The Last Crawford Bachelor. Judy Christenberry
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in a car wreck about twenty years ago.”
“I see. Was she…nice?”
Dani was taken aback when the youngest sister laughed. The other two smiled.
“She was wonderful,” Beth said. “A tough old bird.”
“Beth!” Abby protested.
“She was, Abby, and you know it. But she loved us.”
“What Beth means is Beulah believed it was best to work for everything. She trained us to do the work on the ranch. She said it would be good for us to earn our keep.”
“Oh. So she was mean to you?”
“Never,” Abby said emphatically. “She made sure we didn’t think we were a burden to her. We got over our misery and sadness fairly quickly because we were too tired when we went to bed to lie awake and think.”
Dani closed her eyes, thinking about what Abby said. Memories of her own past assailed her, and she shook herself free. “I see.”
“I hope you do,” Abby said. “Beulah believed hard work was good for you. And we do, too.” She smiled at Dani. “Though maybe not to the extreme she did.”
“Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’ve been…curious about my family.”
“So you really think Beulah was your grandmother?” Beth prodded.
“Yes,” she said simply, and finally. Then she stood and eyed the sisters. “I appreciate your talking to me. And thank you, Abby, for inviting me to dinner. It was a delight to meet all of you. But now I should leave.”
“But you haven’t eaten your cake,” Ellen pointed out.
“It looks delicious, Ellen, but I think I’d better go.” She slipped out onto the porch before anyone could say anything.
Abby jumped up and hurried after her. “Dani? We were shocked by your appearance, but we may be wrong. If Beulah had a child before she married, it’s not surprising that she would give the baby up for adoption. Those were different times back then.”
“Of course. I don’t blame her. I just wanted to know something about her. And in spite of what you said about Beulah, I think you all loved her very much. And she loved you, obviously. I appreciate knowing that.”
“Why?”
Dani smiled and leaned over to kiss Abby’s cheek. “Never mind. Thanks for inviting me in.”
Then she hurried to her car, afraid she’d burst into tears in front of everyone.
Chapter Two
Michael was up early the next morning, but he didn’t awaken anyone. The entire household was at the breakfast table when he came down from his temporary room.
Floyd poured him a cup of hot coffee and set it at his place, and soon after, Ellen handed him a plate filled with all his favorites—scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits.
“Mercy, I’m getting spoiled,” he complained with a smile. “This is a great way to start my day.”
“Since it’s your first day at a new job, that’s a good thing,” Logan said.
“Yeah. I’ve heard the caseload is heavy in this office.”
He had taken the job of assistant district attorney in Wichita Falls, the nearest large town in the area.
“You know you love it, brother,” Logan said. “That’s why you started looking around. You didn’t have enough to do in Norman.” Michael had been an A.D.A. in Norman, the town where OU was located, for several years.
“True. With two new attorneys starting today, we can make a dent in the caseload. I don’t think the other A.D.A. is as experienced, but he’ll be another pair of hands.”
“Do you know the other person they hired?” Abby asked.
“No. I’ll meet him today.”
“Well, good luck,” Abby said as she stood. “I’m going to ride out with the guys to check on the herd in the south pasture. Are you and Floyd going to check the well that’s stopped working?” she asked her husband.
“Yeah, but we should be back for lunch.”
“Good, I’ll meet you here. Be careful,” she added as she rounded the table and kissed him goodbye. Then she hurried out the back door.
“It’s still hard to believe Abby is a cowboy,” Michael said, shaking his head.
Logan laughed. “I didn’t believe it either when I first met her. But she convinced me pretty quickly.”
Years ago Logan had applied for the job of ranch manager. Michael recalled that Abby hadn’t wanted to hire him at first but she had, solely out of necessity. As Logan had put it, it had been a match made in heaven. Michael looked over at his brother. After two kids, Logan was still crazy in love with the woman.
Checking his watch, he told everyone goodbye and headed for his car. He wanted to get to the office a little early for his first day. He’d already been shown to his desk last week.
An hour later he was organizing his workstation when District Attorney Ned Cobb called a meeting to introduce the new A.D.A.s. Michael hurried to the conference room, looking forward to meeting his fellow workers.
As he stepped into the room, he was called over by Ned, a mover and shaker in his midsixties, with slicked-back dark hair sprinkled with silver. “I want to introduce you to our other new attorney, Michael. This is Daniele Langston.”
Dani stepped forward, offering him her hand…again.
Dani felt betrayed. Michael Crawford had mentioned nothing about himself last night. All along she’d looked forward to beginning fresh without anyone knowing anything about her past. Now she found herself confronted with a member of the Kennedy family, no matter how remote the connection.
She stuck out her hand, because she had no choice. He stared at her as if he were as displeased as she was. Finally he took her hand and covered the awkwardness with a comment about not expecting such a beautiful woman. The remark did little to impress her.
The D.A. introduced Michael to another attorney Dani had just met, an older man, calm and friendly. He explained that Dick Stanton would be Michael’s mentor for the first month.
Ned hadn’t offered Dani a mentor. She looked at him curiously, and as if reading her mind, he smiled and said, “And I will be your mentor, Dani. It will be a real pleasure to show you the ropes.”
Dani froze. She’d heard that tone of voice before. The man thought he had an easy prey.
There was an awkward silence until Ned ordered all the attorneys in the room to sit down around the big conference table. He guided Dani to the seat next to his, giving her a smarmy smile that made her want to lose her breakfast.
She took her seat and discovered it was opposite Michael. The look on his face told her he thought she’d planned the pairings to her advantage.
She glared at him.
“Right, Dani?” Ned said, catching her off guard.
“I’m sorry, Ned. I was trying to remember the names of the people I’ve met.” She gave him a brief smile and paid attention as he explained he’d told them all she was from Texas Tech Law School. “Yes, that’s right.”
“And Michael, of course, is from Oklahoma. But we’ll have no feuding between the two of you even when OU comes to Texas to play football.” Ned gave a hearty laugh, and his staff briefly joined in.
Dani looked around the table. She was the only female, and she was beginning to understand why. Call her naive, but in this day and age it hadn’t occurred to her that there would be problems