Love On The Brazos (4 page)

“Well so are you, for an Aggie, that is.”

“Now you had to go get nasty didn’t you?  One thing you’ll find out about me, Michael.  I never, ever get mad.  I always get even.”

He laughed again.  The waiter had quietly placed the folder containing the check on the table.  Michael looked at his watch.  “Can you believe we’ve been here three hours?” 

“You’re kidding?  You’re not kidding.  Well no wonder the waiter was getting nervous.”

Michael took out his Platinum American Express card and placed it in the folder, where it was immediately picked up and returned with the bill in short order.  Michael studied the bill and signed it.  He pulled Jordy’s chair out and they made their way to the cars.

He walked Jordy to her car and held the door for her.  Before she got into the car, she said, “Michael, thank you very much for asking me tonight.  It has been a long time since I have enjoyed myself this much.  It was a most enjoyable evening.”

“The same goes for me too.  You are a great listener and a most charming companion.”

She lifted her cheek for him to kiss.  When his lips touched the soft, sensitive skin of her cheek, it sent small tingles throughout her body.  “Would you like to do this again?”

“I really would.  Give me a call please.”

“I will, and thank you.”

“It was my pleasure.  And I mean that.  Even if you are a Tea sip.”

“I can’t say you didn’t warn me.  I’ll call you.  Good night, Jordy.”

“Good Night, Michael.”

He stood there until her car started and began to move off. 
“What a very nice and very beautiful girl.  I would like to go out with her again.”
He thought.

Almost the same thought was being echoed in Jordy’s car. 
“I really enjoyed this evening.  Great conversation, fun and interesting.  I would really like to see him again.”

When Jordy returned home, she found her mother and Dad watching TV in their comfortable family room with the large flat screen TV. She sat next to her mother on the sofa.  “So, how was your date?”

“It was a lot of fun.  I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.  Michael was interesting, easy to talk with, and he was funny.  He went to UT and got his MBA from Harvard.  It was so interesting time got away from us, and it was ten o’clock before we realized it.”

“Are you going to out with him again,” her father asked?

“If he calls and asks, I will.  He said he would call.  I hope he does.  He might be skittish though.  His girlfriend dumped him about two months ago because he wouldn’t move to New York City.  Sounds like my situation in reverse.”

“Well, if he doesn’t, we just won’t do business with his bank anymore,” joked her dad.

It was a beautiful sunny spring day in Sugar Land.  The temperature was predicted to be in the low 80’s.  There would be no fun in the sun for Jordan Carlyle on this day.  She was hard at work pulling together the last of the information she would need to include in her presentation to the bank on Carlyle Estates.  She had been burning the midnight oil in order to keep up with the construction business while putting the proposal together.  She stopped her work and was gazing out the window.  The wind was playing with the leaves on the mesquite trees bordering the pasture to the back of her home.  She could see cattle grazing beyond the trees.  It was an idyllic scene and one she resolved to ignore and get back to work.  As she turned her attention back to the computer screen, her iPhone signaled an incoming call.

“Hello, this is Jordy,” she answered.

“Jordy, this is Michael.  Am I interrupting anything?”
 

“No, only the most important project of my life,” she laughed with the usual tinkle of small bells in her voice.

“I can call back if it’s inconvenient,” he offered.

“No, no, it’s not that.  It’s such a nice
day; I’m finding it hard to get anything done.  I’m trying to finish up my proposal, and I just hate to waste it indoors.  We need to take advantage of the days this nice.  Before long it’ll be in the nineties and too hot to be outside.”
 

“How about I take you away from all of that for a while?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“What about driving to Galveston for lunch on the Strand?”

“A mighty tempting offer.  Let me think about it.”  After a ten second pause, she said, “Okay, that’s enough thinking.  Let’s do it.”

“When can I pick you up?”

“Do you know where we live?”

“No, but I have GPS.  Tell me and I can find it.”

She gave him directions, and said, “Give me thirty minutes and I’ll be ready.”

“See you in thirty,” he said.

She hurriedly dressed in a pair of designer jeans and a button down the front blue blo
use.  She never wore a lot of makeup, so she applied lipstick and sunblock.  She brushed her hair and was rewarded with a lustrous sheen to the short blonde hair.  She tied a white scarf with blue spots around her neck.  She was ready with ten minutes to spare.

Leaving the bedroom, she called out, “Mom, Michael is coming to pick me up, and we’re going to lunch in Galveston.”

“Will he be coming in?”

“Would you like for him to?”

“I’d like to meet him if you don’t mind.”

“Okay.  I think you’ll like him.”

Michael drove up in a fire engine red convertible.  He came to the door, where he was met by Jordy.  “Once again, you really look nice.  The colors really set off your eyes.”

“Thanks.  You look nice yourself.   Come on in, I want you to meet Mom.  You have to stand for parental approval.”

He came into the family room where Marian Carlyle was sitting.  She stood, and Jordy said, “Mom, this is Michael Simms.  Michael, Mom.”

“I taught her better than that.  I’m Marian.  Welcome to our home.  I’m pleased to meet you.”

“I was treated to some of her humor last night when she was putting down my choice of schools.”

“I can understand that.  We’re a family of Aggies.”

“I won’t hold that against you.  I can see where Jordy gets her beauty from.  She looks a lot like you.”

“Well, thank you.”  She turned to Jordy, “You’re right, Jordy; I like him.  You guys be careful.  Jordy, be sure…”

“Yes mother, I have sunblock.  You’d think I was still teenager the way she bosses me around.”

“I can see how much you resent it,” he said.

“She hugged her mother.  Bye, Mom.  Love you.”

“I love you too honey.  Michael, drive carefully, and it has been a pleasure meeting you, even if you did go to the other school.”

He laughed and said, “Goodbye. Marian.  It has been a pleasure.”

As they left, he said, “I like your mother.”

“All of my friends like Mom.  She’s a real hoot.”

“Is that some sort of Aggie expression?”

“Yeah, would you like me to explain it?”  She took his hand as they walked to the car.  She looked up and flashed a mind blowing smile that would have melted a weaker person, squeezed his hand and said, “No more Aggie jokes today.”

“Have you ever been to Rudy & Paco’s?”

“No, I haven’t.  What’s it like?”

“Like most restaurants in Galveston, their specialty is seafood, but they have all types, South American style.  It’s one of the top restaurants in the country.”

“Sounds great.  Michael, are you a native of this area?”

“Born and raised, and you?”

“Fourth generation Texan,” she said.

“I guess I should have known.”

“My ancestors came out here in a wagon.  My grandfather’s house was originally a homestead.”

“Tell me about your project,” he said.

“I’m going to build a sub-division across the highway from Pecan Grove.  I am anticipating about 1000 homes, 400k and up.  I was working on the proposal when you called.”

“Can I help you in any way?”

“Thanks, but wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?”

“I don’t know, maybe.  I could run it by legal.”

“Don’t do that.  I’m trying to prove something.”

“To whom?  Yourself or your ex?”

“Both I guess.  Haven’t you wanted to show old what’s her name that you don’t need New York City?”
 

Surprisingly, no.  I think it may be one of
the luckiest things that happened to me.  I never even considered New York.  Besides, if she didn’t want me in my hometown, then she didn’t want me.  I think she believed, maybe still believes I’ll come running if she crooks her little finger.”

“Would you?”

“Not in a million years.  If your project doesn’t materialize, would you go back to Dallas even if Hank was not in the picture?”

“No, I’m home.  I started going to job sites when I was about six or seven.  I always wanted to work with my Dad.  I'm living that dream now.

“Is your family in banking,” she asked?

“No, oil is the family business.  I think I broke Dad’s heart when I didn’t follow it.  I’m an investment banker from the git-go.”

“My grandfather, Papaw, was in oil until he retired.  He was a wildcatter.”

“Really?  What is his name?”

“Clay Carlyle”

“I’ll have to ask Dad about him.  I’ll bet he knows him or knows of him.  He was born and raised in Sugar Land.”

“Tell me what I missed by not going to Harvard?”

“Not much if you wanted Engineering.  MIT is the engineering school in Massachusetts.  Boston is a great city though.  The United States was practically born there.  I really enjoyed it.”

“I’ve pretty much stayed in Texas.  We went to Hawaii one year for Christmas.  I really liked that.  I would like to do the Europe bit though.  That is on my bucket list.”

“You’ll love it.  I spent a summer in France and another in Italy when I was in college.”

“Oh, I want you to tell me all about it.  Rome fascinates me and all of those buildings that have survived so long.”

Michael laughed, and said, I had lunch in Hadrian’s Square several times.  Hadrian’s tomb was built in 2AD.”

“See, that’s what I was talking about.  Two thousand years ago.

“Hadrian’s tomb is at one end of the square.  I was eating at a McDonald’s at the other end.”

“You’re kidding?  You’re not kidding?  That’s sacrilege.  Well, it’s still on my bucket list.”

“I’ll take you there some day.”

She looked at him strangely, then “You’re on.  It’s a date.” 
“Where did that come from,”
she wondered.

“We’re here, now if we’re lucky, we can find a parking place.”

She grabbed his arm, “There; there’s one on the other side of the street.”

He glanced in the rear view mirror, made a quick U-turn and grabbed the space. 

“Oh, this is beautiful.  If the food is as good as the place looks, it’s going to be outstanding.”

They were shown to a table.  Looking around the room, Jordy saw the polished dark wood cabinets, the backlit bar and the wild murals on the wall.  It created an atmosphere unlike any she had experienced.  She reached across the table and took Michael’s hands in hers.  “I love it Michael.”

When the waitperson came to take their drink order, she asked if they had lemonade and ordered it.  Michael asked for iced tea.  Eventually, they got around to ordering; Jordy had a seafood salad while Michael had a salad with crab meat. 

After lunch, Michael asked if she would like to walk around the Strand.  She did, so they began a walking tour, hand in hand, visiting many of the shops, most of which catered to the tourist trade, but there were a few antique shops that grabbed her attention.

Talking as they walked, Jordy leaned against Michael’s shoulder as he joked about something he had seen in one of the shops.  He leaned toward her, his dark eyes sparkling in the pleasure of her company.  As they walked along, he had a fluid motion to his steps. 
“I’ll bet he’s a good dancer,”
she thought. 

Jordy was examining some of the displayed antiques; he leaned nonchalantly against the wall, allowing himself the pleasure of enjoying her lithe, graceful movements and the sheer joy in her face when she found something she liked.  She turned slowly and caught him eying her.  She smiled delightedly, and said, “Caught you.”

“There’s no crime against appreciating beauty.”

“Why thank you.  You say the nicest things.”

“I was talking about the breakfront.”

“You’re gonna pay for that one.”

He walked toward her, and draped his arm casually about her shoulders and in a brief show of intimacy, he drew her to him.  The pressure of her body against his sent little shocks through the light sundress.  She leaned against him, reluctant to end the moment.  “About ready to move on,” he said in an emotionally charged voice as he leaned over and lightly brushed his lips against her forehead.

“Yes,” she said.  She looked up and blew him away with a smile. She took his hand as they walked out of the shop.  The warmth of his hand on hers spread up her arms. 
“I feel so comfortable here,”
she thought.

* * *

“I love the feel of her soft warm hands,”
Michael thought as he pulled her closer.  He had a tingling feeling in his hand where it touched the tender skin on her shoulder.  He thought he felt her shudder.  He wondered if he had offended her, but then she leaned against him and he felt all was well.

The drive home was long and quiet.  They had pretty well solved all of the problems of the world last night and today.  The quiet pleasure of each other’s company was enough for now.