What I Did for Love (Wynette, Texas #5)(83)

“It sure is.” Bram glanced at Rory, then held out his hand to Georgie. “Honey, what are you doing? Give me that. No way am I letting you go after a dangerous rattlesnake.”

She suppressed a smile and handed back the swimmer. Bram gritted his teeth and gingerly extended it across the pool. Meg and Paul appeared and watched the process, with Meg occasionally throwing out advice. The snake hissed and coiled but Bram eventually managed to knock it off the kickboard into the skimmer. A patch of flop sweat had formed between his shoulder blades as he carted the extended skimmer to the very back of his property and flipped the snake over the stone wall.

“Great,” Rory said. “Now it can crawl back into my yard as soon as it’s full grown.”

“You let me know if it does,” Bram said. “I’ll come right over and take care of it for you.”

“You should have killed it,” Lance said.

“Why?” Meg retorted. “Because it acted like a snake?”

Georgie realized she needed to clarify something, and with Rory standing there, she might as well do it now, however awkward it might be. “You know, Rory…Those drinks Bram’s always carrying around. It’s iced tea.”

Bram looked at her as though she’d lost her mind, as did the others. “Just so everyone understands you’re not a drunk anymore,” she said lamely. “You stopped smoking cigarettes five years ago, and the oregano in the kitchen is really oregano. As for drugs…I’ve found some Flintstone vitamins and Tylenol, but—”

“I don’t take Flintstone vitamins!”

“One A Day. Whatever. If people know you’re not such a badass anymore, they might stop treating me like I was crazy for marrying you.” And, she thought, Rory might be more willing to get behind Tree House. Her newly calculating brain ticked away.

Bram finally climbed on board. “You were crazy to marry me, but I’m glad.”

They did a little marital cuddle, although she could tell from the tight furrow between his brows that he wasn’t happy with her. “My hero.” She patted his chest.

“You’re too good to me, sweetheart.”

Laura asked Lance and Jade the question that should have been at the forefront of all their minds. “How are you two? Any symptoms?”

“Jet-lagged, but otherwise healthy,” Jade said.

Rory flicked open her cell. “Give me a list of whatever any of you need. One of my assistants will get it all together and put it by the back gate.”

Lance clapped Paul on the shoulder. “It’s great to see you again. We finally have a chance to catch up.”

Georgie didn’t have the stomach for this reunion, and she began to move away, only to be stopped by her father’s reply. “I’m afraid I don’t have much to say to you these days, Lance.”

Lance didn’t seem to know how to respond. “Paul…This has been hard on everyone, but…”

“Has it?” her father said. “The way I see it, it’s mainly been hard on Georgie. You seem to be doing just fine.”

Lance looked stricken, and Jade’s forehead crinkled. Georgie was touched. “Go ahead, Dad. I don’t mind.”

“I mind,” he said and walked away.

The corner of Bram’s mouth curled. “I don’t understand it. Dad was in such a good mood last night when the two of us made plans to go fishing.”

Georgie studied him. Since when had Bram Shepard become a person she could count on? As for her father…Had he snubbed Lance out of respect for her or only to salve his own pride?

She took extra time with her hair and makeup, but dressed in jeans and a plain white T-shirt so she didn’t look as though she were trying too hard. When she came downstairs, she found her houseguests on their cells nibbling an assortment of cereals and muffins. Chaz stood at the stove, making eggs by request, and Lance mouthed that he’d like two scrambled egg whites. Next to him, Jade interrupted her phone conversation to order up hot water for herbal tea. A helicopter buzzed overhead. Georgie saw Paul through the French doors talking to someone on his cell. Laura sat in the dining room with a notepad, her phone to her ear. At the kitchen table, Rory furiously scribbled a note to herself in the margin of the Los Angeles Times front page, while Meg, perched on a counter stool, was doing her best to reassure her mother that she was all right.

Bram carried a case of bottled water in from the garage. He looked up at the ceiling as the sound of a second helicopter joined the first and began to circle. “There’s no business like show business.”

Word had leaked out even more quickly than she’d expected. Georgie imagined a photographer hanging off the skids, his telephoto lens pointed at their house, willing to risk his life to get that first picture of her with Lance and Jade. What would a photo like that bring? Six figures for sure.

She filled a coffee mug and slipped outside into the shelter of the veranda. The whirl of helicopter blades was louder here. Her father, leaning against one of the twisted columns, saw her approach and ended his phone conversation. They studied each other. His eyes looked tired behind his rimless glasses. Maybe things had been easier between them when she was little, but she didn’t remember it that way. Still, he’d been a twenty-five-year-old widower left to raise a daughter alone. She cradled her coffee mug. “Are you still signing autographs for Richard Gere?”