Linda Varner - Lone Star Bride

Not that he’d seen that smile or the dimples he suspected she might have. He hadn’t yet, but would. Oh, yes, he would. Mariah’s current dislike of him rankled and challenged since he excelled at attracting and entertaining strangers...especially women...talents on which his living depended.

Worse, he sensed that she feared him for some reason, and he suspected her fear went beyond that of bodily harm or loss of belongings, though she probably worried about both of those, too. Lovely Mariah was a puzzle for sure—a puzzle Tony intended to solve before he left Pleasant Rest. Luckily his antique truck had provided an excuse for staying in town a bit longer, just as it had provided him the opportunity to meet her in the first place.

Mariah halted her trek down the carpeted hallway so suddenly that Tony nearly ran into her. “Here’s where you’ll sleep.” She reached through a doorway and flipped on a light, illuminating a spacious bedroom complete with king-size bed, double dresser, sturdy bureau and leather recliner.

“Thanks,” Tony murmured, brushing past her into what had to have been a man’s bedroom. The colors of hunter green and rich maroon abounded, from the curtains to the mallard-print bedspread to the leather in the chair. “Wow,” he murmured, perusing the room, feeling instantly at home. “This is way better than any motel.” He gave her a smile. “It’ll be great to wake up in the same bed for a morning or two.”

She started, then swallowed audibly, almost as if something he’d said disturbed her. “Um...Ruby and Opal usually save this room for visiting relatives.”

“Then why’d they put me in here?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” answered Mariah, though she looked as if she might really have several and didn’t like a one of them any more than she liked Tony.

Seeing her as she appeared now—downright angry about his presence in the house—he had to wonder if the sun had fried his brain earlier that day when he’d imagined their initial instantaneous chemistry. All hints of physical attraction, at least on her part, had long since vanished. As for himself...well, at the moment all he could think of was that big ol’ bed and how nice it would be to cozy up with Miss Mariah Ashe on it.

“I get the feeling you wish I wasn’t here,” Tony said, stepping closer, testing her current frame of mind.

She didn’t take a matching step back, but then didn’t need to, since her gaze nailed him to the spot, preventing further advance. That left a yard or so still between them.

“I think my friends are foolish to take you in.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you’re a smooth talker who doesn’t mean a word he says.”

Mariah’s blunt answer surprised and insulted Tony. “Those are mighty strong words, considering we laid eyes on each other for the first time less than an hour ago.”

“Tell me you really remember your first meeting with Opal and Ruby, and I’ll take every word back.”

He couldn’t, so he felt his face flush. “Look, Mariah. I’m just an ordinary guy who’s a little down on his luck.”

“Meaning you’re as broke as your truck is broken?”

“Now what makes you say that?” he asked, insulted again. He’d managed his mobile business for years and always turned a healthy profit, most of which was tucked away in an Amarillo savings and loan, drawing interest.

“Just a guess,” Mariah told him. “So tell me...what’s Ruby accepting in trade for the room?”

Tony’s jaw dropped. How on earth could she possibly know he preferred bartering services to a cash exchange in delicate situations such as this? Or had she simply assumed he was a destitute, no-good drifter, out for what he could get?

Her expression suggested the latter.

“Actually, I am a little strapped for cash at the moment,” he murmured instead of setting her straight. Throwing up a hand to ward off the insults certain to tumble off Mariah’s lips, which still weren’t smiling, he quickly uttered the words she undoubtedly expected to hear. “But only until I know what this truck repair is going to cost me. Ruby’s agreed to accept pastel portraits in payment for one night’s lodging.”

“I see.”

Mariah’s cold tone said what he’d guessed—she thought he was a loser and a user. She turned on her heel and walked to the next doorway. Suddenly irritated with the way the conversation had gone, Tony caught up with her in three strides and grabbed her by the arm before she could vanish into what must be her bedroom.

“Look,” he said when she turned to glare at him. “I’m sorry that artist hurt you—” her shocked expression told him he could guess as well as she could “—but he wasn’t me. I really am a nice guy. I really will do the portraits, and the twins really will be thrilled with them.”

“Oh, I believe you,” Mariah murmured, shaking off his touch. Her tone said the twins would love crayon portraits of stick men if he drew them. “And for your information, they weren’t artists, but they were footloose charmers just like you.”

They? “Sounds like you’ve got my number,” Tony commented with sarcasm.

“Oh, I’ve got it.”

“And you’re prepared to do whatever it takes to save Opal and Ruby?”

“You’d better believe it.”

Inordinately bothered by Mariah’s low opinion of him, Tony leaned close and looked her straight in the eye. “I’d sooner hurt my own mother than either of those sweet little old ladies. So relax, will you? They’re safe...you’re all safe...from me.”

“Really?” She put her splayed fingers to his chest and gave him a little shove. “Well, remember this, Tony Mason. If either of my friends gets hurt in any way while you’re in this house, you’ll never be safe from me.”

Tony didn’t see Mariah again that night after she stepped into her bedroom and shut the door, but thought about their confrontation while he visited with the twins downstairs and consumed a peanut butter sandwich and the best sugar cookies in the state of Texas, maybe the world.

Curious about Mariah’s fierce defense, he did his best to get them to talk about her. “Mariah seems very nice.”

“Oh, she is,” said Ruby. “All her customers love her.”

Tony finished off his cookie before speaking again. “You said she’s single?”

Bright-eyed Opal nodded. “For the moment. She really wants a family, though, and I sometimes think if Willard Reynolds asked her to marry him, she might say yes in a weak moment.” Her expression told Tony she didn’t approve of this Reynolds guy.

“He’s the superintendent of schools,” added Ruby, looking equally disapproving.

“He has a house and a good job,” Opal further explained, as if that would make everything clear.

“What does this Willard guy look like?” Tony asked, naturally curious about a man who could attract a woman as lovely as Mariah.

Ruby spoke first. “He’s balding, with a ruddy complexion. Not too tall, a little pudgy. Opal? Can you add anything?”

“He’s a mama’s boy.”

Tony bit back a smile at their unflattering description. “I get the feeling you don’t care for Mr. Willard Reynolds.”

“Well, we do think she could do better for herself,” said Ruby. “In fact, just this evening we offered to find her a—”

“Ruby!” Opal’s sharp reprimand abruptly halted her sister’s exposé. “Let’s just say Mariah prefers flying solo.”

Flying solo, huh? Well, he understood that desire. Divorced and the wiser for it, Tony preferred flying solo, too.

Sometime later, when Tony lay alone in his borrowed bed, he realized there were times—usually at night—when going it alone became unbearable. He even admitted that just then he wouldn’t mind a close brush with a warm, female body... especially one with beautiful brown hair and long, shapely legs.