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Chapter 8.1
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LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 8.2
“Dixie? Dixie!” He reached across the coffee table separating them and squeezed her knee, giving it a little shake. “Dixie?”Dixie shook herself out of the ridiculous trance or whatever she’d been in. “I’m sorry,” she said, her mind clear now, clear and vehemently denying the silly idea that kept leaping at her. An idea that was preposterous.“Dixie?”She pushed herself to her feet. “That’s an incredible story,” she said. “I’m sorry you had to go through such a traumatic experience. I assume that everything went well. You look perfectly healthy to me.”“I am healthy, especially if I keep up with my meds and exercise.” “Oh, well, that’s wonderful.” She started toward the front door, hermovements sharp and jerky. “I’m really glad for you.” “Dixie, come sit down.”“You’ve said what you came to say. Oh.” She stopped and turned around. “I forgot your check. Wait here.”“Dixie, sit down.”Her eyes were overbright. Her hands fluttered in the air. “I’m glad you came by to tell me this, but I
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 8.3
“Dixie?”“Yes?”“I might have his heart, and I might have come here because of his sons, but I’m not him. Do you understand what I’m saying?”“I never thought you were him,” she claimed.“Just so you don’t start looking for any more of his traits in me. I came here for the boys. Just to make sure they were all right since losing their father. I stayed because, yes, they were all right, because their mother made sure of it. I’ve stayed because of you, Dixie.”Dixie’s vision blurred. “What are you saying?”“I’m saying that the only thing I have now of Jimmy Don’s is a physical organ. The feelings I have for you, for the boys, are mine, not his. They have nothing to do with cellular memory or transplanted organs.”She swallowed again. “How do you know? How can you be sure?”“It’s easy,” he said with a shrug. “I just ask myself, if I’d met you before I got sick, would I feel the same way. The answer is…absolutely.”Dixie let out a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding. “Maybe you’d bett
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 9
When Dixie called the boys home, she asked Pops to come with them. When she got her sons into the tub, she took Pops to the kitchen, where the boys, who were not silent bathers by any means, would not overhear. There, once Pops was seated at the kitchen table with a dish of peach cobbler to work on, she told him first about Wade’s true background and identity.Unlike her, Pops didn’t feel the least deceived. He laughed. “Ha! I knew there was more to that boy than he was lettin’ on. Rich, you say?”“Filthy rich.”“And him washing our dishes.” He laughed again and shook his head. “Did he say why he was here?”“Yes, he did.” She told him the rest, about Wade’s heart transplant, and where his new heart came from.Pops cried. His tears were a mixture of renewed grief at the loss of his only grandson, and pride that a part of Jimmy Don lived on in another person. More than one person, most likely.“That’s something, isn’t it?” He wiped the moisture from his cheeks and eyes. “I’m so proud of
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 9.1
Wade paused on the other side of the counter and blatantly eavesdropped.“Sell the paper?” Ima said, shocked. “Is this true, William?”“Don’t you think it’s past time for a new voice in this town? It’s time I retired, if I can find the right buyer,” Gray said. “I promised my wife when we married that one day we’d live in paradise. As much as I love this town, paradise it’s not. She’s got her heart set on Hawaii.”Wade had to assume that Bill Gray had a good financial planner for him to be able to retire in Hawaii. There wasn’t a great deal of profit, if any, in small-town weekly newspapers these days.“What a fine man you are, William,” Ima said, “to keep such a promise to your wife. Just do this town a favor and try not to sell the paper to some big conglomerate who’ll manage it from New York, or someplace like that. We need a paper that’s purely local.”“I’ve been worried about that very thing,” Gray said.“Order up!” Dixie called as she slapped the bell signaling an order was ready
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 9.2
Now if he didn’t find the right words for what he had to say, he could hurt Ben and Tate, and that was absolutely the last thing on earth he wanted to do. So, please God, let the right words be there for him.He started up Dixie’s street, and there they were, those two bright, happy, fun boys of hers, running toward him as if he was their best friend in the world and they hadn’t seen him in years.It had been two hours. “Wade! Wade!”“Mom says you’re coming for supper.” “Flowers? What’re those for?” Ben asked.Tate jabbed his older brother in the ribs with his elbow. “That’s what guys do, they bring flowers to the lady when they have supper.”“What do you know.” Ben shoved Tate away. “Do you know what etiquette is?” Wade asked.Dancing around and beside him as he walked up the street, the boys snorted and giggled.“That’s like, Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Ben said. “Yeah, and saying please and thank you,” Tate added.“That’s right,” Wade said. “It also means that when a lady inv
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 9.3
“Why not?” Wade said.“What about the tongue? Would they want Tippy’s tongue?”Wade smiled at Tate’s sudden enthusiasm. “I don’t know. It would depend on whether or not another dog needed a new one, I guess. Would all that be all right with you guys?”“Sure,” Tate said.“It’s the same as organ donation in people, right?”“You know about that?” Wade asked. “About people donating their organs when they die?”“Sure,” Ben said.Dixie ran her fingers through Ben’s hair. “Where did you learn about organ transplants, honey?”“I dunno.” Ben shrugged and flopped his hands out. “School. We talked about it a lot last year when the teacher’s daddy had a kidney transplant up in Dallas.”“How about you?” Dixie asked Tate. “Did you talk about this at school, too?”“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “But that was about people. We didn’t talk about dogs.”“Okay, wise guy,” Dixie said to Wade with a smile. “Now you have to turn it around.”“I’ve got it,” he told her. “Would it surprise you boys to know that
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 10
“Mom?”Dixie stopped in the bedroom doorway in the act of turning off the light. She’d just put her boys to bed and kissed them good-night, twice. “What is it, Ben?”“Do you mind that they cut Dad up and took out his heart to save Wade?”“No,” she said softly. “I don’t mind at all, honey, because I know it’s what your dad wanted. He wanted his organs to go to people who needed them after he was through with them.”“I guess that ol’ taxicab saw to it that he was through with them, huh?” piped up Tate.The resilience of children never ceased to amaze her. She was still shaky on the inside, and they were so matter-of-fact about it all. “It sure did, Tater. Now, you two need to get to sleep.”“G’night, Mom.”“’Night, Mom.”“’Night-’night, sweethearts. I love you.”Dixie turned off the light, stepped out of the room and pulled the door closed. She leaned her back against it and closed her eyes, saying a quick but heartfelt prayer of gratitude that the boys seemed to have understood about t
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 10.1
“I went to the track and ran.”“Oh, well, it was none of my business, anyway. I shouldn’t have just dropped in on you this way. Shouldn’t have presumed—”“Dixie.” His voice was softer than the air around her. His fingers touching her cheek sent a shiver of heat racing down her spine. “You can presume anything you want about me. Or you can just ask. Or drop by and sit on my stoop whenever you want.”She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. She stepped back far enough that his hand dropped away from her face. All she could think to say was, “Okay.”“Come on in.” He pushed the door open and motioned her inside. “It’s not much, but it’s home.”She knew she should turn around and go home, but she found herself stepping through the door and into his apartment. “Not much” was an understatement. From what she could see, there were only two rooms, and they were small. There was a water stain on the ceiling. The furniture must have come with the place; she couldn’t imagine Wade purchasing the worn
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