Flirting with Texas (Deep in the Heart of Texas) (18 page)

“With four women to take care of, three of them over the age of seventy, it makes sense,” Beau said.

“He’s not going there for Baby, Sunshine, or Starlet.”

Beau had lived with a knot of fear in his stomach ever since learning he had cancer. He had grown used to ignoring it. He couldn’t now. Not when it felt twice the size.

“Minnie’s sick?” he asked.

Moses squinted in the sun that had peeked over the roof of the library. “I don’t know for sure. The stubborn woman denies that anything is wrong. But Baby told me that Minnie wanted to go see Doc Mathers a few months back, and the Doc has been makin’ regular visits ever since.”

“Maybe Doctor Mathers just wants to keep an eye on her.”

“Maybe. But I can’t hardly see Minnie puttin’ up with his visits unless she needed to.”

Moses had a point. Minnie didn’t put up with people fussing over her. Which might explain why she hadn’t mentioned anything to Beau, and why she hadn’t pushed very hard for him to stay.

“Have you talked to her daughter or her granddaughter about this?” he asked.

Moses shook his head. “I didn’t want to worry them in case it wasn’t nothin’.”

A man pulled up in an SUV and parked it only a couple spaces down. Beau didn’t even acknowledge the arrival of his rental car before he looked back at Moses.

“Where is Dr. Mathers’s office?”

A strong scent of antiseptic hit Beau in the face as soon as he stepped in the glass door. Memories of all the other doctors’ visits he’d had to endure fogged his mind like a swarm of angry bees, but he swatted them back
with images of Minnie’s wild hair and wrinkled, grinning face. Still, he needed to take a deep breath and slowly release it before he could walk up to the reception desk. The receptionist was bent over a filing cabinet while she talked on the phone.

“… well, I wasn’t fooled for a second. I knew when it reopened that it wasn’t a good thing. Before we know it, all our men are gonna be headed out that way, and us women will have to resort to usin’ our back massagers—” She glanced up at Beau. He flashed her a smile, and her eyes widened. “Uhh, I-I g-gotta call you back, Cindy Lynn,” she stammered. With her gaze still pinned on Beau, it took her four tries before she got the receiver in its cradle.

Since it didn’t look like she was going to say anything, Beau took over. “I’m here to see Dr. Mathers.”

She blinked. “Huh?”

“Doc Mathers. Is he in?”

Before she could answer, a side door opened, and Kenny Gene stepped out, followed by an older man in a white lab coat. Beau had met the doctor at Shirlene and Billy’s wedding. He was a tall, thin man with wire-framed glasses and a shock of snow-white hair that shot up from his head like a rooster’s comb.

“I don’t think Jenna did any permanent damage, Kenny Gene,” he said as he fought back a smile. “But next time, if you don’t want to end up being punched, I wouldn’t be involved in kidnapping.”

“It weren’t kidnappin’, Doc,” Kenny said. “Jenna is well over twenty-one.”

The doctor looked confused before he noticed Beau. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I had another patient waiting.”
He stepped forward and held out a hand. “Beauregard Cates, isn’t it?”

Beau shook it. “Yes, sir. Nice to see you again.”

“Hey, Beau.” Kenny Gene thumped Beau on his hurt shoulder, and it took a real effort not to groan in pain. “I thought you’d left town for good. And I was hopin’ we’d get a chance to go fishin’.” A guilty look entered his eyes. “You ain’t sore at me for bringin’ you here, are you?”

Beau smiled. “No hard feelings, Kenny. And if I decide to stick around for a few days, I’d love to go fishing.”

The door opened, and a woman carrying a baby walked in, prompting Dr. Mathers to move the conversation along.

“Continue to ice it, Kenny, and it should be healed up by next week.” He handed a chart to the receptionist.

“I shore hope so, Doc. A dep-u-tee of the law can’t be runnin’ around lookin’ like he got his butt whupped.” Kenny Gene tugged his hat on and headed for the door.

“Did Sheriff Winslow finally make Kenny Gene a deputy?” Beau asked as he followed the doctor back to the examining room. Just the sight of the table had sweat breaking out on his forehead.

“I think the sheriff refers to Kenny as his on-call deputy.” Dr. Mathers stepped back and waited for Beau to precede him into the room, but Beau couldn’t seem to get his feet to cooperate.

“Do you think we could talk in your office, Doc?”

“Of course.” The doctor led him down a short hallway to the room at the end. “Please excuse the clutter.” He removed some books from a chair. “I don’t let the cleaning woman into this room.” After Beau was seated, the doctor sat down in the desk chair. “So what can I do for
you, Beau—besides give you some painkillers for that sore shoulder?”

Beau wasn’t surprised that the doctor had noticed his cringe. The eyes behind the wire-framed glasses might be old, but they were alert. “I’m not here about my shoulder, Doc. I’m here about Minnie.”

“Ahhh.” The doctor leaned back in the chair and rested his hands over his white coat. “Well, I’m afraid that’s patient-doctor privilege.”

“So you have been seeing her?”

He hesitated for only a moment before nodding. “I see just about everyone within a good sixty miles. All except for that ornery Moses Tate who thinks modern medicine is nothing but smoke and mirrors.”

Beau shrugged. “Seeing how he’s lived so long, maybe he has a point.”

Dr. Mathers’s bushy eyebrows lifted. “Maybe.” He got to his feet and was examining Beau’s shoulder before he could stop him. “Dislocated it, did you?”

“Twice.”

The doctor nodded. “I’ve seen my share of dislocated shoulders over the years. Some got surgery and some just opted to deal with it. I take you for the dealing type.” He reached for a pad and wrote out a prescription. “But if the pain gets worse, take a couple of these.” He tore off the paper and handed it to Beau. “As for Minnie, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you more.”

“So am I.” Beau got to his feet. “I was hoping you could tell me whether it’s bad enough that I need to stay. Thanks for the prescription, Doc.” He set it back down on the desk. “But like Moses, I’ll take my chances.” He was halfway down the hall when Dr. Mathers stopped him.

“Beau.”

He turned to find the man standing in the doorway of his office, his direct eyes staring over the frames of his glasses. Beau expected to be harassed about his shoulder. Instead, the doctor said only one word.

A word that pierced Beau’s heart clear through.

“Stay.”

A
S SOON AS
J
ENNA GOT BACK TO
her parents’ house, she started digging for evidence that she had been adopted. She went through every drawer in the house, but found nothing to prove Minnie’s words. No birth certificate. No adoption papers. She had about given up when she remembered her daddy’s lockbox. She hurried into her parents’ bedroom and pulled it out from under the bed. It was locked, but fortunately the key dangled from a ring on the handle. She had just fit it into the keyhole when the doorbell rang. Since she was still annoyed with the townsfolk, she decided to ignore it. Too bad the people in Bramble had a tendency to walk right in uninvited.

“So the prodigal daughter has returned home to rip off her loving parents.” Shirlene Dalton sashayed into the room with a big smile and a fat pig. “Your mama told me that New York had ruined her little girl, but I didn’t believe her until now. If you needed money, honey, all you had to do was ask.”

Before Jenna could say a word, the pig trotted over and covered her face in piggy slobber.

“Geez Louise, Sherman!” Jenna tried to push the pig away, but Sherman wasn’t having it. He knocked her back to the floor and would’ve continued his kissing assault if Shirlene hadn’t grabbed him by his rhinestone collar and pulled him off.

“Easy there, Piglet. You don’t know what kind of germs Jenna brought back from the big city.”

Jenna wiped her face off with the back of her hand and scowled up at Shirlene. “Real funny, Shirl.” She climbed to her feet. Unable to ignore Sherman’s soulful, pleading eyes, she reached down to scratch his soft ears. “Hope have you pig-sitting while she’s in Charlotte?”

“Yes,” Shirlene said, “but I never mind watching my Sherman. He’s more family than pig.”

It looked as if Sherman nodded his head in agreement. Jenna wouldn’t have been surprised. The pig had more human qualities than most humans.

“So how did you know I was here?” Jenna headed for the kitchen, hoping to keep Shirlene from asking questions about the lockbox. Besides, in her hurry to catch a ride with Beau, she hadn’t eaten breakfast and her stomach was as hollow as a wooden leg. Being a healthy eater himself, Sherman beat her to the refrigerator.

“Lucky guess.” Shirlene slipped onto a stool at the breakfast bar. “When we found out about the abduction, Billy drove out to Miss Hattie’s to see Beau.” She smiled brightly. “And I stayed here to welcome home our little Jenna Jay.”

“Thanks, Shirlene, but it isn’t exactly how I wanted to come home for a visit,” Jenna said as she poured a bowl of Cocoa Puffs for Sherman. “And Beau isn’t out at the henhouse. He brought me back to town this morning, but doesn’t plan on staying.”

“I was afraid of that.” Shirlene released her breath in a long sigh. “Billy is going to be so disappointed.”

Jenna gave Sherman his cereal and poured a bowl for herself. “So why is Beau so against staying here?”

“Probably the same reason you are.” When Jenna looked at her, Shirlene shrugged. “I think it has to do with sowing your wild oats. Obviously Beau isn’t finished yet. Now the question is, are you?”

Jenna opened the refrigerator and pulled out a half-empty gallon of milk. “My aversion to Bramble has nothing to do with sowing my wild oats and everything to do with my parents not accepting my choices.”

“Lord have mercy,” Shirlene said. “You can’t tell me that you’re still involved with that walking tattoo.”

“There is nothing wrong with Davy’s body art, Shirl. And if anyone should know that, you should. Your brother Colt has more than a few tattoos.”

“True,” she said. “But along with the tattoos, he’s got a paying job. In fact, Desperado Customs has done real well since Colt moved his business here to Bramble.
Orange County Choppers
even came out and did a show with them—the younger son, not his mean ol’ daddy.”

“Davy has a paying job.” Jenna sniffed the milk and wrinkled her nose. “He’s a musician, and it’s only a matter of time before he makes it big.”

It wouldn’t have been so bad if just Shirlene had rolled her eyes, but Sherman stopped eating his Cocoa Puffs and rolled his eyes, too.

“Okay, so don’t believe me.” Jenna poured the milk out in the sink. “But it doesn’t matter if Davy makes it big. He’s the man I love, and he’s the man I’m going to marry. And once I’m married to Davy, my family will have to accept him.”

“That might be true in another family, but I’m not so sure about yours, honey. Your mama is as stubborn as Faith, Hope, and you are.”

Stubborn?
Jenna was anything but stubborn, but Shirlene’s knowledge of her family might help Jenna out.

“Do you remember the day I was born, Shirlene?”

If Shirlene was surprised by the topic change, she didn’t show it. “Just like it was yesterday. I remember your mama climbing out of Burl’s truck with a teeny, tiny pink-blanketed bundle. I think I was more excited than Hope was to get my hands on you. You were no bigger than a minute with the whitest head of downy curls anyone had ever seen. Didn’t look anything like Tessa and Dallas looked when they were newborn.”

“Do you think I look like a Scroggs now?”

Shirlene laughed. “Certainly not like the scrawny women in your family.”

“But you remember my mama being pregnant with me?” she delved a little further.

Shirlene’s eyes narrowed. “What are you gettin’ at, honey?”

“Nothing. I was just curious about what my mama looked like when she was pregnant.”

It only took a second for Shirlene’s green eyes to widen. “Are you nesting, Jenna Jay? Is that why you’re in such a doggone hurry to get married and steal from your daddy’s lockbox?”

“No!” Jenna shook her head. “I wasn’t stealing from my daddy’s lockbox. And Davy doesn’t want children.”

Since Shirlene had adopted four children when she couldn’t have any children of her own, Jenna figured she would be shocked by the news. Instead, she didn’t even blink.

“There’s nothing wrong with not wanting children as long as it’s agreed upon by both parties,” Shirlene said. “You don’t want children, Jenna Jay?”

It was hard to answer such a direct question, especially when she wasn’t exactly sure. She agreed with Davy that there was no place for a child in their lives right now. But she wasn’t so sure she would feel the same way in the future. She just couldn’t tell Shirlene that. Not when Hope and Shirlene were best friends, and the information would easily find its way back to her mother. And Jenna didn’t want to give her mama any more reasons to object to the wedding.

“I’m too busy for kids,” she said.

Shirlene’s gaze pinned her for a few uncomfortable seconds before she walked over and picked up Sherman’s empty bowl. “Well, speaking of kids, I better get back to mine. Mia’s leaving today to work as a counselor at summer camp, and she’s not quite packed yet. I also need to call Billy and let him know about Beau. Did Beau mention where he was going?”

Jenna followed her and Sherman to the door. “When we were in Bear’s camper, he mentioned Mexico.”

Shirlene stopped and arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “I heard about your trip. And I guess if nothing else, it proves how much you love Davy.”

“How so?”

“If a woman can still think about another man after two days with Beauregard Cates, then it must be love.”

Once Shirlene and Sherman were gone, Jenna went back to the lockbox. But she didn’t find anything that pointed to her adoption. Instead, she found three guns, a bunch of old coins, and some very disturbing pictures of her mother naked.

The pictures did give her an idea, and she spent the next two hours munching on a bag of stale Fritos she’d found in the pantry and scouring through family photo albums, looking for a picture of her mother pregnant. She found only four. Three dated way before Jenna was born and one dated after. She had almost given up on finding anything when she stumbled across a large manila envelope of pictures in the very back of a photo album.