To Trust Page 11

  “You did what?” Jack’s eyes twinkled.

  “Don’t rush out to the bank to borrow that dollar just yet. He’ll buy them.”

  “What’s happening to that money?”

  “I can’t remember what I told Mamie to do with it. There’s a trust fund for Bodine’s education, though. And all I’m taking is the jewelry that was not part of the heritage.”

  “Good grief, Dee, is that what you really want? You think you ought to think about it for a while?”

  “No, I was rich once. It didn’t bring me a bit of happiness. You should understand that, Jack. You inherited a fortune from your grandparents and you live in a trailer, run a convenience-store-slash-bait-shop, and are happy as a lark.”

  Combing his hair back with his fingers, Jack nodded. “Yes, I did and yes, I am. It’s nice to have enough to do what I want, but if it all went away tomorrow, the store would still support me.”

  “That’s because you keep your lifestyle within your means.”

  “Trailer trash means?”

  “Happiness means.”

  “What do you really want out of life, Dee?”

  “I want . . .” She stopped and thought hard. What did she want? She’d settled into a routine that was peaceful these past months. In what she’d always considered a dysfunctional family, that shouldn’t be happening. She loved being able to run next door and talk to Jack about any and everything, and that for sure shouldn’t be possible. By this time in his life he should be tied down to someone who surely wouldn’t want Dee popping in at all times of the day and night.

  Music drifted through the screen door leading into the store. Rascal Flatts singing a song popular a couple of years before about broken roads. She could surely relate to most of the song, something about God blessing the broken road that had led him home. It had taken a while, but she could honestly agree with the singer. It had been a long, broken road but it had eventually led her back home to Roxie, Mimosa, Tally, Bodine . . . and Jack.

  “Do you know what you want?” he asked when she didn’t answer.

  “Yes, but I can’t put it in words.”

  “Well, think on it for a few days. Change of subject. I have to attend a formal affair in Dallas tomorrow night. It’s a yearly banquet that I’m required to dress up for. Want to go with me?”

  “Sure. Cutoff jean shorts or overalls?” she teased.

  “Black tie. That means something stunning, other than jean shorts and overalls, for you. Got something or do we need to leave early so you can shop?”

  “I have something. What time?”

  “I’ll close up the store at noon. We’ll get there sometime between two and two thirty. Dinner is at seven that evening with the dancing to begin at nine.”

  “We’ll be late coming home then,” she said.

  “No, we’ll stay the night. I’ve booked rooms.”

  “Rooms? As in more than one? You didn’t need to go to that expense, Jack. We’ve spent nights together on the lake since we were kids. I don’t reckon we’d have a problem in a hotel room with two beds.”

  “Speak for yourself.”

  Dee jerked her head around to find his eyes boring into hers. Intense sparks flew between them, leaving no room for doubt. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly.

  “Jack, I . . .,” she stammered, but the words stuck.

  “I know how you feel, Dee. I’m your best friend.”

  “Yes, you are. I’d trust you with my life.”

  “But not with your heart. I had a crush on you in the fifth grade, fell in love with you our sophomore year. It wasn’t just because I thought Ray was a bad choice that I tried to talk you out of eloping with him.”

  “That was years ago. Things change. We changed.”

  “But my heart didn’t.”

  The words of the Rascal Flatts song played through her mind as if the group were standing behind her. Something about the broken roads that led her home to Jack. Those weren’t the words in the song, but somehow they became the ones in her mind, keeping in perfect time with the background music in her head.

  She laid her head on her propped-up knees and shut her eyes tightly, but it didn’t erase the flame of desire Jack had stirred in her with one look. “Jack, I can’t go there right now.”

  “Just wanted you to know. Timing might not be just right, but when you get around to trusting your heart with someone, remember I’m next door. Change of subject again. Can I see the dress you are going to wear?”

  “No, sir. I reserve the right to shock you.”

  The tension was gone. They were back on familiar footing, but for one brief second Dee wished for more. She’d suspected Jack had a crush on her at one time during their growing-up years, but for him to admit he’d loved her, that he would have trouble sleeping in the same room with her? Flattering, yes. Scary, a big yes.

  “Promise you won’t wear blue jeans and paint freckles on your nose.” He pushed her arm, almost tumbling her out onto the wooden porch floor.

  Just the touch of his palm against her bare skin sent tingles down to her toes. Guarding her heart wasn’t going to be an easy feat. She’d have to stay on duty twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

  “I promise,” she said, finally.

  Bodine draped her legs over the arm of the rocking chair and pouted. “I can’t believe you are going away for the weekend to a glamorous place like Dallas and I have to stay home. You even get to dress up . . . ohhh, are you going to wear that?” Her eyes popped wide open at the sight of the black slinky halter dress cut high up the side and low in the front.

  “I think I might. Do you like it? Pearls or diamonds?” Dee held the hanger up to her neck and swished around the room in a slow dance.

  “I love it. Diamonds. Oh, yes, diamonds. You know what Miss Dolly Parton says? She says that it takes a lot of money to look that cheap. She’s my newest role model. I’m going to grow up and look just like her. I’m saving my money now for blond wigs,” Bodine said seriously.

  “So what happened to Miss Scarlett O’Hara?” Dee slipped the dress into a garment bag, adding two others, much more discreet, just in case she changed her mind or lost her nerve. She’d bought the black dress the week before Ray came home with his annulment news and never had the chance to wear it, but it was more than a little bit risqué and had they stayed together, she would have probably never taken it out of the closet.

  “I can learn a lot from Miss Scarlett, but she’s not real. Miss Dolly is a real person, so I decided to be like her.”

  “I see.” Dee grinned.

  “Now, diamonds? What have you got?”

  “I’ve got a plain little diamond drop. I wish all that stuff from Aunt Marjorie was already here . . .”

  “We’ll go see Roxie. A little old drop won’t do. Even if it’s fake diamonds, you’ve got to have enough to glitter and glow. Oh, and pull your hair back away from your face and put some of that glitter stuff on your shoulders.” Bodine was already out the door and headed toward Roxie’s bedroom.

  “That’s where I draw the line, young lady. I want to look classy, not trashy.”

  Bodine stopped in the hallway and shook her head. She’d never understand the grown-up mind, not even when she had one.

  “What’s going on out here?” Roxie stepped to her door.

  “Dee needs diamonds ’cause she’s going to the party with Jack and that aunt’s jewels hasn’t got here yet and she won’t wear glitter on her shoulders and the dress is lovely but it’s plain and . . .”

  Roxie looked over Bodine’s shoulder at Dee. “Okay, okay, slow down. Diamonds, huh? Go put on that dress and come back. If there’s one thing I have it’s a sense of style.”

  It was Dee’s turn to roll her eyes. If she listened to Roxie and Bodine, Jack would be sending her back to the hotel room to put on her fake freckles and overalls. She took the dress from the garment bag and looped it over her arm. Roxie took it from her and hung it on the hook behind the door of her bed
room and studied it for a while.

  “Uh-huh. Lovely. Provocative. Knock Jack’s eyes out of his head. What are you doing, Delylah Loretta? This dress says something other than friendship to me, and I’d dare say it’ll say a lot more than that to Jack.”

  “I’m confused right now, Roxie.”

  “That’s all right, but remember, honey, you only got one hind end.”

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “It means you got two horses you are trying to ride, Dee, and it’s an impossible job since you only got one hind end to sit on the horse with. So choose your horse, Delylah. Friendship or more. I won’t even ask which horse, but don’t hurt that man. Now let’s talk jewelry. I think a diamond choker is what you need and that’s all. No glitter. No fancy stuff in your hair. Just this dress and a sparkling diamond choker.” She went to a drawer, fumbled with something toward the back of it, and brought out a velvet pouch.

  “What is that?” Dee asked.

  “Where’d you get that and how come I’ve never seen it?” Bodine asked.

  “One of my many secrets. It’s what Dee needs for the party. A diamond choker.” She brought forth a glittering choker with three rows of perfectly cut round diamonds set in white gold. “It belonged to my great-grandmother and has been passed down from one daughter to the next. I wore it on my wedding day. It’s what that dress needs.”

  “Roxie, I can’t wear that. What if the clasp broke or someone stole it? I’d be a nervous wreck.”

  “More nervous than deciding which horse you’re going to ride?” Roxie asked.

  “No. That isn’t a decision. I can’t ride the one I want to because it could wreck a friendship that means more to me than anything.” Dee let Roxie fasten the necklace around her long, slender neck. Stunning was the only word that came to mind when she looked in the mirror.

  “Listen to your heart,” Roxie said.

  “What’s all this talk about horses? Can I wear that thing when I get married?” Bodine asked.

  “Of course you can wear it, and the talk about horses has nothing to do with you. When you are Dee’s age, you’ll understand,” Roxie said.

  Dee reached up to touch the stones. “You should keep it in the safe deposit box, not lying in a drawer.”

  “There’s a fake back in that drawer. Had it built in there years ago. I’m the only one who knows the combination but I put it in my will so the executor can get the jewels out. And yes, ma’am, you will wear it with that dress. No one will believe it’s real anyway, so don’t worry about it.”

  Bodine touched the velvet pouch. “What else is in there?”

  Roxie shoved it back into the drawer. “Nothing that you need to see right now. It’s fun to see the look in your eyes when I pull out one of my secrets, so I’m not telling everything I know today. Take the choker and wear it. Enjoy the party. When you get home, we’ll talk about those horses. It’s ten minutes until time to go.”

  “I’m more than a little bit scared.”

  “If you weren’t I’d worry about you. There’s your ride.” Roxie turned Dee around to face the window.

  “Great God Almighty! Is that a limo?”

  “Well, it’s not an Angus bull. There’s more sides to Jack than a storekeeper, girl. One is he hates to drive in Dallas.”

  She met Jack coming up the stairs as she carried the dress and the diamonds back to her bedroom. He was dressed in perfectly creased khaki slacks, dark brown loafers, a pale yellow shirt with a light blue pinstripe, and he smelled like heaven on earth.

  “I came to help carry your things. That the dress you’re going to wear?”

  “I’m taking three. Since it’s your shindig, you can choose.”

  “Okay, but that one looks pretty good.”

  She busied herself getting the dress back into the garment bag and putting the choker in her own travel kit of jewelry. By the time she turned around, Jack had her suitcase in one hand and was holding out the other for the garment bag. She resisted the urge to check her reflection again to see how her hair looked and followed him down to the limo. The driver, a big, burly man who looked like he’d be more at home serving as bouncer in a rowdy club, stood beside the open back door. Bodine had already taken up residence, lounging back with the back of her hand on her forehead.

  “This is heavenly. Please take me with you, Jack. I don’t have school today since it’s fall break. I’ll be good and stay in the hotel room during the party. I promise.”

  “Okay, but if you go with me and Dee, I won’t rent the limo for your Halloween festival. Which is it? A boring old grown-up party where you’ll have to spend the whole weekend watching television in a hotel room, or showing off for your friends?”

  Bodine crawled out in a hurry. “Sometimes I think you cheat.”

  “Sometimes I do.” He grinned.

  “I want a Hummer.” She held the door open when the driver tried to shut it.

  “White or black?”

  “White with those sparkly lights.”

  “Done. Now get out of here and have a wonderful weekend, Bodine.”

  She blew them a kiss when the driver finally closed the door and drove away.

  “You let her make you promise to spend hundreds of dollars on a Hummer limo for a night in Davis, Oklahoma?” Dee asked incredulously.

  “With sparkly lights,” Jack reminded her.

  “Why?”

  Jack sat beside Dee. “Because she likes sparkly lights, I suppose. What kind of music? Or would you prefer a movie? There’s several CDs and two or three of the newest movie releases.”

  “I’d rather talk,” she said.

  “Then that’s what we’ll do.” He opened the minibar and took out two cans of Coke.

  She grabbed a can and popped the top, guzzling down a fourth of the cold drink before she came up for air with a not-so-ladylike burp.

  “Done like a true redneck. I’m proud of you, honey,” he drawled.

  “Are you really going to get her a Hummer?”

  “Sure, I am. I promised, and I’m a man of my word. Besides, I want to do it. She’ll get a kick out of riding to the festival in a Hummer with her little friends.”

  “What are you going to do when she’s a junior and going to the prom?”

  “By then maybe Tally will have a good husband who’ll adore Bodine and he’ll take care of things. If not, I was thinking about a Cinderella carriage pulled by six white horses with gold tassels on their heads. Maybe two footmen in some kind of fancy getup to ride on the back so there’ll be someone to open the door for her.”

  “What are you going to do if you ever have kids of your own?”

  “How many do you want?” He countered right back at her.

  “A houseful. One a year for the first ten years, then maybe wait about five years and then have two or three more to keep me happy in my late years. And I won’t send a one of them to Mimosa or Roxie to raise.”

  “Sounds good to me. Want to get started this weekend on the first one?”

  “Jack!” She swatted at him, almost spilling the Coke in her lap.

  “Do you really want a whole bunch of kids?” he asked seriously.

  “Yes, I do. What about you, Jack? You were raised as an only child. How would you cope with eight or ten children?”

  “I haven’t a clue but I like the idea.” He leaned back and shut his eyes. The dark, cool interior of the limo usually lulled him to sleep, but every nerve in his body was on alert. He wanted to take Dee in his arms and kiss her until she begged him to start a family right that minute. He’d figured out in the past twenty-four hours what he wanted with the rest of his life, but he was a patient man . . . up to a point. “So what do you want to talk about, Dee, other than having children?”

  “Why did you hire this limo?”

  “Because I don’t like to drive in Dallas. I hate traffic, so every year I hire someone to drive. Does that offend your sense of simple living?”

  “I just figured we
’d either go in the van or in my truck.”

  “So you don’t know this old country boy quite as well as you thought.” He didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t need to. He could see her with his eyes closed. There she was at eleven, tossing the triple hook out into the lake. Then there was the time he’d made her mad and she’d picked up a rock the size of a baseball and threw it at him. She had a pretty good aim and a dang good amount of force, hitting him in the forehead. She’d almost fainted at the sight of so much blood. By the time they’d found Roxie and Nanna, she was in hysterics. Another vision replaced that one. She wore a pink, fluffy dress at the junior prom. The next year she wore gold, and he liked it better. Then a month passed and she eloped with Ray Suddeth. If he had a dozen kids, he’d be danged sure none of them were ever named Ray.

  “Penny for your thoughts.” She touched his eyelids.

  “Honey, you don’t have enough money to buy my thoughts today.”

  “Jack, what is this business thing we’re going to? We can talk about that, can’t we?”

  “Sure. It’s a PR affair for all the people who work for the company I do. The good old boys who come up with new computer games. The company throws this big gala once a year. They’ve reserved the dining room at a five-star hotel downtown and plenty of rooms so everyone can stay that wants to do so. It’ll be a late night and some of them come from Houston, fly in from New York, one from Los Angeles.”

  “Really?” She was amazed.

  “What’s the name of this company? Are you an investor?”

  “I’m a heavy investor, but I don’t own the thing. It’s called The Corner, Incorporated. It’s the business that makes and distributes the software for the computer games I design.”

  “It’s that big?”

  “Didn’t start out like that, but then it grew.”

  “TCI? You own part of that?” She suddenly made the connection.

  “Guess so,” he said.

  “Good lord, that’s one of the up-and-coming companies right now.”

  “Guess so.” He nodded.

  “And you live . . .”

  He held up a hand, “I know where I live and that I work at a convenience store. I don’t like big cities. Hate ’em, matter of fact. When I was in college, I made friends with a couple of other computer geeks. We formed TCI, all legal and incorporated. It caught on like wildfire and pretty soon it was bigger than we’d ever imagined. It was big enough that we’d outgrown a small business in the backroom of Poppa’s store. I opted to sell. I don’t want to live in the big cities. The other two guys were Jim and Dillon. Jim wanted out completely so he took his third when we sold and bought a ranch in north Texas. Dillon and I both kept stock. So I live the way I want to around the people I choose. However, once a year I do enjoy this dinner and socializin’.”