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Chapter 5
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LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 5.1
“Astronomical, I’d say.”“Yeah,” Wade agreed. “Hey, listen, we should both get back to work. If you’ll point me to the office.”“Sure. Down the hall, right across from the main entrance.” “Thanks.” Wade started past the man, then paused. “We should gettogether for a beer sometime.” Then he thought better of it. “Or…not.” Carlucci nodded. “Yeah. Maybe not.”The fireman went back to his mopping while the CEO went looking for a ten-year-old.A young woman behind the counter in the school’s office looked up Ben’s classroom and gave Wade directions. He got the book to Ben and made it back to the diner, having been gone under thirty minutes total.“Thank you, Wade,” Dixie told him.“You’re welcome.” And my, he thought, how polite they’d become with each other. Polite and distant. All because he’d been unable to keep his hands and his mouth, to himself.“Dixie,” he said softly as she turned to leave. She paused, turned her head toward him. “Yes?” “Did I ruin things?”She frowned “Ruin what?
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 5.2
“Yeah, you know, moving forward at a pace faster than walking?” “Maria, quit dancing around the subject and spill it. What the devil areyou talking about?”At that moment a middle-aged couple entered the diner, and at the same time Wade came out of the kitchen to bus tables.“Never mind,” Maria said out of the side of her mouth. “Tell you later.” Her friend, Dixie decided, had lost her marbles.Dixie seated the new couple, gave them menus and took their drink orders. She returned to the kitchen right after Wade. Considering Maria’s comments, Dixie didn’t dare look him in the eye. No way could she explain away something she didn’t understand.As it turned out, she had no need to explain anything, because Wade made no attempt to engage her in conversation. In fact, when she did finally look at him, he seemed as preoccupied with his own thoughts as she’d been with hers.It surprised her, then, that with the way they were all but avoiding each other, and he had no specific invitation fro
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 6
In the top half of the fourth inning the sky opened up. The only warning was a big fat drop of rain here and there. Then nothing. Then, whoosh!Even if anyone had an umbrella with them in the stands or out on the field, there was no time to get one up to prevent a serious soaking. This was no gentle shower, but a torrent of hard, cold bullets of water hurtling down with enough force to hurt.The bleachers erupted in curses and shouts as spectators scrambled down the risers to race for the shelter of their vehicles. Wade followed Dixie and Pops to the end of their bench, then they started down the stairs. He saw it happen as if in slow motion and was helpless to prevent it.Lightning shot a jagged spear from cloud to ground no more than fifty yards away. The explosive sound was deafening. The smell of sulfur stung the eyes and nostrils.In reaction, Dixie jerked and slipped on the rain-slicked stairs. To regain her balance she waved her arms wildly, but in the process she accidentally
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 6.1
“Does anybody live here with you?” Ben wondered.“No. Just me.” He went directly to the dresser in his bedroom and scooped out shorts and socks, then, from the closet, jeans and a shirt and a dry pair of shoes. In the bathroom he grabbed a towel.“Cool, man, you’ve got your own TV.” Tate grabbed the remote and started pushing buttons.The television came on at a blare.“No time,” Wade turned the set off. “We have to go.”He wouldn’t have been surprised if they had dragged their feet, or darted off to the kitchen or bedroom or bathroom, anything to explore and delay. They were, after all, boys.But they followed him out and climbed up into the SUV with no argument, squishing in their wet sneakers.The rain had stopped. The sun streaked golden and rose from the western horizon. It looked odd, with the sky overhead still dark and gray.The next stop was the McCormick residence, maybe four minutes away by car. He would have used one of the keys Dixie had given him, but the boys bolted ahe
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 6.2
“Sure was glad you were around tonight,” Pops offered.Wade opened two bottles of beer and gave one to Pops. With a sigh, he sat on the opposite end of the divan. “I was glad to help.”“She does too much,” Pops said, looking older than Wade had ever seen him. “Has too much on her plate. Business, employees, mortgage, two young boys, an old man who can’t manage his own two feet without tripping over them.”“I think if you asked her, she’d say those were good things. All of them. If I hadn’t been there tonight, she would have handled everything just fine.”“Maybe, but we’d still be wet and cold without the dry clothes you brought.”“There is that.”“See? She needed you tonight. We all did. Which makes me want to ask just how long you plan on hanging around.”Wade took a sip of beer and leaned back to hide the fact that his heart started pounding. “So, are you asking?”“She doesn’t have a man to stand for her.”“Oh, yes, she does. She’s got you,” Wade said. “Don’t sell yourself short, Po
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 6.3
“No!” Dixie and Wade said in unison. “You’re staying home,” Dixie stated.“And that’s that,” Wade added. “Surely the two of us can manage for a while in the morning. If it looks like we won’t make it on our own, you can call in help. Or maybe that man who came by looking for work will come back.”Pops squeezed one eye shut and peered at the two of them with the other. “It could work. If everybody hustles.”Dixie had to agree. It could work. “If business is light. I can’t believe I’m hoping business will be light. Still, I guess we’ll give it a try. And, Wade, I really appreciate this extra effort. We’re all of us grateful for your help tonight.”“Hell, girl, don’t go thanking him. He’ll start thinking he’s not one of the family, and I guess we’ve pretty much adopted him after tonight.”She smiled. “I guess you’re right. He’s ours.”She had no idea, Wade thought, just how true that was. At least, his heart was theirs. In more ways than one, if the emotions tumbling around inside him me
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 7
The first customer entered the diner less than a minute after Dixie told Wade to unlock the door. Wade was still putting the keys away when the door opened.Having spent nearly all his time in the diner hidden away in the kitchen, Wade did not know more than a scant few of their customers, and even then, he didn’t know anyone’s name. He wasn’t going to be able to relate to people the way Dixie did, with a familiar ease. He would have to make up for it with that charm his mother claimed he had in abundance.This first customer was an elderly woman in a black-and-white flowered dress, a white pillbox hat and, of all things, white, wrist-length cotton gloves.“Good morning,” Wade called out from behind the counter. “Just sit anywhere and I’ll be right with you.”She eyed him suspiciously and sat near the front. Table two.Wade filled a water glass with ice and water and grabbed a menu. At her table, he presented them to her.“Young man, who are you and where is Dixie?”“Ma’am.” He gave h
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 7.1
We’re getting to know each other,” he said cryptically. “Speaking of ladies,” he added, “I’m supposed to tell you that Miz Ima Don’t-Make-Fun- of-My-Name Trotter will be taking a casserole to Pops this afternoon, so you’re not to worry about him sitting home all alone and starving to death.”“My, my,” Dixie said. “You really are getting to know the ladies, aren’t you?”He trailed his fingers down her back, then poked them in her ribs. She flinched, jerked away and shrieked with laughter.“Now I know where Tate gets his ticklishness from.” “Watch it, buster.”Laughing, he let her go. “I’ll have you know that I’m also getting to know the men, too.” He shook his head as if in sorrow. “I’m sorry to say, they don’t like me as well as the ladies do.”“Is that so?” She held a spatula out to ward him off as she circled around him to get back to the grill.“Yes, indeed. How was it the man from the hardware store, Frank, I think he said his name was, put it? Something about…oh, yes. My butt’s n
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