LOVE IN TEXAS

It had been a long two years, but Wade Harrison was grateful for every second of that time. He was lucky to be alive, and he knew it. He knew, too, that he wouldn’t have survived if not for the death of a stranger and his generous gift. He owed his life not only to his team of doctors, nurses and therapists, but also to a man named James Donald McCormick, who’d had the guts to sign an organ donor card.Wade wasn’t supposed to know the name of the man whose heart now beat inside his chest, but money and tenacity could find out just about anything, and Wade had plenty of both and wasn’t ashamed to use either. The least he could do was make certain McCormick’s family was getting along all right.Funny, he thought as he stood on Main Street in Tribute, Texas, and looked up at the neon sign that read Dixie’s Diner. He hadn’t been this nervous when he’d chaired his first board meeting, yet here he stood, palms sweaty and stomach jumpy. To give himself a minute, he plunked coins into the mac

Maybe she was coming down with a bug.“How’s it going?” she asked. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did she feel the need to speak to him, to get him to speak to her?He shrugged. “You tell me.”Dixie blinked. Oh. He was responding to what she’d said, not what she’d thought. Thank God.She looked around. The tubs of dirty dishes from the breakfast shift were gone. Trays of clean glasses stood stacked in their proper place alongside stacks of clean plates and a stack of napkin-wrapped cutlery settings ready for use.“Wow,” she said. “You’ve been busy.” She hadn’t expected so much work out of him so quickly.“That’s what you’re paying me for,” he said with a smile.How could anyone be so damned cheerful while washing dishes? Dixie hated washing dishes. She’d hated it from the day she’d opened the diner and realized what a horrendous job it was cleaning up after so many customers all day long.Not that she minded the customers! God love and bless each and every one of them with a hearty appet

Wade followed his new boss and her sons out the door at 4:30 that afternoon and drove back to his motel, three blocks from the diner, in a daze. He had yet to stop grinning when, several moments later, he called home.“I found them.”His father put him on the speakerphone. It was his mother who responded to Wade’s remark. “Honestly, Wade, you can’t simply traipse off to the wilds of Texas—”Wade broke out laughing. “You say that like it’s the middle of the Sahara Desert.” He could almost see one of her fiercest frowns; his mother was a champion frowner.“It might as well be,” she complained. “Texas, for God’s sake.” “Texas has been very good to us,” he reminded her. “We have twoproductive printing plants in Fort Worth and a profitable shopping mall in Houston.”“That doesn’t mean I want my only son there,” his mother said tersely. “You know it hasn’t been that long since—”“Mother,” he interrupted. “It’s been two years since my transplant, I’m in excellent health, my doctor says ther

“Sorry,” she said with a grimace. “I don’t talk much about him.” And she wondered why she was running off at the mouth this time. “The boys barely remember him.”“That’s too bad,” Wade offered. “I can’t imagine growing up without a father, but these days I guess kids do it all the time.”“They do,” she agreed. “And many of them are better off for it. I know mine are.”There came that blank look on Wade’s face again. “I’ll just go check those salt and pepper shakers,” he said. “Then I’ll get to the silverware.”“Thanks.” She wondered what Wade was thinking to give him that blank look.Wade was thinking that maybe McCormick hadn’t been the best father, but he wanted Jimmy Don remembered in a better light, not for what he hadn’t done right or well, but for that one great thing he did do that made such a difference to so many people.He needed a plan.During the next couple of days, business at Dixie’s Diner kept everybody hopping. Wade felt the beginnings of a friendship developing betwe

While the McCormick family gathered around the table for Sunday dinner, the morning’s rain moved east and the sun came out. Dixie managed to keep the boys in their seats long enough to finish eating, but the instant she gave the nod, she could have sworn their legs were spring loaded. They leaped from their chairs and flew out the back door. A moment later the basketball made a splat, splat, splat against the wet driveway.Dixie let out a sigh. “I know I used to have that much energy sometime in my past, but I sure don’t remember it.”“Old age settin’ in?” Pops asked, his tongue plainly in his cheek.He knew just the right buttons to push. Her back straightened as if she’d taken a hit with a cattle prod. “Bite your tongue.”Pops chuckled. “What you need, little girl, is a vacation.”“Yeah, like that’s going to happen.” She pushed herself up from the table and moved to the counter. “Pie?”“Did I cook it?” he asked. “Of course. It’s apple.”“Then I’ll take a slice. You know, if you were