He quickly left her behind and carried the screaming baby to his car. He could never let her witness this.
Accompanied by the sound of Petie"s earsplitting shrieks coming from the car seat, he jumped behind the wheel and peeled out of the parking lot. "It"s okay, buddy. It"s okay."
He blinked his eyes and raced toward the edge of town. The baby"s screams didn"t subside. Finally, he found the privacy he needed, a narrow lane that led toward a patch of trees. He parked his car in the exact place he"d hidden his bike when he was a kid coming apart inside.
"Why"d you beat me up, Kenny? I didn"t do anything to you."
As he retrieved the hysterical baby, Petie arched his spine, trying to get away. His shrieks hurt Kenny"s ears, but the look of betrayal in the baby"s eyes broke Kenny"s heart.
"I"m sorry, fella. I"m so sorry." Pressing his lips to his brother"s hot, damp temple, he carried him into the trees toward the rushing sound of the river. "Shhh ... don"t cry. Don"t cry, scout. It"s all over."
As he rocked and crooned, the baby"s sobs gradually subsided. He walked him along the riverbank, stroking his little back, humming and talking nonsense, letting the rush of the river soothe the baby as it used to soothe him when he came here to recover from some piece of nastiness he"d unleashed on Torie or one of his schoolmates. Finally, Petie quieted enough for Kenny to settle down in the shade of a bigtooth maple. He leaned against the trunk and propped the baby on his lap.
"I know, Petie. I know...."
The little boy reared back his head, and Kenny saw a whole world of hurt in his eyes.
"I won"t ever do that to you again. I promise. The old man"s going to be bad enough. You don"t need it from me, too."
Petie stuck out a trembly lip. He"d been betrayed, and he wasn"t going to forgive too easily.
Kenny used the bottom of the baby"s bright blue T-shirt to wipe his small, drooly chin. "You don"t have to win a race for me to love you, buddy. Do you understand? Despite what happened back there, I"m not like the old man. I don"t care if you"re last every time, if you stink at team sports. Even if the worst happens and you hate golf, it doesn"t matter. You understand me? We"re brothers forever." He drew the baby up to his face and kissed his s...o...b..ry cheek. "You might have to win the old man"s love, scout, but I promise you won"t ever have to win mine."
Emma stood in the middle of the crowd staring down at the wallet Kenny had thrust in her hand. After last night, she felt as if she"d been slapped.
Just as she was looking around for some privacy, she saw Ted Beaudine approaching. He gave her his shy smile. "I heard you were here, Lady Emma. Where"d Kenny go?"
"He left with Peter."
"You look a little upset."
Those old man"s eyes of his saw too much. "A little." She opened her purse to slip in the wallet only to have him take it from her hand.
"Is this Kenny"s?"
"He shoved it at me right before he ran off." She couldn"t stop herself from adding, "He told me I should buy buy something for myself." something for myself."
"No kidding." Ted"s mouth curled in a slow smile. "My daddy"s rich, my ma"s good-looking, and this is my lucky day."
Emma frowned as he tucked the wallet in his back pocket. "Your mother"s rich, too; I"ve heard your father looks like a movie star. And give that back to me."
His hazel eyes crinkled at the corners. "Come on, Lady Emma. I"m a semi-impoverished twenty-two-year-old who just graduated from college and doesn"t have a job. Kenny, on the other hand"s, got more money than he has the energy to count. Let"s go enjoy ourselves."
"Ted, I really don"t think-"
But he was already moving. Catching her arm, he led her toward the parking lot and a rather battered open-topped red Jeep with black roll bars. "If any of you see Kenny," he called out to a group of teenagers, "tell him Lady Emma"s at the Roustabout."
Emma found herself being driven away in a car with a set of golf clubs rattling in the back and a graduation ta.s.sel swinging from the rearview mirror. "Maybe you should let me have that wallet," she said as the Roustabout came into view.
"I will. Later. After we use what"s in it."
"We"re not spending Kenny"s money, no matter how much of it he has. It isn"t right."
"Texas women wouldn"t see it that way. Women down here like their revenge. Do you know my parents once had a fight in this very parking lot? People still talk about it."
"I suppose public arguments can get a little nasty."
"Oh, this wasn"t an argument. It was a fight. Physical." He chuckled. "I"d of loved to have seen that."
"Bloodthirsty boy. And I don"t believe a word of it. Your parents have a wonderful marriage."
"Now they do, but it took them a while to get there. My dad didn"t even know I existed till I was nine. They both had a lot of growing up to do."
Coming from any other twenty-two-year-old, the comment would have been humorous, but there was something about Ted Beaudine that made her a believer.
As they got out of the car and walked toward the Roustabout, she said, "I"m surprised you don"t have a job yet. From what Torie and Kenny said, you have an excellent academic record."
"Oh, I"ve had lots of offers, but I want to stay near Wynette."
"You grew up here, didn"t you?"
"I grew up all over, but this is the place my family calls home, and I"m pretty attached to it." He held the door open for her. "That limits me to two companies."
"TCS and Dexter"s father"s company."
"Both of them have done everything they could to hire me. Unfortunately, that"s turned me into the prize in another one of their range wars. The situation"s gotten a little ugly, so I"m stalling until I see whether Torie"s ever going to figure out what a great guy Dexter is."
"If the merger happens, you don"t have a problem anymore, is that it?"
"Exactly. In the meantime, though, I"m just about flat broke. And neither of my parents, being self-made people, is sympathetic." He slipped Kenny"s wallet from his back pocket. "Which is why this is a gift from the G.o.ds."
Before she could stop him, he"d taken out one of Kenny"s credit cards and turned to the crowd of businesspeople, ranchers, and housewives who"d gathered for lunch. Although he barely raised his voice, the crowd quieted to hear him.
"I"ve got an announcement to make. You"ll all be happy to know that lunch is on Kenny. And he wants you to order whatever you like, so don"t hurt his feelings by being chintzy."
As he pa.s.sed the credit card over to the bartender, one of the ranchers called out, "Lions Club"s meeting in the back room."
"Kenny"s always been a real big supporter of the Lions," Ted said.
"You can"t do this!" she hissed under her breath.
He gave her that dim-witted look the gorgeous men of Wynette must have perfected in the cradle just to drive women crazy. "Why not?"
"Because it isn"t right."
"Was it right for Kenny to leave you stranded?"
"No."
"Then we don"t have a problem, do we?"
For a quiet young man, he was surprisingly a.s.sertive, and she found herself being led to a booth. As she slid into the padded seat, she decided he had a point, and a few minutes later when the waitress approached, she defiantly ordered extra cheese on her turkey sandwich.
The day wasn"t turning out anything like she"d hoped. She"d imagined herself and Kenny together, perhaps holding hands and smiling at each other. Her fantasies were silly. She decided to fight them off with food.
Just as she was trying to decide between chocolate fudge cake and a brownie sundae, she saw the burly man walk into the Roustabout. He glanced around the room, then stopped as he spotted her. When he realized she"d noticed, he looked away.
She was so confused. Was he Beddington"s spy or not? If he was the spy, why hadn"t he told Hugh about everything she"d bought at the drugstore? Just yesterday she"d concluded that she"d made a mistake and had the wrong person, but she was no longer so certain. This man definitely had more than a casual interest in her.
While Ted conducted a friendly flirtation with a cute redhead who"d come up to their table, Emma tried to puzzle it out. She noticed that the burly man was watching her in a mirror advertising beer, and her indecision fled. Beddington"s man. Definitely.
She picked up her purse, opened it in her lap, and reached for the salt and pepper shakers. With a curl of her arm, she swept them inside. She turned to make certain he"d noticed and saw by his appalled expression that he had. She suppressed the urge to jump from her seat, march over to him, and order him to write down exactly what he"d seen so he wouldn"t forget to report it.
Unfortunately, the burly man wasn"t the only one who"d witnessed her thievery.
"What in Sam Hill do you think you"re doing?"
She"d been so caught up that she hadn"t noticed Kenny approaching. He was by himself, so he must have dropped Peter off. As he drew closer, the Roustabout"s patrons began calling out to him.
"Hey, there, Kenny. Thanks for lunch."
"Much appreciate it, Kenny. The sirloin was real good."
She couldn"t believe it. Once again, he"d caught her at a disadvantage. And this was his his day to be in the wrong. He"d terrorized his baby brother and deserted her without warning. He was the sinner. Why did all the black marks keep showing up on her side of the ledger? day to be in the wrong. He"d terrorized his baby brother and deserted her without warning. He was the sinner. Why did all the black marks keep showing up on her side of the ledger?
"Kenny, the Lions Club said to tell you thanks," a middle-aged waitress called out.
"Me and Deever, too," added a florid-faced heart attack in the making. "You should try some of that pecan pie yourself."
Kenny frowned. "What are they talking about?"
"You treated everybody to lunch," Ted explained. "And we all appreciate it. Joe"s got your credit card."
Kenny shrugged, slid into the booth next to her, and reached for her purse. She tried to hold on to it, but he took it away. "I swear you get stranger by the day," he growled.
As Ted watched with interest, Kenny pulled out the salt and pepper shakers and set them back on the table. "Let me guess. You decided to put on another show for the duke."
"His investigator"s here again." She jerked her head toward the burly man. "I had to do something."
He stared in the direction she"d indicated. One eyebrow shot up. Then he shook his head and handed the purse back to her. "I"ve never known a woman who could embarra.s.s herself as much as you."
She couldn"t tolerate his condescension after last night. "Let me out!"
"No."
"I was going to give them back!" She caught herself. "What am I doing? Why am I explaining? I don"t have to tell you anything after what you"ve done today."
"I sure didn"t lift any salt shakers."
Ted leaned back, enjoying their argument.
"That man told Beddington all I bought at the drugstore was a tabloid tabloid!"
"Nasty stuff. Full of lies. Do you know they printed a story about me once? How I was supposed to be having this big love affair with my former junior high teacher."
"That was actually true," Ted pointed out.
Kenny ignored him. "I can"t imagine why you"d want to read one of those things."
"That"s not the point!" she exclaimed. "But of course you know that. You think it"s clever to act as if you"re an idiot."
"So you decided to give him something else not to report?"
She wanted to scratch the smugness right off his face! How long was she going to let other people dictate the course of her life? Beddington? Kenny? That incompetent fool standing by the bar? It was long past time she took control of her own destiny.
"Let me out! I mean it, Kenny. I"m going to settle this with him for once and for all."
"I don"t advise it."
"Either let me out or I"m going to crawl under the table."
"A perfect example of why you people lost this country in the first place."
"Are you moving?"
"d.a.m.n right I am!" He vaulted to his feet.
Several of the other onlookers poked each other. Kenny was going to give them something new to talk about.
She shot past him and headed straight toward the burly man. "I need to speak with you."
He blinked. "All right."
"In the first place, you were hired to do a job. But you haven"t done it very well, now, have you?"
He looked embarra.s.sed, but Emma couldn"t afford to weaken. "For one thing, you haven"t been giving Beddington complete information. And isn"t that why he pays you? For example, you didn"t bother to tell him everything I bought at the drugstore two nights ago, did you?"
He turned red from his neck all the way to his thinning, straw-colored hair.
She crossed her arms. "And please tell me why not."
"Well-"
"Did you just now see me stealing those salt and pepper shakers?"
He nodded.
"I was stealing stealing them, you understand. I"m a thief! Now, are you going to tell him about it or not?" them, you understand. I"m a thief! Now, are you going to tell him about it or not?"