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Chapter 29
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LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 29.1
“What have you got there?” Riley asked.She had to blink the moisture from her eyes before she could look up at Riley standing over her. “It’s beautiful.”“Yes.” He took the ball from her and held it gently in the palm of his hand. That was the dichotomy of the man, right there. Big, tough, calloused hands gently cupping a ball so delicate that he could crush it with a harsh look, but it was his family, precious and safe in his protection. The hard protecting the delicate, delicately. A strong man with a softness to capture a woman’s heart.“Is it us, Daddy?” Pammy asked, breaking the spell. “It’s us,” he said softly.“Lemme see,” Cindy cried.“Me, too.” Jasmine stretched sideways to see around Cindy.Riley knelt and held out the ornament so all his girls could see. Then he stood. “Now, where should we put it?”“Right here.”“No, up there.” “Over here.”“Okay,” he said with a chuckle. “Now that we’re all agreed, I’ll just put it right here.” He chose a spot halfway up, facing the room
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 29.2
His brow arched and his lips curved upward. “Glad to hear it.”Oh, yeah, she should have kept her mouth shut. He looked at her now as if she were the last morsel on the plate and he was starving.She quickly moved away, toward the girls. Away from temptation. “Amy, look at me.”Amy looked at Cindy as instructed. The child held a sprig of mistletoe over her own head and beamed up at her. Amy gave her an exaggerated frown. Folding her arms over her chest, she tapped one finger against her own lips.“Do you know you’ve got leaves sticking out of the top of your head?” Cindy giggled, then hiccuped. “It’s not leaves, silly, it’s mistletoe.You’re supposed to kiss the person under the mistletoe. It’s a costume.” “Custom,” both her sisters corrected.“Really? Well, if it’s a custom…” Amy leaned down and kissed Cindy on the nose, making the girl giggle and hiccup again.They took turns, with Cindy finishing up her turn by getting kisses from everyone else. Pammy held the mistletoe over Jasmin
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 30
Amy was glad that Monday was so busy at the office. Neither she norRiley had time to say more than ten words to each other, and those were all business.Tuesday proved more of the same, until four o’clock when Marva and the girls descended on the office with boxes and bags in tow.Amy was delighted to see the girls, and they her.As for Marva, this was only the second time Amy had seen her. She wasn’t expecting warm hugs, and it was just as well, because she barely got a civil nod as Marva passed her desk and headed in to see Riley.There being no such thing as privacy in the office, outside of the restroom or the storage closet, Amy couldn’t help but overhear when Marva explained the reason for their visit.“I hear you finally put up your Christmas tree at home,” the woman said to Riley.“Yes. We did it Saturday. You’ll have to come by and see it.”“Yes, well, I drove by this place and noticed you haven’t done anything here, at least nothing that’s visible from the street. So we’ve
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 30.1
No matter, Amy decided. She could easily drive herself crazy trying to make sense of her own motives, her own emotions. And wasn’t that pathetic? How was she supposed to determine Riley’s feelings if she didn’t know her own?But it wasn’t his feelings she was after when she pulled into his driveway just after five. Only his signature.She knocked on the door and waited, a pen in one hand and the papers, turned to the signature page, in the other. But it was Pammy who answered the door.“Amy.” The girl beamed at her. “Come in.”“Thanks, Pammy. I have some papers your daddy needs to sign.” “He’s in the kitchen. Daddy! Amy’s here!”Unwilling to wait for him to come to her, Amy quickly made her way to the kitchen.“Hey,” he said, his hands occupied dicing potatoes. “What’s up?” “I need you to sign these so I can ship them out tonight.”“Oh. Okay, just a sec.” He finished the potato he was chopping, then washed and dried his hands before turning toward her. He signed the papers and thanked
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 30.2
Yes, dammit, she did. But tomorrow she wanted something else. She only wished she knew what that was. However, she knew where to go to find out.It was nearly noon. She locked up the office and drove in the direction she knew the elementary school to be. It wasn’t hard to find. It was the place with all the little morning kindergarten and pre-kindergarten kidsstreaming out the door to the buses and cars waiting to take them home. She looked at the driveways across the street from the school for the big sedanshe’d seen Mrs. Green drive, but all the driveways were vacant.It stood to reason that the Greens would keep a nice car like that in the garage, especially during cold weather, although it was in the upper forties today and sunny. But as it turned out, she didn’t need the appearance of the car to find the Green’s house, all she needed to do was follow Cindy as she zipped up the neatest yard to the front porch where Marva Green stood with open arms and a smile.“Brenda,” she whis
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 31
Early Saturday afternoon Amy paced her small living room and tried to calm her racing heart.Any minute Riley was going to pick her up for the first date she’d had in years. Unless she counted going to the canteen on base in Iraq, which she didn’t.One more look in the mirror.She kept wondering who that person was who stared back at her.Marva hadn’t stopped with the flowing pants and cashmere sweater on the lunch hour. Oh, no, not the dragon lady of Tribute, Texas. The local shops had all closed by the time Amy got off work Friday, but that didn’t deter Marva, not when she had an entire Saturday morning to work with.There’d been accessories: earrings—thank heaven Amy’s ears were already pierced or Marva might have done the deed herself, with her teeth if necessary—a necklace to complement the bold design and delicate texture of the sweater, a long, narrow scarf to drape around her neck.Then there were shoes. They selected plain black leather pumps with two-inch heels, but only bec
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 31.1
“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
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 31.2
They were silent on the way home. Not even the radio broke the humming monotony of tires on blacktop. A casual glance might makesomeone think that each was off in his or her own little world, paying noattention to the other. And in one respect, that was true. Amy was thinking how much quieter Riley’s nice sedan was than her old rattletrap andwishing it wasn’t so, for fear that in this quiet car he could hear herswallow, and hear her heart pound. Riley was thinking how lucky he was that the girls were spending the night with Marva and Frank, because he was in absolutely no hurry to go home.They’d been holding hands since before that steamy scene in the movie.Neither seemed inclined to let go. So they held on. All the way home.For two single adults on a Saturday-night date, they returned to Amy’s apartment at the embarrassingly early hour of eleven o’clock.For the first time since starting for home, Amy turned her head and looked at Riley. “I don’t have anything to offer you to
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