In a Texas Minute Read online

  “I’m sure Ms. Mendoza is a reputable person, but we do like for there to be a man in the house and—”

  “What luck!” Alex interrupted. He slid a possessive arm around Sierra’s shoulders. “Sierra and I have decided to get married soon, and since we’d like to have children right off, having the baby here would be wonderful practice for both of us.”

  The woman’s face brightened considerably. “You two are getting married?”

  Sierra suspected she must look like a dying carp, so she snapped her mouth shut and tried to hide the shock rushing from her head to her feet. What was Alex doing telling this woman an out-and-out lie? she wondered wildly. He hated liars! And he hated the idea of marriage even more!

  Dear Reader,

  Celebrate those April showers this month by curling up inside with a good book—and we at Silhouette Special Edition are happy to start you off with What’s Cooking? by Sherryl Woods, the next in her series THE ROSE COTTAGE SISTERS. When a playboy photographer is determined to seduce a beautiful food critic fed up with men who won’t commit…things really start to heat up! In Judy Duarte’s Their Unexpected Family, next in our MONTANA MAVERICKS: GOLD RUSH GROOMS continuity, a very pregnant—not to mention, single—small-town waitress and a globe-trotting reporter find themselves drawn to each other despite their obvious differences. Stella Bagwell concludes THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: REUNION with In a Texas Minute. A woman who has finally found the baby of her dreams to adopt lacks the one element that can make it happen—a husband—or does she? She’s suddenly looking at her handsome “best friend” in a new light. Christine Flynn begins her new GOING HOME miniseries—which centers around a small Vermont town—with Trading Secrets, in which a down-but-not-out native repairs to her hometown to get over her heartbreak…and falls smack into the arms of the town’s handsome new doctor. Least Likely Wedding? by Patricia McLinn, the first in her SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW…series, features a lovely filmmaker whose “groom” on celluloid is all too eager to assume the role in real life. And in The Million Dollar Cowboy by Judith Lyons, a woman who’s fallen hard for a cowboy has to convince him to take a chance on love.

  So don’t let those April showers get you down! May is just around the corner—and with it, six fabulous new reads, all from Silhouette Special Edition.

  Happy reading!

  Gail Chasan

  Senior Editor

  IN A TEXAS MINUTE

  STELLA BAGWELL

  Books by Stella Bagwell

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Found: One Runaway Bride #1049

  †Penny Parker’s Pregnant! #1258

  White Dove’s Promise #1478

  ††Should Have Been Her Child #1570

  ††His Defender #1582

  ††Her Texas Ranger #1622

  ††A Baby on the Ranch #1648

  In a Texas Minute #1677

  Silhouette Books

  The Fortunes of Texas

  The Heiress and the Sheriff

  Maitland Maternity

  Just for Christmas

  A Bouquet of Babies

  †“Baby on Her Doorstep”

  Midnight Clear

  †“Twins under the Tree”

  Going to the Chapel

  “The Bride’s Big Adventure”

  Getaway

  “Home on Leave”

  Silhouette Romance

  Golden Glory #469

  Moonlight Bandit #485

  A Mist on the Mountain #510

  Madeline’s Song #543

  The Outsider #560

  The New Kid in Town #587

  Cactus Rose #621

  Hillbilly Heart #634

  Teach Me #657

  The White Night #674

  No Horsing Around #699

  That Southern Touch #723

  Gentle as a Lamb #748

  A Practical Man #789

  Precious Pretender #812

  Done to Perfection #836

  Rodeo Rider #878

  *Their First Thanksgiving #903

  *The Best Christmas Ever #909

  *New Year’s Baby #915

  Hero in Disguise #954

  Corporate Cowgirl #991

  Daniel’s Daddy #1020

  A Cowboy for Christmas #1052

  Daddy Lessons #1085

  Wanted: Wife #1140

  †The Sheriff’s Son #1218

  †The Rancher’s Bride #1224

  †The Tycoon’s Tots #1228

  †The Rancher’s Blessed Event #1296

  †The Ranger and the Widow Woman #1314

  †The Cowboy and the Debutante #1334

  †Millionaire on Her Doorstep #1368

  The Bridal Bargain #1414

  Falling for Grace #1456

  The Expectant Princess #1504

  The Missing Maitland #1546

  Because of the Ring #1589

  STELLA BAGWELL

  sold her first book to Silhouette in November 1985. More than fifty novels later, she still loves her job and says she isn’t completely content unless she’s writing. Recently, she and her husband of thirty years moved from the hills of Oklahoma to Seadrift, Texas, a sleepy little fishing town located on the coastal bend. Stella says the water, the tropical climate and the seabirds make it a lovely place to let her imagination soar and to put the stories in her head down on paper.

  She and her husband have one son, Jason, who lives and teaches high school math in nearby Port Lavaca.

  Pssst, have you heard? They’re baaack!

  Silhouette Special Edition presents three brand-new

  stories about the famous—and infamous!—

  Fortunes of Texas. Juicy scandals, heart-stopping

  suspense, love, loss… What else would you expect

  from the fabulous Fortunes?

  Beginning in February 2005, read all about straitlaced

  CEO Jack Fortune and feisty

  Gloria Mendoza in RITA® Award-winning

  author Marie Ferrarella’s Her Good Fortune,

  Special Edition #1665….

  Then, in March, Gloria’s tell-it-like-it-is older sister,

  Christina Mendoza, finds herself falling hard for boss

  Derek Rockwell’s charming ways, in

  Crystal Green’s A Tycoon in Texas,

  Special Edition #1670….

  Finally, watch as youngest sister, Sierra,

  tries desperately to ignore her budding feelings

  for her best friend—and emotional opposite—

  Alex Calloway, in Stella Bagwell’s April installment

  In a Texas Minute,

  Special Edition #1677….

  The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion—

  The price of privilege. The power of family.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  “Sierra! Hello! Are you there?”

  Sierra Mendoza’s gaze circled the table where she and her friends had gathered for lunch. Every eye was zeroed in on her and she suddenly realized her mind had wandered off again and she’d lost all train of the conversation.

  Her cheeks pink with embarrassment, she glanced at Gayle, a blonde who was five years older than Sierra and much more experienced in the men department.

  “I’m sorry, Gayle, I was…thinking about something. I didn’t hear your que
stion.”

  Gayle rolled her blue eyes, but softened the impatient gesture with a smile. “I asked if you wanted to try one of those fudge brownie desserts with me today?”

  “Ugh, no. I—I’m just not in the mood for sugar today,” she said, declining.

  Actually Sierra wasn’t in the mood for anything. She was only here at this lunch because these people were her best friends and had been since she’d met them at the University of Texas at Austin many years ago.

  Today the two women and three men had congregated for their weekly lunch get-together at the Longhorn Bar and Grill in downtown Red Rock, Texas.

  Back in San Antonio’s earlier days, the Longhorn building had been a feed-and-grain store and today it was still more like a barn than anything else. The ceiling was high, open and crossed with heavy rafters. The wooden planked floor was rough and the pine picnic tables were covered with blue-and-white checked tablecloths. What used to be the loading dock was now an outside dining area that looked out over Main Street. The air in and out of the Longhorn always smelled of beer and fried onions, scents that mingled with laughter and rowdy conversation.

  Mario, a Hispanic doctor who worked the emergency room in one of San Antonio’s larger hospitals, turned a look of concern on Sierra. “What’s the matter? Are you trying to diet? You certainly don’t need to. You’ve gotten too thin in my opinion.”

  Feeling as if a bright spotlight were focused on her, Sierra dropped her gaze to the half-eaten lunch plate in front of her. “Not really, Mario. I’ve been eating plenty. I just don’t want dessert today.” She looked up and smiled apologetically at Gayle. “Maybe next week I’ll have more of an appetite. Why don’t you go ahead and eat one without me.”

  Laughing, Gayle shook her head. “No way. I’m not going to be the only one to eat a days’ worth of calories in one small bowl.”

  “Well, I think Mario is right,” Trey spoke up. “Sierra looks thin and pale. We’ve all noticed it. So what’s wrong, honey? Still mooning over Chad Newbern?”

  She looked at Trey, a big, brawny civil engineer with forearms the size of Popeye’s and an even bigger heart.

  “I don’t want to talk about him,” she said flatly.

  She didn’t even want to think about Chad, much less talk about him. Sierra had dated the man for two long years and then, suddenly, two months ago, he’d told her he wanted out of their relationship. He’d explained how he wanted more excitement in his life and Sierra was left with the clear conclusion that she’d simply been too boring to satisfy him. The whole incident had left her ego in shreds.

  “Why not? It’s obvious you’re still thinking about the loser.”

  A grimace tightened her jaw as she looked directly across the table at Alex Calloway, the smooth lawyer of the bunch. A look of pure boredom etched his handsome features and Sierra had the most unladylike urge to kick his shins beneath the table. Of all her friends, Alex had a way of irritating her the most. Sarcasm should have been his middle name and there were times he could be so callous Sierra wanted to bop him over the head. Yet, on the other hand, he could turn around and be a real peach whenever he wanted to be.

  Sierra had never considered him as more than a good friend and she supposed it was that complex personality of his that had kept her from falling for his tall, lanky good looks. And thank God for that, she thought. Alex was a heartbreaker of the worst kind.

  “You don’t know what I’m thinking,” she bit sharply back at him.

  “Well, I certainly believed old Chad was gonna be your husband someday soon. I was expectin’ you to waltz in here and tell us wedding bells were fixin’ to ring,” Trey spoke up. “Instead the jerk runs out on you.”

  “Yeah. And after all you’ve done for the cad,” Gayle added disgustedly. “There’s nothing as sorry as a sorry man.”

  Trey scowled at Gayle, but none of the three men at the table bothered to speak up and defend their gender. Instead Mario looked sympathetically at Sierra and said, “Well, at least you got him off alcohol. And he’s got a steady job. You can feel good about that.”

  “Yes, sir,” Trey spoke up brightly, “you fixed Chad Newbern when he was pretty broken. You can feel proud of yourself for helping someone to get on with his life.”

  It was true that Sierra had been proud of the progress Chad had made since she’d first met him two years ago. At that time, he’d just been discharged from the navy for medical reasons and he’d been devastated over losing a career he’d wanted so badly. He’d taken to drinking to get the loss off his mind, until the liquor had taken hold of him.

  Sierra had been touched by his wounded spirit and slowly but surely she’d helped him get over the drinking problem. In the process, she’d fallen in love. And she supposed her biggest mistake had been thinking that Chad had fallen in love, too.

  “Yeah,” Alex drawled as he lifted his beer mug to his lips, “Sierra’s not just a social worker, she’s a miracle worker. She’s good at patching things. No matter how rotten they are.”

  “Alex!” Gayle scolded. “Can’t you see that Sierra is hurting? She needs our support.”

  A mocking slant spread over Alex’s firmly chiseled lips. “What Sierra needs to do is stiffen her spine before someone else walks all over her.”

  Sierra gripped her beer mug with both hands and stared down at the thick sudsy bubbles as she did her best to blink back her tears. Maybe Alex was right, she thought with a sigh of defeat. It seemed as though every boyfriend she’d ever had in the past only stuck around long enough for Sierra to “fix” him, and then he was gone with the wind. What was wrong with her anyway? Didn’t she have any lasting appeal to the opposite sex?

  Straightening her shoulders as best she could, Sierra pinned her warm brown eyes on Alex’s mocking face.

  “Like you do to your opponents in the courtroom?” she asked coolly.

  The mocking twist of his lips suddenly tilted upward to a droll smile. “You play the game to win, Sierra. You don’t play it to lose.”

  For a moment awkward silence fell over the table, then finally Trey said, “Sierra, you’re a beautiful young woman. You’ll find the right man for you one of these days. Just keep that pretty little chin of yours up.”

  Sierra appreciated Trey’s kindness, but she’d never gone so far as to think of herself as beautiful. Her sisters, Gloria and Christina, were beautiful. They were tall and willowy and sophisticated. Sierra barely measured five foot three. And though she was curvy, she was very petite. Many of her old high school friends still called her Runt and the long black mass of curls flying around her head didn’t help her little-girl image.

  “Thanks, Trey,” she said. “But I don’t think I’ll be looking for a long, long while. Right after Chad and I broke up, I made a pact with my sisters. We all vowed to steer clear of men completely. If we broke our promise, we’d have to do some unholy task like mow the lawn or wash cars. Believe me, I’m not going to end up like Gloria and Christina. I plan to stick to my pledge.”

  “Oh, don’t let this make you cynical,” Mario spoke up. “Trey is right. You’ll find the right person. Maybe tomorrow. Who knows?”

  Mario was smiling at her with encouragement and she tried her best to smile back. Thankfully the waitress chose that moment to arrive with their food and the subject of Sierra’s love life was dropped. She focused her attention on the meal as though she was thoroughly enjoying every bite.

  However, she was relieved when the five of them said their goodbyes and she hurried across the parking lot to her waiting car. She wasn’t in the mood for conversation with anyone. The spring afternoon was windy, but bright and warm. A walk in the park would do her good. But, at the moment, all she wanted to do was go home and cry her eyes out.

  “Just a minute, Sierra. I want to talk to you.”

  Hearing Alex’s voice right behind her, Sierra paused from opening the car door to turn and look at him. He was a tall man, at least six foot, with warm brown hair combed straight back from his forehe
ad and clear green eyes that were usually glinting with a heavy dose of cynicism. He had the sort of hard, tough features that intimidated people, which she supposed was an asset in his line of work. Yet his face matched his lean, leathery body perfectly and, in spite of his lack of feelings at times, she had to admit he was a very attractive man.

  “Why?” she quipped the question. “So you can stick the dagger in farther and twist it? I’ve really had enough, Alex.”

  Turning back to the car door, she jabbed the key in the lock and twisted it. Yet before she could pull the door open, Alex’s hand was on her shoulder and she frowned as he tugged her back around to face him.

  “No,” he said in a voice as smooth as steel. “I don’t think you’ve had nearly enough. It’s ridiculous the way you were back there in the grill, crying into your beer like all your tomorrows have ended.”

  The disgust on his face not only hurt Sierra, it infuriated her and her pink lips parted as she stared up at him. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Alex. You wouldn’t know what love was, even if it gave you a good slap in the face.”

  He rolled his eyes and she breathed in a deep breath hoping it would calm her rising temper.

  “Oh, please!” he groaned with disbelief. “You call what you had with Chad ‘the loser’ Newbern love? You needed to get rid of him ages ago. I’m glad he finally got enough sense to see it, too.”

  Her jaw clamped tight, Sierra turned her face away from his. “I’d really like to know who named you perfect man of the year,” she said through gritted teeth. “Whoever it was had a screw loose.”

  “I don’t profess to be perfect,” he shot back at her.

  Sierra’s gaze flew up to his. “If you know so much about love, Counselor, why don’t you have a woman draped permanently on your arm?”

  His lean features scowled at her. “Maybe because I’m smart enough to realize that I don’t need a woman just to make me happy. Hell, I don’t even need one to help me stand upright. I can do that all by myself. The way you should be doing instead of clinging like a needy vine to every loser who comes along and gives you a second glance.”