Page 87 of The Honorable Texan
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Supper was riotous.Meredith had made a huge pan of homemade biscuits and ferreted out all sorts of preserves to go with them.For an entrée, she made fajitas with lean beef and sliced vegetables, served with wild rice and a salad.Dessert was fresh fruit and fresh whipped cream, the only concession besides the biscuits that she made to fat calories.She’d also found some light margarine to set out.
“This is good,” Rey commented as he glanced at her.“We usually have broiled or fried steak with lots of potatoes.”
“Not bad once a week or so, but terrible for your cholesterol,” she pointed out with a smile as she finished her salad.“Lean beef is okay for you, but not in massive doses.”
“You sound like a dietician,” Leo chuckled.
“Modern women have to keep up with health issues,” she said evasively.“I’m responsible for your health while I’m working for you.I have to be food-conscious.”
“That’s fine,” Rey told her flatly, “but don’t put tofu and bean sprouts in front of me if you want to stay here.”
Her eyebrows arched.“I hate tofu.”
“Thank God,” Leo sighed as he buttered another biscuit.“I got fed tofu salad the last time I went to Brewster’s for supper,” he added with absolute disgust.“I ate the olives and the cheese and left the rest.”
“I can’t say that I blame you,” Meredith said, laughing because he looked so forlorn.
“Janie Brewster thinks tofu is good for him,” Rey commented.“But she thinks he needs therapy more.He doesn’t like fish.She says that has some sort of connection to his fear of deep water.”He glanced at his brother with wicked affection.“She’s a psychology major.She already has an associate degree from our local junior college.”
“She’s twenty,” Leo said with a twist of his lower lip.“She knows everything.”
“She just got her associate degree this spring,” Rey added.
“Good.Maybe she’ll get a job in New York,” Leo said darkly.
“Why New York?”Meredith asked curiously.
“Well, it’s about as far east as she can go and find her sort of work,” Leo muttered.“And she’d be out of my hair!”
Rey gave him a covert glance and finished his fajitas.
Meredith finished her own meal and got up to refill coffee cups.She had a feeling that Leo was moreinterested in the nebulous Brewster girl than he wanted to admit.
“We need groceries,” she told them when she’d served dessert and they were eating it.“Mrs.Lewis made me a list.”
“You can use one of the ranch trucks to drive to town,” Leo suggested carelessly.
Her fingers toyed with her fork.“I haven’t driven in several months.”
“You don’t drive?”Rey exclaimed, shocked.
She couldn’t meet his eyes.“I take buses.”Cars made her feel guilty.
“Why?”
She remembered a day she should have driven.The memories were horrible…
“Meredith, it’s all right,” Leo said gently, sensing something traumatic about her behavior.“I’ll drive you.Okay?”
“You won’t,” Rey replied.“You’re in worse shape than she is.Which brings up another point.You don’t need to be walking around town like that,” he told her.
She wasn’t offended; it was a relief.She even smiled.“No, I don’t guess I do.Will you do the shopping?”she asked him, her wide, soft eyes steady on his.
He felt wild little thrills shooting through his body at the impact.It had been years since he’d been so shaken by eye contact alone.He didn’t move.He just stared at her, his dark eyes unblinking, curious.His body rippled with vague hunger.
Leo, watching the eye contact, tried not to grin.He cleared his throat, and Rey seemed to remember that he had a forkful of fruit halfway to his mouth.He tookit the rest of the way and chewed it carefully before he spoke.
