Her first close encounter with Jake had been at a school party in the gym to get everyone acquainted. For one of the dances they had two large circles of kids—boys in the outside ring, girls on the inside. They walked in a circle to a drumbeat until the band began to play, then the boy and girl facing each other danced until the music stopped and everybody resumed walking in a circle to get a new partner.
When the music started, she had been facing Jake. “No. Not a Calhoun,” she had said loudly enough for him and everyone around her to hear. She had stepped close to the boy next to him, leaving Jake to the girl next to her. Everyone knew about the feud, and besides, the girl had been a friend and hadn’t cared because Jake Calhoun was older, on the football team, well-known and popular.
The next time he passed her at school he walked up close and said, “Thanks for changing partners so I didn’t have to.” Madison had just continued on her way, wondering if he really would have grabbed a different girl in front of all the other kids. The rest of her freshman year she had never spoken to him again and he didn’t speak to her, but she noticed him and he always glanced at her. She had thought it was a pity he was a Calhoun because he was the best-looking boy in the high school.
In her sophomore year, she became a cheerleader. At a game, Jake had come out and was headed to the bench on the sidelines where she had been standing.
“Hi, snooty Miss Milan,” he said quietly without even looking at her as he passed her.
She had turned to look at him. “Hi, yourself, wicked Mr. Calhoun,” she said, and to her surprise, he grinned. He had gone on to the bench, but the next Monday at school as she moved between classes, her path was blocked. “Hi, again,” he said. “Scared to speak to me at school where one of your brothers will see you?”
“I’m not scared of my brothers. I just don’t particularly want to speak to a Calhoun. You’ve got brothers in school, too.”
“What about your parents?”
“My parents will never know. Dad’s busy with his work and Mom has a social life.”
“I know your dad is a Dallas judge. Does he commute?”
“No, he and Mom live in Dallas during the week. My brothers and I didn’t want to leave Verity High so our grandparents are living at the ranch with us.”
“So we can’t be together in Dallas or out here. Okay, after school, meet me by the Dumpsters. I’ll pick you up and we’ll go to Lubbock and get ice cream, if you’re not scared to risk it.”
“Why would I want to go out with a Calhoun?”
“Same reason I want to go out with one particular Milan. Scared?”
“No, I’m not scared of you. What about football practice?”
“I’ll tell Coach I’ve got an appointment in Lubbock. Maybe I will have one if you’ll say yes.”
She still remembered the thrill over the prospect of going with him. For one moment she thought of all the warnings to stay away from the Calhouns and never trust one. As she looked into his dark brown eyes fringed with thick black lashes, she took a deep breath.
“I’ll meet you,” she said and from that encounter on, she thought he was the most exciting boy she had ever met. They worked out an arrangement with their two best friends. Her parents thought she was dating Steve Reynolds, someone they had no objection to. Jake’s parents thought he was dating Marilee Wilson. He would pick up Marilee, and Steve would pick her up. Then they’d meet and trade places. She would spend the evening with Jake while Marilee and Steve did the same. At the end of the evening, they would meet, trade places and go home.
Their secret dates ended when her brother Tony saw her in Lubbock with Jake. She still recalled how horrified she had been when they fought, leaving Tony with a bloody nose and Jake with a black eye and a bruised cheek. The fight that followed at home with her brother had not been physical, but just as painful, as they didn’t speak to each other for weeks. Tony informed the other brothers. Each brother had reacted in a way typical of his personality—Wyatt talked to her seriously in his quiet manner, warning her never to trust a Calhoun because she would get hurt. In hindsight, she should have listened. Nick laid out a grim scenario that she had dismissed as his gloomy dislike of the Calhouns.
She’d disregarded her brothers’ warnings. The year she’d dated Jake had been the best one of her life. The man could dance, and they’d had such fun. And he could kiss. With Jake, she had made love for the first time.
While they dated Jake made plans to attend Mississippi State after high school graduation. She could not stop recalling the day they planned to elope. She had dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, the same as every other Saturday in her life, but she’d already had a bag packed. It held a knee-length white silk dress, veil and matching pumps, and a lace nightgown that she could recall with total clarity. Later, after her family had gone, she had deliberately taken them to the patio and burned them in a metal wastebasket, standing by with a hose in case the fire got out of hand. She could still recall standing there and crying. Jake had just disappeared out of her life without a word to her. The next morning she had driven to Rocky Creek, stepped out of the car and thrown her one-carat engagement ring into the creek. She never saw Jake Calhoun again.
Shaking off the painful memories of the past, Madison tried to focus on the chore for the day—the latest painting that she had been commissioned to do for a Dallas oil magnate’s office. But she couldn’t stop thinking of Jake.
Work on the painting went slowly that week, and she found her thoughts constantly looking ahead to Sunday and their dinner date. Curiosity about why he wanted to talk to her nagged at her. He had to have a good reason. She knew it wasn’t a ploy to get with her. And she most definitely didn’t want to get with him.
A little before seven on Sunday night she waited in the library of the ranch, which gave a view of the drive to the front. She wore a dark blue dress with a deep V neckline. The dress was straight, clinging to her figure, the narrow skirt ending above her knees. With her hair pinned up on her head, she hoped to look remote, cool, self-possessed. She was still amazed she was going to dinner with Jake. And then she watched him step out of the limo and head for the house. At the sight of Jake, her heartbeat pounded.
She was going out with him again.
Two
The sun was on the horizon when Jake stood at her front door and listened to chimes. He had rarely set foot on this ranch because they would not run the risk when they had been dating in high school. Even when her parents were away, her siblings were around, or the ranch hands, who would have reported back to her dad.
He and Madison had had secret meetings occasionally on the boundaries of their ranches, but those were rare.
He looked at the house as if seeing it for the first time. The Milan family home was different from most ranch homes in the area. The stately Georgian with white Corinthian columns looked like it belonged in the Deep South. Two giant oaks framed the house but outside the fenced, watered yard were smaller, less majestic mesquite trees and cacti. The fine home stood on a working ranch that had prize-winning cattle and probably lucrative oil and gas reserves in the ground.
He stepped up to the door and took a deep breath. An evening with Madison. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening. He still expected her to try to back out, but he knew once they were on their way, she would be committed. Frowning, he pushed the doorbell and listened to the chimes. Had she backed out, standing him up now in a tiny effort to retaliate for their wedding years ago?
Their wedding. The familiar, burning anger started in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to think about that time in his life or recall anything connected with that day. Keep this business tonight, he told himself. Present his case, feed the lady and whisk her back home. He suspected he was going to have to use his best powers of persuasion, but he had an ace in the hole that he hoped