Desperado: Deep in the Heart, Book 2 (3 page)

She had three tiny, gold loop earrings hanging from one ear, he noticed when she moved her long hair, and only one in the other. Damn lopsided female, he told himself. Couldn’t she make up her mind? It was either one earring or three, but she had to sit on the fence.

He downed all the tea in his glass and still felt dry in his throat. Zach was wrong. Stormy Nixon’s hair was purple. And she was
not
attractive.

“I appreciate your having me over.” Stormy stood, giving Annie Rayez a heartfelt smile. Words could not express how much she had enjoyed the last hour here. Annie treated her with respect, giving her proposal the attention of a businesswoman to another businesswoman. “I enjoyed meeting all of you. And you, too,” she told Mary.

The teenage girl had sat beside her inscrutable uncle all evening, never saying a word, though Stormy could feel her excitement. Every once in a while, Cody would reach over to tug teasingly at Mary’s long hair, and she would turn and scowl playfully at her uncle. Stormy had a feeling Cody teased the girl on purpose as his way of showing her affection.

If Stormy had been born into a family that had as much love to share as this one, her life might have turned out very differently. Mary reminded her so much of herself at that age. Maybe it was the awkward gawkiness she remembered so well.

“We’ll give your movie project consideration.” Annie showed her to the door with a pleasant smile.

“Call me if you decide to take me up on it. I’ll be at the Stagecoach. And if Mary should be interested in auditioning for the role, I’d be happy to give her name to the casting director.”

“Well, I’m not sure about that—” Annie began.

“I’d love it. I know I would!” Mary’s face lit with happiness.

“We have a while to decide about that, Mary.” She gave her daughter a patient smile. “Don’t we, Stormy?”

“Actually, they’ll probably start auditioning in the next couple of weeks. They’re hoping to start filming as soon as we have a location.”

“My goodness! I thought this was a future project?” Annie said.

“We had a location which fell through. Since the big name actors have already been signed on, we need to find another location quickly so that they don’t move on to other projects. That puts the pressure on me.” Stormy smiled but it was hard with Cody standing in the background, his legs spread, his arms crossed, and his face unwelcoming.

“I see. What happens if we decide not to accept your offer?”

“I think everything will turn out okay. I took a drive up the road today and happened upon Shiloh. Their mayor seemed plenty interested, and completely certain that they had an excellent location for me.”

“He would.” Cody shot her a sarcastic nod. “Tate Higgins isn’t called Wrong-Way for nothing.”

“What does that mean?”

Annie shook her head as she gently steered Stormy out the door. “Don’t listen to Cody. You don’t want to hear the tale of two towns while you’re here. We want you to go back to Hollywood with a good impression of our little world.”

“I have a good impression.” Nothing could change her mind, but her curiosity was roused. “I do want to hear a tale of two towns.”

“It’s silly, really.” Annie shot Cody a frown. “Desperado is named for all the desperados and
huaqueros,
or looters, who hid in this area in farmhouses and such. Shiloh is named for the famous General Shiloh, who courageously fought battles down south of here with Karankawa Indians. Headhunters.” Annie grimaced, and glanced over her shoulder at Mary, who was listening with huge eyes. “Anyway, since the two towns are one right after another on the map, we compete somewhat for tourist business. As you might guess, having a famous general puts Shiloh ahead of us in the advertising area. Tate Higgins took advantage of that by posting billboards along the highway telling folks to drop in to the ‘honorable city where folks have been down-home good for hundreds of years’. Naturally, that got folks around here mad, and ever since, they’ve said that Higgins would send a lost man the wrong way just so he could stick him in the back.”

Zach laughed. “It could also have something to do with the fact that, late one night when he’d had too much to drink, he had a run-in on a deserted country road with a parked tractor on the opposite side. He was driving in the wrong lane that night, for certain.”

“Goodness,” Stormy murmured. “I hope no one was hurt.”

“No. But Cody would have liked to hurt him. It was his tractor.” Annie grinned at Cody.

“What was he doing in Desperado?” Stormy’s eyes were on Cody as she drank in this small-town lore.

He shrugged his shoulders. “He’s always in Desperado stirring up trouble.”

“Don’t you worry, Stormy.” Annie patted her arm. “Tate Higgins is just fine. If you need to make your movie in Shiloh, you’ll be just fine. Cody’s just trying to scare you.” She gave Cody a stern eyeing. “Or impress you with his storytelling. Cody, did you come over here just to give this poor woman something to take back to the scriptwriters in Hollywood?”

“No.”

Stormy stared at him. Why did she feel that he disliked her so much? Was it the heat in his darkest brown eyes, or his unyielding, stiff posture?

“What are you doing tonight, Cody?” Annie asked.

“Going to hang around here for a while,” he answered, not taking his eyes from Stormy. She felt hot electricity tightening her heart, and wished he would look somewhere else.

“What are you going to do now, Stormy?”

“I’m going back to my hotel room and probably watch TV.”

“Well, then. Cody, I want you to take Stormy to the county fair. She needs to see something more of Desperado besides my house, your house and Sloan’s office. It’s the proper thing to do,” she said pointedly, when Cody jerked his gaze from Stormy to glare at Annie. “Stormy, I have a comfortable pair of walking shoes if you’d like to borrow them. We appear to be close to the same size.”

Stormy didn’t think so. Annie topped her by a good six inches. However, she would love to see a real county fair…maybe she could go back to her room to change and then head over there herself. She started to shake her head, but Annie took her arm.

“I know I’ve got a pair of white tennis shoes that would fit you. And if I don’t, Mary does.”

That was more of a possibility, Stormy thought, as Annie dragged her past Cody’s simmering gaze. Stormy didn’t even try to smile as they went by him—she couldn’t. His black braid seemed stiff with disapproval, his lips carved into forbidding granite.

“I don’t think he likes me,” she whispered to Annie once they were in her room. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

“Oh, never mind him.” Annie’s focus was on her closet. “Cody doesn’t like anybody.”

“Um—that doesn’t sound very conducive to our spending an evening together.”

Annie pulled out a pair of blue jean shorts and a white eyelet top. She threw white ankle-length socks on the bed. “Put those on. The shorts you can roll a cuff on if necessary. The blouse will be fine. We appear to definitely be the same there.”

She gave Stormy a wicked grin, which she had to return. Annie’s enthusiasm was fun, and if she wasn’t worried about Cody, Stormy wasn’t going to, either.

Annie returned with a pair of Mary’s white canvas tennis shoes a moment later. “The two of you wear close to the same shoe size, thank goodness. Oh. Don’t you look nice?”

Country sweet was more the description, Stormy thought. If anyone but Annie had suggested she wear this unfashionable getup, she’d be certain they were trying to make her look bad.

“Now. Your hair. You’re going to roast with all that hair on your back.” Annie stared at her thoughtfully. “Put it up in a ponytail. You’ll feel better.”

“A ponytail?” Stormy couldn’t even imagine it.

“Yes, a ponytail. You’re not used to the heat here, Stormy. I know it gets hot in LA, but the sun here is hard even on folks who have lived in Texas forever and are somewhat immune to it. Trust me. You don’t want to get heat exhaustion. And I may even send Cody by the store to get you some sunblock.” Annie eyed Stormy’s white skin disapprovingly.

“I’ll be okay.” Stormy hurriedly pulled her hair into a loose ponytail. “I won’t stay out long.”

Annie nodded. “Come on, then. Cody’s not too patient, and now that I’ve given him an assignment, he’ll be anxious to get on with it.”

Stormy winced at being considered an assignment to Cody, but that was what she was, of course. Though when his eyes widened at the sight of her legs, she felt a secret little thrill of happiness inside.
An assignment I don’t think he minds as much as he pretends
, she thought.

“I want to go, too,” Mary begged excitedly. “Please, Uncle Cody?”

“Not this time, ladybug.”

Mary’s face fell. Stormy couldn’t bear her disappointment. “I don’t mind if she comes along.”

“You don’t?” He stared at her as if he couldn’t believe she had good manners.

“Of course I don’t! It’ll be much more fun that way.”

A sudden quiet fell over the room. Stormy realized she had just implied that Cody wasn’t her ideal choice for an early evening outing. His gaze stayed tight on hers, half-lidded and thoughtful. “The more the merrier,” she finished lamely.

“Okay, ladybug. Into the truck.” Cody waved Mary toward the door.

“I’ll follow in my car.” Stormy grabbed up her flowered carpetbag.

“We’ll meet you at the Stagecoach, and then you can ride with us.” Cody waited for her to precede him out the door.

“Okay.” Stormy’s heart lifted with anticipation. “Thank you, Annie! I’ll send your clothes back with Mary tonight.” She hurried out to her car, excitement running through her as she followed Cody’s truck down the bumpy drive.

Going to a fair with Cody Aguillar. It might not be the most exciting thing she’d ever done, but for some reason she was awfully glad Annie had asked him to take her.

“Hold still so I can put this on you.”

Cody frowned as he slicked some sunblock over Stormy’s arms and on her back where the white eyelet blouse didn’t cover her neck and shoulders.

“I can do that!” Stormy protested.

“You’re making a mess, Uncle Cody,” Mary commented.

“And you’re getting it in my hair. Cody, give me that!”

Stormy reached to swipe the tube but Cody held it up high so she couldn’t reach it. He was trying to be as quick about this as possible, because he sure as hell didn’t want to be touching Hollywood any longer than necessary. Lord, she felt soft. And delicate. “Both of you quit yammering. Annie told me to be sure you had sunblock on and that’s why I bought this. You’ll be mighty uncomfortable if you fry.”

“It’s almost seven o’clock!” Stormy leaned away from him, but Cody deliberately ran one gooey finger down her nose.

“It doesn’t matter what time it is. Sun’s still dangerous to skin like yours. Now.” He relinquished the bottle to her. “Be sure to put some…there.” Gruffly, he pointed to the exposed skin of her chest that the blouse didn’t cover.

“Well, thank you for that! I’m surprised you don’t want to put sunblock there yourself!”

Stormy snapped the lid off the tube, glowering at him, but Cody raised his eyebrows at her. “If you’d like—”

“No, I wouldn’t!” Stormy closed the tube and slapped it back in his hand. “Are you going to put some on Mary or is it just me you want looking like greased pie dough?”

Cody gave her his most patient stare. “Stormy, what color is our skin?” He hugged his niece to him, and she grinned up at him.

“Dark brown,” Stormy answered begrudgingly.

“That’s right. We have indigenous and Mexican heritages. You appear to be spawned by a milkman and maybe an Irishwoman. So quit complaining and see what Desperado has to offer.”

“Hopefully men who aren’t so damn pigheaded.” Stormy couldn’t resist. “Maybe some who appreciate alabaster skin.”

“Are you hoping to find a man while you’re here?”

She blew out a breath of exasperation. “No! Just a place to film, okay?”

“Man, you guys are way on each other’s nerves.” Mary waved at a group of her friends standing around a concession stand. “Can I go with them for a while, Uncle Cody? You and Stormy aren’t much fun.”

“I—yeah. Meet us back here in exactly one hour.”

Cody watched as his niece darted off. Stormy stared at him.

“Guess it’s just the two of us for sixty minutes,” he told her.

“What fun.” She rolled her eyes.

He took her by the arm and steered her over to the cow patty bingo game. “I didn’t say this was going to be fun. I got roped into bringing you. Nobody’s ever going to elect me for fun tour guide of Desperado.”

“You got that right,” Stormy murmured.

But he heard her and gave her a light pinch behind her elbow.

“Ow!”

The game attendant looked up at her screech. “I have one last bingo square, and the little lady’s called her marker! One dollar, please!”

Stormy gasped. “What is he talking about?”

“When you made that unattractive noise, he thought you were buying the last number in the bingo game.”