Page 122 of The Honorable Texan
“Oh, I think I can cope,” Leo drawled with a wink at Meredith.“Don’t be a stranger, Meredith,” he added.“We’ll miss you.But thanks for making us all those pans of frozen biscuits!”
“It’s a good thing you have a walk-in freezer, is all I can say,” she mused, chuckling.“But don’t forget the directions on how to cook them,” she added.“They’re only dough until then.”
“I’ll have it all down pat in no time,” Leo promised.“Meanwhile,” he added, rubbing his big hands together with visible delight, “there are still six biscuits left over from breakfast!”
“No use asking you to save me a couple, is there?”Rey asked on a sigh.
“Blood is thicker than water, except where biscuits are involved,” Leo shot back.“Sorry.”
Rey got in the car and started the engine without another word.
* * *
Meredith was quietmost of the way to Houston.She was oddly reluctant to go back to work, although sheloved her job.She was going to miss Rey and Leo and Mrs.Lewis.She was even going to miss the chickens.
“You can come down anytime you want to,” Rey reminded her, when he noticed that she was brooding.It had been hard, but he’d kept his hands to himself for the duration of her stay at the ranch.He was planning a frontal assault in the near future.This wasn’t the time, though.
“I know.”She stared out the window at the bare trees and chilly flat landscape.“Thanksgiving comes along pretty soon.”
“Your father will be working for us by then.You can come and spend a few days while you’re off.”
“I might still be on call,” she worried.
He was grim and silent himself, after she said that.The rest of the way to Houston, he had the radio on, letting it fill the cool silence.
He dropped her off at her father’s house.It looked cold and unwelcoming as she unlocked the front door so that he could sit her suitcase inside.
She turned back to him, her grey eyes wide and sad as they met his dark ones.He hadn’t removed his hat, and it was hard to see his face in the shadow of it.
“Well, thanks for everything,” she began.
He stared down at her with a sense of loss.After their ride up to Houston to visit her father, there seemed to be a curtain between them.They’d been very close that Sunday.But he’d gotten cold feet, he admitted to himself, and he’d drawn back.He felt the threat of her in his heart and he was trying to run from it.Suddenly it was like trying to run from himself.
“You’ll be here alone,” he said quietly.“Make sure you keep your door locked.We haven’t had any reportsthat they caught the guys who rolled Leo.Just in case, don’t let your guard down.”
“I’ll be fine,” she promised him.
She looked so small and vulnerable standing there.He hated leaving her.
“You wear your jacket when it’s cold like this,” she told him firmly, noticing that he was standing in the cold wind in just the shirtsleeves of his chambray shirt.
“And my raincoat when it’s raining,” he said with a mocking smile.“You wear yours, too.”
She hesitated.“Well, goodbye,” she said after a minute.
“You and I won’t ever say goodbye, Meredith,” he replied.“It’s ‘so long.’”
She forced a smile to her lips.“So long, then.”
He was still hesitating.His face was absolutely grim.
“I know where a jeweler’s is open this early,” she said suddenly, with mischievous enthusiasm.
It warmed him to hear her tease, to see that wonderful smile.“Do you, really?”
She nodded.“You can even have a diamond.But it would have to be a small one.”
His dark eyes twinkled.“You just hold that thought,” he said gently.“One of these days we might talk about this marriage hang-up of yours.Meanwhile, I’ve got to…”
