A Texas-Sized Secret. Maureen Child

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       Two

      Naomi took a deep breath in what she knew was a futile attempt to relax a little. There would be no relaxation until this meeting with her parents was over.

      Toby came around the front of the truck, opened her door and waited for her to step down before asking, “You ready?”

      “No. Yes. I don’t know.” Naomi shook her head, tugged at the hem of her cool green shirt as if she could somehow further disguise the still-tiny bump of her baby, then smoothed nervous hands along her hips. “Do I look all right?”

      He tipped his head to one side, studied her, then smiled. “You look like you always do. Beautiful.”

      She laughed a little. Toby was really good for her self-esteem. Or, she thought, he would be, if she had any. God, what a pitiful thought. Of course she had self-esteem. It was just a bit like a roller-coaster ride. Sometimes up, sometimes down. Naomi’d be very happy if she could somehow reach a middle ground and stay there. But it was a constant battle between the two distinctly different voices in her head.

      One telling her she was smart and talented and capable while the other whispered doubts. Amazing how much easier that dark voice was to believe.

      And she was stalling.

      “You’re stalling,” Toby said as if reading her mind. Her gaze snapped to his.

      “Think you know me that well, do you?”

      “Yeah,” he said, a slow smile curving his mouth. “I do.”

      Okay, yes, he really did. Probably the only person she knew who could make that claim and mean it. Even her closest girlfriends, Cecelia and Simone, only knew about her what she wanted them to know. Naomi was really skilled at hiding her thoughts, at being who people expected or wanted her to be. But she never had to do that around Toby.

      Taking her hand in his, he started for the front door. “Come on, Naomi. We’ll talk to your folks, get this out in the open, then go have lunch so I can get a burger and you can nibble on a lettuce leaf.”

      She rolled her eyes behind his back, because damn it, he really did know her. All women watched their diets, didn’t they? Especially pregnant women? At that thought, memories of that vile video Maverick had sent her rushed into her mind again. She saw the actress waddling, staggering across a mock-up of Naomi’s own television set, and she shivered. She refused to waddle.

      Naomi swallowed a groan and took the steps to the wide front porch beside Toby. He was still holding her hand, and she was grateful. A part of her brain shrieked at her that it was ridiculous for a grown woman to be so nervous about facing her parents. But that single voice was being systematically drowned out by a choir of other voices, reminding her that nothing good had ever come from having a chat with Franklin and Vanessa Price.

      “You ready?”

      She looked up into his eyes, shaded by his ever-present Stetson, and gathered the tattered threads of her courage. She had to be ready, because there was no other choice. “Yes.”

      “That’d be more believable if you weren’t chewing on your bottom lip.”

      “Blast,” she muttered and instinctively rubbed her lips together to smooth out her lipstick. “Fine. Now I’m ready.”

      “Damn right you are.” He grinned, and her nerves settled. Really, Naomi wasn’t sure what she’d ever done to deserve a best friend like Toby, but she was so thankful to have him.

      Before she could talk herself out of it or worry on it any longer, she reached out and rapped her knuckles on the wide front door. Several seconds ticked past before it swung open to reveal Matilda, the Price family housekeeper and cook.

      Tall, thin and dressed completely in black, Matilda wore her gunmetal-gray hair short and close to her head. Her complexion was pale and carved with wrinkles earned over a lifetime. She looked severe, humorless, although nothing could have been further from the truth. Matilda smiled in welcome.

      “Miss Naomi,” she said, stepping back to open the door wider. “You and Mr. Toby come in. I’ll just tell your parents you’re here. They’re in the front parlor.”

      Of course they were, Naomi thought. She knew the Price family schedule and was aware that it never deviated. Late-morning tea began at eleven and ended precisely at eleven forty-five. After which her mother would drive into town to one of her charities and her father would go to the golf course or, on Tuesdays, the Texas Cattleman’s Club to visit with his friends.

      Waiting in the blessedly cool entry hall, Toby took his hat off, then bent to whisper, “Always makes me twitch when she calls me Mr. Toby.”

      “I know,” Naomi said. “But propriety must be maintained at all times.” Appearances, she knew, were very important to her parents. It had always mattered more how things looked than how things actually were.

      She glanced around the home she’d grown up in. The interior hadn’t changed much over the years. Vanessa Price didn’t care for change, and once she had things the way she wanted them, they stayed.