Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars #2)(104)

She left the hotel and made her way numbly to her car. All along, she hadn’t been anything more to him than another one of his charity cases. She couldn’t hold back the tears. She was beholden to him for everything: the roof over her head, her food, every purchase she made from shampoo to Tampax. She cringed as she thought how proud she had felt when she’d left money in his desk drawer to pay her rent and reimburse him for the cocktail dress. How he must have laughed as he watched money he’d given her in the first place returned to him. Having private jokes at her expense seemed to be a specialty of his.

She clutched the steering wheel more tightly, but she couldn’t stop the flow of tears. Why hadn’t she figured it out earlier? He didn’t love her at all. He’d felt sorry for her, so he’d created a job for her out of pity in the same way he set up trust funds for children who weren’t his and wrote out checks to friends down on their luck. There had never been enough work to keep her busy, and she couldn’t even take any satisfaction in feeling as if she’d earned the money. He’d known all along that he didn’t need a full-time employee, but he hadn’t wanted her firing on his conscience. Bobby Tom liked playing God.

She stared blindly ahead. By not telling her the truth from the beginning, he had deceived her in a way she could never forgive. She had explained to him how imperative it was for her to pay her own way. He knew it! But that hadn’t mattered to him because she didn’t matter to him. If he’d cared for her, he wouldn’t have stripped her of that dignity. I’m not going to take anything from you, Bobby Tom. I only want to give. What a joke. What an awful, painful joke.



Some men fought tuxedos, but Bobby Tom looked as if he’d been born in one. He’d added his own touches, of course: a pleated lavender shirt with diamond studs, black Stetson, and a pair of snakeskin cowboy boots he wore only with formal dress. The limestone clubhouse had been polished from the locker room to the dining room for the biggest event in its history. Ticket sales for tomorrow’s tournament had exceeded everyone’s expectations, and even the weatherman had cooperated by promising a sunny day, with temperatures in the low seventies.

The athletes were just beginning to arrive for the pre-dinner cocktail party when one of the waiters whispered to Bobby Tom that someone wanted to see him downstairs. As he made his way across the lobby, he glanced toward the entrance with some irritation. Where was Gracie? He’d expected her to be here by now. A lot of the guys were going to get a big kick out of her, and he wanted to start introducing her around. Gracie was the most sports-ignorant female he’d ever met, and he knew her lack of knowledge was sure to get her into trouble tonight, providing him with an entire evening’s worth of amusement. He still didn’t quite understand how her ignorance of sports sometimes seemed to be one of her best assets.

He headed down the carpeted stairs to the lower level, where the locker rooms were vacant for the night. The glass door that led into the empty pro shop should have been locked, but it stood ajar, and he stepped inside. Only a single light burned over the counter, and he didn’t see the man who stood in the far corner of the room until Way Sawyer came forward.

“Denton.”

Bobby Tom had known he was going to have to confront Sawyer soon, but he wouldn’t have chosen tonight to do it. still , he’d seen Sawyer’s name on the guest list, so it wasn’t a real surprise, and he had no intention of backing away. For some reason this man was connected with his mother’s sadness, and he wanted to know why.

Sawyer had been inspecting one of the oversize drivers on display, and as he stepped forward he held it loosely across his body. His formal dress didn’t disguise how haggard he looked, as if he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for some time. Bobby Tom struggled to control his antipathy. Despite Sawyer’s announcement about Rosatech, he would never like this man. He was a cold, hard-hearted son of a bitch who’d cheat his own grandmother if he saw the need.

He pushed aside the fleeting impression that right now Sawyer looked more tired than ruthless.

“What can I do for you?” he said coldly.

“I want to talk to you about your mother.”

It was exactly the subject they needed to discuss, but Bobby Tom felt himself bristling. “There’s nothing to talk about. You stay away from her, and everything’ll be fine.”

“I’ve been staying away from her. Has that made things better? Is she happy?”

“You’re damn right she is. Happy as I’ve ever seen her.”

“You’re lying.”

Despite his words, Bobby Tom heard the uncertainty in Sawyer’s voice and took advantage of it. “The last time we talked, she was excited about taking a cruise and adding some new plants to her garden. She’s been so busy with her friends and projects it’s hard for us to find time to get together.”

Sawyer’s shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly, and his fingers grew lax on the club he was holding, but Bobby Tom didn’t relent. Somehow this man had hurt his mother, and he had to make certain it didn’t happen again. “As far as I could tell, she didn’t have a care in the world.”

“I see.” Sawyer cleared his throat. “She misses your father very much.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

Sawyer rested the head of the club on the carpet. “You look just like him, you know. The last time I saw him he was only eighteen or nineteen, but the resemblance is still strong.”