Texas Curves by Christa Wick Read Free Book Online Page B

his eyes so sorrowful from the truth that I felt like he'd just ripped my heart from my chest and thrown it on the floor for his father to stomp on. "You're nothing like them, Ginny," he admitted.
    "So it's all been a lie." My words were ice, cold enough to freeze Hawk. No shake, no nod, just his hands reaching uselessly towards me from his hips, like they were handcuffed to his belt.
    I got up, grabbed my purse and wrenched the office key off the ring.
    "Ginny…" He reached toward me again, his legs not moving to close the distance between us. He couldn't care much if all he could do was stand there, hands flexing. "You can't leave--"
    "Oh, I can. I am!" I walked past Hawk, pushing him out of my path. Before the door swung shut behind me, I looked at father and son one last time. "You can both go to hell!"
    **********************
    I thought long and hard about whether I should start the classes at Midland that Hawk had paid for. Mostly, I thought about how I'd earned them -- on my back -- and what it said about me if I used the tuition money. I couldn't come to a good answer, so I registered anyway, my chest tight and cheeks blazing every minute of every lecture. I got another job, too, one that was part-time and in Midland. Red helped me get it. He knew something was wrong, just didn't know what.
    For several weeks, there were only three people who had any idea of what had happened -- me and the two McKinley men, neither of whom I ever wanted to lay eyes on again. By the third week of September, however, things started to come out. The local paper picked up coverage of how Hawk had ousted his father as CEO, getting enough of the non-family shareholders in McKinley to back him. That article led to Cherry Thompson opening her big mouth about how some private investigator from New York had been at Roy's asking about me. She took the opportunity to revive the story of how she and Bobby Jackson had humiliated me so many years ago. Then June Johnson, who runs Tupperville's only knick-knack store, put two-and-two together about how a man looking like Harrison McKinley had come into her place and purchased a little cow bell.
    That just poured kerosene on the fire. Everyone knew then that I'd been Hawk's plaything on the side. Beau quit McKinley, even though Red and I begged him not to. The only good thing during that time was daddy. He was up and on his feet, not for long spells, but he was his own man again. He also got everything coming to him from his worker's comp claim.
    I tried to focus on that bright spot. I avoided town, bought my gas in Midland and divided my time solely between school and work in Midland or being locked up tight at home with my parents. All the gossip would die down eventually. I just had to survive until it did.
    Good plan, bad execution.
    I came home from work on a crisp day in early October to find a beat-up truck parked in the drive. I didn't think much of it. People around Tupperville are always getting a new-to-them junker. With daddy able to work a bit, they had started bringing the vehicles to him for little things that needed fixing. Sometimes they stayed to gab, which daddy welcomed so long as they didn't try to gab about me.
    This time Hawk McKinley sat across from daddy's recliner with a cold glass of sweet tea in his hand. Keeping my gaze off Hawk, I looked at daddy. He seemed relaxed, too relaxed for a man who had heard all the rumors about me and the man sitting next to him.
    "Hey, baby girl. Me and Hawk were just talking about things."
    I nodded, still refusing to look at my former lover. Daddy is very particular about using a person's first name. Doesn't matter how low or high up in the world the person is, daddy won't use a first name unless he has been invited to do so and, more importantly, he respects the person.
    Clearly, daddy didn't know Hawk McKinley like I did.
    "I'm going to get the stew ready," I mumbled and fled into the kitchen.
    Gathering and rinsing vegetables and potatoes,