Stuck Together (Trouble in Texas Book #3) (9 page)

“It’s not unheard of for an older person to get a bit absent-minded, Vince.”

“Absent-minded?” A harsh laugh replaced the sadness. “That’s what you call it when you forget your own son?”

Tina decided anger was better than tears, at least from a man’s point of view. “Call it anything you want, but yes, sometimes older people begin to get a little dotty.”

“She’s not that old, and . . . and her father was like this, too. Both of them were much too young to be entering their dotage.”

“And this is why you were so interested in Lana’s troubles?” It made sense now. “You wanted to see if those papers might also help your mother.”

Vince’s shoulders sagged just a bit, and his eyes lowered to the floor. Tina thought she was wearing him down, but then she noticed the dark circles under his eyes, his dusty clothing. He’d lost weight since he left Broken Wheel. She could smell him: horse and sweat and dirt and fresh air and strength. Those last two weren’t a smell, yet somehow they were part of him. She wasn’t sure how far it was to New
Orleans, but she was sure it was a long, hard ride and he’d pushed himself to the limit to get there and back in such short order.

The man was at the breaking point, and she didn’t want to say the word that would make him snap. She opened her mouth to change the subject. She decided she’d bring up a lengthy discussion about the weather while they waited for someone to come and take over for them. But before she did, she had to tell him one last thing.

She rested one hand on his shoulder. He’d deny it, of course, but she thought he could use the support. “I see no sign that your mother is dangerous in any way, except maybe to herself. I don’t think your mother’s problems are of a similar nature with Lana’s.”

At her touch, Vince looked her square in the eye. “Father writes from time to time and I knew she’d gotten worse. His last letter he talked about locking her up if I refused to come home and help with her care. I’m sure Father meant Mother would go to some asylum, though he didn’t say it directly. He looks at sending Mother away as a failure, which is why he’s kept her at home with caretakers. But in his last letter he told me he’d built a new house, a bigger house than the one I grew up in. He said she’s worse since they moved.”

“A woman who’s a bit confused in familiar surroundings,” Tina said, clenching her hands without really noticing until Vince removed her fingernails out of his shoulder, “is bound to get worse in a place that’s unknown to her.”

“If you can figure that out here after knowing Mother for less than a day, how come my father couldn’t figure it out? Why didn’t he see that a new home was a bad idea?”
Temper simmered in his eyes. Behind the anger, whenever he looked at his mother, was worry mixed with love. “And now they’re here. I didn’t find answers that were a comfort in New Orleans. Mother isn’t going to like wherever he sends her, and how unhappy will she be in a place surrounded by strangers?”

That worry and love made him so vulnerable. When he was at his usual tormenting best, Tina had no trouble staying firmly at odds with him. But here he stood, worried about his mother, hurt and angered by his father, exhausted because of the long ride he’d taken based on things Tina had said. He’d held on to her hand when he’d tugged her nails out of his hide, and now he raised their hands, his eyes locked on hers, and touched his lips to her fingertips.

“What am I going to do about you, Tina Cahill?”

The suggestions that popped into her head were firmly out of the question. Aunt Iphigenia would be scandalized.

Even knowing that, it was all too easy to rest her other hand on his shoulder, then slide it over to his shirt collar, then his neck. Their entwined hands were between them, but Vince lowered hers from his lips and leaned down—and butted her in the head.

For a moment Tina thought he’d attacked, and she balled up a fist to hit back. Then Melissa called out, “What’s blocking the door?”

Tina rushed to Mrs. Yates’s side and stood with her back to the door, rubbing her bruised nose. Vince stepped aside.

“Be careful.” He glared at his sister.

Melissa swung the door open. “Why are you standing by the door?”

Tina knew the answer to that question. Vince had gotten as far away from her as he could. And then she’d gone after him like some kind of hoyden chasing after a man. It’s a wonder she didn’t try and lasso him.

Why hadn’t she stayed away from him? Why? Why? Why?

Banging her head on the nearest hard surface was an idea with merit, and only the spectacle she’d make of herself stopped her. That was when she noticed Mrs. Yates staring at her, her eyes wide open and a tiny smile on her lips.

Had Mrs. Yates seen Tina and Vince almost . . . almost . . . Tina quickly veered her thoughts away from
almost
.

“Virginia Belle, you’re awake.” Melissa rounded the bed so she stood straight across from Tina, though she only looked at Mrs. Yates.

“Missy.” Mrs. Yates smiled as she reached up to take Melissa’s hand.

“How are you feeling?” Melissa’s voice was so kind, so patient. Mrs. Yates responded well to it. Tina vowed to learn that exact tone. She realized then that she’d never fully relaxed her fist. Wiggling her fingers, she ignored Vince when he came up beside her, closer to Mrs. Yates’s head.

“Julius, what are you doing home from work?” She’d forgotten her son again, mistaken him for her husband.

Tina couldn’t stop herself from looking at Vince. Only a glance, but that was long enough to see the hurt in his expression. “I’m glad to see you awake, Moth . . . uh, Virginia Belle.”

“I thought you were going to rest.” Vince looked across the bed at Melissa, who’d washed up and changed clothes but still had dark circles under her eyes from exhaustion.

She gave him a helpless shrug. “I was, but . . . well, something’s come up. I need to talk to you.” Melissa’s eyes went to Mrs. Yates, so this was not about witnessing Vince and Tina standing too close.

“I’ll stay right here.” Tina was glad for anything that got Vince away from her. “You two can have yourselves a talk.”

“It won’t take long.” Missy headed for the door.

Tina sat down on the side of the bed. “Tell me about yourself, Mrs. Yates.”

“Well, bless your sweet heart. I would like nothing better than a chat.”

“Where did you grow up?”

“Daddy owned a cotton plantation, and Mama was the finest hostess in the South. When I was a little girl . . .” Mrs. Yates began talking about her childhood.

Melissa and Vince stepped close to the door. Tina couldn’t hear Melissa’s words, just an urgent murmur.

“What?” Vince shouted.

Mrs. Yates frowned and tried to look past Tina, who took her hand. “Go on, you said you were an only child?”

The furrow eased from Mrs. Yates’s forehead. “I was, and oh, mercy, I was a spoiled little thing. Why, I had a pony with its own tiny carriage by the time I was—”

“How long ago?” Vince’s voice had fallen, but it was still impossible to miss.

Melissa responded too quietly for Tina to hear, then Vince stalked out of the house.

Melissa came up to sit across from Tina. She had a sheen of tears in her eyes. Tina opened her mouth to ask what had happened.

Melissa met Tina’s eyes and shook her head to stave off any inquiry. She then took Mrs. Yates’s other hand and without comment listened to Mrs. Yates tell of her early life of privilege and ease in a gracious, gentle world built on the backs of an enslaved people. A world that was gone with the wind.

Vince had never gotten along with his father. The man was a tyrant with never a kind word to say to Vince or his mother. There was no denying Julius Yates had a knack for making money, but he had no knack for inspiring love. Nor did he consider that a failing. There was no failing allowed in Father’s world.

Which was why Vince had delighted in it. He’d gone to private schools and delighted in getting expelled. Father would rage at Vince, then get him into another exclusive school, and Vince would get himself tossed out of the new one. And so it was that a boy with all the financial advantages in the world grew up with almost no schooling. Later, when his mother’s mother died and left him a fortune all his own that meant Vince never had to work a day in his life, it was even easier to defy Father.

But even with the antagonism between himself and his father, honestly the whole world and his father, Vince had never imagined this.

Father was gone.

He wasn’t just gone from the diner or the boardinghouse. He was gone from Broken Wheel, and all his things had
gone with him. The carriage he came in was gone too, along with the driver. He’d come halfway across the country just so he could dump his unwanted problems—namely his mad wife and his illegitimate daughter—on his troublemaker son.

There was more.

Asa was moving out of the boardinghouse, and he was the one who gave Vince the news that Father had bought it and paid a ridiculous price for it. Asa showed Vince the bag of gold double eagle coins that made Asa one of the richest men in the territory. Although that wasn’t saying that much, Asa was mighty pleased all the same.

“He said I had to move out, but that suits me. I’m saddling up my horse and going to Californy. My brother owns a farm out there, and he invited me once to come and stay with him. I never could see my way clear to showing up, hat in hand, with nothing to show for a lifetime of work.”

Vince thought that was strange, since he’d never seen Asa do any real work.

Asa opened the heavy-looking cloth bag and held it out so Vince could see the gold coins. More money than Asa’s boardinghouse was worth, ten times over. If the old codger was smart—and Vince had no reason to believe he was—Asa could live out a comfortable life with the contents of that cloth bag.

“Now I can go to my brother with some pride, and I aim to.” Asa shook the bag and gave Vince a gap-toothed smile at the sound of the gold jingling.

Vince was too furious with his father to comment on the fact that Asa’s “lifetime of work” was pretty much
spent lazing around in a house he owned through squatter’s rights. Even furious, he felt he had to warn the old man.

“Don’t wave that gold around, Asa, or you’ll never live to spend it.” Vince knew plenty about what money could do to people. It’d had a real undesirable effect on his father. Vince sincerely hoped Asa survived to enjoy his newfound wealth. The fact that the man was braying about the gold and waving that bag around didn’t make Vince optimistic.

“Your pa left money for you too, Vince. He told me to tell you it was your turn.” Asa scratched his head thoughtfully. “I wonder what that means? Your turn for what?”

Vince knew very well what that meant. His turn to care for his mother and sister. Father had found both women embarrassing, and he’d moved the shame a long way into the wilderness.

He thought of his mother and how addled she was and how unkind Father was, and mixed in with the fury was a hint of relief that his mother was away from the old tyrant.

Vince turned to look at his humble room above his humble lawyer’s office. Then he turned and could see Dare’s house, with Mother in there. They’d already lost track of her once. And Melissa said two people had to watch Mother at all times.

Vince trudged toward the doctor’s office, his mind a wrangle as he tried to imagine what he had ahead of him. It was a mighty good thing that being a lawyer never took a moment of his time.

He reached Dare’s front steps just as Melissa came out. Vince stood facing his sister. She was part of that heap of wrangled-up thoughts. She was a living, breathing reminder of his father’s unfaithfulness and the burden of being a big
brother. But honestly he didn’t even have time to ponder all that. Mother was taking up too much of his thinking time.

Melissa frowned. “He abandoned us. Left his wife and daughter and son without a backward glance.”

“Oh, I reckon he looked backward,” Vince said, picturing it in his mind, “just in case someone spotted him running off.”

“All his problems solved in one easy jaunt.”

Shaking his head, Vince said, “A one-thousand-mile, exhausting and expensive jaunt.”

“When he told me we were going to see you, I never even suspected he had such a thing in mind, but he planned it from the first.”

“How are we supposed to take care of someone who needs so much?” Vince really hoped she could tell him.

Melissa stomped down the steps fronting Dare’s place. “In Chicago we had a staff of twelve people, each working a four-hour shift, so two people would be with her at all times. We tried six people doing eight-hour shifts, but it was hard to stay attentive for that long. I have no idea how we can duplicate that situation out here. Of course, there aren’t busy streets with rushing horses and wagons. There aren’t big buildings and thousands of bustling strangers.”

Then Melissa looked at the wilderness that surrounded the town. “But there’s that.” She waved her arm at the rugged terrain. “Miles and miles of places to get lost, with rattlesnakes and cactuses all around . . .”

“Don’t forget outlaws, cougars and buffalo, pits you can fall in, and avalanches that can rain huge stones down on your head.” Vince shook his head. “I found a scorpion in my office just the other day.”

“What’s a scorpion?” Melissa had her hands twisted together as Vince listed some of the ways a person could die in the Texas desert.

“A big old poisonous bug-lizard thing. Likes to sting.” Vince saw her flinch and was sorry he’d mentioned it.

“Well,” Melissa said, “we need to—”

“Who’s with her now?” Vince interrupted.

“Glynna and Dare are both in there with their children.” Melissa squared her shoulders. “I’m not sure how much time you’re willing to give to this, Vince, but I’ll plan on staying with her as much as possible. I imagine there’s nowhere else to go, anyway. We’ll have to move her to Asa’s boardinghouse.”

“It’s the Yateses’ house now. Asa told me I own it.” Vince glanced at the big two-story house built as if to block the south end of Main Street.

Melissa rolled her eyes. “Of course you do. Your father—”

“Our father,” Vince reminded her.

Nodding, Melissa said, “Our father would see that as providing for everyone. He could just buy that house—no doubt he left a stack of gold coins behind—and then he could ride away without a twinge of remorse.”

Melissa scowled at Vince for a long moment, and Vince let her because he was curious as to what she planned to say next.

“Just how much like your father are you?” she asked.

And there was a question that stung like a scorpion.

Jonas picked that moment to round the corner of Dare’s house, coming from the parsonage. His canny dark eyes flicked between Vince and Melissa exactly once before he asked, “What happened?”

Vince liked to think he was pretty hard to read, but either he was so upset he couldn’t keep that fact off his face, or Jonas was unusually sensitive. Which would be a good trait in a parson, yet it annoyed Vince to no end. On the other hand, there was no sense pretending what had happened hadn’t. Maybe talking it out with Jonas was a good idea.

“My father left town,” Vince began.

“For how long?”

Shaking his head at Jonas’s innocence, Vince said, “I don’t mean he left town for a while, like on a trip or for an errand. He left town
for good
. He’s gone. He only came here to leave Mother and Melissa with me. He finds them both an embarrassment—me too, for that matter.”

“You find your mother and Melissa an embarrassment?” Jonas sounded personally offended.

“No, Father throws me in with the two of them. The three of us are an embarrassment. I suspect he’ll go on back to Chicago and tell all his business cronies I invited both of them to stay with me.”

“He won’t include me. I doubt anyone outside the house has ever heard of me.” Melissa didn’t seem to care overly.

“Probably not. I’d bet Mother is a forbidden topic, too. No one will even know she’s gone. The big crisis will be if Father has gotten behind at work, but he’ll soon catch up.”

Jonas’s eyes widened. “He left them both here?” They’d been talking quietly up until now. But now Jonas lost control of his voice. “Just up and abandoned his wife and daughter?”

“Shh!” Melissa looked over her shoulder at the closed door. “Yes,” she said quietly. “No sense upsetting Virginia Belle with the news. If we’re lucky, she may not even notice
he’s gone. And since she just recently moved out of the home she’d lived in most of her adult life—and that move confused her terribly—this change may not increase her addled state.”

Vince looked again at the boardinghouse. “You said the new house was so big she couldn’t begin to find her way around. Maybe a smaller house will help. She’ll still have to learn it, but there isn’t much to learn, honestly. Four rooms upstairs, four down. Twelve people, though. How in tarnation are we going to find twelve people to help us?”

“What do you need twelve people for?” Jonas really was behind.

“Mother can’t be left alone. She wanders off.”

“Tina and I will take a shift.” Jonas was a good friend and quick to step in and help. But Vince wondered if maybe Jonas oughta ask his feisty little sister first.

“You mean Tina will help if she can find time between working at the diner and the saloon.”

Melissa gasped and took a quick look at the white parson’s collar Jonas wore. “Your sister works at the saloon?” She rested her hand on Jonas’s wrist. “Is she a dance-hall girl? She seems a bit edgy. I can help you get her out of that life. If you want, I can—”

“I’m
not
a dance-hall girl, Melissa.” Dare’s front door closed with a solid thud.

Melissa flinched and turned around.

Tina had come out of Dare’s house without anyone noticing. “And I am certainly not edgy.” Tina plunked her little fists on her hips and glared at Vince’s sister in the edgiest way imaginable. “And I don’t expect to ever hear anyone say different.”

Melissa took a quick step back and bumped into Jonas, who steadied her with a hand on her waist. Vince couldn’t help noticing Jonas didn’t move that hand. And then he still didn’t move that hand.

“Of course you’re not,” Melissa said to Tina, sounding pretty scared. “That’s just my . . . my upset at Vince’s father running off affecting my thinking.”

“Vince’s father ran off?” Tina screeched. Again, a bit edgy.

Vince found he liked the distraction. “Yep.”

Dare stepped outside. “Quiet down. Virginia Belle is sleeping.”

Jonas still hadn’t moved his hand.

It made Vince think about how he’d almost kissed Tina, and how much Jonas would have to say about that. Well, Jonas could just get his hand off Vince’s sister.

Glynna was right behind Dare. “Vince’s father ran off?”

Vince rubbed his eyes, hoping his vision had failed him and he’d look up and see Father, right back here, ready to get his wife and daughter and head for home.

“Since we’re all here, we need to discuss how we’re going to manage caring for Virginia Belle.” Melissa had a lot of the Yateses’ take-charge skills that Vince saw in his father and himself.

“Tina, Jonas offered your services.”

“That’s when I said you worked at the diner and the saloon.” Vince smiled at Tina, enjoying her stormy expression.

“I
picket
the saloon,” Tina said, then glared at him with her pretty blue eyes. “I’m trying to get the place closed. That’s a far sight from working there. And I’d be glad to help care for Mrs. Yates.”

That the stubborn little thing offered without a mo
ment’s hesitation warmed Vince’s heart, and that was good because his heart was currently ice-cold.

“Thank you. And I apologize for my earlier comment. Vince and I will certainly have to help.” Melissa said it almost like she expected him to say he wasn’t going to.

She probably really did suspect Vince was like Father. And it was a good bet Father never once took a turn caring for his wife. Julius Yates had a lot of money, and he used it to make problems go away.

Jonas still hadn’t moved his hand.

For some reason that bothered Vince, and considering all he had right now to be bothered with, that was just stupid. Still, he didn’t need any more aggravation, so he moved to the side, so Jonas was on his left, and took hold of Melissa and dragged her across in front of him until she was on his right.

She gave him a startled look but didn’t punch him in the nose, so Vince figured she was fine.

Dare said, “Here’s what we’re gonna do.”

Since Dare was a doctor, Vince decided to let him talk.

“We’ll do some work on Asa’s place.”