Page 32 of Texas-Sized Scandal

“You can cook?” she asked.

“Yes, and I’m pretty damned good at it. What do you say?”

She nodded. “That sounds good to me. I’ll go get changed. I guess you’ll need to change as well.”

“I will. I’m glad I had some of my clothes sent over here.”

“Me too,” she said, thinking of his clothes in the master bedroom closet and in a drawer she’d emptied for him. Though last night she’d realized that wasn’t helping her keep their lives separate.

A romantic walk... Not his smartest idea given that he should be trying to put some distance between him and Melinda. But here he was. Pixie didn’t seem that happy about it either. She was on a leash and her little jeweled collar sparkled in the sunlight. Everyone who walked past them smiled at the cute dachshund and when they glanced up and saw him and Melinda holding hands and looking to the world like lovers who had the world on a string, they smiled at them as well.

Only, he felt the way that Melinda’s hand tightened in his each time that happened. He knew this kind of outward deception wasn’t her thing. He didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that the further they got into the engagement, the harder it was going to be for her to pull off a breakup.

If he were a different man, he’d make the temporary promise he had made her into a real one. And he wasn’t going to lie to himself, he’d thought about it more than once. But then he’d see one of his uncles at a distance or another news alert about the Bartelli family and he knew that he had to stay resolute.

He wasn’t about to put any child of Melinda’s through what he had gone through as a child. He had clawed his way out of the Bartelli family, but it would be impossible to protect a child of his from them. He knew from his own behavior as a teenager that rebellion was a big part of why he had to keep his distance from the child.

It would have probably been better if he had never gone out with her. But he couldn’t undo the past and he had always used his mistakes to get stronger.

They stopped at a nearby café, needing a drink from the heat. After they were seated in a dog-friendly section, Pixie drank water from a collapsible bowl that Melinda had pulled from her bag and then she curled up on the scarf that Melinda laid down for her.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, after the waitress took their drink orders. “You looked so fierce I think the waitress was afraid to ask what you wanted to drink.”

He tried to smile but that was gone. They were in the relative privacy of the café and he didn’t have to keep up the sappy so-in-love vibe he’d had going on the street. “Nothing.”

“I can tell it was something,” she said.

He just shrugged. He wasn’t obliged to share everything with Melinda.

“Listen, if you want me to keep doing this, then you need to be honest with me. We can’t be lying in public and in private... Well, maybe you can, but I can’t. I won’t. So either you level with me or I’m out of here.”

He had seen her worked up before and, no lie, it did turn him on to see her passionate but not like this. She was angry and hurt and he was to blame. How many times did he need to see proof that he was the completely wrong man for her?

“You’re Slade Bartelli,” a tall man in a Stetson and a serious expression said as he came over to their table. Pixie got up and danced over toward the man, who bent down and petted her. Not so fierce when he smiled at the little dog.

Melinda glanced up at the man, who looked like he didn’t like Slade very much. Slade stood up and held out his hand.

“I am. This is Melinda Perry,” he said. “And you are?”

“Nathan Battle, the sheriff of Royal, Texas.” He turned to Melinda. “Ma’am. Are you related to Sterling Perry?”

“He’s my father,” she said.

He tipped his hat toward her and continued to stand, as did Slade, and the sheriff turned his attention back toward Slade.

“Your father’s activities are starting to encroach on several of the more prominent citizens of Royal and I don’t like that much,” Nathan said.

“I’m sorry to hear that, sir,” Slade said. “I have nothing to do with my father’s business. In fact, I’m the CEO of Conti Enterprises. I’d offer to have a word with him, but he doesn’t listen to anyone.”

“Would you sit down, Sheriff?” Melinda asked.

“I can’t, ma’am. I’m in town on business and thought I’d kill two birds with one stone.”

“What is the other business that brings you to Houston?” Melinda asked, afraid that it might have something to do with the grisly murder of the man found on her father’s construction site at the new Texas Cattleman’s Club.

“I’m investigating the Vincent Hamm murder. So far I haven’t been able to get much information from Detective Zoe Warren, who is in charge of the Houston investigation, so I’ve come to do some of my own digging.”

“Isn’t it a Houston case?” Melinda asked, wondering why the Royal sheriff was investigating. Was there more to the case than just murder? Did it somehow tie to Royal?

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