Lydia's Twin Temptation (3 page)

He shook his head and replied, “Actually, I was wondering what time you get off at. I want to take you somewhere for dessert, if there’s any place left open.”

Checking her watch, she said, “Sonic Drive-In is about the only thing open this late, besides us.”

She seemed a little hesitant, so he pressed on quickly. “I’ll let you drive yourself there, if you don’t want to ride with me.”

She looked torn, and he began to feel like he’d misread the situation or somehow put her on edge. He was about to speak when she said, “Actually, I don’t have any transportation right now. My boss had to pick me up for work this morning.”

Oh damn
,
that's
right
. “I can take you home, if that’s okay with you. I swear I’d be a proper gentleman.”

She smiled at him and said, “Chance, I don’t doubt that for a minute. You’re always a perfect gentleman.”

He smiled in relief and asked, “Then Sonic it is?”

“Sure.”

“What time will you be off?”

“In about ten minutes. I was supposed to be off hours ago, but I don’t want to leave LaMont, LuAnn, and Simone in the lurch, you know?”

“Of course. I brought you a surprise.”

Her smile and the light in her beautiful turquoise eyes made him go all gooey inside. “You brought something for me?”

“Yeah. It’s in the truck. I can go get it. I don’t mean to sound like I’m tempting you out to my vehicle or anything. I promise I won’t molest you.”

“Chance, I don’t go out to men’s trucks on a whim. I really do trust you.”

“Good. I’ll wait for you. Then you can tell me about what happened today.” Chance couldn’t deny the territorial feelings he was experiencing or the urge he had to fix what was wrong in her world.

She looked down and said, “Okay.”

Her coworkers LuAnn and Simone flanked her behind the counter, and LuAnn said, “Sweetie, you got a second? There is something you need to see.”

Lydia nodded and said to Chance, “I’ll be right back. Just sit tight, okay?”

The boss man had not made another appearance and Chance was glad for it. He’d enjoyed the quiet and hadn’t missed the old man’s unfriendly stares.

He rested his chin in his hand and watched her as she sashayed away with LuAnn, who was speaking in quiet, furtive tones. He came to a decision while he waited. First thing in the morning he would see about replacing the tires on her car for her.

Chapter Three

Lydia followed LuAnn and Simone out of the back door. Mr. Cortez was in his office on the phone arguing with somebody about something. There was nothing new about that. LuAnn led the way to the back of Mr. Cortez’s truck and pointed into the bed, then said, “The wind was blowing earlier and it moved the tarp. Otherwise I never would’ve noticed.”

“Noticed what?”

LuAnn pointed in the truck bed and said, “Isn’t that your green blouse? The bright-green one you wore to the movies with me?”

Lydia frowned and rose on her tiptoes and looked at what the taller girls could see that she couldn’t and gasped in shock.

Simone yanked back the tarp, revealing all of Lydia’s possessions, and growled, “That cocksucking motherfucker.” The spunky blonde had always had a way with words.

“What are you gonna do?” LuAnn asked.

Fury unfurled inside Lydia, and she marched toward the back door as she said, “You’re about to see. Could one of you call the police?”

Simone whipped her cell phone out of her apron pocket as they followed her in and she jerked Mr. Cortez’s office door open. She only
thought
that seeing all her belongings in the bed of his truck, where he had placed them after stealing them, was a shock.

The sight of him lounging in his office chair, with her thong panties from her
laundry basket
pressed to his nose and mouth while he casually stroked a small erection through his double knit trousers, was an even bigger revelation. He seemed in nirvana and didn’t notice her until she began yelling.

“You pervert! You thieving pervert! You stole my things! You stole everything I—Get my dirty underwear away from your face, you animal! Why? Why did you steal my things? Where is my money?”

She’d never yelled at him before, and it evidently sent him into shock because all he did was open and close his mouth a few times.

“Why did you take my things?” She slapped her hand on his desk to get his attention. A terrible thought occurred to her. “Did you slash my tires, too?”

He seemed to come back to himself and slammed his mouth shut, but he still held her underwear in his hand. The urge to beat on the disgusting lecher was almost undeniable. Strong, warm arms circled her waist unexpectedly, but not in a way meant to restrain her. It felt more protective than anything else, and then she heard a gentle voice murmur in her ear.

“Baby, Simone told me she called the police. I came when I heard you yelling. Let the police handle him.” Chance’s West Texas accent comforted her in a way nothing else ever had.

She’d been on her own this whole time in Fort Stockton, and to allow someone else to help felt foreign. She allowed him to pull her behind him. LaMont, LuAnn, and Simone stood in the kitchen waiting. The dining room lights were all dimmed, which meant the customers were all gone and the front doors locked.

Chance spoke to Mr. Cortez. “Don’t move from your seat and don’t bother trying to hide the evidence, you pervert. I knew something was off about you from the moment I first saw you.”

The Fort Stockton police arrived a few minutes later. Her friends showed them what they’d found, and Lydia explained what she’d seen him doing when she walked in on him.

Mr. Cortez seemed to crumble under the questioning and accusations as the arresting officers placed him in handcuffs. He mumbled, “I knew she would leave. I didn’t want her to go. I had to stop her from going. She is my
light
.”

“Your light?” LuAnn asked with a derogatory snort, then stated, “When someone is ‘your
light
’ you don’t work them like a slave and treat them like shit on your shoes, you asshat. Tell them what you did to her car, too.”

Mr. Cortez was crying by the time they hauled him out the back doors. His declaration that he considered her his “light” made her shudder in disgust.

Chance stroked his hand up and down her side as the police officers moved around them doing their jobs.

One of the policemen who had come to her motel room the night before spoke to her. “Ms. Webster, we’ll get the evidence inside the truck processed as quickly as possible. I know you’d like your clothing and possessions back as quickly as possible. If you’ll give me your number, I’ll be in touch when they release them. It shouldn’t take long.” The friendly police officer went back to his job, and Chance smiled at her. She tried to smile back, but it felt weak.

Chance asked, “Want to go take a break? We can get some ice cream at Sonic and talk while you wait.”

LuAnn must have overheard because she piped up. “Sweetie, LaMont called the café owners in Alpine. They’ll be here in a few hours. We’ll get everything sorted out in the morning. LaMont told them what all happened to you and said he was giving you tomorrow morning off since you worked for him this morning. I’m sure it won’t take long at all to get all your stuff back. Why don’t you go take a break?”

She hugged LuAnn and Simone and went inside to get her purse. When she came out, Chance was talking to them, and they both grinned at her as they waved good night and moved off.

Chance smiled at her and gestured to his big, black Dodge Ram dually in the parking lot. “Your chariot awaits, pretty lady.”

She chuckled and smiled at his words, but the last thing she felt right now was pretty, unless it was pretty exhausted. The sandwich had helped, but the drama of the last few minutes had drained what little strength she had left. She looked at her watch and grimaced. It was nine o’clock. Her workday had been more than fifteen hours long, all of it on her feet, which ached like crazy.

Chance offered her his hand, which she took for the very first time. His palm was rough as her fingers slid across it, and his hand felt strong and capable as it closed gently around hers. Heat warmed her cheeks that such a small, innocent gesture meant so much to her.

She walked with him to his truck and blushed a little hotter when she needed his assistance climbing up into the huge thing, tugging her skirt down when it rode up as she slid into the seat. He closed the door once she was buckled in, and she looked around the interior of the vehicle, which was fairly clean and smelled of leather.

Chance climbed up in the driver’s seat and started the truck. It rumbled to life, and Lady Antebellum’s “Just a Kiss” was playing on the radio. She sat in the seat as he put the vehicle in gear and the truck rolled over the parking lot to the exit. He pulled out onto the Interstate access road, and for a second she wished with her whole heart that the truck would take on a mind of its own, get on the highway, and keep on rolling away from Fort Stockton. Lydia imagined speeding away from there and never looking back, just leaving it all behind.

She shook her head to clear the daydream and chastised herself for thinking thoughts that only brought pain to her chest. It wasn’t going to happen, and she should just be grateful he’d been there to support her through the last few minutes.

She was also glad she’d be able to get her things back and, if they found her money, at least get her tires replaced. She thought she would have enough left over to at least make a dent in the cost of the other repairs on Gunther.

Starting over completely was no longer what she had to look forward to, but her victory over the situation was hollow compared to the gratitude she felt for this moment alone with him. Biting her lip, she decided to enjoy the time with him but mentally braced herself for when he had to leave.

Turning to him, she said, “It’s awfully late for you to start a trip home. Are you sure you don’t want to just drop me off at my place and head on out?” She wasn’t even sure where he lived but remembered that he and his twin brother had a ranch.

“If I do that, how will you collect your belongings later? I was planning to get a hotel room for tonight. I came prepared,” he said, gesturing to the backseat of the four-door cab.

“Oh,” she said, noting the button-down shirt and jeans hanging from the clothing hook on the sidewall of the truck. “Why did you come to Fort Stockton today? You’re not pulling your trailer.” She wanted to take back the words, realizing it wasn’t her place to interrogate him.

Chance turned his bright-blue eyes on her for a moment and murmured, “You really have to ask?” She frowned in puzzlement at him, thinking she had worked too many hours today for guessing games. “Baby, I came to see
you
.”

If her eyebrows could’ve risen any higher they would have been in her hairline. “You did? You came
all this way
to see me?” Her stomach fluttered with new butterflies replacing the old, exhausted ones from earlier, and she stuttered, “I–I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, Lydia. You’ve had a long day and you probably need rest more than anything else.” He pulled in under the brightly lit awning of the Sonic Drive-In and chose a spot to park in. “What would you like to have?”

After looking at the menu, she told him, and he refused her money when she reached in her purse. She sat there while he placed their order and remembered her silver bracelet. It was still in the pocket she’d hidden it in, and she slipped it on, feeling lucky to have both it and its giver sitting beside her.

Recalling what he’d said about getting a hotel room, she groaned. At his inquiring look she said, “I heard today in the café that there is a huge family reunion going on this weekend. Everyone in the café was talking about it. They all started rolling into town this morning. You may not be able to get a hotel room.”

Thoughtful for a second, Chance replied, “Well, maybe I can still get a room at your motel.” Lydia frowned, not sure he’d want a room at her motel. “You’ll need transportation in the morning anyway.”

Wow.
He was planning on being around in the morning, too. She had expected he would want to get an early start toward home the following morning.
But he said he came to see me.
She looked up at him and caught him watching her.

* * * *

Lydia looked ready to bolt, so Chance didn’t say anymore. He decided to wait a while to give her the gifts. She seemed to need a little time to settle in his company first, so he changed the subject.

“I think I asked you one time how you came to be in Fort Stockton, but you never got to answer me. Your boss interrupted you, as I recall,” he added with a grin.

“I’m originally from San Angelo.”

He nodded and said, “That explains your
ak-cint
.”

She chuckled and with a pronounced Texas twang said, “I don’t have an
ak-cint
. I
lohst
it in Austin.”

He winced and replied in kind, “Austin only made it stronger, darlin’.”

They laughed at each other’s accents, and she continued, “I moved from San Angelo to go to the culinary institute in Austin.”

“Culinary institute? Really? And you were working in a café?”

She nodded sheepishly and said, “I found myself in Fort Stockton, in need of a job and took the only one I could get.”

Chance recalled eating at least a couple of meals at the Oasis Café that had tasted unusually good for café food and said, “You’ve cooked for me before?”

She nodded and smiled, “A couple of times. I help LaMont when it gets busy, but I like to stay in the dining room because I make more in tips there.”

He realized she was speaking of the café in present tense when he was already thinking of it in the past tense. The realization hit him that he was already expecting she would quit the diner, but why should she? Where would she go if jobs were that scarce? He didn’t want her to work there anymore, and a plan formed in his mind.

If she cooked that well with the ingredients a café kept in supply, what would it be like if she had a huge kitchen and anything she wanted in the way of tools and foodstuffs at her disposal?

“Lydia, you’re a damn fine cook.”
In more ways than one, baby.

A blush rose in her cheeks, and she thanked him as their perky waitress sped up to his window on her roller skates. He paid her for the treats and then handed Lydia her chocolate shake.

“So how did you wind up in Fort Stockton if you were living in Austin?”

Lydia toyed with the wrapper on her straw and said, “I don’t like the big city. I’ve always wanted to live in a small town and the constant traffic really got to me. I was contacted after graduation about an opportunity here. They had interviewed me while I was at school and evidently I’d done well. I was offered a job, and sold or gave away almost everything I owned to come here. I packed up Gunther—”

“Gunther?”
Was there somebody else in her life he didn’t know about? He hadn’t even thought to ask about that, and his heart began a free fall in his chest. Maybe that was why she’d looked a little pensive earlier.

Lydia nodded and smiled brightly. “Yeah, Gunther. He’s my ’73 Karmann Ghia.” Chance almost broke a sweat in relief at that news. “My brothers bought him for me and rebuilt his engine.” She chuckled in embarrassment and added, “I know, it’s kind of juvenile to name my car, but I took one look at him five years ago and he’s just so cute I had to name him.”

Chance smiled at her as she blushed again and admitted to himself that he was completely beguiled by her. “So you packed up Gunther,” he prompted, using the German pronunciation as she had.

“Yes, and I drove from Austin to Fort Stockton. In theory, I knew how far it was, but I thought the drive would take forever. I was thankful it was still spring then because I don’t have air-conditioning in my car. I dread the thought of driving away from Fort Stockton in this heat with no AC.”

“But what happened when you got here?”

“The operation had folded before it even got started. They lost two of their investors. The person who should have let me know about the change in status must have thought someone else would and I somehow slipped through the cracks. They felt bad when I contacted them, but there was nothing they could do. I was living on a shoestring in Austin and I didn’t have much money when I’d started on the trip. I had just enough to get a motel room and I found a job at the café. Until I could get groceries, Mr. Cortez bartered my meals for part of my pay, at
full price
, even though I cooked them myself.”

Chance looked at her with admiration. Somehow she’d taken on a very disheartening situation and managed to survive. It made him want her even more. She was like a wildflower, blooming out there despite adversity.

“You put up with an awful lot from that boss of yours.”

“I did. I honestly did look everywhere in town. No one is hiring right now. Mr. Cortez was an asshole but basically harmless, or so I thought until today. He yelled a lot and he didn’t manage the café very well. He was a little ‘handsy,’ too, but I dealt with that straightforwardly and he stopped it, until today.” She put her hands to her temples and shook her head. “I can’t believe he robbed my motel room and slashed my tires. He knew I would have no choice but to call him.”

Chance wanted to go find the bastard and pound him into the ground. The man had systematically backed Lydia further and further into a corner trying to make her dependent on him.

“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he was behind my car problems all along.” She looked up at him with bright eyes, looking like she felt a little better. “Anyway, that’s why I’m here, for now.”

Curiously, Chance asked, “Where will you go? Do you have interviews lined up?”

Lydia shrugged and shook her head. “Once I have the money saved up for a deposit, rent, and living expenses for a month or two then I’ll start putting out feelers. Unfortunately, if I move it will have to be back to a larger city where the prospects are better.” She looked disappointed at that notion, and Chance smiled inwardly. He thought he had the perfect solution for her. “So tell me about the ranch, Chance. Every time I meant to ask you more about it we’d get busy so I don’t know much. Do you and your brother run it together? I don’t even know where it is.”

“The Rockin’ C is a big cattle ranch. Ten thousand acres. We have a cow-calf operation and we provide stock to other ranchers. There are about one thousand head of cattle on it right now, but the number fluctuates seasonally. In recent years we’ve sunk several oil wells on the back side of the property that have done well. The ranch is located in Divine, about two hundred and fifty miles from here.”

He got curious when her mouth popped open and her eyes got big
. “Divine, Texas?”

Chance chuckled and said, “That’s the one. Have you heard of it?”

Lydia groaned and nodded her head. “Yup. I have two very overprotective brothers who live there.”

“What are their names? I probably know them.”

She paused before responding and said, “You probably do know them. Two of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet but ‘big brother
buttinskis
’ of the first order. Ace Webster and Kemp Whittier.”

Chance snorted as he drew on his straw and barely swallowed his strawberry shake before he choked. She patted his back and said, “Oh hell, you
do
know them, don’t you? Actually, Ace is my brother by blood and Kemp is my brother by adoption.”

Chance chuckled and nodded, “Yes. I do. How long has it been since you’ve talked to them?”

Lydia thought about it and replied, “It’s probably been a few weeks. Maybe a month. Last time we talked was really brief because they were working. Why?”

If it had been that long then she knew nothing about Ace and Kemp’s recent proposal to Summer Heston, Discretion’s co-owner. “It might be time to check in, baby.”

“Are you going to tell them about…everything?”

Chance frowned. “Why? Don’t they know?
Oh! I see.
They’ve nominated themselves as your personal savior committee? Without permission, I bet?” When she nodded emphatically he continued, “You know, sometimes receiving help from people who love you is a good thing. Do they have any idea what your circumstances are right now?”

She cringed and gave him a lame smile. “Not really. They know I’m living in Fort Stockton. They know the chef job didn’t pan out.”

“I hear a big ‘but’ in there.”

“But they think I just found another job as chef in a different restaurant. I told them I was fine and I want to make it on my own. They said they respected that.”

“If you were my little sister, I’d want to do whatever I could to help you out of this situation.”

“I know, but I need to do it on my own. Are you going to tell them?” She asked the question as if she wondered if he was going to tattle on her.

“No, baby. Getting in touch would be a good idea, though. They might have news of their own.”

“True. I’ll have to do that.”

“If you left Fort Stockton, where would you go if you had your way?”

Lydia smiled at him and shrugged. “It may not matter what I want, but if I had my way it would be to another small town, somewhere a little greener. I love this part of Texas, but it can feel desolate and lonely at times.”

If he had his way he’d give her what she wanted and make sure she never felt desolate or lonely again.

Inside her purse, her phone rang.

She answered it and spoke to the caller while Chance worked on his strawberry shake. It sounded like she was talking to a police officer. When she put her phone down, he asked, “Everything all right?”

“Yes. The police have finished. The old fool confessed to slashing the tires and tampering with the engine. They need to get pictures of my car and they were willing to drop my things off at my motel room.”

“Oh. Okay. I’ll take you home if you’ll give me directions. I probably ought to see about a room before it gets much later, too.”

“Chance, thank you for all you’ve done to help me through tonight. I want you to know I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome, baby. I’m glad I was here. I’d hate to think of you going through what happened tonight all by yourself.”

He started the truck and followed her soft-spoken directions to the western edge of town, where her motel was located.