Jack’s shoulders bunched. He clearly didn’t like the subject matter, but Liza didn’t
cut him off. “He’d spent a hell of a lot of time helping the community and building his reputation. People liked him and he liked living here. But after the affair, he sort of lost his zest for life. His articles went downhill. He started to offend some people—more so than before, because it was for all the wrong reasons. It wasn’t long before the
townsfolk were boycotting the paper and it folded. He left town. Left me the house and the cottage and moved to California. He writes books now. Horror novels. Sort of
fitting, I guess.”
“Holy cow!” Liza exclaimed. “Samuel F. Wade? That’s your father? I’ve read his
books!”
Jack nodded. “One and the same.”
“Wow, Jack! You’re right. He truly is brilliant.”
“And saner now, thank God.”
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Devil in Texas
“I’m happy to hear that.” Though she suspected some of those violent, axe-
murderer scenes he wrote might have a thing or two to do with Jack’s mother and Bill
Bain.
“Anyway,” Jack concluded his story. “I had the house to myself, so I fixed this place up and offered it to Lydia so she’d have a nice place to raise her kid. Unfortunately, about five months into the pregnancy, she miscarried. It was devastating for her. That’s when she turned to God and Jonathan and…the rest is history.”
Liza’s head reeled. “I never would have guessed any of this…” she mumbled.
Jack stripped off the towel and reached for his clothes. When he was dressed, he
pulled her into his arms and said, “I’m gonna head up the hill, darlin’. Give your body a rest.” He kissed her on the forehead, then released her. “You sleep tight.”
She watched him go, realizing all her prodding was a sexual buzz-kill. Liza gnawed
her lower lip as dread settled in where sparks had once been.
Shit.
Had all her questions and stirring up memories of the past just nipped their
romance in the bud?
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Calista Fox
Chapter Seventeen
“How to bring romance back to Wilder?” Liza mused as she closed the notebook
she’d been scribbling ideas in for the event planning proposal she intended to present to Jess.
“It’d sure help business,” Jess said from her workbench.
“What about point-of-sale purchases?”
Jess lifted her gaze from a basket she was filling with flowers and asked, “What do
you mean?”
“Well, I’ve been to one of the grocery stores in town as well as the drugstore down
the street. Neither have a floral department.” She slid off her stool at the cashier’s desk and crossed to the tall commercial refrigerators that housed all of Jess’ recent
arrangements. “We could stick one of these in the stores, with fresh, pre-made
arrangements.”
Strolling over to Jess’ work area where she kept the blooms, Liza said, “And we
could put some of these buckets at the checkout lanes, with wrapped bouquets in them.
So a couple picking up a bottle of wine for a dinner party sees them and decides to take a nice arrangement to the hostess. A kid who’s buying a birthday card for his mom, but doesn’t know what kind of gift to give her, sees your flowers and solves his problem
with a bouquet of lilies. A man stopping off for condoms before his hot date grabs a
dozen red roses to ‘grease the wheels’,” she added with a wink.
Jess laughed. “I get your point. And it’s…brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Maybe because you’re the one taking care of the bookkeeping, the ordering-taking,
the designing, the delivering, the everything.”
“It has been a little overwhelming, wearing all those hats.”
“I can imagine.”
“Geez…I might need you full-time, especially if the event planning takes off.”
“Maybe you can hire Ginger when she’s out of business,” Liza said in a dour tone.
Jess looked up from her basket again. “Is she really in dire straits?”
“Her business is floundering.”
Jess didn’t reach for another flower. Instead she said, “Poor girl. It’s so
unfortunate.”
“And no one’s helping her.”
“Well… I still buy all my lingerie there. Regardless of what Lydia has to say about
it.”
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Devil in Texas
“What right does she have to say anything at all?” Liza queried as she reached for
the remaining empty basket sitting on the workbench, thinking she could follow Jess’
lead while they talked.
“Lydia doesn’t consider Ginger’s wares…suitable…for Wilder.”
“Again,” Liza pointed out as she wedged the green foam into the bottom of the
basket and sprinkled some water on it to dampen it, as Jess had done with her baskets.
“Who is Lydia to talk? What business is it of hers what people wear—or do—in the
privacy of their own bedroom?”
“Her husband is the reverend. Being his wife means she has certain obligations.”
“Like cramming morality down the throats of the townsfolk? Subjecting people to
her views and opinions, touting them as governing guidelines of decency, even though, last I checked, Texas hasn’t yet seceded from the nation and become Bain Country?”
“Well…”
Liza continued on, her voice hitching up a notch or two as her aggravation got the
best of her. “There is a Constitution upholding all Americans’ rights and freedoms. Or did I miss the part that says the citizens of Wilder are excluded from the rights under the First Amendment? And for that matter, wasn’t the amendment to abolish liquor
repealed in like, what, the 1930s?”
Jess laughed. “Boy, when you get on a tangent!” She shook her head and smiled.
“Remind me not to engage in a debate with you on, oh anything!”
Liza stabbed a stem into the foam. She thought it was a lily, but couldn’t say for
sure.
“Sorry,” she said, contrite. “Didn’t mean to go all Rambo on you.”
“No, it was great. I mean, I completely agree. Except…” She shrugged a shoulder as
she watched Liza jam another flower into the foam. And cringed. “Being the reverend’s wife, of course she’s going to take offense over Ginger’s displays.”
“I noted several cheap knockoffs of brand-name shampoos in Lydia’s shop, but I