Chapter 2
Chapter Two
T he Saturday barbecue at the Texas Brand was in full swing, with country music playing, grills sizzling, plates heaping, and a whole slew of Brands talking and laughing at once, when a distant dust cloud announced a new arrival.
Lily gazed out past the rolling lawn, over the hard-packed dirt road that ran beneath the tall arch with the words “Texas Brand” carved out of the wood. Sure enough, a vaguely pickup truck-shaped dust cloud moved closer.
Garrett, clan patriarch, was standing near the grill with a two-pronged fork in one hand. He gazed at the approaching vehicle and said, “Don’t know who it could be. We’re all here.”
“Not all,” his pretty wife Chelsea said, pointing at the dust cloud. “Whatever’s charging this way is big, and I do believe it’s also red.”
“Bubba!” Maria yelled, jumping up from her plate of food and slamming her hands on the picnic table so hard her glass of sweet tea jumped.
Her new husband, who was also Lily’s brother, said something near her ear. Then she shouted, “Ethan!” her cousin’s preferred name.
It was, Lily knew, his middle name. Ethan’s birth mother had named him after Garrett Brand before leaving him on that wide, welcoming front porch as a baby.
The Brands had given her shelter when she’d been in trouble.
She’d never forgotten the ways of this family, the closeness, the sheer goodness , of the Brands.
So when she’d been desperate to hide her child someplace safe, this was the place she’d come.
She’d left a note pleading with them to raise her son and to protect him from his criminal father in case she couldn’t get back to him herself.
And she never had.
The red truck moved closer, its dusty plume like a comet’s tail.
Lily’s stomach clenched into a knot so tight she couldn’t swallow the potato salad in her mouth. She reached for her water to wash it down. Ethan. Now, of all times? She was already in the midst of an existential crisis; she didn’t need him coming around and making it worse.
It didn’t matter. She had her first date with Fred, a phlebotomist from El Paso, tonight. Fred was a nice guy. He was smart, informed, could carry on an intelligent conversation. He was well-mannered, treated others kindly, and they liked some of the same TV shows.
Lily had described him just that way to Maria, and her sister-in-law had said, “Sounds downright scintillatin’,” ladling more sarcasm onto the words than gravy onto a biscuit.
Trying to look casual, Lily picked up her plate and carried it toward the house, all too aware of Maria and her cousin Willow tipping their heads together as she passed, while Drew, the youngest of the cousins, watched from nearby.
From behind the sleek curtain of her jet-black hair, Willow whispered, “Give her a minute.”
The truck’s tires crunched over the driveway just as Lily crossed the front porch, and shivers went up and down her spine. She hurried inside. The screen door banged closed behind her, and she stood just inside the cool, dim house.
Ethan had been left as a baby on the very threshold she’d just crossed, she thought. His mother must’ve known there was no better place on earth for a kid to grow up. Why would anyone ever want to leave?
Why couldn’t Ethan bring himself to stay?
She crossed through the big, comfortable home to the kitchen to rinse her plate, and mulled on the Ethan Brand she’d known first, long before she’d ever met him in person.
The country music singer. His first hit song had made her long for the “Country Kind of Love” it described.
She felt the same longing for it that she heard in his voice, especially when it broke on the chorus.
And the ballad “Home” (side 1, track 3) had made her long to be in Quinn, Texas, before she’d even known its name.
Desert dark and badlands mean,
alongside fields o’ blue and green
Where horses graze and cattle roam
and people care, that there’s my home
She belonged in that place he described.
She’d felt it since she’d first set foot in Quinn.
Just like she’d felt Ethan all the way to her soul the first time she’d set eyes on him, a tall, dark cowboy.
He had the jawline of a god, the smile of an angel, and the devil’s own dimples.
And she’d kind of thought she might belong with him, too.
She didn’t think she belonged in nurse’s scrubs though. She was having a full-blown identity crisis. And Ethan was a big, handsome complication.
She could hear the rumble of his deep voice greeting his family outside. His love for them was genuine and deep. She wondered yet again why he stayed away so long between visits.
Her plate was clean and in the rack. The dishwasher was still running, so she couldn’t begin to load it with the second batch, but the dishes were rinsed and stacked, awaiting their turn.
The cooking was done outside on Saturdays, all the sides having been made the day before, so the kitchen was relatively clean.
She had no excuse to stay in there, and if she did so anyway, it would look as if she was hiding from Ethan, and she had no reason to do that either, as far as anyone knew.
So, unless she wanted them to start guessing her feelings for the black sheep of the family, she needed to buck up and get out there.
She dried her hands on a dish towel and went back through the house into the big front room just as the screen door squeaked open and Ethan Brand filled the space, guitar case in one hand, suitcase in the other.
“Oh. Hey, Lily.” He dropped his suitcase and took off his hat, ruffling up his dark-brown hair in the process. “How you been?”
“I…I don’t know how to answer that, to be honest.” He crooked an eyebrow at her. She shrugged and said, “I’m figuring it out. You?”
“Got some figuring out to do myself.” He hung his hat on the tall hat rack that stood just inside the door.
“That why you’re back so soon after the wedding?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t say anything more, and she couldn’t think of anything to say either. The silence was getting awkward. “Well. Good luck, I guess,” she said to break it. “I, um, gotta get home.”
She took a step forward, but he didn’t move out of her path. He said, “You’re not staying here at the ranch anymore?”
“Oh gosh, no, not since January. I mean, we stayed for the week of the wedding like everyone else, but?—”
“Oh. I didn’t realize.”
“You didn’t stick around long enough to find out,” she said. “No big deal.” Only it was. “Dad and I sublet a log cabin at the edge of town.”
“The Campbell place?” She nodded, and he said, “I always liked that house.”
“I like it too. It’s perfect for Dad and me. Two bedrooms, full basement with a bar, pool table, and big TV on the wall. Dad’s claimed that space as his own.”
“And his health? He seemed to be better, at the wedding.”
“He is. He walks into town every day, and he’s been cooking at the cantina when they need a hand in the kitchen.”
“That’s great.”
“It really is.”
Ethan lowered his eyes. “Speaking of, how is Manny doing?”
“He’s home,” she said. Of course Ethan’s kin would’ve told him about Manny’s heart attack. The guy was like family. “He’s recovering. But…you should go see him while you’re here.”
“Yeah, tomorrow,” he said, like he already had the visit planned. “It’s a good thing you were there, huh?”
She lowered her gaze. “I didn’t do anything.
But he is getting better.” She brightened her voice, not wanting to bring him down.
“Dad got Rosa’s taco recipe, though.” Ethan’s smile widened as she went on.
“He plays poker with two soldiers and the local mailman every week, and sometimes he hosts the game down in his basement bachelor pad.”
Ethan’s smile became a laugh. “He is feelin’ better!”
“I haven’t seen him this healthy in years,” she said. “But I don’t think he’s really happy. There’s still that heartache in his eyes, you know?”
“Yeah.”
They were standing in the middle of the living room, between the kitchen and front door, and she didn’t know what to do with her hands.
Ethan’s smile softened. “And how about you, Lily?”
How about her? He hadn’t called her or texted her. He hadn’t even said goodbye before he’d left, but now he wanted to know how she was?
“Why do you ask, Ethan?” The question tumbled from her lips without her brain’s consent. It even sounded a little snippy.
His face changed. He frowned and seemed puzzled. “Why do I ask?” he repeated.
“I need to go,” she said, nodding at the door behind him.
Ethan stepped aside, picking up his suitcase on the way. Lily headed past him and through the screen door without another word. It creaked and banged when she let it go, and she pasted a bright smile onto her face and walked in time with the music.
As soon as he’d arrived, Ethan had hugged his cousins and uncles and aunts, and promised he’d eat as soon as he stashed his gear in his room.
Aunt Chelsea was his only real blood relative here.
His mother’s sister. She’d come looking for her missing nephew and never left.
Chelsea let guests use the other bedrooms, but never Ethan’s.
He’d asked her once how long she planned to keep it for him, and she’d said until he was married with a home of his own.
No pressure there.
He hadn’t seen Lily outside, but he hadn’t asked where she was, because the family would’ve started spinning romance between them if he had. He was surprised they hadn’t already, given the sparking chemistry between him and Lily Ellen Hyde.
Forbidden chemistry. She was family. Family was everything.
He’d figured she must be around someplace, because her dad was out there with the fam. So he took his guitar and big suitcase through the familiar screen door with the squeak and creak he intended to sample and put into a song. The door banged and there she was.
She looked like a cool breeze, in a white sun dress with daisies embroidered along the hemline. Her angel’s hair was wound up and pinned to the back of her head, but strands had come free and hung long, here and there. Her eyes were wider and bluer than the Texas sky.
He was ridiculously glad to see her. The sight of her sent a heavy weight tumbling from his shoulders. He felt lighter in her presence. He’d long since decided everyone probably did.
They talked. He listened, amused by her story about her dad and his poker crew. Her accent was changing gradually. The hard edges of New York were softening after a year in West Texas, and her eyes seemed to drink him in.
But when he’d asked how she was, her peaches-and-sunshine demeanor had vanished behind a storm cloud. Her jaw and lips had gone tight, and her brows had lowered.
“Why do you ask, Ethan?”
Those were the words she’d spoken, but the tone with which she’d spoken them had sounded more like, “Screw you and the horse you rode in on, Ethan.”
And what the heck had he done to deserve that ?
As she strode out through the screen door, its creak and bang didn’t come across as the comforting sounds of home.
They sounded angry. She crossed the front porch, and he shook his head in bewilderment and then got stuck following the swing of her hips underneath that dress.
The flare of its skirt gave more emphasis to the sway, and he ran a hand across his face and swore under his breath.
Then he headed upstairs. His bed was already made up.
He suspected that after each visit home, his aunt Chelsea started changing it up for the next time before his tires had left the driveway.
Guilt over his infrequent visits stabbed at his belly, but he pushed it away.
He put the suitcase on the bed and stood the guitar case in the corner.
Then footsteps told him someone was behind him.
He turned.
His cousin Willow stood in his doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. She looked furious. “What did you say to her?”
“What did I say to who?” He knew exactly who she meant, but he was buying time. Did the family know?
Know what? he asked himself. There was nothing to know. He and Lily had never even kissed!
“Lily,” Willow said. “She was fake-smiling way too hard. Didn’t reach her eyes. Her stride said she was pissed. So what did you say to her?”
He shrugged. “Hello? How are you?”
“And she said…?”
“Why do you ask, Ethan ,” and he put a mean girl lilt into it, just like Lily had. “Maybe I don’t speak the language of women. You care to interpret that for me, cuz? I’m lost.”
“Sure. It means, why do you ask, Ethan, when you clearly don’t give a hang.”
“Well, why would she think that?” he shot back.
“Because she knows you’re gonna leave again in a couple’a days. Just like you always do. And if you gave a hang, you wouldn’t.”
He frowned at his cousin, shoved his suitcase out of the way, and sank onto the edge of his bed. “Well, she’s sure fittin’ right in around here, ain’t she?” he said. “Mad at me for the same reason everybody else is.”
“Not exactly the same reason,” she returned, and when he frowned at her, she rolled her dark-brown eyes. “You’re so dense, Cuz.”
“You’re not the first to say so. However, dense as I am, you’re gonna have to be more specific.”
She heaved a big sigh. “Come on down and eat.”
“She left, did she?” he asked.
“Was fixin’ to, but Maria cajoled her into stayin’ for dessert.” Then she said, “You like her, I know you like her.”
“Whole family likes her.”
She blew like an angry bull and left him, slamming the door on the way out.
Ethan didn’t follow right away. Instead, he opened his suitcase, took out the fat folder that was right on top and opened it. There was a list of what he thought were stocks, numbers of shares, value as of close the day before.
And there, right on top, was the full deed to Manny’s Cantina, which had his name on it.