Page 88 of The Honorable Texan
“I’ll get the groceries,” Rey volunteered.He glared at both of them, noting the shaved place where Leo had stitches near the back of his head.“Obviously I’m the only one here who can walk around without drawing curious stares from bystanders!”
Leo buttered another biscuit.“That sounds like sour grapes to me.If you want attention, try walking around without your pants.”
“I didn’t say I wanted attention,” Rey returned hotly.
“Good thing.”He glanced at Meredith with a mischievous smile.“He looks like hell without his pants,” he said conversationally.“Hairiest legs of the bunch.”
“That’s debatable,” Rey shot back.“Yours aren’t much better.”
“What a good thing you two aren’t Scottish,” Meredith said demurely.
It took a minute for them to get it, then Leo burst out laughing, trying to picture his younger brother in a kilt.Rey lifted a corner of his thin mouth, but he wasn’t in a smiling mood.It bothered him, that Meredith had been crying in Mrs.Lewis’s arms, that she didn’t drive, that she was so mysterious about her life.She was twenty-three, almost twenty-four.Most women by that age had been involved in a serious relationship, some more than one.Many had been married.
His heart skipped.Was that her secret?He remembered watching her rub her ring finger in the car.He glanced at it curiously.She didn’t wear a ring, and there was no sign that she’d been wearing one there.She didn’t act married.She hadn’t talked about having a husband.She was single, apparently by choice.But hadthere been men in her past?He was still carrying scars from his one great love affair, from the deception he’d endured.Meredith had gone out walking to a party in a rig that made her look like a prostitute, and she’d been comfortable doing that.It wasn’t something an innocent girl would have considered.
Knowing that, he looked at her in a different way, speculatively.She had a nice figure and she wasn’t all flushing smiles like Janie Brewster when Leo was around.Meredith was oddly mature for her age, almost matronly.She seemed to be used to giving instructions, too.She was a puzzle that disturbed him.What if she was hiding something sordid in her past?He and Leo had taken her in on faith and pity, but now he wondered if they’d made a terrible mistake.If she were in league with the men who’d robbed Leo, they might have a dangerous situation developing.What if she’d planned the whole thing as a means to an end?
Basically Rey didn’t trust her.He wasn’t going to let down his guard, either, no matter if looking at her did raise his blood pressure.She wasn’t going to know that she did.And he’d keep his eyes open, all the time, just in case.
* * *
The days turnedto a week.Meredith’s painful bruises faded slowly.She lost some of the brooding sadness that seemed to cling to her like the jeans she wore around the house when she was working.She found the slower, easier pace strange, and she missed the urgency of her daily routine.But as the days went by lazily, she realized that she hadn’t really given herself time to think.She’d avoided it, ignored it, hoping that the past wouldvanish.Now she was face to face with it, forced to reflect on what had happened.
She sat beside the fishpond one sunny afternoon, between chores, and watched the goldfish under the surface of the dark water as they moved sluggishly.The water wasn’t frozen, but it was cold.The pond heater only kept a small area heated, so the fish were limited in movement.She could imagine how it would be to sit here in the summer and watch them move around in their watery world, with flowers blooming all around.
She’d loved planting flowers.She missed her home, her bulbs and shrubs, the familiar things that she’d accumulated around her.Now it was all gone, sold without a second thought to make the memories bearable.It was too late, and she wished she’d been more sensible.There were things she should have kept.Mike’s stupid baseball cap, the one he always wore on the rare occasions when he wasn’t working, and when he went fishing.She missed her mother’s collection of small silk Chinese boxes and her pretty evening gowns.She’d thrown all those things away.At the time, it had seemed reasonable to cut all the ties with the past.It didn’t now.
The sound of a truck pulling up to the front door caught her attention.Rey and Leo had been out of town for two days, attending another cattle convention, this time in Denver.
They climbed out of the cab of the big six-wheeled pickup truck and retrieved their suitcases from the back, waving as the ranch truck pulled right out again and took off down the road.
Meredith got up and went to join them.
“Want some coffee and pie?”she asked with a smile.
“That would really hit the spot,” Leo said, returning the smile.“I hate commercial flights.”
“You’re the smart guy who said our jet needed to be overhauled,” Rey reminded him.
“It did,” Leo replied.
Rey was looking at Meredith openly.“The bruises are fading,” he remarked.“You have more color, too.”
“I’ve been getting out in the sunlight,” she replied easily.“I like to watch the fish, even though they don’t move much.”
“We might put a big aquarium inside,” Rey remarked, unaware of his brother’s quick, curious glance.“I like fish myself.”
“They’ve done studies,” Meredith volunteered as they stood aside to let her enter the house first.“They say watching fish swim is calming.It helps relieve stress.”
“God knows, we could use some of that,” Leo chuckled.“Especially when cattle prices fall and feed prices go through the roof.”
“Cattle raising must be a complex process,” she remarked.
“Very complex,” Rey said.He frowned as he watched her walk.“Hip sore?”he asked.
She laughed self-consciously.“Well, yes, it is.How did you know?”
“You’ve got a light limp on the right side.Barely noticeable.”
