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“But they’re big, Texas blocks,” she said, dropping the keys into his outstretched palm.
He saw a sparkle of humor in her eyes that surprised him—and made him even more curious about her. He was beginning to see a bit of Sunny in her.
He pocketed the keys and left. His ankle was sore—he could tell it was swollen—but he needed this time to think.
Sunny. A sweet kid who drifted through his life right at the exact moment when the proverbial shit hit the fan. He’d helped her out of an uncomfortable situation, found her a job and a place to live. She’d repaid the favor by listening to his ridiculously stupid tale of love, loss, greed and corruption. She’d seen him at his lowest. She’d offered friendship and a shoulder to cry on one night. That was all he remembered them sharing—even if he had woken up in her bed the next morning.
“Why didn’t you talk to me about this, Sunny girl,” he muttered, trying to coax a clear memory from the haze. He’d blocked out a lot about that time.
The memories scattered the instant his phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket, pausing to check the caller ID. Annie. Two years his senior. Friend, mentor, nag, sister.
“Hey, Anster. Everything okay with junior or juniorette?”
“Yes, the baby is safely on board. That’s not why I called.”
Annie and her husband, Blake Smith, who was one of Cole’s closest friends, had overcome separation, a miscarriage and Annie’s second marriage. Finally, things seemed to be working in their favor. She was happily—healthfully—pregnant.
“Good. Then I’ll get back to you later. I’m busy.”
“Oh, please. How busy can you be? Mom said you just left the bazaar. This isn’t San Antonio, where you actually have to deal with traffic. Although it doesn’t sound like you’re in your truck. Where are you?”
“Getting gas,” he lied. “Why’d you call?”
“I saw Jake today. When I asked him about the Card, he kinda gave me the brush-off. Have you heard any more about what he intends to do with the place?”
The Wild Card Saloon had never been the most popular bar in town as far as local women were concerned. Partly because the original owner, Lola Chandler—Jake’s mother—had been beautiful, independent and seemingly content to raise her son on her own.
Sadly, Lola passed away when Jake and Cole were in junior high. Her brother, Verne, stepped in to take over the bar and give Jake a home—of sorts—but Jake took off as soon as he turned eighteen. No one had heard from him again until Blake tracked him down to break the news Verne had died and to invite him to the wedding in Vegas. Now he was back in town riding a pricey Hog.
“Are you asking as a reporter for the paper? What makes you think I’d know anything?” Cole asked, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice. Annie wasn’t the only one Jake had snubbed since his return.
“Because the two of you were thick as thieves in school.”
“Yeah, well, times change, as they say.”
Annie made a huffing sound. “Men. What’s so hard about sitting down face-to-face and starting a dialogue? Maybe he’s waiting for you to come to him.”
“Yeah? Then he can wait till hell freezes over.” Cole had reached Main. Only one car was parked on either side of the street for three blocks. A white compact. Clearly a rental. “In the meantime, I don’t give a damn what he does with the Wild Card. I’m hosting next week, in case your husband didn’t mention it.”
Between Verne’s death and the big storm that took off part of the roof, the regulars had been forced to find other places for their weekly poker game.
“You don’t even have a table.”
“I will by then. Listen, Spunky, if that’s all you wanted, I gotta go. See you later.” He knew she hated that nickname. Which was why he used it. Gave her something else to stew about.
He turned off the phone and picked up the pace as he headed toward the Longhorn Café. At least Tessa had had the good sense to pick Ed Falconetti’s place for dinner. For a guy from New Jersey, Ed was one heck of a cook—even if his hot dog dinner hadn’t appeared to settle well with Joey, Cole thought with a smile.
Joey. Was there even a remote chance he was Cole’s child?
His ankle gave slightly and a shaft of pain radiated upward, making him stumble. His recovery was graceless, but Tessa’s rental car was close enough to grab, so he didn’t go all the way to the ground. As much as he would have liked to blame his sore leg on Sally and her cats, he knew the underlying cause.
He pushed himself upright and used the key to unlock the driver’s-side door. The sooner he got back to the motel and had a talk with Tessa Jamison, the sooner they could clear up this matter. He had a feeling once she heard his story—and learned about his father—she’d pack up her genetics test and leave.
TESSA PACED about the room the way she did the night before a big presentation. Her business partner, Marci, liked to tell prospective clients that Tessa lived and breathed planning and organization. True. But what had proven a boon to their thriving consulting firm wound up being something Alan, her boyfriend of two years, apparently had felt threatened by.
“Marci may let you run the whole show, and Lord knows your sister and mother never complain about you micromanaging their lives, but I’m a man, Tessa. At least throw me a token bone before you plan every detail of our life.”
She’d considered therapy after they broke up, but ultimately decided there was nothing wrong with wanting to be successful and working hard for fixed goals. Her long-range planning included a college fund for Joey and retirement security for her mother, not something Autumn was likely to create for herself. If a man felt threatened by Tessa’s drive and ambition, then she didn’t need him in her life.
Some people probably considered her materialistic, but Tessa refused to apologize for surrounding herself with nice things, name brands and designer clothes. She loved driving her BMW SUV into her reserved parking space and taking the elevator to her apartment…fourteen floors above the street where she’d once panhandled for change while her stepfather played his guitar. Until he became too sick to hold a chord.
Maybe Alan would have understood if she’d told him the whole story, but there were parts of her past she didn’t talk about. To anybody.
She hadn’t dated since Alan. The idea seemed so pointless. Men either didn’t get her or felt threatened by her drive and success. She imagined she’d scare the wits out of Cole Lawry. Not that he was someone she’d ever consider dating. From what she’d learned about him on the Internet, he was a man who had had it all, then lost it.
“How does someone go from successful businessman to part-time carpenter and volunteer Santa?” she murmured, conscious of her nephew asleep a few feet away. “Honestly, Joey, I hope he’s not your father. You deserve better. He seems like a nice guy and all, but what kind of role model would he be for you? Not as bad as Zeb, of course.”
She pushed the thought of her stepfather away.
“Focus. Focus on the task at hand,” she ordered. “If Cole Lawry isn’t the one, then what next?”
At a soft knock on the door, she hurried across the room to unlock the extra bolt and open the door. “That was fast.”
“Small town. I’d have been here sooner, but my sister called to talk about one of my poker buddies who’s back in town and might be reopening his mother’s old bar.”
“Poker?”
The word tripped something in her memory. When Sunny first returned home from Texas, she went on and on about how much fun she’d had playing in a bar tournament. “I won fifty bucks my first time out,” she’d bragged.
When Tessa asked how much it cost to enter the game, Sunny had admitted the fee was twenty-five. “But I still came out ahead, Tess. And I had a lot of fun playing. So don’t give me a hard time about something you’ve never tried.”
Never would try.
He dangled her keys from the end of his index finger. She couldn’t help noticing how rough and callused his hands looked. “I locked the car. Do you need anything out of it? Your suitcase or diaper bag?”
“I’ll get it later.” She motioned at the small round table near the window. “Tell me about poker,” she said, stalling. Why? She didn’t know. Unless he had a gambling problem that might play a factor in Joey’s future, if he turned out to be the one. “Sunny came home hooked on the game. She made it sound like an organized sport.”
He pulled out the lone chair and sat. “I’m not surprised. Texas Hold ’Em is pretty popular around here. Some friends and I have had a game going since high school. My sister labeled us the Wild Bunch because we used to play in the back room of the Wild Card Saloon.”
“And you still get together?”
“Once a week. Although now Annie calls us the Not-So-Wild Bunch.”
She smiled because he smiled, but she couldn’t get her head around the dedication and commitment required to keep a game going for so long. A card game, of all things. “What about after high school? Didn’t some of you go to college? Or get jobs out of the area?”
“Yeah, that happened, of course. Brady had a football scholarship and played in the NFL until he got injured. Luke was career military. They’re both home now, but even when they were gone, the game went on. Since I was living in San Antonio, I usually managed to come back once a week to play with some of the old-timers.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I take it you don’t play.”
“You mean gamble? No. I work far too hard for my money to just throw it away.”
“Too bad. New blood is always welcome.”
His tone was light but the arch of his brow suggested he was put off by her statement, which had probably come off as judgmental. She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her purse onto her lap.
“Okay, let’s get this over with.” She dug into the main compartment until she found the plastic bag that contained her sister’s diary. “I should warn you up front that my sister has a unique way of journaling. It’s hit-and-miss. Kinda like reading a jigsaw puzzle,” she said, holding up the bulging book.
“Then how did you decide to contact me?”
She removed the well-worn journal from the plastic bag. The cover was faded black silk with a Chinese design of white and pink lotus flowers in gold thread. All four corners were frayed, the stitching along the binding tattered and torn. Bits and pieces of paper stuck out at odd angles. “I’ve marked a couple of spots. If I can find them.”
“What’s all the other stuff?”
“Junk. A horoscope here. Fortune-cookie proverb there. Recipes ripped from a magazine. Photos of people I’ve never met. Even a grease-stained menu from a fast-food restaurant. Things that mean nothing to me but probably have some significance to Sunny.” She couldn’t help seeing her sister, small and lifeless.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and frantically flipped pages until she found the spot she was looking for. “Here it is. The entry isn’t dated but it says, ‘I met my first real-life Texas hero today. His name is Cole Lawry. I have a feeling he’s going to play a huge role in the story of my life.’ Then she drew four curlicue hearts beside your name.”
“Four hearts? Let me see.” He took the book from her and studied the page she’d marked with a newspaper clipping Sunny had saved that showed Tessa and Marci opening their new office. Small-business Consultants Go BIG, the headline read.
He read the passage, which continued on from what she’d read aloud with a dozen or so lines filled with flowery words like magnanimous and gentlemanly. The first time she’d read the excerpt, Tessa had wondered if her sister had copied them from a thesaurus.
He let out a soft whistle. “Well, that’s weird. It doesn’t exactly say anything about having sex, does it?”
She got up and leaned close enough to point out the last line. It was written in teal-colored ink, where the rest of the passage was in black. “I believe she added this later. It references your giving new meaning to the word friendship.”
He frowned. “That could mean anything. No attorney in the world would base a paternity suit on something this flimsy. Did my ex-wife put you up to this?”
“I beg your pardon?” She pulled back sharply, bumping into the bed.
He ran a hand through his hair with an air of frustration. “Crystal’s convinced I have some hidden assets stashed away that she somehow managed to miss when she was taking me to the cleaners. Maybe if I rolled over at the threat of a paternity lawsuit, I’d—”
She snatched the book out of his hand and pointed to the door. “I want you to leave. Now. Forget the DNA sample. Joey doesn’t need a man like you for a dad.”
He blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I made a mistake by reading more into those four little hearts than my sister intended. She’s never been a very good judge of character, but she definitely blew it with you.”
“Hey. Wait. Back up. I’m sorry. I lost it there for a minute. You’re not working for Crystal, are you?”
“I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t.” He shook his head. “God, I am such an idiot. My sister says I tend to think the world spins for my benefit. She blames herself because she babied me after our dad commit—died. I apologize.”
Tessa took a deep breath to get her temper under control then she walked to the door. “No. You were right the first time. The mistake was mine. My mother tried to warn me. We argued before I left the hospital today. She said this was Sunny’s business and I’d only make things worse by sticking my nose in it. But I’m not the kind of person who can just stand around doing nothing.” She closed her eyes and without meaning to, added, “Watching my baby sister slowly slip away.”
Cole’s ankle began to throb—the way it did when he was upset or pissed off. And at the moment he was thoroughly disgusted… with himself. He had nothing but good memories of Sunny—even though, at the time she worked in his father-in-law’s office, his life had been in chaos.
He stood up but didn’t move to leave. “I’m sorry, Tessa. I blew it a minute ago. My only excuse is that my ex-wife is a piece of work and I could see her doing something like this right before the holidays. Can we start over?”
She shook her head. “There’s no reason to talk about this. Unless you actually were involved with my sister.”
He gently urged her back to the bed. Once she was sitting, he returned to his chair. “Sunny and I were friends. I helped her out of a tight spot when she was staying at the commune up the road. She wasn’t happy, and she didn’t seem to have any options. I gave her some.”
“What kind?”
“A job. A place to live. I advanced her some money, which she paid back. Your sister was—is—a nice person. I hope she pulls out of this.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that, but I guess I need to be blunt. Did you or did you not have sex with my sister?”
CHAPTER THREE
“SHE WHAT?” Annie shouted. “A complete stranger shows up at your Santa gig and accuses you of fathering some kid you’ve never seen or heard of? That’s, like, the most insane scam I’ve ever heard.”
Cole looked at his sister and wished he’d listened to his gut and gone home instead of swinging by Annie’s house. They were sitting on cheap plastic lawn chairs on her front porch, with a citronella candle burning on the low table between them. “It wasn’t like that, Annie. She’s not a scam artist.”
“You’re right about the artist part. That would imply she was good at this, but she is a scammer, Cole. That’s a person who tries to take advantage of someone else. Someone good and kind and sweet. That’s you, Cole. A born sucker.”
He stood up. “I am not.”
She had that know-it-all big-sister look on her face that he hated. She held up her index finger. “One word—Crystal. Now, there was a player. She took you for nearly everything you worked your ass off to get.”
He dragged the chair a foot or so away and sat again. His sister was too good at reading him. “She was my wife. Trust is one of your marriage vows, remember? Okay, forget it. I didn’t come here to talk about me and Crystal. I thought you might have some suggestions on how to help Tessa and her nephew. If I’m not the boy’s father, then she still needs to find out who is.”
Annie looked at him shrewdly. “There was something in your voice when you said the word if. Is there a possibility you could be the kid’s father?”
“Like I told Tessa…almost none.”
She barked out a laugh. “That’s like being almost pregnant. Speaking of which, want to go inside for my latest craving? Bananas and capers on saltines.” He made a gagging sound. “No? Well, go on then. What happened?”
“A month or two before Sunny left, I got drunk at the Oasis. Remember that bar down the street from the office? It’s also right around the corner from the apartment build ing Sunny was managing. She found me crying in my tequila.”
“Over Crystal? Damn, that woman had her head screwed on backward. All she ever cared about was looking beautiful and being seen by all the right players as she drove around in her fancy car. You are so lucky to be done with her. So, anyway, this Sunny chick shows up and…”
“We talked. And she tried to dance with me…. Until it was obvious I couldn’t walk, much less dance. She took me back to her place.”
“Her one-bedroom apartment.”
“I slept on her couch.”
Annie looked at him, but didn’t say anything for a minute. “Well, someone doesn’t get pregnant by association. If you have any doubts about what happened, there must be more to the story.”
“I woke up the next morning in her bed. Alone. She was at work. I don’t remember getting into her bed. I don’t remember having sex with her—I’m sure I didn’t. You know me, Mr. All About the Vows.”
She went over and put her arm around him. “I do know you, and I’m sure you’re right. Sharing a bed isn’t the same as swapping genetic material. So, there really isn’t a problem, right? You told the Oregon sister that you weren’t the daddy and sent her back to San Antonio—where she should be, by the way. I mean, who leaves the bedside of her comatose sister to hunt down some lead from a diary?”
Cole gave her a look he knew she’d understand.
