Texas...Now and Forever

Waving wildly, Haley shouted to the occupants of the powerful speedboat cutting across Lake Maria.

“Luke! Ricky! Over here, darn it!”

With a disgusted huff that lifted the tendrils of her mink-brown hair, Haley gave it up as hopeless. The long shadows creeping across the lake had reached the dock. They couldn’t see her, and she knew they couldn’t hear her above the engine’s roar.

Retreating to the sleek little two-seater sports car she’d parked at the head of the pier, she groped for the headlight switch. It took several bright flashes, but she finally caught the boaters’s attention. The man at the wheel waved, leaned right and brought the craft into a sharp turn.

Haley drifted back down to the dock to await its arrival. Her brother, Ricky, and his four buddies had been water-skiing all afternoon, slicing through the water with reckless abandon. She could certainly understand their craving to feel the sun and the wind on their skin.

They’d more than earned these hours on the lake, considering the morning they’d just put in. From nine o’clock on, the returning POWs had been on display. After all, folks around here considered them gen-u-ine Texas heroes, not to mention poster ads for the United States Marine Corps. Spit-shined, square-shouldered, and heart-stoppingly handsome in their uniforms, they’d ridden in the parade organized in their honor. Then, of course, they’d had to sit under the hot sun, steaming in their high-collared dress blues, while local dignitaries gave long-winded speeches about South Texas’s own. They’d even signed autographs for the kids who’d swarmed the platform after the speeches.

The minute the crowds had dispersed, however, they’d shed their decorum along with their uniforms and headed for the lake. They’d been here for a good five hours, tossing down beer and celebrating their hard-won freedom. The sun was now a flaming ball hanging low above the hills surrounding Lake Maria. If they didn’t come in and dry off soon, they’d be navigating in the dark. More to the point, they’d miss the lavish barbecue Isadora and Johnny Mercado were throwing at their lakeside cottage to welcome Ricky and his friends home.

Leaning her hips against a piling, Haley peered across the rippling water at the approaching boat. Her heart contracted painfully as she made out the features of the man at the wheel. Luke Callaghan stood wide-legged and strong, his bare chest glistening in the slanting rays of the sun. Leather-tough Tyler Murdoch sat beside him. Although she couldn’t make out the figures in the back of the boat, she knew their faces as well as her own. Too-serious Flynt Carson. Intense, intent Spence Harrison. And Ricky, Haley’s adored older brother.

Thank God they’d all made it back safely, she thought on a wave of bone-deep relief. With their return, at least one of the worries that had kept her sleepless and hollow-eyed these past weeks had been allayed. The other…

The other she’d take care of tonight.

Her stomach clenching, Haley glanced down at the square-cut diamond on her left hand. The enormity of what she planned to do just a few hours from now started nausea churning in her stomach.

Damn Frank Del Brio!

The speedboat’s throaty roar brought her head up. Squinting, she watched as Luke brought the powerful machine skimming toward the dock. With consummate skill, he throttled back mere yards from the pier, reversed thrust on the dual engines and floated the craft up to the pilings. The man sprawled beside Luke grinned up at her as she caught their line.

“Hey, sweet thing.”

“Hey, Tyler.”

The former all-conference wide receiver skimmed an appreciative glance from her shoulders, left bare by the red-checked halter top tied just below her full breasts, to the long legs showing beneath her red linen shorts.

“You’re looking good tonight.”

“Thanks.”

Luke appeared to share his opinion. Haley’s skin prickled as his gaze made a slow pass from her neck to her knees. But when he addressed her, his voice held the same carelessly affectionate tone he always used with his best buddy’s little sister.

“Want to go for a spin?”

“I wish I could,” she said with real longing. The water looked so dark and green and cool, and Luke so sleek and powerful in his wet swimming trunks. Wrenching her gaze from his broad chest and flat belly, Haley searched the back of the boat for her brother.

“Where’s Ricky?”

“We dropped him off at the marina about fifteen minutes ago. He said he had to pick up Melissa and take her to the party your folks are throwing for us.”

“Well, shoot!”

“Is that a problem?”

“No, not really. Melissa called the house a half hour ago, asking where he was. Like a good sister, I drove all the way around the lake to fetch him. Now I’ll have to drive all the way back.”

She glanced across the wide expanse of water. The lights the Mercados had strung in the backyard of their lakeside cottage in preparation for the barbecue winked like lightning bugs in the gathering dusk. Those pinpricks of light punched a fist-size hole in Haley’s heart.

Isadora Mercado had thrown herself into arranging this party. It looked to be one of the biggest events of the year. A joyous celebration. A gathering of all Ricky’s and Luke’s friends beneath a star-filled Texas sky.

Only Isadora’s daughter—and Judge Carl Bridges—knew it would be the last night Haley Mercado would spend with her family. The last hours she’d share with her friends.

The last moments she’d have with Luke.

Her right hand closed over her left with bruising force. The edges of the diamond gouged into the undersides of her fingers. Frank Del Brio was to blame—for everything.

“We were just planning to head across the lake to the party ourselves,” Luke said, cutting into her chaotic thoughts. “Why don’t you come with us? It’ll save you the long drive.”

“No, I… I can’t.”

Haley would go out on these dark waters soon enough. When she did, she wouldn’t come back in.

“Sure you can,” Spence Harrison countered from his seat behind Luke’s. “Haul your butt back here, Tyler, and make room for the lady.”

She shook her head. “I need my car.”

Her sporty little vehicle represented an integral element of the plan she and Judge Bridges had worked out. Haley would slip away from the party once it was in full swing. Drive to a secluded cove on this very lake. Leave the coverup to her bathing suit on the front seat. Go for a late-night swim. Disappear forever.

“You can retrieve the car tomorrow,” sandy-haired Flynt Carson put in. “Better climb in, kid, or you’ll miss the festivities.”

Haley’s glance darted to Luke. The urge to spend just a few more minutes with him pulled at her like talons dug deep into her heart. She’d never see him again after tonight. Never know if the lazy glances he’d sent her way in the past year or so might have developed into something deeper, something that had nothing to do with the brotherly affection he always showed her.

Misinterpreting the reason for her hesitation, Luke cocked a brow. “Are you thinking we’ve downed too much beer to get you safely across the lake? Don’t worry about the open cans littering the back of the boat. We’re big boys. We knew we were getting close to our limit. To avoid temptation, we emptied the last couple of six packs over the side right after we dropped Ricky off. You’re safe with us, Haley.”

Oh, God. If only that were true!

“Here.” Smiling, Luke held up his hand. “I’ll help you in.”

The fierce desire to slip her hand into his sliced through Haley. Frantically her mind raced to revise her carefully laid plans. She’d leave her car here and borrow one of her parents’ when it was time to sneak away from the party. Then, she could take this last boat ride with Ricky’s friends and steal another few moments with Luke.

Her hand eased into his. His grip was strong and sure and wet from the spray as he helped her into the boat. Once she’d found her footing, he held her fingers up to the light. Turning her hand from one side to the other, he studied her ring. The multifaceted diamond caught the last rays of the sun. Brightly colored sparks leapt from her hand.

Luke had seen the ring before, of course. Haley had been wearing it like a brand since the day he and Ricky and the others had returned home. This was the first time he’d examined it up close, however.

“That’s some rock,” he commented with a grin.

“Yes.” Her response was flat and lacking any emotion. “It is.”

“Funny,” he murmured, searching her face, “I never saw you and Frank Del Brio as a match.”

“Funny,” Haley got out in a strangled voice, “neither did I.”

What a fool she’d been! What a naive, idiotic fool! She’d been so convinced she could turn aside Frank’s increasingly ardent demands. So sure he would understand when she told him she just didn’t feel the same passion he seemed to feel for her.