After Tex

“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.”