Page 28 of Texas Daze (Texas Montgomery Mavericks)

“I’m Eli Boone,” he said, holding out his handtoTina.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Marti jumped in. “Tina. Eli Boone. He’s filling in for Hank Kelly. Eli, this is my friend Tina Baker and you remember Delene Younger from lastSaturday.”

“Of course. Nice to see you again, Delene. Nice to meet you, Tina. This is Debbie Watts, my office nurse. Debbie, this is Marti, DeleneandTina.”

“Nice to meet you all,” she said. “Hope you have a nice lunch.” She placed her hand on Eli’s forearm, staking her claim in Marti’s opinion. “Eli, I believe the hostess is waitingonus.”

He looked toward a table where the hostess stood. “Right, right. You go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute. I need to chat with Marti for aminute.”

She smiled, and if looks could kill, Marti would be dead. “Do you want me to order you a drink whileIwait?”

“Teaisfine.”

She walked away, her hips swinging like a bell beingtolled.

“How’s Princess and Duchess?” Eliasked.

“Doing great. Thank you for the surprises. Everyone enjoyed them. Callie’s using the rope to escape herbabies.”

Eli laughed. “Don’t blame her at all. Sextuplets can be ahandful.”

Marti grinned. “I hope you got my note. It was really thoughtful of you to send all thetreats.”

“And the champagne? Did youenjoyit?”

“Saving it,” she said. “Neverknow.”

He nodded and glanced toward Debbie, who was shooting eye daggers at the three women. “I’d better run. Debbie and I only have an hour for lunch. We still on for, um, myfavor?”

“Sure. Whenever you’re ready andavailable.”

“What favor?” Delene whispered across the table. “Do we need to have the safe sex talk with you since your parents are outoftown?”

“And who’s Duchess? And I want to know about the favor too. Are you holding out on us? Your bestest friends? I don’t have a sex life,” Tina whined. “Shareyours.”

Marti lifted her glass of water to takeasip.

“Now, you’re just being mean,” Delene said, sitting back and crossing her arms. “For that, I’m not going to tell you about the upcoming boot sale. I’ll let you pay fullprice.”

Marti laughed. “Wow. Way to bring out thebigguns.”

Tina waved her fingers. “Let’shaveit.”

Over lunch, Marti told them about Saturday. Princess’s labor. Duchess’s birth. Her falling asleep. She might have downplayed the kisses a little. Okay, she downplayed thema lot. She wasn’t ready to spill all, even to her bestfriends.

She also didn’t mention Eli’s request to learn to ride. She thought he might not want the whole towntoknow.

By three, the rain had cleared and an afternoon sun was steaming up the area. Outside was sweltering. Marti traded her jeans, boots and nice blouse for old shorts, grubby T-shirt and sandals. Even those weren’t cool enough for this afternoon heat. Mother Nature was making up for the morning rain by trying to dry everything out by turning uptheheat.

Marti wiped the sweat off her forehead as she walked toward the barn to check on her girls. The stall was empty. All the stalls wereempty.

“Grisham,” she hollered. “Where’severybody?”

From a distance, she heard, “Outside watchingDuchess.”

Exiting the rear door the barn, she found Grisham and Pedro sitting in chairs with cold drinks in theirhands.

“Hard at work?”shesaid.

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