She blinked back the sudden tears and tried to keep her voice steady. “I’m sorry, Tyler. It’s all or nothing.” What the hell was she saying? She loved him, she wanted him. So it wasn’t marriage? It was the best offer anyone had made her in a long time. Try ever. So maybe he thought it wouldn’t work now. The closer they became, the more hopelessly in love he fell, he’d start to see things her way. All she had to do was say yes.
“No. This would never work between us. I want what my parents had. Love. Endless, boundless, I’ll-love-you-till-doomsday-and-beyond love.”
Shrugging away, she started toward her cab. He caught her by the shoulders and forced her to face him. “I do love you.”
“Not enough.” She pulled away and surprisingly, he let her.
“Please, Lucky. Don’t... I’ll take care of your grandmother.” He said the words as if he was negotiating a business deal instead of the rest of her life. Gone was the sexy cowboy who smiled and flirted and made her feel good inside. In his place was a cold, calculating businessman who didn’t take no for an answer. Suddenly she realized how different they were.
It had nothing to do with looks or money or sophistication. They were different because they valued different things.
Tyler valued money and what it could buy him.
And Lucky valued her self-respect
“You won’t ever have to worry about another nursing-home payment.” He ticked off the advantages. “I’ll take care of both of you. You can quit your cab driving and finish your degree at the University of Houston. I’m offering you money and stability, Lucky. Everything.”
Nothing
.
She didn’t say a word. There was nothing to say. She walked toward her cab, praying with each step that her pride would hold together what was left of her heart before she turned and raced back to his arms. She was crazy. She should be jumping for joy, thanking the heavens.
He loved her!
“Dammit, Lucky!”
She slid behind the steering wheel and slammed the door. “I want to give you more,” he said, following her. He leaned into the window. “I do.”
A sad smile curved her lips as she stared up at him. “You’re going to miss me, Tyler Grant.” And then she kissed him, a slow, savoring kiss that ripped at her heart. “I—I have to go,” she said as a car turned into the other side of the double driveway. Headlights blazed, illuminating Tyler’s dark, troubled face.
His gaze darkened as he touched her cheek, his thumb catching a trickle of wetness.
“Yes,” she admitted softly. “I’m crying.” Then she shoved the cab into reverse and left Tyler Grant staring after her.
“THAT WAS LUCKY,” Mabel said, half a dozen blue ribbons pinned across the front of her blouse.
“She’s really gone,” Bennie whispered.
“It’s about time,” Helen added.
“Oh, pooh-pooh,” Julius exclaimed. “I wanted more pictures.”
“You all right, son?” Ulysses asked.
“No.” He turned to stride out to the barn. He was lonely, heartbroken and mad as hell at himself. Good Lord, he’d offered to
buy
her. What had he been thinking?
He hadn’t been thinking, he’d been feeling. Desperation had closed in on him and he’d reacted the only way he knew how when it came to the people he loved.
He’d tried to buy his mother’s acceptance by marrying into enough old money to put a sizable dent in the national deficit. He’d tried to buy his father’s forgiveness by putting Reata back together. And he’d tried to buy Lucky’s love by offering to care for her and her grandmother.
All last-ditch efforts. All failures.
Lucky couldn’t be bought. Or changed. Or compromised.
He’d tried to do all three, but the funny thing was, he loved her even more because she’d refused him. She was Lucky.
And she’d left him.
“YOU MADE HER LEAVE!”
Bennie’s angry voice drew Tyler down the darkened hallway to the library. He started to open the door, then he heard Helen.
“She shouldn’t have been here in the first place, Bernadette. She’s hardly qualified to care for you.”
“She’s more than qualified. She was my friend, Grandmother. My
friend
. How could you make Daddy fire her?”
“I didn’t make your father do anything. He agrees with me and wants what’s best for you. And I don’t appreciate your tone of voice, Bernadette Willemina Bell.”
“I’m a
Grant
,” Bennie said. “I’m not a Bell. I never wanted to be one. I love you, but I won’t ever be what you and Daddy want me to be. I’m different, and so is Lucky. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I see the sooner you return to Houston, the better.”
“I don’t want to go,” Bennie said, her chin rising a notch. “I like it here.”
“But Smithston...”
“I never wanted to go to Smithston. I want to go to school in Ulysses.” Her voice broke. “I know I’m not all the things you want me to be,” Bennie went on. “But can’t you love me anyway? I try to like the same things as you. That’s why I entered the beauty pageant. I wanted to please you and Daddy, to make you both proud of me.” Bennie was crying full force.
Tyler didn’t blame her. He felt like crying himself.
I won’t ever be what you and Daddy want me to be. You and Daddy...
Daddy
. He pushed open the door and walked inside just as Helen wrapped her arms around Bennie.
“Oh, sweetheart, I am proud of you,” Helen said, and for the first time, Tyler saw a tear roll down his mother-in-law’s cheek. It stopped him dead in his tracks. “I don’t mean to make you feel awkward, dear,” she went on. “I simply want the best for you. Your father and I both do, that’s why we’re all going back to Houston—”
“We’re not going,” Tyler cut in. “We’re staying right here.” He faced his daughter. “You did all of this for me, didn’t you? The piano lessons, the French, the dresses... You really have no interest in those things, do you?”
She stared guiltily at her feet and wiped her eyes. “You’re always telling me, ‘Wear a dress, Bennie. Act like a lady.’ I thought you wanted me to like all those things, to be like Mama.”
“Oh, baby.” He pulled her into his arms. “Your mother was your mother, and you’re you. I don’t care what you like as long as you’re happy. That’s all I ever wanted. I don’t want you to feel torn between me and Helen, between our different ways of life. I want you to have everything you want.”
“But I already do.” She stared up at him through glistening eyes. “I have you and Granddaddy, Grandfather and Grandmother.” Her gaze went to Helen. “I love you, Grandmother, but I also love jeans and ratty sneakers and pet lizards. Maybe I won’t like those things when I grow up. Maybe I’ll like tea and museums and opera. Maybe not. But I want you to love me anyway.” Her gaze lifted to Tyler’s. “I want you to love me.”
“I couldn’t love you more, sweetheart.”
“Then bring Lucky back. I love her, and so do you.”
“What?” Helen’s shocked voice drew both their gazes.
Tyler smiled down at his daughter and gave her a wink. “Can you excuse us, honey?” Bennie nodded and left the room, and Tyler turned to Helen. “Bennie and I are staying here. No more nannies, and Bernadette goes to school in town. You can fight me if you want to, but I’m asking you not to. For Bennie’s sake.”
“If I do, I’ll lose her, won’t I?”
“Yes, and I don’t want that. You’re her grandmother, Helen. You should be a part of her life.”
For the first time, Tyler saw Helen’s shoulders actually slump. She looked...vulnerable. He did a double take. Yeah, vulnerable. Who would’ve figured?
“I’m very headstrong, Tyler,” she went on in a defeated voice. “I know that, it’s just that I’ve always had to be. My father expected it of me and I couldn’t let him down. My father was strict with me, he pushed me hard, always afraid I wouldn’t fit in, that someone would realize a Bell wasn’t so perfect.”
“No child is perfect.”
“His would have been. That’s why I had to be. No one could know that the great Samuel Bell couldn’t father a child.” She stared up at him, a sad look on her face. “I’m adopted, Tyler. I know that doesn’t make up for my pushiness, but perhaps it helps you understand a little better why I am the way I am. I had to live up to the Bell name, so no one would ever doubt that I was Samuel Bell’s daughter, so he wouldn’t doubt it.”
“Nan never told me.”
“She never knew. No one does. Just my parents and Merle, and now you.” She wiped at a tear. A melancholy smile lit her eyes. “Nan always said I was a snob, and she was right.” She closed her eyes. “I miss her so much.” Her expression grew serious. “Do you really love this Lucky person?”
He nodded. “More than you can imagine.”
“Well, then.” She took a deep breath and wiped at her tears. “You do what you have to do. Be happy, Tyler,” she said, patting his shoulder. “And keep Bernadette happy. And this old snob will take herself home and butt out of your business.”
“Praise be, it’s about time.” Ulysses stood in the doorway and munched a bowl of ice cream. “Two miracles in one night. That must be some kinda record, eh, son?”
“Dad,” Tyler said in warning.
“Don’t trouble yourself, Tyler,” Helen said. “I can handle
that
” She jabbed a finger in Ulysses’s direction and fire lit her eyes. “It’ll be a pleasure to leave you behind. No, no, I take that back. It would be a pleasure to leave you six feet under.”
Ulysses waggled his eyebrows. “Gettin’ spunky on me, huh, Helen?”
“I am not and have never been spunky. Bold, yes. Self-assured, of course—”
“Stuck-up, and how!”
“Hateful man,” she huffed.
“Ugly woman.”
“Old billy goat.”
“Snooty know-it-all.”
“You two should get a room,” Tyler said. His father hooted, Helen bristled, and Mabel appeared in the doorway with a broom. He left the three of them to their bickering and headed down the hall to pack. Now to set things right.
14
“L
UCKY?” Stella’s concerned voice came over the CB radio as Lucky sat, her engine idling, in the cabbie lane outside of Houston’s Intercontinental Airport.
“I’m here, Stella. What do you need?”
“Just checking on you. Me and the boys have been worried about you the past two days since you got back. You have to snap out of this. How about bowling this weekend? We’re playing the Burnin’ Rubber Bald Eagles and they’ve got a new guy on their team. Young, single, cute. And I heard from Marge, the dispatcher at Burnin’ Rubber, he’s in the market for a wife. Perfect for you.”
For the old Lucky. But she was different now. She’d given up her manhunting aspirations. She’d already found a man, caught him and turned him loose. She stunk at hunting.
“I’m really not up to meeting anyone right now.”
“Come on, Lucky. You have to pick yourself up and get on with your life.”
“I will,” she promised. “Soon.” But at the rate she was going, she’d be too heavy to pick herself up.
Yesterday alone, she’d consumed an entire quart of ice cream, half a dozen doughnuts and a chocolate-fudge cake Buster had brought over to the nursing home for her granny. While two days wasn’t enough time to gain any real weight, she’d be fat and miserable in no time.
Right now she was just miserable.
All or nothing
...
If only nothing didn’t feel like... well, nothing.
The back door of her cab opened, shattering Lucky’s thoughts. Thankfully. “Where to, mister?”
“An all-night wedding chapel.”
“Excuse me?” Lucky pushed up the brim on her baseball cap and stared into her rearview mirror. A sly, devilish grin stared back at her and her heart kick-started before racing forward.
“I said, an all-night wedding chapel. I’m getting married. At least, I think I am.” Tyler’s voice was deep, rich and music to her ears. “I want you with me at Reata, as my wife. You can finish school, teach, fix cars, wreck tractors, do whatever you want, as long as you do it with me.” He sat the familiar green lizard on the back of the seat between them. “And Marlon.”
Her heart slammed against her ribs, threatening to burst free. Calm, girl. Make sure he’s for real. She took a deep breath and stroked Marlon with her fingertip. His huge eyes closed and he sat there, lazy as ever. “What about Helen?”
“She’s not marrying you. I am. At least, I hope I am.”
“I mean, won’t she have something to say about it?”
“Yeah. Congratulations.” At her raised eyebrow, he added, “Okay, she’ll say it grudgingly, but I don’t care.”
“I’m not a prime example of ladyhood. What about Bennie?”
“Bennie loves you, and she isn’t the least bit interested in being a lady. It was all an act.”
“I could have told you that.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“Would you have believed me?” .
“Maybe.” When she raised her eyebrow again, he added, “Okay, probably not. I told you, I’m only human. I’ve got faults. I’m stubborn and headstrong.”
“And domineering and blind and infuriating and—”
“I get the picture. I’m all those things, and more. And I want you to many me anyway. I know you covered for Bennie—the tractor thing, the beauty pageant—they were all her ideas. She told me. That took a lot of guts to take Helen’s wrath. I appreciate it, and I’m sorry.”
“You’re welcome, and don’t be. I love Bennie.”
“Then marry me and you can spend the rest of your life loving her.” His voice took on a quiet note. “I want you, Lucky. More than I’ve ever wanted anything before. Marry met.”
“I don’t know.” She chewed a fingernail and eyed him in the rearview mirror. “You’re not exactly my type.”
“And what is your type?”
You
. But she wouldn’t say that, not yet. Not after the pain, and extra calories he’d put her through.
“Well...” She turned on him, her knees on the front seat as she stared at him, dressed in faded jeans and a faded denim shirt. She quickly noted the dark shadow covering his jaw, the exhaustion carving his perfect features. Good. He looked every bit as bad as she felt. “Well, you’re not exactly the kind of guy I’d take home to my granny.”
He gave her a wicked grin. “Not enough of a gentleman?”
“Too much of a gentleman for someone like me. I don’t know the first thing about what’s in season or who the hottest designers are. My idea of a social event is an evening of bingo at the senior citizens’ home. I don’t know fine wine from Kool-Aid or a Monet from a Picasso. I wear white after Labor Day and I’ve never vacationed in the Hamptons or been mentioned in the society pages or—”
Two strong, warm fingers touched her lips, cutting her off. “I don’t care about any of those things. I never did, I just got so caught up in making Helen happy I forgot that for a little while. It’s not what’s on the outside that counts—your clothes, your friends, your bank account. It’s what’s on the inside—a good heart, a kind and giving nature. I know what a real lady is, Lucky. Hell, I’ve always known. It’s you.” The words were quiet,
desperate
, and she couldn’t refuse.
She dived over the back seat, straight into his arms, his life, this cowboy who made her feel wanted and wicked and every bit a lady for the first time in her life.
His lips captured hers and Lucky closed her eyes to the wonderful feeling. Heat started her senses, coaxing them to life. She felt the tickling on the inside of her thigh.
“Not now, Marlon.” She giggled and squirmed. “Tyler’s liable to get jealous...” She opened her eyes to see the lizard staring at her from his perch on the back of the seat.
“It’s not Marlon this time.” Tyler moved his fingers for emphasis. “It’s me.”
She gasped and smiled. “He’s been giving you lessons.”
“I’ve been giving him lessons. So tell me,” he said, his lips hovering near hers, so close she felt the warm rush of his breath. “Are we going to get lucky tonight?”
“You, cowboy, are going to get Lucky
every
night, and Marlon can find his own date.”