Texas Tango: Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 2 Page 18

  “Yeah, you don’t know what’s going on with me. You don’t even care what’s going on with me,” he shouted. “You just go on with your life and never give me a thought.”

  “Okay, you two,” Travis said in a composed voice. “Let’s calm down. For tonight, let’s call Patrick and Leslie and let them know where you and the car are. You can stay here tonight and we can talk about your future in the morning. Does that work for you, Caroline?”

  She was grinding her teeth so hard her jaw was starting to ache. Of all the stupid—

  “Caroline? You agree?”

  She nodded, afraid that she’d begin shouting again if she tried to speak.

  “You have clothes in the car?” Travis asked Noah, who responded with a nod. “Okay then, get them and let’s go inside.”

  Noah set off for the Rolls like a demon was on his heels.

  Caroline’s shoulders sagged. “My God, Travis. Sorry doesn’t begin to cover my feelings.”

  He moved over to where she stood and wrapped a comforting arm around her. “He’s scared to death, honey. He thinks he’s all grown up but he’s just a kid. A lost, scared, desperate kid. I know you probably want to strangle him right now—”

  “Ya think?”

  With the full moon overhead, she could see his smile. “I’m sure Mom wanted to strangle me, or Jason, or Cash or maybe all of us at one time or the other. Let’s take this one step at a time. We’ll call Patrick and Leslie. Let them know he’s okay and put him to bed. I suspect he’s exhausted. Then you and I can talk.”

  “Travis. You are an incredible man,” she said. “You don’t deserve all the crap I’ve brought into your life.”

  He squeezed her shoulders. “To tell you the truth, life was getting a little boring until you came along. Now, don’t worry. We’ll get this straightened out.”

  Noah jogged toward them, the strap of a dark-green backpack flung across his arm. He handed the car keys to Caroline.

  “I’m sorry you’re mad at me, Caroline, but I’m not sorry to be here.”

  “We’ll talk about this in the morning, Noah. Let’s get that phone call done and then find you someplace for the night.”

  Travis swept his arm toward the stairs leading to the porch. “After you,” he said to Noah.

  Noah bounded up the stairs with Travis and Caroline following behind like sheep herders. He stopped at the front door and waited for Travis to open it. It wasn’t locked. Caroline was thankful Noah had enough manners to not just open someone’s door and walk in.

  Travis flipped on a light. His boots thrummed on the hardwood floor entry. Noah sneakers squeaked as he dragged his feet inside. Caroline tried to move quietly but her heels still tap-tap-tapped on the wood.

  To the left was an archway leading into a formal living room. A little farther in the foyer was a staircase leading to the upper level. To her right was the archway into a formal dining room. Travis continued straight ahead, flipping on lights as he went through the entry into a large family room.

  Large, overstuffed furniture in rust and brown tones filled the cavernous room. The hardwood continued into this room, but much of it was covered by a massive rug bearing the Halo M brand. Beside Travis’s bedroom, this was her favorite room. They’d spent some nice evenings here watching television or talking during time together.

  The kitchen was off to her right and the closed door to her left led to Travis’s master suite. She glanced toward his bedroom and felt the moist heat as it built between her thighs.

  Travis motioned to the furniture that had been arranged into a conversation pit. Noah flopped into one of the chairs and propped his head in the palm of his hand. Caroline sat on the sofa where Travis joined her.

  “Unless spoken to, I want you to remain quiet while we speak to your uncle and aunt,” Travis said to Noah. “Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  “What?” Travis asked with an arched eyebrow.

  “Yes, sir,” Noah replied.

  “Better.” He turned to Caroline. “You want to use the house phone or your cell?”

  “Cell is fine.” She pulled her cell phone from her purse and pressed one key. She’d long ago programmed Mamie’s house phone with a short-cut key.

  The conversation was short. No, her aunt and uncle didn’t know the car was missing. No, they didn’t know Noah was missing. He was supposed to be staying at a friend’s house. When they insisted they wanted to drive down and get him, Caroline asked them to hold on a minute.

  “Can I borrow your office so I can speak privately?”

  “Of course.”

  Travis led her through the closed door to the private office that was part of the master suite. “Do you want me to stay?”

  She nodded. “Please.”

  He closed the door and sat on a leather sofa. She took a seat beside him.

  “I’m back,” she said to Patrick. “I don’t want you to come get him yet. He’s obviously upset. Maybe he should spend a little time with me.”

  “With you and your husband,” Patrick said.

  “Yes, right. That’s what I meant.”

  “It’s not right. You’re a newlywed. You and Travis need this time alone.”

  Caroline had the phone on speaker so Travis could hear the conversation. At this point, he spoke up. “Patrick. Travis here. I understand your concerns, but trust me when I say that we are glad to have Noah stay with us. Caroline and I have the rest of our lives. Noah needs us now. I have to agree with Caroline. He should stay here for a while. Of course we’d stay in touch with you and Leslie and his parents. Keep you guys in the loop with how things are going. If he becomes too much for us to handle, then we can address that issue at that time.”

  “Travis, you’re a good man. Thank you. And you too, Caroline.”

  “Oh yes. I’m a good man,” Caroline joked.

  Patrick chuckled. “You know what I mean.”

  “I do. Noah and I haven’t ever spent much time together. I realized I don’t really know my little brother that well. Maybe this is God’s way of making that happen.” She figured that might bring Pastor Pat around to agreeing with them.

  “I hadn’t thought of it like that. Maybe you’re right. But the minute you want us to come for him, just call.”

  “Will do,” Caroline said.

  “Of course,” Travis said.

  “And, Caroline? I’m sorry about him taking the Rolls. I’m hoping it made it down there okay?”

  “As far as I know. I’ll look at it in the daylight tomorrow, but Noah hasn’t mentioned anything.”

  “Okay then. It’s settled,” Travis said. “We’ll keep Noah here for a while.”

  They hung up the phone and looked at each other.

  “I don’t know what to do with a teenage boy,” Caroline confessed. “You know that. We talked about this.”

  “Not to worry,” Travis said with authority. “I was one once. I know how they think, how they eat and how much they try to get away with.” He smiled. “I think mucking out the stalls tomorrow will be a good place for Noah to start learning about ranch life, don’t you?”

  “Since I have no idea what mucking out the stalls means, I’ll just trust you.” She sighed and dropped her head into her hands. “I’m beginning to think you got ripped off.”

  He put one finger under her chin and lifted her head until their gazes met. “What are you talking about?”

  “Singing Springs can’t be worth what it’s costing you.”

  He smiled. “Still a bargain. Besides, it got you here again.” He stood and held out his hand, which she took. He pulled her to her feet. “Now, let’s go tell Noah.”

  They found him in the kitchen looking inside the refrigerator. He closed it with a guilty slam.

  “Sorry. I was hungry.”

  “Have a seat,” Travis said, pointing toward a set of barstools with his chin.

  Noah climbed onto one. Caroline stood alongside Travis.

  “Here’s the deal,” Caroline
said. “Travis has agreed to let you stay here. Patrick and Leslie have also agreed.”

  A broad smile burst onto Noah’s face. “Great.”

  “However,” Caroline continued. “There are some rules.”

  “Sure. Sure. Whatever.” Noah beamed. “Thanks, man,” he said to Travis.

  Travis scratched his chin. “Well, Noah, you’ve got to understand. I have a working ranch. I raise horses and train them. I have a crew of mostly men who work for me. Some of them have families. I have to keep this place profitable to keep it running and keep all those people employed. So here, everybody works. You remember John who brought you to my sister’s house tonight? He’s my foreman. Even his youngest kid, Norman, has a job. You know what I’m saying?”

  Noah looked a little confused. “I’m not sure.”

  “I’m saying you can stay, but you don’t get to hang around the house all day. You’ll have jobs here that are your responsibility. Nobody else will do them for you. They can’t. They have their own work to get done. And you have to go to school.”

  “I can’t work and go to school.”

  “Why not?” Travis asked. “The rest of the kids here do.”

  Noah shook his head. “I can’t. I’d have to be at school all day then homework at night.”

  Travis smiled, and Caroline had seen that smile before. She almost—almost—felt sorry for Noah. Travis was moving in for the kill.

  “Well, you see, Noah. We have a private teacher here. Think of it as homeschooling. I am positive you’ll have more than enough hours in the day to get everything done.”

  “But—”

  “It’s Travis’s way or back to Arkansas. Take your pick,” Caroline said.

  Noah blew out a disgusted breath. “Fine. Whatever.”

  “And Noah?” Travis added. “All the men here will be addressed with yes, sir and no, sir. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir,” Noah said in a surly tone.

  “Are you really hungry or were you nosing around?” Travis asked. “You are welcome to nose about the kitchen and the upstairs, but the master bedroom suite is completely off-limits. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” Noah said with a huff. “And I was really hungry. I was afraid to stop on the way down to eat.”

  That meant he’d been without food for at least eight hours, maybe more. For a teenage boy, that was a lifetime without food.

  “What do you like to eat?” Travis asked. “I’m sure my housekeeper has left something.”

  “Anything,” Noah said. “I’d eat a horse if you brought me one.”

  Travis lifted an eyebrow. “We raise them. We don’t eat them.”

  Noah laughed, and it was the first time Caroline had seen his face with a playful expression. He was a handsome boy. He had their father’s chin but their mother’s eyes. She felt sorry for the girls in his future. He was going to be quite a looker, and she suspected, quite the heartbreaker.

  Noah finished off two plates of spaghetti, six rolls and a full liter of Coke. As he wiped his mouth, he grinned. “That was awesome. Thanks. Do you have anything for dessert?”

  “Dessert?” Caroline stuttered. “Are you kidding? Where are you going to put it? In your ear?”

  Noah shrugged. “Just asking.”

  Travis picked up Noah’s plate and fork. “This is the only time I’ll be doing this for you,” he explained. He pulled down the door of a dishwasher. “You finish, you put your dishes in here. Don’t have to rinse them but you do you have to put them away.”

  Noah nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Great. There’s some leftover pie in the refrigerator. You go get your backpack and we’ll take the pie and a fork up to the guest room. You can eat it up there as long as you swear to bring the dirty dishes down with you in the morning.”

  “I will,” Noah said with enthusiasm. “I promise.”

  “Don’t you want to know what kind of pie it is?” Caroline asked.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Noah replied. “Pie is pie.”

  Travis looked at Caroline and grinned. “Welcome to the world of teenage boys. We eat anything.” He pulled a chocolate pie off a refrigerator shelf. “Let’s go.”

  Noah hurried off to the family room for his bag. Travis followed then turned back. “C’mon, honey. I’m sure you’ll want to see which room I put him in.”

  Upstairs there were three additional bedrooms. Two over the master suite that shared a bath and one bedroom on the far side of the house over the kitchen with its own full bath. Travis turned right at the top of the stairs and headed for the room farthest from the master suite.

  He turned on the light revealing a room done in light-colored wood—oak or ash, Caroline guessed—with a queen-sized bed, two side tables, a dresser and a freestanding armoire. The doors to the armoire were shut. The room’s multi-colored carpet was ideal for hiding the food stains she feared Noah would leave behind. The bed was covered with an old-fashioned patchwork quilt and four pillows. A comfortable reading chair sat next to the dormer window.

  “This is lovely,” Caroline said. “Did you do it?”

  Travis laughed. “Are you kidding? My mother and John’s wife, Henrietta, did all this. Don’t get me wrong. I love what they did, but I’m a guy. What do I know about drapes and bedcovers?”

  Noah tossed his bag into the chair and dropped on his back onto the middle of the bed. “Awww,” he said. “Nice bed, bro-in-law.”

  Travis’s eyebrows shot up but he apparently decided to let the remark slide. He set the pie and fork on the dresser and walked across the room and opened a door.

  “In here’s the bath. There should be towels, soap, whatever you need.” He opened another door to reveal an empty closet. He swept his hand across the bare space. “Self-evident.” He shut the closet door.

  “You should be aware,” he continued, “that there is a burglar alarm in the house. I set it at night. Every night,” he emphasized. “If you open a window or an exterior door, an alarm will go off and the police are automatically called. You probably don’t want to do that.”

  “Yes, sir,” Noah said, his mouth already full of pie. “No alarms. No police. I got it.”

  “Caroline and I need to have a serious talk tonight. We’ll be downstairs. I’d rather you stay up here unless there is an emergency.”

  “Okay,” Noah said and then quickly amended it to, “Yes, sir.”

  “You have a cell phone?” Travis asked.

  Noah brows pulled into a confused frown. “I do.”

  “Let me have it,” Travis said with his hand outstretched.

  “Why? It’s my phone.”

  “My house,” he stopped and started again. “Our house. Our rules. You haven’t shown that you deserve the privilege of a cell phone. Hand it over. Once you’ve shown you can be trusted, you can have it back.”

  “Caroline,” Noah whined. “Tell him that’s not fair. It’s my phone.”

  “Your phone?” Caroline repeated. “You pay for that phone? You have a job that pays for the monthly service?”

  “What?” Noah asked.

  “I didn’t think so. Do what Travis says. Hand it over.”

  He glared at both of them before getting off the bed and heading over to his backpack. He pulled an Apple iPhone from a side pocket and handed it to Travis. “There,” he said. “I hope you’re both happy.”

  Travis slipped the phone into his front pants pocket. “We’re getting there. Now, get some sleep. We start the day about five.”

  “Five what?” Noah said with wide eyes.

  “Five in the morning.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “Hey!” Travis snapped at him. “Watch your language.”

  “Sorry,” Noah said, but he didn’t sound like he meant it.

  Neither Caroline nor Travis decided to address it. It’d been a long day for all of them, and the night wasn’t over for her and Travis yet. She moved to where Noah stood by the chair and hugged him. “I love you, Noah. I really do
.”

  She thought she heard him sniff. “Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”

  Travis came over and put his hand on Noah’s shoulder. “I’ll knock on your door in the morning. Now get some sleep.”

  Caroline shut the bedroom door and looked at Travis and grinned. “I can’t believe you got his cell phone.”

  Travis returned her grin. “It was kind of a test…a how-bad-does-he-want-to-stay test. Apparently, he wants to stay pretty bad.”

  Caroline rubbed the tense muscles in her neck. “I guess so.”

  “Let’s go talk,” he said on a long sigh.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Well,” Caroline said as they walked back downstairs. “Today has certainly been…”

  “Eventful?” Travis suggested.

  She gave a sad chuckle and then sighed. “Yeah, I guess that’s one word for it.” She stopped to look over her shoulder at him. “Can you believe he just showed up here?” Turning back, she continued down the stairs.

  “I kind of feel for him. I mean, did you see the look on his face when your uncle and aunt said they would come get him? Pure panic.”

  “Want to head to the office to talk?”

  “Sure.”

  They made sure the outer door leading to the rooms in the master suite was closed as well as the door to the study. Caroline collapsed onto the sofa, stretching her legs out in front of her.

  “I wish I had a beer,” she said.

  “Sorry.” He opened the mini-refrigerator. “I can offer Dr. Pepper, Coke or water.”

  “Water.”

  “Catch,” he said and tossed her a plastic bottle.

  She cracked off the top. “Thanks.”

  He popped the cap off a bottle of Dr. Pepper and took a long drink. Then he walked over and sat by her.

  “What’s your plan, Stan?” he said with a grin.

  “Don’t make jokes, Travis. This is serious.” She raked her hand through her hair. “What are we going to do?”