After Tex by Sherryl Woods Page B

then she’d also been intimidated by Lyle. He’d been tall for his age and heavyset. Because his mama thought the sun rose and set with him, he’d believed he could get away with anything, and he usually had. He’d been the worst sort of bully, picking out his targets with impunity. Megan hadn’t wanted to be one of them and not only because she hadn’t wanted Jake to be drawn into a fight with him in her defense. She hadn’t liked the glint in Lyle’s eyes when he watched her. She’d found it unnerving, without fully understanding why until she was older. By then, she had known enough to avoid him.
    Mrs. Perkins and Lyle hadn’t been the only people in town who’d looked down on Jake and made his life hell. A lot of fine, churchgoing people had made judgments and found him lacking just because ofwhat his mother had done for a living. None had stopped to think that Lettie Landers might have reformed if anyone in town had ever given her a break, hired her to do some other kind of a job to put food on their table after Jake’s daddy walked out on them.
    Megan had always thought it remarkable that Jake had turned out as well as he had, living in that tumbledown shack that was all his mama could afford after spending most of her money on booze. Megan distinctly remembered how Jake had spent his first paycheck from Tex all those years ago. He’d bought wood and nails and gallons of paint and made all the repairs the house had needed, repairs that should have been made by Josh Wilson, their sleazy landlord.
    But the change had been only cosmetic. Inside the house, his mother had still been in an alcoholic stupor. Seeing Jake’s disappointment at that, Megan knew he’d been hoping his work would set his mother on a fresh path.
    Now, standing on the sidewalk in front of what had once been Pete’s barbershop, she was stunned by the difference he’d made to the old frame structure. The barbershop pole remained as a whimsical touch, but the wood glistened with bright white paint. The trim was a businesslike black. The wide window—once dingy from customers smoking—gleamed in the late morning sun, and discreet gold lettering in one corner announced that the building held the offices of Jake Landers, Attorney-at-Law.
    â€œI’m impressed,” she told him. “Pete wouldn’t recognize the place.”
    â€œWait till you see inside,” Tess enthused. “He’s got these big, ol’ western paintings on the wall, justlike they came from a John Wayne movie or something.”
    â€œLead the way,” Megan told them, curious to see what Jake’s taste was like.
    As Tess had suggested, there was a western theme to the decor, but it had been done tastefully. She recognized immediately that the oils were by the finest western artists and that the bronze on his credenza was an original Remington. Obviously Jake had done very well for himself over the last decade or so.
    â€œIs your secretary out to lunch?” she asked, glancing around the empty outer office.
    â€œI haven’t gotten around to hiring one yet. Didn’t seem much point since I’m hardly ever here.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI haven’t been actively pursuing clients. Other than your grandfather’s estate, my caseload is zero.”
    Her gaze narrowed. “Your choice?”
    â€œYes, darlin’. I’m taking it easy by choice,” he assured her. “Don’t go getting your dander up on my behalf now. The town’s not snubbing me the way it once did. Tex hiring me saw to that.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œWould you go out there and whup a few of them, if I asked you to?” he inquired, his expression amused.
    â€œOh, something tells me you’re perfectly capable of fighting your own battles these days.”
    â€œToo bad. I was kind of looking forward to seeing you in action again.”
    His intense gaze settled