Sweet Water (38 page)

“Next you’ll be telling me you’ve got a job for that hillbilly poet,” Chick said, laying steaming strips of beef across a tortilla.

Terry began the construction of his own fajita. “I’ve been thinking about him, too. He’s a great musician and poet. If I could keep him sober, he would be good entertainment in the rec center I’m going to build in Ledger Ranches.” He topped his stack of beef strips off with grilled onions and green peppers and a heap of shredded cheese.

“Why you worrying about that bunch of people? All of ‘em sound like they need keepers.”

One by one, the Agua Dulce citizens flitted through Terry’s mind, as they had done a hundred times through the summer. He couldn’t keep from laughing at Chick’s opinion. “In a way they do. They’re like one big family. They’re all from different places, but they’ve found community in that out-of-the way spot. I worry what would happen to them if they had to separate.”

“They’ve nearly cost you your ass, buddy. If you hadn’t come back here and dealt with everything, you could’ve been in a heap of trouble.”

“But I did come back and most of the problems are taken care of. I’m moving on.”

Chick sighed. “That’s one of the things I’ve always admired about you, Terry. You never stop moving ahead. You don’t even get distracted for very long. You could be standing in a mudhole in the middle of a cloudburst and still think it was a pretty day.”

“Life’s short, Chick, and good opportunities are few. You gotta take advantage when you see them.”

“Speaking of opportunities, you can’t possibly use all that land you got from Winegardner in a subdivision. You oughtta figure out a way to stay in the ranching business. You could get a break on taxes if you kept on raising cows.” Chick bit into his thick fajita.

“You mean the property tax thing for agricultural use.”

“Yep. I just filed it on my place in Weatherford. Makes a helluva difference in property taxes. Who doesn’t need a break on taxes?”

“It’s a thought,” Terry said, as Jake Shepherd and his ding-dong wife, Tanya, sprang into his mind. “I don’t think Lanny’s sold all his cows yet.” An image grew in Terry’s mind of white-collar corporate dudes on ranch work weekends. Retreats of that nature were growing in popularity.

“What’re you gonna do about the woman?”

“What woman?”

“The one you’ve been drooling over all summer. I’d like to meet this dame. I didn’t think I’d ever see one that would turn you lovesick.”

Terry sat back in his chair, not wanting to believe his feeling for Marisa had been so obvious. “Who’s lovesick?”

Chick chortled. “You, buddy. You’ve had it worse than I ever saw you. Worse than I did over either one of the women I married. Kim and I had a bet when you’d finally surrender. She won, because I said ‘never.’”

Terry felt his cheeks warm. He never discussed his liaisons with Chick and certainly not with Kim. “I’m not surrendering anything. We were just friends for a while,” he said, shocked at how difficult the words were to say. “She’s gone now,” he barely managed to add without making a fool of himself.

“Too bad. Kim thought it was for real. You’re not getting any younger, you know. I’m a firm believer you gotta try it at least once. It’s one of those gambles you just gotta take.”

“What is?”

“Getting hooked up with a woman. And I don’t mean just in the sack. If you find the right one and make it last, it could be the best thing ever, like it was with me and Amy when we first got married.”

Chick’s first wife, the mother of his son. Years had gone by since Terry had heard him make such a positive statement about her. He gave his old pal the squint-eye. “What, you and her are talking again?”

“Yeah, a little. Seems like the spark’s still there. Since we got the kid together, it’s worth taking a second look.”

Terry laughed and shook his head, but in his heart he felt envy.

He and Chick parted and Terry pointed his truck west. As he left the outskirts of Fort Worth and put on the cruise control, his thoughts drifted to Marisa and Agua Dulce. Standing in the hospital waiting room, when the doctor asked if all of the Agua Dulcians were family, Marisa had answered “yes.” That was how she viewed that odd little knot of people. Maintaining them all together in one unit like one big happy family was the way to her heart.Maybe his own heart would like that, too.

Mandan Patel and the old service station flashed in his mind—the only piece of the Agua Dulce puzzle he hadn’t figured out yet. An idea had been simmering in the back of his thoughts, but with the outcome being an unknown and possibly expensive, he had been reluctant to pursue it. But some things just had to be done.

On a sigh, he picked up his cell phone and called his Fort Worth office. He instructed Kim to dig out the research on the service station property, including what Patel had paid for it and when. He also told her get a current appraisal on it and to find out from the state what would be required for a clean-up to meet EPA standards. And the cost.

****

“There’s a jerk out here who wants biscuits and gravy,” the waiter told Marisa.

“Tell him we don’t serve biscuits and gravy for lunch,” she said, her attention on her list of needs from a purveyor. She had been in charge of this country club kitchen for three weeks and was just now getting it into a shape that suited her.

With the freedom to do whatever she wanted in the kitchen, her new job had turned out to be better than she had expected. She had rented a small house for her and Mama and found a middle-aged woman to stay with Mama through the day. Eventually she would have to make different arrangements, but for now, they were making do.

The contents of Pecos Belle’s sat with an auctioneer as he prepared publicity for a huge sale. If the sale turned out to be
 
successful, she would be able to buy a house for herself and Mama.

“I already told him that,” the waiter said, “but he’s being an asshole. He wants to talk to the chef.”

She laughed. “Okay. I guess that’s me.” She pulled her apron over her head and headed for the dining room. The Midland Country Club not only didn’t serve biscuits and gravy for lunch, it didn’t serve that menu for breakfast, either. The clientele was too snooty for country fare.

Seeing the back of the recalcitrant customer’s head, she recognized him immediately and felt a sharp pang in her stomach. She stopped in her tracks, waiting for her heartbeat to slow. More than a month had passed since he had left her in the Odessa hospital waiting room. She had gone over his words a hundred times, cried into her pillow many nights, kicked herself for being a hardheaded fool.

Now, her mind raced for a tactic.

Well, she had to see him. He had done nothing but be supportive and caring. He didn’t deserve to be snubbed. She pressed an arm across her midsection, drew a deep breath and walked forward

He looked up and got to his feet when she approached. He was as gorgeous as ever. Mel Gibson eyes, blue knit shirt that almost matched them in color.

“Hey,” he said softly and smiled.

She smiled, too. “Hey, yourself. How’d you get in here? You aren’t a member, are you?”

“I bribed the guy at the front door. Can you sit down a minute?”

“Not really,” she said, sinking to a chair, her heart galloping up and down her rib cage. He sat down opposite her. “I’m getting the dinner menu ready,” she said. From somewhere, she summoned a cavalier attitude. “So how’s it going in Agua Dulce? Torn down our old building yet?”

“I don’t own it anymore. I’ve sold it to Larson’s.”

To her surprise, the news didn’t affect her. She had truly put Agua Dulce behind her. “Oh. Well, that was the plan, right?”

“I need your help with something,” he said, leaning to the left. He appeared to be digging into his pants pocket.

“You know me. I’m an easy touch as long as you don’t ask to borrow money.”

“I’ve got this and I don’t know what to do with it.” He came up with a balled-up handkerchief and placed it on the table in front of her.

She stared at it for a heartbeat as an odd feeling passed through her. She pushed the folds open with her fingers. A diamond ring, a solitaire engagement type, lay within the folds. She looked closer. It was a very nice diamond ring that had to be at least three carats. Her throat went dry. She cleared it and sat there blinking at what lay before her and all that it implied. “What makes you think I’d, uh, know what to do with it?”

“Because someone who’s been in the flea market business as long as you were has to be an expert on stuff of all kinds. I figured you’d know what it’s for.”

She looked up and saw his eyes leveled on hers. Her heart was pounding so hard her own vision blurred. “Not much has changed with me. None of my obligations have gone away.”

“I didn’t think they had.” He reached across the table, picked up her left hand and slid the diamond onto her ring finger. It fit perfectly. Had he known it would?

He continued to hold her hand across the table. “What I’m saying to you, Marisa, is I can’t get you out of my system. I think that makes your obligations my obligations. And they aren’t unmanageable. We can handle them together.”

She looked down at the ring and at his hand clasping hers. She shook her head, hope and fear warring in her heart. “Terry, I can’t. What I mean is, I don’t see how—”

“I love you,” he said, voice soft, gaze solemn.

She blinked and covered her mouth with her fingers. She couldn’t think of a response.

His eyes held hers for a few more seconds, then he turned his head and looked away.

She should say something, but what?

His head swung back and he faced her. “Look, humor me, okay? I’m having a generous moment. I’m fixing everybody in Agua Dulce. I just came from a meeting with the whole bunch of them. Bob, Ben, Jake and Tanya. They’re all enthusiastic about staying in Agua Dulce. Their roles will be different from what they are now, but hopefully, they’ll be better.”

She couldn’t keep from noticing he didn’t mention the Patels. A tiny worry niggled at her. “I suppose Mr. Patel and his family will be moving?”

Terry’s thumb made a circle on the top of her hand. The diamond ring glinted even in the dining room’s indirect lighting.

“I bought Patel’s station. But he’s gonna stay on and run the motel I’m gonna build. He likes living in Agua Dulce and his kids like going to school in Wink. I’m gonna remodel that old station and do the soil cleanup and Tanya’s gonna open her beauty shop and art gallery in it. If I live long enough, maybe I’ll get the cost of the cleanup back in rent.”

She swallowed. “Oh my God—”

“So, you see? Everyone’s still there. You and Raylene are the only absentees. The town won’t be complete without you. All those people. Their lives won’t be complete without you and your mom.... Marisa, my life won’t be complete without you.”

She tilted her head back and laughed. He was outrageous and she loved him madly. Then it dawned on her—when he had said “I love you” she should have said it back.

“You laugh,” he said, “but what I’m telling you is that you, Raylene and I are going to be the first residents of my subdivision. You can pick out which house plan you like. Soon as the utilities are in and there’s a street, my friend Chick’s coming and he’ll start our house. We’ll have to travel between there and Fort Worth, because I’m not giving up my business in Fort Worth, but it’ll be great. Oh, I forgot to mention, I’m changing the subdivision’s name to Sweet Water Ranches.

She fondled the ring on her finger, daring to let hope dip its toe into her existence. “We’ve never talked about things. Never made any plans. Or anything.”

“My life is planned only up to a point. Surely you’ve noticed that. I’ll always be a speculator. I’ll always be a risk taker. I can’t help it. It’s who I am.”

High-roller. She’d heard the word, but Terry was the only one she had ever met. “Terry, engagement rings and new houses are for people who’ve made pledges to—”

“That night in your bedroom behind the café,” he said softly, “when we said we believed in fate. Don’t you think we pledged to each other? Or when we went to Albuquerque? Did you think I was playing games?”

Yes. No. I don’t know
. “This is crazy.”

“It isn’t crazy. It’s great. We’ve talked about everything and told each other everything that’s important. You just haven’t noticed.”

“I don’t know—”

“Marisa, I might be a risk taker, but I’m nothing like that Woody character. I hope you aren’t thinking I am. I’ll never betray you. All I want is to make you happy. No matter what’s going on, You’ll always be first in my heart. I’ll always take care of you. Good God, just to get on your good side, I’ve already committed to taking care of the whole damn town of Agua Dulce.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Yes, you do. What you say is, ‘I love you, Terry.’ I want to hear you say it because I believe you do. We’re not kids, Marisa. We’re both smart people who know what we’re doing. We might as well admit what we mean to each other. We can have a good life together. At some point we might even have some kids and be a family.”

How could she say no? Why would she even consider denying him? She wanted him more than breath itself. “I don’t have to learn to skydive, do I?”