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Henry looked at her and his eyes went wide at the cane. “I talked to your therapist the other day and he felt you were ready for a cane. Want to try it?”
Without one objection, Henry rose and reached for the cane. Luke watched in wonder.
“Try to pick up your left leg,” Becky said. “Great. You’re doing great.”
“I am, aren’t I?” Henry asked, slowly making a circle around the room.
“Yes, you are,” Becky answered. “And let me tell you, you look awfully handsome with that cane.”
“You think so?”
“Oh, my, yes.”
Henry stopped walking and Luke saw a smile on his face, the first one in days. “You are such a liar, Becky Lynn, but you’re so sweet I’m going to believe you.”
Becky smiled and Luke felt his heart race. “Will you do me a favor, Henry?”
“Anything.”
“Apologize to Lucy.”
Luke waited for the stubborn attitude to return, but it didn’t. Henry nodded and made his way with the cane down the hall to the bedroom.
“Thank you, Becky,” Luke said when the door closed. “I don’t think he would have done that for Hank or me.”
“You’re welcome.” She glanced at her watch and he was beginning to see she did that when she was nervous. “I’ve got to run.”
“Becky. You don’t really believe I’d brag to my friends about what happened between you and me?”
Her eyes caught his, but she didn’t say anything.
“I wouldn’t. I would never intentionally hurt you.”
Those teenage years and all that emotion hung between them. “I know,” she murmured. “You put such a dent in my confidence, though, it’s hard to remember that.”
She walked out the door before he could gather his thoughts, but he felt a whole lot better about the situation than he had last night.
He heard a sound and listened closely. Was his mother giggling? Yes, he heard it again. When his dad had apologized, he must have done it in style. Luke needed to ask for pointers.
Lucy came into the den, all smiles, wearing a beige linen pantsuit. In makeup and high heels, she didn’t even resemble the distraught woman of the morning.
“Where’s Clover?” she asked.
“In the kitchen, I suppose.”
“Tell her that Henry and I are having dinner in our room tonight.”
“Oh. Okay. Does this mean you’re staying?”
“What?” She shook her head. “Don’t be silly, Luke.”
She kissed his cheek and Luke knew his mother was back. That was good in more ways than one. Tonight was the weekly poker game. Now he could leave the house without a guilty conscience. Maybe things would return to normal, or whatever constituted normal in the Chisum house.
Tonight Luke needed to razz and bullshit with his friends—friends he’d known all his life. It was a release for him, just as it had been in high school, to deal with his crazy dysfunctional family.
Today had been a little crazier than most.
BECKY DROVE INTO HER YARD and parked beside Danny’s car. He’d picked up Shane from basketball practice. Shane had called and told his father he didn’t want to come for the weekend. Danny didn’t like it and wanted to talk to Shane in person.
She got out and watched Danny walk toward her. He was a kind, patient man with thinning blond hair and green eyes. After the divorce, they remained good friends. He tried with Shane but they had nothing in common. Shane loved sports and the outdoors. Danny was a CPA, and going to the movies was his favorite pastime. He knew every movie that had ever been made. His favorites filled a room lined with shelves from top to bottom.
“Did you talk to him?” Becky asked as he reached her.
Danny waved a hand. He did that a lot when he talked. “He says he has to help Hub with the four wheeler. It’s just an excuse. He doesn’t want to visit us anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know he feels left out, but I have two other kids.”
“I’ll talk to him again.”
Danny looked into her eyes. “Luke is back.”
A sliver of fear ran up her back and she didn’t know why. “Yes.”
“How do you feel about that?”
Becky shrugged. “I see him all the time. It’s hard.”
There was silence for a moment, then Danny said, “It’s time, Becky.”
She glanced off to the blue sky and the puffy white cotton clouds. Any minute a cloud was going to split open and dump a whole lot of reality on her. More than she was ready to face.
Now or ever.
She chewed on her lip and admitted the truth. “Since Luke has been back, I’ve known the time was coming. But I…I…don’t think I can.”
“Would you like me to…”
“No. I have to do this myself.” This was her problem and she wasn’t involving Danny in her life again. He had his own family now. She brushed back her hair. “I’m just worried about Shane.”
Danny touched her arm with affection. She wondered, as she had so many times in the past, why his touch didn’t ignite her senses. But she couldn’t fake it. She’d tried and had ended up hurting both of them.
“If you need me, just call.”
After Danny left, she walked to her dad’s workshop. He was sanding the fender of the wheeler, getting it ready to paint.
“Why isn’t Shane helping you?”
Her father looked up, his eyes partially hidden by his cowboy hat. “You’ve grounded him, remember? Sometimes you’re too hard on the boy.”
“Like you were never hard on me.”
Hub shoved back his hat. “Like it did any good.”
Unable to stop it, a tear slipped from her eye. She quickly brushed it away, but another followed. “Everything I do, I do for Shane and it always seems to be wrong.”
Hub laid down his sandpaper and took her in his arms. “C’mon, Rebecca. It’s not that bad. You’re a wonderful mother.”
“But I’ve lied to him,” she sobbed into his chest.
Hub lifted her chin. “Then tell him the truth.”
“I don’t think I can.”
“Why not?”
She fought tears and ran her hands up her arms, feeling the goose bumps. “I’ve taught Shane how to be kind, considerate, loving, caring, giving and forgiving. He knows how to admit when he’s wrong and how winning is important but there’s no shame in losing. I’ve taught him to look for a lesson in the bad things that happen. He’s never defeated by much of anything. I’ve taught him to respect others and to respect himself. But will he remember any of that when I tell him Luke Chisum is his biological father?”
CHAPTER FOUR
LUKE GOT OUT OF HIS TRUCK at the Wild Card Saloon for the weekly poker game. His boots made a crunching sound on the crumbling asphalt. He recognized all the vehicles nosed up to the building. Damn! Harold Knutson was here tonight. The man was a bore and he relayed all their chitchat back to his hairdresser wife, who then spread it all over the community. That was the price of living in a small town.
He slipped his keys into his jeans. Ed Falconetti, owner of the Longhorn Café, was here, too. Ed was from New Jersey and still had his northern accent even after many years of being a Texan. He usually brought food, which was a good thing.
Hap’s Circle C truck was parked to the side, ready for an early getaway. Since Clover disapproved, Luke was surprised Hap was here. But then Hap had a way of doing his own thing, with or without Clover’s approval.
The old Wild Card Saloon, owned by Jake Chandler, crouched on the banks of the Medina River. It had been neglected for years, with rotted wood and broken windows. But now, with Jake’s renovation, it was taking shape. Luke noticed the new roof and the rotted wood stripped away. The old, dilapidated honky-tonk was looking better than it ever had. Rachel Diamonte had a lot to do with the transformation.
As an interior designer, Rachel had desperately needed a job to support her young daughter. Jake had been infatuated with the popular, beautiful Rachel in high school. When she’d shown up in River Bluff again, broke and with a baby, Jake, though reluctant at first, had been there for her. The two were headed for the altar, probably real soon.
Luke was happy for them. Because Jake was the son of a bar owner, and a bastard, the kids and the town had been rough on him. He’d grown up in the back room of the Wild Card and he’d hated it. When Jake had been accused of burning down a barn and killing some horses, his life had gotten a whole lot worse. Sheriff Parker had an eye witness—Rachel. Then Jake left town and no one had heard from him until a few months ago.
Jake had made it big in the dot-com business and had not intended to return, until his uncle Verne had passed away. He’d come back to get rid of the Wild Card, but then his high school buddies had met again and they’d persuaded him to fix up the old place and to stay. Of course, Rachel had more to do with that than his friends. But they were back together playing poker just like when they were teenagers.
“Luke.”
He turned to see his friend Cole.
“Hey, Cole,” he responded, glancing at the old saloon. “It’s looking good.” Cole Lawry was now a building contractor and Jake had hired him to do the renovations.
Cole pushed back his Dallas Cowboys ball cap. “Yeah. Since I’ve gone into business for myself I don’t have as much time as I’d like, but it’s getting there. Pretty soon I’ll need your muscles to hoist some beams.”
Luke frowned. “Haven’t you heard I’m an injured vet?”
“Yeah, right.”
They were both grinning as they walked to the side door.
Cole was the quiet one of the group. His dad had committed suicide when Cole was young and growing up had been hard for him, too. The friends had played poker as a way to escape their rotten lives. Cole had never strayed from his roots farther than San Antonio. He’d gone though a bad divorce, but he’d found happiness with a newcomer to River Bluff, Tessa Jamison, a woman who’d come to town to find out if Cole was the father of her sister’s baby. They still laughed about that. Cole was also the responsible one. He and Tessa were now living together and putting the finishing touches on Cole’s house. They were very secretive about their wedding plans.
His friend Brady Carrick had a tug-of-war relationship with his dad, who was always pushing him to excel. And Brady had. He’d played for the Dallas Cowboys and had a stellar career until he’d busted up his knee. After a failed marriage and a stint of playing poker in Vegas—much to his dad’s disapproval—Brady was back in River Bluff proving he had what it took to train a winning horse at his dad’s Thoroughbred training facility, Cross Fox Ranch.
Brady was deeply in love with Molly Davis, a waitress he’d taught to play poker. She’d even made it to the U.S. Poker Play-Offs Quarter Finals in Vegas, thanks to Brady’s tutoring. They’d all gone to watch the event. Molly was now working in the office at Cross Fox, and living there, too, but there was no word of a wedding yet. Luke knew it was only a matter of time.
A new friend, Cole’s brother-in-law, Blake, had joined the group. Blake had been in prison in a foreign country for a number of years, and he and Luke connected on a level that only the two of them could understand.
Blake and Annie were already married and expecting their first child. The Not So Wild Bunch, as Annie had named them, were becoming the Family Bunch.
All except Luke.
He was the loner.
Shoving his hand into his pocket, he ran his thumb over the raised surface of his dog tags. He never played poker without them. His time in Iraq would forever be emblazoned in his brain, in his heart and in his soul. The wild Luke had grown up fast. He’d become responsible, dedicated and loyal. Men had depended on him for their safety.
For their very lives.
But through the hell, bad conditions, lost lives and the horrors of war, he’d never forgotten Becky. The pain of hurting her had never lessened.
Neither had the pain of losing her.
Now he just wanted to make it right.
The responsible Luke had to make it right.
Becky was talking to him without the anger. That was a big step forward. It had taken six months to break through her defenses. Not that he’d actually broken through, but he felt there was a crack now where before there had been a solid wall.
“Luke, Cole,” Brady said when they stepped into the back room they used for their games. The small space was still shabby and run-down, but the guys didn’t mind. An old battered oak table with scratches and notches took pride of place. That was all they needed. And beer.
He spoke to his friends and looked at Hap, Harold, Ed and Ron, Cole’s ex-boss. “You old-timers ready to play?”
Blake glanced at his watch. “I don’t want to play too long. Annie’s at her mom’s having dinner.”
“Tessa’s there, too,” Cole said, “and so are Molly, Rachel and Becky. You don’t have to hurry. They’ll be talking into the wee hours.” Cole grabbed beers out of the old clunker refrigerator and passed them around. “Rachel’s giving Tessa some decorating tips on the house. I told her whatever she wants is fine with me.”
“You’re such a sap.” Harold took a swig of his beer. “Stand up like a man and tell her how it’s going to be.”
Brady laughed. “Yeah. Like you do with Sally.” Sally was known to lead Harold around by the nose.
“That’s what I’m telling you young guys. Set the rules now or in thirty years she’ll be chewing on your ass every night like one of Hap’s old hound dogs.”
Hap looked up. “Knut, my hounds wouldn’t touch your ass.”
A round of laughter followed.
Blake opened the silver box with the cards and chips. “Harold, I hope I never have a marriage like yours. Wait—” he held up a hand “—I know I’ll never have a marriage like yours. I go to sleep every night with my hand on Annie’s stomach. In the morning our child wakes me by kicking against my hand. It’s an awesome feeling and I know that’s never going to change. The feeling, I mean, not the pregnancy.”
Jake pulled out a chair. “I never thought I could get so wrapped up in a child. Never really thought I was father material. But Becky’s giving Rachel more exercises for Zoë and we will do them religiously. Rachel and I are going to make sure she has the best life possible.”
