Читать книгу After Tex - Sherryl Woods, Sherryl Woods - Страница 9

The slightly plump woman standing on the front porch with an armload of casserole dishes had a wary expression in her eyes, as if she were uncertain of her welcome. Her arrival had taken Megan by surprise. In New York she wasn’t used to people dropping by, and even if they did, there was a whole layer of security built in before they ever reached her. Surprise didn’t take away the pleasure, however. It had been way too long since she’d seen her onetime best friend.

“Megan, it’s me, Peggy,” the woman announced in an insecure rush before Megan could acknowledge her. “I probably should have called first, but we don’t stand on ceremony much around here. It’s probably not like that in New York. What with all you do, you probably have a zillion secretaries to keep people from bothering you.” She thrust the food toward Megan. “I’ll just leave this and run along.”

If she’d slowed down for even a second, Megan would have welcomed her with a hug, but Peggy had always chattered on without pausing for breath. Being ill at ease only made her worse. Megan snagged her friend’s arm as she turned away.

“You get in here, Peggy. You’re not going anywhere,” Megan insisted.

Peggy’s expression brightened. “Are you sure? I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you. I don’t want to be a bother.”

“How could you possibly be a bother? Now get in here. Let me take this into the other room and I’ll be right with you.”

She waited until Peggy had come inside before carrying the still-warm casseroles toward the dining room table, which was already heaped with offerings from other neighbors. When she returned to the foyer, Peggy was still regarding her uncertainly.

“I wasn’t sure you’d even remember me,” she confessed.

“And why wouldn’t I?” Megan said, startled by the statement. “We grew up together. I slept over at your house whenever Tex would let me. You know more of my secrets than anyone else on earth. How could you possibly think I wouldn’t remember you?”

Peggy shrugged. “It’s been a long time.” She said it without judgment or rancor, just a statement of fact that spoke volumes about the way Megan had cut not only Whispering Wind, but everyone in it out of her life. There’d been no cards, no letters, not even a quick, occasional phone call to Peggy.

“I’m sorry,” Megan said sincerely. “I never meant for so much time to go by. Can you stay for a bit? We can make up for lost time.”

Even as she said the words, she realized just how much she had missed having a real confidante, someone who knew her inside out and never judged. She had hundreds of acquaintances now, but few good friends and absolutely no one who shared a lifelong history with her. Seeing Peggy and remembering middle-of-the-night confidences, shared dreams and irrepressible giggles made her feel the absence in a way she never had before.

“Are you sure?” Peggy asked. “I know you must have a million and one things to do. We’re all real sorry about Tex. If there’s anything you need, you just have to ask. Wilma at the funeral home said you’d been in to arrange for the services. Everyone’ll be there, of course. Tex touched a lot of lives around here. I never realized how many till I was grown and on my own. Kids never do, I guess.” She paused and grinned. “I guess you can tell I still go on and on. Just hush me up whenever you’re tired of hearing my voice. Johnny says I could talk a man to death. He believes that’s how I get my way so often.”

Megan searched her memory. The image of a freckle-faced blond boy with an untamable cowlick and a shy smile came to mind. “You married Johnny Barkley?”

“Who else?” Peggy said. “I mooned over him long enough. I guess I just wore him down. We have three children, two boys and a girl, which explains how I’ve managed to put on twenty pounds I don’t need and turned most of my hair gray, though you can’t tell it because of the blond rinse I’ve been using. I’ll be darned if I’m going to look old before my time the way my mama did. Of course, she looks terrific now that she’s down in Arizona. She had herself a facelift last year. I swear she looks almost as young as me.”

“Well, you certainly look wonderful,” Megan said with total sincerity. Despite the extra weight, Peggy looked healthy and happy—contented in a way that Megan found herself envying without knowing why. Her green eyes sparkled with merriment, just as they had when she and Megan were children.

“Go on into the living room and have a seat,” Megan urged. “I’ll have Mrs. Gomez fix us some tea. Or would you rather have coffee?”

“I’ll have a soda if she has one. Any kind will do.”

“A Dr Pepper,” Megan said, suddenly remembering. They had gone through cases of the stuff. “I’ll bet there are some in the fridge.”

In the kitchen, she found the housekeeper trying to stuff the already overloaded refrigerator with yet another casserole that had just been delivered to the back door by a neighbor who hadn’t wanted to bother Megan.

“It’s a good thing the funeral’s tomorrow or all this food would go bad,” she said. “Not much of a loss, if you ask me. There’s not an enchilada in the lot of them.”

“Maybe folks figure your spicy cooking is what put Tex in his grave and they’re not taking any chances,” Megan teased, then regretted it when she saw the sheen of tears in the housekeeper’s eyes. Megan wrapped her arms around her. “Don’t you dare cry. If you do, you’ll have me weeping.”

“Crying might do you some good. Better to let your emotions out than keep them all bottled up the way Tex made you do,” the housekeeper said with undisguised disapproval. “You remember when that boy—Bobby Temple, Sí? He shoved you down in the mud in your brand-new winter coat. You were crying and carrying on. Tex gave you one of those looks of his and said, ‘Girl, an O’Rourke always holds his chin up high and we never, ever cry over things that are over and done.’”

Mrs. Gomez had captured Tex’s words exactly. Megan had heard them often enough. She gave the housekeeper another hug. “Oh, I’ll do my share of crying before this is over,” she assured her. “Right now, though, Peggy’s here and we were wondering if there’s any Dr Pepper around.”

Mrs. Gomez’s expression brightened. “I believe there’s some in the pantry. I’ll fill some tall glasses with lots of ice the way you used to like it, and I’ll bring it right along.”

“I’ll get it. You have enough to do.” Megan found an entire case of the soft drink in the pantry. Emerging with a couple of cans, she regarded the housekeeper with a wry look. “I take it you were expecting Peggy to drop by.”

“Of course, niña. She is your best friend. Where else would she be at a time like this?”

Some friend I’ve been, Megan thought as she took the drinks into the living room. Peggy was married and had three children Megan had known nothing about until today. She’d never even asked after her friend when she’d talked to Tex, and he wasn’t one to volunteer information.

In the living room she found Peggy perched on the edge of the sofa as if she still might take off at any second. Once she would have been curled up in a corner of that same overstuffed sofa with her shoes kicked off and a fat pillow hugged to her middle.

Megan handed a glass to her friend and sat at the opposite end. “Okay, then. Married. Three kids. What else have you been up to?”

Peggy gave her an amused look. “I can tell you don’t have kids, if you have to ask a question like that. Three of them, all under the age of ten, pretty much eliminates anything except sleeping six hours a night if I’m lucky.”

Megan thought of Tess and the disruptions she faced to her own life, and shuddered. “I imagine I’ll be finding out for myself soon enough,” she said, testing the idea aloud for the first time.

Though she’d been praying for some other solution, Jake’s words and a long night of restless tossing and turning had left her fully aware that she couldn’t simply abandon the girl, no matter how much either of them would have preferred it. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she simply walked away.

Peggy gave her an understanding look. “Then you know about Tess? I’d wondered.”

“Oh, yes, I know. I found out when I got here.”

“Sweet heaven! Not before?” Peggy asked, clearly shocked. “It’s been the talk of the town for months now. I thought surely Tex would have told you.”

“No one thought to tell me,” Megan said with undisguised bitterness. “Of course, Mrs. Gomez wouldn’t think it was her place. And apparently Tex didn’t think he should mention it in passing during one of his phone calls. Better to let the bomb drop when he’s not around to see the fallout. According to his lawyer, I’m expected to rise to the occasion.”

“It’ll be an adjustment, I’m sure, but it won’t be that bad. She’s a good kid,” Peggy said. “She’s spent some time at our house. She and my girl are friends, at least most days. Tess doesn’t make it easy. Then, who can blame her? It can’t have been easy having a mama walk out and getting left with a man she’d never even met before. That mama of hers ought to roast in hell for what she did.”

“Apparently that place in hell is going to be crowded with Tex’s women,” Megan observed. “The habit goes all the way back to my mother—beyond if you consider the fact that Grandmother died when my mother was barely five.”

Peggy’s cheeks turned bright pink. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. It’s just that it was so long ago, what happened to you. You’ve done so well, I suppose I never think about the scars it might have left inside.”

“No scars,” Megan insisted staunchly. “You’re right. My life is as close to perfect as anything I could ever have imagined.”

“Perfect, huh? That’s certainly the impression you give on TV and in your magazine. Makes the rest of us downright envious. How’s Tess going to fit into that?”

Megan sighed. “I wish to heaven I knew.”

“Well, if anyone can make it work, it’s you,” Peggy said with absolute confidence. “After all, aren’t you the woman who tells the whole world how to turn lemons into lemonade? I swear to goodness, I think you could take the rattiest old thing lying around and turn it into some fancy decorative accent. I watched that show of yours one day and dragged an old cradle out of the basement and turned it into a planter. Johnny thought at first I was hinting about having another baby, but then I stuck a couple of ferns in there and he admitted it looked right nice. Said the watering’s likely to rot the wood before the next generation comes along, but so what? I doubt they’ll appreciate anything that doesn’t come from some discount store, anyway. Plastic’s practical. Even my mama says that, though it makes me shudder when she does. Last time I went down to Arizona to see her, I swear to goodness I was shocked. Her idea of decorating is picking up whatever’s on sale at Wal-Mart. You should have seen the mishmash. It would have brought tears to your eyes.”

Megan chuckled. “Oh, Peggy, I have missed you. No one cuts through to the heart of things the way you do. Don’t ever change.”

“I don’t suppose I could if I wanted to. This is who I am and, thank goodness, Johnny loves me for it.” She paused and studied Megan carefully. “You’ve changed, though.”

“How?” Megan asked, expecting her to say something about the expensive highlights in the sophisticated, yet casually short hairstyle that had replaced the ponytails of her youth. Or maybe something about the elegant clothes that were a far cry from the worn-out blue jeans and frayed cotton shirts she had once favored.

“You’re warier,” Peggy said thoughtfully. “Jake’s responsible for that, I suppose. It must have come as a shock to find him here. I know everyone in town was certainly stunned when he came back. Then he and your grandfather got to be thick as thieves at the end, no pun intended, and no one knew what to make of it. To give the devil his due, Jake’s still the handsomest thing walking around Whispering Wind.

“Not that I’d trade my Johnny,” she added hurriedly. “No, indeed. Johnny’s a man you can rely on. No surprises. Jake Landers is the kind of man who can break a woman’s heart, but who would know that better than you?”

“That was a long time ago. Jake Landers means nothing to me now,” Megan said firmly. “Nothing.”

Peggy looked startled by her vehemence, then a slow grin spread across her face. “Oh, my, so that’s the way it is, is it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Megan insisted, despite the heat she could feel climbing into her cheeks.

Peggy went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “Of course, he’s a respected lawyer now. I suppose it could work. And Tex isn’t around to stand in your way—”

“Enough!” Megan interrupted. “I am not the least bit interested in Jake. That was over and done with a very long time ago. He stole Tex’s cattle, for heaven’s sake. How could I give two figs about a man who would betray my grandfather that way after Tex had brought him out here and given him work?”

Peggy regarded her oddly.

“What?” Megan asked.

“He didn’t do it,” Peggy said. “Surely you knew that.”

She sounded so confident, so sure of her facts that Megan was taken aback. “Jake didn’t steal the cattle? Are you sure?”

“Well, of course I am. I can’t believe you didn’t know that.” Peggy shook her head. “No, I take that back. It makes perfect sense. Tex certainly wouldn’t tell you. Not only was he a man who never cared for admitting a mistake, but he wouldn’t have wanted you running straight back to Jake. I always wondered if he didn’t have something to do with those charges being trumped up in the first place, but then I couldn’t imagine a man as upstanding as Tex O’Rourke doing such a low-down thing.”

“Peggy, what are you talking about?” Megan demanded, cutting into the rambling monologue.

“There were no stolen cattle,” Peggy said succinctly.

“Of course there were. Why else—”

“No, it was all some huge mistake. Or so they claimed once the dust settled. That’s why your grandfather paid for Jake to go to college and law school, to make up for midjudging him.”

“Tex paid for Jake’s education?” Megan repeated, stunned.

“Every penny.”

“And the cattle were never stolen.” She couldn’t seem to grasp the implications of that.

“Nope. They’d just wandered off to some other pasture, according to the story that came out eventually. They were grazing a few miles up the mountain, happy as could be.”

“He never said a word,” Megan whispered. “Not one word.”

“Who, Tex?”

“No. Jake. All these years he’s let me go on thinking the worst of him.”

“What did you expect? The man had his pride. You were supposed to know him better than anybody on earth and you thought he was a thief. Never even had a doubt about it, as far as I can recall. Is it any wonder he never said a word, after the way you let him down?”

The accusation stung, in part because of the truth of it, in part because it was coming from a woman who’d never been a particularly big fan of Jake’s back then. Now Peggy sounded like a blasted cheerleader. Obviously the tide had turned in Whispering Wind.

“I wonder if he’ll ever be able to forgive me,” Megan said, surprised and dismayed to find that it suddenly mattered. All those years of thinking of Jake as the bad guy were nothing more than wasted time and wasted regrets. It was just one more thing to hold against Tex. At this rate, by the time the funeral came along in the morning, Megan was going to be glad to see the sneaky old coot buried.

There was a light dusting of snow on the ground when Tex was finally laid to rest on the hill overlooking his spread of land. A mountain of flowers covered the grave, from the splashy, elaborate arrangements he would have loved to the simple bouquet of daisies that Jake had helped Tess pick out at the florist in town.

All during the service Tess had kept her hand tucked in his while huge, silent tears rolled down her cheeks. He had a feeling it was the only display of genuine emotion in the entire crowd of mourners. Most people were here because it was expected. Some had come out of curiosity, because they wanted to see the hot-shot from New York who’d once lived just down the road.

As for Meggie, she certainly didn’t appear all that broken up. Dry-eyed and coolly competent, she looked as if she were worried about nothing more than catering details, when he knew for a fact her heart had to be breaking. Still, five minutes after the service ended, she was back at the house, issuing orders to the temporary kitchen staff and putting the final touches on an elaborate buffet for the mourners. She did it all with a brisk efficiency that proved entertaining a crowd this size was second nature to her.

As he watched her place steaming platter after steaming platter on the table, Jake couldn’t help wondering what had happened to all the food the neighbors had dropped off in Pyrex dishes covered with foil. Probably not up to her fancy standards.

She stood by the table and frowned at some flaw Jake couldn’t detect. He wandered over to stand beside her.

“Something wrong?”

Megan barely glanced at him. “There’s something missing, but I can’t pinpoint what it is,” she said with evident frustration.

“Nobody’s going to notice if you’ve left off a saltshaker or a serving spoon. They’re coming by to show their support and their sympathy, not to see if Megan O’Rourke can throw a great party,” he reassured her, even though he’d been thinking exactly that about the mourners’ motives earlier.

When she would have protested, he tucked a finger under her chin and forced her gaze to his. “Meggie, it’s not a test.”

For a moment tears swam in her eyes. She looked lost and surprisingly vulnerable. “I have to get it right,” she whispered. “For Tex.”

“Then you should have thrown a barbecue and been done with it. That was Tex’s style, Meggie. Not all this fancy silver.”

He’d meant it to be reassuring, but he knew instantly she took it the wrong way. Fire flashed in her eyes.

“Are you saying I’ve gotten this wrong, too? Well, who the hell are you to tell me what my grandfather would or wouldn’t like?” she exploded. “He was my grandfather, dammit. Just because you somehow managed to cozy up to him these last few months doesn’t mean you knew him better than me, Jake Landers. It doesn’t.”

With that she burst into tears and fled to the kitchen. Jake hadn’t intended to goad her into an outburst, but he couldn’t help being glad he’d broken through that tough act she’d been putting on for everyone’s benefit. He was about to follow her when the housekeeper put a hand on his arm.

“Let her go,” Mrs. Gomez said.

“I should have been more sensitive, I suppose,” he said, but without much real regret.

“No. She needed a good cry, but she won’t like you seeing it. You being the cause gives her an excuse she can handle right now. Thinking of Tex being dead and buried is still too much for her.”

“Is she going to be all right?” he asked, still staring worriedly after her.

“Oh, I imagine she’ll be just fine in time. Megan’s a strong, resilient woman. She’s had to be all her life. Her world’s a little topsy-turvy right now, but she’ll set it straight soon enough.”

It sounded kinder when Mrs. Gomez said it than it had when he’d sarcastically accused Megan of being adaptable. “Will she be okay with Tess?”

“As I said, she is resilient. She is also good-hearted. She will do what is right for the child.”

Still staring after Meggie, Jake sighed. “There have been a lot of times these last few months when I’ve regretted letting Tex talk me into drawing up that will of his. This is one of them.”

“If you hadn’t done it, someone else would have. Better that it was someone who knows Meggie, someone who cares about her and can see her through this.”

His gaze shot to hers. “I never said…”

She patted his cheek. “You didn’t have to. It is in your eyes. It always has been.” She gestured toward the table. “Now pile a plate up with some of this food and eat. You will need your strength for what’s to come, Sí?”

Jake had a feeling he could eat every last scrap on the buffet and still not be strong enough to deal with Meggie when she found out about Tex’s final devious scheme to get her back to Wyoming for good.