The Tycoon (38 page)

Shannon rehearsed her speech all the way to her sister’s sub-division.

Colleen and Gavin lived in a home so new, the lawn was skimpy and the yard plants still had a newly-planted look. Colleen invited her in and offered her a cup of coffee in her sparkling white kitchen with its accents of spring green. Most people Shannon knew served coffee in mugs, but not Colleen. She handed Shannon a china cup of coffee sitting on a saucer.

Colleen’s appearance was as uptight as her personality. She was pencil thin, shorter than Shannon and eight years older. Her hair had once been red, thick and naturally curly like Shannon’s, but these days, to cover gray, she dyed it a dark red color that was almost burgundy. A short wedge cut made it look as if a triangular turban encompassed her head. Every time Shannon saw her, she wanted to advise her to get a new do, but enough friction existed between them without Shannon opining about her hair.

Today, Colleen’s flat chest was hidden by a white sweater dotted with red poinsettias. Breast size was one more area where Shannon and her sister had nothing in common.

Colleen and Gavin had no children and their tidy home adorned with expensive decorator touches reflected that. A small Christmas tree stood in one corner of a sunlit breakfast room adjoining the kitchen. Colleen put Christmas trees in several rooms. She had learned this from Grammy Evelyn, Shannon guessed, recalling when their grandmother did the same thing. But Grammy hadn’t done it in years and Shannon herself was lucky to get one Christmas tree standing and decorated in the parlor of Grammy’s house.

Shannon could see by her sister’s behavior that she wasn’t fooled by this uncommon visit. Colleen knew she wanted something. So as they sat at the white granite breakfast bar, Shannon set her cup on its saucer and went straight to the point. “I need a favor. I’m going to be out of town overnight. I need someone to look in on Grammy this evening and again tomorrow morning. It’s so cold at night. I worry about her going outside after dark to look for Arthur.”

“Where are you going?” Colleen asked, setting her coffee cup on its saucer.

The answer to that was none of Colleen’s business. “Out of town,” Shannon said.

“My God, Shannon. It’s a man, isn’t it? You’re going off to spend the night with some guy, like you used to do with that Justin Turnbow. I thought you had cleaned up your act. Who is it this time?”

Shannon bit back a sarcastic comeback. “A friend from Fort Worth. No one you’d know.”

Colleen picked up her coffee cup, her face contorted into a pinch-mouthed expression. “Well I hope he isn’t married.”

“Oh, Colleen, give me a break here.”

“I thought you’d learned your lesson. Living there in Grammy Evelyn’s house, showing off as a respectable businesswoman and risking everyone in town finding out you were sleeping with a married man. I still don’t know how you look yourself in the mirror.”

“It was two years ago. Justin and his wife were separated. Can’t you just leave it alone?”

“Don’t you ever stop to think that what you do affects your family, too?” Colleen said indignantly. “What if Gavin decides to run for office? What would we tell people? Most of the people in this town are honest and God-fearing. They don’t cheat—”

“Oh, grow up, Colleen. Half the married couples in this town cheat. They don’t have anything else to do. And what I do in my personal life won’t endanger Gavin’s political future.”

“I still say, this is Camden, Texas. Who would want to do business with a—”

Shannon stopped her by setting her cup on its saucer with a
clack
and glaring
.
Anger boiled through her. “Don’t say it, Colleen. Don’t you dare say it. I don’t need a lecture or to be called names.”

She now realized asking her sister for help had been a mistake. “All I wanted you to do was check on Grammy. I’d think that surely you could do that for our grandmother regardless of what you think of me.”

Colleen’s reply was an exaggerated sniff.

Out of patience, Shannon stood up and picked up her coat from the stool where she laid it. Her sister hadn’t even offered to hang up her coat. She could think of no one else she wanted to ask to look after their grandmother, but she said, “Never mind. I’ll find someone else—”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it. If you get someone else, everyone in town will know what you’re up to.”

Shannon’s jaw clamped like a vise, but relieved to get Colleen’s cooperation,  she held her tongue. As she slipped into her coat, Colleen said, “So tell me, Sister, if I babysit Grammy, would that mean I might get that pair of diamond and opal earrings I’ve always wanted.”

Shannon stopped and gave her a look. “What diamond and opal earrings?”

“The ones Grammy said she wore when she and Grandpa got married.”

“I don’t have them, Colleen, if that’s what you’re saying.”

“Hm. Well you’ve gotten everything else from her. I just assumed you’d gotten those, too.”

This was the way most meetings with her sister went
, Shannon thought bitterly. Sooner or later, she always grumbled and complained about Grammy’s personal belongings. “I don’t have them. I imagine they’re in her jewelry box. If you asked her, she’d probably give them to you.” She started for the door. “I have to go.”

Colleen followed. After their bickering, saying good-bye was awkward.

“Don’t worry about Grammy,” Colleen said from behind her.

Shannon nodded, freeing her hair from her collar and hanging her bag on her shoulder. “I appreciate your looking in on her.” As she stepped through the doorway, Colleen said her name and she looked back.

“I hope it’s worth it,” her sister said.

“Worth what?”

“What you’re doing. I just hope it’s worth it.”

With that, Shannon found herself standing on her sister’s front porch with the door closed in her face.

Shaking her head at the futility of ever having a cordial relationship with her older sister, Shannon scooted behind the wheel of her SUV. All the way back to town, she stewed over how poorly she and her only sister got along. The age difference between them was enough for them to never have been friends. When Shannon was a little girl, Colleen had been her babysitter while their harebrained mother did who knew what. The responsibility had kept Colleen from socializing with her friends. She had resented it then and Shannon wondered if she still did after all these years.

She stopped by her office to catch up on some last minute Friday housekeeping chores before calling Drake. Only Chelsea was present. As she sat at her desk shuffling through the pages of a contract Terry had left on her desk, the bell on the front door dinged. Seconds later, a tap came on her office door and Chelsea stepped inside.

“There’s a couple out there who wants to look at houses,” Chelsea said, her mouth flatlined. She looked down at a piece of paper in her hand. “Martha and Art Springer.”

“Today?” Shannon asked.

Chelsea nodded.

“Call Kelly or Terry to come in. I’m fixing to—”

Chelsea’s head shook.

Oh, hell.
“They aren’t available? Don’t tell me.”

The receptionist’s head shook again.

“Great.” Resigned to the change in her plans, Shannon put out her hand for the note. “Tell them I’ll be right with them. And do me a favor, will you? Call my sister and tell her I won’t need her help. I’m not going out of town after all.”

Chapter 23

The Springers were yakkety customers who peppered her with a non-stop barrage of stories and conversation. As the appointment dragged into the evening hours, Shannon worried about Grammy Evelyn at home alone. She barely found an opportunity to call and check on her, much less place a call to Drake. After parting from the Springers at 10:30, she sent him a text message rather than risk waking him. He seemed to be such a hip guy, she couldn’t imagine that he didn’t text.

Saturday began early and was a repeat of Friday. Worried that Drake might not have gotten her text message, she managed to find a few minutes to call him. He didn’t answer, so she left a voice message.

Fortunately, the Springers found a home they liked and put in a bid on a $400,000 purchase, to which the seller agreed. The sale wouldn’t close until January, but that was okay. Shannon needed commissions in January, too. And this one, she didn’t have to split with another agent.

She barely made it to the Camden Realtors’ party. If she hadn’t bought the tickets early and hadn’t promised to take Grammy Evelyn, she wouldn’t have gone at all.

She awoke Sunday morning exhausted. As she lay staring at the ceiling, she wondered what Drake might be doing at the moment. He was probably mad as hell.

She dragged herself out of bed and checked her phone for a reply from Drake. Nothing.
Yep, he was mad.

After pulling herself together, she took Grammy Evelyn to church. Colleen and Gavin made cursory conversation before the service. She could tell her sister was dying to ask why Chelsea had called and canceled the need for someone to look after Grammy Evelyn.

As the preacher droned on, Shannon fought not to doze. Thoughts and memories floated in and out of her half-hypnotized state. It was just as well she hadn’t been able to go to Stone Mountain. Why take on a battle? And she was sure a battle was what it would have been. Him tormenting her with bone-melting sex and her trying to be blasé and not care about him.

She could already see the not caring part wasn’t working. Because she couldn’t erase him from her thoughts, couldn’t keep from wondering where he was and what he was doing.

After church, she and Grammy exchanged another short conversation with Gavin and Colleen and some of Grammy’s friends, but the north wind was chilly and no one wanted to stand around outside and chat.

Grammy had left a pot roast in the Crockpot at home. As Shannon helped with lunch, her thoughts drifted to Drake again and she wondered if Grammy might know the Lockharts. She had been born and raised in Camden, and the Lockhart family had lived in Drinkwell for generations.

“Grammy, do you know the Lockharts from Drinkwell?” she asked.

Her grandmother stopped what she was doing and turned. “Oh, lands, yes. Everyone knows them. Why do you ask, dear?”

Shannon’s pulse quickened. She nearly dropped the silverware she was picking from a drawer. “Oh, no special reason. I just heard something about one of them last week.”

Her grandmother returned to lifting potatoes out of the Crockpot. “I’m not surprised. There’s always been a lot of talk about that family. Most of it not good.”

She topped off the bowl of steaming potatoes with steaming carrots and onions and carried the bowl to the table. “My Lloyd and Bill Lockhart Senior were the same age. When they both

were still alive, Bill Senior bought hay from us. We grew wonderful hay and he would sometimes buy the whole crop.”

“No kidding,” Shannon said, intrigued that her family had a remote connection to the Lockharts. But then, many probably did. They were the most influential family in the whole area.

“Bill Senior was a hard man,” Grammy Evelyn continued. “I learned something from doing business with him. Rich people always do what they want to, regardless of the damage they might leave behind them. They have no conscience about trampling daisies.

“What do you mean, Grammy?”

“When Lloyd and Bill Senior negotiated for the crop, it looked to me like it always went in Bill Senior’s favor. But Lloyd thought he was fair. I don’t know if he was or not, but I know plenty of people from Treadway County who think he’s crooked as a dog’s hind leg. Since he owns most of the land in that county, he also owns the officials.”