Fannin's Flame Read online

  Navarro shrugged. “At least he’s not festering over Princess. Maybe he’ll give up on her and do it the easy way. No muss, no fuss.”

  “That’s the problem,” Last said. “We have too much muss and fuss around here.”

  Archer glanced up from reading the funny papers. “Specifically?”

  “I think Fannin’s sweet on Helga’s daughter.”

  He now had his brothers’ full attention.

  “Sweet? She’s only been here one night,” Calhoun said.

  “Enough time to do significant damage to a man who likes to do everything the hard way,” Last stated.

  Archer’s eyes bugged. “Are you going somewhere with this?”

  Last sighed. “Remember when we discussed the Quest for Truth, finding out what really happened to Dad when he left after Mom died?”

  The brothers nodded, their gazes sliding away.

  “And Fannin said he’d head up the inquiry? Remember?”

  “Yes!” Archer glared. “We remember. Move on, okay?”

  “I’m just saying I don’t think a lot of looking’s going to be going on now that he’s got her.”

  “Got her?” Calhoun shook his head. “He wouldn’t get Kelly. Bank on that.”

  Navarro nodded. “Second that.”

  Last sighed at their innocence. “Pay attention, numbskulls. Fannin likes her. And that could mean all our plans go up in smoke. Picture it, all our planning to get Helga moved over to Mimi—moot. Because she becomes our mother-in-law.”

  Archer laughed. “Not gonna happen, dude.”

  “It’s happened.”

  Calhoun looked at him. “What happened, philosopher?”

  “It happened.”

  There was silence around the table as his brothers digested the syllabic emphasis.

  “Nah,” Archer said. “Not Fannin. He’s a slow mover. A creepy-crawler. A tortoise. Not the kind to sneak around the house where a mother is sleeping, for heaven’s sake.”

  His brothers went back to what they were doing, which was not a damn thing as far as Last was concerned. He needed action and he needed it five minutes ago.

  Last felt desperate. “You guys don’t want to listen now, but I know things you don’t. And you’re not going to be happy.”

  “You’ve always known things we didn’t, little bro,” Calhoun said mildly. “We overlook you when you get too hopped up on yourself.”

  “It’s going to interfere with the Quest for Truth,” Last pointed out. “Fannin’s got his mind on Kelly. He’s not even paying attention to Princess!”

  “That’s a good thing,” Archer said. “I always say, too long without a woman and that man might’ve started looking funny at his livestock.”

  The brothers snickered to themselves.

  “We need to make sure this ends now, before it ever gets started,” Last stated. “More than it already has.”

  The comics section got tossed onto the table. “Exactly what do you want from us, Last?” Archer asked.

  “We need to continue with the plan to move Helga, first off. Secondly, we need to make sure her daughter leaves here pronto.”

  “If Mason knows you’re plotting against him, your head’s gonna roll,” Navarro pointed out.

  “Yeah, and if Helga becomes Fannin’s mother-in-law, your dinner’s gonna roll, every day for the rest of your lives!” Last didn’t see any point in reminding them that the situation was dire—the rooster had already been in the chicken coop, and heaven help all of them if an egg had been laid. “Look,” he said, “I’ll keep Fannin busy. Y’all get rid of Kiss-Me Kelly and her little red dog, too.”

  “You sound like the witch in The Wizard of Oz. And your little dog, too,” Calhoun mimicked.

  “Whatever,” Last said. “You’ll enjoy your positions as best men at the wedding, I’m sure.”

  “But what if he likes her? Isn’t that his business?” Navarro asked. “Should we be playing the heavies? Maybe we should let matters run their course so Fannin won’t be p’od with us.”

  Last thought about the thong on the ground. “What I think is that Kelly’s probably heard from her mother how nice we all are and how wonderful ranch life is. And she set out to get herself a Jefferson male.”

  “Well, she wouldn’t be the first,” Archer said.

  “And probably not the last,” Last said. “I think we just better make sure poor Fannin doesn’t get taken. He’s already been taken in,” Last said, not appreciating his own irony. “I mean, by a wily female.”

  “All right,” Navarro said. “We’re in. All for one and one for all.”

  “Save a Jefferson male and you save a good man from extinction,” Calhoun agreed.

  Archer folded up the funny papers. “A free range male is healthy, happy and primo.”

  Last grinned weakly from relief. “Once again, we save the family ranch from dishonorable intentions.”

  “But say, just say,” Archer said, “that Kelly’s intentions are honorable.”

  The red thong came to mind one last time. No nice girl met a man for the first time and lost her thong. “Trust me on this,” Last said. “I know dishonorable intentions when I see them. Intervention is required.”

  “MAMA’S SO HAPPY picking out things for the baby,” Kelly said to Fannin as they strolled along the square in town. “Thank you for bringing her.”

  Fannin walked beside her, big and strong in the crisp December air, holding Joy inside his jacket. He claimed Joy preferred body warmth to the Coach bag she generally rode in, but Kelly thought Fannin had a possible soft spot he didn’t want anyone to see.

  “I didn’t have anything else to do.”

  Kelly smiled. Fannin had plenty to do, but for some reason he’d decided to accompany them. Which she thought was sweet. They watched as Helga picked up baby booties, a hat and some pretty blankets. “Wonder why Mama dislikes you so much.”

  “Me? She dislikes me?”

  She smiled at him. “Well, all of you. She says you’re wild men.”

  “I am not wild.”

  Fannin eyed her lips, making Kelly automatically swipe her tongue along her mouth. It was a primal reaction, but she couldn’t help it.

  “Are your brothers?”

  He grinned. “Yeah.”

  “Proud of that, are you?”

  “Not proud, necessarily, just laughing with them.”

  She didn’t like that. A good man would see the difference between wild and fun. One was worth keeping, the other was not. “Laughter is like applause.”

  “Did I laugh when you rolled down the ditch?”

  “No.” She wondered where he was going with that.

  “Well, I am now, since I know you’re not hurt and everything’s fine.” He shrugged. “That’s how I feel about my brothers. We’re vastly different. But I applaud their actions when they’re amusing.”

  Helga came over to them, scowling up at Fannin, clearly allowing her feelings to show. Then she held out her selections for Kelly to examine before walking away again.

  “I don’t know,” Kelly murmured. “Mama doesn’t seem that sold on you. Maybe you’re not being totally candid with me.”

  “And you might be looking for someone who wouldn’t ask too many questions.”

  She sent him a disbelieving look. “About what?”

  He shrugged and glanced away. “Oh, like, what’s a nice girl like you doing in my truck with your panties off, kind of stuff. The truth is,” he said, getting close, “I think you were looking for a wild man so that you could let go of some of the goody two-shoes you’ve built into your world. I think you came out here to find a man to make you feel like you’d lived life. Instead of being cloistered in your mother’s mold.”

  She blinked.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Joy shifted inside his jacket, and Fannin glanced down for just a moment. When he looked back up, his eyes were dark and penetrating. “Are you longing to visit someplace new? Maybe a foreign country? You’re thirty, right?
Your mother’s out here with us, and you’re working the same job, day in, day out. You’re probably starting to question what you’ve done with your life. It’s pretty normal, actually, to reassess at that age. Textbook case. You’re looking for a husband.”

  A gasp escaped her.

  He held up a hand. “You want a fling, so you can find the right man for you. Then when the dishes pile up and the kids never pick up their clothes, you can look back and say to yourself, ‘I lived. I had this one really wild night in a truck with a cowboy and I lost my virgin—”’

  “That’s enough!” She forced a smile for her mother and took the things she was holding over to the register. “You’re awful, you know it?”

  Fannin laughed. “I’m honest.”

  KELLY AND FANNIN ATE dinner with her mother that night, then took her home. Neither of them was willing to claim victory after the wild-man conversation, but Fannin felt he had Kelly on the run. If she’d ever thought he was some uninteresting, pliable, run-me-over-and-don’t-look-back kind of guy, he’d certainly turned her thoughts around.

  He didn’t want her thinking too much. There was far too much going on between them for him to lose her right away. His brothers’ method of keeping women interested was just the potion—so far it seemed to be working.

  She stared at him over the mashed potatoes in the center of the table. He stared right back. His brothers were all grouped around the table, and he and Kelly had been placed as far away from each other as they could possibly get. Whoever was in charge of the placards was going to be shot at sunrise, he vowed—he wanted her close to him.

  Calhoun and Mason were sitting on either side of Kelly, and Calhoun appeared to enjoy the seating chart. Fannin scowled as Calhoun handed the bowl of broccoli to Kelly and forked some broccoli onto her plate. As if he were a gentleman. Which he wasn’t, and Kelly would be too smart to fall for that worn-out gag.

  But maybe she wasn’t. She had been a virgin. Not that being a virgin made her dumb, but she hadn’t been exposed to the animal magnetism his brothers were reputed to possess. And she was his virgin, damn it.

  Fannin steamed inside his flannel shirt.

  Mason, as usual, appeared to be immune to anything except the food on his plate. “Mason, could you pass the broccoli?” Fannin asked in a bid to get Kelly’s eyes on him.

  “Wait your turn,” Mason said sourly. “We always go counterclockwise with the bowls.”

  And who made up that stupid rule, Fannin thought. Kelly looked at him, just a quick glance, then looked away. All right, so she wasn’t quite as hooked as he wanted her to be.

  Time to pour on some more of his brothers’ catch-me-if-you-can charm. “I’m going out,” he said abruptly, standing and tossing his napkin to the table.

  Now Kelly’s eyes were on him.

  “Where are you going?” Archer asked.

  “Out,” Fannin replied curtly.

  “You’re being rude as hell to our guest,” Mason said.

  “Beg your pardon, ma’am,” he said, and then left the room.

  But not before he saw the grin on Last’s face.

  “You’ll have to excuse him,” Fannin heard Last say. “He can be moody.”

  “Yes,” Navarro said, “very sideways about his broccoli. By the way, your mother is a wonderful cook.”

  Fannin hovered in the hall, eavesdropping shamelessly.

  “Really?” Kelly asked. “Do you think so?”

  Her voice held doubt and suspicion. Fannin was suspicious, too. There was a reason his brothers were being so nice to Helga’s daughter—nothing good could come of its ploy.

  They always had a tactic to play, an ace they were hiding.

  “I’m outta here,” he said to himself. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

  But then the front door blew open, very nearly cold-cocking him, and Mimi stumbled into his arms.

  “I feel strange,” she said, moaning.

  Chapter Six

  Fannin struggled to hold Mimi up.

  “Mimi feels strange!” he hollered, not knowing what else to say. Mimi’s entire weight was against him, and he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t be dead weight in his arms if she could help it.

  Mason came running, practically leaping over chairs to get to Mimi. “Hold on, Mimi. Lay her on the sofa. Last, call Doc Gonzalez. Helga—”

  But he didn’t have to instruct Helga, because Helga was already fussing over Mimi, making certain her feet were up and sweeping her hair away from her brow. Kelly crouched beside her mother, and the two of them burst into rapid German.

  Fannin stood helplessly, out of his league.

  “Don’t just stand there! Do something!” Mason exclaimed. “Everybody get towels. Boil water!”

  “Calm down, bro.” Fannin went to stand beside his brother. “She’s going to be fine.”

  “She doesn’t look fine,” Mason said, his face drawn. “She looks freaking ill.”

  Mimi did not look good. Since she wasn’t the type to play the wan, fainting heroine, Fannin knew as well as Mason did that something wasn’t right.

  “Where’s the damn doctor?” Mason growled.

  “On his way,” Last said. “Take a deep breath, Mason. Don’t pop a coronary on us.”

  “I’m gonna pop you—”

  “Shh!” Kelly looked up at the brothers, who were clustered around the sofa. “Go out and burn a fire in a barrel or something, okay? Mimi needs quiet. Not a bunch of overreacting males hanging around her, losing their nerve.”

  Every man in the room stared at her.

  Helga glanced up, her gaze warning.

  “My mother requests that you find someplace else to light. We’ll call you when we need help,” Kelly said more gently.

  Silently the men filed out. They perched on porch rails and stared out at the dark fields or sat heavily on the porch step. Mason stood where he could see through the window. He wasn’t obvious about it, but Fannin knew what he was doing.

  “Damn Doc Gonzalez anyway,” Mason said. “A man that old oughta retire. He drives so slow that—”

  “Mason. Cool it,” Fannin demanded. “She’s not pregnant with your child, okay? Somebody figure out how to put a call into Brian.”

  Mason stopped bitching. He remained there, his hands in his pockets, looking helpless.

  Fannin frowned. “I’m sorry, Mason.”

  “It’s fine. You’re right.”

  Then his brother turned his back to him and the drama going on inside the house. Fannin sighed. “I’ll go call Brian.” He could find the number if he tried hard enough. And he figured someone needed to check on the sheriff. Going back inside, he noted Helga had Mimi quiet now, a cloth on her forehead. Mimi seemed much calmer. Kelly glanced up at him as she sat beside her mother, and he felt the stir inside him he was beginning to associate with her.

  Little bit bad girl, she was. But ever so cautious.

  “Mimi, I’m going to call Brian,” he said, ignoring Helga’s glare.

  “No.” Mimi opened her eyes. “Do not call my husband.”

  He glanced at Kelly. “Mimi—”

  “I don’t want Brian to know I’m not feeling well. It’s going to pass in a moment. Helga says I just got nervous. Don’t bother Brian over something trivial.”

  Kelly watched him curiously.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to call Brian? It’s no trouble.”

  “Fannin,” Kelly said, “she says not to. Brian’s got a big court case he’s working right now, and she doesn’t want him bothered. Mama says Mimi’s going to be fine. Now go back out and tell everybody to relax.”

  He’d be the last one to know about women, pregnant women especially. Kelly seemed to think the situation was under control. Not wanting to seem out of his depth, which he was, he backed out of the room and closed the door.

  “Think they’ve got it under control,” he told Mason. “Think we’re supposed to go count grass blades in the yard or something.”
/>   “It’s December, dummy,” Mason said crossly. “How much grass do you see?”

  “Don’t jump on me, Mason. I’m doing the best I can with three ornery females and you eating my head!” He glared at Mason for emphasis.

  “Here comes Doc Gonzalez, at the best moment,” Last said. “Before this whole place blows up over a baby. Interesting how much havoc a pregnant woman can wreak on men’s perfectly normal existences, isn’t it?”

  But no one was in the mood for Last and his deep ponderings.

  “Hey, Doc,” Fannin called. “Thanks for coming out. Mimi wouldn’t let us take her into Dallas.”

  “It’s fine, boys. Been a while since I’ve been out, hasn’t it?” He peered at them as he stamped his feet clean on the doormat. “Since Frisco Joe broke his leg last year, maybe? Or was it Laredo’s concussion? Or Ranger’s—”

  “Doc, Mimi’s in here,” Fannin said hurriedly, before the Curse of the Broken Body Parts—a fairy tale of Laredo’s if he’d ever heard one—could be visited on him. Who really thought the Jefferson brothers had to be injured before they fell in love? After all, Mason was suffering from a different curse—Broken Heart Syndrome, if Fannin was any judge.

  Of course, as of yesterday, Fannin was determined not to end up like his brothers, the jugheads. They’d avoided love. He was going to find meaningful sex with the redhead inside—if it killed him. She was his made-to-order girl, even if the wrong order had arrived.

  He wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. “Kelly, can I see you?” he said, as Doc Gonzalez went inside.

  “Not now, Fannin.” Kelly shook her head at him. “I’m not leaving Mama.”

  “She’s fine. The doctor’s here.”

  “I’m not leaving my mother, Fannin. She doesn’t understand much English, as hard as she tries. I don’t think she’s in the best environment for learning it.”

  Kelly looked away, listening to what Doc Gonzalez was murmuring to Mimi. Fannin stood thunderstruck. Had Kelly just accused their family of mistreating her mother? He had certainly tried to be accommodating, more so than his brothers. He squinted at the redhead, who was intent on the matter at hand. Sighing, he went off to a corner to wait until they determined if an ambulance, a hot meal or an absent husband was needed for Mimi. Whatever it was, he was determined to be of service.