A Knight In Cowboy Boots (13 page)

What was she going to do about Zach?

She couldn’t lie to herself; she’d enjoyed what he’d done to her in bed. She’d enjoyed it a lot. Maybe she’d even needed it. But it had also had repercussions she hadn’t expected. He had shaken loose the feelings about Vince’s death that had been frozen inside her. Trying to act casual Saturday morning had been agonizing. When he’d left after breakfast, Maddie had broken down, unable to stop crying, even when she’d held Jesse. Sensitive to her upset, Jesse had fussed throughout the day. The whole thing had left her emotionally ragged.

Even putting her emotional reaction aside, seeing more of Zach was a risky choice. He would expect her to open up. He’d eventually ask about her family, her background. Maddie didn’t know if she could lie to him the way she lied to everyone else. Not after being physically intimate.

Until she was sure she was safe in her new life, she just couldn’t afford to have anyone that close to her. She’d have to tell Zach he was nice, but not for her. Maddie hoped it wouldn’t jeopardize her job.

Late in the afternoon, she waited on three businessmen who’d just gotten into town, anticipating an early Tuesday meeting. When she returned to the bar, she saw another man seated at the far end.

Not until she got close enough to ask what he’d have and he looked at her with chocolate-brown eyes was she sure he was one of Rachel and Zach’s brothers.

“A tall Lone Star, ma’am,” he said in response to her “What’ll you have?”

She popped the top without a word but couldn’t restrain the question as she put it in front of him. “Which brother are you?”

His lips stretched into a pleased smile. “Jake, ma’am.”

“Older or younger?”

“Younger. Only Sol and Rachel are older than Zach. I’m the sixth in line.”

“Sol. Solomon?”

Jake nodded.

“Solomon. Rachel. Zachariah. Jake—Jacob?”

Jake nodded again.

“And the rest?”

“Gideon, Ephram, Ezra, Deborah, Levi, Leah, Hannah, Aaron, and Tobias.”

“All Old Testament names?”

Jake grinned. “You catch on quick.”

“I’ve been told Texas was the buckle of the Bible belt. I guess I didn’t realize it was that serious.”

“Oh, yeah. It surely is.”

“Is Zach meeting you here?” Maddie asked, wondering how she was going to brush Zach off without embarrassing him in front of his brother.

Jake’s smile faded. “He didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“He left for the ranch this morning.”

“No, he didn’t mention it.” Maddie picked up a lime and began slicing it into twists. Why were her guts suddenly all knotted up? She should be grateful he was gone. It saved her from having to tell him to leave her alone.

“I’m sure he’ll be back before too long.”

Maddie started to shrug, about to tell Jake it didn’t make any difference, but with all Zach had done for her, she realized how ungrateful that would sound. She fled Jake gratefully when two new customers entered.

*

The bell above the door tinkled as Zach entered Morrow’s. It was just a small, family-owned insurance office with only two full-time agents and a filing position they usually filled with a high school student. For the last year that student had been Zach’s little sister, Daisy.

“Hey, Daisy Mae.”

“Zach!” Daisy jumped up, her cloud of dark hair all but blowing in the self-generated wind of her rush to greet him.

Zach grunted as she crashed into him. “Hey! I haven’t been gone that long.”

“It’s been forever!” She hugged him hard, her cheek pressed into his chest.

“It’s only been six months,” Zach protested, but he remembered what it was to be her age—when it was forever between summers and being a grownup was an eternity away. If Daisy was typical of the breed, it was worse for girls. For her, today was the only day that counted and every emotional crisis was the end of the world.

“Have you been to the ranch yet?”

“What do you think?”

She lifted her head to look at him.

“Hmm. No cowboy hat. You stopped here first.”

“Of course I did. You’re still my best girl.” It wasn’t all brotherly teasing. In spite of the eight years and four brothers between them—maybe especially because of the brothers—he’d always been her protector.

He squeezed her until she squeaked then held her back to look her over. “What the— You sure as hell didn’t leave the house this morning looking like this!” Zach’s shock came through in his voice.

Daisy’s chin lifted defiantly. “I can dress how I want.”

“But Mamma ain’t seen this or you’d be sporting welts on your legs from the belt she’d take to you.” And as he could see, there wasn’t any place for a welt or blemish to hide below the frayed edges of his sister’s cut off jeans. Zach felt himself blushing on his sister’s behalf. The crotch of her shorts couldn’t be more than an inch wide. “Just coz Daddy calls you Daisy Mae don’t mean you got to dress like her.”

Daisy’s lower lip extended in a pout. “If you’re going to go and be all disapproving, I ain’t gonna tell you anything about those plates.”

“That’s blackmail, Deborah. I ain’t gonna tolerate it.”

He knew it wasn’t the threat that put the hurt in his sister’s eyes; it was his use of her given name.

Daisy dropped her eyes in shame. “I ain’t been able to find out anything anyway. Carly won’t run the plates.”

Zach lifted his gaze to Carly Morrow, sitting at the back desk. He could see she’d heard everything.

Zach pulled Daisy to his side, slinging his uninjured arm over her shoulder. “That true, Carly?”

“I can’t run plates just coz you’re hot after some girl, Zach.”

“Is that what Daisy done told you?”

“Pretty much.”

Zach shook his head. “You know she romanticizes everything.” He squeezed Daisy’s shoulder to keep her quiet. “I didn’t see nothing of the woman except the back of her head. She spun her tires at a stop sign and put a rock through Rachel’s windshield.”

“And you just happened to notice the plate number.”

“I was admiring the car. It was one of those old Lincolns, but in really good shape.”

“How come Rachel don’t report it to her insurance?”

“She’s afraid her rates’ll go up.”

“That’s nonsense. It weren’t her fault.”

“She’s afraid they’ll go up coz she’d loaned me her car.”

Carly’s lips twisted in amusement. “I can see how she might think that. You always have been hard on cars. Still it don’t matter.”

“I know. And she knows that, too. She just wants me to feel guilty about bringing her car back damaged.”

Carly sighed. “Okay, Zach. Since it’s a legitimate incident. You’ll need to fill out an accident report though to cover my tail.”

Zach glanced at the clock. A quarter to five. “Do we have time for that before you close?”

Carly’s eyes followed his to the clock. “How about you come in tomorrow? I’ll go ahead and get the plates run in the meantime.”

“I owe you a drink.”

“A drink and a dance next time I see you at the Corral,” Carly said, referring to the local country bar.

“You got it,” Zach promised. He put a serious tone in his voice. “How long ‘til Daisy’s off?”

“She’s got fifteen more minutes, but you can go ahead and take her if’n you intend to talk to her ‘bout how she’s dressing.”

“Get your stuff, Daisy Mae.”

Daisy’s walk held a mixture of reluctance and rebellion as she returned to her desk to get her denim shoulder bag.

When she joined him on the sidewalk, he saw the edge of the jeans she’d undoubtedly left the house in that morning crammed into the bag. “Let’s get a soda at Murphy’s before we head home.”

“If you’re gonna yell at me—”

“If I was gonna yell, we wouldn’t be going to Murphy’s.”

As they walked to the soda fountain, Zach thought about what might have caused the change in his sister. It didn’t take a lot of thought; she’d always been boy crazy, and the boys had always been crazy right back for his pretty sister. She must have run up against one who wasn’t, for her to risk the whuppin’ she’d get if Mamma heard about how her little girl was dressing.

He waited until they were settled in a back booth with a caramel malted for him and a chocolate one for her, then he cut right to the chase. “So what’s this guy’s name?”

“What guy?”

“The one who’s attention you want so bad.”

Daisy’s face reflected the war caution waged with the desire to talk about the latest love of her life. But caution wasn’t one of Daisy’s strengths, as the shorts attested.

“His name’s Rance. His daddy just opened a body shop next to the gas station. He’s
soooo
cute.”

“How old is he?”

“Seventeen, but he’s in my grade coz he missed a bunch of school when he was younger.”

“Has he noticed you yet?” Zach asked, working hard to keep the you-listen-to-me tone out of his voice. It didn’t matter; Daisy wouldn’t have heard if there’d been an explosion behind Murphy’s counter. Her eyes were focused on whoever had come in the door. Zach ground his teeth. He should have made her move when she’d claimed the side of the booth that let her see everything that was going on behind him.

Zach hitched halfway around, throwing one arm across the back of the booth, to check out the three boys who’d just come in. They took stools at the counter and ordered egg sodas all around. The boys were all dressed in Levi’s, Tshirts, jean jackets, and cowboy boots, but Zach immediately zeroed in on the tallest one. The boy’s sun bleached blond hair caught the afternoon light coming through the large window panes. He was lean the way active boys on the brink of manhood often were and totally engrossed in whatever he and his friends were laughing about.

“I gotta go to the bathroom.” Daisy was up and gone before Zach could stop her. Unwilling to embarrass her, he had to watch her sashay the length of the counter, right past the boys.

Except for the shorts, she was dressed just like she might have the year before, but her breasts had blossomed, stretching the tank top in new and disturbing ways. And how she managed to put that switch in her walk wearing flat sandals Zach couldn’t figure. A hint of butt cheeks peeked out under the frayed shorts. Zach was beyond mortified to even notice such things about his little sister.

Undoubtedly, that was the least the boys at the counter noticed. The one on the far side saw Daisy first. The way his eyes locked on her brought the other two heads around to see what the big deal was. Two of them nearly gave themselves whiplash as she passed them. The one in the middle—the tall one Zach’s radar said was the real threat—spun on his stool, not even bothering to pretend he wasn’t staring. A low whistle followed her. Daisy at least had class enough to pretend she hadn’t heard.

All three released sighs as the ladies room door closed behind Daisy. They turned back to find Zach leaning against the counter next to them.

“‘Lo, boys.”