Page 31 of Snow in Texas

She laughed, a little more true this time. “Not me, though?”

“Oh, you’re damn scary.”

She laughed again, and it eased some of her tension. Then they lapsed into silence. Colin’s thumb rubbed across her knuckles, rough from work.

“I’m messed up,” she said quietly. “I won’t pretend I’m not.”

“Ah.” His hand tightened around hers, a compulsive squeeze. “That’s ‘cause you haven’t heard my story yet.”

She fell into a state of rapt fascination as he described for her a shotgun house on the edge of the New Orleans swamp, a mother and father who’d grown up in the gator hunting tradition, crawfish and cornbread on the table, afternoon trips into the city and jazz clubs. In scoffing, overblown tones meant to hide his hurt, he described the way his mother, Evie, had revealed his true parentage, telling him that his father was none other than Remy Lécuyer, divorced loner who lived with his Cherokee mother, father of Felix…a.k.a. Mercy.

In Colin’s blunt, unforgiving words, Mercy had killed Colin’s father, Larry, at close range with a shotgun.

Jenny had heard the story from her brother; which meant she’d heard the real, bare-bones facts of it, without the taint of either Lécuyer brother.

“He was defending his wife,” Jenny said, voice gentle. She’d met Ava when she was still a girl and a Teague. The people close to Ava and Mercy hadn’t seen the yearning and deep-seated love between those two unlikely lovers. But from her outside perspective, Jenny had seen it, had known what it was. At some point, Mercy had stopped looking on his young charge as a child…and had wanted her as a woman. For an awkward home schooled boy who’d lost his family and been forced to flee his home? There was no questioning what he’d do for his bride. “And,” she went on, “I won’t pretend I don’t admire his commitment to her.”

Colin made a dissatisfied noise in his throat.

She posed a question she probably didn’t want to know the answer to. “If you loved someone the way your brother loves his wife, would you even think twice about who you were hurting when you defended her?”

A long beat of silence passed.

“No,” he said, finally, voice ragged. His hand tightened on hers. “No, I wouldn’t.”

Jenny’s heart throbbed, and her veins filled with fear. “You don’t feel that way about me, so don’t make it cheap and pretend,” she warned.

“I don’t pretend.”

“Me neither.”

Later, she wouldn’t be able to say who turned toward who first. But suddenly, he was kissing her, and she was loving it.

Fourteen

Jenny

It was no easy task walking through the clubhouse with a six-four Cajun trying to hold onto her. Their trip from the picnic table to his dorm was one of those handsy, shuffling, awkward progressions that so often plagued the lines at county fairs. Colin caught her around the waist in the common room, and whispered something French against the back of her neck that sounded incredibly dirty, even if she didn’t know the words. She gasped, hands clenching over his at her waist. She should have known, especially given his brother’s penchant for the language, but it was still the kind of pleasant shock that made her shiver.

“You speak French?” she whispered.

“Oui, mademoiselle.”

They needed to move faster. And not just because one of the guys could stagger into the room and find them at any minute.

They reached his dorm, he fumbled with the key, and then they were in, the cramped dark room folding around them. Jenny heard the lock engage.

Her breath caught.

Shit, this was happening. And it didn’t matter that she wanted it, or that her heart was racing with anticipation. It had been seven years, and she was nervous, suddenly. That afternoon on the side of the road, it had been too hurried and instinctual for the worry to set it. But now…

The lights came on with a soft click. Warm, muted yellow light. Shadows in the corners. Safe on its face; just like all the other dorms; like the dorm where Riley had crammed a dirty sock in her mouth and tied her wrists…

She shook her head.

“Change your mind?” Colin asked, and he sounded disappointed, but not surprised.

She turned to him…

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