Fannin's Flame

Last turned to him. “I think that tall redhead who was in your truck said that Helga was her mother.”

Fannin’s heart caved. “That can’t be possible. That would not be a good thing at all.”

Last shook his head. “I wouldn’t want those genes, either.”

“No, you don’t understand. I—” Fannin halted. “I mean, that would put me in a very bad spot.”

“Did you know who she was? How did you meet Helga’s daughter?” Last asked.

Fannin shook his head, thinking through their conversations on the phone and in person. Had Kelly ever mentioned it? He was positive he’d remember something like Helga is my mother.

“Dude. How are you going to fire her now?” Last asked.

“Fire who?” Fannin’s thoughts were so tangled, he couldn’t keep anything straight.

“Helga. Remember? We took her out tonight for the last supper, so to speak, so that you could meet your dream date—great choice, by the way, Helga’s daughter and all. Makes for weird drama, doesn’t it, bro?” Last slapped him on the back. “And in return for us giving up our time, you were going to speak to Mason about punting Helga over to Mimi’s house.”

Fannin felt ill. “I don’t think I can exactly do that now.”

“You have to! It was…dude, you don’t understand what it was like taking Helga into Dallas. She wanted to stop and look at every point of interest, every history marker between here and there. We gave up on the movie and took her to a German restaurant instead. She had a blast, by the way.”

“I’m going to have to renege.” He felt fairly certain that one didn’t sleep with a daughter and then turn around and fire the mother. That would not be cricket. It would definitely put him in bad with Kelly, a place he did not want to be. That redhead had given him a wicked treat—and he definitely had plans for winning more of the same.

“You can’t renege.” They looked on as Kelly took her mother carefully to the side of the road to peer over, watching the brothers swarm her little car to assess the damage and develop retrieval scenarios.

“I have to. Last, I can’t do it.”

“Why? You don’t…you don’t like her, do you?”

“Helga? No more than you do, but—”

“That girl.” Last stared at him. “You don’t have the hots for Helga’s daughter, do you?”

Fannin wanted to crawl under a rock to get away from Last’s piercing gaze. “She’s a really nice girl.”

Last gasped. “You realize you’re putting yourself on the road to ruin, brother. Intervention may be required. You haven’t thought this through.”

“Hell, I haven’t thought about anything! I just now found out myself!”

“Whatever you do,” Last said, drawing close enough so that no one could hear him, “do not sleep with her. Understand? If you’re not capable of thinking this through, then let me explain it to you in simple turns. H-e-double-hockey-sticks-ga would be your mother-in-law.”

Fannin felt Last’s sincerity blazing from his eyes.

“And if you don’t know what they say about nosey, interfering mothers-in-law, you can dial up Frisco Joe and ask him what he had to do to get away from her when he was laid up with a busted leg.”

“I remember,” Fannin muttered.

“And mothers-in-law.” Last shuddered, waving his hands for emphasis. “They are the fount of the future. You can see everything in that fount. Look closely, bro. That’s what your bride would look like someday.”

Fannin blinked at Last’s intensity.

“And you know what they say about getting along with the in-laws and the out-laws. If you did such a thing, Fannin, that would put Helga in our family forever. Forever. She’d be ours.” Last hung his head dramatically. “I could not endure it.”

Fannin felt bad for his brother, even though he was a maestro of soap opera effects—until Last kicked at something on the ground.

“What’s this?” Last asked, turning over a piece of red, lacy stuff on the ground with his boot.

“Nothing,” Fannin said, bending to scoop Kelly’s errant thong into his pocket.

“Looked like a…thong to me,” Last said, his voice amazed. “Wouldn’t that be strange? You see shoes all the time sitting in the middle of the road, sometimes one, sometimes two, and I always wonder who they belong to. Who so carelessly abandoned them?”

Kelly came walking back over to the truck with Helga, and Fannin growled, “Last, shut up.”

“Seriously. Someone needs to do a study on how shoes get into roads, particularly at intersections in big cities. They’re almost a tourist attraction in themselves. Sometimes they’re hanging from telephone wires like they just got up there by themselves. I know the world is changing now that it’s undergarments in the road….”

Kelly’s eyes went wide, and Fannin was relieved that Helga didn’t speak enough English to understand. “Shut up, Last,” he reiterated, this time his voice steely.

And then Last did shut up, his eyes first on Fannin because of the tone and then sliding to Kelly’s mortified expression. “Oh, brother,” Last said. “Aha. I have once again allowed my philosophical side to get the best of me. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go attach myself to the towing hitch.”

He left. Fannin felt Kelly looking at him, but he couldn’t look at her—not with her mother standing next to her and Kelly’s red lace burning in his pocket like the world’s worst-kept secret.

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS were easily solved once they got back to the house. Helga slept in quarters in the main house and Kelly would sleep with her mother. Only Mason remained at the big house, with Laredo, Tex and Frisco Joe having vacated the premises upon their marriages.

“You are staying awhile?” Helga asked her daughter, comfortable with chatting now that they were in her room and could speak German.

“Only one day,” Kelly replied. “I don’t have time off, and Julia’s been out sick.” She started to say that Fannin had ordered a personal assistant, and she’d chosen to fill the job since it was a Friday and wouldn’t hurt for her to be gone, but as far as Helga was concerned, Kelly was here to see her.

“Oh, I miss you,” her mother said.

“For Christmas, I have three days to spend with you. You’re going to come to my house,” Kelly promised.

“Three days?”

“Julia’s sick and has been taking extra days off to get her Christmas shopping done. The office hasn’t been that busy. So she said I could take three days over the holidays.”

“How will I get to Diamond?”

“I’ll come and get you. Don’t worry, Mother. You just tell Mason you need to come home for Christmas. We’re going to do lots of baking.”

“Baking.” Helga smiled. “It will be nice for a change to cook for someone who likes what I make.”

Kelly frowned. “I know you’ve been homesick.”

Her mother nodded. “Yes. I’m getting used to it here. But the boys are wild.” She gestured with her hands. “They are too long without good women.”

Kelly winced. “Is Fannin wild?”

Helga shrugged. “They’re all bad boys. Except Mason. He’s good. Sometimes.” She laughed.

“Sometimes?”

“I think so. He’s so quiet, his heart is all bottled up inside him.”

“I love you, Mama,” Kelly said, her insides aching for her mother. Even though Helga was speaking in a scolding tone about the brothers, Kelly could see that her mother cared about them, like rowdy chicks she wanted to keep under her wing.

Of course, that’s probably not what they wanted.

“I feel bad that I sent you here, Mama, and that you’re not happy. We have other ladies at the agency we could send. Why don’t you come home and stay with me for a while? We’ll find you another job that you’ll like better. Maybe even one in Diamond?”

“I can’t.” Helga looked down at her fingers. “The lady next door is going to have a baby. She’s a real nice girl. Mimi.”

“I remember seeing Mimi’s name. She’s the one who called about a housekeeper.”

“Yes. She’s over here all the time. I take care of her father when Mimi needs help.”

Kelly frowned. “You’re not really supposed to be doing two jobs, Mama.”

“I don’t mind. I like Mimi.” Helga sighed. “I think Mason is in love with Mimi. I think she’s in love with him, too.”

“But she’s married to someone else?” Kelly asked.

“Yes, and having a baby.” Helga’s eyes glowed. “A Christmas baby. I should be here to help her.”

“You should be home letting me take care of you,” Kelly said sternly, realizing for the first time just how much work her mother had to do at this ranch. “Mama, listen, I got a letter from Dad’s estate—”

Helga held up a hand. “I don’t want to talk about your father. He left me and you alone in Ireland. I made my way here. I learn English, I get some jobs, I raise my daughter. I do not want to talk about your father. He never tried to see you after we left Ireland. I do not care about him.”

“Mama, he left me his house,” Kelly said miserably. “I think I may go see it someday.”

Helga sniffed.

“You’ve seen Germany, Ireland, much of Europe,” Kelly said. “I’ve not been out of the country since I was a little girl. I want to see where my father lived. I’m sorry, Mama. I know that’s hard for you. But I just need to know who I am.”

“I know who you are. You are my baby,” Helga said sternly.

“I know, Mama. But I need to connect with my roots.” She clasped her mother’s hands.

“Your roots never came to you,” Helga said stubbornly. “You are like a potato. You grow your own shoots.”

Kelly dropped her gaze. Her mother could have such a one-track mind. She loved her dearly, but she could definitely see how Helga and the Jefferson men might butt heads. “You go to sleep, Mama. I’m going to stay up and read for a while.”

Helga got into her bed. “Thank you for surprising me with a visit. It’s a long way for you to drive. Good thing Fannin came along to rescue you.”

Kelly sighed. “Good night, Mama.”

Joy, who Kelly had been holding, jumped up beside Grandma, recognizing where peace, comfort and warmth existed. Kelly went into the sitting room of their quarters and peered out the window. Outside, she could see men—she counted six—standing around a metal barrel with a fire blazing inside it. They were warming their hands over the fire and arguing. At least they looked as if they were arguing. She turned out the room lamp, made certain she was secured behind a drape and peered out again.

Fannin appeared to be the object of much of the conversation. Everybody was talking at him, and he just nodded or shook his head. He didn’t look too happy, either. Once, she thought he glanced up at the window where she was, but then he shook his head, and she realized there was no way he could see her spying on him.

She should never have done what she did with him. She should just get up in the morning and make a graceful exit.

Her mother wouldn’t understand that at all.

One by one the brothers left the burning barrel. Only Fannin remained behind, the keeper of the flame. Kelly took a deep breath, then decided to put her conscience to rest by talking to him.

Hurrying downstairs, she slipped outside. Fannin hadn’t moved from his spot. Obviously he was deep in thought.

“Fannin?”

He raised his head. “Hey, Kelly.”

That didn’t sound promising. She stood beside him, her heart quivering inside her. “Fannin, I owe you an apology.”

He looked up. “Good. I owe you one, too.”

She didn’t think she could bear it if he said he was sorry for what happened between them. And yet, of course that’s what he was going to say. How humiliating! The trick, then, was to make her apology and get out before she could hear those words of rejection.

If there was anything she didn’t need in her life, it was for her one and only fantasy to go crashing to pieces.

“Fannin, I should have told you Helga was my mother. I should have been honest with you.”

“I would have liked to have known. Everything might have turned out differently.”

That was all the chance he was going to get at saying he was sorry for their interlude. “Fannin,” she said briskly, “I came out here under false pretenses, so I’ll leave in the morning. I’ll send someone else in my place. Someone who better fits your request. We have plenty of perky, cheery blondes with great sense of humor.” She’d go through every application if necessary to find him a perfect woman.

“Don’t bother,” he said. “I placed the order under false pretenses. I didn’t really have a job for you to do. My brothers made me feel like I couldn’t be successful with a woman, so I ordered a woman with all the perfect qualities of everything I wanted. And then you came along.”

“Well, isn’t it funny how life works out sometimes?” Kelly said brightly.

He didn’t smile, and she decided this wasn’t one of those made-to-order humor moments he’d wanted.

“I deceived you,” he said, “and I apologize. And then I took advantage of you—”

“No, no,” she said swiftly, “I took advantage of you. Clearly, I had the advantage in the advantage.”

“You did not,” he said. “You were a perfect lady. I practically dragged you off by the hair, just like my brothers said a woman liked.”

“And did you hear me complaining? Not one bit. In fact, you may have even noticed how eager I was to shed my—” Kelly stopped, realizing she didn’t want to say what she’d been about to say.

“Clothes. You didn’t shed your clothes. I distinctly remember pulling them off of you.” Fannin shook his head. “I am no gentleman.”

“Oh, but you are,” Kelly said. “Fannin, believe me, I thought you were every bit a gentleman.”

“Not to take my housekeeper’s daughter in my truck. I just hope the condom held. You know, I couldn’t see in the darkness, but it might have been dodgy.”

She frowned. “What does dodgy mean?”

“It means I couldn’t examine it in the darkness. I don’t know for certain that it held.”

“Oh.” She waved that away. “It had to. Nothing else could go wrong in this affair for me. It would be way too…corny. If you had ever told me that I would run over a dead deer, send my car into a ditch and then make love in a truck, I would have said, ‘No way.”’

“I know you would have. I took advantage of the fact that you were clearly in shock.”

“I was shocked,” Kelly murmured, “but only that you wanted me as bad as you seemed to.” The crackling blaze sucked away her words. She should have known he had been responding to goading from his brothers. “Why is there a fire in this barrel, anyway?”

“We’re burning trash.”

“This close to the house?”

“The hoses are closest here.” Fannin didn’t look up at her. “Besides, we’ve done this ten thousand times. We do it often, so the fire doesn’t get too big.”

“I see.” Rural life was clearly not something one just made up the answers to. “Hey, I’m going back inside.”

For the first time, he looked at her. “Kelly, I really am sorry that I wasn’t honest from the beginning.”

“Neither was I.”

“Yeah, but your dishonesty was a lack of information. Mine was outright deceit. You’re the perfect made-to-order woman, by the way.”

She stared at him. “I am?”

“Well, yeah. You’re happy with darts and wine, you don’t get supersqueamish about running over dead animals and you like making out in a truck. I couldn’t have asked for a better date.”

Her mother was right. These men were too wild for her. “Um, thanks, Fannin. Guess that’s all the time we have for apologies now. Think I’ll turn in so I can get up bright and early—”

His hand shot out to catch her arm. She held her breath as his gaze burned into hers. “So, when were you going to confess to being a virgin?”

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