Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars #2)(39)

Suzy smiled. “You really have been sheltered, haven’t you?”

“That’s no excuse.”

“You had a bad shock yesterday,” Suzy said kindly. “Any woman would have been upset.”

“I threw myself at him.”

“He’s used to it, dear. I’m certain he’s already forgotten about it.”

Gracie’s pride bristled at the idea that she was simply another in the long line of women who’d embarrassed themselves over Bobby Tom, but she couldn’t deny the truth. “Has he always had such a strong effect on women?”

“He’s had a strong effect on almost everybody.” Suzy withdrew a spading fork from the green plastic garden caddy next to her knees and began to loosen the soil around the edge of her herb garden. “In a lot of ways, life has come easily to Bobby Tom. From childhood on, he was the best athlete, and he’s always been an excellent student.”

Gracie inwardly winced, remembering her offer to help him learn to read. Suzy crushed a sprig of lavender in her fingers and brought it to her nose to breathe in the scent. Grace assumed she wasn’t going to say any more and was surprised when she brushed off her hands and went on.

“He was popular with the other children. Boys liked him because he didn’t try to bully them. And even in elementary school, the girls made excuses to come to the house. He hated it, of course, especially in fourth grade, when they really made his life miserable. They’d send him love notes and follow him around on the playground. The other boys teased him unmercifully.”

Her hands grew still on the spading fork, and she spoke in a slow, measured manner, as if she were having difficulty choosing her words. “One day Terry Jo Driscoll—she’s Terry Jo Baines, now—chalked a big red heart in the driveway with ‘Bobby Tom loves Terry Jo’ written next to it. She was drawing flowers all around it just as he was coming up the sidewalk with three of his friends. When Bobby Tom saw what she was doing, he flew right across the front yard and tackled her.”

Gracie didn’t know much about nine-year-old boys, but she could imagine how embarrassing that must have been for him.

Suzy renewed her attack on a clump of weeds growing near the basil plants. “If the other boys hadn’t been watching that would probably have been the end of it. But by this time they’d seen what she’d written and all of them were laughing. She started laughing, too, and telling them that Bobby Tom wanted to kiss her. He lost his temper and punched her in the arm.”

“I suppose that’s an understandable reaction for a nine-year-old.”

“Not as far as his father was concerned. Hoyt heard the commotion and reached the front door just in time to see Bobby Tom hit her. He took off outside like a rocket, hauled Bobby Tom up by the scruff of his neck, and walloped him right there in front of all his friends. Bobby Tom was humiliated; his friends were embarrassed. It was the only time Hoyt every spanked him, but my husband didn’t believe a man could sink any lower than hitting a woman, and he refused to make allowances for the fact that his son was only nine at the time.”

She leaned back on her heels, looking troubled. “Bobby Tom and his father were very close, and he never forgot that lesson. This might sound foolish, but sometimes I think he learned it too well.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have no idea how many women have thrown themselves at him over the years. But even so, I’ve never heard him be impolite to a single one of them. Not to any of the football groupies, the married women, the parasites, the gold diggers. As far as I know, he’s managed to keep his distance without ever uttering an impolite word. Doesn’t that seem strange to you?”

“He’s developed a lot more sophisticated strategies than simple rudeness for getting around women.” Gracie wondered if Suzy knew about the football quiz.

“Exactly. And it’s become so automatic over the years that I’m not sure he realizes how thick the barrier he’s built around himself has grown.”

Gracie thought about that. “He’s incredible. He smiles at women, flatters them outrageously, tells them exactly what they want to hear. He makes every one of them feel like a queen. Then he does exactly what he wants.”

Suzy nodded, her expression unhappy. “Now I think Hoyt would have been smarter to have looked the other way when Bobby Tom socked Terry Jo. At least it was a straightforward statement of his feelings, and he was never a cruel child, so he wouldn’t have made a habit of it. Goodness knows, Terry Jo recovered. She was his first serious girlfriend.” Her mouth tightened in a grim smile. “The irony is that when I mentioned the incident to him not long ago, he said that his father did exactly the right thing. He doesn’t seem to have any idea what it might have cost him.”

Gracie wasn’t certain it had cost him anything. Bobby Tom possessed an abundance of charm, talent, good looks, and intelligence. Was it any wonder he’d grown an ego to match? He didn’t believe there was a female on the planet who was good enough for him. Certainly not a thirty-year-old from New Grundy, Ohio, with small breasts and bad hair.

Suzy slipped the spading fork back into the green plastic caddy and stood. For a moment she gazed around at the pleasant garden. The scent of basil, lavender, and freshly turned earth filled the air. “I love working out here. It’s the only place where I feel peaceful.” She looked embarrassed, as if she’d just made a deeply personal statement and wished she hadn’t.