Katherine Garbera - The Rebel Tycoon Returns

An awkward silence lagged between them. He was standing there in front of her looking very sexy and she felt bruised and battered.

“Where are you living now?” Chris asked at last.

“With my dad on our ranch.” It had been a hard time when she’d had the accident, and moving back to the ranch had been her only option.

“I never suspected you’d stay with your daddy, but I guess that makes sense,” Chris said.

“I moved back to town a little while ago,” she said. She didn’t have to justify her choices to anyone, but Chris made her feel as if she should explain.

“Go figure. I guess I always thought you’d find a nice rich boy and settle down,” Chris said. He rubbed a hand through his shaggy blond hair and gave her that charming grin of his that made her want to melt.

“I did. But he ran away when I proved not to be the Texas beauty queen he’d hoped for,” she said, and thought she didn’t sound bitter at all.

“Loser,” Chris said.

She laughed. “He was a very respectable man from a good family.”

“If he couldn’t make you happy then he’s a loser. I always loved your spirit.”

“Why, thank you, Chris. I think you are just what the doctor ordered.”

“While I’m here, I could use the insight of someone who’s been living here. Maybe you can tell me a little about what’s going on at the club. Would you join me for dinner tonight?”

She thought about it for a minute, but she knew she wanted to go. “I will. If you’re lucky I will introduce you to the next president of TCC, Ms. Abigail Langley.”

“I’d heard all the wives and daughters were campaigning for Abby. That’s the kind of information I need before I put in my bid to do the development,” Chris said.

“We are. It’s about time women had an equal stake in the Texas Cattleman’s Club. My father and his cronies aren’t sure what they are going to do. It completely threw them when Abby’s husband died and for the first time since Tex Langley founded the club a hundred years ago they didn’t have a male-Langley heir as a member. That’s the only reason Abby’s an honorary member.”

“That’s not my fight. I’m just the developer they’re thinking of hiring. What do you say to six-thirty? If you’re staying with your dad, I have the address.”

“Sounds perfect. I’ll see you then.”

Macy walked away very aware that Chris was watching her. The confidence she lost when Benjamin left her was finally coming back. She wanted to pretend that it was because the last of her surgeries was over, but she knew that it was because of Chris.

Chris Richardson had been on the high school varsity football team, which had made him something akin to a god in the tiny town of Royal, Texas. And it hadn’t taken Macy too long to set her sights on him. She was used to getting what she’d wanted back then, so he was hers just as junior year ended. They dated over the summer and through homecoming, but then her father had put his foot down.

Harrison Reynolds didn’t want his daughter dating a boy whose dad worked for the oil companies instead of owning one. A man who wasn’t a member of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, ensuring his son would never be one either.

Looking back now, Macy wished she’d been a different sort of girl and had maybe stood up for Chris. But she hadn’t been and she wondered sometimes if the accident was what it had taken to really shake things up for her.

One thing she knew for sure was that she’d never really gotten over him and she was glad he was back in Royal.

Chris watched Macy walk away. The sway of her hips and those gorgeous legs going a long way toward reminding him why he’d gone after her in high school. It hadn’t mattered to Macy’s dad that he was a star wide receiver back then, because he came from the wrong side of town.

But today he was here to visit his mom and to do a little work on the Texas Cattleman’s Club project. It was one of the most exclusive luxury country clubs in Texas. Only families with the right pedigree and the right amount of money could get in. And Chris’s working-class dad hadn’t provided either for Chris; though today he had more than enough money to buy himself a place in Royal’s exclusive club.

He took the elevator to the sixth floor and asked at the reception desk for his mom’s room. He walked down the hall to her room and opened the door to see her sitting up in her bed watching TV.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Chris! I didn’t think you were ever going to get here,” she said.

She fumbled around for the remote, but he was at her side before she found it. He leaned down to give her a big bear hug and a kiss. Then handed her the remote. She muted the television, which had been at high volume. Her hearing wasn’t as good as it used to be.

“This is extreme, Mom, even for you. Falling down so I’d come and visit you. You knew I’d be here on Texas Cattleman’s Club business this weekend.”

She shook her head and smiled at him. “I guess the good Lord thought I needed to see you before then. What took you so long to get up here?”

“I ran into Macy Reynolds.”

His mom sat up a little straighter. It had never sat right with her that Macy had dumped him just before the senior prom.

“What did you say to her?” Maggie asked.

“Just chitchat. I’m having dinner with her tonight,” Chris said. He tried hard to sound casual, but this was his mother and she knew him better than anyone else in the world.

“Is that wise?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. But it will definitely be fun. She’s changed.”

“I heard about the accident,” Maggie said.

“What happened?” Chris asked as he pulled a chair up close to his mom’s bed. She had the same thick blondish hair he did, but she wore hers straight. It hung around her pretty face in a fashionable style. Her eyes were blue like his, but she had a pert little nose and a full bow mouth.

“It was all over the news. Her little BMW convertible was hit from behind in traffic and her car slammed into an eighteen-wheeler. The car was engulfed in flames. She’s lucky to be alive. But horribly scarred. At least that’s what I heard down at the Royal Diner.”

“That place is a hotbed for gossip, but it doesn’t mean that any of that is true,” Chris said. The diner had the best greasy food in West Texas, but some of the stories to come out of there weren’t always the whole truth.

“It was real enough. She had to move back in with Harrison and has spent the past few years having a series of surgeries. It was heartbreaking, Chris, to see that pretty girl in bandages. She couldn’t walk for the first six months.”

Chris felt weak in the stomach at the thought of Macy in so much pain. He shook his head. “She seems much better now.”

“I think she is,” Maggie said. “But what about you? Tell me about your work with the Texas Cattleman’s Club.”

“There isn’t much to tell right now, Mom. I’m going to meet with Brad Price and then start working on my bid to develop and build a new headquarters for the Cattleman’s Club. I have a basic idea of what they want, but that’s it.”

“Are you going out there today?” Maggie asked.

“Yes, I am. I’ve been granted full privileges to the club while I’m working on the project.”

“Where are you staying?” she asked.

“With you. I think you might need someone at home with you when you get out of the hospital. Plus, the doctors still can’t figure out why you have these episodes,” he said with a grin.

“Good. You don’t have to stay with me, but I’m glad for the company. I miss you, Chris.”

He stood up and smiled down at his mom. Her face so familiar and dear to him, he brushed a kiss over her forehead and then tucked the covers more closely around her body. “I’ve missed you too, Mom.”