He gazed down the lane at the two-story house with its wide front porch. He envisioned guests sitting on the porch in the summertime. They’d have glasses of lemonade or iced tea, and maybe there would be a little cart on wheels with cookies on it. In the spring, there would be tulips or maybe even rosebushes. Sure, he was eager to see the inside, but he really didn’t care how much work it would take to renovate the place. That was irrelevant. The feeling in his heart of doing the right thing was what he’d been looking for, and it was definitely there.

“So what do you think, Sassy? We can pull our trailer back behind the house and live in it while we do the remodeling. Maybe I should go in and take a tour of the place.” He removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s pretty damned impulsive to buy a place without even looking at it, isn’t it?”

The cat cold nosed his chin. He hadn’t laughed so much in weeks. “Okay, I get the message. Buy it. From the outside, it doesn’t look so bad, and they were renting rooms up until a few weeks ago, so it can’t be completely falling in. And besides, the Big Cypress Bayou runs behind it, so I can fish every evening.”

He grabbed his phone from the passenger seat and called Belinda. She answered on the second ring. “Dixie Realty.”

“Call the woman in the house and make her the same offer. Maybe she doesn’t realize how much her half is worth. Hell, offer her a hundred thousand and see if she’ll go for it,” he said.

“I don’t think she will, but I’ll give it a shot,” Belinda said. “Be in touch in a little while.”

He drove back to his trailer with Sassy sitting like a queen in the passenger seat. If this Jolene woman was willing to take his offer, he would restore and flip the place and make a nice profit. Once inside, he shed his coat and cowboy boots and began to pace. Sassy turned around three or four times in the middle of his bed before she settled down and went to sleep.

“So you’ve done your duty and now you aren’t going to worry with me?” Tucker asked. “Now that I’ve seen it again, I want it really bad. You could at least stay awake and keep me company.”

Sassy’s whiskers didn’t even twitch in reply.

He wished he had a job to keep his mind off the two offers he’d made. He’d even be willing to remodel a bathroom to keep his hands busy, and Tucker hated working in the tight spaces. They reminded him of all the times he’d had to crawl under houses in search of things he’d rather not think about anymore. He slouched on the sofa and leaned his head back, shutting his eyes, and second-guessing himself about what he’d just done.

He fell asleep, and in his dream, Melanie was sitting on the swing on the front porch of that big house. She ran out to meet him as he drove up, slung her arms around his neck, and kissed him. He awoke to the sound of the phone ringing, and before he answered it, he just knew that it was good news.

“Hello, Belinda. That was quick,” he said.

“Got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”

“Give me the bad.” He raked his fingers through his dark hair and realized he really needed to visit the barber.

“Jolene says no way in hell, and that if she had the money, she’d buy Reuben out. Good news is that Reuben didn’t even want to counteroffer. He took the sixty-five thousand and said to tell you to consider it yours. I’ll have the papers ready for both of you to sign on Friday morning, but as of now, you can sell that trailer and move into the house if you want.”

“I ain’t sellin’ my trailer. I might drag it out there and park it behind the house by the bayou, but a million bucks couldn’t take it from me,” he said. “I’ll see you Friday. What time?”

“Nine o’clock,” she said.

“I’ll be there.”

“Bring your checkbook.”

Jolene had taken stock of what was left in the pantry, and there was plenty to last a couple of weeks. By then she’d have money from the bar to pay the utility bills. She paced the floor, wondering if the guy who’d offered would really buy Reuben’s half of the inn. She went from the foyer up the wide staircase, checked each bedroom, and finally sat down on the top step.

The person who was interested in the place might not finalize a deal on only half. If he backed out, she decided that she was going to open for business, no matter what. She’d take a month to get the place in shape, do the spring cleaning like Aunt Sugar did every year, and take reservations starting the first of February. If she lived on a shoestring, maybe she could save enough to hire someone to remodel one room at a time that way.

Now that she had a plan, even if it wasn’t a good one, she was eager to get started, but seven o’clock at night wasn’t the time to start washing woodwork. She grabbed a quilt from the back of the sofa and carried it outside. Wrapping it around her body like a long shawl, she sat down on the porch swing and set it to moving with her foot. Within minutes she was second-guessing herself about selling her half. A picture of Aunt Sugar’s smile flashed through her mind.

Even if she could have more money than she’d ever had at one time and be on her way to a new life—maybe down near Lafayette, where she still had beaucoup cousins—it wasn’t going to happen. She’d made up her mind, and she was going to stay focused on moving forward with the plan.

A big, fluffy white cat hopped up on the swing with her and laid a paw on her leg. It was friendly enough that Jolene wondered if it belonged there and Aunt Sugar had just forgotten to mention it in her excitement to leave the day before.

“Well, what’s your name, pretty thing?” Jolene asked.

“Sassy is her name,” a deep voice said right behind her.

Startled, Jolene whipped around so fast that she almost fell off the swing. “Who are you, and what are you doin’ here?”

Now is that any way to act toward a potential customer? Aunt Sugar’s voice popped into her head. He might stay a week, and you’d make enough money to pay the electric bill.

“Right friendly, ain’t you?” Sarcasm dripped from the man’s tone.

“I’m sorry. You scared me. Is this your cat? How did you get here?”

“Drove my truck right up the lane and parked my trailer out in that little clearing by the bayou.” His deep drawl left no doubt that he was definitely from Texas. He topped six feet easily in his well-worn cowboy boots. His hair was dark, and the porch light lit up his piercing blue eyes.

“We don’t have a trailer park.” How had he gotten past the house without her hearing the truck?

“Nope, don’t reckon you do.” He sat down on the porch step, and the cat hopped off the swing and went to curl up in his lap.

“Then what are you doing here?” she asked again. “Would you like to rent a room?”

“Nope, but I wouldn’t mind a tour of the house,” he said.

“Why would I do that?” Her fear radar shot up several notches.

“Because, honey, I’m Tucker Malone, and I own half of this place now—or at least I will on Friday when I sign the papers.”

Chapter Four

Tucker had planned on knocking on the door like a gentleman, introducing himself and telling the lady why he was there, but Sassy kind of beat him to the punch. Now Jolene was staring at him like he had horns on his head and maybe a long spiky tail. She was downright cute with those big blue eyes and blonde hair. With that small waist and those curvy hips, most men would be drooling over her.

“I thought maybe Belinda would have told you that Reuben said I could go ahead and move in today. My trailer rent is up tomorrow, so I took your cousin up on staying,” he explained.

She stood up and paced to the other end of the porch, the quilt dragging behind her. She whipped it around as she turned. “She called, but there was no talk of you moving in. But I guess since you own half this place, you’ve got the right to do what you want.”

“I thought maybe this first little while I’d just hook up to the electricity and stay in my trailer,” he said.

His detective training on the Dallas PD kicked in as he watched her pace nervously across the porch. She was short, maybe an inch or two over five feet tall, and soaking wet she might hit 120 pounds. Her slightly pointed chin didn’t detract from her delicate features. Even with no makeup she was a looker—someone he might have hit on in a bar before he settled down with Melanie.

“That’s crazy. What would you use for a bathroom?” She continued flipping that quilt around every time she turned to pace to the other end of the porch. “The house is warm, even if it’s shabby right now. We need to go inside out of the cold and talk if we’re going to be partners.”

“What’s there to talk about? We both know it needs to be remodeled, so we’ll go halves on everything. Close it down until spring and have a grand opening when everything is done,” he said.

She eased down on the step beside him and put her head in her hands. “I have about a hundred dollars in my checking account. I hope you have a little more than that, or else your credit is good enough to get a loan.”

“Sweet Jesus!” he gasped.

“Here’s what I offered Reuben. Hear me out, okay?” She started talking before he could even answer and finished with, “Whether you have the money or you can get a loan, we can put it all in a contract so you won’t feel like I’m taking advantage. I’m willing to work right beside you until we get the place back in shape. I can paint, sand, or do anything if you’ll only show me how. The Realtor told me that you are a crackerjack carpenter.”

“Can you cook?” he asked when she finally wound down.

She nodded.

“And you’ll work right along with me without bitchin’?”

Another nod.

He stuck out his hand. “Then you’ve got a deal. We’ll draw up something on paper tomorrow morning and each of us will sign it. And I don’t need to get a loan from a bank. Got a safe in the house?”