Read A Long Tall Texan Summer: Tom Walker for Free Online Page B

going to need it!"
    He went home to clean up, wondering how Luke was going to fare when he broke the news to Elysia. It would probably be bloody.
    "You what?" Elysia exploded.
    Luke held up a hand. "Go upstairs and clean up, pumpkin," he told Crissy.
    She hesitated. "Mommy, you have to say it's okay," she told her mother somberly. "I invited Mr. Tom to come help us eat the fish. He helped us catch them. I like him," she added belligerently. "He's going to tell
    me all about Indians."
    "Go on," Luke prompted, smiling. "It will be all right."
    Crissy went, glowering at her white-faced parent on the way.
    "You can't," Elysia cried when her daughter
    was out of sight. "You can't have him here! If he's around her enough, he'll see...!"
    "He already has," Luke said.
    He jumped forward and helped her into a chair, because she looked as if she might faint.
    "You told him," she accused hoarsely.
    "I did not. Crissy did."
    "Crissy? But she doesn't know!"
    "She told him that her dad was redheaded," he explained. "It wasn't a great leap of logic from that to the
    way she resembles his sister— not to mention himself."
    "Oh, dear God," Elysia whispered, closing her eyes. "Dear God, what’ll he do?"

    "Nothing, judging by this afternoon," Luke said. He knelt by her chair, one hand on hers in her lap.
    "Listen, he's not vindictive. He doesn't blame you. He's got secrets of his own," he added, hoping to get her attention.
    That did. She looked at him through misty eyes. "He does?"
    "You remember what we were speculating about?" he asked. "Well, we were right on the money. Sex Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html was a taboo at home. Their father beat them for showing the slightest interest in the other sex. He said
    his conscience was eating him alive about you. He thought he'd go to hell for sleeping with you."
    She gasped. "Good heavens!"
    "He said that it's taken all these years for him to come to grips with it," he continued quietly. "The main thing that came out is that he was angry at himself, not at you. It was guilt and shame that caused him to
    let you go without a word, and kept him from coming after you. He didn't even consider that you might become pregnant. His father taught him that desire was nothing more than sick lust."
    She closed her eyes and shivered. "How he must have felt," she whispered.
    "He's a case," he agreed. "I don't suppose there was a woman brave enough to chase him at all until you came along. That cold reserve of his is rather formidable, even to other men."
    "I'll say," she agreed, remembering the Tom of six years ago. She looked up. "Why is he coming to dinner?"
    "Because I invited him." He held up a hand. "This can't go on," he informed her. "Half the town's talking
    already about the way the two of you avoid each other. We all have to live here. It's time to make peace.
    Or at least, a public peace. This is the first step."
    "He'll be lucky if he gets in the door un-wounded," she said coldly. "Do you have any idea what he's been saying to me lately?"
    "No," he said warily.
    "He's accused me of sleeping with that damned Frenchman to market my boutique's designs," she said furiously. "He thinks I'm a slut!"
    "No, he doesn't..."
    "You can't imagine the things he said to me at the business meeting just the other day," she added. "Not to mention that we were about to have lunch in Rose's Cafe downtown and when he saw me come in the
    door, he gave up his place in line and left."
    He pursed his lips. "He didn't mention that."
    "He was probably too busy thinking of ways to get to my child," she raged. "Well, he won't get her. He can come here tonight, but you are never to invite him into this house again while I'm living in it, Luke!
    I
    won't be persecuted by him, not even for my little girl's sake!"
    "He's not out for revenge," he reminded her. "He's had as rough a time as we had. Maybe rougher. You can at least try to be sociable,
    can't you? Crissy likes him." He