Spanish Eyes_Texas Heat Page 22

  “Aw, hell.” Drew bent double in his chair, lying his head on his desk. He couldn’t know for sure if his father suffered from GSS, not unless they exhumed him – but it fit.

  It all fit.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  From the moment Drew read that GSS could be passed down from parent to child, he was in a daze. As he walked out of the clinic, he told Patsy to contact Virginia and ask her to cover for him for a few days. Unable to go home and face Hattie, he just drove. For a brief time, he considered heading to San Antonio. He’d give anything to feel Angelina’s arms around him, but he couldn’t. Everything had changed. His world was topsy-turvy and he didn’t know if there was even a slim hope it would right itself.

  For hours he drove, heading south to Beaumont, then west to Galveston Island. Before dark, he found himself standing on the edge of the water, watching the turbulent waters of the Gulf of Mexico as they relentlessly pounded the shore. This was how he felt – waves of despair were crashing against his soul and he saw no way of stopping them.

  First, he needed to verify the truth of Susan’s statements. He’d give his left arm if she turned out to be a hoax, if she was some prank caller who enjoyed playing with people’s emotions. Somehow, he believed her. The whole concept was so horrific, he found himself too weak to stand. Sinking to his knees, he buried his face in his hands. If what she said was legit, should he get tested?

  Honestly, Drew didn’t know if he had the courage.

  …Several hundred miles away, Angelina stood at the door waiting for the florist to show up. Yes, she was happy. She looked forward to these small displays of affection. She looked forward to his phone calls. After some time passed, she checked the clock. “Hmmm, the delivery man is late.” She leaned on the door, hugging herself, knowing Drew wasn’t the type to give up.

  After thirty minutes, Angelina realized the florist delivery wasn’t coming today. Was something wrong? She couldn’t help but worry. Oh well, she’d hear from him, one way or the other. Drew didn’t let a day go by without contacting her.

  …The next morning, Drew began to set things in motion. He avoided Hattie and her questions, locking himself in his room. The only time he came out was to fetch another beer from the refrigerator. “Next time you go to the store, buy a case of Shiner,” he mumbled to his housekeeper.

  “Planning a party?” Hattie searched Drew’s face, noticing the pallor, the circles under his eyes. “Physician, you need to heal thyself. You look like shit.”

  “I feel like shit.”

  After making some phone calls, he verified Susan Collier’s identity. She faxed over his father’s birth certificate and he was able to compare the fingerprints on the old document to ones he had on file. “Hell and damnation.”

  For the second day, he missed sending Angelina her usual bouquet. He didn’t call. He didn’t text. Drew didn’t have the heart. If this crap was true, and he was beginning to believe it was, he didn’t know if he even had a future to offer her.

  …Angelina couldn’t relax. Not even the children at the daycare could jar her from the worry she found herself embroiled in. Something was wrong. Another day had passed with no word from Drew. Oh, she didn’t care about the flowers themselves, she’d never wanted him to spend his money on her. What she missed was the contact, him keeping the lines of communication open between them. She’d been so close to telling him she wanted to see him, wanted to try again.

  When the clock struck the hour, Angelina stood at the window one more time and watched for the flowers to arrive. But they didn’t come. No call. No text. Nothing. Had he changed his mind? Was something wrong? After waiting for three days, she broke down and tried to phone him.

  There was no answer.

  She texted him.

  He didn’t text back.

  Desperate, Angelina called Hattie.

  “Oh, Angelina, honey, how are you?”

  “I’m fine. How’s Drew? I…haven’t heard from him.”

  At Palo Gaucho, Hattie held onto the counter, hating what she had to do. “I’m sorry, sweetie. My hands are tied. All I can tell you is that he’s…busy.”

  Busy? What did that mean?

  “Okay. I see.”

  “Take care of yourself, dear.”

  The phone went dead.

  Angelina got the message.

  Drew didn’t want to see her. Busy could mean anything. Maybe, he came to his senses. Maybe, there was another woman. What did she expect? She’d been the one to walk away.

  Angelina cried.

  …Later, that evening, Hattie told Drew exactly what she thought. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, young man, but I don’t like it.”

  “Don’t Hattie.” He sat at the kitchen table with a beer in his hand.

  “Look at you. You haven’t shaved. You’re drinking. And you just had me brush off a young woman that means the world to you. Have you gone mad? What’s wrong? Are you dying?”

  Drew gave her a hard look, stood up, and walked away.

  “Oh, my God,” Hattie gasped, catching her chest. “What in the world is going on?”

  * * *

  A little over seven months later:

  Staring out the window of his jet, Drew tried to digest what he’d learned in Indiana. As the wingtips of the aircraft passed through fluffy clouds, he wondered why he seemed to do his best thinking high above the earth. Maybe it was distance. Maybe it was perspective. All he knew was that life could damn well turn on a dime. One moment he had life by the fuckin’ tail and the next he was tossed into the pits of despair.

  During the last several months, he’d sought to come to terms with this kink fate had chosen to shove up his ass. Yea, he’d become morose and cynical. Gone was the optimistic, idealistic dreamer who sought for the good in every situation and tried to right every wrong and heal every wound. Hell, he couldn’t heal himself.

  Drew barked out a laugh. Wiping the weariness from his eyes, he tried to reconcile the coward he was now with the man who’d charged through life with no fear, ready to take on dragons and save damsels in distress. Fuck! He was such a yellow-belly that he didn’t even have the guts to find out if he was sick or not.

  Oh, no – he just wallowed in his misery. As far as the ranch, the clinic, and his oil business – Drew just went through the motions. He’d lost his focus, lost his passion. And worst of all, he’d lost Angelina.

  No, wrong! He’d just thrown away any chance with her. Hattie had told him she called, but Drew didn’t have the balls to face her. “How the worm turns,” he mumbled, draining the last of a stiff whiskey from a glass. Before, he’d been so sure that he could help her, give her back the wonder of her femininity. Not just for her, God no. Drew craved to help Angelina for purely selfish reasons. He wanted her for himself. He still wanted her. But that doomed ship had sailed over the horizon, a horizon where dragons swam just beneath the uncharted surface of the dark bottomless waters.

  His feelings on the matter was a moot point now. Surely, Angelina hated him after he’d ghosted her the way he had. There one day, gone the next. Giving her flowers every day, then nothing. What she must think of him.

  Closing his eyes, he tried to keep the image of his uncle Pierce from his mind’s eye. He’d flown to Indiana several times over the last few months to meet the relatives of his father that he’d never known existed. Their family was German, Brandt was their name. Drew couldn’t deny them, he’d met cousins that looked enough like him to be his brother. He also found out firsthand about the genetic disorder they carried. He’d met his great uncle who was being cared for by hospice. As a physician, he’d seen things too horrible for polite conversation, but this had hit him hard. Mainly because he knew there was a high possibility he was taking a glimpse into the darkened mirror of his own future.

  Drew shook his head, trying to dispel the image of Pierce Brandt. Frozen, unable to swallow, dying a horrible death. He’d talked to two or three younger members of the family who knew they were carriers
and two or three more who refused to be tested – they didn’t want to know. He felt the same way, he couldn’t know, he refused to know. He wanted to live without the shadow of death hanging over his head.

  Yet…he was afraid to live.

  He’d thought about contacting Angelina a thousand times, but he didn’t know what he’d say. He’d talked to Cooper a few times. He knew she hadn’t moved on, not really. Refusing to go back into her field, she’d been working in a daycare. Drew asked if she were dating anyone, but Cooper didn’t think that was any of his business. He hadn’t told his friends what he was going through. All they knew was that he’d changed. He was no longer carefree. He was depressed. And every time he forgot something or stumbled or dwelt on his depression, he wondered if he were developing the symptoms of the disease that hung over his head like an anvil.

  The only thing he knew for certain and this visit with the family had cemented the deal - Drew wanted to help with the research. Hell, he had more money than he could spend in one lifetime, even if he did live to a ripe old age. In fact, he was fast on the way to completing a research laboratory on his property. He had knowledgeable folks buying all the necessary equipment and getting all the required government permits. Now, all he needed was some brilliant mind to head up the research.

  Dry-scrubbing his face, Drew could admit he was running on fumes. He couldn’t sleep. Each time he shut his eyes, he dreamed of Angelina. His body longed for her. In desperation, he’d tried to go out with other women, frequented some bars in neighboring towns where his face wasn’t well known. He had no desire for anything long term, he just wanted to forget. He’d even started taking male contraceptives because he knew fathering a child was out of the question, yet he couldn’t bear the thought of a vasectomy – he’d always wanted children. But no woman appealed. From the moment he laid eyes on Angelina, he’d wanted no other.

  As the plane landed at the small Redlands airport, Drew once more dreaded to go home. The house would be empty, Hattie didn’t even stay there anymore. She still worked for him, but their relationship had changed. One day she’d walked into the den and informed him she was moving in with a friend of hers. Drew knew the main reason for the change was because he’d pushed her away. He hadn’t told Hattie his fears. Simply put, he didn’t want her to know. He didn’t want her pity or anyone else’s. Especially Angelina’s.

  …As for Angelina, she existed in limbo.

  How bare her life had become, almost as sterile as the lab where she used to work. Not even the children she cared for kept Angelina from feeling lost. She just couldn’t seem to find a balance in her life. She went to bed early, she got up early, she rarely slept. Heck, she’d even taken up knitting. Now, all she needed was a half dozen cats and she’d officially be an old-maid/cat/spinster lady.

  The yearnings of her body had lessened over time, unless she thought of Drew or dreamed of him. She tried to make sense of her response to Drew rather than other men, not that there had been any other men, she kept herself cloistered. But if a man did speak to her in the grocery store or in the line at the post office, she felt nothing. The toys in her drawer didn’t help, she couldn’t even bring herself to use them. Primarily, Angelina handled her problem by avoiding it. She just didn’t let it happen.

  Her friendship with Cooper and Aliyah had suffered also, it was her fault not theirs. Over time, she stopped calling them and seldom answered their calls, mainly because she couldn’t resist asking about Drew. When they confided to her that they thought something was wrong with him, she had to fight to stay away from Redlands, but as much as she longed to see him, she wouldn’t force the issue. He’d been the one to stop communicating. She’d reached out to him last and he ignored her. Apparently, she wasn’t worth the trouble after all.

  Until one day…

  “Hello?” Angelina held the phone to her ear as she hopped on one foot across her clean floor. The other foot was caked with mud due to stepping in a puddle outside the daycare. She would’ve missed it if little Larry Pugh hadn’t run in front of her on his way to the bathroom. Apparently, he’d waited just a little too long to go. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

  For a microsecond, she thought the caller might be Drew.

  “Angelina, this is Cooper.”

  “Cooper?”

  “Yea, it’s me. I finally got tired of waiting for you to call me, it was your turn, you know.”

  “I know, I’m sorry.” Angelina sat down on the vanity seat in the bathroom and took a washcloth from the drawer. “How are you? Any labor pains yet?”

  “No, not yet. Ky is anxious, he keeps my bag for the hospital packed and by the front door. The drive to the hospital will probably be an exciting one, he’s timed the trip three times.”

  “Why would he need to time the trip to the clinic? It’s just a hop and a skip down the road.”

  “We’re not using the clinic. Drew isn’t delivering the baby.”

  “What?” Angelina was shocked.

  “Ky and Ty haven’t reconciled with Drew to any great extent. Like I told you before, he’s changed. Something’s up with him and we really don’t have a clue what it is.”

  Angelina didn’t know what to say. “I hope he’s all right.” She wished she had the right to worry, but she didn’t.

  “We do too.” There was a long pause as both thought of a different time. “Anyway, to why I called, Aliyah and some of the neighborhood ladies are giving me a baby shower and I want you to be here.”

  “Oh, I would love to!” She hesitated. “I just…”

  “You don’t want to see Drew. I understand and I don’t know that there’s a chance you will.” There was another pregnant pause on Cooper’s part. “It’s just…I think Drew needs you. Ky and Ty stopped for a drink at a bar a few weeks ago and Drew was there and he was drunk. This was the first time since his father was killed that they’d ever seen Drew drink to any extent. When they asked him what the deal was, he told them life was a bitch, that some days he regretted he’d ever been born. When pushed, he wouldn’t tell the guys what he meant, but when Ty had asked if it had anything to do with you, he said that you were his one regret.”

  “Regret.” Angelina sighed. “Well, that’s one way of putting it. I’m sure he does regret some of what we did.”

  “So, will you come?”

  “I don’t know.” Angelina imagined the awkward scene if she were to run into him on the street.

  “Please, Angelina. We won’t make a big deal about your coming to visit, let’s just see what happens.”

  Shaking her head, she relented. “Of course, I’ll come. I want to be with you to celebrate the upcoming birth of your baby. If Drew doesn’t like that I’m there, he doesn’t have to come around.”

  * * *

  “Mrs. Honeycutt is ready for her cast to come off.” Drew placed the patient’s chart into her inbox. “Who’s next, Patsy?”

  “Your friend, Ky Landon. He needs some stitches, I think. Exam room 3.”

  Drew pulled his Stetson down over his eyes. “This is going to be awkward.” Blowing out a harsh breath, he went in to face the music and his used-to-be best friend. “Well, what did you do? Lose a fight with a rooster?”

  Ky turned his arm up to look at the long gash. “Chainsaw got away from me.”

  “Good Lord, Ky.” Drew pulled his stool close enough he could examine the wound. “You could’ve lost your arm.”

  “Yea, I need you to fix me up before Cooper gets home. She and Aliyah drove into Nacogdoches for some supplies for the party and I do not want her to see this until it’s cleaned and bandaged up.”

  “I don’t blame you. You don’t want to get her so worked up that the baby comes early.”

  Drew’s reference to the impending birth of Ky and Cooper’s child embarrassed Ky. “I’m sorry Cooper decided not to use you as her doctor.”

  Shaking his head, Drew began to clean the deep cut. “Not a problem, I understand completely. I haven’t been myself lately.”
>
  “Care to explain why?” Ky asked as he grimaced from the pain. “Ow, that burns like fire!”

  “It’s supposed to, it’s killing the germs.”

  “I don’t have any damn germs!”

  “You are a damn germ,” Drew snapped at him. “Did you have a safety bar on that fuckin’ saw?”

  “Yes, I got distracted, a big buck ran out of the brush.”

  Drew just shook his head.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s been eating on you or not?”

  “Not.”

  “Is it because that girl left?”

  “Angelina?”

  “Yes.”

  “Nope, that’s not it.”

  Ky let out a low whistle. “Hell, Drew, give me a shot before you start poking that damn needle through my skin.”

  Drew didn’t even look up. “You don’t deserve any painkiller, you’re too big of a pain in my ass.”

  “I’ll report you for patient abuse,” Ky threatened and Drew gave him a black glance and reached for a hypodermic. “So, if Angelina isn’t what’s bothering you, you won’t be upset if I tell you that she’s coming to Cooper’s party.”

  “What party?”

  “Baby shower.”

  “Oh, one of those kinds of parties.” Drew had been picturing some adult shindig. “No, why should I be upset?”

  “Because you’re still hung up on her, that’s why.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Ky was silent for a few moments, primarily because Drew was wielding a needle through his flesh. “Look, I don’t know why you’ve changed. I don’t know what cocklebur is under your saddle, but Ty and I are still your friends. Cooper is worried about you. If there’s something we can do for you, all you have to do is ask.”

  Drew’s shoulders slumped. “I know. I’m sorry.” He gave Ky a half smile. “If I get to the point where I can talk about what’s going on, you’d be the first one I’d come to.”

  Ky nodded his head. “When I drove by Palo Gaucho the other day, I noticed you’re building something down close to the fence line nearest town. Care to share?”