The Texan's Christmas (15 page)

“Yeah, Aunt Mable’s son-in-law drives a train. When we visit, he’s always talking about it.”

“What’s his name?”

“Philipe Mendes. Why?”

Kid patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll explain later.”

Suddenly the squeal of a car that needed new brakes sounded. Thelma Lou. She burst through the door without even knocking. She looked around at the group. “So the old bitch finally cracked.”

Lucky leaned over and whispered. “Cool the attitude.”

“That’s mean, Thelma.” Bubba’s face knotted in pain.

Thelma flung out an arm. “Did y’all tell him what she’s been doing?”

“Yes,” Kid answered. “But we didn’t cut him with a razor blade while we did.”

Thelma got the message quickly. She went over to Bubba and put her arm around him. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“I don’t want you mad at me.” Bubba sniffed.

Good heavens, Bubba. Get a backbone.
Then something hit Lucky like a smelly fish in the face. Was she this pathetic when she was a teenager, leaning on Kid to boost her spirits? Maybe he was glad to finally get away from her neediness. Oh, no!

Bubba went to change. Walker left and since Kid didn’t have a cell he was on Bubba’s landline to Chance.

Lucky was in frozen disbelief.

Hanging up, Kid said, “It will be a couple of hours before Chance can get here.”

“I wish I could go, but I have four kids.”

“Don’t worry. I can handle Bubba,” Kid assured her.

“You know, I like Bubba, but he has to grow up. I don’t need another child.” Thelma headed for the door. “See ya tonight, Lucky.”

Kid walked over to her. “What’s wrong? You’re very pale.”

“I…I just got a glimpse into how I was as a teenager. Needy. Needing you to lift my spirits. Needing your presence to face people. Just needing you to live. How pathetic I must have been. No wonder you never came back.” She took a couple of deep breaths to calm her racing heart.

“Lucky…”

“Don’t say anything.” She stepped back toward the door. “I wouldn’t believe you anyway.”

“Lucky, don’t do this,” he begged.

But she wasn’t listening. She ran out the door. She ran for her very life.

K
ID WAS HEADED FOR THE DOOR
to go after her when Bubba Joe came out of his room.

“Kid, I’m ready to go see Momma.” He had on baggy jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers, not much different from before.

He was torn between going after Lucky and helping an old friend. “Where does Thelma Lou live?”

Bubba pointed east.

“I have some things to do first so I’ll drop you off there and pick you up later.”

“Okay.”

In less than ten minutes he was on his way to Lucky’s. A cloud of dust followed him as he sped down the lane. She was sitting on the stoop, staring off into space. He got out and sat beside her. Neither spoke for a few minutes.

He wanted to put his arms around her and hold her, smell the scent of strawberries, touch her smooth skin and taste her sweet lips. For so long he wasn’t sure how he felt about her, but now he knew he loved her. He also knew she wasn’t ready to hear that. Even though he wasn’t a patient man he would bide his time.

“Why aren’t you helping Bubba?”

He watched the stubborn line of her jaw. “I can’t until we talk.”

“Kid.” She glanced down at her clasped hands. “I saw myself clearly in Bubba today. As a teenager I was shy and had a hard time talking to people, even my classmates, but as long as you were there boosting my spirits I could. I never had the strength to stand up for myself. I needed you for that.”

“I needed you, too. My parents died and people were distant, not knowing what to say to me. When I was with you, I was myself, strong again. I needed you just as much as you needed me. I missed you all the way to Lubbock and in the days that followed.”

“But you never called or came back.”

He swallowed. “No.”

She brushed a hand through her short hair. “We were teenagers, Kid. We didn’t know what real love was. We played grown-up games, but we were still kids without a clue. I was angry for so many years and I blamed you. I don’t anymore. If I hadn’t kept waiting for you to make decisions for me, our son would be alive today. If I had stood up for myself and come home, my life would have been so different.” She clasped her hands again and he couldn’t help but remember them touching his body and making him feel empowered like he hadn’t in years.

“I have to stop looking back,” she continued. “I have to make decisions now that are good for me. I’m going to stop chasing criminals because it makes me feel good about myself. I’m going to rent The Joint or sell it and then I’m going to do something for me—something I
want, and build a life I deserve. My dad suggested nursing school and I might just do that. Never again will I be needy.”

He took a deep breath. “What about us?”

She turned to look at him, her eyes as bright and sincere as he’d ever seen them. “We were two teenagers who needed each other, but now we’re adults with very different lives. And the sad truth is if you had really loved me, you would have come back. You wouldn’t have noticed those other girls. I don’t think you even realized that until you got to Lubbock. There was a whole other world out there, without the pain, and you embraced it totally.”

He couldn’t deny her words but he had to ask, “What about last night?”

She studied her hands. “We got a lot of frustration out of our systems.”

“It was more than that,” he said stubbornly.

“We just got caught up in the moment. That’s all it was.”

“Not to me.”

“Kid.” She sighed. “The honest truth is you like women. Even though you don’t want to hear it, you’re a lot like your father in that regard. I can’t live my life wondering where you are and who you’re with.”

His cool slipped a little. “Have you heard of the word
trust?
”

“Yes. I trusted you twenty years ago.”

That pretty much spoiled every retort in his head.

“It’s over, Kid. We have to admit that and we both
need to move on.” Her voice was calm, practical and he hated that.

He got to his feet, his eyes holding hers. “It’s not over for me, Lucky. It will never be.”

He strolled to his truck, trying not to look back at everything he wanted, but would now never have.

Life sucked sometimes.

L
UCKY CRIED HERSELF TO SLEEP
, but it was cathartic, cleansing. She’d meant every word she’d said to Kid. It just wasn’t easy saying them and watching the pain on his face. She’d asked herself so many times how did she go forward without looking back? Making peace with the past and letting go. It was simple. The only way to accomplish that was by being strong enough to stand on her own, uncaring of what people said about her. She gave them power when she walked away from their snide remarks, when she didn’t confront them, when she allowed them to treat her like a second-class citizen. But not anymore.

When morning arrived, she felt better, but somewhere in her mind she knew Kid would always own a piece of her heart. That first love wasn’t going to be easy to forget. She wasn’t sure she had to forget. She just had to overcome it.

As she went into the kitchen, she noticed her dad on the phone again with Nettie. They must have a lot to talk about. She smiled at her father’s new interest. Maybe he’d get out of the house more.

Coffee was made so she poured a cup, spotting the
lease papers on the counter. She sat down to read them. Now that she was starting a new life she would need the money. She’d sign it and drop it by Cadde’s or Chance’s.

Her father shuffled into the kitchen without his cane. Refilling his cup, he said, “I’m going over to Nettie’s. She used to be a masseuse and she’s going to massage the tight muscles in my leg to relax it.”

“Really.” She lifted an eyebrow. “And what will this massage include?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

With a smile he shuffled to the door.

“Dad, you forgot your cane.”

“Don’t need it.”

Her dad was like a kid again. Maybe there was hope for her, too. She touched the lease papers for a moment, saw Kid’s handsome face and immediately let it go.

A knock at the door had her on her feet. It couldn’t be her father. She’d heard his truck leave. Travis stood on the doorstep.

He removed his hat. “May I come in?”

“Sure.” She opened the door wider. “Have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“Thanks.”

Travis had a wad of newspapers under his arm. Was he planning on reading the paper here? She placed a cup of coffee on the end table and sat in her dad’s chair. Ollie curled up beside her.

“How did things go?”

He took a swallow of coffee. “We worked into the
night and even arrested Philipe Mendes, thanks to Walker’s tip. Since the crimes were committed here, they’re being transported back.”

“Walker mentioned that.”

“I went by to check on Mrs. Grisley and she’s had a complete mental breakdown. She’s just lying there muttering ‘Bubba Joe’ over and over. I was there when Kid arrived with her son. Bubba cried like a baby asking her what he was supposed to do now. Kid took him outside and told him to straighten up. It wasn’t a time to be a sissy. He had to be a man. Bubba cut it off—” Travis snapped his fingers “—just like that. Kid’s good with him and Bubba listens.”

“Kid’s very good with people.” She knew that better than anyone.

Travis sipped his coffee and then placed it on the table. “Lucky, what you did was dangerous…and heroic.”

“And I’m fired,” she teased.

He reached for a newspaper and handed it to her. It was a Brownsville paper and her face leaped out at her. Kid was beside her helping her into the chopper. Hometown Heroine, the caption read, and went on to tell everything that had happened.

“How did they get this?”

Travis shifted uneasily. “It’s my fault. A guy was there who I thought was with the sheriff’s department. He kept asking questions and I finally asked the sheriff about him. He was a reporter, but the damage had been done. I’m sorry, Lucky.”

She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. At least it didn’t run in a paper around here.”

He frowned.

“What?”

“The story was picked up by The Associated Press and it’s running in a lot of papers across the country—human interest type story.”

“Oh, no.” That was the last thing she wanted, but at least there would be less or no fuss in High Cotton. “I guess my cover’s blown.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t say anything about you being my undercover source. It just tells about a young bar owner who heard bits of information and took it upon herself to stop a cattle rustling ring.”

She fingered the paper. “I’ve decided to quit anyway. When I start risking my life, I have to question a lot of things.”

“This has a lot to do with Kid?”

“Yes. I just never got over him.” She ran her hand along the arm of her father’s chair. “But now I’m ready to start a new life. I’m going to rent or sell The Beer Joint and then I’m going back to school.”

An eyebrow rose. “Are you sure about Kid? He seemed pretty protective the other day.”

Her hand clenched into a fist. “There’s a lot of history between Kid and me, but it’s time for both of us to move on.”

“You deserve the best, Lucky.” There was that note in his voice again, but her emotions were too raw to start anything with Travis and she sensed the man knew that.

She smiled. “Thank you. I enjoyed working with you.” She paused, needing to think about something else. “How’s Melvin’s leg?”

“You grazed his thigh. They took him to a hospital, gave him an antibiotic shot and stitched it up. It wasn’t bad enough to keep him out of jail.”

That was a relief. She didn’t want to harm anyone, including Melvin.

Travis reached for something on the sofa. “I brought you a gun. Yours is being tagged and entered into evidence.” He laid it on the coffee table. “Melvin and Earl’s mother has been calling wanting to go their bail. There’s an attempted murder charge against them so I don’t think they’ll be getting out any time soon. In case they’re stupider than I think, I want you to have a gun.”

That gave her a jolt, but she wasn’t going to be paranoid about it. She couldn’t live her life that way.

“Please keep it. I’ll be fine,” she assured him.

“Lucky…”

“When you offered me the job, I was so excited to be doing something worthwhile. It boosted my spirits and made me feel good about helping people. At that time in my life I needed that. But now…”

“You can handle anything life throws at you,” he finished for her.

“Yes.” She smiled. “But I’ll miss you.”

“Same here. The job was exciting when you were around.”

They’d gotten personal without her realizing it, but they were good friends and they always would be.

Travis cleared his throat. “Do you think you can go to the sheriff’s office in the morning and speak with an investigator about the shooting? It’s standard procedure.”

“Yes. Walker mentioned that, too.”

“Good. We want to have an airtight case against these guys.”

“Do you know how Wilma got involved with them?”

“At The Beer Joint.”

“My place?”

“Yes. They stopped in there late one night about a year ago when she was in her crazy-old-lady-wig mode. She heard them whispering about an ATV they needed to get rid of. She told them if they wanted to make some big money to call her and they did. Up until then they’d been just petty thieves stealing when they needed money.”

Lucky leaned forward. “What did Mr. Hopper ever do to Bubba Joe? He’s a nice Christian man and I just can’t see him being rude.”

“Clyde, Melvin and Earl are doing a lot of talking. Seems Mr. Hopper was putting gas into his truck at the convenience store. Bubba Joe had stopped for a Coke, candy bar and chips. When he backed out, he clipped the tail end of Mr. Hopper’s truck. The gas nozzle came out and splattered Mr. Hopper with gas. Startled, he called Bubba an idiot. He then apologized but it was too late. Wilma heard what had happened, and two weeks later Mr. Hopper’s cows were gone along with his great-grandson’s ATV and the silver inlaid saddle he’d won in
his rodeo days. There are a dozen or more stories like that.”

“This has hit Bubba hard.”

“How did he even start working for you?” Travis asked.

“Bubba and I were in school together and sometimes he’d stop in to say hi. One night I was really busy and he jumped in to help. I stopped him because he wasn’t licensed to serve beer. He wanted to know how to get a license and I told him. The next thing I knew he had one. He did that all on his own and he’s been working at The Joint since. I thought Wilma would put a stop to it, but she didn’t.”

“How will he cope now that everything is out in the open?”

“He has a cousin here who will help him. Bubba loves her kids because he’s a big kid himself. And Kid will help him.”

“Are you sure? Kid’s part of a big company in Houston. I wouldn’t think he has a lot of available time.”

“He’ll be there for Bubba.”

“Are you saying he’s trustworthy?”

What? This was confusing. She didn’t trust Kid. How could she say that Bubba could? “Yes, in a lot of ways,” she replied. But not in the ways that counted.

She thought about her answer long after Travis had left. Her emotions were slipping and sliding like a bar of soap on a tiled floor. One thing was very clear. She was afraid of being hurt again. She’d gotten through all the pain and she couldn’t live through another betrayal.
Like she’d told Kid, they were young and the agony of what had followed was that much more vivid.

She’d told herself she was ready to move on, but here she was stepping back into the past with the same old heartache. She had to make some hard decisions in the next few days and she would make them with her eyes wide-open. Maybe by then her emotions would be stable. Maybe by then she would be focused on the future instead of the past. Maybe.

Getting ready for work, she stalled. She really didn’t want to serve beer to drunken men anymore. Before she had a reason, a cause. Now it just seemed like paving a road to hell, as Mrs. Farley would say. She laughed at the thought, the sound easing her mind. If she could laugh, there was hope for her.