Chapter 1 #2
“Didn’t. Came in for a taco.”
“I’ll save you some.” Then another group of hungry patrons came in, so Lily got to work.
For the next two hours, she hustled like she hadn’t hustled in years, taking and delivering orders, while keeping glasses filled, condiments topped off, and customers happy. Her wad of tips was getting fat by the time the lunch rush flagged.
Only a couple of patrons remained.
One of them was a regular. He must’ve wandered in during the rush when she hadn’t been paying attention.
She stole a look at him while wiping down the bar.
Nobody seemed to know who he was, and you couldn’t really tell what he looked like, with the bushy dirty-blond beard and ever-present sombrero. He kept it down low over his eyes.
He came in most afternoons, always sat at the same table, and usually stayed into the night, sipping tequila, and just…watching.
A handful of times, when there’d been trouble, he’d stepped in to help.
But he never said much, just did what was needed and returned to his silent, tequila-fed contemplation.
He had a long-nosed, black pistola under his blue-and-white woven poncho.
Maria said she’d seen him pull it out the day her ex had found her there with Harrison and beaten him bloody.
Lord, what her poor brother hadn’t gone through for Maria Michelle Brand. Oh, but at the wedding, while he’d watched that wild redhead walk down the aisle toward him, there’d been tears in Harrison’s eyes. Lily’d had a perfect view because she was his “best woman” and stood beside him.
She’d glanced past her brother to where Ethan stood on his other side in the little white church with the red doors and the tall steeple. Cousin and bestie of the bride, he’d served as Maria’s “man of honor.”
Ethan Brand had caught her looking at him, and they’d locked eyes. His were full of joy for his cousin, but then turned a little nervous when their gazes held a beat too long.
They’d slow-danced at the reception. She’d asked him after a few beers had given her courage.
He’d held her close, too, one arm around her waist up high, the other holding her hand outward, like they were going to waltz.
She’d wiggled her hand free and hugged him instead.
He surrendered with a sigh and wrapped his arms around her.
He was tall and wide, and she was built like her mother had been, small and slight.
She was enveloped by him, and she’d liked the feeling.
So she pressed as close as she could and sighed out every wisp of breath in her lungs.
When she inhaled again, she smelled Ethan.
His soap, his clothes, his skin. She’d lifted her head to look up at the cleft in his chin.
They were outdoors, of course, on the front lawn of the sprawling Texas Brand ranch.
He was wearing his hat, so his face was in shadows that emphasized the line of his jaw, the slight hollow of his cheek, and the thin layer of dark scruff that covered it.
She wanted to run her own cheek across that scruff.
As if he felt her eyes on him, he looked down.
She didn’t look away. She just held his gaze and let him see what was in her eyes, and she must’ve done a good job, because his sparked with desire.
But then the spark was banked by what looked like worry.
Maybe fear. The song ended. He thanked her for the dance and walked away so fast you’d have thought she was a dragon about to flame-roast him.
He’d avoided her for the rest of the night. Not that she’d put up much of a fight, once she realized that was what he was doing. She had some pride, after all.
The next day he’d left without saying goodbye to resume playing in honky-tonks around the south and southwest, ever in search of his second big hit.
Her father’s hand came to Lily’s shoulder from behind. “You haven’t forgotten a thing, have you?”
She blinked out of her memories and back to the moment at hand—the two of them slinging food together again.
“I loved working at the Sunday Café with you, Dad,” she said, wiping the memory from her eyes and turning to smile at him. “Those were the happiest times of my life. I don’t?—”
Then she bit her lip to stop the flow of words. She’d almost blurted, “I don’t like being a nurse.”
It would’ve been a stupid thing to say. Her mom had been a nurse, so she was a nurse. There’d never been a question, really. She looked like her mom, she was named after her mom, and she aspired to be like her mom.
Everyone had loved the original Lily, Lily Marie. The mourners at her funeral had been out the door and spilled onto the sidewalk outside the funeral home. Angel on earth, the minister had called her. For hours, people had sung her mother’s praises.
Lily Ellen, the knock-off Lily, had Lily Marie’s angel-blonde hair and her big blue eyes, her slight build and her naturally soft voice. But she didn’t have her mother’s heart. She wasn’t half the woman her mom had been.
Her dad and brother, however, thought otherwise, and they relied on her to fill the hole her mother’s death had left in the family. So she was faking her way through life, trying to be this serene, healing angel, failing most of the time, and screaming in frustration on the inside.
“They were your happiest times so far ,” her father said, wagging a finger at her. His smile was bright, and his light-blue eyes were too, but Lily could still see the loneliness behind them. “There are far happier times to come.”
“For sure,” she replied, though she doubted it. Had it sounded convincing? “Did you save me some tacos, like you said?”
“I did. And before she took Pilar and Pedra on their trip, Rosa finally gave me her precise seasoning blend,” he said. “Ever since I started helping out here, I’ve been asking. I flatter, I flirt?—”
“Don’t you dare flirt! Manny has a baseball bat back here.” She nodded at the bat leaning in the corner within easy reach of anyone behind the bar.
“You’re right,” he replied.
The kitchen doors opened, and Manny came in carrying a large crate of bottles. He must’ve carried them up from the basement, Lily thought. He was sweating and grimacing a little.
Hyram quickly took the heavy crate from Manny and lowered it to the floor behind the bar. “You should’ve let me help,” he said, as he straightened upright again.
Manny stood rooted to the spot, though, and then he bent forward, and kept going, clasping his chest as he fell to the floor.
“He’s having a heart attack!” Hyram cried, grabbing Lily’s arm. “Do something!”
“Me?” she blurted.
“You’re a nurse!”
“Oh, right.” Shit, shit, shit . She crouched beside Manny, rolling him onto his back, opening his shirt, and looking around the place for a defibrillator. Several patrons gathered around, trying to see behind the bar.
“Somebody call 911,” Lily called. “Is there a defibrillator in here?”
“I got it,” said a deep voice. And then the portable defibrillator case was lowered to the floor beside her and she looked up to see the gringo in the sombrero, who gave her a nod and moved to help her father herd the remaining customers out of the building.
“I’ll box up your food and bring it outside,” her dad was telling them. “Please don’t block the way for the ambulance.”
“I’ll see to it,” the gringo said, and he went outside with the rest.
Lily knelt beside Manny, checking for a pulse in his neck and not finding one. Then again, her own heart was pounding so hard her fingertips were throbbing. She attached the leads.
“Okay,” she said. “Okay.” She’d never done this before, never electrocuted a heart back into beating. She powered the device on. The button marked SHOCK was bright red. She moved her finger over it, clenched her jaw, and started to press.
Manny suddenly sucked in a loud, harsh breath, and she jerked her hand away from the button so fast she fell on her backside on the floor. Then she scrambled forward again, her hands going to his shoulders. “Easy, Manny, you’re okay. Help’s on the way.”
She untaped the leads and pushed the case away from her in horror. She’d nearly pressed the button. She’d nearly…
A siren wailed in the distance.
“My chest hurts,” Manny said.
“That’s okay, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”
She’d almost shocked him. God, she’d almost shocked him. If she’d have pressed that button, she could’ve killed him. Trying to help him, she could’ve killed him. And she knew, right then, that she was going to quit her job before she closed her eyes that night.
Her dad and Harrison would be so disappointed in her. She wondered if all the parts of her phony-baloney identity as her mom’s worthy successor would crumble around her feet, now that the avalanche had begun.
Manny clasped her hand. “Rosa can’t manage this place with me laid up in a hospital, Lily.”
“My dad’s here. Your girls will be here. And I’ll help out, too.” Then more quietly, she added, “I’m gonna have some time on my hands.”