The Texan's Bride

“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 lie.”

“Why?”

“Seems my dad told my mom he was leaving her. It had just happened and all that kind of stuff. My mother wanted to know who the woman was, and he wouldn’t tell her. She started hitting him and he lost control of the car.” He swallowed. “On the biggest night of his young sons’ lives we were going to come home to find that our father had left us. I thought he’d meet us at the gym and he’d tell us how proud he was. Instead, we came home to find that our father had really left us…for good.”

Both her hands gripped his arm. “Cadde, I’m sorry.”

The waiter poured more tea and removed the plates. “Would you like dessert?” he asked.

“No, thanks,” Jessie replied.

“My mother didn’t deserve that,” Cadde murmured as if the waiter hadn’t interrupted them. “She was the nicest person.”

The words had come from a deep personal well inside him and Cadde thought he’d done enough sharing. “How about your mother?”

Jessie removed her hands and folded them in her lap. “I never knew her.”

“Not ever?”

“She left when I was a baby. Whenever I asked about her, Daddy would say that she left us and I had him. That was all I needed.”

“But you know who she is?”

She fidgeted in her chair. “I didn’t until I was older and snuck into Dad’s study and found my birth certificate.” She paused. “Her name is Angela Martinez.”

The spotlight was now turned on her, and by the thinning of her lips Cadde knew she didn’t like it. Sharing was hard for her, too.

“And?” he persisted.

“Okay.” She reached for her tea glass and took a swallow. “I called every Martinez in the Houston phone book, and believe me, there were a lot. I found a lot of kind people, but not my mother.”

“Did Roscoe know you did this?”

Her eyes darkened. “I would never hurt him like that.” She placed her napkin on the table. “I just wanted to talk to her.”

“About what?”

“I was fifteen. I didn’t have a plan.” She cocked a dark eyebrow. “Are you trying to make me angry?”

“Not intentionally.”

“Good.” She took another sip of tea.

He watched her. “But you do get a little heated when you talk about your mother.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits of fire and he knew a whole lot of stubborn was coming his way.

“Have you ever asked Rosa about her?” He tried to sidetrack her.

“Rosa and Felix didn’t come to work for us until after Crissy was kidnapped.” Her temper seemed to cool instantly.

“I didn’t realize that.”

“I’d had a normal childhood until then. Crissy and I were like sisters. Aunt Helen would take us to school and to our ballet and soccer classes. Life was fun. Suddenly it all changed.”

Dark emotions clouded her face and he wanted to comfort her in some way, but he wasn’t good at that. “You lived in Houston at that time?” he found himself asking.

She nodded. “Two blocks from Crissy. The kidnapper came in through her window and carried her away to his car. The police said that’s when she woke up and started to fight. She scratched his face and his hands. While he was trying to restrain her he broke her neck.” Jessie took a deep breath. “He stuffed her into a culvert at the end of the street and covered her with leaves. It was two days before they found her.”

“I’m sorry, Jessie,” was all he could say, and it seemed to be enough.

“Life became hell. Daddy carried a gun and hired Rosa and Felix to watch me. Felix had a gun, too. Daddy took me out of school and hired a tutor. I never went back.”