After Tex Read Free Page A

said.
    â€œAh, niña, ” the woman murmured, her voice suspiciously scratchy, as if she’d recently been crying. “I am so sorry to be calling like this. It is your grandfather.”
    The pounding pulse slowed to a dull thud. “Is Tex okay? Has something happened to him?”
    â€œThere is no easy way to say this. He is gone, niña. Your grandfather passed away a few moments ago.”
    The words echoed, nonsensical, impossible.
    â€œNo,” Megan protested in a whisper.
    â€œI am so sorry, niña. ”
    â€œNo,” Megan said again as tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks. “Not Tex.” He was big and blustery and strong. Indomitable. Immortal.
    â€œI am so very sorry,” Mrs. Gomez repeated. “It was very fast. There was no time to call you. His heart, the doctor said. There had been signs, but your grandfather ignored them. Like always, he thought he knew best.”
    â€œI’ll be there on the first flight,” Megan told her, dimly aware that another phone line had lit up, indicating that the ever-efficient Todd was already making the arrangements. He would clear her schedule, see that things ran smoothly in her absence. More than ever, she thought what a godsend he was.
    â€œI’ll let you know when I’ll arrive,” she promised. “And I’ll arrange for a rental car.”
    â€œNo need to do that. There are cars here you can use. I will tell Señor Jake. He will pick you up.”
    Megan was not so distraught that the name of a man she’d thought long gone from Whispering Wind, Wyoming, slipped past her. “Jake?”
    â€œ Sí . Señor Landers. You remember.”
    Oh, yes, she remembered. All too well. Sexy. Arrogant. Big-time trouble. Also a man her grandfather had once despised. Tex had worked very hard to see that Jake was out of both their lives.
    â€œWhy is Jake Landers there?”
    â€œI am sure he will explain it all to you.”
    â€œYou tell me,” Megan insisted.
    â€œI do not know your grandfather’s business,” Mrs. Gomez said. “Just hurry home, niña. ”
    It was too late to worry about hurrying, Meganthought bleakly. It was too late for so many things she had vowed to do to let her grandfather know that she loved him, that she would be forever grateful for all he had done for her.
    â€œI’m coming home, Tex,” she murmured.
    But, of course, it was too late for that to matter, too.

2
    â€œI s she coming?” Jake asked Tex O’Rourke’s housekeeper after she had talked to Megan.
    â€œWell, of course she is,” Mrs. Gomez replied with a touch of indignation. “Did you think she would stay away at a time like this?”
    The truth was Jake didn’t know what to think about Meggie after all these years. Once he’d had a world-class crush on her, but she’d been as out of reach to him then as if they’d lived on different planets. In a very real sense, they might as well have.
    As Tex O’Rourke’s granddaughter, Megan had been part of Whispering Wind’s elite social circle, such as it was. Jake had been the son of the town whore and a troublemaker in his own right. No one was more stunned than Jake himself that he had wound up a lawyer. Then again, few people knew both sides of the law as well as he did.
    Jake still wasn’t entirely certain what perversity had drawn him back to Whispering Wind a few months ago. Some would say he was returning to the scene of his crimes. Others would probably assess his motives even less charitably. The bottom line, though, was that he was back, and predictably enough, the whole town was still talking about it.
    Ironically, Tex O’Rourke had been one of the few who hadn’t cast judgment, but then the old man knew better than most that not all of the tales about Jake’s misdeeds had been accurate. When Tex had turned up in Jake’s office late one afternoon asking for