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Chapter 19
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2022-09-27 18:30:50Related chapters
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 19.1
“What are we celebrating?” “Your successful outing.”The kid behind the cash register, Bucky Jones, who’d graduated from Tribute High last year, nearly swallowed his tongue. “G-g-g-olly, Mr.Nick.”“She didn’t mean that the way you think,” Nick said darkly. “Shannon, tell Bucky you didn’t mean that the way he thinks.”“What? Oh.” Shannon laughed. “No. Sorry. It wasn’t that kind of outing.”If Nick hadn’t had to spend the afternoon overseeing the decorating at the high-school gym, Shannon could have finished interviewing him. Butsince their time was short, she decided to put it off until after the dance that night and let him eat his pizza in peace. They had only one small incident during their lunch.That came when Nick, rather offhandedly, Shannon thought, casually mentioned that he’d been wrong about the jeans for the dance. He’d been told in no uncertain terms that this was a dress-up affair. The Homecoming Queen candidates would be in formal gowns; the rest of the females attendi
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 19.2
“You were wrong,” Shannon told her quietly.Shannon was still smiling over Deedra’s stunned silence followed by another endless stream of questions and demands about Nick, about her, about Nick and her, when the man in question knocked on her door.“Oh, my,” she said when she got a good look at him. The man cleaned up real nice, as her dad would have said. His dark gray suit accented the width of his shoulders, the length of his legs. The crisp white shirtcontrasted beautifully with his dark olive complexion, and the tie added the perfect touch of panache. “You look fabulous.”Nick goggled. “You took the words right out of my mouth.” Except, he thought, fabulous was way too poor a word for the vision of her. Her dress was plain, unadorned, unruffled black, long sleeved, high necked, ending just above her beautiful knees, and hugged every curve of her shapely body. Black three-inch heels made her legs look a mile and a half long.He knew he was staring, he just couldn’t seem to help h
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 20
The dance officially ended at midnight, but it took another hour foreveryone to clear out. Shannon was content to sit back and watch Nick maneuver the stragglers out the door as quickly as possible without offending any of them. He was good at it. Very good. The kids respected him, that much was plain. But they also liked him.What did it say about a man, she wondered, that kids liked him,contemporaries sought his advice, women—at least this woman—found him irresistibly attractive, and his true calling was walking into burning buildings?To her, it said one thing: Hero.For now, she would keep that thought to herself.The man in question came strolling back to her, his limp barely noticeable, even after all the dancing. But she wouldn’t mention it. Not until she got him alone. And when she got him alone, she didn’t want to talk. She wanted to hold him close and never let go.The look on her face nearly took Nick’s breath away. She wanted him.Him, Nick Carlucci. And she cared. Maybe
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 20.1
“Why stunned? You have to know I’ve fallen in love with you.”“You have to know you’re not alone there, right? I’ve fallen just as far for you.”She trailed her fingers lightly over his cheek. “Well, then? Shouldn’t we do something about that?”“I can’t go back to New York.” “Will you tell me why?”He pulled back and eyed her critically. “Are you going to put this in your book?”“Not if you don’t want me to.”He thought about it a minute, then gave a single nod. “It’s hard to admit.Where I come from a guy does not talk about his feelings. A real man doesn’t have feelings.”Shannon nodded sadly. “I know exactly what you mean. I’m just luckier, because girls are expected to have feelings and it’s perfectly acceptable to let them out whenever and wherever. Usually.”“Not us. We were big, macho men. Firefighters, all three of us. It wasn’t just what we did, it was who we were. We were the job. Like you. You’re not a writer only when you’re actually writing, or sitting at your desk. You a
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 20.2
And so Nick hashed it all out again, this time for the tape. All his rotten experiences since waking up in the hospital and being told he would never walk again. Being told he was a hero.She took him through it all, the hospital, the therapy, the euphoria over getting his legs back, the devastation in learning he couldn’t do the jobanymore. The refusal to believe it. The grief for the department, his father and brother, the loss of his career. The drinking and the blur of months that passed in an alcoholic haze.Nick gave her everything she asked, up to and including his satisfaction in pushing a broom all day.“You really like it?” she asked.“I do. I mean, I’d rather be with FDNY, but this will do.”“Custodian. Janitor. You know some people look down on a job like that,” she stated.“Some snobs, maybe. Even I did at first, but it’s a big job with an incredible responsibility, being in charge of the entire physical aspect of the school, from maintenance to appearance to security. I
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 21
In a heartbeat, Shannon was around the tiny table and in Nick’s lap. They held on to each other like the last two people to make it onto the life raft before the ship sank. And they cried.Never in a million years would Nick have thought to find himself weeping in a woman’s arms. It wasn’t manly. It wasn’t macho Italiano, as his father would have said. Only a sissy would cry.Well, this sissy cried his eyes out—after all, he’d been holding it in for five years—and in the process, he felt a new lightening inside himself.Now that his tears were dried, he noticed that Shannon was quieting in his arms. He stood and carried her to the bed and lay down beside her.“You will never know,” she said, her voice unsteady, “what this means to me. What it will mean to my mother after all these years.” With her arms around his neck, she squeezed him tight.“His face still haunts my dreams.” He was rambling, but couldn’t seem to help it. “I wanted more than anything to be able to find someone, to he
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 21.1
He grabbed an old pair of jeans that didn’t smell too bad from the floor of his closet, put on socks and walking shoes, and a sweatshirt. It had been dipping down toward forty degrees when he’d come home.He tiptoed through the house so as not to wake Bev, then struck out through his neighborhood, setting every dog in the area to barking. Can’t pull anything over on these guys. Now, if he’d been a burglar, they wouldn’t have made a sound, he was sure.As much as he loved New York, Nick had come to love this small Texas town, and he’d come to love the quiet peacefulness of night. He would like it even better, he thought, if it weren’t for the faint whiff of smoke on the breeze. The remains of the bonfire were still in the air.At the end of his neighborhood he turned toward Main, intending tocross and amble over toward the school. Might as well do a walk-by while he was out.Sure enough, the smell of smoke grew stronger the closer he got to the school and the field behind it where the
Last Updated : 2022-09-27LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 21.2
It was the county 911 dispatcher, thank God. He told her their situation and asked that someone contact the fire chief at the scene and have him direct his spray toward the back corner. The woman tried to keep him on the phone, but he had to make preparations in case the fire decided to come in through that broken window before the crew could knock it down. Hewould have to make a stand in the bathroom.He tried to carry Shannon that far, but she was too limp and his leg was too weak. He ended up half dragging her to the tub, thanking God for slow renovations. The tub was an old cast-iron job that, if nothing else, wouldn’t melt and fuse with their skin. Of course, there was every possibility that they could end up beyond caring, but not as long as Nick had so much as one breath left in his body.He left Shannon on the floor next to the tub, then crawled back and pulled the sheets and blanket from the bed. They would make good wet wraps and help filter the air for breathing. He was ab
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
