The Twin. Jan Hudson
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much. My mother said they were married in name only. She wouldn’t give him a divorce. She and Daddy were tickled to death when they heard they have a new niece—nieces now. They’ll be doubly pleased. They can’t wait to meet you. In fact the whole family wants to meet you. They’re hoping we can all get together for Thanksgiving in Naconiche. Can you arrange it?”
“Sure we can,” Cass said.
“We’ll manage somehow,” Sunny said. She ordered drinks for everyone, and they talked for two hours, mostly with Belle catching them up on the Outlaw family.
They were captivated by learning Belle was a former FBI agent.
“Why on earth did you ever leave?” Sunny asked. “Sounds like a dream job for an Outlaw.”
“I discovered I wasn’t cut out for being an agent. I’m much happier running a newspaper in Wimberley. I love it.”
“I hear that,” Cass said. “I got sick of lawyering, too. Boring. And too dog-eat-dog for me.”
“My brother Frank is a lawyer…well, a judge now,” Belle said. “And his wife, Carrie, is a lawyer. But she was a landman before she went back to practicing law in Naconiche. It might be boring, but there’s not much dog-eat-dog dynamics in Naconiche.”
“Actually, I think Cass just missed Austin,” Sunny said.
“True,” Cass admitted. “I love this place. Always have.”
“I do, too,” Belle said. “And Wimberley isn’t that far away. I can’t believe we’ve been living so close all this time. I even went to school at UT here in Austin.”
“So did I,” Cass said. “Law school. Unbelievable we could have passed each other on the street and not known it.”
“Isn’t it? Listen, my husband, Gabe, and I are coming up tomorrow with Sam and his wife to Sam’s place on Lake Travis. Why don’t you two join us? We might even do a little fishing.”
“Oh, rats,” Cass said, “I can’t make it tomorrow. It’s my day to run the place, and we’re going to be shorthanded, but Sunny can go. She loves to fish.”
“Count me in,” Sunny said. “I haven’t been fishing in ages. But I’ll have to make an early day of it. I have a gig tomorrow night.”
“A gig?”
“Sunny’s a drummer in a band on Saturday nights.”
“How fun! I want to come hear you sometime.” Belle glanced around. “It looks like the early dinner crowd is beginning to arrive, and I’d better leave and meet Gabe. He’s probably through with his business by now, and he’ll be chomping at the bit to get home.” She gave Sunny directions to Sam’s lake house, then rose and hugged them both warmly. “I’m so excited to have met you and have you as part of the Outlaw clan.”
Sunny was flying as Belle handed her card to each of them and they exchanged cell phone numbers. For as long as she could remember, she’d yearned for a big family. Having Cass and her mom and Aunt Min had been great, but she’d always envied families with fathers and brothers and kids running around.
“Cass,” Belle said, “do you work on Sundays?”
“Nope. We’re closed on Sunday.”
“Great. I want you both to plan on coming to Wimberley on Sunday of next week. We’ll have a barbecue or something.”
They walked Belle to the door, hesitant to let her go. Funny, Sunny thought, as she waved goodbye to her newfound cousin. It felt as if they had been friends and cousins forever.
“She looks like us,” Cass said. “Did you notice?”
“I did.”
“I like her.”
“Me, too.”
They looked at each other, connecting as they always did, grinned and hugged. “Hot damn!” they said in unison.
“You know what this means?” Cass said.
“Yeah. We’ve just acquired a humongous family.”
“Besides that.”
Sunny heaved a big sigh. “We’ve got to figure out how to tell Mama.”
“I vote we table telling her until she and Aunt Min get home from their grand adventure.”
Mama and Aunt Min had rented a cottage in France and were making excursions to various places in Europe—the dream of a lifetime. “But they won’t be home for another six months.”
Cass grinned. “Yeah. I know. But we wouldn’t want to spoil their trip now, would we?”
Chapter Five
Saturday was one of those perfect Texas days that come most often in the spring or the fall. The colors on the hills toward the lake seemed brighter than usual. Because most of the trees were evergreen, and the climate didn’t generate many autumn colors, this was a rarity. She’d heard something about an especially dry summer and a number of cool nights turning the deciduous trees into a lovely palette of reds and golds against the blue sky.
Sunny followed a winding, blacktopped road toward the place where she was meeting Belle and the others. She hated that Cass wasn’t along and had tried to convince her sister to come in her place, but Cass wouldn’t hear of it.
“You know I’m not much on fishing,” Cass had said. “Go on. Go. Go.”
And truthfully Cass didn’t know one end of a rod from another. Brian had taught Sunny to fish, and she’d learned to love it. They’d spent many an hour on Lake Travis. She hadn’t wet a hook since he’d died. In fact, she’d had to do some digging in her storage unit to find a rod and reel and her tackle box.
After checking the number on the mailbox, she pulled into the driveway of a ranch house at nine on the dot. It was a rather ordinary place except that its backyard abutted the gorgeous panorama of the lake, and a helicopter rested in a large clearing beside the house. Who on earth did that belong to?
She pulled up behind a black SUV and got out. By the time she had retrieved her fishing gear, Belle had appeared from behind the house, and a willowy, short-haired blonde was with her.
“Hey,” Belle said, waving. “You found us. Great. Sunny, this is Sam’s wife, Skye. She’s a veterinarian, a vegetarian, my double sister-in-law and my best friend.”
Skye stuck out her hand and laughed. “Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Welcome to our branch of the Outlaw gang. I’m sort of new myself.”
“How are you a double sister-in-law?” Sunny asked.
“Well, Belle married my brother Gabe, and I married her brother Sam. Seems like we were destined to be sisters one way or another. I’m sorry your sister couldn’t come, but I look forward to meeting her next weekend. Sorry I don’t eat chili because Sam says yours is fabulous.”
“We have a vegetarian version,” Sunny said.
“You do? Sweet!”
Belle grabbed the tackle box, hooked her arm with Sunny’s and said, “Come on out back. The guys have the boat about ready to shove off.”
In the back, they walked down a flight of steps to a pier where a boat was docked. Sunny was surprised to see three men instead of the two she expected. She immediately recognized Sam, who looked up and smiled. A handsome blond guy she didn’t know also turned and smiled. When the third turned around, she almost dropped her rod.
It was Ben McKee. He’d traded his Stetson for a blue ball cap and his dress shirt and tie for a jersey faded from red to almost pink.
“Sunny,” Belle said, “the blond hunk in the sunglasses is my husband, Gabe Burrell, and I think you’ve met the other hunk, Ben McKee.”
“Good