Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,65
about Paulie’s family?”
She just nodded. Her eyes were sketching his hard face as if she were painting it.
“I could go to jail one day,” he persisted. “I could die.”
“A meteor could land on the boardinghouse and take us all out,” she said matter-of-factly. “Nobody is ever guaranteed even one more day.”
He just looked at her.
“I’m not Italian,” she said. “Would that make me an outsider?”
He smiled slowly. “The wives come from all sorts of backgrounds,” he said, and noticed her flush at the word. “Some are American. Some are Italian and Spanish, even Polish. But they have one thing in common and that’s family. We all belong to each other. If you shared that life with me,” he said, “you’d be part of it. You’d never be an outsider. And if anything happened, anything at all, you’d be taken care of as long as you live. That’s how it works.”
She bit her lower lip. She drew in a breath. “Mikey, I won’t get any better,” she began. “There’s no cure for what I have. They can control it with medicine, although I can’t afford the kind that might make it easier. But they can’t stop it. Eventually, I’ll end up with twisted hands and feet, and even if I can walk with a cane at first, there’s a good chance that one day I’ll be in a wheelchair.” She said it without a plea for pity. She just stated it as a fact.
He tilted her chin up. “I can live with your limitations. Can you live with my profession?”
She just nodded. She didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to.
He wrapped her up in his arms and just rocked her slowly, his face in her throat. They sat that way for a long time until there was a brief tap and the sound of a key in the lock.
Sari peered around the door and burst out laughing. “And I was afraid I’d have to run for my life when I opened this door...”
Mikey and Bernie both laughed.
Mikey got up and drew her up beside him. “We were talking about the future,” he said, smiling. “It looks pretty sweet.”
“Pretty sweet, indeed,” Bernie said with a long sigh as she looked up at him.
“I’d better get her home,” Mikey said. “She has to work tomorrow.”
“I know. So do I,” Sari wailed.
“There, there,” Bernie comforted her. “But there’s always next weekend!”
They all laughed.
* * *
Mikey took her back to the boardinghouse and left her at her door with a discreet kiss on her forehead because Mrs. Brown was lurking.
“It was a lovely day. Thank you,” Bernie said.
“It was one of many to come,” he replied. He smiled at her with his heart in his eyes. “See you in the morning, kid. Sweet dreams.”
“Oh, they’ll be sweet, all right,” she whispered, and then flushed.
He wrinkled his nose at her and winked.
She watched him all the way down the hall before she went back into her room and closed the door.
* * *
Work was difficult. Bernie’s happiness lit her up like a Christmas tree, and it showed. Olivia teased her. But Jessie watched and smoldered. She was furious that a plain little country girl like Bernie, one who was likely to end up living on disability, had attracted a man who could buy half a county with pocket change. Mikey was sophisticated, handsome and loaded. Jessie wanted him, and she couldn’t get to first base. He avoided her like the plague when he was in town.
There had to be some way she could get him out of Bernie’s life so that she had a chance with him. Being rude and unpleasant didn’t do any good. But if she could play one of them against the other while pretending to turn over a new leaf... Well, that was a promising idea. She began to plot ways to accomplish it.
Her first step was to stop being abrasive to the other women in the office. She toned down her bad attitude and took on her share of the work instead of avoiding it. She offered to bring coffee to Olivia and Bernie when they were swamped with paperwork, and she even brought lunch back for them once.
Everyone was surprised, even Mr. Kemp, who actually praised Jessie for her changed attitude.
Nothing had changed at all except that Jessie was playing a new game. But she smiled and did her best to look humble. She even apologized for the way she’d behaved before. It was hard being a city girl