Savannah had been slaving in the kitchen since before dawn. Neighbors he hadn’t seen in months had brought over pies, cakes and an assortment of side dishes; they’d delivered picnic tables and dozens of lawn chairs. And now Grady was indebted to each and every one of them. His neighbors would be looking for return favors, too. Especially of the social kind. It wouldn’t take long for the invites to arrive, and he’d be expected to accept. Damn it all. He’d never been a party goer and didn’t intend to start now.
“What I’d like to know,” Grady muttered to his friends, “is how the hell he’s paying for all this.”
“Did you ask him?” Glen, the younger of the Patterson brothers, inquired.
“I didn’t have a chance.” The party was happening before Grady even knew there was going to be one. If he’d had a clue what his brother was up to, he would have put a stop to it. The last time he’d seen this many people had been the day he buried his parents. Leave it to Richard to dredge up the most pain-filled memory of his life.
“Who’s that?” Glen asked, directing their attention to a blond woman walking in from the driveway. The row of cars stretched all the way to the road. Fifty at last count.
Grady didn’t recognize the newcomer, either. She was young and pretty, if such attributes mattered to him, which they didn’t. She didn’t seem to know many people because she stood at the edge of the crowd, looking self-conscious in a pinstriped power suit. Whoever she was, she’d completely overdressed for the party.
Cal sat up and gave her a long stare. “Isn’t that the new doc? Jane something-or-other.”
“She’s a doctor?” Glen asked with disbelief. “Promise has a lady doctor? When did all this happen?”
“Last week.” Cal nudged his brother with an elbow. “Don’t you two read the paper?”
“Who has time?” Grady wanted to know.
“Cal keeps the weekly edition by the john, don’t you, big brother?” Glen teased.
“Well, it gets read, doesn’t it?” Cal chided. “Her picture was on the front page. She’s here on one of those government programs.”
“What government program?”
“I don’t know the name of it, but the paper said she agreed to work off her medical-school loans by volunteering her skill in a deprived area.”
“Promise is a deprived area?” This was news to Grady.
“Must be,” Cal muttered, sounding as surprised as Grady.
“Hey, we got a doctor who didn’t fight in the battle for the Alamo?”
Doc Cummings had retired at the first of the year at the age of seventy. At least he admitted to being seventy, but in Grady’s opinion, he was on the shady side of that figure. He’d delivered Grady and just about everyone else in town under forty. Rumor had it that Doc Cummings was lazing his days away on the Gulf coast now, eating shrimp and soaking up the sunshine. Grady wished the old coot well.
Caroline Daniels strolled past, carrying a bowl of potato salad. She returned a minute or so later with an empty one. Straining, Grady glanced into the kitchen and caught a glimpse of Savannah feverishly making another batch of salad. Smith was there with her, sitting at the table and dutifully peeling potatoes. Those two were as thick as thieves, despite all his warnings. His talk with Laredo Smith hadn’t made any difference; he suspected Savannah was still planning a return visit to Bitter End. It hadn’t been easy swallowing his pride and asking for Smith’s help. The wrangler appeared to have gotten the wrong message, too, because he spent every available minute with Savannah, just as if Grady had given the pair his blessing. He hadn’t. Despite his job offer, he wanted the other man off the ranch and the sooner the better.
“Are you going to dance with me or not?” Breathlessly Ellie Frasier plopped herself down next to Glen. They were good friends and had been for years. Grady had never understood how a man could be friends with a woman and not get romantically involved. But that seemed to be the way it was with Glen and Ellie. They were friends and nothing more.
Ellie needed a confidant these days, according to Cal. Her father was terminally ill and had been transferred to a hospital in San Antonio. Her mother was spending all her time there while Ellie ran the family store. Grady sympathized; he knew all too well the pain of losing a parent. Ellie was young to be taking on such heavy responsibility, but from what he heard, she was up to the task. She spent as much time as possible visiting her father, and between driving to San Antonio and managing the business, she was running herself ragged. It surprised him a little that Ellie was at the party, and he guessed Glen had something to do with that. Getting away from all the emotional pressures was probably the best thing for her.
“So what about that dance, Patterson?”
“Seems to me you’ve already got yourself a dance partner,” Glen said. He stared pointedly in Richard’s direction. Grady’s brother was at his most charming, teasing and laughing with the women, exchanging jokes with the men. Outgoing, personable, the life of the party—and self-appointed guest of honor, to boot.
“I gotta say,” Ellie said, speaking to Grady, “your brother’s mighty light on his feet.”
Yeah, in more ways than one. Grady was tempted to say it but didn’t. He frowned, instead. Richard had been on the dance floor for hours without revealing any signs of slowing down. Grady suspected his brother had danced with every woman in town at least once, and the pretty ones twice. He’d taken a liking to Ellie, that was for sure. Grady had seen the two of them dancing three or four times already. He wanted to issue a word of caution, seeing how vulnerable Ellie must be feeling, but he bit his tongue. She’d find out soon enough what kind of man his brother was.
“I’d forgotten how much fun Richard could be,” Ellie said.
“He’s a regular laugh fest,” Grady agreed sarcastically; he couldn’t help it. Ellie studied him for a moment and he hoped she’d gotten the message.
“Don’t mind Grady,” Glen said, looping his arm around Ellie’s shoulders. “He’s just sore because he doesn’t have anyone to dance with.”
Grady’s frown deepened. He wasn’t about to make a fool of himself in front of the entire town. While Richard might know his way around a dance floor, Grady had been cursed with two left feet. The last time he’d attempted to dance he’d been in his teens and forced to wear a suit and boutonniere.
“I haven’t seen this many people since the Willie Nelson Fourth of July picnic,” Cal said. Like Grady, his friend wasn’t much of a social animal. Glen was by far the most outgoing of the three men. He’d tried to drag Grady off to the town’s biggest function—next to the cattlemen’s dance and the rodeo—for the past six years. Every Fourth of July Promise threw a Willie Nelson picnic, hoping the popular entertainer would agree to visit. Willie had politely declined each year, but the town councillors hadn’t let that deter them from holding the affair in the singer’s honor.
“Come on,” Ellie urged, tugging at Glen’s hand. “I want to dance.” With a show of reluctance, Glen untangled his feet and stood.
The pair was out of earshot when Cal spoke. “We won’t see him the rest of the night. Once he’s out on the floor, he won’t quit.”
“Go ahead if you feel like it,” Grady told his friend. “No need to keep me company.”
“No thanks. I’m happy to sit here for a while.”
Cal lingered an hour or so, not that they said much. This was what Grady enjoyed most about his friend. They didn’t have to fill every silence with idle chatter. A couple of times he was on the verge of mentioning Savannah’s recent trek to the ghost town, but he held his tongue. The last time either one of them had talked about Bitter End, they’d been in their teens. Anyway, there wasn’t anything Cal could tell him he didn’t already know. Besides, Savannah was his concern, not his neighbor’s. After a time Cal drifted away to get himself some barbecue.
Laughter and music abounded. It disgusted Grady to watch his brother. Richard continued to be sociable and entertaining, the focus of the party. It certainly
hadn’t taken him long to put the good people of Promise under his spell. Once again Grady wondered how his brother intended to pay for all this, but it wasn’t his concern, and he wasn’t going to worry about it.
The kitchen door opened and Caroline stepped outside. Her gaze caught Grady’s; she waved, then walked over to where Adam Braunfels was handing out beer. She collected two.
Grady was somewhat surprised when she brought the extra bottle over to him. “You look like you could use this,” she said and sat down on the step beside him. She tucked one knee under her chin while her foot tapped to the beat of the music.
Grady saluted her with the bottle and took a long swallow of beer. Neither spoke for a few minutes; both of them just stared at the dance floor. Finally Caroline said, “He’s really something, isn’t he?”
“If you came over here to sing Richard’s praises, I don’t want to hear them.”
“This might surprise you, Grady, but I’m not a fan of your brother’s.”
It was news to Grady, and he found himself grateful that at least one other person hadn’t been blinded by Richard’s charm. “I get the impression you aren’t particularly fond of me, either,” he said wryly.
She grinned. “I don’t dislike you. I don’t always agree with you, but you’re not half-bad.”
It wasn’t much of a compliment, but Grady would take what he could get. “Hey, careful. Sweet talk just might turn my head.”
Caroline burst into laughter.
Grady smiled for probably the first time that day. “So you’re not one of Richard’s adoring fans.” Funny how that one bit of information encouraged him.
“If it was up to me, I’d string Richard up by his thumbs. Savannah’s been stuck in the kitchen for hours. I don’t think she had any idea what to expect. Richard had told her to plan for about 150 people—she assumed he was joking.”
Right then and there Grady decided that, come morning, Richard was off the Yellow Rose. He didn’t care how many arguments Savannah made in their brother’s defense. They should’ve run him off the property the minute he set foot on their land. Grady shook his head. Surely Savannah would agree with him now.
“Maggie certainly seems to be taken with him,” he noted, frowning as he brought the beer bottle to his lips. His younger brother danced with the five-year-old, twirling her about the floor. The youngster’s shrieks of delight could be heard over the music. Richard’s success with Maggie rankled, especially since the child ran away in terror whenever she laid eyes on Grady. Somehow or other, without realizing what he’d done, Grady had frightened the kid. For the life of him, he didn’t know how it’d happened, and despite his efforts, he hadn’t been able to repair the damage.
Caroline kept a close watch on her daughter. “She’s easily swayed by charm, it seems.”
“She isn’t the only one.”
“Are you jealous, Grady?”
“Hell, no,” he protested before he had a chance to fully consider the question On second thought, he had to admit there was a grain of truth in Caroline’s words.
It was bad enough that Richard had implied—or outright said—that Grady and Savannah were throwing him this party. The fact that he had just about every woman in town fawning over him and almost every man eager for his company only added insult to injury.
“I don’t suppose I could convince you to take a spin,” Caroline said, motioning with her head toward the dance floor.
“Not on your life.”
Caroline sighed as though disappointed. “That’s what I thought.”
“Hey, you don’t need me.” He gestured toward a group of single men standing under a live oak tree. “Any one of them would be happy to dance with you.”
“I suppose.” But she didn’t budge, and truth be known, he was glad she didn’t. He thought of inviting her to go bowling with him—that would be more to his liking—but hesitated. It’d been so damn long since he’d gone out on a date he wasn’t sure how to go about asking.
Then it dawned on Grady that maybe Caroline was interested in him. “Are you saying you want to dance with me?” In other circumstances he probably wouldn’t have asked, but he’d downed three beers on an almost empty stomach and his inhibitions were definitely lowered.
“I might be,” she responded.
He mulled over her answer. He liked Caroline, admired her for the good friend she was to Savannah, and while he’d certainly noticed her, found her attractive, he’d never thought to make anything of it.
“You should get married,” he said, and for the life of him, Grady didn’t know what had prompted him to suggest such a thing. Horrified, he stared down at his empty beer bottle.
“Do you have anyone in mind?” Caroline asked.
“Not me.” He wanted that understood.
“Don’t worry, Grady, you aren’t in the running.”
He’d asked for that, but he didn’t like hearing it. Then, thinking he should resolve this before things got out of hand, he decided to explain. “Maggie needs a father.”
Caroline was on her feet so fast it made his head spin. “Don’t tell me what my daughter needs or doesn’t need, Grady.”
“Fine, I won’t.”
“Good,” she declared and stomped away.
Women! They had to have the last word. But after Caroline left, Grady regretted the conversation. Worse, he knew he was one hundred percent at fault. He should never had said the things he had. It wasn’t his place to suggest Maggie needed a father. It had made him sound judgmental and disapproving when that wasn’t his intent at all. He respected Caroline; he just thought her life as a working single mother was too hard. And he hated the way little Maggie seemed so susceptible to any man’s charm. Any con man’s charm. Well, nothing he could do about it now.
The sun set and after a while someone lit the Chinese lanterns. The lights swayed in a soft breeze, casting shadows that danced about the yard. The band switched from lively melodies and line dances to slower, more mellow songs. Couples, wrapped in each other’s arms, slowly circled the floor.
Families with young children packed up their youngsters and started home, prompted by thoughts of work and school in the morning. Playing the role of gracious host to a T, Richard escorted them to their cars, then stood in the driveway and waved them off.
“Nice party,” Adam Braunfels said as Grady headed toward the house, around nine o’clock.
“Not my party,” he was quick to tell the owner of Chili Pepper.
“I hope everything was satisfactory,” Adam said next.
Grady tucked his hands in his back pockets. “Great. I certainly didn’t hear any complaints.”
“Good. I want you to know I was as fair as I could be with the tally.”
Grady didn’t know what Adam was talking about, or rather, why Adam was telling him, but he nodded his head, which had started to pound. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast and his mind continued to dwell on his disastrous conversation with Caroline.
Adam pulled a slip of paper from his hip pocket and handed it to Grady. “I’d appreciate if you could write me a check now, Grady, before I go back to town.”
“What?” He was sure there’d been some mistake.
“For the barbecue,” Adam explained as if he were dense. Grady knew why he wanted to be paid; what he didn’t understand was why Adam expected him to do it.
“I already said this wasn’t my party.”
Adam’s mouth thinned. “I don’t care whose party it is, I need my money.”
“And you expect me to pay?”
“Yes.”
“This is Richard’s business.” Grady was about to walk off when Richard raced to their side.
“I need my money,” Adam repeated, looking from one brother to the other.
Richard’s feet shifted nervously. “Would you mind paying him, Grady?” he asked. “I honestly thought my check would be here before now.” He looked down at his boots. “I…I feel horrible about this.”
Arms folde
d, Adam stared at Grady, ignoring Richard completely.
Grady felt as though the top of his head was about to explode. He had no choice but to pay up. His brother had done it to him again. Either he wrote Adam a check now or he came off looking like the bad guy.
LAREDO WAS ELBOW-DEEP IN THE kitchen sink when Frank Hennessey walked into the room. The sheriff nodded politely at Savannah, who sat with her feet propped up on a chair. It was the first time all day Laredo could get her to take a break. He knew she was exhausted. Hell, he was himself, and he hadn’t worked near as hard as she had.
While he hadn’t been particularly fond of Richard before, Laredo actively disliked him now. He’d been around men like the younger Weston in his time. Fast talkers. Users. Selfish and thoughtless. Richard certainly knew which buttons to push when it came to his sister, Laredo had noticed. All he had to do was mention their mother, and Savannah crumbled. It infuriated him to watch the jerk take advantage of her that way.
Laredo knew Grady was on to Richard, but he suspected Savannah wasn’t. Even if she did find out what kind of man her brother was, she was perfectly capable of overlooking it, and that worried Laredo.
“If you don’t mind, Mr. Smith, I’ve got a few questions I’d like to ask you,” the sheriff said.
A little confused, Laredo lifted his hands from the dishwater and reached for a towel. He didn’t like the idea of the sheriff singling him out, but he didn’t want to make a fuss in front of Savannah, either.
“Is there a problem, Sheriff?” Savannah asked, looking concerned.
“No, no.” Hennessey caught Laredo’s glance. “Perhaps you’d like to step outside, Mr. Smith.”
“Sure.” Laredo dried his hands and squelched his growing sense of irritation. Grady had put the lawman up to this; he’d admitted it earlier himself. Not that Laredo had anything to hide, but he hated the way it made him look to Savannah.
He waited until they were in the cool night air before he spoke. “I don’t have any kind of record.”