Suddenly Texan (14 page)

But did he? Hadn't he always thought he might move on someday? He'd owned the hardware store for five years—an eternity in his lifetime. At one time he hadn't even had a permanent residence. He'd stayed in hotels around the world and visited Texas between tournaments and high-stakes games.

Now he was a business owner, an investor, with his own place and more possessions than he'd ever imagined. He didn't feel as if his life were weighing him down…yet. That would probably come, though. He expected it to come. So if he wanted to live someplace else, he could. He could give the Casale family trunk back to his parents, sell his condo and hardware store. He could come for visits, like Troy did. There was nothing wrong with that.

Of course, Troy had moved to New Hampshire to marry Raven, the woman he loved.

Leo wasn't quite ready to make that sort of…what? Sacrifice? Commitment? He didn't know how he felt about giving up his freedom.

The one thing he knew for certain was that he couldn't let Amanda drive off into an uncertain future. He didn't understand why, but he knew that when he thought about losing her, he felt empty inside.

He needed a strategy.

“So, Leo, how much did you know about this before Myra and Amanda told their stories?” Cal asked.

“I made a complete ass out of myself,” he admitted, sinking down in the chair where Amanda had been sitting. “I listened to what Amanda said about her life and I learned what she was asking other people. I looked into
her eyes, which are so much like yours that you should really look in a mirror, Cal, and I decided she must be Calvin Crawford's illegitimate daughter.”

“No way! Our father didn't have an affair.”

“Okay, it wasn't like I was accusing him. At first I thought it might have been after your mother left, but then I did the math and discovered Amanda was older than that.”

“She's what, twenty-six?”

“That's right. I knew she was related in some way to you. When I brought up the subject, my timing sucked. That was Sunday night, after I fixed her dinner, and we'd talked, and…well, my assumption didn't go over well. Amanda moved out of the condo unit very early Monday morning.”

“She denied being related to us?” Troy asked.

“No, she denied being your father's illegitimate daughter. At the time, I thought she was just being private. I was wrong.”

Cal rubbed a hand over his face. “I don't know what to think. I can't… I don't know what to do now.”

“I don't, either,” Troy said. “It's a huge change in our family. But I've got to admit, she knows things no one else would. And Myra supports her story. Myra may be cranky, but she has no reason to lie.”

“No reason we know of,” Cal said.

“Why are you so suspicious?” Leo asked. “Amanda isn't asking one thing from you. She came here to let you know you had a sister. She's telling you that you're getting money. What's so complicated about that?”

“You're kidding, right?” Troy said. “What's not complicated about this situation! And that includes your re
lationship with Amanda. Just exactly what do you want from her? Why do you want her to stay in town?”

“I… What I want is irrelevant to your relationship to Amanda.”

“Really? If she is our sister, and as I said, I'm leaning that way, then you've got some explaining to do.”

“What?” Leo's jaw dropped.

“What Troy means,” Cal said in his serious voice, “is that we want to know what your intentions are since you asked her to stay.”

“My intentions are to help her out, have a good time, be her friend.” That's what he'd been doing all along. And it was working out just fine until he'd pushed her for answers.

“Friends?” Cal frowned. “I got the impression you'd gone beyond being just friends.”

“Friends with benefits?” Leo answered, not sure the brothers would like his response.

“So, you're just messing around with her, and you don't want her to leave because…” Troy prompted.

“Because we were having a good time!” Leo felt completely frustrated. Why couldn't he and Amanda keep on doing things together, including warming up the sheets of his bed? He really liked and admired her. He didn't see any reason to change right now. Hell, she was five years younger than him, just getting out in the world. Why would she want to get leg-shackled any more than he would?

“I don't think she sees it that way,” Troy said.

“I don't claim to be an expert on women,” Cal added, “but Christie has taught me a lot. Having a good time is fine for casual dating, but when a man jumps up and
asks a woman to stay in town and then can't give her a good reason, it's his problem, not hers.”

“I do not have a problem with women,” Leo stated firmly.

“No, you just have issues with one woman. And if Cal and I don't decide who she really is to us and what that means, we're going to have the same problem. She's going to drive away from here and none of us will ever know what might have been if only we hadn't been so hardheaded.” Troy crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Cal and Leo.

Cal reached for the envelope Myra had left on the desk. “I want to see the letters Myra brought.”

“Me, too,” Troy said.

Leo just wanted to see Amanda, and if he didn't know why, exactly, he figured that was everyone else's problem.

 

A
MANDA SAT ON THE SECTIONAL
sofa in the great room, surrounded by Bobbi Jean and Christie, with Clarissa, Venetia and Caroline nearby. Myra had gone home after eating several chocolate oatmeal drop cookies, and making Amanda promise that she would come and see her.

The ladies had done a beautiful job with the photos. She now had a real album of her mother's life in Texas, with pictures from the downtown as it was in the mid-1970s, when Luanna had first come to Brody's Crossing. Despite feeling depressed over the less-than-storybook response of her brothers, Amanda smiled at the photo of her mother at a church social when she was young, with Farah Fawcett hair and blue eye shadow. Everyone had written their memories of Luanna, Cal
and Troy. Ida Bell, who didn't usually come to lunch, had created a scrapbook-style title page for the album: In Memory of Luanna.

“Mom would have really liked this,” Amanda said, closing the last page. “I have a few other photos I can add when I get out the box of her memorabilia. I know now that some of the photos she had in her dresser when she died were sent by Myra.”

She sighed. “Mom didn't take much with her when she left, but there's one special photo of herself, Cal and Troy.”

“Is it this one?” the younger of her brothers said from the doorway. He picked up the framed photo from the built-in shelf near the fireplace and handed it to her.

“Yes,” Amanda said, smiling at the familiar portrait. “She told me that was a happy day. She took you to Fort Worth to a photography studio, then went shopping for school clothes.” Amanda looked up at Troy. “Mom always said that you grew so fast she thought about sewing rows of calico on the bottom of your jeans.”

Troy blinked, then drew in a deep breath. “Yeah, she told me that, too. I said I was sorry, but I needed to get to be as tall as Cal as quick as I could.”

Amanda dabbed at her eyes. Sharing a memory of their mother was more than she'd hoped for half an hour ago. “Mom always said you were less like our father. She said Cal was his favorite. I guess that made you her favorite.”

“I guess so.” He blinked again, put his hands on his hips and looked away, out the window into the night sky. “It really hurt when she left like that.”

“I know. It hurt me every time she came to Arkansas
for a visit, then returned to you and Cal. Like any little girl, I wanted my mother.”

“I'm sorry,” Troy said softly. “I wish we could have all been a family.”

“I do, too,” Amanda whispered.

The ladies started sliding around the sectional. “It's getting late,” Bobbi Jean said. “We'll leave you to talk.” She gave Amanda a little hug and patted her back.

Amanda felt emotionally exhausted and physically drained. She didn't know if there was anything left to say. She pulled back slightly from Bobbi Jean's embrace. “Thank you all so much for the wonderful album. When I came here, I just thought I wanted to see where my mother lived, meet some of the people who knew her and maybe find out why she made some of the choices that she did. This is so much more than I expected.”

“We were glad to do it, sweetie,” Clarissa said, giving Amanda a big hug. “Now, don't you forget to come by my salon.”

“I'm leaving tomorrow, remember?”

“You take care,” Venetia said, patting her shoulder, which was probably as affectionate as Venetia ever got.

“There's no reason for you to rush off,” Christie said. “You just won Troy over. Cal won't be far behind. He's just slightly more stubborn and cautious.”

Amanda tried to smile, but figured she failed when everyone just looked at her with sympathy.

The older women made their way to the door with Christie following behind. Amanda stood in the wide hallway and watched them pick up their purses and get out their car keys.

“Goodbye,” she said softly. “Thank you again. I'll never forget you.”

“You'll be back,” Clarissa said with confidence. “I don't think this is goodbye.”

Amanda waved as Christie ushered the women out. She turned and sighed, leaning against the door. “I'm not letting you leave until you talk to Cal one more time.”

“What I'd really like to do is see your children. I'd love to have a photo of them to take with me,” Amanda said.

“I can't believe you're going to leave us, now that you finally told us who you are and what happened to our mother,” Troy said from behind her. “And I can't believe that I have a sister. A little sister.”

Amanda burst into tears. Troy caught her as she sagged against him. She felt so overwhelmed, so drained, that she had no resistance to the emotions running through her.

“Hey, it's okay,” he said, stroking her hair as her mother used to do sometimes when Amanda had a bad day at school and her mother was having a good day. “It's great that you found us, right? And I'm really glad that Leo sent me a ticket so I could get down here and meet you. He wouldn't tell me why, but he told me that I had to come.”

“Leo sent for you?” Why would he spend his own money to get Troy here from New Hampshire?

“He called me. I was surprised, but not as surprised as when you told us you were our sister.”

“Leo meddles in everything,” Amanda said. “And I think he likes being dramatic.”

“You think? Yes, he might have a bit of the theatrical in him.”

“He didn't have any right to get involved in my life,” she said, still comforted by Troy.

“Leo isn't the kind of guy to ask permission. He takes charge and asks forgiveness later. Mostly, he always thinks he's right.”

Amanda sniffed and pulled back a little. “I'm sorry I cried all over you.”

“Not the first time that's happened to me.”

“And thank you for listening. I'm sorry I complained about your friend.”

Troy leaned back and smiled at her. “Hey, what's a big brother for? This is the first time I've ever gotten to give my sister a little advice about a boy.”

“What's this about giving advice?” Cal asked from behind them. “I'm the oldest brother. You should be listening to my words of wisdom.” He walked up and put his arm around her and Troy.

Amanda's lip trembled and she started to cry all over again. This was what family felt like, this messy, exhausting, overwhelming feeling that there's someone else out there who understands you.

Christie was right. How could she leave now that she'd found her family?

Leo watched the group hug from the doorway, just inside the family room. Family. Christie walked over and they all hugged again.

He wasn't part of this. He had no right to hug Amanda or interfere with her joy at being accepted as a Crawford.

He just wanted to make sure she wasn't leaving town tonight or in the morning. They had to talk. This time, he wouldn't make any assumptions. He'd leave everything wide-open and let her make up her mind.

As long as she didn't decide to drive away for parts unknown.

He settled into a chair by the windows, not wanting to interrupt the Crawford family. He wondered if Amanda would change her name, or if she'd stay an Allen. Maybe the name on her birth certificate was already Crawford. Not that her last name mattered to him.

Minutes later, the two smallest members of the family came down the stairs with their nanny, Darla, and Peter ran to Christie. They seemed a little cautious at seeing their father standing next to Amanda, but Peter was thrilled to see his uncle, and launched himself at Troy's knees.

They all hugged and talked some more. Christie took pictures with a camera Amanda handed her. Callie started to cry when Amanda held her. Leo could see the worried look on her face, as if she didn't know whether to try to console the baby or hand her right back to her mother.

Amanda had a lot to learn about babies before she got married and had any of her own, he thought with a smile. And then he wondered when Amanda might want to get married and have babies, and he frowned. Surely she wasn't ready for anything like that.

She needed to be carefree and single for quite a while. They could have a good time and then…

Hell, the idea of Amanda getting married to another man and having his babies was just…wrong.
Because she's way too young to be thinking about such things,
he told himself.

“Hey, Leo, come and get in a photo,” Christie called from the hallway. “That's okay.”

“No, seriously, get over here,” his business partner insisted.

He pushed himself out of the comfortable chair and walked toward the siblings. Seeing them together, he wondered how anyone could have missed the fact that they were related. Maybe that's what Burl Maxwell had sensed at the community center Saturday night when he'd said that Amanda looked familiar.

He posed for several photos, getting as close to Amanda as her overbearing brothers would allow. You'd think they'd been protecting her all her life rather than the past hour. And what was that about asking his intentions? They were between him and Amanda. If the
brothers would just butt out, maybe he could make some progress.

He and Amanda could go back to the way things were before he screwed up by making an incorrect assumption. Okay, and maybe interfering a little too much in her business. How could he help himself, though, when she was so darn interesting and she needed a friend so badly?

In a few minutes, Darla gathered up the kids. Amanda told them good-night and Cal and Christie promised to come up in a few minutes to tuck them in.

Leo pulled Amanda aside, away from overprotective brother number two. “That was great, wasn't it? You were really glowing. I know meeting your family and being accepted by them is what you wanted.”

“Yes, it is, but I'm not sure I was ‘glowing,'” Amanda said with a questioning look on her face. “Isn't that what people tell pregnant women?”

Leo shrugged. “As I've said before, I wouldn't know. I just meant you seem very happy.”

She looked down at the floor. “I am. I'm very happy.”

“This may sound old or clichéd or whatever, but I do want to talk to you. I still want you to stay, of course, and now you have a reason to.”

“I—I suppose.”

“Of course you do. You still need to meet Raven. I can fly her down if she can get away. And there are other people in town—”

“I haven't decided what I want to do right now.”

“You can move back into the model condo.”

“I don't think that's a good idea.”

Leo frowned. “Where do you plan to stay, then?”

“I don't know!” she answered, her voice rising just a little. She was obviously getting peeved at him, which meant that he'd pushed too hard. Again.

He thought he knew quite a bit about women. He had a sister, a mother, a female business partner. He had female friends. He'd had enough lovers that he knew what he was doing in that department. But he kept making mistakes with Amanda.

“Amanda is going to stay with us,” Christie said, coming up the hallway. “There's no reason to drive off somewhere or spend money on a motel when we have a perfectly fine guest room right here. Or if she'd rather, she can stay in the old house.”

“The house where my mother lived?” she said, turning with excitement to Christie. “I remember seeing it when…”

“When I took you on a tour of the ranch,” Leo finished for her.

“Yes, then. I didn't want you to think I was snooping.”

“The thought never crossed my mind.”

“I'm not sure I want to stay there, though. It might seem…I don't know, odd.”

Christie nodded. “Troy and Cal can show you around and then you can decide.”

“That would be great.”

“How about me? I could take you down there and—”

Christie and Amanda both said, “No!” at the same time.

Leo sighed. “Okay, I get it. I just don't want you to drive away,” he admitted to Amanda. “I want to see you.”

She looked at him for several seconds before saying,
“Okay, how about if I meet you at the Coffee Crossing in the morning?”

Or you could just come to my condo.
“What time?”

“Nine o'clock, if that's not too late for you to get to the hardware store.”

“I'll be there, and for you, my schedule is flexible.”

Christie shook her head. “You have got to work on your lines.”

“Hey, I was sincere.” He thought for a moment, then admitted, “Okay, maybe I'm a little rusty. But I meant it. I'll take the whole week off if it means I can spend time with Amanda.”

Christie patted him on the shoulder, and this time, Amanda rolled her eyes.

 

A
MANDA FELT AS NERVOUS
as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, as her mother used to say. She settled in the only booth in the coffee shop with a little privacy, placed her vanilla latte to the side and opened her laptop. Leo probably wouldn't be down for another few minutes and she wanted time to check her online auctions. The postcard groupings that she'd put up last week were doing quite well. Texas was a popular place, and so were the vacation spots from the 1950s and 1960s.

She had a few other things there: Fiesta dinnerware salt-and-pepper shakers, plates and a coffee creamer. An old radio had one bidder, and some vintage metal signs were doing quite well. She sipped her coffee and said a silent prayer for lots of bidders.

She needed the money, but she wasn't sure if it was going to buy her gas to get out of Texas or pay for a place to stay while she was here.

Or maybe she'd find a more permanent arrangement.
Her own apartment. Perhaps she could get a place in the same complex where Darla and Cassie lived. Maybe she could get a roommate to split costs. Garage sale and thrift store pickings were good here, so she could—

“Good morning,” Leo said, swinging into the bench seat across from her. He put his coffee cup down between them. “Are you working?”

“I was checking my online auctions, but I'm done,” she said, putting her laptop on hibernate and closing the top. Her heart beat a little faster when she looked at him. “You're a few minutes early.”

He paused for a moment before saying, “I couldn't wait to see you.”

She frowned. “That sounded like a line.”

“I'm just trying to be careful what I say.”

“It's not always what a person says, but what they're thinking while they're saying it.”

Leo frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Just that you always seem to be thinking ahead— ‘scheming,' I guess most people would call it, although I don't mean that in a negative way. It's like life is a big chess match, with people the full-size pieces, and you're trying to decide how everyone's move affects the game.”

He seemed to consider her assessment for a moment, then said, “I guess you're right. That's the way my brain works. I am usually thinking ahead.”

“It's kind of upsetting sometimes because it makes me feel as if you're trying to manipulate me.”

“I… Okay, I did try to get you to tell me about why you were really here. It was like a game to me when we first met. And then you became a mystery I had to figure out. So I was trying to get clues to the mystery,
and I know I tried to coerce you into telling me things that you didn't want to reveal.”

Amanda drew patterns on the tabletop. “That's the weird thing. I did want to tell you. At times, I wanted to tell you so badly it hurt to keep it inside.”

“Why didn't you?”

“Because it was my story to tell to Cal and Troy. I know this sounds strange, but I felt that if I told others, it would dilute the strength of the story. I felt I'd be cheating them out of the truth.”

Leo seemed deep in thought for a moment, then nodded. “I understand. It's like when I went into a blackjack tournament with a strategy. I didn't want to talk about it to anyone. The time I did…well, I made a mistake.”

“As in you lost money?”

“No, I won, but I lost my career, my…passion, I guess you could say. As is so often the case in the movies, it was a beautiful woman who brought me down.”

Amanda felt intrigued despite the idea that a beautiful woman had been close enough to Leo for him to reveal his secrets. She imagined someone like a dark haired, almond-eyed, exotic “Bond girl” sliding her hands all over his well-fitted tux, feeling his firm chest while his heart beat fast beneath her hand.

Stop it.
That was a long time ago, in a lifetime far away. Of course he'd had other women. Lots of them.

“Really? Who would have thought that?” Amanda said in what she hoped was a flippant voice.

“I told her about the other players, their strengths and weaknesses. I told her about my game plan, how I was going to win. She asked me questions about whether
other players would cheat, and if so, how they would do it.”

“Why was she so interested?”

“Because she was setting me up. She used what I told her against me, turning it around to sound as if I was scared of losing so I planned to cheat. And then she planted evidence in my personal belongings and made sure our host found it.”

Amanda frowned, horrified that someone would do that to Leo. “But why would she do such a thing?”

“Because she was being paid by one of the other players. He wanted me out and this was the best way to make sure it was permanent. Especially when it was suggested that this wasn't the first time I'd cheated.”

“How terrible! That was your life, playing cards and traveling the world.”

“It was. It's not anymore. And quite frankly, it's not something I really want to return to. It was fun. It was even easy, once you got used to the odd hours and the distractions of the casinos. The most apprehensive times were being isolated in the homes of private players, which were more like fortresses in some cases. But it wasn't something that seemed all that real, even while it was happening. When it came to an end, I returned to reality.” He paused. “I wear this ring to remind myself how quickly life can change.”

“And what could be more real than owning a hardware store in your hometown?”

“I've always been good with tools, I know everyone and it's a steady job. I like walking in and smelling the old wood of the floors and shelves and the new metal of the tools and fittings, seeing the rows of nails, screws
and bolts, and figuring out what the next new gadget is going to be.”

“You love your hardware store.”

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “Yeah, I guess I do. But I don't know if I want to do that forever.”

“I love selling online but I'm not sure I'll want to do that, either.”

He reached for her hand. “Then what are we going to do with the rest of our lives, Amanda Allen Crawford?”

She looked into his clear blue eyes and searched his handsome face for something that was missing in this picture. Something that had been left unsaid.

Like why he was interested enough in her to send Troy Crawford an airline ticket, involve himself in her family and keep insisting they needed to “talk” despite her trying to cleanly break off their relationship.

She shook her head. “I have no idea what I want to do later or where I'm going to live.”

“Why don't you stay here?”

Not exactly the strongest argument she could imagine. “Are you asking me to stay?”

“I've been asking you to stay for over a week!”

“Yes, you've been suggesting that this is a good town, full of good people. But why specifically should I stay here? I mean, other than the fact I have family in the area.”

“That's a better reason than a lot of people have when they pick a place to live.”

“I've never ‘picked' a place to live.”

“You could get a regular job here if you wanted to. Or maybe you'd like to open your own store, sell retail
instead of online. Maybe even go into business with Christie.”

“I don't have that kind of money.”

“You've got that inheritance coming.”

“I've thought about using the money to go to school. I've never had the chance to go to college.”

“Which school?”

“I have no idea. I haven't looked. It's really just an idea.”

“If that's what you want—”

“I'm not sure! I said I'm thinking about it.” Was the man dense? Didn't he know she was waiting for him to say something about how much he wanted her to stay in Brody's Crossing because he cared for her and wanted them to be together. “What do you want?”