Page 29 of Texas Temptation

“I’ll be going up with the herd tomorrow, and we won’t be back until late. If Stevenson calls, refer him to Hank in the Dallas office. I don’t expect any major problems, but if they arise, I’ll carry my cell phone. Call if there’s an emergency.”

“Otherwise, I’ll tell everyone you’ll call them back on Monday?”

“I’ll be back in the late afternoon. Still time to call LA if needed. But handle what you can yourself. Activate the answering machine at the end of the day. It can take messages Friday.”

“Me field your calls? I know nothing about what you’re doing. I’m lucky not to disconnect callers any more.”

“You pick up things faster than the two temps from the agency in town did.”

Jordan felt a warm glow at his halfhearted compliment. She’d been doing her best in an alien environment. It was nothing like waiting tables. She was happy to hear it wasn’t all in vain.

“About Friday,” Cade began.

“My car will work,” she said stubbornly.

“My car would be more comfortable for Aunt Amelia,” he replied quickly.

She looked at him in the growing darkness. She hadn’t considered Amelia. Was she letting foolish pride stand in her way? The older woman was coming to help her out. Maybe she should take his blasted car and stop arguing.

“I hadn’t thought about that,” she murmured.

“Think about it.”

“It’s bigger than what I’m used to.”

“I could have one of the men drive you in. But I need them for the cattle. When will you be ready to return?”

“I don’t know. After Caleb goes to sleep, I guess. Do you think Amelia would stay that long? Maybe she shouldn’t go with us after all. It could be a long day. I can get a hotel room nearby.”

“She wants to go. Let her. She’ll talk your ear off and make you forget your worries for a while. And I’m the last one to suggest she’ll get tired. She’d set me in my place fast.”

“Does she do that to you?” Jordan asked softly, trying to imagine his delicate aunt talking endlessly and Cade just sitting and listening.

“Talk my ear off? Sometimes.”

“I bet she tells you wonderful stories about Vicki,” she said slowly.

“We don’t talk about Vicki around here,” he said heavily.

“Why ever not? I’d want to talk about Caleb all the time, to make sure everyone remembered him. To celebrate his life. To remember the great times together.”

Jordan had heard Amelia when she mentioned Cade never talked about Vicki, but she didn’t understand it.

“Memories can be painful,” Cade said slowly.

“Yes. I know because I’ve really missed Aunt Maggie since she died. But now I can laugh at some memories of things we did. I always feel a poignant longing to go back to the way things were when Caleb was an infant, or even before when it was just Aunt Maggie and me. But I know I can’t. So I do what I can to celebrate her life. She was so special to me. She raised me after my folks died. That couldn’t have been easy. She never married, was in her fifties when I came to live with her. Yet she loved me and later Caleb like we were always her own.”

Impulsively, Jordan reached out and grabbed Cade’s hand.

“Tell me one special memory you have of Vicki.”

Her aunt was the one who alwaysdid. Maybe Cade needed to do something, even if only to recall one special event in his daughter’s life.

His fingers tightened on hers, but he remained silent for a long time. Finally, he began to speak.

“The first time I took her up with me on a horse. We rode to the river and back. She held on to the reins, and I let her think she was directing the horse. She laughed and yelled and slapped those reins on the horse’s neck. Her soft baby hair blew up into my face. Marissa didn’t cut it until she started school, so at age three it was long and fine and smelled like baby girl. She laughed the entire way, delighting in being up on an enormous horse with her daddy.”

Jordan could envision the happiness the day must have held. She knew the little girl had lacked for nothing in this family. Love spilled out with every word Cade said. She wished for a moment Cade had been Caleb’s father. What a wonderful father he must have been.

---