The Tycoon (49 page)

He walked up beside her and kissed her cheek, then took a seat opposite her. She could tell before he said a word that he was in a very good mood. A waiter appeared immediately with both water and coffee carafes.

“You certainly look chipper,” she said to her son.

“I am,” he replied, waiting for the waiter to fill his glass and his cup. “Starting the new year off right. Got projects going, deals cooking.”

“And a new girlfriend?”

“Mom, this lunch isn’t going to be about that, is it?”

Betty retreated. “No, no. I just wanted to see you before I leave. In case our boat sinks, you know?” She gave a silly laugh.

“C’mon, Mom—”

“It’s been known to happen.”

Just then, a waitress came and took their orders. Drake ordered the house hamburger for which Reata was famous. Betty ordered soup. After the waitress hurried away, he asked, “How long did you say you’ll be gone?”

“Ten days. We’ll make a stop in Costa Rica. Barron owns property there. He’s even thought of moving there.”

“Hm,” Drake said, sipping his coffee. “Ran out of people to screw over up here, huh?”

“Now, Drake—”

“I’m kidding, Mom. I’m kidding. Who you spend your time with is none of my business.” He set down his cup and gave her an arch look. “Just as who I spend
my
time with is none of yours.”

Betty exhaled a sigh. “There you go being tacky again. Why won’t you tell me about your new girlfriend? Surely you can tell me her name. Am I going to get to meet her?”

“I don’t know. If it comes around to that, I’ll leave that kind of stuff up to her.”

Her mother’s instinct went on alert. “My Lord, Drake. You sound serious.”

“I might be. I just don’t know yet.”

She sat back in her chair, surprised at that revelation. “Is she from Fort Worth?”

Sipping his coffee, he shook his head. “Camden.”

For a reason Betty couldn’t explain, even to herself, the image of the red-haired woman on the billboard outside of Camden charged into her memory and collided head-on with the description Donna had given her on the phone. Drake had dated heiresses, doctors and lawyers, actresses and God knew what other women who had reached the stratosphere of success. He had never dated a…a
real estate agent
.

Why, this woman was in the same category as a used car salesman.
Oh, dear Lord.
This was a serious situation. Betty wanted more for Drake than a money-grabbing bimbo like Pic had married. “Camden,” she said, dumbfounded.

“Yep. She’s been right under my nose all this time. And I’m not saying any more about it.”

Betty had enough sense to change the subject. With her leaving town, she wanted this meeting to be cordial, without her nagging and irritating him.

She reached home mid-afternoon and dug out the regional phone book she kept just in case she wanted someone’s number in Drinkwell or the dozen other small towns around it. Prowling through the yellow pages, she found an ad and the name she was looking for. Shannon Piper. Broker and owner of Piper Real Estate Company. She couldn’t explain why, but she believed she now knew her son’s new girlfriend’s name.

She picked up the phone and scrolled through its memory for Donna Schoonover’s number. But before she found it, she stopped. Donna was no friend to her. In fact, Betty had seen no evidence that Donna was a friend to anyone. She only gave Betty Lockhart the time of day because she wanted to know about Drake.

Besides that, she wasn’t sure Shannon Piper was the right person. What if she gave that name to Donna, then she turned out to someone who had never heard of Drake Lockhart? Although Betty couldn’t imagine who had never heard of her son. He was almost famous. Nevertheless, how embarrassing might mistaken identity be?

And she had to consider that Drake would be murderously angry if he knew his mother had reported on him to one of his former women.

She decided against calling Donna right this minute. She needed to think about it more, needed to ponder if she wanted to risk her son’s ire. Still, she did want to know who he was seeing, wanted to know if it really was that real estate person from Camden.

Aside from debating all of that inside her head, she was intrigued by the idea that Donna had ways of learning about skeletons in someone’s closet. Betty wished she had the same connections.

But then, enough money could buy anything,
she thought dismissively. She had seen that happen often enough. Good Lord, Bill Junior’s father had bought every politician and public servant in Treadway County and a few in the Texas legislature. At one point in their past lives, she had believed he had owned the governor.

Well, it would wait, she finally decided. Donna wasn’t expecting to hear from her until after she returned from the cruise.

****

Wednesday morning. Shannon had relented and allowed Drake to send a car for her. When a black Lincoln Town Car stopped in front of the house, before the driver dressed in a black suit could reach the front door, Shannon dashed outside and met him on the sidewalk. She climbed into the spacious backseat and a buttery leather interior with trim that looked like polished wood. She felt like a queen, but she also had never felt so out of place. And she would have to somehow explain the limo to her grandmother.

She found Drake waiting for her. He drove them in his pickup to a small Fort Worth airport. There, they boarded a private jet. It was the same one she had seen in the photograph of him in the
Texas Monthly
spread. It was outfitted with padded leather captain’s chairs the color of a latte, two sofas that made into beds and a wet bar. “Wow,” Shannon said. “This looks better than living rooms I’ve seen.”

“And you’ve seen a lot of them, right?” He guided her to a seat and helped her fasten her seat belt, then sank to a chair beside her.

The engines came to life and they began to taxi. That tilt in her stomach that flying always gave her struck her with force. Drake must have noticed because he picked up her hand and interlocked their fingers. “Nervous?”

“I’ve never flown on a plane like this,” she said.

“Only way to travel. Too much hassle and wasted time with the airlines and airports.”

They stopped for a few seconds on the taxiway, then roared up the runway and thundered off to Galveston, where they dined on premium raw oysters in a tiny bistro on the ocean and lingered long after the meal. “This is wonderful,” Shannon told him. “I’ve lived in Texas my whole life and never been to Galveston. Really, I’ve hardly been anywhere in Texas. Although I did go to Austin to take the real estate exams.”

“Never been to San Antonio?” Drake asked.

“Nope.

“Then you’ve never seen the Alamo. My God, every Texan should see the Alamo.”

Soon, they flew back to Fort Worth, giving her the time to get home early enough to watch TV with Grammy Evelyn.

They parted in the parking garage, with his invitation for a three-day jaunt to South Texas.

“That’s more than a day date,” she said.

“I know. We can hire a babysitter for your grandmother.”

That possibility was about as pleasant as a broken leg. Shannon couldn’t imagine hiring a stranger to look after Grammy Evelyn. “You keep saying that, but I don’t want to do it. I’ll figure it out.”

Now she had to deal with her grandmother. She stewed over the idea that she might worry or embarrass her if she went off on a three-day fling with a guy. Grammy Evelyn was old, not dumb. She would know they would be sleeping together. In all of the time Shannon had lived in her grandmother’s house, she had never let her become aware that she had done anything like that. Not even when she was seeing Justin Turnbow. Out of respect, she had kept her liaisons with men clandestine and short.

She believed Grammy Evelyn loved her so much she would support her no matter what, but she was a little old lady and Shannon didn’t want her to be the target of gossip and snide remarks. Her own granddaughter, Colleen, might likely be the worst offender.

She rode home with dread. She only hoped that after confessing her intentions, Grammy Evelyn didn’t feel compelled to lecture her on the birds and the bees.

When she arrived, her grandmother had cooked a dish she called “slumgullion,” which meant she had cleaned out the refrigerator and thrown all the leftovers into one pot. While they sat at the round table and ate, Shannon said, “Grammy, what would you think if I went on a trip with a guy?”

Grammy Evelyn smiled, a twinkle in her eye. “Well, my dear, I think it’s time you had a social life. Time doesn’t run backward, you know. Who are you going with?”

“Drake Lockhart. He’s asked me to go to South Texas with him for a few days.”

She waited for her grandmother to gasp, but she only looked up from her plate. “Lockhart’s an unusual name. He wouldn’t be from the Treadway County Lockharts, would he?”

“Uh-huh,” Shannon said, turning her eyes to the roll she was buttering.

“Is that who sent that fancy car to pick you up?”

Shannon didn’t look up. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh, my dear,” her grandmother said. Shannon did look up then, and saw Grammy Evelyn’s eyes huge and round behind her glasses lenses. “The Lockharts are very influential people. Wherever did you meet one of
them
?”

Grammy Evelyn had said “one of them” as if she were speaking of an alien species. “In Fort Worth at the Realtors’ ball.”

“Is is one of Bill Junior’s children you’re seeing?”

“Uh, I believe so.”

“Which one?”

“His name’s Drake.”

“The oldest one. Oh, my dear,” Grammy Evelyn said again, covering her thin lips with her tiny fingers.

“You don’t have to worry, Grammy. I’m going to ask either Christa or Colleen to come by and visit you and make sure you have everything you need.”

“Oh, I wasn’t worried about myself, dear. It’s you I’m thinking of. You must be careful. Those Lockharts, they’re takers. They’re all brought up to be that way. They think the world belongs to them.”

“In this part of Texas, I guess a good part of it does,”

Subconsciously, Shannon had already filed Drake in the “taker” category, though she didn’t know him that well. But how could he not be a “taker?” she reasoned, when the world was his oyster?

“I’ll be careful, Grammy. Listen, if you have to go to the grocery store or the drug store or anywhere else, just let Christa know. I’ll call her tomorrow and tell her you get your hair done on Saturday and she’ll pick you up and take you to the beauty shop. And I’m sure Colleen and Gavin will be happy to take you to church.”

“Christa’s such a nice girl. We had the best time when you went up to Fort Worth on New Year’s. We baked those cookies. She and Arthur got along very well. She brought him a cute little feather on a string. She knows a lot about cats.”

Shannon laughed. “Christa knows a lot about everything, Grammy.”

“Have you told Colleen where you’re going? And with who?”

Shannon’s shoulders sagged. “No, Grammy, I haven’t. She would…she would judge me. And you know Gavin. He might try to make hay out of me knowing Drake Lockhart. I know we can’t keep it a secret that I’m going somewhere, but we don’t have to tell who I’m going with.”

Grammy Evelyn reached across the table and patted her arm. “Then that part will be another one of our little secrets. Mine and yours and Christa’s.”