A Long Tall Texan Summer: Tom Walker (3 page)

"She said she got tired of New York," Luke replied easily. "I don't blame her, what with all that noise and concrete. Anyway, it was a good thing she came home, or she'd never had married Fred and had Crissy. It's been nice having her back here. I expect you missed her."

"More than she'll ever know," Tom replied absently, his eyes with a faraway look. He shook himself mentally. "I have to go. Nice to have met you, Miss Nash," he told Crissy, extending a lean hand.

She shook it warmly. "Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Walker."

"Great manners," he remarked-to Luke.

"Oh, Elysia's a stickler for them. Crissy's much loved, but she doesn't lack for discipline, either."

"What does Elysia do now?"

"She owns an exclusive fashion boutique, actually," he told Tom. "She enrolled in college after Crissy

was born and got her degree in business and marketing. She has a backlog of designers and dressmakers

and despite the small size of our town, she's getting an international reputation for her fashion sense. She

gets orders from all over. She even does a little designing as well. I knew she could draw, and she's always been good at numbers, but I don't think she really applied herself until she married Fred. He had contacts in the fashion world and in business and he pushed her— gently, of course. All that hidden talent

came out. She's only been in business a few years, and she already makes more on her boutique than I do on my cattle. Kills my ego."

"I can imagine."

"She and Crissy live with me. I don't have any marriage plans and it's our old family home—one of those

big Victorian horrors. Of course, Matt Caldwell's sweet on her. She may give in and marry him one day and move out."

For some reason, that casual remark played on Tom's mind all day long, and into the night. Matt hadn't mentioned Elysia at all when they'd talked, before he moved to Ja-cobsville. He wondered if the omission

had been deliberate. Maybe Matt had known that Tom and Elysia were acquainted and was protecting what he thought of as his property. It was odd that he hadn't mentioned her.

Moose was waiting for him when he got home. The dog really was huge, he thought, as he fended off huge paws on his chest and an affectionate tongue the size of a washcloth.

"Down, you moose," he muttered, laughing

as he patted the dog's head. "Hungry, are you, or desperate for a fire hydrant? Come on."

He led the way to the back door and opened it. The backyard was fenced and reinforced on the bottom, fortunately, because Moose liked to dig. Local gardeners wouldn't appreciate a visit from his
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pet.

He waited until Moose was ready to come back in and opened the door for him. He filled the food and water dishes and left the big animal

to have his supper.

Tom went through his cabinets looking for something to tempt his appetite. He finally settled on a bowl

of cold cereal. He had no appetite

at all. Too many questions were plaguing

him.

Tom's opinion of the new Elysia underwent a series of changes in the following few weeks. There was still plenty of gossip about her in Jacobsville, and he heard it all in bits and pieces of conversation when Elysia's comings

and goings were noticed by local citizens. One acquaintance thought she'd only married Fred Nash for his money, and that it was this inherited wealth that had made her exclusive fashion boutique possible. It was known that their union was one of friendship, not passion, and that there was a

great age difference. And that Fred had been very, very rich.

He didn't believe the unpleasant remarks at first, but it was impossible not to notice how prosperous she was. She'd bought into her brother's cattle farm and held half ownership of it. She also had investments of

several kinds, including some very expensive oil stock. She had her daughter enrolled in a very well-known girls' school in Houston for the fall term, and she drove a Mercedes convertible.

Poor, she

wasn't.

With her investments and the nearest counseling

office in Victoria, it was inevitable that Luke was going to suggest that she bring her portfolio to Tom.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she told her brother after supper that night.

"Why not?" Luke asked. "He's a whiz. Ask the Ballenger brothers."

"I know he's good at picking stocks that increase in value," Elysia replied calmly. "But he's an intelligent

man and he isn't blind. I don't want him around Crissy."

Luke sat back with a soft sigh, his blue eyes sympathetic. "She's almost six years old," he said pointedly.

"She's already in kindergarten. Don't you think it's time he knew he was a father?"

She grimaced, leaning forward with her forearms crossed over her knees. "I don't know how he'd react," she said. "He was... less than encouraging when I left the office for good. I think he was relieved that I went away." She shrugged. "I don't think he's lacked female company."

"Then isn't it interesting that he doesn't date?" he asked shrewdly. "That was the case in Houston, too.

And since I haven't heard any gossip about Mr. Walker liking men, I gather that he's amazingly selective

about his dates. One woman in over six years, I believe...?"

She flushed red. "He was drinking. I told you."

He leaned forward, too, his face serious. "Jacob Cade and I became fairly good friends over the years.

He never came right out and said anything, but he intimated that his wife and Tom had a very brutal
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childhood. Their father had a brain tumor and went stark-raving mad before he died. He attacked Kate physically

because she just smiled at a young man."

"Wh...what?"

He nodded. "That's right. In his distorted mind, he equated sex with evil and made his kids believe it.

Neither of them had anything to do with the opposite sex, even after he died. He warped them, Ellie.

Now imagine how it would be, to have a parent who browbeat you into repressing your sexuality for years and years. And then imagine how it would be if you grew older with no experience whatsoever with the opposite sex? Do you think a man, especially, would find it easy to become involved with a

woman?"

She was barely breathing. "You aren't going

to tell me that you think Tom is a...a..."

He nodded. "That's exactly what I think. He and Kate were very close. When she married Jacob, Tom

had nobody. He was totally alone. Probably getting a snootful of liquor was the only way he could let go

of those repressed desires."

She sat back with a rough sigh. It actually made sense. She felt her heart beating wildly in her chest as she recalled how it had been with Tom. At the office, he'd avoided the female staff. He and Elysia had

become close because she didn't make eyes at him. She wasn't aggressive, as some of the women were.

She was shy and reserved, and she must have been the least threatening female he knew. He'd opened up with her, just a little. And then right after Kate had married, he'd had too much to drink and Elysia had

been nearby. Perhaps he'd given in to feelings he couldn't express, and then been ashamed of what he'd done, because of his childhood teachings.

The thought made her heart race. Could it be possible that she was Tom Walker's first, only, woman in that way? Her lips parted.

"Do you think it's possible?" she asked hesitantly.

"That it was his first time?" He nodded. "He's no rounder. Nobody would accuse him of being a playboy. He's courteous to women, but there's an icy tone to his dealings with them. He's polite, but nothing more." He smiled. "He was very impressed with Crissy. You've never seen his sister Kate, have you?"

"No."

He chuckled softly. "Well, I have. Crissy could be her daughter. I'm sure the resemblance didn't escape

Tom, even if he hasn't quite recognized it yet."

"What should I do, Luke?" she asked.

"Why don't you go and talk to him honestly?"

"It would be hard."

"Of course. Doing the right thing usually is.”

"I can't go today. I'm meeting with a European

buyer to open a new market."

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"There's always tomorrow."

She sighed. "I guess I always knew that I'd have to tell him one day. He won't like it."

"He will."

She smiled. "You're a nice brother. Why don't you get married?"

"Bite your tongue, woman," he said. "I'm not putting my neck in that particular noose. There are too many pretty girls around who like to party," he chuckled, rising.

"One day, you'll run head-on into someone who doesn't."

"I'll pity the poor girl, whoever she is," he said with a grin.

"You're hopeless."

"At least I'm honest," he said pointedly. "A confirmed bachelor has to protect himself any way he can against you devious females!"

She threw a small sofa pillow at him.

She'd planned to stop by Tom's office the next day, but an unexpected meeting early that morning had unfortunate consequences.

She'd just seen her European buyer off, very early that morning, from her shop in the middle of town.

He

was a determined would-be suitor who had to be convinced that a young widow didn't need a man.

She'd pushed him away with a cold smile right there on the sidewalk and wished him a pleasant trip.

"Pleasant, ha!" the handsome Frenchman had called. "Without you in my bed, I shall be very lonely, cherie. I hope that the business I send you will compensate you for my loss. After all, Elysia, to you, money is much more important than a mere lover, n'est pas?"

Sadly for Elysia, this bitter remark, loudly made by her angry rejected suitor, reached Tom Walker's ears. He was less than ten feet away and heard every word.

Before Elysia could reply angrily to the Frenchman, he climbed into his sports car and roared away.

She

could have the business she wanted overseas, but the cost was too high. She wasn't going to accept the merger. Better to rest on her American sales record than have to deal with a man like that!

"Is that how you get clients?" Tom asked, pausing beside her, his dark green eyes furious in that lean, dark face. "By sleeping with them?"

She looked at him blankly. "I get clients by providing quality service."

"Oh? Really?" His gaze went up and down her body in the simple silk suit, to her long hair twisted into a

neat chignon. She looked cool and desirable and very flushed. He hated her in that moment for the way she'd twisted his heart.

His contempt was visible. It hurt her, and it also made her furiously angry, that he should misjudge her so.

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She pulled herself up to her full height. "Think what you like," she said coldly. "Your opinion and fifty cents will buy you a cup of coffee at any cafe in town!"

He made a rough sound and put his hands into his pockets. "How was he in bed?"

Her face went scarlet. She slapped him. It wasn't premeditated, but it felt good afterward.

She turned

on her heel and stalked away to her Mercedes convertible. Several people had seen what she did, but she didn't care. She knew that she was gossiped about—most wealthy people were. She didn't care anymore. She'd send her daughter away to a private school where she wouldn't have to suffer the speculation and contempt of the neighbors. As for herself, people could think whatever they liked. And that included Tom Walker!

Tom, nursing a stinging cheek, stalked back into his own office, foregoing the sweet roll he'd gone out to

get for his breakfast. He'd never been slapped by a woman in his life. It was an experience he didn't relish.

He walked past his curious middle-aged secretary and closed his office door. Elysia had never seemed spirited in the old days. Perhaps her marriage had made her bitter.

As he recalled what he'd said to her, he had to admit that he'd provoked her into the action. He hadn't meant to say the things he had, but the thought of her with that Frenchman—a man who had probably been to bed with hundreds

of women from the look of him—made him sick with jealousy. He hadn't known that he still felt so strongly for Elysia in the first place. Apparently his feelings for her were buried

so far inside him that they couldn't be removed.

Was this how Kate had felt about Jacob Cade? His sister had been enamored with the man most of her adult life. She'd kept photos of him in the damnedest places. It wasn't until her job as a reporter had sent

her into a terrorist

standoff and she'd been shot that Jacob had revealed his own violent feelings for her.

Theirs had been a rocky, volatile romance that eventually ended in a happy and lasting marriage.

Kate

had adjusted to it with joy.

But except for Elysia, Tom had never felt a rush of joy at just the sight of a woman. He'd often wondered as he grew older what it would be like to share his life and his heart as well as his bed with a woman. He'd always been sure that no woman would accept him with his hangups and his chaste status.

Elysia had, but then, she hadn't known that she was the first. He'd been too proud to admit that he was innocent. Now, he was glad he hadn't shared that knowledge with her. She obviously wanted no part of him in her life.

He leaned forward and began to deal with the stack of mail on his desk, his sore cheek forgotten. Elysia was in the past. He might as well keep her there.

If only it had been that easy. Jacobsville was small enough that the monied class congregated everywhere. There was an endless social round that included chamber of commerce meetings and

various charity and business

gatherings of all sorts. Tom, as the town's only investment counselor, was included in all of these. So, unfortunately, was Elysia.