Give Him the Slip (15 page)

She couldn't believe her father really bought into Liam's
just-happened-to-bump-into-Blade-in-Fairbanks-Alaska fairy tale. No, her ex was
after something, but she'd yet to figure out exactly what. She'd done her best
to warn Blade. She'd made certain he understood she didn't want Liam or anyone
else from her past to know anything about her present life.

Despite her father's assurances, she'd have sworn she saw Liam at
the airport today before she went through the security checkpoint. It left
Maddie feeling more than a little nervous and insecure.

"Probably just leftovers from the whole mushroom mess,"
she said aloud. It's only natural she'd be a little on edge following that
entire trauma. She had trouble forgetting the fear.

She had trouble dismissing Luke Callahan from her mind.

It was quite infuriating. Thoughts of the man popped into her
brain at the most disturbing times. When she chose her lingerie in the
mornings. Just as she drifted off to sleep. In the shower.

"Stop it." She punched the power button on the radio and
surfed the stations. Country. Pop. Country. Talk radio. Cajun music.

Bayou music.

Bayou boy.

Slow, seductive, sensuous kisses. A hand trailing soft and slow
like the sluggish current, a finger tracing a whirlpool around the tip of her
br—

"Ahh!" she cried out and jabbed at the radio button
until she found some mood-breaking mariachi music, which she turned up high.

Maddie sang Swords lyrics to Spanish songs she couldn't translate
all the way to Brazos Bend. As she passed the city limits sign listing the
population at a generous eighty-six thousand, Maddie grabbed her cell phone.
When she pulled into the tiny rest stop, which featured a statue of the town's
founding father, Branch Callahan's namesake, she finally returned his call.

The old goat put her on hold.

Maddie looked up at the statue. "I'll bet scientists would
have a field day with your genetic line."

As she debated hanging up, she studied the statue's face, looking
for a resemblance to Luke. Hmm... similar nose, maybe. A dead ringer with that
arrogant stance. Maddie knew the history behind the man and his town because
Branch liked to lecture her about it while she cleaned his study.

A former colonel in the Confederate Army, the first Branch Callahan
came to Texas as a shareholder in the Texas Emigration and Land Company in the
early 1870s, and he established a saltworks in the northernmost section of the
hill country on Bluff Creek, five miles north of its confluence with the Brazos
River. When Colonel Callahan noted that the large buffalo population seemed to
prefer the surrounding lands over other North Texas areas, the idea occurred to
him that this territory could be one of the finest cattle-raising districts in
the entire state of Texas.

For that reason, in 1872 he founded a town in the Brazos Bend
Valley adjoining his saltworks. He surveyed and plotted a town site with
unusually wide streets, large blocks, and spacious lots. The colonel resisted
the egotistical urge to name the town after himself, although his town map did
include a Callahan Square, Callahan Boulevard, Branch Street, and Hannah
Avenue, in honor of his bride.

Brazos Bend prospered and by 1877 boasted more than one hundred
buildings. The Callahan family flourished financially right along with Brazos
Bend. Personally, they suffered significant tragedies. Only one of the six
children born to Hannah and Branch lived to adulthood. That son, John Ross,
displayed the same entrepreneurial spirit as his father, and by the time the boomtown
twenties rolled around, J.R. had the family well established in railroads,
agriculture, ranching, and oil.

J.R. married late and died young, siring only one son, whom he
named after his father. The second Branch Callahan, the same old goat who still
had Maddie on hold, had entertained dreams of a dynasty when he started looking
for a bride. He went looking for a wife from among the first families of
Texas—the Kleeberg cattle and oil clan, the scions of the Spindletop oil
bonanza, the luminaries of Houston's stables set. He never expected to fall
head over heels for the redheaded woman who'd moved next door to his widowed
mother.

Margaret Mary McBride wasn't overly impressed by Branch number
two's wealth. Nor was she affected by his handsomeness or his quick wit or his
boyish charm. After all, such was the norm in her family. McBride men had cut a
swath through Fort Worth since the 1870s.

What won Margaret Mary's heart was Branch's devotion to his
invalid mother. After all, a man who displayed such gentleness and care to a
mindless woman had to be a man of the truest heart.

Branch and Margaret Mary wed in Saint Michael's Catholic Church
and waited for the babies to arrive. They waited and waited and waited. After
eight years of marriage and no booties for the crib, Branch's dreams of dynasty
waned. Margaret Mary despaired and turned to her faith for comfort and support.

Her first pregnancy came as a shock, Matthew's birth an occasion
of great joy. Her second pregnancy, almost on the heels of the first, was a
blessed surprise. When she gave birth to twins, she gave thanks to God and
named her sons for saints. Four years passed before she missed a period again,
and when another son arrived, the natural name for him was John.

"Madeline?" boomed a voice in her ear, jerking her from
her reverie. "Madeline, where the hell are you?"

"Nice to hear from you, too, Branch," she dryly replied.
"And so nice of you to inquire about my health. I'm safe. I'm well."
She paused significantly, then added, "I'm furious with you."

She could almost hear his wince. "Uh, sunshine, now, um,
there's no reason to..."

"To?" She tapped her foot against the gas pedal.

"Yeah, um... it's awful nice to hear your voice."

"Uh-huh."

"I... uh... heard from Kathy Hudson that you spent a few days
in New York with your dad. That's real nice, honey. Glad you had the chance to
get together with him. That's real important for a father and his child."

"Right."

She let the silence drag out.

"Um, Madeline?"

"Hmm?"

"Speaking of children..."

"I called to tell you I'm making supper for you
tonight."

He hesitated a moment. "You are?"

"Yes. So if you and the Garza sisters are planning to watch
reruns of
Murder She Wrote,
you need to cancel. I'm making Alfredo. I'll
be there at six."

Which gave him an entire afternoon to fret, she thought with a
touch of evil glee.

"Supper sounds good," Branch replied. "I'll give
Juanita and Maria the night off."

The false cheer in his tone put a smile on her face as she drove
to her next destination—the Brazos Bend Dairy Princess.

Five minutes later, when the red gambrel roof of the Dairy
Princess came into view, Maddie had her usual reaction—she craved a dip cone,
soft-serve vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate sauce that hardened into a
sweet, crisp shell.

The dip cone and the Dairy Princess represented smalltown life to
her. Originally a Dairy Queen franchise owned and operated by someone out of
Dallas who'd abandoned their small-town-living dream, the restaurant sat empty
for two years during the seventies before Kathy Hudson purchased the property
and turned it into her notion of paradise— a combination ice cream parlor and
rock-and-roll museum.

Maddie turned into the Dairy Princess lot, then parked in her
usual spot. Not wanting to leave Oscar in the heat, she gathered up the
fishbowl and her purse, then grabbed a sack from the backseat and headed
inside.

An electronic chime sounded the first strains of Elvis's
"Jailhouse Rock" when she opened the shop's door, then strolled
toward her usual booth, finger-waving at Kathy, who stood behind the counter
mixing a milkshake for a waiting teenager. The aroma of fried onion rings
lingered in the air like a temptation.

"Well, look who's here!" Kathy called, her round face
lighting with pleasure. "Be with you in a minute, hon."

"No rush." Maddie snuggled back into the well-worn
comfort of the booth's red vinyl seat, closed her eyes, and listened to Janis
Joplin sing about Bobby McGee on the jukebox.

Janis was still crooning when Kathy plopped down in the opposite
seat. She wore her bleached blond hair long and straight, her dangling
earrings, makeup-free face, and signature home-sewn granny dress signaling that
she'd never quite left her hippie days behind. The smile on her face and the
warm welcome in her eyes were pure Brazos Bend, however, and upon seeing them,
Maddie knew she'd come home.

"I don't ordinarily allow pets inside the Dairy Princess, but
I'll make an exception on Oscar's behalf on account of he's grieving for
Gus." Kathy handed Maddie one of the two dip cones she carried, then sat
back and gave her a thorough once-over. "Well, now. Aren't you just a
sight for sore eyes! You had me worried, girl. So, tell me everything. I want
all the details you couldn't fill in over the phone. Is Sin Callahan as
handsome as ever? Does he still have that bone-melting grin? And what about
your father? Did he enjoy his photography trip? What did the two of you do in
New York? Did he do any singing?"

She paused to take a breath, then leaned forward. "Did he
mention anything about making a visit to Brazos Bend?"

Maddie grinned at her friend, then licked her ice cream cone.
It's
so nice to be home.
"Luke Callahan is gorgeous and his smile will make
you melt. He'd hate to hear me say it, but he's a lot like Branch. Stubborn.
Smart. Trouble."

"Hmm." Kathy licked her cone. "Those boys always
did take after their father. That was part of the problem after Margaret Mary
died. Not a one of them knew how to handle their grief, and any time Branch
tried to take control, it was World War Three. It was easier for him to give up
trying, and that's what led to all the trouble. I've always said it was as much
Branch's fault as the boys'."

"Branch is no innocent in anything." Maddie tugged a
white paper napkin from the metal dispenser and wiped her mouth. "And I intend
to tell him so tonight at supper."

"My, oh, my, don't you know I'd love to be a butterfly
sniffing the centerpiece flowers in the Callahan House dining room
tonight!" Kathy said with a grin. "Enough about that. Tell me about
Blade. Did you bring me any pictures?"

Maddie reached into her purse and pulled out a small digital
camera. The two women spent the next few minutes discussing Blade, the band,
his recent travels, and their week in the Big Apple. Kathy oohed and aahed and
her eyes lit with yearning. "How exciting. I'll bet you had just the most
wonderful time. New York is one place I've always dreamed about visiting, and
to do it on the arm of Blade... well..." She ended on a sigh.

For perhaps the hundredth time since she'd met Kathy, Maddie said,
"Blade can't come here without blowing my cover, but if you'd like to go
with me to visit him, you know I'd be happy to arrange it."

"No. No. I can't leave Brazos Bend. Sparkle might come home
and..." Kathy shrugged.

Sparkle Hudson had been only fifteen years old when she
disappeared from Brazos Bend. She and her single mother had been having the
typical teenage problems, nothing too terribly serious, and everyone assumed
Sparkle had run away and would come home once she came to her senses. The
assumption proved wrong. Days passed, then weeks, then months without so much
as a postcard from Sparkle. By the time the six-month anniversary of her
disappearance arrived with law enforcement and private investigators coming up
dry in their investigations, most of Brazos Bend believed Sparkle must be dead.

Her mother never gave up hope. Two decades later, Kathy still left
the porch light on for Sparkle, and she never, ever left Brazos Bend.

Sparkle had vanished before Amber Alerts, before DNA analysis,
before twenty-four-hour cable news brought missing children to national
attention. But after so many years... everyone knew that Sparkle was probably
the victim of a hitchhike gone bad, but Kathy just couldn't accept it, wouldn't
accept it. No matter what anyone said, she believed her Sparkle would come home
one day.

Maddie knew she'd never be able to understand Kathy's pain, so she
didn't try to force the issue. She simply offered. If Kathy ever broke down and
said yes, she wanted to visit Blade, Maddie would have her on an airplane
before the day was out.

Sensing the need for a change in subject, Maddie asked what
happenings she'd missed in Brazos Bend while she'd been gone. Kathy entertained
her with stories of children's antics at the public pool, gossip about Mrs. Tillman's
new boyfriend, and news about the unfortunate sickness spreading through Larry
Larsen's herd of cattle. Maddie finished her ice cream cone long before Kathy
finished her tale.

Yet, despite Kathy's verbosity, Maddie sensed there was more
coming, that her friend had something more to tell her. Something she didn't
want to hear. Finally, when the older woman launched into a tale of her bids on
an online auction for Rita Kimbler's Hummel collection, Maddie interrupted.
"What is it you're trying to avoid, Kathy? Is one of my clients ill? Is
there trouble with the business? My house? Did Mike McDermott go off and get
engaged to a woman over the Internet or something?"