Candace Camp - Hard-Headed Texan

By the time she reached the clinic in town, she had managed to calm her shaking nerves, but she did not have a handle yet on her confused feelings. As she had predicted, her clientele had built up in the waiting room while she was on her emergency call. Almost as soon as she stepped in the back door, Lilian came hurrying down the hall.

“Sorry. We’ve got a ton of people waiting. Dr. Carmichael tried to take up the slack, but he had a full load this morning. I managed to get a couple of them to just leave their animals, so we could work them in as we can, but you know how most people are. We had one emergency. Doc Carmichael took him.” She continued to talk as Antonia washed her hands and put on her white lab coat, checking in the small mirror above the sink to make sure that she looked more together than she felt.

Antonia sighed and smoothed down her coat. A lot of work, she thought, would take her mind off her inner turmoil. “All right,” she said. “Let’s get to them.”

There was far too great a rush for Antonia to take a lunch break, but finally, around two o’clock, one of the techs who had gone out to eat brought her back a burger, and she gratefully took the bag down to the employee lounge.

The only other person in the lounge was Rita Delgado, one of the technicians and also Antonia’s friend. Rita was short, with a voluptuous build, and she was constantly fighting a battle with calories. Today, as was often the case, she was eating a lunch brought from home, consisting of an apple and a carton of nonfat yogurt. Antonia knew that the odds were that Rita would be hitting the snack machines by four o’clock.

Rita glanced up when Antonia entered the room and smiled. “Hey, come sit down. I haven’t seen you all day. What a rush, huh?”

Antonia nodded, going over to the table and setting down her bag. Rita was exactly the person to see if one wanted information. She had a huge circle of family and friends and was always abreast of all the latest gossip. She was also, unfortunately, like a bloodhound once she scented news.

“So…” Antonia sat down in her chair and with studied casualness began to unwrap her burger.

“So?” Rita prodded, eyeing Antonia’s sandwich with envy. With a sigh, she dug her spoon into her own cup of fat-free yogurt.

Antonia shrugged. “I don’t know. Just a conversation opener.”

“What conversation?”

“An awkward one,” Antonia admitted, a smile touching her lips as she looked at her technician. “I want to ask you something, but I know you’ll go all big-eyed and pushy on me.”

“Me?” Rita brought her hand up to her chest dramatically, opening her expressive brown eyes wider, until they looked almost round. “Big-eyed? Pushy? How can you say that?”

Antonia quirked an eyebrow at her. Rita leaned forward.

“So what’s the conversation? You can’t just throw out a line like that and stop! What’s going on?”

“I wanted to ask you a question.” Antonia hesitated. “Now, don’t read too much into this. I’m only asking out of curiosity.”

“Sure. Sure. I know the spiel. Are we talking about a guy here?”

Antonia took a deep breath and plunged in. “Daniel Sutton.”

“Daniel Sutton!” Rita sucked in her breath. She stared at Antonia, apparently rendered speechless by Antonia’s words.

“Yes, Daniel Sutton,” Antonia retorted with some asperity. “Why are you looking at me like that? Is he the local ax murderer or something?”

Rita made a face at her. “Of course not. He’s gorgeous—well, not as gorgeous as Cater. Now, that one is the kind that could make a person forget she’s a happily married woman.”

“Cater? Who’s Cater? What are we talking about here?”

“The Suttons, silly.”

“How many are there? I met his father last week.”

“Oh, there are a bunch of them, all male. Well, except for one sister. Beth. Four boys. They’re all gorgeous, even Cory, who’s just a baby—he’s still in college. Daniel is the oldest, then Cater, then Quinn—he’s the sheriff. He’s a charmer, too, that one, and there’s something about a uniform…” Rita’s voice trailed off dreamily, then she shook herself and went on. “But he’s got that red hair, and I’ve never been much for redheaded men, myself. Now, my cousin Lena, she’s the evening dispatcher over at the sheriff’s office, and she says he’s sexy as hell. She has the hugest crush on him. But give me a black-haired guy any day, like Cater and Daniel. Cater doesn’t live here, though. He’s a big writer now, and he lives in Austin.”

“Cater Sutton!” Antonia straightened. “The mystery writer? He’s Daniel’s brother?”

“That’s what I just said. I don’t read much, but Roberto says he’s famous.”

“He is. Definitely. I’ve read all his books.”

“If you’d rather hold out for him, he comes back to Angel Eye pretty often. He owns a little house off of Highway 43. Sometimes he stays there for weeks at a time. Roberto says he’s recharging his batteries, either that or he comes here to work out the hard parts of his plot. Roberto’s got several theories.”

“I am not ‘holding out’ for Cater Sutton or anybody else,” Antonia said repressively. “I was curious about Daniel, that’s all. I went to his farm today.”

Rita nodded. “Lilian told me. How’d it go?”

“I managed to deliver the foal. It was tough, but—”

“I know that.” Rita grimaced. “I meant how did it go with Daniel? Is he interested in you? Are you interested in him?”

“I just…wondered what the story was on him. He, uh, well, he was quite obnoxious at first, but then later we talked and—”

“Daniel Sutton?” Rita asked. “Obnoxious? Are you serious? Daniel is one of the most laid-back men I’ve ever met.”

“He wasn’t this morning. He was ticked off because I was a woman and he didn’t think I could handle his horse.”

“Oh.” Rita gave a dismissive shake of her head. “Just worried about his mare, I’ll bet. He’s a nice man. I’ve never even heard him raise his voice. He’s very quiet, doesn’t say much. But I’m guessing what you want to know is whether there is a Mrs. Daniel Sutton.”

“Rita…” Antonia was irritated to feel heat rising in her face. She hated the way her fair blonde’s skin gave her away all the time.

Rita chuckled. “Nothing wrong with that. Who wouldn’t want to know that if they met a hunk like him? Well, there used to be. He married his high school sweetheart is the way the story goes. I’m younger than them, so all I know is hearsay. But what I’ve heard is that he was crazy as could be about her—Lurleen was her name. Anyway, they got married right after they graduated from high school, and pretty soon they had a kid, James. James is a nice boy. He’s friends with my sister Lupe’s boy, and I’ve met him a few times. But Lurleen, they say, couldn’t stand life in a little town. She had always wanted to get out, but then she fell for Daniel, so she stayed and married him. Only she still hated it here, and after a while she left town.”

“Oh, no. She left her little boy, too?”

Rita nodded emphatically. “James was only three years old. Well, you might guess that didn’t make her too popular around here. I mean, a husband is one thing, but leaving your own child?”

“So Daniel’s raised him alone all these years?”

“Yeah. Did a good job of it, too, from what I’ve seen. But they say that he still carries a torch for Lurleen.”

“Really? After so long?” Antonia felt her heart sink a little within her, and she told herself that was foolish.

Rita nodded. “Yeah. It sounds kinda weird, but that’s what folks say.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s true, of course. But what they say is that he never filed for divorce. Finally, after several years, she did.”