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Chapter 10.3
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LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 11
Winter 2003New York, New YorkThe dream came again, as it did most nights. Never let it be said that Nick Carlucci made it through a week without the horror of it. The blinding,choking dust and ash. The flames. Rubble so hot that it melts the soles of your boots.The frantic search for survivors. Any survivors, but especially his father and brother, please God.Then the moan, the hand that moves. Frantic digging. Hold on! I’ve got you, man. Spirits soar. Breath rasps. Dig faster!Then he has him. The man speaks. Elation!A minute later, the stranger dies in Nick’s arms.He tries to hang on to the man’s lifeless body, but others take it from him.Failure. He’d failed to save that man.Search more. Dig more. Shout. Maybe someone can hear.Then the beam, still smoking from the inferno, twisted now into a grotesque shape. It sways.Look out!They don’t hear him, the men standing in the path of the deadly steel.With arms outstretched, he leaps, knocking the men out of harm’s way.Pain!
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 11.2
“Kidding.”“No.” She shook her head.He swore. “You followed me across half a damn country?”It was difficult, considering lust still fogged her brain, but she managed a shrug. “You wouldn’t return my calls.”“So you followed me?” She shrugged again.“Did it ever occur to you that I didn’t return your calls because I didn’t want to talk to you?”She couldn’t do this, Shannon thought. She couldn’t push or cajole him into an interview when she was still so off balance from this unreasonably fierce attraction that still gripped her.“Look,” she said, struggling to keep her voice even. “I know this is a bad time. I’ve caught you by surprise at your job.” She took a step backward. “I’ll be in touch later to set up a time that’s more convenient for you.”And she fled. For the first time in her life, she fled from a man, from an interview subject. From herself.Nick stood in the hall and watched her go. He could have stopped her. Part of him wanted to. But the smart part ruled. He turned awa
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 11.3
“All right, yes. Did you find that man you needed to interview?” “I did, for all the good it did me,” she confessed.“He wouldn’t talk?” her mother asked.“No, but I haven’t finished with him.” In more ways than one, Shannon thought.“I would hope not. It wouldn’t be like you to go after a story and not get one.”“Oh, I’ll get a story out of him. Nick Carlucci,” she vowed, “has met his match.”The man in question spent his day as he did every weekday, maintaining the Tribute High School buildings and grounds. He changed the flickering light-bulb he’d found first thing that morning before that Malloy woman had found him.Just how the heck had she done that, anyway? Who could have ratted him out?Wade Harrison. If that son of a—No, Wade wouldn’t have told anyone how to find Nick. Would he?Nick shook his head at the idea. If a story on the whereabouts of Nick Carlucci was such a hot idea, Wade would have done one himself and gotten the scoop on all the big-city papers and tabloids with
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 12
On Tuesday, Shannon regrouped and readied herself to take another run at Nick Carlucci. This time she would wait until he got off work. Assuming he got off about the time school let out, she slept in—clear till nine—and felt like a woman of leisure. Or the lazy bum she’d never had a chance to be.After a lengthy shower, she set out on foot to explore the thriving metropolis of Tribute, Texas, population 2,793. Her first stop, about four blocks down Main from her motel, was a place called Dixie’s Diner. The smell of bacon drew her inside.As she entered and took a booth along the far wall, she wondered if the place took its name from a person, or from the fact that it was located in the South. Her answer came a moment later when her waitress brought her a tall tumbler of ice water and a menu. The waitress’s name, according to the red-and-white plastic tag pinned above her right breast, was Dixie. Mystery solved.After a breakfast guaranteed to test the strength of the button on her sla
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 12.1
Nick shuddered to think what the boys would do if they didn’t like him.At times, working at school was a great deal like attending school.“I’ll ask anyway.” Shannon said, drawing his attention back to her.“What’s with the overalls?” She nodded toward his chest, covered by the denim bib of the overalls in question.He slipped his hands behind the bib and tapped his fingers against his chest. “What’s wrong with overalls?” he demanded.“Nothing,” she said quickly. Boy, the man was touchy. “I just wondered why so many people, including you, are wearing them.”“It’s Farmers Day,” he told her.“Oh.” Shannon frowned. “Why?” “What do you mean, why?”Shannon glanced around at the dozens of people, in addition to Carlucci, who were wearing overalls. “I get the connection between farmers and overalls, but why do you have a Farmers Day? What’s the purpose?Local custom? Is the football team called the Tribute Farmers? What?”He almost smiled. “The Tribute Farmers? You’ve got a great imaginatio
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 12.2
Nick burst out laughing. Considering what he thought of reporters, and the way he had continually dodged this one for months, he couldn’t believe how good it felt to joke and laugh with her, and had no idea why he was doing it.“How many times,” she said, “did your mother try to fix you up with some girl who sewed her own clothes and had a great personality?”He rolled his eyes. “It was my dad and my brother, but it was more times than I care to count.”“Save us all from our well-meaning families,” she said with a chuckle. “You, too?” he asked.“Oh, yeah. My dad was a cop. A guy had to be pretty sure of himself to knock on my door to pick me up for a date.”“I can imagine. What’s he do now, your dad?” Nick asked.Her smile turned sad. “He died in the line of duty, on 9/11. Same as your dad and brother.”“Ah. Sorry. I didn’t know.”She shook her head. “No reason you should have. Is that why you left New York? Because your dad and brother were gone?”Whatever openness he felt around her
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 13
With Tribute being such a small town, it shouldn’t have surprised Nick that the first words out of his aunt’s mouth when he got home were “Well, well, sweetie, you going to tell me who she is?”To her credit, Beverly wasn’t usually a nosy woman, especially for a relative. A female relative, at that. She wasn’t demanding information. She was smiling eagerly, hoping, Nick knew, that he’d finally met someone. As in…Someone.He should have realized that word of a strange woman in town—awoman specifically seeking out Nick—would have arrived home ahead of him. He had not only stood in front of the high school with her, in plainsight of half the town, he’d also introduced her to a trio of big mouths. After that, he had walked her right up to Main Street, for the other half of town to see.Nothing on earth or in the universe traveled faster than the speed of gossip, and he’d provided plenty of grease.And dammit, more people than Aunt Bev were going to wonder whoshe was and what she was do
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 13.1
Shannon walked along the granite wall, reading of one heroic deed after another. The most recent event was a man who’d donated his organs and, upon his death, had saved the lives of several people and greatly improved the lives of more.Suddenly she recalled that this was the monument Wade Harrison had erected to honor the organ donor who’d saved his life, as well as other locals who’d made a difference.Shannon turned and found a wooden bench nearby and took a seat, suddenly wanting to talk to Deedra. At this time of day, her best friendwould be at home. Shannon pressed the speed dial button on her cell phone, and a moment later the connection was made.The two friends wasted no breath on small talk. As was their habit, they jumped right into whatever was on their minds.“I thought you’d be home by now,” Deedra complained.“I would be—should be—but this guy is being difficult,” Shannon admitted.“What? You can’t get a guy to talk to you?”“Don’t overdo the I’m so shocked tone,” Shan
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