Her Texas Family (9 page)

“Are you kidding?” Danielle came around the table. “Of course you're invited. You. Graham. Hollie if she wants to make the drive with a newborn. You're my people.”

“Aww.” Lucy hugged Danielle, and the woman's arms swallowed her up in a tight grip. Danielle gave the best hugs. “I'm so happy for you. Let me know if you need anything. I'd be happy to help.”

“Exactly what kind of help are you offering?”

“Hmm. Well, I can't sew, so nothing like that. And I'm pretty horrible about arranging flowers, so that's out.”

Danielle's laugh echoed in the room.

Lucy started checking things off on her fingers. “Can't sing, so no solos. Can't play any instruments. Oh!” She raised her hands. “But I can dance. If you need any lessons, let me know.”

“You know, I just might take you up on that. Thanks for the offer, hon. I'd better get Mr. Birl into the exam room. If we get behind with him it will ruin the whole morning.”

Danielle grabbed his chart and headed up front.

When she disappeared through the door, Lucy squealed and spun around. While drifting off to sleep last night, she'd been praying over how to implement her new Director of Fun position in Graham's life. This morning, the answer had fallen into her lap.

The two of them being invited to the same out-of-town wedding was a perfect solution to her dilemma. She could get Graham to relax and have fun, and the Wellings would have no idea she and Graham had done anything together.

Lucy couldn't wait to inform Graham they'd be going together.

She assumed he'd be
just
as excited as she was.

* * *

Graham winced at the knock on his office door. His head pounded as though someone had recently used it as a bass drum. The afternoon had already been long, and he was only two appointments past lunch. If Walt Birl tried to come back in this afternoon with another made-up issue, Graham wasn't sure he could handle it.

“Hey.” Lucy poked her head inside. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.” Graham unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled them up.

She checked her watch. “Right on time.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Wearing black dress pants, a white shirt and red heels that matched her lipstick, her hair down and curling past her shoulders, she looked like all sorts of trouble. Graham definitely should have told her scrubs were mandatory.

To make things worse, she came over and perched on the edge of his desk.

After Saturday night at the ranch, Graham had come to the conclusion that he needed to be careful around Lucy. Keep a bit of distance between the two of them. Partly because he feared she would follow through on her idea to interfere in his life and partly because he just...needed the space.

He was having more and more trouble not being distracted by Lucy. Her involvement in Mattie's life and love for his daughter made it hard for him to keep his thoughts from running beyond friendship. But he didn't want his head going anywhere further than that in regard to Lucy, or anyone else, for that matter.

Graham felt a bit like a child stomping his foot, screaming that he didn't want things to change. But it was true. He didn't. He liked his life. He liked taking care of his daughter and living with the memories of Brooke as his first and only love.

He would fight anything that tried to change those feelings.

Every day, when Lucy turned the phones off and left the office, Graham gave a giant sigh of relief. So the fact that she was inches away from him, looking beautiful and smelling like a sweet mixture of coconut and lime, wasn't helping his already testy mood.

Graham pushed his rolling chair farther from his desk. And Lucy. “What's up?”

“Did you hear Danielle moved the wedding up to two weeks from now?”

He dug his fingers into his temples. “She might have told me something about it this morning. I'm not sure I caught all of it, though. That seems really fast.”

“It does, but she's happy.”

“Good.” He nodded. “That's good, then.” If Danielle was happy, Graham didn't have to delve into figuring out why everything had changed.

And Lucy was in his office because...

“We're both invited, so I thought we should ride together since it's going to be down in San Antonio.”

“Uh, no.”

“Why not?”

“‘Why?' is the real question. Don't you have to teach dance that weekend?”

“Dance is in the morning. You know that. We could leave right after class.”

“Is this part of your get-me-to-have-fun plan?”

“No.” Her arms crossed. “Okay, yes.”

She really knew how to hold out. “Why would we need to leave that early on Saturday morning when San Antonio is only an hour away? What time is the wedding?”

“Late afternoon.”

“So, my question bears repeating. Why would we leave that early?”

“We? That means you said yes, right?”

“No.”

“I'll take that as a yes. We need to leave early so we can have an adventure.”

The pounding in his head ramped up to jackhammer speed. “I don't want to have an adventure. I don't have time to have an adventure.” Though he sounded like a pouty child, he didn't retract the statements.

“Too bad.” Lucy pushed off the desk. “Do you need a prescription, Dr. Redmond? You look like you're in pain.”

“I'm fine.”

“And crabby.” She broke into a smile and turned to leave his office.

His chance to get out of her crazy plan was slipping away. “Wait. I have Mattie. I can't even go to the wedding.”

She paused with a hand on the doorknob. “I'm sure Mattie could go. But I also know your parents watch her. This town isn't big enough for secrets.”

True.

“And are you really telling me that after Danielle's worked for you since you first opened the clinic, you're not going to attend her wedding?”

He huffed. It was all he had in his arsenal right now. “Fine, I'm going. But not with you.”

“Oh, Hollywood. It's sweet when you get all cranky and think you're going to get your way.” She beamed. “We'll leave after dance. I'll pick you up.”

Chapter Nine

“I
don't understand why you have to drive.” Almost two weeks later, Lucy stood next to her yellow Beetle in Graham's driveway. As threatened, she'd appeared shortly after dance. Wearing a pink, short-sleeved shirt with skinny jeans, colorful heeled sandals and her hair down, she looked as if she could be featured in a magazine ad. She also looked far happier than he felt.

The weather had turned warm after a few days of not getting above sixty, and though the sun heated the back of his green polo shirt, Graham couldn't help a sigh. He'd dropped off Mattie at his mom and dad's right after dance, and the three of them were excited for a day together. He wished he could say the same about spending the day with Lucy. Four times he'd tried to break off the plans for going to the wedding with her. Four times she'd completely ignored him.

Stubborn woman.

He might not stand a chance in an argument with Lucy, but he
was
going to drive. He still had a swipe left on his man card.

“Listen, Duchess, you've already forced me into this day. I'm winning this battle.”

“Duchess?”

“Yeah.” Graham motioned to her. “You definitely have that regal thing going on where you expect everyone to be at your beck and call. You expect everything to go your way. You—”

“Enough.”

His lips twitched. “Don't want me to keep going?”

“Fine.” Lucy rolled her eyes and threw her hands into the air. “You can drive. I'll get the stuff.”

What stuff?

She yanked open her car door, grabbed something from the backseat, then marched over to his car with her arms full.

Graham followed, wanting to repeat her eye roll about now. “What is all of that?”

She looked at him as though he were crazy. As though the overflowing basket in her arms was self-explanatory. “Road-trip supplies. What else?”

“Road trip? We're only driving an hour away, Lucy.”

Her eyes widened. “Exactly.”

“Are there games in there?”

When she avoided eye contact with him, he had the answer to that question.

“Maybe,” she conceded. “But there's also food.”

“I don't like it when people eat in my car.”

She reeled back. “You have a child! Are you telling me Mattie never eats a snack in the car?”

“Every so often, but she's very neat. When we get home, I use the garage vacuum to clean the backseat.”

“Are you saying that I'm messier than Mattie?”

How to answer that question without inflaming Lucy's already expressive behavior? When he didn't come up with a response, she let out a strangled “Argh.” Her head swung back and forth. “Offensive on so many levels. You're just going to have to vacuum after me, too, Hollywood, because I'm bringing snacks. It's not a road trip without them.”

“It's not a road trip.” The under-his-breath comment set Lucy's lake-blue eyes flashing.

Graham finally opened the back door to his car, and she put the items on the seat. She faced him, confusion evident. “Do you have floor mats on top of floor mats?”

“Yes.”

“What for?”

“The top one keeps the bottom one from getting dirty and ruined.”

“That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. We can add ‘neat freak' to your growing list of descriptions.” She went back to her car and returned with a load of clothes and a bag. “My stuff for the wedding,” she explained on her way past.

Graham had already laid his black suit, blue shirt, striped tie and dress shoes out in the trunk. One hand was all he'd needed to put his stuff into the car. Lucy, not so much.

“Oh!” She held up a finger. “One more thing.”

Only one?

She leaned into her car and grabbed a bright orange purse. “Okay, now I'm ready.”

Did she expect him to cheer?

Graham resisted another huff/sigh/whine/stomp of his foot. It was no use fighting Lucy. He just had to get through today. He'd endure Lucy's company and do his best to keep a nice wall between them. One with brick. And ivy. And a moat around it.

They took off, and a short way into the drive, Lucy started digging in her purse. She surfaced with an iPod.

He nodded to it. “What's that for?”

“It plays music. Graham, meet technology.” Lucy held the iPod toward him. “Technology, this is Graham.”

“I know what an iPod is, Duchess. I'm asking why your iPod is in my car. I have music.”

“You know, I think you're meaning to annoy me with that nickname, but I kind of like it. I feel like it fits.”

“I'm not surprised.”

“And, in answer to your question, I made us a trip playlist. Do you have Bluetooth or do I need to hook up with a cord?”

“Bluetooth.”

“Perfect.”

“Did you say you made a trip playlist? Is that like making a mix tape?”

“Pretty much. Every good trip has its own song list. Then, when you want to remember the time, you can just listen to the playlist and voilà
!
”

“Why would we want to remember today?”

“Ouch.” Lucy put a hand over her heart. “Are you always this crabby on Saturdays or is this especially for me? Do you need a cup of coffee or something?”

Actually, he could go for a cup. And he had been rather short-tempered this morning. He probably needed to tone it down a bit. “Why? Do you have some in that bag of yours?”

She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “I most certainly do.” Lucy twisted between the seats and reached into the back, returning with a thermos and a paper cup. Somehow she managed to pour without spilling.

“Cream?”

“Sure.” Graham watched her dig into the bag, this time coming out with a few small half-and-half containers. “Two, please.”

She added them to the coffee, then put a cover on the cup and handed it to him.

“You're forgiven for bringing along all of that stuff in the backseat.”

Lucy laughed and tossed the coffee thermos into the bag.

“Where's yours?”

“I don't drink coffee.”

His jaw dropped. “Is that an actual thing? I always thought people were lying when they said that.”

She shook her head, but her lips curved. His pulse did that annoying racing thing, which he ignored. “It's a real thing.” She rummaged in her purse, coming up with a soda bottle. “I'm a Diet Coke girl.”

“That stuff isn't good for you.”

“And coffee is?”

“There have been numerous studies—”

Lucy plugged her ears like a two-year-old. “I don't want to hear it. We all have our vices.”

True.

If Lucy didn't drink coffee, that meant she'd gone out to buy those supplies just for him.

“Thanks for this.” He held up the cup, then took a sip.

“You're welcome.” Lucy tipped her soda bottle to his coffee. “Cheers to our first road trip together.” She held up a finger before he could speak. “And if you mumble something about it being our last, it really will be your last, Redmond.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“I love this song.” Lucy turned up the music and started singing along. “Waited till I had some fun. Don't know why you didn't run. Left you by the house of sun.”

“Those aren't the words.”

“Who cares?” Lucy continued to sing loudly. “But I wanted to break away. Wished that I could play again. Like I did in the band.”

“Me. I care.” Graham's comment was drowned out, and despite his total annoyance with the woman next to him, he started to laugh. She was so far off, the phrases didn't even make sense.

“Come on—sing along.” Lucy held her soda bottle to his mouth like a microphone.

“No way.”

“I'm telling you, you are going to remember this trip whenever you hear this music.”

She went back to her off-key singing, and for once, Graham had to admit she was right.

Every time he heard this song, he would think about Lucy and how she looked at this moment, singing her loudest, completely content to ride in a car all day with her snacks and supplies.

She paused from her singing when the next song started. “What's my girl up to today?”

“Hanging with my parents. My nieces and nephews are going over later, too, so Mattie will not miss me one single bit.”

“That's good.”

“Yep.”

“The question is, will you miss her?”

Graham stared straight ahead, hoping Lucy wouldn't notice his face heating at the truth. Because he didn't plan to admit to anyone that for the amount of time he and Lucy had been in the car, Graham hadn't thought about his daughter once. That had to be some kind of father crime or something.

His mind had been occupied with the woman next to him.

And he didn't know what to do about that.

* * *

“Admit it. You're having a good time.” Lucy took a bite of gelato as she and Graham strolled along San Antonio's beautiful River Walk.

Graham had dressed in jeans, a green polo and brown leather sneakers for their day of adventure. Preppy. Casual. Distracting.

He scooped a spoonful of the hazelnut flavor he'd chosen. “I'm not admitting anything.”

“Just look at how many things we've accomplished today, even having dessert before lunch. At least you can check that off your list.”

“It wasn't on my list.”

Graham definitely had that whole snarly/attractive act down. But the grin tugging on his features was enough of an answer for Lucy. He might not want to admit he was having fun, but she knew he was. They'd already hit the Tower of the Americas. The views had stretched forever, and Graham had been into it, admitting he'd never been before.

At the River Walk, he'd even forgotten to be annoyed for a bit, and the time had been relaxed. Their conversation flowed like the river, from Mattie to work to their childhoods, with easy silence in between.

Lucy was totally winning this day. She'd never seen Graham this chill before. He'd even teased her, smiled and laughed. Twice.

Which turned out to be problematic. Because the man could turn heads even when he was acting snarly, but when he smiled...
good night
.

As if to prove Lucy's point, a woman approaching from the opposite direction had her eyes glued to Graham.
Hello. I'm right here.
Perhaps Lucy should carry a big flag or something to remind people she existed. Not that she and Graham were together, but the woman didn't know that. She should assume they were. She shouldn't be checking out Lucy's not-boyfriend.

The woman tripped on the sidewalk—reason fifty as to why she should have been looking ahead instead of at Lucy's nondate. When she lunged forward, Graham somehow managed to cross the few feet to catch her.

She looked embarrassed, but also secretly pleased.

The tripping move had to have been planned. When the woman gripped Graham's arm for an extra second, Lucy resisted rolling her eyes.

This one's taken, lady.

She bit back the words. Not because they weren't true. Just because they didn't have anything to do with her. Graham was taken, all right, but by his wife. Just because Brooke wasn't alive didn't mean she wasn't in Graham's heart.

Lucy had heard the words come from his lips, and she didn't plan to be so stupid as to ignore the off-limits warning. It was just the reminder she'd needed for keeping things light between them.

After Graham disentangled from the woman, they made their way to the car.

They got in, and Graham put on his aviator sunglasses. “Okay, what's next on your list?”

Lucy pulled the printed paper from her purse. “We don't have a ton of time left. We have to get to the wedding after this one.”

“So what is it? I'll put it in the GPS.”

“Well, I did a bit of looking...” She had a feeling this next part wouldn't go over well. “Have you ever been to the World's Largest Cowboy Boots?”

Graham looked at her, then out the front window of the parked car. “You're not serious.”

“I am.”

“You've got the Alamo as an option, and you choose the world's largest boots?”

“We don't have time for the Alamo. That'll have to be a different trip.”

He groaned. Closed his eyes for a moment. “They're at a mall, right?”

Must have decided not to fight her. Smart man.

“Yep. North Star Mall.” She rattled off the address and Graham punched it into his GPS. They took off, and Lucy hit Play on the iPod list that still had songs left. She wasn't a slacker when it came to the perfect playlist. She'd caught Graham enjoying the music once or twice when he thought she wasn't looking. But no singing—absolutely not.

Lucy could use some real food. She turned and dug into the basket she had in the backseat, pulling out some different snack options—chips (Graham frowned at those), some veggie sticks and two chicken salad sandwiches she'd put into a cooler lunch bag. Graham accepted his sandwich, and they both dug in.

After eating, he glanced at her with one eyebrow raised. “That was really good. Do you have a hidden talent I don't know about?”

“Nope.” She finished her last bite. “I picked them up from The Peach Tree.”

“But they weren't in the packaging.”

“I was kind of hoping you wouldn't ask and I'd get credit for making them.”

His laughter filled the car, creating a warm feeling in Lucy's chest. “Kind of makes you want to go on another road trip with me, doesn't it?”

He glanced in the rearview mirror as he changed lanes, lips quirking. “I wouldn't go that far.”

“When are you going to admit you're having fun?”

“When you stop pestering me.”

Lucy laughed and slipped her sandals off, putting her bare feet up on the dash.

“
What
are you doing?”