Linda Warren - A Texas Hero

“I was very naive back then. Did your mother ever read fairy tales to you?”

“What?”

“Fairy tales. Cinderella? Sleeping Beauty?”

“Hell, no.”

“You’re lying, Ethan James.”

“Well, yeah, she read me stories like Cowboy Billy and horse ones. I didn’t pay attention to the others.”

“I did. I dreamed of one day finding my prince. He’d be handsome, charming, compassionate, have a great sense of humor and high values and morals. We’d fall madly in love, get married and live happily ever after on Fairy Tale Lane.” She stuck a finger in her mouth and pretended to gag. “I can’t believe I was that stupid but, sadly, I was a clone of millions of women looking for a prince and ending up with a big toad.”

“He cheated on you?”

“Yeah, but not with his heart. Only his body.”

“That’s an old line.”

“Oh, Doug has hundreds.”

“How did you find out?”

“Quite unexpectedly. Since Doug is an executive in his dad’s banking empire, he travels a lot. He’d returned from a four-day weekend in Florida and he was exhausted. He said it was business meeting after business meeting. The next day I was scrapbooking some of Chloe’s baby pictures into an album and I ran out of paper. I went online to order it because I knew they didn’t have it at the store. I’d already looked.”

She lifted her wet hair from her hot neck and prayed for a breeze to cool the heated emotions churning in her. But the air was still and blistering in the woods.

“I had two emails from someone I didn’t know, and usually I would just delete them, but for some reason I opened the first one and received the shock of my life. It was a video of my husband and a woman who works in his office. They were naked and having sex. I sat in a stupor and opened the other one, which was more of the same. I downloaded it to a flash drive and my phone. I then packed my clothes and Chloe’s and left. I drove to the bank and withdrew a large sum of money from our checking account. My dad is also in banking so I went to his bank and asked him to deposit the money in his name so the Baumans couldn’t touch it.”

She drew a long breath. “I left Chloe with Dad and went back to the Bauman bank. I delivered the flash drive to Doug, told him my lawyer would be in touch and not to call me or try to get in touch.”

“Your marriage was over just like that?”

“No. It was a god-awful year before it was over. The judge ordered counseling and the Baumans got involved, begging me to forgive Doug’s one-time lapse. They wanted me to think of Chloe and how much Doug loved us.”

“You didn’t bend under the pressure?”

“No. The moment I saw Doug on my computer screen with that woman, he killed whatever love I had for him.”

“People do make mistakes. Maybe he regrets his lapse.”

She studied the strong lines of his face. “Are you kidding me?”

“You loved him until you saw the video. Anger has just clouded your feelings.”

She scooted to her knees beside him. “So, cheating is just something men do. It’s part of their nature. Women should overlook it. The poor soul couldn’t help himself.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Oh, I think you did, Mr. Everything Goes Tom Cat.”

“Listen, lady...”

“Abby.”

“Could you please shut up? We need to conserve our energy.”

“Fine.” She scooted back against the tree. “I don’t want to talk to someone like you, anyway.”

Nothing was a said for a few minutes. Abby wasn’t so hot or tired anymore. She was just mad at his pompous attitude. She didn’t end her marriage because she was hurt. Their marriage vows had been irrevocably broken. She could never trust Doug again and without trust they had nothing.

Then it hit her. She turned to look at the stoic macho male beside her. “You cheated on your wife, didn’t you?”

“I’ve never been married,” he said without even looking at her. “But I have a kid.”

“Oh.” All types of scenarios whizzed through her head.

“I thought you were going to be quiet.”

“I lied,” she replied tongue-in-cheek. “Women do that. It’s in our nature.”

“I know.”

The way he said that gave her pause. Those two words echoed with a lot of hurt and pain. “Who lied to you?”

He turned to her, his eyes fever-dark and she felt dizzy at all the emotions she saw there. “Abby...”

“Yes, Abby. That’s not so hard, is it?”

“I liked it better when you were mad at me.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “That can change at any minute.”

“Yep.”

She poked him in the ribs. “Don’t start that.” She stood on her knees again and leaned back on her heels. “Tell me about the woman who lied to you.”

* * *

ETHAN WOULD HAVE sworn on a stack of Bibles that he would never talk about his past, especially to the most aggravating woman in the world, but before he knew it, words tumbled from his mouth.

“I was in the Marines and home on leave. When I returned to the San Diego base, I still had a couple of days left before reporting for duty. My buddy and I decided to have a fun weekend before shipping out to Afghanistan. We hooked up with two girls in a bar. Unfortunately, my date was Sheryl Winger. Two months later I got a letter from her. I don’t know how she got my address, but she did. She was pregnant and wanted money. What she really wanted was to have my check mailed to her. That didn’t fly. I did send her money and told her I would take care of the baby.”

“She gave you the child?”

“Not exactly. I sent her money for three months and then I got a letter saying she’d made a mistake. The baby wasn’t mine. I was happy to be off the hook and swam away without giving it another thought. I told my commander about it though and he said it was a scheme to get my check. There really wasn’t a baby.”

“But there was?”

“Oh, yeah. About ten years later I heard from her again. She wanted ten years of child support. I wanted a DNA test.”

“The child was yours?”

“Yep. By then I’d hired a killer attorney and Sheryl received no money and I got full custody of Kelsey. Except Sheryl disappeared with Kelsey. When she knew the cops were closing in, she dumped Kelsey on my doorstep with one suitcase. In front of Kelsey, she said I could have the smart-mouthed kid.”

“How awful.”

“I did a background check on Sheryl and she’d used Kelsey in several attempts to extort money from marines. Kelsey stayed with Sheryl’s mother until she passed away. Kelsey was nine then. The kid has had it pretty rough and is filled with so much anger. I’m not sure I did her any favors by fighting for her.” He got to his feet. “We have to move on.”

“Ethan, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah. Everybody is. Let’s go.” He was tired of talking. It served no purpose but to dredge up his own anger.

She fell into step beside him. “I understand your attitude toward women a little better.”

“I don’t need you to understand me. I need you to follow orders so we can find our way back to our families. Do you think you can handle that?”

He walked off, leaving her with her mouth gaping open. But he didn’t care. If not for her, he would be home with his daughter.

Then Abby Bauman would be dead.

The thought splintered through his hard demeanor and shook his resolve. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He wasn’t sure why that was so important. For now, though, they had to work together to survive.

* * *

EVERETT MADE PEANUT BUTTER and jelly sandwiches for lunch. It was Chloe’s favorite. Gayle cut up fruit, even though he hadn’t asked her to. They hadn’t spoken since the morning, and she never did go shopping. All he could think about was his daughter. He and Gayle would talk later.