Taming a Texas Devil - Katie Lane Page 0,70
help him out. It helped him out a lot.
The cold case had suddenly gotten warm.
Or more like sizzling hot.
Chapter Nineteen
Dixie woke from a horrible nightmare. Except when she finally came fully awake, she realized it hadn’t been a nightmare at all. Everything she’d had with Lincoln was nothing but a lie. No matter what he had said when he left her apartment, she didn’t believe for a second that any part of their relationship had been real. All the kisses, all the caresses, all the lovemaking nothing but a pack of lies. And she had fallen for them. She had fallen hard. He must really think she was a ditz.
“Urghhh!” She rolled to her back and drummed her feet against the mattress, causing Queenie to lift her head from the pillow next to her and give her a disdainful look. “What?” Dixie snapped. “I can throw a hissy fit in my own bed if I want to.”
“So I guess my sweet mild-mannered daughter is awake.”
Dixie glanced over at the doorway to find her mother standing there holding a tray. As usual, Winona looked perfectly put together from her styled blond hair to her designer heels. Even that annoyed Dixie.
“Don’t you ever look messy, Mama?”
Winona walked into the room. “Now what kind of a question is that, Dixie Leigh? Of course I look messy at times. All women do. I just hide my mess better than most. Now quit feeling sorry for yourself and sit up. I made you some breakfast.”
She sat up and stuffed her pillow behind her back. “This should be good since you don’t cook, Mama.”
“Watch your mouth, young lady. You aren’t too old to get a bar of Dial shoved down to your tonsils. I cook when I need to. And this morning my baby needed me to.” She set the tray on Dixie’s lap. “Although I did burn the toast slightly and undercook the scrambled eggs. But the coffee is just the way you like it. Plenty of sugar and cream.”
“That’s the way you like it, Mama. I like it with cream only.”
“Oh. Well, then I guess I’ll have a second cup.” She picked up the cup and sat down on the edge of the bed. She took a sip and sighed. “Perfect.” She glanced at Dixie. “Are you going to eat? A lady never skips the most important meal of the day.”
Dixie had always lived by her mama’s sayings. But not today. Her stomach was too upset to put anything in it. She moved the tray to the side. “Thank you for making me breakfast, but sometimes a lady is just not hungry. Where’s Daddy?”
“I left him at the boardinghouse. At breakfast, he got into quite the political discussion with the little old woman who owns the place.”
Dixie couldn’t help but smile. “Miss Gertie.”
Winona took another sip of coffee before she placed the cup on the tray. “She’s quite the character and made it clear how lucky we were to get a room on such short notice. She also told us how proud she was of the deputy you’ve become.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I wish I could’ve witnessed your progression. One of the hardest things I’ve done as a mama was to stay away from here these last few months and let my baby grow up.”
“I’ve been grown up for a long time, Mama.”
“No, honey. You might’ve look like an adult, but inside you were still a little girl. And your daddy and I were the reason for that. You’re our only child; we didn’t want you to grow up. We wanted you to stay our baby forever. I wanted to dress you up in fancy dresses and show you off on a big stage and your daddy wanted you to follow in his footsteps so he could be right there with you all the way. I didn’t realize our mistakes until you threw your little tantrum when your daddy wouldn’t give you the money for your business.”
“It wasn’t a tantrum. It was a calculated plan.”
“Tantrum or calculated, it was pure foolishness.” Winona paused. “Or at least I thought so at first. You had me worried sick, Baby Girl, that some criminal would shoot you. But now I realize God had a plan all along.”
“Yeah,” she said dryly. “He obviously wanted to punish me for trying to manipulate my daddy.”
“It was wrong to lie to your daddy and me, Dixie Leigh, but God didn’t punish you, honey. He blessed you by getting you