Her father, Matt quickly understood, was the central character in their lives, whether they wanted him to be or not. “Sounds like a hard-ass,” he reflected, after Rebecca told him of the rift that had developed between him and Robin over her place in the family company.
Rebecca shook her head. “That’s really too nice—he’s a bastard,” she said, without rancor. “When he found out he had cancer, he called my mother, even though they had been separated for years. She dropped everything in L.A. to come and care for him. For a while, it looked like things were going to work out. I thought maybe he had grown up a little, that maybe his mortality had shaken something lose in him.” She gave a long and weary sigh. “But, as soon as the treatment started to take, and the cancer went into remission, he was back to the usual—bossing us all around, running our lives. And even though Mom dropped everything to be with him in his hour of need, he started ignoring her all over again.”
“I take it you don’t get along with him.”
“Oh no, we get along,” she said. “I mean, in spite of all I’ve said, he can be a decent man. He adores Grayson, and I think he truly wants my happiness . . . it’s just that he wants to define it for me. I do love my dad, but I don’t like him very much.”
Matt changed the subject, asked her about her reigning year as Miss Texas, which made her snort in that funny way she did and roll her eyes. “Another great chapter of my life,” she said caustically.
“Then you weren’t kidding when you said you never wanted to be Miss Texas?”
“God, no. Never!” she said emphatically. “It was great after it happened, but it was all Bud’s thing, not mine,” she said, and confessed that she had been a stupid young woman who was more interested in pleasing everyone around her than in doing what was right for Rebecca. Good ol’ Bud, Matt gathered, cared more about the way things looked than what they were, and in particular, his wife. He knew the type—men who were so insecure with themselves that they insisted their wives were perfect, their house, their kids. It all went into feeding their own sick egos.
Rebecca was a gracious, kind-hearted, and determined person. Even though she could be confoundingly stubborn, she was appealing in a charming way. The fact that she was gorgeous was just icing on the cake. So if there was a man out there who thought that wasn’t enough and wanted more, he had to be an a prick to Matt’s way of thinking.
Whatever she thought of her ex, Matt couldn’t say—but she seemed to be well past any feelings about Bud, grateful to be out of that dysfunctional relationship and now was anxious to become someone in her own right. All by herself. Just as soon as she figured out who or what.
“Any ideas?” she asked as they lay on their bellies, side by side, while Grayson and the dogs napped.
“Bingo bashes?” he suggested.
“No!” she said, laughing (and oh, her eyes sparkled when she laughed).
Matt sobered a little, asked in all seriousness, “What about Tom’s campaign? I have to tell you, he is about to come unglued. Your big fund-raiser? The people calling don’t want to talk to anyone but you.” He smiled sheepishly. “I almost got lynched at the office. Everyone misses you, Rebecca. Tom wanted me to come out here and repair the damage, but it was too late.”
“Too late? Why?”
“Because I missed you ten times more than they did, and I had already gotten out my knee pads to make the crawl to Ruby Falls.”
Rebecca laughed, playfully shoved him. “I figured as much, silly. Tom’s left half a dozen messages on my machine.”
“Will you come back?” Matt asked.
Rebecca smiled thoughtfully, pulled wild rain lilies from the grass and made a pile. “I don’t know,” she said at last. “I’ll have to think about it. You were right about me—”
“No. Rebecca, no—I was so wrong. I can’t even begin to say how wrong—”
“Matt,” she said, with a hand to his arm to silence him. “You were right. I never bothered to learn anything about Tom or the issues. I thought all that was boring. I just saw a chance to do things, maybe find a job, maybe make some friends. But I should never have used his campaign like that. I never should have signed up without asking a few questions and agreeing with what he was doing.”
“You aren’t the only one,” Matt grumbled, and told her how he had joined the race because they said he would make a great district attorney. “That thought had never once crossed my mind until that night, and there I was, lapping it up like ol’ Bean.”