A Knight In Cowboy Boots (17 page)

Zach believed in God, but like many men, it took womenfolk to get him to church. He went through the required motions and the expected responses. He even managed a few prayers of his own. Jesse did a great angel imitation, playing happily with the pendant Maddie wore until just after the sermon. When he started fussing, Maddie reached for the bag at her feet. It became obvious she wasn’t going to be able to juggle Jesse and get into the bag without bumping repeatedly into the person next to her. Zach tapped her arm and held out his hands for the boy. Maddie hesitated, but she handed Jesse over without comment.

The transfer quieted Jesse. He looked at Zach with wide eyes. Zach shook his head in disgust. She’d put that damned stupid bonnet on him again. When Jesse reached for Zach’s lower lip, he quickly flipped the boy on his back. Maddie surfaced with a bottle in hand, but instead of handing the boy back, Zach took the bottle. Jesse’s beefy little hands closed around it as he captured the nipple with his mouth.

When he felt Rachel shift beside him, he spared a glance for her. She gazed softly at the child in his arms. Then her eyes lifted to his, a gentle smile on her lips.

For once, his sister’s smile didn’t make him want to run.

Chapter Twelve

After the services, Rachel suggested Maddie join them for breakfast. “My treat,” Rachel offered.

“I don’t know. I should get Jesse home.”

“Oh, come on, Maddie. You’re part of The Gull family now. Zach, you’ll ride to the restaurant with her, won’t you? Make sure she doesn’t get lost.”

“Yes, your Highness.”

Maddie shot him a pleading look.

“Misery loves company,” he murmured as he took her elbow to guide her to the Lincoln. “If I can take you down with me, I will.”

“And here I thought you were a nice guy,” Maddie said.

Zach took the car keys from Maddie. “Where certain members of my family are concerned, all bets are off. You can still get out of it though,” he said, as he unlocked the back door for her to deposit Jesse into his car seat.

“How?”

“Shoot me. Then run like hell.”

Maddie laughed. “Dammit. I forgot the gun.” She leaned into the car, plopped Jesse into his seat, and started fussing with the straps.

Bent over as she was, her full skirt no longer camouflaged the shape of her bottom. “It’s clear you were never a girl scout,” Zach said, eyeing her rear appreciatively.

“Why?”

“If you’d been a girl scout, you’d’ve been prepared for something like this and brought the gun.”

“Isn’t that the boy scouts who are always supposed to be prepared?”

“I figured girl scouts would have the same oath.”

“Maybe they do. I wouldn’t know.” Maddie finished buckling Jesse in.

“Like I said … ” Zach said as she pulled out of the back seat. He forgot to finish his sentence when she straightened so close he could smell her shampoo. Whatever divine points he’d earned going to church, he’d just lost them by lusting in the church parking lot.

“Where are we going for breakfast?” Maddie asked, totally unaware she’d taken his breath away.

“Uh— The Golden Corral.” He moved to open the driver’s door for her. “They have a breakfast buffet.”

“Do you want to drive?” Maddie offered.

“This car?” Zach grinned. “You bet.”

*

Maddie smiled as Zach got behind the wheel. She hadn’t thought the Lincoln would get that response. After all, it wasn’t a corvette—or even a -wheel drive pickup.

“You really don’t have to go to breakfast with us if you don’t want to,” Zach said, as he pulled out into traffic.

“It seems a little late to beg off.”

“It ain’t. You can just drop me at the restaurant.”

“That would be nice, but … I have a confession to make.” Maddie took a deep breath. “Your sister scares me half to death.”

Zach chuckled. “She scares everybody half to death. It’s just her way.”

“Yes, but your job isn’t at risk if she—”

Zach frowned. “Has she threatened your job?”

“No. I just … She just scares me.”

“I’d let you in on a little secret and tell you her bark is worse than her bite, but hell, I’d be lying. But if you let her walk on you, it only gets worse.”

“I’ll remember that.”

They parked on the street in front of the restaurant and joined Rachel and Jake at a table. Efficient as ever, Rachel already had one of the restaurant’s highchairs at the table. Maddie was grateful Zach didn’t try to convince her to leave Jesse at the table while they tackled the buffet. Instead, he dished her choices onto the plate she held as they went down the line.

Rachel and her brothers started catching up on family as Maddie strapped Jesse in. She was happy Zach had so many siblings; it kept attention off her. Soon though, she was listening raptly as Zach talked about his sister, Daisy.

Maddie cocked her head in puzzlement. “Daisy?” she whispered an aside to Jake. “Doesn’t sound very old testament.”

When Jake laughed out loud, Rachel and Zach looked askance at him. “Daisy Mae is the nickname Dad gave Deborah coz she’s so boy crazy. I noticed last time I was home though that Gideon’s started calling her Daisy Duke.”

“Damn,” Zach said. “That’s gotta mean that this has been going on for a while.”

They talked about Daisy until the waitress came to take their order. Jesse began fussing as the conversation shifted to Ezra. Maddie remembered he was the one their mother had almost married off. Apparently, he was living in New York, but he emailed Jake regularly. Maddie listened with half an ear as she unstrapped Jesse from the highchair and brought him into her lap. He wrapped his fist around the pendant she wore and tried to stuff his fist in his mouth.

“You ever been to a Texas rodeo?” Jake asked Maddie.

“No. I’ve been to rodeos in Wy— my part of Oregon and my folks took me to the Calgary Stampede when I was about ten.” Maddie clamped down on the memory that was full of her sister to keep it at bay. “I wish I’d been a little older for that.”

“Yeah, that’s a rodeo. Just the same, you oughta go to one of ours. You could watch our oldest brother get dumped on his head by a bull.”

“Do any of you actually
like
each other?” Maddie asked.

“Sure we do,” Jake said. “But if you can’t laugh at each other, what’s the point in being family?”

“We’re actually pretty proud of each other,” Zach said. “But no one wants to hear that.”

“Prove it,” Maddie challenged. “Tell me something good about one of your siblings.”

“Okay,” Zach said. “Jake here’s smarter ’n hell. He skipped third grade, and he’s gonna to be a veterinarian.”

“I ain’t no smarter than you, Zach. I just got more patience.” Jake tipped his head toward his brother. “Now Zach there,” Jake leaned in toward Maddie, “he’s
real
good with his hands.” His voice made the accolade more than a little suggestive.

Maddie’s face grew warm.

“He’s got a belt buckle or two for bulldogging and calf roping,” Jake continued, obviously enjoying her discomfort. “And hard as it is to believe, Rach brought home a couple of trophies for barrel racing.”

“Yeah,
that’s
the thing I’m most proud of,” Rachel said dryly.

The waitress arrived to refill their coffee, cutting the conversation short. Maddie pried her pendant from Jesse’s hand, replacing it with a piece of toast she knew he would gum into a soggy mass.

“How old is your son?” Rachel asked.

Maddie had known questions about Jesse would come sooner or later; she just wished she’d been able to eat first. She straightened Jesse’s bonnet as she answered. “Jesse’s six months old now.”

“Six months?” Jake said. “He’s gonna be a linebacker.”

“Are you having any trouble getting sitters when you work nights?” Rachel asked.

“No. I’ve got some pretty responsible college students next door.” Maddie glanced at Zach, who had gone quiet when the conversation had turned to Jesse. He appeared to be absorbed in cutting his chicken fried steak into bite-sized pieces before he started eating, the way parents usually did for their kids, but she could feel tension rolling off him. What was he afraid would happen? “One of them is usually available at night,” Maddie said. “Day’s are actually harder because of their classes.”

Maddie took advantage of the slight pause before Rachel’s next question to sop some yolk onto a piece of toast. She’d just taken a bite when Rachel said, “Must be hard raising a boy all by yourself. Where’s his daddy?”

Zach’s knife slipped from his fingers, clanging loudly onto his plate, as the toast turned to sawdust in Maddie’s mouth. She kept her eyes on the plate in front of her, forcing herself to chew until she could swallow, then took a sip of water to wash it down.

The entire time, she fought to keep her temper in check. When she lifted her eyes to see Rachel, cool as a spring breeze, Maddie knew the battle was lost. Damn the job, damn the hotel, and damn Galveston if Rachel thought she was going to tolerate personal questions from someone she only worked with.

In a carefully modulated tone, Maddie said, “With any luck, he’s burning in hell.”

Too mad to get any pleasure from the shocked look on Rachel’s face and not caring if she made a scene, Maddie stood, her chair screeching back across the floor behind her. She hoisted Jesse against her shoulder and reached for his diaper bag.

Zach beat her to it. She was ready to fight him for it until she saw the look on his face. With the hard line of his mouth and the crease in his brow, he looked almost as angry as she was.

“You’ve stepped over the line, Rach.” He slung the strap over his shoulder as he reached for his wallet. “Buying breakfast don’t give you the right to pry into people’s personal lives.” With a hard flick of his wrist, he tossed a twenty on to the table.

Maddie barely had time to register the surprised looks on Rachel’s and Jake’s faces before Zach pressed his hand against the small of her back, urging her toward the door.

“C’mon, Maddie. The food here tastes off today.”

He backed out of the parking space too fast, then stomped on the brake, and just sat for a few seconds, obviously struggling to get enough control of his anger to drive.

“You knew she was going to ask that, didn’t you?” Maddie accused when he put the car into gear.

“No. Not that. I figured it would be something though. Rachel, she … we … our whole damned family is like that. You heard us. Talking about Daisy and Sol and Ezra. We’re like a bunch of old gossips. There ain’t no privacy. You can’t keep no secrets coz we all think we got the right to butt into each other’s business.”

Maddie was silent for a minute. “But that’s what family does, isn’t it? It’s how they show they care.” She wished she’d been able to force her choices on Laurel, especially where Derek was concerned.

“Maybe. In some families. In mine, it goes too far.”

And yet, Maddie didn’t think he’d ever rebelled against Rachel’s manipulations until today. Why had he gotten so angry for her sake when he’d obviously never stood up to his sister on his own behalf?

“You never asked.”

“I never asked what?”

“About Jesse’s father.”

Zach combed the fingers of one hand through his hair as his foot lifted fractionally off the gas pedal. “I didn’t figure it was my business.” He glanced at her for the first time since he’d put her in the passenger seat. “And I figured if you wanted to tell me, you would.”

Maddie focused on the rearview mirror outside her door, so she wouldn’t be tempted to look at Zach. “He’s not a nice man.”

“I kinda gathered that.”

She glanced at him. The corner of his mouth was curled up in amusement.

“I guess I didn’t leave much room for you to wonder what I think of him.”

“‘With any luck, he’s burning in hell’? No, I think you were pretty clear.”

Maddie covered her eyes with her hand. “Oh, crap. I’m going to have to apologize to your sister.”

“Don’t you dare!”

Maddie dropped her hand to stare at Zach. His glare was intense enough to push her back against the door.

“She’s the one who owes you an apology. And you’re going to get one. Don’t you dare apologize to her.” He took a deep breath. “And don’t you go worrying that your job’s at risk. Rachel’s about to find out her little brother has his limits.”