One Stubborn Texan

Chapter Sixteen

Russ somehow managed to get through the day. He got the hunting party outfitted in all the latest gear, garnering a nice profit. Of course, he wouldn’t have to worry about how profitable the store was if he accepted the ten million bucks.

Around noon the reporters gave up on him. They’d shot a few photos of him, but when he refused to be interviewed, they’d wandered off to greener stories.

For the remainder of the afternoon, the store was besieged by a string of customers who’d come in pretending to shop so they could gawk at him-or to offer sincere congratulations, because of course most normal people would see a windfall like this as good fortune. In fact, Russ was probably the only person in the world who saw it as a curse.

Sydney had brought a curse down on him, that was all there was to it. But whatever anger he’d felt toward her had dissipated during the day. He kept thinking about how she’d torn up the contract. If her only motive was money, she would never have done that. He couldn’t escape the niggling doubt that he’d somehow gotten it all wrong.

But Sydney had to be the one who’d alerted the media. Or at the very least, she’d told someone who then contacted the press. Which meant she’d lied. She’d manipulated him in the name of blatant self-interest; therefore she wasn’t the sort of person he wanted to be involved with romantically or do business with.

Bert had been fielding calls all day on his cell phone. He and his network of gossipers had kept the airwaves humming, though Bert was doing his best to quell the worst of the rumors.

Late in the afternoon, he hung up from a call looking troubled. “That was Eleanor Ivans. She said Winnie’s been up and down Main Street shopping, and she just bought a diamond necklace.”

“What?” Russ cursed softly. He’d wanted to wait until some of Winnie’s giddy excitement had worn off before sitting her down and forcing her to believe him when he said he wasn’t taking the money. But he couldn’t wait if she was running up her credit cards.

He shoved his sleeves into his jacket. “I’ll be back.”

“Dang, I’d like to be a fly on the wall for this conversation,” Bert said unhelpfully.

Russ found Winnie still in Stover’s Fine Jewelry. She smiled a greeting, but her smile faded when Russ scowled at her. She was wearing the necklace, which was so heavy with diamonds he was surprised she could stand up straight.

“Mom, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Just a little shopping. I haven’t had any sparklies since I sold the ones Sammy gave me and I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“I do mind. Return the necklace. Now. Then you and I are going to have a little chat.”

“I don’t see what you’re getting all bent out of shape for. I was gonna put it on layaway ’cause I know how you hate it when I run up my credit cards. But you’ll buy it for me, won’t you? It would just be a drop in the bucket.”

He hated it when Winnie used that little-girl voice with him. He thought she’d outgrown it. “Just give the necklace back to the nice man. Then we’ll go back to the Cut ’n’ Curl and go into your office and I’m going to talk and you’re going to listen.”

Winnie looked perturbed, but she unfastened the necklace and handed it back to the patient Mr. Stover. “Don’t sell it to anyone else, Arthur, please?”

“I’ll put your name on it.”

She winked at the elderly jeweler, then followed Russ outside and down the street to the beauty shop, holding her head high and walking like a queen.

Betty and Glory, who both had customers, stopped what they were doing to applaud Russ when he entered.

“Afternoon, ladies,” he said, hating the attention. He wasn’t crazy; this was proving he’d been right all along. Being rich would be nothing but a pain in the butt. He escorted Winnie into the small office in the back where she kept her books, did the payroll, placed hair-product orders and paid bills. She’d proved herself surprisingly competent at running her business. But for some reason, that expertise did not extend to her personal finances.

Travel magazines and brochures for cruises and safaris were spread out all over her desk. “You haven’t ordered anything else, have you? You haven’t booked any luxury vacations or bought a Mercedes or anything like that?”

“No, but if we’re going to be rich, I don’t see what the problem is. Do you have any idea how much money ten million dollars is? We couldn’t spend it in a lifetime if we tried.”

Winnie could. That woman could spend it in a year. But it was a moot point, because there wouldn’t be any money to spend.

“I’m going to talk and you’re going to listen. Okay?”

She nodded, looking a little scared.

“Sammy did, indeed, leave me a pile of money. But I’m not going to accept it.”

“Excuse me?”

He held up his finger. “I’m talking, remember?”

“But I’m not hearing right.”

“Mom, have you been happy? Since we moved to Linhart, I mean. Just nod.”

She nodded.

“And you love the Cut ’n’ Curl. You said when you were a little girl you always wanted your own beauty parlor. And when you bought it, you said it was a dream come true.”

She nodded again.

“We have good friends here, right? People who love us for who we are, not for what we can buy them.”

Another nod.

“Now, do you remember what life was like in Vegas? Parties, booze, drugs, people mooching off you. Sleeping till noon, waking with a hangover. Begging for money from Sammy, then spending it like water with nothing to show for it.”

She stared at the wall behind Russ, remembering.

“I’m not saying money is bad,” he continued. “But you and I weren’t meant to be rich. I love my life. And you love yours. Having a bunch of money would just mess things up.”

Winnie grabbed a tissue from a box on the desk and dabbed at her eyes.

“You can talk now.”

“You’re really going to refuse it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, crap. If I’d known that, I never would have called CNN and the Enquirer.”

Russ suddenly felt like he couldn’t get enough air. The room tilted and he grabbed on to the arms of his chair. “You called the media?”

“When you inherit millions from a notorious Las Vegas mobster, it’s not the kind of thing you want to keep a secret. I always wanted to be in the Enquirer, you know that. Not for something gross, like a hundred-pound tumor, but for something cool.”

“So Sydney told you about Sammy’s will,” he concluded.

“Oh, no, she never breathed a word about it. In fact, she never even mentioned what kind of work she did. But Bert knew some of it and that was enough to get me started. I looked her up on the Internet. Said she was an heir-finder. Then Betty’s son, the lawyer, explained what an heir-finder was. I was dying to know what business she had with you, so Betty and I did some more Googling. Did you know there’s a whole Web site devoted to finding you?”

Russ’s gut clenched so tight, he thought he might lose his lunch. What had he done? How could he have been so stupid?

“Russ, sweetie, you don’t look so good. Your face has gone white and you’re all pinched around the mouth. Want me to get you a Diet Coke? It’s all I have in the fridge.”

“No, thanks.” When he was pretty sure he could stand without passing out, he did. “I’m sorry for all the confusion.”

“I guess I should have waited to talk to you before I started counting my chickens, huh?”

“In retrospect, that might have been the wiser choice, but it’s okay.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“I thought you’d be mad at me.”

“No. I think you’re a chucklehead for walking away from that kind of money, but I’m not mad. Just disappointed. I really wanted that necklace.”

“They’re just rocks, Mom.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I wonder how we could be related.”

Back on Main Street, Russ inhaled deeply. He had to call Sydney and apologize. No, an apology wasn’t going to do it. He was going to have to grovel. When he remembered the things he’d said to her that morning, he cringed.

His mother was right; he was a chucklehead.

He didn’t even wait until he got back to the store. He used his cell to dial hers. But he only got her voice mail.

“Sydney, it’s Russ. I’m sorry. I’m just so, so sorry and I was completely wrong and deluded and a total ass…” He couldn’t think of any other good groveling sentiments off the top of his head, so he ended with, “Please call me.”

He doubted she would. Sydney was the best thing ever to happen to him, way better than ten million dollars, and he’d foolishly driven her away. If he’d been Sydney, he would have told himself to go to hell.

SYDNEY WAS FINALLY ABLE to see the top of her desk in her home office. She’d spent most of the day dealing with her own clients, putting out fires and responding to potential new customers who’d contacted her during her absence. Most of them had gone elsewhere for their security needs, but she’d made a couple of appointments.

She’d also spent a lot of time taking Blossom for walks, carefully dodging her apartment manager. But she was going to have to move if she wanted to keep the dog. And dammit, she was keeping the stupid dog, which had cried all night until Sydney had brought her into bed with her. Now they had bonded.

She had to keep her eye on the puppy every minute. She’d already destroyed one house slipper, one table leg and the corner of her bedspread.

But as infuriating as the puppy was, she was so darn cute and lovable, Sydney couldn’t even consider finding her another home. The dog was hers, for better or worse. And if every time Sydney looked at the dog she was reminded of Nero and then Russ, that was just too bad. Maybe she wouldn’t open herself up so easily to the next broad-shouldered good ol’ boy who pretended to have all kinds of values and morals and ethics, but who could so easily assume she was a slime bucket.

She didn’t fault him for suspecting her. But he could have investigated before throwing accusations at her. She still fumed every time she thought of how easily he’d dismissed the bond they’d forged. And accusing her of making up the story about her poor grieving father’s nearly bankrupt business-how could he believe anyone would do that, much less the woman he’d just spent all night making love to?

Her cell phone rang, and she checked the caller ID: Russ again. He’d been leaving voice mail messages every couple of hours all day long and the previous evening, too.

Sydney couldn’t talk to him yet. Her feelings were too raw, too exposed. But she kept listening to the voice mails just to hear the sound of his voice and remember what it was like to be in love, if only briefly.

“Sydney, I’m searching for your office but I can’t find it. I’m standing out on the corner of Atlantic and Court streets looking like an idiot. Someone handed me a dollar because they thought I was homeless. Please help.”

Russ was here? In Brooklyn? The man she’d firmly believed would never set foot outside central Texas had gotten on a plane and flown to the biggest, most crowded city in America to see her?

She went to her window and looked out. Oh, my God. There he was, standing across the street by Your Personal Assistant, Inc., which was a mailbox and secretarial service. After a stalking incident a couple of years back, she didn’t give out her physical address to people she didn’t know. The address on her business card was the one Russ had found.

Her heart ached as she looked at him, so out of place with his cowboy hat and his jeans and boots.

She decided to take pity on him. She would direct him to her office, accept his apology and send him back to Texas where he clearly belonged. She dialed the number, and he answered instantly.

“Sydney?”

“I can see you from my window. Cross the street. Turn right and come in the second doorway. I’ll buzz you up. Take the elevator to the third floor.” She disconnected and watched as he followed her directions.

When he got off the elevator, she was standing in the hallway, waiting for him, her arms folded. She didn’t intend to make this easy for him. But then she realized she’d already made it pretty hard. He’d come all the way to New York just to see her.

“I was wrong,” he said.

“Wow, that’s a news flash.”

“I made a mistake.”

“You blew it, big-time. Do you know I was actually thinking about moving to Texas? That’s how crazy I am-was-about you.”

“You don’t have to move. I could live here. New Yorkers probably need outdoor adventures in the worst way. I could do tours of the Hudson River and, uh, sewer explorations or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You would never move to New York.”

“If that’s what it takes to be with you, Sydney, then, yes, I would. Not only yes, but hell, yes. Who cares about where you live? It’s how you live and who you live with that matter.”

She studied him, amazed at the lengths he was going to. Was it possible? Could he really care for her that much?

“You just don’t like it that I was the one to walk away.” She was grasping here, because he was getting to her. She’d sworn she would never speak to him again, that his name was no longer a part of her vocabulary. Yet here she was, standing a few feet from him, having to focus hard on not closing the distance between them and throwing herself against him, pressing her nose into his ubiquitous flannel shirt and inhaling that wonderful, manly male smell that was his and no one else’s.

“You didn’t walk away,” he argued. “I drove you away. I knew I’d made a mistake before your car cleared the garage. If you really don’t have any interest in seeing me, that’s one thing. But if you’re angry and hurt that I didn’t trust you-and you have every right to be-there might be a chance you’ll get over it.”

“In fifty years,” she shot back, folding her arms. “Or a hundred.”

“That mad, huh?”

“It’s not just that I’m mad. I…I…”

The elevator doors opened and a cleaning woman emerged with her cart and a vacuum cleaner. Giving Sydney and Russ a curt nod, she plugged in the vacuum cleaner and proceeded to clean the hall carpet.

Obviously they couldn’t continue this conversation here in the hallway. Reluctantly, Sydney turned and led Russ down to her apartment. The moment Russ entered her home, a streak of brown fur went straight for him. Blossom bounced on her hind legs, then rebounded off Russ’s knee and circled around in a dance of puppy joy. Oh, boy, a new friend.

“What is this?” Russ went down to the floor in a heartbeat, welcoming the exuberant puppy into his arms. She bathed his face in dog kisses.

“She needed a home,” Sydney said, cross that she’d been found out.

“You don’t like dogs,” Russ said, laughing as he tried to push the puppy away. It was like pushing the ocean.

“Do you wonder why? She’s the stupidest, most badly behaved animal on the planet.” Sydney sat on the arm of her sofa, defeated. “She would have ended up at the animal shelter if I hadn’t bought her. I was perfectly happy without a dog.”

Russ scratched Blossom behind the ears and amazingly she calmed down. “She looks just like Nero did when he was a pup. Are you going to keep her?”

“You want her? She’s yours.” Of course, she didn’t mean it.

“Okay. But I suspect if she comes, you’ll come with her. You’re crazy about this dog, I can tell.”

This conversation wasn’t going at all how Sydney thought it would. She hadn’t expected to be tempted. She had naively believed that seeing Russ face to face she could banish him once and for all from her thoughts, shut off the memories in a closed file in her mind and get on with her life.

“I can’t be with a man who’s going to think the worst of me at every opportunity. I can’t be with a man who doubts me, who has no faith in me. I’m not going to live my life trying to prove my loyalty. If I’m late for a date, will you assume I’ve been with another man? If I have a friendly chat with the grocery check boy, will you call it flirting? Will you be checking my pockets for notes from secret lovers, checking out my cell phone to see who I’ve been talking to?”

“I’m not like that,” he said, standing up and giving Blossom one last pat. “I’m not normally jealous or suspicious. I’m very laid-back.”

“What I saw yesterday morning was not laid-back.”

“It was an isolated incident. I was shocked by those reporters. You’d been talking on the phone earlier, kind of secretive in the middle of the night, and I put two and two together and came up with five hundred. It won’t happen again, I swear it. Just give me another chance. You can put me on probation.”

How was she supposed to say no to that? She was willing to bet this man didn’t humble himself very often. When she said nothing, because she was too busy hyperventilating, he kept going. She suspected he would keep talking until he convinced her or she kicked him out.

“I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I’m thinking you’re the one I want to be with the rest of my life. Sometimes a man just knows when something is right. I knew when I saw Linhart for the first time that I wanted to live there forever. I knew when Bert offered to sell me the general store that it was meant to be. And I knew when I held you in my arms when we were dancing, and even more when I kissed you, we had something special together. What I’m trying to say is that I love you.”

Sydney blinked back tears. Was this really happening?

Blossom was busy gnawing on Russ’s cowboy boots. Russ shook his foot, trying to dislodge the puppy. “Do you know how hard it is to declare your love with a dog attached to your shoe? C’mon, puppy, don’t take away whatever small amount of dignity I might have left.”

Sydney had run out of resistance. How could she not forgive a man with a puppy attached to his shoe? “I love you, too, you know? Despite my best efforts.”

His sexy mouth started to widen into a grin, but he stopped it. “Is there a but? As in, ‘but I could never spend my life with you’?”

She shook her head. “Can I kiss you now?”

“Um, Blossom beat you to it. Would you settle for a really good hug?”

She held out her arms. In a flash Russ had her in his embrace. He hugged her long and hard. “I was so afraid I’d never get to do this again. I mean it about moving to New York, too. There’s no law that says you have to be the one to disrupt your life and I would never ask you to move away from your father when he needs you, or your job, since you love it.”

“I don’t care where we live. Just so we’re together.” She could do her kind of work anywhere as long as she wasn’t too far from a city. Austin would do. She would move to Texas in a heartbeat if not for her father. But they could figure out something, she was sure of it.

The phone in her office rang. She considered ignoring it, but she wasn’t really in a good position to turn down work. Russ loosened his hold on her enough that she could slip into her office and grab the phone. “Baines Security.”

“Wade Clancy returning your call.”

Oh, hell. The bankruptcy lawyer. She refused to let that reminder dampen her happiness. It was just money. She made an appointment for the following afternoon, then wrote down the list of things she would need to bring with her-financial statements, tax returns and such.

Russ played with Blossom while Sydney conducted business. He loved how cool and efficient she was on the phone. No one talking to her would guess the passion that lay just beneath the surface.

He didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he couldn’t help hearing part of her conversation, and he realized she was talking to someone about bankruptcy. Oh, hell, he couldn’t let her do that. He’d forgotten his most important reason for coming here. Well, second-most important, after making up with Sydney. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a rumpled and oddly contoured stack of papers. He waited until Sydney hung up, then wordlessly handed it to her.

“You’re taking this back-no arguments.”

She looked at the contract, then burst out laughing. “How long did it take you to Scotch-tape this back together?”

“Only a couple of hours.”

Then she sobered. “Russ, are you sure?”

“I’ve already talked to my mom and she took the news far better than I would have expected. I told her I would set up retirement funds for both of us and for Bert, so we don’t have to worry in our old age, but the rest is going to the Wildlife Preservation Cooperative, earmarked to buy land in the Hill Country and designate it a protected wilderness area. She thinks I need to see a psychiatrist, maybe a whole team of them, but she’ll adjust to the idea. So you can just call that bankruptcy lawyer and cancel your appointment.”

“You’re a strange but generous man.”

“The gesture is completely selfish. I want to raise my kids in a place that still has unspoiled woods and meadows and rivers and lakes. I don’t want Bert’s cabin to end up surrounded by ugly housing developments with cookie-cutter minimansions and no trees.”

Sydney reached for her coat. “C’mon, let’s go. I want you to meet someone.”

“Your father?”

She nodded. “Don’t be put off if he doesn’t give you the warmest of receptions. We spent yesterday evening eating tempura, getting tipsy on saki and trashing you. But he’ll warm up when he sees the contract.”

They put on coats, then walked the seven blocks to her father’s building, their gloved hands clasped. Blossom was on her leash, her behavior impossible. She charged at every person she saw wanting to make friends, wound her leash around Sydney’s legs every thirty seconds or so, and generally made a nuisance of herself.

“Nero’s going to love her,” Russ said with a laugh as Sydney unwrapped the leash from a lamppost. “She needs obedience training, though.”

“It’s on my list.”

They passed a jewelry store, and Russ stopped and looked in the window. “Let’s go in here.”

Sydney hesitated at the door.

“I need to buy my mother a peace offering,” Russ said. “She wants a diamond necklace bigger than the one her friend Eleanor has, and I figure I can unbend my principles enough to do that one thing for her. You can help me pick it out.”

“Oh, okay.”

“But you might look at engagement rings, too.”

For a moment, she had that deer-in-headlights look and he worried that he’d pushed for too much. But he couldn’t help it. He wanted no secrets between them, so she should know just exactly how serious his intentions were.

“If that was a marriage proposal, it lacked a certain something,” she said with a nervous giggle. She looked absolutely adorable, standing there with the dog’s leash wrapped around her once again.

“If I were to do a better job of it, would you say yes?”

She nodded without hesitation.

“Okay, just checking.”

Thirty minutes later, Russ left the store with a necklace in his pocket that was even more spectacular than the one Winnie had picked out at Stover’s. He also had a pretty good idea what type of diamond ring Sydney would like. He would buy that later and give it to her while on one knee in some appropriately romantic place, since that was what she wanted. But right now he was content with the fact that he and Sydney were together. Wherever they ended up, it would be home, because it would be filled with love.