Casey's Courage (16 page)

Tres smiled at her. “I doubt that. You seem to burn more calories just breathing than most people do jogging.”

Her mind back on the circuit, she said, “Anyway, I was going to tell you about Todd. You met him before the horse sale. I don’t know what his plans are, but he’s graduating in December. He might do the ranch a good job on the circuit.”

Tres refilled their coffee cups and watched her talk, knowing she had no idea how appealing she was.

Lara returned to tell Tres the FBI agents had arrived.

“Do you feel like talking to them?” Tres asked. “No need if you don’t want to relive that miserable excursion.”

She patted her mouth with a napkin. “I don’t mind answering any question they have, but I’ll pass on going to the canyon.”

Tres took her hand as she got up from the table. “Dan said he would send a couple of the older hands with them. I thought we’d go to town to see Jake and check on Mattie Lou at MacVane Manor. Her doctor is doing a series of tests to monitor the effects of this new treatment for her arthritis.”

As they strolled toward the sitting room where the agents waited, Tres felt complete having Casey near and talking with her about life’s ordinary happenings.

Her crisp, no-nonsense answers to the agents’ questions made Tres realize she was thinking clearly and felt more confident than she had since she and Sassy Silk went down in that arena. He saw an intelligent, beautiful woman dealing with serious issues without hesitation. This personality would be more complex to deal with than the ones he’d teased her about earlier. His little thirteen-year-old buddy had bloomed into a multi-faceted woman who intrigued him and quickened his senses with anticipation.

With the agents in Dan Brown’s capable care, Tres and Casey lost no time heading to town. They left the ranch in J.D.’s sleek Mercedes. Once off the ranch and onto the highway, Casey said, “I can’t remember when I last rode in a car. There is no telling how many hours I’ve clocked in a pickup. A car just never seems to fit where I need to go, but this is easy riding.”

Tres chuckled. “Life in our part of the world doesn’t lend itself to car travel very often. I usually lease a car when I have to stay in the city for business, but a pickup just seems to be what I need most of the time. I had a Jag when I was in Australia, but I sold it along with everything else.”

“Do you miss Australia?”

“I haven’t thought about it, so I guess not. It was a good experience, but it’s good to be home.”

Casey laughed with a hint of nervousness in her voice. “The Dark Canyon part of home didn’t look too good in the pictures the agents’ reconnoiter plane took.”

“You’re right about that. It looked like one mean, angry river with uprooted trees and broken branches tumbled in the roiling muddy water. A little unnerving to think what would have happened if you hadn’t got us out of there when you did.”

“It was a joined effort or we wouldn’t have made it before that wall of water came roaring down.” Casey shuddered to think what could have happened. If they’d gone to the cave, they would have been blown to smithereens. Had they not hustled, they would have drowned like rats stuck in a sewer.

“Everybody pulled their weight all right, but you were the only one who knew how to get us out in time.” Tres picked up her hand that had been unconsciously stroking the butter-soft leather of the upholstery. He kissed the top, then smiled as he said, “Thanks for saving our bacon. Now I’m hoping you’ll agree to help me with another little project.”

As he turned her hand over and began to lightly circle his thumb in her palm, a tingle raced up her arm, settled into the pit of her stomach, before bursting into a melting rush of desire.

She shifted on the seat. “Sure, if I can. What little project are you talking about?”

“Jordan, my dad, married earlier this year. He was in Europe on his honeymoon when J.D. died. He’s back in New York now and plans to bring his new wife out to see Mattie Lou. Of course, Mattie Lou wants them to come, but she is not up to much entertaining right now. I’m certainly not qualified nor do I have the inclination. What I’d like you to do is move into the suite next to mine and entertain this Leila like she is a guest in your home.”

Silence vibrated the interior of the Mercedes. Finally Casey said, “I’m not sure just what we’re talking about here.”

Tres glanced at her and wanted to tease her about the slightly huffy look he saw, but thought better of it. He wanted her help and he wanted her to stay at Spencer Mansion for now. “I thought we could just tell them you’re a long-time friend who is recuperating from an accident and staying at the ranch. They can think what they want, but we’d be telling the truth.”

“But by my room being next to yours, they would assume we are a couple, right?”

“That could be an extra bonus. They would think I’m permanently settled and would not be expecting me to entertain any of their high-society lady friends who are looking for a husband.”

Casey pulled her hand away and ran her fingers through her hair feeling the scars now hidden by the wavy style. “You used to love high-society women.”

He knew what he said now would influence how she responded to him, not just for helping with Leila, but also about future plans he had for them. Trying to keep a light tone in his voice, he said, “So you remember all those stories I told you about girls back in my college years. You’re right. I did date a lot of high-society girls. When Melanie and I broke up and I went to Australia, I dated the same type women. They were the ones associated with the people I knew so it was natural. After five or six years of fast living, I realized every woman I dated was looking for a husband to give her money and position. My social life was a self-fulfilling prophecy. That’s what I was expecting, and that’s what I got.”

Casey watched the flicker of pain and disgust alter his face fleetingly as he talked. “Didn’t any of them see what a worthwhile person you are?”

“I doubt I was very worthwhile at that time. Hopefully, I’ve come to my senses. Anyway, I was as much disgusted with myself as I was with women, so I swore off the whole relationship game.”

Casey knew in her heart she couldn’t say ‘no’ to him, but she had to let him know how inept she was at what he was asking her to do. “I’m pretty sure I’d end up being an embarrassment to you. I don’t know the first thing about being a good hostess to guests.”

“Mattie Lou and Rosalinda keep the Mansion running like it happens by magic, so that’s no problem. You could pretend you are the pampered daughter of the Mansion with nothing to do but enjoy being with guests, couldn’t you?”

She fidgeted and adjusted her seatbelt. “I’m not sure. I never had much time for pretend. And I still have this issue to settle with Dad about going back home and helping him train horses.”

Tres check the rearview mirror before passing a lumbering propane truck. “He’s hired better help than he wants you to know. Things are in good shape at the old headquarters. Giving up his little girl, who’s a top hand, is a problem for him and I can certainly see why.” Tres watched her trace the pattern he had made in the palm of her hand. “But I think we can get you off the hook to everybody’s satisfaction.” He smiled at her. “Now are you going to help with me Jordan? I went to Australia without his blessings and haven’t seen him since. Short conversations on the phone have been our only communication. Also, there is a new wife I have ambivalent feelings about.”

Casey heard the hint of regret in his voice. “It took a lot of courage to not do what your father expected of you, didn’t it?”

He saw the look of concern on her face and knew she was thinking about her own father’s expectations of her.

“I really never thought of it as courage,” he said. “I was running from a trapped feeling. He wanted us to build a Spencer and Spencer brokerage house that would make the financial world sit up and take notice. Of course, a wife with the right social connections already established was part of it. Melanie did me the best turn in the world with her indiscretion. I escaped a life I hated by the skin of my teeth.”

The silence stretched out as her mind raced. That inner voice, the instinct that prompted her at just the right time during competitions whispered,
Now’s the time
. Before she could talk herself out of it, she said, “Okay, I’ll stay if Mattie Lou thinks it’s the thing to do.”

Chapter 13

Casey, with Raider keeping pace, jogged down the main entrance road. The sun had burned away the cold morning mist leaving cool, crisp air, making conditions perfect for a run to clear her mind.

The last ten days’ activities turned like a movie reel in her mind as she ran. Her dad’s scathing remarks about her uselessness as she and Tres took him home in J.D.’s Mercedes. She was frustrated with the fact that she still wanted to defend herself to him, and yet, ingrained habits had kept her silent and made her evaluate her decisions.

Her forbearance paid off. A few nights after Jake got home from the hospital, he called Tres to tell him about a young man named Todd and his girlfriend, Heather, who had come to apply for work with hopes of getting to ride the Running S horses on the show circuit. Tres turned the speaker on so Casey could hear her dad say, “These kids have a real feel for horses. With a little training, I think they’ll do us a good job.”

Casey’s guess was that Tres had contacted Todd so events could unfold with Jake calling the shots about hiring someone. She listened as the two men talked at length about the itinerary for getting the Running S horses back into competition.

Determined not to dwell on her dad’s disapproval of her actions, she spoke to Raider as she circled and headed back toward the Mansion. “My life moved as slow as molasses in the winter for a while. Now it’s speeding along a mile a minute. All at once, Brad’s gone and Mattie Lou came home bustling around, with me in tow, inspecting every inch of Spencer Mansion before she left with Tres for Austin.”

She slowed her pace to cool down. Bending down to brush her hand across Raider’s head, she added, “I’ve also been inundated with Spencer family history and given a crash course in lady-of-the-house manners and duties.”

Back at the front steps, Casey went through a series of stretches before sitting down to take off her dirty running shoes. Raider flopped down on the grass with her tongue lolled out as she watched Casey and even looked like she was listening.

“Mattie Lou’s ecstatic that Jordan’s coming home after so many years of estrangement. I don’t suppose you know what caused the big riff between him and J.D.?”

The sound of a car approaching stopped Casey in her tracks. She stood in faded jeans and sweatshirt, holding her shoes and socks in her hand. As the car eased to a stop under the canopy of the circle drive, her heart sank down to her bare toes. Jordan and Leila Spencer had arrived two days early.

As she watched, Raider got up and ambled off toward Dan’s house. Casey wished she could go with the old dog, but stood her ground and greeted the tall, remarkably handsome, gray-haired man as he came around and opened the door of the white Cadillac. A perfectly groomed, slightly plump woman of Asian heritage stepped out. As she took her husband’s hand, she glanced up at him and smiled, then shifted her attention to Casey.

“I’m Casey Mason and you must be Jordan and Leila Spencer.”
Do I invite them into the house he grew up in? Do I offer to get their luggage? Do I say, ‘Welcome to Spencer Mansion’?

Jordan’s voice snapped her to attention. “We finished our business early in Dallas and decided to rent a car and drive so Leila could see West Texas up close instead of from a plane. You must be the friend my mother mentioned.”

“Yes, I’ve been rehabbing with J.D.’s therapist and nurse up until a few days ago. Hopefully I have all that behind me. Did you travel on the Interstate or take the smaller highways?”

They moved up the steps and Casey pushed the big oak doors open.

“We came the less-traveled way around through San Angelo. I wanted Leila to see what a contrast in landscape Texas has.”

Just inside the foyer, Leila stopped and gazed in amazement. She spoke in a soft, melodious voice. “Jordan, it’s like the castles we saw in Europe.”

“As well it should,” Jordan said. “Great-grandpa Spencer was hell bent on it being like his old home castle, but just a little bigger and better. It is somewhat of a shock when one sees it stuck out here in the middle of nowhere Texas.”

Casey picked up the house phone and buzzed Rosalinda while Jordan began to tell Leila about the ancestors from Scotland.

“Rosalinda, Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have just arrived. Can you send someone to take care of their luggage?”

Who do I think I am
? But she could just hear Mattie Lou applauding her performance.

Rosalinda offered up an expletive or two in Spanish then told Casey someone would come at once for the luggage, then added, “Give me thirty minutes and I’ll send a proper tea to the blue room”.

Casey hung up the phone and turned back to the Spencers. “Mattie Lou and Tres won’t be back from the Water Conservation Conference in Austin until tomorrow night.” She saw a look of concern on Leila’s face and added quickly, “Mattie Lou made sure everything was ready for your arrival before she left.”

One of Ignacio’s helpers and two of the temporary girls who had been polishing the Mansion to perfection appeared. The young man asked, “Sir, would you like for me to put your car in the garage?”

Jordan handed over the keys with thanks and reached for Leila’s hand. They followed Casey up the wide stairs to the landing on the mezzanine. Lara met them as they reached the top step, averting her eyes from Casey’s bare feet and tousled hair.

Casey grinned at her. “Lara, would you see that Mr. and Mrs. Spencer are settled comfortably? I just returned from my run and need to freshen up before tea.” Turning to Jordan and Leila, she said, “Tea will be in the Blue Room in thirty minutes. I’m sure you know your way around the Mansion better than I do, but Lara will be glad to help you get reoriented if you like.”

As Lara led the guests to the right on the mezzanine, Casey beat a hasty retreat to the left. Once in her bathroom, she laughed with a touch of hysteria before saying to the image in the mirror, “That went well, don’t you think?”