The Debra Dilemma (The Lone Stars Book 4) (26 page)

“Mom.” Devon put his hands over his ears. “Stop talking. I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.”

“I swear, you boys are so squeamish. Don’t y’all talk about sex amongst yourselves?” She looked from Warren to Devon and back again.

“God no.” Devon stepped back in horror. “I mean we might comment in passing with a nod or something like ‘yes, I slept with her,’ but we never analyze things…ever.”

“Well, maybe that’s your problem. Y’all should analyze things…find out what’s going on and if things are good for both of you.” She rounded on Warren. “Do you know where a woman’s G-spot is?”

Devon’s eye were the size of saucers and Warren knew his own mouth had dropped open.

Devon clamped a hand over Sweet Louise’s mouth. “Mother, there are children present.”

She shook off his hand. “This is valuable information that everyone should know.”

“Yes, but they don’t need to know it right now.” He took her hand and pulled her away from Warren. “That lady from across the street, Mrs. Norville, said that she found a hair in your potato salad.”

“Oh my Lord.” Sweet Louise turned around and ran toward the potato salad.

“I owe you, big time.” Warren clapped a hand on Devon’s back.

“Nothing changes her focus like a hair in someone’s food.” Devon grinned as he nodded his head. “She means well…I think.”

“She’s wonderful and you know it.” Warren watched her pick up the serving spoon in the potato salad and use it to dig around in the bowl. “I guess she’ll be at that for a while.”

“You’re off the hook for the rest of the night.” Devon’s gaze found his mother and his grin widened. “I love messing with her.”

“Messing with who? Or is it whom?” Debra stepped beside Warren and he couldn’t help it, his arm just naturally went around her.

“My mom. She was harassing your boyfriend here about his sex life.” Devon nodded in the direction of his mother, who was now frantically dishing out potato salad onto a plate and scrutinizing every spoonful.

“You have a sex life?” Debra arched an eyebrow. “Want to tell me about it?”

“And that’s my cue to move on.” Devon waved. “I’m out of here.”

“Nothing can clear a room faster than sex.” Warren yelled after his friend. Unfortunately, there was a lull in the conversations around him so everyone heard. Several faces turned to him.

“Don’t mind him.” Debra wrapped her arms around his middle. “He’s a nymphomaniac.”

“Uncle Weiner’s a nymflowmanwhacker?” Julia yelled from the porch. Her voice tended to carry so those few people who’d missed the original sex life comment got in on the conversation a little late. “Mommy, what’s a nymflowmanwhacker?”

All eyes went to Summer.

“Um…” Summer’s eyes found her husband and pleaded for help.

“I’ll tell you when you’re thirty.” Clint slipped an arm around his wife and blew his daughter a kiss.

“Okay, Daddy.” Julia turned back to Cart. “Your turn.”

And that was that. Conversations around them resumed and they were no longer the center of attention.

God, he adored Julia.

Debra leaned in and whispered. “Maybe we should talk about your nymflowmanwhacker tendencies?”

“Everyone’s got to have a hobby.” He whispered back.

“Excuse me.” Someone tapped Warren on the shoulder. He turned around.

A short red-haired man in a dark green wool suit complete with vest and gold pocket watch smiled up at Warren and handed him a sealed white business envelope. “Mr. Daniver, here’s the check you requested.”

One of the perks of having money was having a personal banker. He never had to go to the bank or take money out of an ATM because he had a banker to do it for him.

“Thank you, Jason.” Warren took the envelope. He’d always thought that Jason looked like a leprechaun but today’s green suit really sealed the deal.

Jason nodded and looked like he was about to go, but glanced in Debra’s direction. “Ms. Covington,” he brushed out some imaginary wrinkles out of his vest, “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“How do you know Debra?” Warren’s arm went around her waist.

Jason blushed. “I don’t know her personally, but well…I walk by her portrait several times a day on the way to my boss’s office.”

Debra just smiled.

Warren waited and waited for an explanation.

“I give up. Why is your picture on the way to Jason’s boss’s office?” He was missing something here.

“You don’t know?” Jason looked from Warren to Debra and back again. “She owns the bank.”

“You own Frost Bank?” Just when he thought he was starting to understand Debra’s life, another thing just jumped up and knocked him over the head.

“Not all of it.” She shrugged. “Just some of it.”

“She’s the majority shareholder.” Jason nodded. “We sure do appreciate her.”

“How do you own a bank?” He’d never met anyone who owned a bank.

“It was founded in eighteen sixty-eight by her great, great grandfather, Col. Beauregard Andrew Covington.” Jason beamed pride. Clearly meeting Debra was an honor. “The bank has changed hands over the years and ended up in the Frost family who changed the name to Frost Bank.”

“The Colonel is the old guy from the painting?” Warren glanced at Debra.

She nodded. “The very one.” She turned her gracious smile on Jason and held out her hand. “Thank you so much for driving all the way over here to help Mr. Daniver out. I’ll be sure to tell Mr. Gunderson how helpful you are.”

Jason took her hand and held it like he’d forgotten he was supposed to shake it.

An awkward silence hung in the air while Jason continued to hold her hand and stare adoringly up at her. Clearly the dismissal she’d given him was too understated.

“Jason, thank you so much for stopping by.” Warren waggled the envelope in his direction. “I’ve got some business to take care of.”

He dropped Debra’s hand. “Oh sure…yes, that makes sense. I’ve got to be going.”

He tipped an imaginary hat in Debra’s direction, turned on his heel, and walked across the yard to his car.

“Is it just me, or does that man look like a leprechaun?” Debra followed Jason with her eyes.

“That green suit is really working against him.” Warren stuck his thumb under the seal of the envelope and ripped it open. He glanced inside to make sure the cashier’s check was for the correct amount and made out to the right people. Usually, he didn’t donate this much money to one single entity, let alone, people who didn’t have a charitable tax id number, but this was a special case. He owed Aunt June for taking care of Debra and his son. Now, if he could just find a way to quietly give it to Patty and Dave.

“What do you have there?” Debra glanced at the envelope.

“Nothing.” This was between him and the Knowles’.

“Your banker brings you an envelope and it means nothing?” Her hazel eyes turned shrewd. “What are you up to?”

She cocked her head to the right trying to see into the open envelope.

“Nothing important. Just business.” He shoved the envelope in his left front trouser pocket. “I’ll tell you later.”

As in ten or so years from now.

“Sounds mysterious.” She laced her fingers through his. “I want another cupcake. Want one?”

“Sure.” He led her to the desserts table in the middle of the street.

He’d find a way to slip the money to Dave and Patty later tonight. They needed it and he needed to give it to them. He owed Aunt June a great debt and he made it a point to never owe anyone anything.

Debra had never seen so much expensive junk in her life. At six-thirty the next evening she sat at the massive sixteen-seat regency period dining table, half of which was covered in diamonds, precious gems, platinum, and gold. Sweet Louise, Grace, Summer, and Patty stood at her right. Their husbands were watching the kids play on the back lawn while Devon and Warren manned the smoker. Everyone had converged on her house for a potluck dinner.

It was the nicest thing to happen to her old house since her mother died.

Dinner wasn’t quite ready so the ladies were helping sort through three safety deposit boxes full of jewelry along with whatever jewelry she’d found in all of the private house safes. She was keeping a few pieces, donating some to the Smithsonian, and donating the rest to charity. While this jewelry would belong to any future children she might have, it was a lot of responsibility to put on a child. The expectations of past and future generations were a lot to put on anyone herself included. It was time to clear the family decks so to speak.

“Is that a dinosaur?” Patty picked up a diamond, sapphire, and ruby brooch the size of a man’s fist.

Debra glanced over. “I’m afraid so.”

Grace leaned over to get a better look at the brooch. “Since when do dinosaurs breathe fire? I’m guessing those rubies are fire?”

“This just proves that money doesn’t buy taste.” Sweet Louise eyed the brooch like it was a pile of poop she needed to avoid stepping in. “That is so ugly. Seriously, what man thought that was a good idea to buy this for his woman?”

“You have a point.” Summer took the brooch from Patty and set it back down. “Think about it. What if you opened this on Christmas morning and had to pretend to be excited and try to find something nice to say about it.”

“Damn, that would be hard.” Grace grimaced. “Speaking from experience?”

Summer sighed heavily. “You have no idea.”

“Tell me about it. Last year I got a bowling ball for Christmas.” Patty rolled her eyes. “I’ve never bowled a day in my life.”

Patty fit in the group of friends like she’d always been there. Come to think of it, so did Debra. All these years she’d had friends out there just waiting for her. That made her smile.

“What about Dave, does he bowl?” Summer looked like she was honestly trying to figure out this mystery.

“Nope. I’ve known him since he was ten. Never bowled a single frame.” Patty pointed to herself. “What about me says bowling ball? Apart from the fact that I look like I swallowed one.”

“You’re having a baby.” Summer touched Patty’s stomach. “I want to have another one.” She glanced at the closed door. “Don’t tell Clint. He’d have me impregnated before we leave tonight.” She grinned. “On second thought, can we borrow one of your many, many bedrooms?”

“Me casa es su casa.” Debra gestured to the door. “Help yourself. Just give us a heads up on which rooms you’ll be using. I’d hate to walk in on anything.”

“I will keep that in mind.” She waggled her eyebrows. “First, I really do want to understand men and the whole present buying thing. Why does Clint start hounding me two months before Christmas for my Christmas list and then go out of his way not to buy anything on it?” She shook her head. “Don’t listen to me, I sound so ungrateful.”

“No, I get it. You like what you like and not what they think you’ll like or want you to like. That’s not ungrateful at all.” Grace nodded. “Men, God bless them, they think they’re smarter than we are, but seriously they don’t have a clue. Why do they think they know what’s best for us?”

“That’s what I don’t get.” Debra tapped herself on the chest. “Do I look like someone who isn’t capable of making her own decisions?”

It wasn’t that she was mad about it, she honestly wanted to understand and okay, it touched a nerve…a big fat raw one.

Sweet Louise pulled up a chair and had a seat. “Y’all are looking at this the wrong way. It’s not that men don’t think we can make our own decisions, it’s that they want to feel important, and they want to take care of us. Since they’re all emotionally challenged, they manifest the care-taking in strange ways, like making sure your windshield wiper fluid is topped off and buying you pepper spray for your birthday. In a roundabout screwed up way, they’re trying to keep us safe. It doesn’t always make sense, but then again we women use both sides of our brains and men, bless their stupid little hearts, only use the left side of their brain. The right part must get so lonely and bored not being used.”

“I wish Chord would manifest his care-taking by helping me unload the groceries and taking out the trash.” Grace rolled her eyes. “Who needs windshield wiper fluid in Austin, it only rains here in an El Niño year.”

“I’m betting the man who bought the dinosaur also bought this.” Patty held up a cocktail ring with a diamond the size of a marble inlaid with channel set rubies so that it looked like a baseball. “I have to say that this is actually worse than the bowling ball because it’s stupid and expensive. I’m not sure what’s worse, the stupid or the expensive part.”

Debra glanced at it. The diamond was easily ten karats and would have been amazing if it weren’t for the channel set rubies. “Why don’t you take it and use it to buy your children a college education.”

Actually, Debra was taking care of the children’s college education, but Patty didn’t know that yet. Finding the right time to tell her was going to be touchy. For someone who was good at giving, she was horrible at taking. Patty seemed to think that getting a free house was all the giving she was allowed to take.

Patty mumbled something about money falling from the sky these days. “No thanks, we’ve got college covered. I figure the smartest kid gets to go to college while the other two get technical school. If they all turn out smart, well then…they get to duke it out on the front lawn.”

Sweet Louise nodded. “You should sell tickets.”

“How do you think we plan on paying for technical school?” Patty nodded.

“That baseball ring is pretty ugly.” Grace picked it up and held it up inspecting the bottom. “How did they inset rubies in the diamond? It’s like they cut a little notches into both sides of the diamond. I feel like we should complain to whatever the diamond version of PETA is. It’s cruel and unusual and just plain wrong.”

“Where did all of this come from?” Summer picked up a tennis bracelet with diamonds the size of Debra’s thumbnail.

“It’s all family stuff. Most of this came from the family bank safety deposit boxes—”

“Your family has their own bank?” Grace put the baseball diamond down.

Mental alarm bells went off in Debra’s head, and the hair at the back of her neck stood to attention. This is when the average person either asked for money or stopped talking to her and called her a spoiled little rich girl.