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CHAPTER 15.2
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2022-09-27 17:34:21Related chapters
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 15.3
“Thank you. He was a cop.” The words made her heart ache, but she spoke them anyway, as a tribute to her father. “He was pulled from the rubble that first day, but he was already dead.”It was quiet for a moment while they all ate a few more bites and let the ghost of Shannon’s father drift away.“What are you writing about the other people you’re including in your book?” Beverly asked.“Whatever they tell me about themselves. How they have or haven’t changed since 9/11. What that day and their part in it has cost them. Their families.”“Maybe you should show Nick what you’ve written so far. Maybe it would convince him you’ll be careful with his story, treat him with respect.”Shannon thought for a moment, thought hard. She normally didn’t allow anyone to see her work until it was as clean and polished as she could make it. No eyes on her rough drafts but her own. But she had three chapters she could let him look at that were polished. “Sure,” she said. “Will you read some of my manus
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS CHAPTER 15.4
Oh, how she wanted a crowbar so she could pry those balled up emotions out of him.Through their talk and her musings, Nick had kept visual tabs on that one fireman, the one by the fire truck. Every so often, the man looked back.“Who is that?” she asked. “Who is who?“Would you stop that? You know exactly who I mean. You’ve been watching that one fireman since we got here like you expect him to burst into flames. Who is he?”“I’ve never met him.”“Oh, come on. In a town this size?”“No, really. I guess he’s the new fire chief they hired a couple of weeks ago.”“Hired? I thought all the firefighters here were volunteers.”“All but the chief. Somebody got smart about thirty years ago during the oil boom and established several different trust funds with city money. One of the funds was for the fire department. They can pay for a fire chief with experience, thanks to that fund. Everyone else is a volunteer.”“Why didn’t they hire you? You’ve certainly got the experience, and there are n
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 16
Away from the light of the fire, it was full dark, broken only by the occasional streetlight or car. Over head, a million stars blanketed the sky.“Look,” Shannon said, tilting her head back. “I’ve never seen so many stars before.”“I’m almost used to them by now,” Nick said, his arm still around her shoulders. “No big city lights out here.”“It’s so…breathtaking. I’m a writer. I should be able to think of a better word. Awe inspiring. When I look up I feel insignificant and small. Yet, at the same time, I feel…powerful.”As he watched Shannon, felt her body move beside him, Nick felt the rest of his blood rush straight for his groin. Where most of it had been since she’d first touched him at the bonfire.He supposed he ought to act like the big he-man, indifferent, aloof. The truth was, he felt too damn good to act any way other than what he felt like—an over-sexed teenager. How undignified. Been there. Done that. Thanking his lucky stars he was feeling it again.“What are you think
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS CHAPTER 16.1
Then he took one nipple into his mouth and suckled, and Shannon’s back arched off the bed. A cry of sheer pleasure escaped her throat and shot straight to his loins.He’d had in mind to go slowly, make it last. Next time. Maybe.He fumbled for his wallet, but when he pulled out the condom, she took it from him. “Let me,” she said breathlessly.Nick nearly groaned. He didn’t know if he could take it, but he gritted his teeth and let her push him over onto his back.Shannon moved his hands so they rested beside his head, then tore open the packet and straddled his thighs. Looking down and seeing him totally at her mercy gave her a rush of power that was heady in its intensity. Odd that she would feel it so much. She usually didn’t feel a lack of power. But then, she didn’t usually have a naked man beneath her, hers to do with as shewould.Slowly, one fraction of an inch at a time, she rolled the condom down onto his erection.“You’re about to kill me,” he said through clenched teeth. S
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS CHAPTER 16.2
Then he took one nipple into his mouth and suckled, and Shannon’s back arched off the bed. A cry of sheer pleasure escaped her throat and shot straight to his loins.He’d had in mind to go slowly, make it last. Next time. Maybe.He fumbled for his wallet, but when he pulled out the condom, she took it from him. “Let me,” she said breathlessly.Nick nearly groaned. He didn’t know if he could take it, but he gritted his teeth and let her push him over onto his back.Shannon moved his hands so they rested beside his head, then tore open the packet and straddled his thighs. Looking down and seeing him totally at her mercy gave her a rush of power that was heady in its intensity. Odd that she would feel it so much. She usually didn’t feel a lack of power. But then, she didn’t usually have a naked man beneath her, hers to do with as shewould.Slowly, one fraction of an inch at a time, she rolled the condom down onto his erection.“You’re about to kill me,” he said through clenched teeth. S
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 16.3
Did that mean she was trying to impress Nick?Of course she was, she admitted, working a dab of styling gel into her shoulder-length hair. She wanted him to like her work so he would let her interview him, so he would want to be included in the project and have a chapter about himself.Frankly, she just flat out wanted him to like her. Nothing wrong with that, was there?Then there was the other. The sharp physical attraction.Call it what it is, Shannon—red-hot sex.She couldn’t deny their attraction, but what made her nervous was that she greatly feared she had overestimated her ability to keep business and pleasure separate. They weren’t separate when the man was the same for both. She wanted to interview Nick, and she wanted sex with him. Ifsomewhere in the back of her mind she wanted more than that—if she wanted to be close to him and let their togetherness chase away herloneliness—well, that was her problem, not his. If she wanted more timewith him—weeks, months—it wasn’t goi
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 17
Friday was both Spirit Day and Homecoming Day at Tribute High. The halls and classrooms were a blur of red and white. Teachers and students alike were revved up for the football game later that evening. The footballteam was cocky; the cheerleaders giggled whenever they saw one another; and anyone who made it from one end of the hall to the other without getting a pom-pom in the face was one lucky individual. Nick had been“accidentally” assaulted twice so far, and there was more than an hour left before classes let out.Nick tried to remember if he’d ever been as excited over anything as these kids were. Two occasions came to mind: Christmas morning as a kid, and his first day with the Fire Department of New York.That old association with FDNY had reached out and tapped him on the shoulder when he’d been walking home from Shannon’s in the wee hours of the morning. It happened every year the night of the bonfire. Somehow,without planning it, Nick always ended up walking past the rem
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 17.1
She smiled, and it spoke of sadness and perhaps empathy. She placed a hand on his arm. “You really have been stung by the media, haven’t you?” She gave his arm a warm squeeze. “The tape is just for me, to use as a backup for my notes and my memory. If it makes you uncomfortable, Iwon’t use it.” She picked up the recorder and made as if to put it away.Nick stopped her. “No, go ahead. Just do this the way you usually do.”She gave a small bark of laughter. “It was too late for that several days ago. However, we’ll start with basics. I’m going to ask you all sorts of things that might not end up in the book. But they’re things I need to know to get a better picture of who you are, where you were in your life on 9/11, how that affected you and brought you to where you are today. I have your vitals, date of birth, immediate family members, your education. I’d like to start with you telling me why you wanted to become a fireman, and whenand where you first knew that was what you wanted.
Last Updated : 2022-09-27
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LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 36.1
“How…? When…?”“Brenda had the photo with her. She knew she wanted to do something, but all she could think of was to blow it up. I ran across a guy on the Internet who does oil paintings from photos. I thought she would like that.”“What is it, Daddy?” Jasmine asked. He couldn’t move.“It’s us,” Pammy cried. “Mama and us girls in the backyard.”It had always been one of Riley’s favorite pictures of Brenda and the girls. In fact he had a copy of it right now in his wallet. Brenda, sitting in the grass, with Pammy and Jasmine on either side and Cindy in her lap. He had taken the picture himself just before Brenda shipped out, nearly two years ago.The artist had enlarged it and copied it in oil. It was perhaps the most beautiful portrait he’d ever seen. His vision blurred.“Lemme see, Daddy, lemme see,” Cindy cried.When he finally looked up at Amy, he didn’t know what to say.She leaned toward him and kissed each of his eyelids, then his mouth. “Merry Christmas, Riley.”Amy was gratif
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 36
The rest of the week until Christmas passed in a blur. Amy spent much of it with Riley and his girls.There were errands to run. There was more shopping to do, both in town and beyond. There were videos to rent and watch and a movie to see in Waco. There were friends and neighbors to meet.Amy wondered what those friends and neighbors thought of Rileyshowing up with her, but they were all friendly. They were especially nice when Riley told them that she had served with Brenda. That served as a good, acceptable reason for them to be together without too much overt speculation.They were seldom alone, she and Riley. There was little time for it with the girls always around. But Amy didn’t mind. There was always time for a few heated kisses when they weren’t looking, or after their bedtime if Amy drove herself home.She had her own last-minute Christmas things to take care of, too.Things she could not do around Riley or his girls. But with a few phone calls, a quick trip here and there
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 35.1
“Okay, bring them to the den. We’ll let him sit in his recliner while we doctor him,” Amy suggested. She craned her neck to peer down the hall.Seeing no sign of Riley, she led the girls a few feet away into the kitchen and gave them a conspiratorial wink.“Here’s the deal, girls. Your daddy’s barely hurt at all. No more than one of you falling off your bicycle and getting a few scrapes.”Pammy poked out her lower lip. “Are you sure?”“I’m sure. I was there in the hospital when the doctor checked him over.He does have stitches on the side of his head, but not much else. But the thing is, guys are different than girls. Guys are bigger and stronger than we are. At the same time, when they get the least little scrape, or catch a cold, they turn into helpless babies. They need help with every little thing.”That got a round of smiles out of the girls.“I’m telling you this so you won’t worry about your daddy just because he moans and groans now and then over his aches and pains. It’s jus
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 35
All the way to the hospital on the hill at the south edge of town Amy kept her mind blank. She couldn’t allow herself to think. She scarcely allowed herself to breathe. An accident. Riley. Deer. Truck. Ditch. The words hurled themselves at her one after the other, like heat-seeking missiles.At the last stop sign before the hill, she hit her brakes too hard and her tires slid across the intersection. She was lucky no other cars were coming. She held her breath until the car straightened out, then eased up the hill and skated into the parking lot of the hospital.With a prayer on her lips, she rushed into the hospital and demanded to see Riley.They told her she should sit down. They told her it shouldn’t be long.They told her she had to wait.She told them, “Point me toward Riley Sinclair right this minute and you might live to see the end of your shift.”“Security!”“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Amy said as she started down the hall. “If you’ve got a security guard here in the middle of
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 34.2
“Good morning.”She barely bit back the shriek that threatened at the scare his voice gave her when she hadn’t realized he’d come in. “Good morning,” she managed. She stared at her computer screen and typed in her password to log on.His footsteps crossed from the door to her desk. He stopped there. “I called you last night,” he said quietly.Amy’s stomach clenched. “Did you?” “Several times.”She could see his hand resting on the edge of her desk. “I must have been out.” Heaven help her, she’d turned into a liar, she thought with dismay.“Amy, will you look at me?”She had to. She knew she had to. She even wanted to. Maybe. Sort of. She swallowed, wishing she knew what to do, what she wanted, what was best for them. If there was a them.Slowly she raised her gaze. “Riley, I…”“Don’t, Amy. If it’s this hard for you even to look at me, I guess we have a bigger problem than moving too fast.”“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. I’m driving myself crazy here.”H
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 34.1
“I’m going to be tied up most of the day,” Riley said. “So I don’t know if I’ll be able to call you until late.”She smiled sadly. “You don’t need to call me. We’ll see each other at the office Monday. I’m not that insecure that I have to hear your voice and know where you are every day.” Ha. Liar.“Are you telling me you don’t want me to call?”With a groan and a laugh, Amy shook her head. “I guess I deserved that, but no, that’s not what I’m saying. If you want to call me and have time, I’d love to hear from you. If you don’t have the time, or merely don’t want to call, I promise not to take your lack of calling as a personal rejection. How’s that?”He chuckled. “I think you’re right. I think we don’t know each other as well as we thought we did. I’m going to leave now, before I make an even bigger ass of myself.”Amy sighed and watched him through her window until he drove out of her parking lot. Then she slid to the floor, exhausted. She had gone from letting Marva’s beauty consul
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 34
Amy regained her wits as she did her breath—slowly. The warm weight of Riley Sinclair anchored her where she lay. Was he the anchor she’d beenseeking all her life? The person with whom she could put down roots?Her heart, so recently slowed to normal, gave a leap. She wouldn’t make the mistake she’d seen so many of her friends make, that of thinking one night of good sex—okay, mind-numbing sex—meant happily ever after.She tightened her arms around Riley’s shoulders, still not sure of her own emotions, let alone his.“You’re thinking too hard.” She gave a start. “What?”He pushed himself up onto his forearms and cradled her face in his hands. “I guess I know you better than I thought. Right now you’re trying to decide if this means we know what we’re doing.”“Home builder, child rearer and now mind reader?” She ran her hands up and down his arms. “Or are you thinking the same thing?”“I won’t be capable of rational thought for a while yet.”She smiled and stared at his chin to avoid
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 33.2
She chuckled at his thick Gypsy accent. “Good point. However, they never predict a woman will meet a man who’s short, pale and ugly, either. He’s always tall, dark and handsome.”By tacit agreement, the talk did not return to the subject of we. They finished their dessert, then drove to a nearby multiplex movie theater. They couldn’t decide which movie to see. In the end, they nixed the love story, the romantic comedy, the family Christmas movie, the war epic, and went for the movie with no elements that spoke to their personal situation—a safe, sensible science-fiction action thriller.It was just their luck that there was a hot, erotic love scene near the end of the movie. The kind of scene that sent hot blood pulsing in intimate places. Riley and Amy both stared studiously at the screen, each making certain not to catch the other’s eye. But they would probably have bruises from the tightness of their grip on each other’s hand.They were silent on the way home. Not even the radio br
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 33.1
“I’m learning that,” she said. “Ernie the mailman says Jack over at the hardware store drank too much and wrecked his daddy’s car last week.”“Yup. And he had Ernie’s cousin’s daughter with him. Which explains why Ernie’s telling everyone in town. Jack’s lucky that Ernie doesn’t have a shotgun.”“Considering what Marva thought of me this time last week, I’m pretty glad she doesn’t, either.”“So,” he asked a moment later. “This isn’t what Marva helped you pick out, is it?”“Yes, it is. I know nothing about style or fashion. She and Darnelle basically had their way with me,” she added with a slight shudder.Riley laughed at her. “Maybe Marva’s getting smarter with the years. I would have thought she’d go for ruffles and bows and lace.”“She might have, but I reminded her I’m a crack shot with an M-16, and I know where she lives.”Riley laughed, then shook his head. “I wish Cindy had something like that she could hold over Marva’s head, and that she’d use it.”“Cindy? Why?”“I’m afraid s
