The Texan's Bride. Linda Warren

napkin. “Don’t start again. This evening is about us getting to know each other.”

      “I certainly know a lot more about you. You’re as stubborn as Roscoe.”

      She bit her tongue to keep sharp words from escaping. Patience was not her forte, but tonight she would try. Just as well the waiter returned with a tray. He placed iced tea on a napkin and a salad in front of her and then served Cadde’s drink.

      “Thank you,” she said, and the waiter walked away with a slight smile.

      Soft music played in the background. She hadn’t noticed that earlier, but now it seemed to intensify the romantic mood. Picking up her fork, she was determined they’d have a normal conversation, even though she knew she was stepping on some forbidden ground.

      “How old were you when your parents died?”

      Cadde was staring at his Stetson, but her soft voice drew his undivided attention. Well, partially. He was reeling from the kiss. The off-limits signs were no longer in his head. Jessie had completely demolished them with her passion. He still tasted her lipstick—tasted her. He’d always thought of Jessie as unemotional because she was cool, businesslike. He was wrong—again. Now he was learning about Jessie the hard way—shock after shock. Her lips, her touch he would remember for a long time.

      He moved uncomfortably. “I was sixteen.” Running his thumb across the rim of the glass, he felt its dampness, its coolness. This wasn’t an easy subject for him to talk about, but he couldn’t continue to stare at the glass or his hat. He had to share. That’s what Jessie wanted. It was time to open the door he kept firmly locked. He wrestled with his thoughts.

      “We…were in Austin at the state basketball championship for our district and Kid and I played on the team. Kid was almost fifteen but tall for his age so the coach let him play cause we needed another player. High Cotton had never gone that far in the play-offs and we were determined to win, which we did by one point. We were riding a wave of excitement and someone sneaked beer onto the bus—well, everyone knew it was Kid. He never said how he got it and I didn’t want to know. The coach fell asleep in the front seat and the driver’s attention was on the road. We celebrated all the way home.”

      He gripped the cold glass. “When we reached the school, the principal was waiting for Kid and me. We thought it was because of the beer. He took us to the gym and Aunt Etta, Uncle Rufus and Chance were there. Chance had a bruise on his face and arm and his clothes were dirty. The moment I saw him I knew something was terribly wrong.” He took a swallow of tea to cool the heated emotions inside him.

      “Our aunt put her arms around us, and said, ‘Boys, your parents died tonight.’ The world we knew suddenly ended. The high of the win was replaced with a gut-wrenching low. We stood there holding on to each other until Dane Belle walked in.”

      “I’m so sorry.” As she placed her hand on his forearm, his eyes were drawn to her long slim fingers. He wasn’t sure what to say and all he could feel was her soothing comfort. He never talked about this to anyone but his brothers.

      “Who’s Dane Belle?” she asked, and that broke the headlock on his emotions.

      “The owner of the High Five ranch and the nicest man you’d ever want to meet. Aunt Etta, my dad’s sister, and Uncle Rufus worked for him. He moved us into my aunt and uncle’s house, which is on High Five. Dane was there to help us every step of the way. He literally stepped into our dad’s shoes.”

      She removed her hand to continue eating and he felt a moment of disappointment. He was the strong one, never needing anyone’s comfort, but her soft supportive touch got to him.

      “I can’t imagine anyone taking Daddy’s place.” She pushed the salad aside as the waiter brought her entrée.

      “He didn’t replace him. He just filled this big empty void in me, Kid and Chance.” Leaning back, he fiddled with the napkin and the words seem to gush out of him like one of his oil wells when they hit pure Texas gold. “You’d have to know Dane to understand. He was a gambler, a drinker, but he had a big heart that he gave to everyone. He never met a stranger and he made the Hardin boys feel right at home. We spent all our holidays with them. Chance still does. Kid and I have a harder time getting home. We always seem to be hundreds of miles away.”

      “Does Dane have children?”

      “Oh, yeah.” He took another swallow of tea. “Three beautiful daughters by three different mothers. Dane was also a ladies’ man, a charmer, sort of like Kid.”

      “No one is like Kid.” She lifted an eyebrow. “So you grew up with his daughters?”

      “Yeah. We lived down the road from High Five and then we relocated to their backyard. Summers were fun because all the girls were home.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “Caitlyn was raised on the ranch because her mother died in childbirth. Madison and Skylar lived with their mothers. There was a clause in the divorce papers that Dane got the girls during the summer and Christmas, that way their lives weren’t disrupted during the school year.” He felt a smile tug at his lips. “I’m surprised Kid survived those summers because the sisters knocked him for more loops than I can count. He was always teasing and picking on them. We usually baled hay in the summer and the girls were always there, even though Dane and Miss Dorie, their grandmother, didn’t want them to be. They wanted them to be proper ladies.” Cadde suppressed a laugh. “You’d have to meet them to understand that one. Caitlyn is bossy and responsible. She tried her damnedest to be the boy Dane had always wanted. Madison is like a lollipop—she’s so sweet you just want to lick her, which Kid has done on more than one occasion. And Skylar, well, she’s the wild sister, the one Dane worried about the most. They certainly kept Dane on his toes.”

      Cadde leaned back as memories seemed to grip him. “After baling hay under a hot Texas sun, we’d pull off our hats, boots and shirts and jump into Crooked Creek to cool off. Sometimes the girls would join us. One time Kid dove in and snuck up behind Caitlyn and pinched her butt. She slapped him and he sank like a rock. We thought she’d killed him. We kept diving trying to find him, even Dane got in the water. Kid came up downstream, laughing. Caitlyn chased him all the way to the barn. He hid from her for two days.”

      “Sounds as if you had a happy life on High Five.”

      “Yeah.” He twisted his glass, knowing Dane and the sisters had given them a reason to keep going, to keep living. “I still miss Dane.”

      “He passed away?”

      “His drinking finally got him.”

      There was silence for a moment.

      “You haven’t said anything about your parents.”

      Glancing up, he saw her gazing at him with dark, concerned eyes. While he’d been talking, she’d finished eating. “That’s not an easy subject.”

      He could feel the gusher of words being capped, his throat closing. Then she laid her hand on his arm again and her gentle touch freed his emotions.

      “Dad said they were high school sweethearts and married after graduation. They were happy…”

      “They weren’t.”

      “What?”

      “I’d rather talk about Dane and the sisters. Those are good memories. My parents…”

      She squeezed his arm. “What happened?”

      He could do this. He could handle anything. From somewhere deep inside him he heard the word liar. Talking about his parents was something he didn’t do, except with his brothers. They understood. Jessie wanted him to talk, to share. Could he?

      She rubbed his arm and it eased the grip on his throat, and the words came gushing out once again. “My…dad…is the reason I’m in the oil business. He preached education and how we should be bosses, not roughnecks. He taught us family values and about trust and faith, but in the end it was all a