After Tex

Tess stared at her with wide eyes. “I could?”

The longing in her voice brought a lump to Megan’s throat. She nodded. “I don’t see why not.”

“Jake thought it might be okay, too, but I figured you’d never go for it.”

“I will on one condition,” Megan said.

Tess frowned. “I knew it! I knew there’d be a catch.”

“No catch, just a condition. I want one of the kittens for my own.”

Tess simply stared, clearly too shocked for words.

“Is it a deal?” Megan asked.

“Yeah!” Tess said excitedly, then caught herself. “I mean, I suppose that would be okay.”

Megan held back a grin. It wasn’t much, she concluded as they walked to the car, but it was a start. If only the next ten years or so would go as easily, maybe they would survive them.

6

Jake was at loose ends. With his biggest—okay, his only—client dead and buried, his workload was back to zip. That was exactly the way he wanted it, or so he’d thought. Rather than relaxing, maybe going off on a long horseback ride through the countryside, however, he was restless. He knew exactly where to lay the blame for that: Megan.

He’d pushed aside a lot of old resentments the past few days. He wanted to go on hating her for thinking the worst of him all those years ago. He wanted to steal Tex’s ranch right out from under her just to get even. But for some reason, he couldn’t work up much enthusiasm for the all-out war he’d once envisioned. It was probably because of that sad, lost look in her eyes. He’d always been a real sucker for vulnerability, especially in a woman normally as tough as Meggie.

The smart thing would be to steer clear of her. Even if she made a halfhearted attempt to comply with Tex’s wishes, it wouldn’t be long before she found some way around the terms of the will and hauled Tess back to New York with her. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that was what she desperately wanted to do. He’d seen the wheels clicking away the instant she’d realized what Tex’s will meant.

Somehow Megan had turned into a city girl. Maybe she’d always been one, though how that had happened living in the middle of nowhere with Tex was beyond him.

As for Jake, his foray into the urban thing had been pure rebellion. He’d had something to prove to himself and to Tex and to all the judgmental people of Whispering Wind.

He’d been damned good at it for a time, but in the end he’d accepted the fact that he was happier right here in Whispering Wind. The pace was slow, the demands and expectations were few. And he had enough money now to enjoy the spectacular scenery at his leisure without anyone being able to label him that “no-account Landers kid.”

He glanced around his office, took stock of the fancy artwork on the walls, the bronze of a bucking bronco on his credenza, the thick carpeting and well-cushioned leather sofa and chairs, the wall of bookcases filled with leather-bound legal volumes, the state-of-the-art computer setup.

Unlike his home, which could best be described as a fixer-upper, he’d taken pleasure in designing his office to impress. Of course, he hadn’t bothered to hire a secretary or to solicit new clients. As restless as he felt this morning, he regretted that. Maybe if he’d had a few cases to sink his teeth into, Meggie’s image wouldn’t be popping into his head with such annoying regularity.

He heard a commotion on the street, then a howl of protest. He was on his feet and dashing for the door before it registered that that howl was distressingly familiar.

He found Tess outside, her expression indignant, the fist of the red-faced sheriff, Bryce Davis, clamped tightly over her shoulder. Lyle Perkins was standing in the doorway of his mama’s general store with a smug expression on his face.

Jake had been exactly where Tess was a few times himself, though Lyle had been a boy back then, but no less of a bully. Apparently he hadn’t outgrown the tendency. Jake’s hackles rose as he strode toward the group. He couldn’t wait to tangle with Lyle and Emma Perkins now that he was on equal footing with them in the community.

The instant Tess caught sight of Jake, she broke free and ran straight for him, then turned and shot a defiant look at the sheriff that would have withered a less confident man. She didn’t look at Lyle at all. Fortunately, Jake supposed, Bryce Davis wasn’t lacking in ego. Jake had tangled with the sheriff a time or two himself. It would take more than a fiery eight-year-old to intimidate Davis.

“Okay, what’s the problem here?” Jake asked, directing the question at the beefy sheriff, while ignoring Lyle.

“I need a lawyer,” Tess announced before Bryce could open his mouth. She slapped a quarter in Jake’s hand. “Here’s your retainer. It ain’t much, but it’s all I’ve got. I want to sue him for false arrest, police brutality and whatever else you can come up with.” She jerked a thumb toward Lyle. “Sue him while you’re at it.”

Jake hid a grin at her riled-up declaration. “You’ve been watching too much TV, kiddo. I don’t think you’re under arrest yet.”

Tess trembled with indignation. “Oh, yeah, try telling that to him. He was about to slap handcuffs on me and take me to the slammer.”

Jake figured there was another side to the story that he’d better hear before he leaped too trustingly to Tess’s defense. “Bryce?”

The sheriff didn’t mince words. “Aunt Emma caught her shoplifting. Lyle called me to get over here. He tried to hold her till I arrived, but she made a break for it. I nabbed her out here.”

Jake turned to Tess. “Is that so?”

Tess’s gaze met his and never flinched. “I didn’t take anything from the old bat’s store. All she’s got is a bunch of junk, anyway.” Once again she cast a disparaging look toward Lyle. “He probably put her up to it. He’s mean as a snake and everybody in town knows it.”

“Why, you little punk,” Lyle began, taking a step in Tess’s direction. He backed off at a sharp look from his cousin.

Since Jake had had his own run-ins with the paranoid shopkeeper and her spoiled son, he would have been inclined to believe Tess, even if she hadn’t just hired him to be on her side. Lyle had always been eager to make trouble for anyone weaker than he was. In those days, Jake’s only weakness had been his lack of anyone to stand by him. He’d settled more than one argument with Lyle with his fists. Fortunately, he had grown out of the habit.

“What’d she steal?” Jake asked the sheriff.

Bryce rocked back on his heels and looked vaguely uneasy. “That part’s a little hazy, what with the commotion of catching up to Tess before she got away.”

“Then I suggest we all go inside and get our facts straight,” Jake said, starting for the general store, where Mrs. Perkins waited in the doorway just behind her son, hands on ample hips.

“I might have known you’d take the girl’s side,” she said, scowling at Jake with a sour expression before turning an equally sour look on Bryce Davis. “I expected more of you, Sheriff, especially since you’re family.”

“Nobody’s taking sides, Aunt Emma,” Bryce said soothingly. “We just need to figure out what happened here. What did you see?”

“She was right over there,” Mrs. Perkins said, gesturing toward a case filled with school supplies. “I looked up and saw her hand go in her pocket. When it came out again, it was empty. She stole some of them pens, or maybe the stickers the kids like so much.”

“Did you see her with either pens or stickers in her hand?” Jake asked.

Bryce scowled at him. “I’ll ask the questions, son.”

Jake shrugged. “Be my guest, but I reserve the right to ask a few of my own if you don’t get at the truth in a hurry.”

“Well, Aunt Emma, did you see the girl with those items, or anything else, for that matter?”

“No, but I know what kind of mischief her kind gets into.”

The hairs on the back of Jake’s neck stood up at the characterization, but he forced himself to deal with one thing at a time. Most important was clearing up whether or not Tess had shoplifted so much as a paper clip from the old bat.

“Tess, honey, did you ever pick up any of the things Mrs. Perkins mentioned?”

“Do I look like I play with stickers?” she shot back, giving the storekeeper a belligerent glare. “As for pens, Tex practically bought them by the case because he was always chomping off the end, once the doc told him he had to stop smoking cigars. I sure as heck don’t need hers.”

Jake hid a grin. “That’s not the issue,” he admonished. “Did you put anything into your pockets?”

“No. If you want to, you can check.” She shot a triumphant look at the shopkeeper, but when the sheriff stepped forward, she scowled. “Not you. Jake.”

“That okay with you, Bryce?”