Page 56 of Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars 2)

“It’s hard to believe I really thought I had a chance with Suzy Westlight. After all, I was Trudy Sawyer’s son, and I lived in a different world from Dr. Westlight’s daughter. You came from the right side of the railroad tracks and had pretty clothes. Your mother drove you around in a shiny red Oldsmobile, and you always smelled clean and new.” His words were poetic, but he spoke them in hard, clipped tones that robbed them of any sentiment.

“That was a long time ago,” she said. “I’m not new anymore.” She brushed her fingers over the silky fabric of her evening trousers and felt the small bump on her hip from her estrogen patch. It was another sign that life had lost its promise.

“Aren’t you going to laugh at the idea of a dead-end kid like me wanting to ask you out?”

“You always acted as if you hated me.”

“I didn’t hate you. I hated the fact that you were so far out of my reach. You and Hoyt came from a different world, one I couldn’t come close to touching. The golden boy and the golden girl, happily-ever-after.”

“Not anymore.” She ducked her head as she felt her throat close.

“I’m sorry,” he said brusquely. “I didn’t mean to be cruel.”

Her head shot back up, and her eyes were glazed with tears. “Then why are you doing this? I know you’re playing some kind of-game with me, but I don’t know what the rules are. What do you want from me?”

“I thought you were the one who wanted something from me.”

His flat response told her that he was unmoved by her obvious distress. She blinked her eyes, determined not to let tears fall, but she hadn’t been sleeping well since her first meeting with him, and it was difficult to hold on to her composure. “I don’t want you to destroy this town. Too many lives will be ruined.”

“And exactly what are you willing to sacrifice to keep that from happening?”

Fingers of dread trailed down her spine. “I don’t have anything to sacrifice.”

“Yes, you do.”

The hard note in his voice undid her. Crumpling her napkin on the table, she stood. “I’d like to go home now.”

“You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?”

“I don’t see any reason to prolong this evening.”

He got to his feet. “I want to show you my rose garden.”

“I think it would be better if I left.”

He pushed his chair back and came toward her. “I’d like you to see it. Please. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Although he didn’t raise his voice, the note of command was unmistakable. Once again he was going to have his own way, and she didn’t know how to fight the firm hand that enclosed her upper arm and led her toward the French doors at the end of the dining room. He pushed down on a wave-shaped brass handle. As she stepped outside, the night settled around her like a fragrant steam bath. She smelled the lush perfume of roses.

“It’s lovely.”

He led her along a cobbled path that wound through the flower beds. “I brought in a landscape architect from Dallas to design it, but he wanted everything too fussy. I ended up doing most of the work myself.”

She didn’t want to think about him planting a rose garden. In her experience, gardeners were benevolent people, and she could never view him that way.

They had reached a small koi pond set in a ramble of tall grasses and foliage. It was fed by a waterfall trickling over terraced stone, and recessed lighting illuminated the fat fish as they swam beneath the waxy leaves of the water lilies. She knew he wouldn’t let her leave until he’d had his say, and she sat down on one of a pair of verdigris iron benches decorated with twining grape leaves that provided a resting place beside the pathway.

She crossed her hands in her lap and tried to brace herself. “What did you mean when you asked me what I was willing to sacrifice?”

He took the bench across from her and stretched out his legs. The lights in the pond threw his cheekbones and the bony ridge above his eyes into sharp relief, adding a menacing aspect to his features that further unnerved her. His voice, however, was as soft as the night. “I wanted to know how committed you were to keeping Rosatech here.”

“I’ve lived in this town all my life, and I’d do anything to keep it from dying. But I’m only the president of the Board of Education; I don’t have any real power in the county.”

“Your power in the county doesn’t interest me. That’s not what I want from you at all.”

“Then what?”

“Maybe I want what I couldn’t have all those years ago when I wasn’t anything more than Trudy Sawyer’s bastard kid.”

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