Page 38 of The Honorable Texan
Kemp felt uneasy.Grier, an older and lonelier man than himself, was apparently thinking solemnly about a stable and shared future with a woman.Kemp thought of marriage and it made him uncomfortable.
“I’m not in the market for a wife,” Kemp said aloud.“I like my own space, my own company.”
Grier gave him a grin.“I used to be that way, too.There’s always the one woman who can change your mind.”
Kemp shrugged.“Not for me.I’ve been that route once.I never want to go over the same ground again.”
“Nothing wrong with being a loner,” Grier said.“Until recent days, I felt that way, too.”
“Tippy’s a beauty.”
“She’s got a good brain, and she’s a quick hand in an emergency,” Grier told him.“It’s not about looks.”
“Sorry,” Kemp said belatedly.“I was thinking out loud.”
“I hear your new secretary quit,” Grier mused.
“She couldn’t spell,” Kemp muttered.“It’s no loss.”
“What are you going to do, have Libby and Mabel double up on work again?”
“Violet might come back.”
Grier pursed his lips.“I thought she was keen on having you for a barbecue as the entrée.”
Kemp shrugged.“We’re speaking again.”He tried not to let it show that they were doing a lot more than that.
“If you say so.”
“I can get another secretary whenever I need one,” Kemp added doggedly.
“Does the employment agency know this?”
Kemp gave him a glare.“Just because they hung up on me doesn’t mean they don’t want my business.”
“I’m sure.”
“Anyway, if Violet comes back, all my problems will be solved,” he said.“And now that I’ve got Riddle Collins’s secret stash in that suitcase, Libby and CurtCollins will be out of debt and back in their own home again.”
“That won’t suit Julie Merrill,” Grier murmured coolly.“She’s hot after Jordan Powell’s money.Poor Libby.”
“Poor Julie, if you can get her where we all want her,” Kemp said.
“I’m working on that,” Grier assured him.“One way or another, I’m going to put the last of the drug cartel out of business in Jacobsville.”
“With my blessing,” Kemp replied, smiling.
* * *
Kemp came intohis office early the next morning with Riddle’s stash and showed it to Libby, who’d come in early for the occasion.She was ecstatic as they went over the proof of her father’s love for her and Curt.
A few minutes later, Kemp started out for the courthouse to file the revised will Riddle had left.When he walked into the outer office, the first thing he saw was Violet, sitting at her desk.
His expression was enough to feed Violet’s hungry heart.She smiled, flushed and beamed up at him.
“You said I could come back,” she reminded him brightly.
“Yes, I did,” he replied, smiling.“Are you staying?”
