Chapter 5

5

Stasia was much better in the morning. She sat at the big dining room table picking at eggs and toast and smiling as she and Odalie talked about Maddie Brannt’s little fairy figures. Maddie had just finished the one she did for Tony and had sent her a photo of it in a text message. They were both enthusing over it at their end of the table.

Tony was sitting across from the Mannings while the owner of the Renoir was smiling from ear to ear.

“I’m happy that you’ll have the paintings,” Tom told Tony. “My son has no appreciation for art history. I hate to give up the paintings, but I’m not likely to be around for too many more years, even with chemo and radiation. And besides that, you never know at my age what tomorrow might bring. Even a light stroke would give my boy the opportunity to get rid of my collection. He’s got so much money that their value doesn’t even enter into his attitude.”

“It’s a shame,” Tony said, sipping coffee. “You raised him better than that.”

“Yes, I did. Burt, please stop glaring at Tony’s other guests,” he added with a curt glance at his driver.

Burt let out a huffy breath and stopped glaring in Odalie’s direction.

“You’re not Mr. America, and at any rate, she’s obviously not interested,” the older man said firmly. “Besides all that, you’re married!”

“God help your wife,” Tony added, and the look he gave Donalson was molten.

“She’s a snob,” Donalson muttered. “I wouldn’t touch her with a pole.”

Both of the other men knew that was sour grapes. Tony was fuming, but he tried not to make a scene. “When are you going?” he asked the Renoir’s owner.

The older man wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Right now, in fact,” he replied surprisingly, and with a smile. “Burt, go get our bags and bring them out, please. I’d like to get home before dark.”

Donalson looked disappointed but he shrugged. “Okay.” He got up and went after the luggage.

“I’m sorry for the way he’s behaved,” the older man told Tony sincerely. “If I could have found another driver, I would have.”

“It’s all right. I kept him honest.”

“That poor young woman,” he said, glancing at Odalie down the long table. “So beautiful. I imagine looks like that can be a curse from time to time.”

Tony frowned. “A curse?”

He nodded. “Unwanted attention. I’m sure she’s had her share of it.”

“I suppose she has,” Tony replied thoughtfully.

The old man got to his feet as Donalson came out with two suitcases. Tom shook hands with Tony. “I’ll have the paintings boxed up and shipped directly to the gallery first thing Monday morning, overnight express and insured,” he promised.

“I’ll wire the other half of the money as soon as they arrive.”

“Take care of them. They were my most prized possessions.”

“They’ll be mine now, and I’ll make sure they have the best of homes.”

He nodded. “Take care.”

“You do the same.”

He walked out with them. After Donalson put the old man in the car, Tony halted him at the hood. “Just so you know,” he said pleasantly, but in a voice that chilled, “Miss Everett will have twenty-four-hour protection at her apartment in the city from now on. And anyone who even attempts to harass her...” He let his voice trail off. He cocked his head. “I may be the boss, but I haven’t lost any skills. You remember Bud Davies?” he added very quietly.

Donaldson lost two shades of color. He swallowed. Hard. “Oh, yeah.”

“I never make threats. You get me?” he added in a voice that dripped ice.

Donalson felt his blood freezing. “Yeah, Tony, I get you, I get you.”

“Good.” He stepped back.

Donalson took off like a bullet, eased his friend into the car and spun gravel getting out of the driveway. Tony didn’t move until the car was out of sight.

The horses were beautiful. Odalie chose a spirited black mare, laughing as the animal pranced. Stasia had insisted that she go. Stasia, meanwhile, was going to keep the Mannings company.

“That’s Lady,” Tony told her as he moved up beside her on a big bay horse. “She’s a little jumpy.”

“I don’t mind. I’m usually a little jumpy myself,” she said, her face flushed with pleasure, her blond hair in a long braid. She was wearing a blue sweater with jeans and boots. She looked good enough to eat.

“I imagine you grew up on a horse,” Tony commented.

“I did. Dad put me on a pony when I was three and taught me to ride. I used to do barrel racing. I love to ride.”

“So do I,” he said.

“But with you, it was draft horses, I’ll bet.”

His eyebrows went up.

“You said you used to visit your grandfather on a farm in upstate New York,” she reminded him. “And that he had draft horses.”

He chuckled. “I’d forgotten that I told you that. Yes.”

“I love big horses. John’s built like you, big and husky, so it takes a big mount. He likes that Belgian Dad keeps in the stable.”

“It’s a pretty mare,” he recalled.

“She has a little age on her now, but she’s still John’s favorite.” She glanced at him while two other couples and the single man, Rudy, got on their own mounts just outside the stable. “Thanks.”

“What for?”

“Sending that Donalson man off,” she said.

“His boss was ready to leave,” he said easily. “Since he drives him, he had to go along. He won’t be missed,” he added coldly. “He was after one of the maids late last night, too,” he told her. “She was in tears.”

“If I’d had access to an iron skillet, and you didn’t need his boss to sell you those paintings, he’d have been in tears,” she said with some heat, her pale blue eyes sparking.

He glanced at her and chuckled.

She made a face. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. If he ever comes back—and don’t hold your breath—I’ll buy you an iron skillet.”

She grinned. “Thanks.”

“Are we ready to go? If you need any pointers,” Rudy told Odalie with a grin, “I’ll be glad to provide them. I go riding down in Jersey on a friend’s farm.”

Odalie gave him an amused look.

Before she could answer, Tony rode closer. “Her parents own one of the biggest ranches in Texas and she used to do rodeo,” he informed the other man.

Rudy sighed. “Well, boy, is my face red!”

“Serves you right,” Tony muttered. “How about keeping an eye on the Daly couple? She’s afraid of horses.”

“Sure thing,” Rudy said at once, nodding politely at Odalie. It became clear at once that Odalie was spoken for, whether she or Tony knew it or not.

Odalie was in the dark. She thought Tony was just being nice, helping her ward off unwanted attention.

“That was kind of you,” she said as they started out the gate toward the wooded trail. “He’s a nice man, but I’m really not interested.”

“No problem. Stasia wouldn’t like it if I let you be harassed. By any man.”

Her heart dropped with disappointment, but she forced a smile. “Thanks.”

The trail was a long one, but it was cool and pleasant, with blooming trees and shrubs all along it. There was a small stream across the dirt trail and Tony pulled up at it to let the horses water.

They got off and let the horses drink.

“It’s beautiful here,” Odalie said to Tony while the other guests wandered downstream. “One doesn’t think of places like this in New York.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“Well, for some reason, we think if we’re in New York, it’s a big city.” She shrugged. “We don’t think of open places with streams and lots of trees.”

He chuckled. “We tend to think of Texas as big guys in cowboy hats and boots riding horses.”

Her eyes twinkled. “These days, it’s mostly bib caps and four-wheelers to help with roundup. Only the really big ranches do it the old-timey way.”

“That’s news.”

“Dad’s ranch is one of the exceptions,” she agreed, because it was done the old way on Big Spur. “It’s huge. We pack out a chuck wagon when roundup’s in swing, because it’s so much area to cover. The men set up temporary corrals and tilt trays all over for branding and tagging and vaccinations.”

“You ever go out with them?”

“We all used to,” she said. “On a ranch, everybody works. If you have company on a weekend, they work, too,” she laughed.

“What a life,” he teased.

“I loved it. I never minded getting down and dirty when we had to.”

“And you look like you never touched dirt,” he pointed out.

“I fell in a mudhole during one roundup. When I walked in the door, my own mother didn’t recognize me. It took forever to shower it off.”

He smiled. “I fell in an equally clingy substance, but it wasn’t mud. One of the cows had functioned, and I tripped. I thought my grandfather would laugh himself to death.”

She smiled back. “You must have loved him a lot.”

“I did. He didn’t have much, he and my grandmother, but they loved each other a lot.”

“My parents are like that. You almost never see one without the other, even at their ages. They said my grandparents on both sides were like that, too. Happy marriages run in my family. Or they did, until Stasia and Tanner split up.” She glanced at him. “Luckily, that’s no longer the case. They’re both very happy.”

“I noticed,” he said. “Stasia’s beaming.”

“Yes. She’s taking no chances. They want the baby very much.”

“I’d have liked kids,” Tony said, his eyes faraway. “But we never had any. Some men can’t produce them,” he added, and his voice was cold.

She started to speak, but he’d already turned away. “Better get moving,” he called to the others. “There’s a cloud coming up.”

And there was; a big, blue one, heralding a possible nor’easter. They came at the most unexpected times. At the most unwelcome ones, too.

When they got back to the house, the weather channel was blaring out. People needed to batten down or head for the mainland; it was going to be a bad storm.

“I’ll drop you and Stasia off at your apartment,” Tony told the women. “Get your stuff together while I arrange to get the rest of my guests to the airport.”

“Will do,” Stasia said, drawing a disappointed Odalie along with her. “You and Tony were getting along so well,” Stasia said sadly as they packed. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Odalie said on a sigh. “He’d already warned me off.”

“What?!”

“I guess I was wearing my heart on my sleeve. He said he had a mistress and he didn’t start things he couldn’t finish,” she replied. “So going home is not a bad thing. In fact,” she added before Stasia could speak, “I think I’d like to go spend a couple of weeks at home. I need a break.”

Stasia just smiled. Things were looking up, although Odalie might not think so. If Tony had to pull out his long-unvisited mistress to ward off her sister-in-law, something was truly in the works, even if Tony was fighting it tooth and nail. It gave her hope.

“That would be great,” Stasia said. “We can pick up Tony’s fairy from Maddie Brannt and you can take it home with you when you go back to New York.”

“She did a really wonderful job on it. But Tony will never sell it,” she added. “He’ll tuck it away somewhere at home. I’d bet on it.”

Stasia chuckled. “So would I. It might be a good idea to commission Maddie to do one of some pretty girl instead, one that he can display.”

“I’ll ask her,” Odalie said. “But you’d better clear it with Tony first, right?”

“Right. I’ll do that.”

It was a quick trip back to the city with the cloud on their tail all the way.

“This is going to be some storm,” Odalie said on a sigh. “We got caught up in Dallas in a hotel at a cattlemen’s convention once. The whole building shook every time it thundered, and the lightning was so nonstop that it looked like daylight. Until then, I thought our storms in Big Spur were really bad.”

“We’re not that far south of Dallas, but the weather doesn’t seem to reach us as much,” Stasia agreed. “Storms anywhere in the plains are bad, though.”

“There have been some terrible ones in recent years,” Odalie sighed. “I don’t like storms that hurt people and change lives, but I love storms,” she added softly, smiling to herself.

“Of course you do. You like wrestling and snakes and...earthworms,” Tony said.

Stasia burst out laughing while Odalie flushed. “Oh, do I remember hearing that story!” she chuckled. “Odalie and John got into more trouble, trying to one-up each other. We won’t even go into the spider incident,” she added with a wicked smile at Odalie.

“Well, I didn’t know he was afraid of spiders,” she argued. “Honestly, he never even told Dad, he was so afraid of being made fun of. Dad didn’t like weakness in those days,” she explained. “We were expected to toughen up and do what needed to be done.”

“Which is why, when you were twelve, Dad gave you a handful of rubber bands...”

“We should really forget that,” Odalie said, and flushed even more.

“But...”

“No butts.” She flushed more. “Just...drop it, okay?”

Stasia laughed. “Okay. If you say so.”

“Am I missing something here?” Tony teased.

“Not a thing. Honest. Just a misunderstood episode that we should never, ever repeat in mixed company!” Odalie told her sister-in-law firmly.

“Come on,” Tony teased. “Tell it.”

“If you do, I’ll present you with your very own hive of hornets the very minute you’re not pregnant anymore!” Odalie promised.

Stasia chuckled helplessly. “All right, but you’re stifling my creativity.”

Odalie glanced at him. “That’s what Mama used to say to all of us when we interrupted her piano lessons. She never knew how we used it on each other.”

“We were too soft. Heather isn’t somebody you mock, even in private,” Stasia agreed. “She’s all heart.”

“She really is,” Odalie agreed. “I hated disappointing Dad when I was small, but it was worse when I disappointed Mama. She cried. I couldn’t take it.”

“It was that way with me, with Mama,” Tony agreed. “I’d do anything to make the tears stop, and I mean anything.” He grimaced. “I even went to mass with her when I was home, to make up for one thing I did that shamed her.”

“That was nice of you,” Stasia said. “Especially considering that you avoid church like the plague usually.”

“I’m getting older,” he said. “I think about things more now than I used to.”

“Older. Pshaw!” Stasia chided. “You aren’t even in your prime.”

“I’m headed for an oil barrel. No joke,” he added with a grin at Stasia.

Odalie stared at him. “What’s an oil barrel?”

“Don’t tell her,” Stasia said abruptly. “Really.”

Tony’s eyebrows lifted but he didn’t add to his allusion. He glanced out the window. “Storm’s going the other way. Lucky for us. Nobody’s even got an umbrella.”

“We could get Big Ben to pull up a tree and use it as an umbrella,” Stasia said, loud enough for Ben to hear.

“For shame!” Big Ben called through the lowered glass partition. “I never hurt trees! They have a spirit!”

“His dad is Cheyenne,” Tony told them. “They’re the original earth stewards. They did a better job than we’re doing, for sure.”

“I love you, Big Ben,” Odalie called to him. “I love trees, too!”

“Fanatics,” Tony scoffed.

“Says the man who plants trees in the national forests for any of his people who die,” Stasia replied blandly.

“Look. We’re here,” Tony said to divert her.

“I’ll take Odalie’s suitcases in,” Ben said, and went to get them out of the trunk.

“It was a lovely break. Thanks, Tony,” Stasia said. “Odalie’s going to the ranch next week. Can you send somebody with her?” she added innocently, just in case.

“Sure. I’ll go myself. I’ve got to go over to San Antonio to talk to a guy and then down to Jacobsville to talk to a friend of a friend.”

“No, don’t go to so much trouble just for me,” Odalie protested, flushing. “I can get Dad to come up and take me back...”

“Tony has to go anyway—he just said so. Dad’s up to his ears in cattle woes right now.”

“If it wasn’t convenient, I’d say so,” he told Odalie with a bite in his tone.

Odalie sighed. She couldn’t fight them both. “Okay. Thanks,” she added, smiling without meeting Tony’s eyes.

“Oops,” Stasia said suddenly. “I have to get inside. Tell Tony about the fairy... Oh, gosh, I hope I make it!” she exclaimed, and moved quickly from the car across the sidewalk to the apartment’s front door. “And don’t leave without me!” she called back. “I have to be at the airport in an hour to meet the plane Dad’s sending for me! Leave my bag in the car. It’s all I need!” And she vanished into Odalie’s apartment.

“What about the fairy?” Tony asked while Stasia was inside.

She looked up at him, trying to fight the attraction she felt and failing hopelessly. “Stasia says that you’ll tuck the fairy Maddie’s making for you up on a shelf somewhere and you won’t sell it. So Stasia said to ask Maddie to do one that you can sell...”

He sighed. “Well, she’s right. The little things are precious.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s a good idea to get her to do another one.” He glanced down at her. “She could do another one of you.”

“She’s already done one. Maybe one of Stasia.”

“No good. Tanner would buy it immediately.”

“Nice point. Well, how about getting her to do one of Heather?”

“Your dad would buy it.”

She grimaced.

“Don’t you have some art history books?” he asked. “Stasia told me about them.”

“Yes, I do, and I gave Maddie a set of her own while she was recuperating from her back injury.”

“Then get her to pick a subject from one of the books, something with no ties to any of us,” he suggested.

“That’s a good idea.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, thanks for the weekend.”

“Some weekend, with Donalson stalking you like a doe in the forest,” he scoffed.

She drew in a breath. “It’s something I never got used to,” she confessed. “None of the boys I liked in school ever liked me. Of course, I was a stuck-up little snob in those days. Nobody really liked me.” She looked out at the city beyond the backstreet with a sigh. “Now it’s almost the same, except the wrong men like me too much and in the wrong way. They think because I come from wealth and I’m not bad looking that I know my way around bedrooms.”

“Which you don’t.”

That surprised her into looking up.

“You don’t think it shows?” he asked, his voice husky and deep and soft like velvet. “I know the other kind all too well. You’ve got class. It shows.” He smiled. “I’ll bet you sang in the church choir back home.”

She flushed. “So much for being sophisticated.”

“You don’t need sophistication. You have style and grace and principles. That’s more than enough, even in the city.”

She was surprised by the remarks. They made her feel as if she had champagne in her veins.

He realized that, at once. He shrugged. “What I said before, however, still goes. You’re attractive, but I’ve already got...”

“...a mistress,” she finished for him, with a weary smile. “I know. I’m not your type.”

“No.” It hurt him to say it. He turned away. “How does Monday sound, to go home? About three o’clock?”

“Midafternoon is fine.”

“Three o’clock. A.m.,” he emphasized.

“In the morning?!” she exclaimed. “That’s a myth,” she said, her lower lip protruding. “There’s no such thing as three in the morning!”

He chuckled. “Oh, yes, there is. Don’t worry. If you aren’t awake, I’ll send Big Ben over with a large bucket. He’ll pour water on you until you get up.”

“He’ll get a red toaster up alongside his head, too, the minute I can slosh my way into the kitchen to get it!” she promised, her blue eyes sparking.

“Hey!”

They both turned to look. Stasia was standing not five feet away, both hands on her hips. “Finally, you’ve noticed me! I said, the weather channel’s on and they say the storm is headed this way! We need to get to the airport before it hits!”

He glared at Odalie, who glared back.

“I’ll see you Monday at three.” He turned and helped an impatient Stasia into the car gently, after she hugged Odalie half to death. He got into the car beside her. Ben closed the door.

“He’s bluffing,” Ben whispered out loud to Odalie.

The back window buzzed down. “Hell, no, he’s not bluffing! You don’t wake up, I’ll prove it to you!” The window buzzed back up.

Odalie glared at the car and thought of giving him a one-finger salute, then shocked herself because she even thought of it. “I’ll be awake,” she told Ben. “But not because he made threats,” she muttered to herself. She muttered all the way into the apartment, even after the car had driven away.

She stumbled around in the apartment, half asleep, already missing Stasia’s company, tossing a few more clothes into a still-packed suitcase. She had a few things at home, mostly jeans and T-shirts and boots and jackets. She didn’t need to pack much, but she always packed more than she thought she’d need.

She’d meant to call Tony’s bluff, but she’d often heard Stasia say that he never bluffed. He made promises, and he kept them. She pictured herself in her thin gown, drenched in cold water. It was enough to get her out of bed after only three hours’ sleep.

It was two thirty. She still had on a long lined lemon silk nightgown that fell to her ankles, with spaghetti straps and a square bodice trimmed with lace. It had a peignoir, but she never wore it in the apartment. Stasia had given it to her as a birthday present, and she loved it. Her long blond hair was down to her waist in back, neatly combed and as silky as the gown. She had no makeup on, but why bother? Tony had already said he wasn’t interested, so why should she...

The doorbell rang. Surely it wouldn’t be Big Ben at this hour...?

She opened the door without thinking and looked straight into Tony Garza’s black eyes, but only for a second. His gaze fell to the gown, and he almost choked on emotion. She was exquisite like that. A painter would have loved her for a subject. No makeup, her long, beautiful hair loose, barefoot, in palest yellow silk and lace. It was a picture he’d never get out of his mind.

She hadn’t thought about what she was wearing until she noticed him looking pointedly away from her.

“Oh, gosh, I didn’t think...sorry!” She turned and ran for her bedroom, then closed the door behind her.

While she was climbing quickly into her clothes, Tony noted the already-packed bags. He went outside and motioned to Big Ben, who took them to the trunk of the limo.

Tony was still cursing himself five minutes later when she reappeared in a pair of beige palazzo pants with a silky tan blouse, her hair up in a complicated knot and a long open beige sweater over it all, with beige heeled sandals and a gold-buckled belt for accessories. No jewelry except a pair of yellow gold studs. She looked good enough to eat.

“Going on the runway?” he asked, just to show her he wasn’t impressed.

She glared at him. “Nobody goes on a runway at three a.m. And you said three, not two thirty,” she added hotly.

He pursed his lips. “You were awake. Sadly.”

Her eyes widened. “I know where I can find a big red toaster if anybody even tries to pour water on me!”

“Too late. You’re dressed. Any other bags?” he asked.

She wanted to throw something. All this pent-up anguished passion and no way to let it out. She wondered what he’d do if she tried that primal-screaming thing that had been popular years ago.

“No,” she said. “No other luggage.”

He turned to look at her. “No makeup bag?”

She gave him a droll look. “I’m going home. To a ranch? Where cowboys are? What do I need makeup for?”

He studied her pretty face. “Nothing that I can see.” He smiled slowly. “Most women look like hell without all that paint.”

It was a compliment, but she wasn’t taking the bait. She didn’t answer him.

“If you’re ready, let’s go. Everything turned off?”

“Yes. I double-checked.”

They went out and she locked her door. She heard an odd noise, but it was gone seconds later. Apparently, Tony hadn’t noticed. But then, he was almost at the car.

He let her slide in first, and he slid in beside her as Ben closed the door.

She put her purse on the floorboard and rubbed at her eyes.

“Sleepy baby,” he teased.

“I’m not sleepy. My eyes are.”

He chuckled. But he pulled out his cell phone and stayed occupied all the way to the airport.

It was a short flight. Odalie had long since learned to take a motion sickness pill before she got on a plane. She sat in her seat playing mahjong on her cell phone the whole way, with an occasional dip into solitaire.

Tony glanced at her. “You ever win that?” he asked, indicating the solitaire app.

“Not often. But it’s still fun.”

“Not when you lose a bundle on a card you don’t get dealt,” he said philosophically.

She smiled. “You should ask John about poker.”

“Your brother? Why?”

“Just ask him sometime.”

He gave her a curious glance and went back to his app.

Tanner was waiting for them at her father’s airstrip. She ran into his arms to be hugged and hugged some more.

“How’s Stasia?” she asked at once.

“Blooming. She really enjoyed the trip. Hi, Tony. Nice of you to hand deliver our parcel,” he teased, shaking hands.

“Least I could do. She had a rough couple of days at my place on Long Island. She’ll tell you about it.” He checked his watch. “I’ve got an appointment to make. Let me know when you want to come home. I’m down this way every other week. I’ll fetch you.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“Find a reason to come along weekend after next,” Tanner suggested. “We’ll be getting the yearlings ready to go to market. It’s an experience. Plus, we have a celebratory barbeque.”

“Barbeque!” Big Ben enthused.

“See what you did?” Tony asked Tanner with a mocking glare. “Now I’ll have to bring him. You can’t get past a grill if it’s got barbeque, but he’s crazy about the way you make it.”

“The way Dolores makes it,” Ben replied, and wiggled his eyebrows.

“I’ll tell her you said that,” Tanner teased.

Ben just grinned.

“So, we’ll see you weekend after next. You going to talk to Mrs. Brannt about the fairy?”

“Yes, I am,” Odalie promised.

“Good. I’ll see you.”

He turned and walked up the ramp into the plane without a backward glance.

Odalie stared at it with a poignant look she wasn’t aware of.

Tanner threw his arm around her and turned her toward the Lincoln he drove. “Come tell me all about the weekend at Tony’s.”

“Okay,” she agreed, and forced herself not to watch the plane take off without her.