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Chapter 6.3
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LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 7
The first customer entered the diner less than a minute after Dixie told Wade to unlock the door. Wade was still putting the keys away when the door opened.Having spent nearly all his time in the diner hidden away in the kitchen, Wade did not know more than a scant few of their customers, and even then, he didn’t know anyone’s name. He wasn’t going to be able to relate to people the way Dixie did, with a familiar ease. He would have to make up for it with that charm his mother claimed he had in abundance.This first customer was an elderly woman in a black-and-white flowered dress, a white pillbox hat and, of all things, white, wrist-length cotton gloves.“Good morning,” Wade called out from behind the counter. “Just sit anywhere and I’ll be right with you.”She eyed him suspiciously and sat near the front. Table two.Wade filled a water glass with ice and water and grabbed a menu. At her table, he presented them to her.“Young man, who are you and where is Dixie?”“Ma’am.” He gave h
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 7.1
We’re getting to know each other,” he said cryptically. “Speaking of ladies,” he added, “I’m supposed to tell you that Miz Ima Don’t-Make-Fun- of-My-Name Trotter will be taking a casserole to Pops this afternoon, so you’re not to worry about him sitting home all alone and starving to death.”“My, my,” Dixie said. “You really are getting to know the ladies, aren’t you?”He trailed his fingers down her back, then poked them in her ribs. She flinched, jerked away and shrieked with laughter.“Now I know where Tate gets his ticklishness from.” “Watch it, buster.”Laughing, he let her go. “I’ll have you know that I’m also getting to know the men, too.” He shook his head as if in sorrow. “I’m sorry to say, they don’t like me as well as the ladies do.”“Is that so?” She held a spatula out to ward him off as she circled around him to get back to the grill.“Yes, indeed. How was it the man from the hardware store, Frank, I think he said his name was, put it? Something about…oh, yes. My butt’s n
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 7.2
Wade’s hopes perked up. “Where is he?”The man banged on the side of the truck and yelled in Spanish for his son to come out. A moment later the back door of the van opened and a medium-height young man with the coal-black hair and dark brown eyes of his father stepped out.“padre?”“This man, he has work for you.”“For me?” The boy’s eyes lit up with excitement. “What kind of work?” he asked Wade.“Across the street, at the diner. Busing tables, washing dishes, pushing the occasional mop or broom. Are you interested?”“Yes, I am interested. When can I start?”“Right now, if you want. You’ll only work a few hours today, but tomorrow we’ll need you all day.”The teenager looked at his father. The man eyed Wade a long moment, then glanced at the diner. “Are you the boss?” the man asked.“No. The boss is the woman you spoke with the other day. Dixie McCormick.”“I remember. She seemed like a nice lady.” “She’s a very nice lady.”Finally the man gave the nod to his son. “You go straight b
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 8
That evening Dixie looked around her dinner table and felt her heart swell. She was so lucky to have her family gathered around her every night.Pops’s accident last night served to remind her never to take her life and the people she loved for granted.“So, Pops, how was Miz Ima and her casserole?” she asked.A deep red flush stole slowly up his cheeks. He scowled at her. Dixie hooted with laughter. “Boys, I think Miz Trotter is sweet onPops.”“You mean, like, boy-girl sweet on?” Ben asked, alarmed at the idea. “Exactly.”“Eww, yuck,” Tate said.“My sentiments exactly,” Pops muttered.“Shame,” Dixie said, laughing. “You’ve had a thing for her for twenty years.”The boys spent the next few minutes making gagging sounds. They had yet to learn the value of girls.“Have not,” Pops protested. “Why, she’s a good six months older than me.”“You know what they say about older women,” Dixie teased. “Oh, hush, you.” The red blush now reached the tops of his ears. “All right, all right,” she c
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 8.1
Dixie trembled with warring emotions. Fury, that Wade had failed to tell her who he really was. Humiliation at being duped. A gaping sense of loss for the man she’d thought she was falling for. A man who obviously didn’t exist.How could he? Damn him. “Wait until I get my hands on you, you rotten, no-good, lying son of a—” No one was allowed to swear in her house. She figured since she made the rule, she should abide by it.But, oh, she could think of quite a few four-letter words to call him.Outside, a shadow crossed her front window. She slapped the Off button on the TV just as a knock rattled the door.It was Wade.Oh, God. What was she going to say to him? She gnawed on her lip and paced the floor. Should she play dumb and see if he confessed? Maybe this was what he wanted to talk to her about.Should she confront him with what she knew rather than give him a chance to tell her first?Should she simply open the door and punch him in the mouth? Yes. She liked that last one the bes
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 8.2
“Dixie? Dixie!” He reached across the coffee table separating them and squeezed her knee, giving it a little shake. “Dixie?”Dixie shook herself out of the ridiculous trance or whatever she’d been in. “I’m sorry,” she said, her mind clear now, clear and vehemently denying the silly idea that kept leaping at her. An idea that was preposterous.“Dixie?”She pushed herself to her feet. “That’s an incredible story,” she said. “I’m sorry you had to go through such a traumatic experience. I assume that everything went well. You look perfectly healthy to me.”“I am healthy, especially if I keep up with my meds and exercise.” “Oh, well, that’s wonderful.” She started toward the front door, hermovements sharp and jerky. “I’m really glad for you.” “Dixie, come sit down.”“You’ve said what you came to say. Oh.” She stopped and turned around. “I forgot your check. Wait here.”“Dixie, sit down.”Her eyes were overbright. Her hands fluttered in the air. “I’m glad you came by to tell me this, but I
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 8.3
“Dixie?”“Yes?”“I might have his heart, and I might have come here because of his sons, but I’m not him. Do you understand what I’m saying?”“I never thought you were him,” she claimed.“Just so you don’t start looking for any more of his traits in me. I came here for the boys. Just to make sure they were all right since losing their father. I stayed because, yes, they were all right, because their mother made sure of it. I’ve stayed because of you, Dixie.”Dixie’s vision blurred. “What are you saying?”“I’m saying that the only thing I have now of Jimmy Don’s is a physical organ. The feelings I have for you, for the boys, are mine, not his. They have nothing to do with cellular memory or transplanted organs.”She swallowed again. “How do you know? How can you be sure?”“It’s easy,” he said with a shrug. “I just ask myself, if I’d met you before I got sick, would I feel the same way. The answer is…absolutely.”Dixie let out a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding. “Maybe you’d bett
LOVE IN TEXAS Chapter 9
When Dixie called the boys home, she asked Pops to come with them. When she got her sons into the tub, she took Pops to the kitchen, where the boys, who were not silent bathers by any means, would not overhear. There, once Pops was seated at the kitchen table with a dish of peach cobbler to work on, she told him first about Wade’s true background and identity.Unlike her, Pops didn’t feel the least deceived. He laughed. “Ha! I knew there was more to that boy than he was lettin’ on. Rich, you say?”“Filthy rich.”“And him washing our dishes.” He laughed again and shook his head. “Did he say why he was here?”“Yes, he did.” She told him the rest, about Wade’s heart transplant, and where his new heart came from.Pops cried. His tears were a mixture of renewed grief at the loss of his only grandson, and pride that a part of Jimmy Don lived on in another person. More than one person, most likely.“That’s something, isn’t it?” He wiped the moisture from his cheeks and eyes. “I’m so proud of
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