder when I was sad. I see now that it was very foolish of me to think he loved me, but I was desperate to feel close to someone.”

“Did you see him more than once?” Will asked.

“Whenever I could,” Junie Mae said. “He would get a room in the hotel and I would meet him. We were very careful to make sure no one saw us.”

Will was certain that in a town this size, quite a few people knew something had been going on between them.

“Did he know you were in the family way before today?” Will asked.

Junie Mae buried her face in her hands and shook her head.

“What did he say?”

“He doesn't believe it's his baby; he said that I can't prove we've been together.”

Will thought that might be relatively easy to establish, but he had no intention of doing anything to force Van to marry Junie Mae. A marriage to Van under those circumstances would be a living hell. Yet something had to be done.

“I think you ought to tell your aunt and uncle.”

Junie Mae looked up. “I could never do that. I'd rather kill myself.” She uttered a hysterical laugh. “I might as well kill myself anyway. They'll turn me out when they learn the truth. I'll die on the street.”

As attractive as she was, Will considered that highly unlikely, but she looked frightened enough to do something crazy. “I'm sure things look desperate to you right now, but this has come as a shock to both you and Van. I think you both need some time to get used to it. Having a baby is a wonderful thing. Why don't you go home and get some rest? It takes most men a little time to get used to the idea of being a father, but they generally come around.”

Junie Mae threw herself at Will, gripped his vest in both hands, and starting crying. His arms felt awkward hanging at his sides so he reluctantly put them around Junie Mae.

“You don't have to cry anymore.” He patted her on the back, but that only made her cry harder. “If you don't get control of yourself, everybody in town will know something is wrong. And if I know women— and I
do
know women—they'll have the secret out of you before nightfall.”

Junie Mae lifted her head and released his vest.
“I'm sorry. I'm just so relieved to have someone I can depend on.”

Will wished Isabelle could hear that. Maybe then her criticisms wouldn't be so stringent. “Just dry your eyes and pull yourself together. I promise I'll think of something.”

Junie Mae looked up at him with adoring eyes, and Will felt his heart sink.
Not again!

“I think you're the most wonderful man in the world.”

With that, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Will had been on the receiving end of such emotional displays too often to be thrown completely off his stride. That lasted just until he looked up to see Idalou staring at them with a look that had trouble written all over it.

Idalou had told herself not to be a fool so many times the words played over and over in her head like a litany. That was partly because her brain was too paralyzed to function. If her horse hadn't known the way home by himself, she could have ended up in West Texas. As it was, she arrived at the house without any conscious memory of how she got there.

She took longer than usual to unsaddle her horse and rub him down before turning him out in the corral. Then, instead of going inside to change her clothes and begin preparations for supper, she leaned on the corral fence and watched her horse roll in the dust. She studied the way his steel-gray coat wasn't a solid color but was composed of swirls of dark hair against a background of silvery white. She wondered why she'd never noticed that he was lop-eared. Actually, he was a really ugly horse.

Bored with watching him stand in the shade of a
cottonwood, his left rear leg drawn up beneath him and his head hanging down, she turned toward the creek that ran some distance from the house. The day was relatively cool for late July, but it felt good to settle in the shade of the cottonwoods, oaks, and pecan trees that bordered the stream. A cardinal flew in and out of a tangle of grapevines, willows, and hackberry bushes, squawking loudly at a jay trying to feed in the same area. Nearby a towhee scratched vigorously in the leaves for seeds and insects. All in all, it was a lovely summer day, one that reminded people of why they chose to live on the prairie of central Texas.

But Idalou couldn't get the image of Junie Mae kissing Will out of her mind. Junie Mae Winslow! The woman who'd stolen Webb from her. Now Junie Mae had set her sights on Will, and the spineless man hadn't been putting up a fight. There was no use denying that Junie Mae was a pretty woman, but Will already had Mara declaring she was in love with him. What was Will doing asking Idalou to walk with him when he was playing fast and loose with any female who was willing?

Idalou had been flattered that he'd asked her. If she hadn't had to search for the bull, she'd have accepted. After her run-in with Newt, Jordan had forbidden Mara to leave the house after dark unless Will was with her. Now, probably Junie Mae would be walking with him, too. Will probably thought it was perfectly normal to have several women running after him at the same time. She didn't know a single man who could turn down a pretty woman. There was no reason to expect Will to be the exception.

The problem, though, wasn't Will or Mara or Junie Mae. It was herself.

She could still recall the weakness that had gone all through her when she'd opened the door and found
herself face-to-face with the most incredibly handsome man she'd even seen, but Will had restored her to normal by refusing to help find her bull. She'd been irritated when he'd put on the sheriff's badge, and had gotten really angry when Mara became infatuated with him.

But sometime during all of this her feelings had changed. When had that happened, and why?

It had been before she found out he'd paid off her loan. She was glad he'd been able to talk Jordan into meeting with her and Carl, but that wasn't any reason to become infatuated with him. It had been kind of him to explain to Carl that Mara's thinking she was in love with Will was just a phase. Okay, he'd kept Van from running over Pepper, and stopped Newt from kissing Mara. So he was a decent man, but that wasn't reason to think he was somebody special. He was only going to be in Dunmore long enough to get his bull.

Feeling frustrated with herself and the situation, she walked over to the grapevine to see if any of the grapes were ripe, even though she knew they wouldn't be ready to pick until just before frost. The cardinal took exception to her interest. She responded by shaking the vines until the bird gave vent to an angry squawk before flying off. The blue jay watched silently from a willow limb.

She could find only one reason for these unexpected feelings. Just like every other female in Dunmore, she'd fallen in love with Will's looks. How could she have done anything so stupid? She'd thought she was in love with Webb, and look how that had turned out. She'd had reason to think Webb was partial to her; absolutely no reason to think Will considered her anything other than a pain in his side. And she'd done everything she could to reinforce that opinion.

The sound of an approaching horse was a welcome distraction. When she saw Carl riding toward her, looking tired and downcast, she was relieved. She was anxious to tell him that they didn't have to worry about losing the ranch just yet.

“Are you sure you don't know why he paid off the loan?”

Idalou had insisted that she and Carl thank Will together and do so at once. Carl must have asked her the same question a dozen times while they rode to town.

“I was sure he disliked me. After the way he let Mara attach herself to him, I wasn't sure he liked you any better,” she responded.

“He's been real decent about it,” Carl said, “but he's such a gentleman Mara is more in love with him than ever. I know her mother is. When I rode over the other day, that's all she could talk about.”

“What were you doing at Jordan's ranch?”

“I went to let him know I hadn't seen any of his cows on our range. After the way he behaved when we talked, I figured I ought to do something to let him know I believed he was trying.”

Idalou wasn't convinced that Jordan was innocent, but she didn't say anything. They'd reached town. She hoped Will hadn't left for one of the sumptuous dinners that were quickly becoming a source of conflict among Dunmore's matrons.

The streets were surprisingly quiet for late afternoon. They didn't meet anyone they knew well enough to call out a greeting before they reached the sheriff's office. They dismounted and tethered their horses at the hitching post.

“Let me speak first,” Idalou said. “I'm the one who's been most critical of him.”

“That's a good reason why
I
should speak to him
first.” Carl didn't offer to help his sister dismount. She'd been doing it unassisted for so long, the thought never occurred to either of them.

“Let me give it a try,” Idalou said as she selfconsciously brushed dust from her skirt. “If I make a mess of it, you can take over.”

When Idalou opened the door and stepped into the sheriff's office, she could just as easily have thought she'd stepped into the middle of a quilting bee. Close to a dozen women filled the room, all talking at once and passing two pieces of paper back and forth, which they regarded with unhappy expressions.

“You can't sign up for breakfast or supper until everyone has had a turn,” Andy Davis's wife informed Idalou. She was backed by her daughters, Louise and Sarah, who regarded Idalou in a manner that made it clear the girls saw her as a rival.

“Carl and I just stopped by to thank the sheriff for a kindness. Do you know where he is?” She'd noticed almost immediately that Will was absent.

“He's back at the jail cells,” Mrs. Davis said. “He said it was an unsuitable place for ladies.”

“Is anybody in jail?”

“He had two drunk cowboys,” Louise Davis said with a superior smirk only a thirteen-year-old could achieve, “but he let them go before we got here.”

“Then I guess it's okay for me and Carl to go find him.” The shocked expressions on several faces amused Idalou, because she knew that some of the women thought her working on the ranch alongside her brother was very unladylike. Idalou moved quickly among the throng and passed through the door separating the office from the part of the building that housed the two jail cells. She found Will sitting in the farther cell, chewing on a straw, and looking out the small window with a pensive expression.

“Have you behaved so badly that the women have put you in jail?”

Will turned away from the window when he heard Idalou's voice and smiled when he saw her and Carl. “It's the only place I'm safe. They're in there deciding who can feed me when, and what each of them can cook. I thought they'd come to blows when two women wanted to use the same prairie chicken recipe. One finally settled on goose. I hate goose.”

“It's your own fault,” Idalou said, unable to repress a smile. “You shouldn't be so charming. You could be as crabby as a bear.”

“Not when I grew up with Isabelle and Drew both lecturing me on how to behave, and Jake and nine older brothers ready to break my head if I upset either of them.”

Idalou doubted that was true. Will seemed to be a basically nice man, but it was obvious that everyone in his life had spoiled him. Being the youngest and
the best-looking in his family had probably made that inevitable.

“I wish you'd tell me how you do it,” Carl said. “I don't want every woman in Dunmore swooning over me. Just Mara.”

“You're fine as you are,” Will said, coming out of the cell. “Looks can be a curse.”

“Please curse me,” Carl said with a laugh. “I never had a female fight to feed me.”

“Count yourself lucky. They load my plate with enough food for two people,” Will said. “Then they expect me to come back for seconds. And that's before they bring out the dessert. If I don't want seconds of something, they demand to know why I didn't like it, if they used too much pepper, not enough salt, maybe more butter or cream would make it richer. By the time it's all over, I'd rather have gone hungry.”

Idalou was surprised to find herself feeling sorry for Will. It was her fault in a way. If she hadn't lost the bull, he wouldn't have had to stay in Dunmore and no one would have asked him to be sheriff.

An uncomfortable fluttering in her stomach made Idalou edgy. If they never found the bull, their only other option would be to hand the ranch over to Will. Would he let her stay at the ranch to cook and take care of the house and the animals, the chickens, the milk cow, and the pigs? Would he let Carl work for him? Would he share a room with Carl? Would he move Carl to the bunkhouse and stay in the house alone with her?

The fluttering turned to a sinking feeling. Will had no reason to stay in Dunmore when his family had huge holdings in the Hill Country. The sensible thing would be to sell the ranch.

“I can't sympathize with you about the food,” Carl said, “but I can about an office full of bickering women.” He nodded his head in the direction of the female voices coming through the closed door.

“All of them arrived with food,” Will said. “Fortunately, they were so anxious to make sure theirs was the best, they kept tasting until most of it was gone.”

“The kids are going to be disappointed,” Idalou said. Will's snack breaks were famous among the kids below the age of ten.