Page 23 of Texas Made
“Yeah, but I didn’t know she was with anyone. She sure didn’t act like it.”
“He knifed you for flirting with a woman?”
“His woman. Luckily his friends stopped him from finishing the job. After that I learned how to fight.” Clean, dirty, whatever it took to win. He’d learned how to defend himself and make his opponent sorry he ever messed with Marshall Walker.
He’d learned a lot about women during that year too. Things you couldn’t learn from sisters. He’d bedded a lot of women. He liked them. Most of them. Women liked him. Most of them. Those who didn’t he shrugged off. Easy come, easy go. But he never lost that habit of not cussing in front of a woman. His grandmother had convinced him at the age of fourteen that cussing in front of a woman was a really bad idea.
The main thing Marshall learned during the year he was gone was that the ranch was the place for him. He’d tried a lot of jobs. Nothing very serious since he wanted to be free to move on quickly. But a few weeks here painting houses, a few there working construction. He’d worked in restaurants in just about every capacity, even as a short-order cook, though he didn’t last long doing that. He’d worked as a mechanic. He’d worked on oil rigs and fishing boats. He’d worked in a zoo. Done a little plumbing, a little electrical work, and like he’d told Jaclyn, very little office work. He’d spent the year making sure there wasn’t some kind of job or career that he’d like better than raising horses.
There wasn’t.
He’d figured that out long before the year was up. But Marshall had promised himself he would take an entire year to try different jobs and see the U.S. And he had, from Alaska down to Southern California, from Maine down to the Florida Keys and nearly all the states in between. He’d liked a lot of places. Even thought about living in one or two, but never for long.
“Were you never tempted to stay any place?”
“Not really. I thought about it a time or two but never very seriously. In the end, I knew that Texas was the place for me.” His hometown of Whiskey River, the Walker ranch, and with his beloved horses. He’d known what he wanted to do, too. Raise horses, paints specifically.
“It took me a while to get back in Damaris’s good graces but when I proposed we raise paints she decided she’d better forgive me. Our parents left the ranch to us kids and moved away not too long after I got back.” Cole and Jedidiah had sold their shares of the ranch to the four who intended to live there, at least eventually as had been the case with Gabe.
“Where are you parents now?”
“Florida. They retired to a lake. Mom’s taken up painting and Dad mostly fishes or whittles.”
“Are they any good?”
“No, but they enjoy it,” he said with a grin.
“There’s a lot to be said for enjoying what you do.”
“Amen to that.”
*
Marshall took Jaclynto dinner at Jalisco’s for Mexican food. Damaris had said she’d take care of things at the ranch to give the two of them a chance to actually go somewhere. He’d owe her but that was nothing new.
Jalisco’s had changed hands twice recently. Marshall thought the new owners, the Sanchez family, were going to make a success of it. Both food and service were good. Most of the waitstaff were somehow connected to the family, and the patriarch, Hector Sanchez, clearly ran a tight ship. Marshall had been prepared to take Jaclyn to the steakhouse or even the new restaurant by the winery, but she’d voted for Mexican food. Tex-Mex of course.
They were working on chips, with a margarita for Jaclyn and a beer for him when he recognized a woman heading their way. What was Heather doing here? From what he’d heard she’d hardly set foot in town since they broke up. He stood when she reached the table, and because she seemed to expect it, kissed her cheek. “Hi, Heather. How are you?”
“Good. No need to ask how you are, Marshall. Handsome as ever.”
Uh-oh. Nothing good came of Heather complimenting him. He gestured to Jaclyn and introduced the two women. “Jaclyn, this is Heather Stanley. Heather, this is Jaclyn Carson.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jaclyn said.
Heather nodded at her but quickly turned her attention back to him. “It’s so good to see you. I’ll be in town for a while. My mother’s having surgery. It’s elective, so nothing to worry about. But we should get together while I’m here. I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to.”
“Same thing I’m always up to. Working at the ranch.” Luckily, their dinner showed up so he was spared having to flat-out refuse to see her. No way in hell was he going there again, even if he hadn’t been involved with Jaclyn.
“I’ll let you eat your dinner. Call me, Marshall. You have my number.”
“Not bloody likely,” he said under his breath after she left.
“I take it that was the woman you thought might be the one.”
“You got it.”
“She’s very pretty.”
