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Ted’s ball cap shaded his eyes, but his rigid jaw indicated stormy weather. “What are you doing here?”
She made a grand gesture toward the recliner. “I’ve taken a new lover. Sorry you had to find out like this.”
“Golf Central’s on,” Skeet grumbled, “and I can’t hear a damn thing.”
Dallie came out of the hallway behind her. “That’s because you’re going deaf. I been telling you for months to buy some damned hearing aids. Hey there, son. How did things go at the landfill?”
Ted’s hands stayed aggressively planted on his hips. “What’s she doing here? She’s supposed to be staying with me.”
Dallie turned his attention back to her, his blue eyes as clear as a Hill Country sky. “I told you he wouldn’t be happy about this, Meg. Next time you need to listen to me.” He shook his head sadly. “I tried my damnedest to talk her out of it, son, but Meg sure does have a mind of her own.”
She had a couple of choices. She picked the one that didn’t involve punching someone. “It’s better this way.”
“Better for whom?” Ted retorted. “It sure as hell isn’t better for me. And it’s not better for you, either.”
“As a matter of fact, it is. You have no idea—”
“Best you two have this discussion in private.” Dallie looked embarrassed, which he wasn’t. “Your mom and I are eating at the club tonight. Normally, I’d invite you both to join us, but there seems to be a lot of tension.”
“You’re damned right there’s tension,” Ted said. “She’s got some wacko out there gunning for her, and I want her where I can keep an eye on her.”
“Doubt she’ll come to much harm here.” Dallie headed for the front door. “Except for her eardrums.”
The door closed behind him. Ted’s censorious gaze, along with her damp clothes and clammy underwear, gave her goose bumps. She stomped down the hallway to her bedroom and knelt before her suitcase. “I’ve had a hard day,” she said as he stalked i
nto the room behind her. “You can go away now, too.”
“I can’t believe you let them get to you!” he exclaimed. “I thought you had more backbone.”
She wasn’t surprised that he’d seen through his father’s charade. She pulled a bag, neatly packed with her toiletries, from the suitcase. “I’m hungry, and I need a shower.”
His pacing stopped. The mattress sighed as he sat on the edge. Seconds ticked by before he spoke so softly she could barely hear. “Sometimes I want to leave this town so bad I can taste it.”
A rush of tenderness filled her. She set aside the bag and went to him. As the sounds of a Viagra commercial echoed from the living room, she smiled and pulled off his ball cap. “You are this town,” she whispered. And then she kissed him.
Two days later, as she sat in the shade by the fifth tee reading about large-scale composting, one of the junior caddies buzzed toward her in a cart. “You’re wanted in the pro shop,” he said. “I’ll take over here.”
She drove his cart back to the clubhouse with a sense of foreboding that turned out to be justifiable. No sooner had she stepped into the pro shop than a pair of large, sweaty hands settled over her eyes. “Guess who?”
She suppressed a groan, then pulled herself together. “The manly drawl suggests Matt Damon, but something tells me . . . Leonardo DiCaprio, right?”
A hearty laugh, the hands dropped, and Spencer Skipjack turned her to face him. He wore his Panama hat, an aqua sports shirt, and dark pants. A big grin stretched his big mouth over his big square white veneers. “I have definitely missed you, Miz Meg. You’re one of a kind.”
Plus, she had ultrafamous parents, and she was more than twenty years his junior, an irresistible combination to an egomaniac. “Hey, Spence. Thanks for the presents.”
“That soap dish is from our new line. Retails for a hundred and eighty-five dollars. Did you get my message?”
She played dumb. “Message?”
“About tonight. What with all my traveling, I’ve been neglecting you, but that’s going to change starting right now.” He made a vague gesture toward the front offices. “I sprung you from work for the rest of the day. We’re flying to Dallas.” He grabbed her arm. “First, a little shopping trip for you at Neiman’s, then drinks at the Adolphus and dinner at the Mansion. My plane’s waiting for us.”
He’d dragged her halfway to the door, and this time he wasn’t going to let her put him off as she’d done before. The most appealing of her options involved telling him to go to hell, but the land surveyors were still in town, the resort deal was practically signed, and she wouldn’t be the ultimate spoiler. “You’re the most thoughtful man.”
“Neiman’s was Sunny’s idea.”
“She’s amazing.”
“She’s spending the day with Ted. The two of them have a lot of catching up to do.”
