Page 38 of Texas Honor

Lillian managed a smile. “Thanks for letting her come. You could have fired me.”

“Not on your life—I’d starve to death.” He smiled halfheartedly. “I’d better change.”

A truck started up, and they both looked toward the window as Mari went past sitting beside Billy in the ranch truck.

Ward’s face hardened. He turned on his heel without a word and went up the staircase. Lillian sighed, watching him. Well, the jig was up and no harm done. Or was there? He did look frustrated. She turned and went toward the kitchen. Maybe things might work out better than she had expected. She hummed a little, remembering the explosive force of that argument she’d overheard. And then she smiled. Where there was smoke, there was fire, her daddy used to say.

AWEEKLATER,back in Atlanta, Mari was just getting over bouts of crying. Her small savings account was enough to pay the rent for the next month, thank goodness. She had bought groceries and cleaned her apartment and done her best not to think about what had happened in Texas.

Getting a job was the big problem, and she haunted the unemployment office for secretarial positions. There just weren’t any available, but when there was an opening for a beginning bank clerk, she jumped at it. She hated figures and adding numbers, but it wasn’t a good time to be choosy. She reported for work at a big bank in downtown Atlanta, and began the tedious process of learning to use computers and balance accounts.

After Mari was settled in Aunt Lillian called to make sure she’d made it home all right.

“I’m sorry, girl,” the older woman said gruffly. “I never meant to cause you any hurt. I just wanted someone to look after you when I was gone. Now that I know I’m going to live, of course, I can do it by myself.”

Mari was touched by her aunt’s concern, even though she felt as if part of her had died. “I’ll be okay,” Mari promised brightly. “I’m sorry I had to leave so suddenly. I guess you figured out that we’d had a big argument.”

“Hard to miss, the way you were going at each other before you left,” Lillian said. “I knew the jig was up when he asked if you had the bus fare. He said you both knew I’d been spinning tales.”

“We knew almost from the beginning,” Mari said with a sigh. “We played along because we both think so much of you. But no more cupid, all right? You’re much too tall to pass for the little guy, and you’d look pretty funny in a diaper carrying a bow and arrow.”

Lillian actually laughed. “Guess I would, at that.” She paused. “The boss left an hour ago for Hawaii. He said it was business, but he wasn’t carrying any briefcase. He looked pretty torn up.”

That would have been encouraging if Mari hadn’t known him so well, but she didn’t allow herself to feel hopeful. She wanted to tell Lillian just what the scalawag had offered to do, but she didn’t want to crush all her aunt’s illusions. He had been pretty good to Lillian, after all. He could afford to be. It was only eligible women he seemed to have it in for.

“He’ll be back in form in no time,” Mari told her aunt. “He’ll proabably find some new woman to make passes at in Hawaii.”

“He made a pass?” Lillian sounded almost girlish with glee.

Mari groaned, realizing what she’d given away. “Well, that was what you wanted, wasn’t it?” she asked miserably. “You got your wish, but it wasn’t commitment he had in mind.”

“No man in his right mind ever wants to make a commitment,” the other woman assured her. “They have to be led into it.”

“I don’t want to lead your boss anywhere except maybe into quicksand,” Mari said darkly.

“You will come and see me again, won’t you?” Lillian probed gently. “When you get over being mad at him?”

“Someday maybe.”

“How about a job? Do you have any prospects yet?”

“Finally,” Mari sighed. “I started working in the accounts department of a bank this morning.”

“Good girl. I knew you’d bounce back quickly. I love you, Marianne.”

Mari smiled in spite of herself. “I love you, too, Aunt Lillian. Take care of yourself. Please take your pills.”

“I will, I promise. Good night.”

Mari hung up and stared at the receiver. So the boss had gone to Hawaii. How nice for him. Balmy breezes, blooming flowers, beautiful women doing the hula. Well, he wouldn’t be depressed for long or even missing the one that got away. Thank goodness she’d had sense enough to refuse his proposition. At least she still had her pride and her self-respect.

“And they’ll keep you very warm on winter nights, too,” Mari muttered to herself before she went to bed.

The bank job was interesting, at least, and she met some nice people. She liked Lindy and Marge, with whom she worked, and there was even a nice young assistant vice president named Larry, who was single and redheaded and just plain nice. She began to have coffee and sweet rolls with him in the mornings the second week she was at the bank. Little by little she was learning to live without the shadow of Ward Jessup.

Or she told herself she was. But the memory of him haunted her. She could close her eyes and feel the warm, hard crush of his mouth, the tantalizing seduction of his big hands. It had been so beautiful between them, so special. At no time in her life had she felt more secure or safe than she had with him. Despite his faults he was more man than she’d ever known. She found that love forgave a lot. She missed him terribly. Sometimes just seeing the back of a dark-headed tall man would be enough to make her heart jump. Or if she heard a deep masculine voice. Or if she saw Texas license plates on a car. She began to wonder if she was going to survive being away from him.

She called Lillian the third week, just to see how her aunt was getting along, she told herself. But it wasn’t Lillian who answered the phone.

---