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CHAPTER 16.2
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LOVE 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 : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 17.2
She narrowed hers. “I asked first.”He shook his head. “Mostly I don’t get it.”“Well, that’s all right. You’re not who they’re aiming for, anyway.”He gave her a half smile. “The rap music industry isn’t aiming for an audience of old has-beens?”Shannon tilted her head and studied him. “That’s not really how you see yourself, is it?”“Is that an interview question?”She groaned and barely stopped herself from stomping her foot. “There you go again, answering a question with a question.”“You answer a question with a complaint.” She laughed at him, and he made a face at her. “Carlucci, how’s it going?”Shannon nearly swallowed her tongue when she recognized the man who came and sat sideways, facing them, on the next bench down.“Pretty good. How about yourself?” Nick shook the man’s hand.“No complaints. I’m being nosy. Maybe it’s the newspaperman in me, but I believe I know your friend. It’s Malloy, isn’t it? Shannon Malloy?”Now she really was speechless. She had met Wade Harrison o
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 18
“You don’t have to stay, if you’d rather not,” Shannon said, her nerves twisting into tight knots.Nick tore his attention from the television and looked at her. “You want me to go?”The Tribute Tigers had won their homecoming game, and after joining the throng for an ice-cream cone at the Dairy Queen, Nick had walked her back to her room. He’d turned on the television and stared at it withoutsaying a word. That was ten minutes ago. He was brooding. She recognized it easily, as her father used to act the same way when something heavy had weighed on his mind. The trick was getting him to unload, or share the burden.“No, I don’t want you to go,” she told Nick. “Do you want to talk about it?”He stared at her, then looked back at the television. “I don’t know whatyou’re talking about.”Shannon felt a hot stinging behind her eyes. Her vision blurred. She whirled away from him and closed herself in the bathroom until she could beat back the threatening tears. He had just shut her out co
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 18.1
“Wade gave me a heads-up, so I lay low while they were here.”“How do you lay low in a town this size? What did you do, stay home?”He gave a wry laugh. “The first time, it was summer, so, yeah, I kept pretty close to home. But for the monument and the wedding, I had to be at school every day. We were shorthanded, and I had to spend some time at the elementary school, where Dixie’s boys go, so don’t think I wasn’t worried. But I kept out of everyone’s way. Drove instead of walked. If I had to walk, I stuck to back alleys.”Shannon shook her head. “All that trouble, and now here you are, a few weeks later.”“Huh. It’s one thing for the town to learn who I am. Most of them won’t care. But with that other group, the media and whatnot, I would have been plastered all over the place again. Just like last time.”“Just what did happen with the media? Oh—no. Don’t answer that.That’s an interview question. We’ll get to it tomorrow. Except you’ve got an appointment tomorrow.”He looked away an
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 18.2
For once, Shannon was at a loss for words. She didn’t know what to say to help him. He was obviously speaking from experience; platitudes would be worse than useless, they would be condescending. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.He whirled on her. “What for?” The words shot out as if fired from a gun.“I’m sorry that someone made you think you had to live up to all that. I can see some of the problems it can cause.”“When you try to tell them you’re nobody’s hero, just an ordinary man, they argue with you, or think you’re being humble or something, or they get hurt or mad because they need a hero, and they expect you to be it.”Shannon ached for the anguish he tried to disguise with anger. “Come here.”He narrowed his eyes. “Why?”“Because I like sitting next to you.”He dropped his head and heaved a sigh. “I’m being an ass, right?”“No.” She scooted back on the bed until she sat against the headboard.Then she patted the space beside her. “That’s a pretty heavy load for anyone to carry
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 19
The nursing-home inspection was not the ordeal Nick had feared. The inspection team consisted of Lon, a couple of town council members and a representative from the state’s fire safety board. And Nick, for whatever that was worth. The owner of the facility was there, as well, and the twostaff members designated as fire-safety staffers.Then, of course, there was the local media. The safety of the nursing- home residents warranted one reporter/photographer from the Tribute Banner—and Shannon. She came sidling up to Nick where he stood at the back of the group while the owner gave his spiel about how much he appreciated the city working to make the patients and building safe.As if she thought Nick didn’t realize she had entered the building and was standing beside him—not know? How could he not know when she walked into a room? He could be dead and he would know. Shannon nudged his arm with her shoulder.“What are you doing here?” he asked, keeping his voice low. “I’m thinking of an e
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
