Labor Day in Lusty, Texas [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) Read online

  The Lusty, Texas Collection

  Labor Day in Lusty, Texas

  After the deaths of her mother and grandmother, Abigail Parker finds her past and possibly her future when she shows up, unannounced, in Lusty. She’d believed she was all alone in the world—until she discovered a locked box in her grandmother’s closet. Maude Parker hadn’t been orphaned, after all, but had walked away from her family in that small Texas town.

  They’d dismissed their father’s account of falling for their mother at first sight. But when Carson and Michael Benedict meet Abigail, they see the woman they’re meant to spend the rest of their lives with. The men convince Abigail to come to Houston with them, so they can explore the feelings growing between them. They even have a job for Abigail—running the used bookstore Michael recently purchased.

  But what they don’t know is that the bookstore is the target of a thief, one who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the secrets he believes are hidden there.

  Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys

  Length: 57,076 words

  LABOR DAY IN LUSTY, TEXAS

  The Lusty, Texas Collection

  Cara Covington

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  LABOR DAY IN LUSTY, TEXAS

  Copyright © 2017 by Cara Covington

  ISBN: 978-1-64010-679-6

  First Publication: September 2017

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’m grateful for you, my readers, for your continued loyalty to the world of Lusty, Texas. A special debt of gratitude is owed to my reader’s group, my friends, The Lusty Ladies, for your enthusiasm for all things Lusty. A special thanks to Lisa Buchanan Phillips for her unwavering support as that group’s admin. Lisa, your friendship means the world for me.

  A huge thank you to Angie Buchanan Jones, beta reader, creator of memes and banners, and all-around wonderful human being. Your friendship is one of my treasures.

  I’m grateful for the dedicated, professional women and men of Siren-Bookstrand. A special nod of gratitude goes to my editor, Devon. You make my stories the best they can be.

  I’m forever grateful to my publisher, Amanda Hilton, for having said “yes”—eleven years ago. Because you said yes, I’ve been able to devote my time to crafting stories, and touching readers.

  DEDICATION

  To my number one fan, my husband, David. I know you’re counting down the days to your retirement. This next phase of our lives will be an adventure. I’ll be there to support your dreams, just as you’ve always been there to support mine.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Morgan Ashbury, also writing as Cara Covington, has been a writer since she was first able to pick up a pen. In the beginning, it was a hobby, a way to create a world of her own, and who could resist the allure of that? Then, as she grew and matured, life got in the way, as life often does. She got married and had three children, and worked in the field of accounting, for that was the practical thing to do, and the children did need to be fed. And all the time she was being practical, she would squirrel herself away on quiet Sunday afternoons and write.

  Most children are raised knowing the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Morgan’s children also learned the Paper Rule: Thou shalt not throw out any paper that has thy mother’s words upon it.

  Believing in tradition, Morgan ensured that her children’s children learned this rule, too.

  Life threw Morgan a curve when, in 2002, she underwent emergency triple bypass surgery. Second chances are to be cherished, and with the encouragement and support of her husband, Morgan decided to use hers to do what she’d always dreamed of doing—writing full-time.

  Morgan has always loved writing romance. It is the one genre that can incorporate every other genre within its pulsating heart. Romance showcases all that humankind can aspire to be. And, she admits, she’s a sucker for a happy ending.

  Morgan’s favorite hobbies are reading, cooking, and traveling—though she would rather you didn’t mention that last one to her husband. She has too much fun teasing him about having become a “Traveling Fool” of late.

  Morgan lives in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a mysterious cat, a nine-pound Morkie dog who thinks he’s a German shepherd, and her husband of forty-five years, David.

  For all titles by Cara Covington, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/cara-ovington

  For titles by Cara Covington writing as

  Morgan Ashbury, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  About the Author

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  Landmarks

  Cover

  LABOR DAY IN LUSTY,

  TEXAS

  The Lusty, Texas Collection

  CARA COVINGTON

  Copyright © 2017

  Prologue

  “How long will you be home for this time, my darlings?” Abigail Benedict addressed her middle son and his family, and everyone else turned their attention to Greg, Cody, and Rebecca. Those three, who sat with Rebecca in the middle of them, took a moment to look at each other before answering.

  And oh, wasn’t it wonderful to see the love, right there on their faces? Becca had one hand on her swollen abdomen, and each of her husbands placed a hand on hers—with Greg’s on top. When Greg nodded, it was Cody who met her gaze.

  “We’re here until the baby’s born, and for at least a year after. We’ve worked hard to re-organize Maria’s Quest and can do a lot of what we need to do from the office in Waco and remotely via the Internet and Skype.”

  “When a situation arises, and one of us must go, we’ll take turns,” Greg said. “This is the beg
inning of a new phase of life for us.”

  As Mother’s Day gifts go, that news was a definite winner—as was the joy of having all of her chicks sitting around the dining room table at the Big House. Also present at tonight’s family dinner were her sister-in-law, Bernice, and that good woman’s husbands, Caleb and Jonathan, as well as her beloved mother-in-law, Kate Benedict—Grandma Kate to just about everyone in Lusty, Texas.

  Bernice had been treated to a wonderful Mother’s Day brunch at the ranch, with all of her own brood and their little ones in attendance. One thing that Abigail could say about this town was that everyone understood the value of family.

  That was one miracle she never ceased being thankful for.

  “What about your wanderlust, little brother?” Abigail’s oldest son, Richard, asked.

  It didn’t surprise her that, of all her children, it would be Richard—the one child who’d been most socially awkward all his life—who would dare to ask what the rest of them might only think.

  “I wondered that myself, as we were thinking and talking over this change in our routine.” Then Greg looked at his wife and husband. “And I decided that maybe for all those years, that wanderlust was simply my way of looking for my soul mates. Now, with our first baby on the way? I’ve discovered that my family is everything to me. I don’t really need anything else.”

  “Oh, how I recall coming to that very same conclusion.” Carson, sitting on her right, looked at Abigail, his smile full of the love that she still gave thanks for, every single day. “That was a day I will never forget.”

  Under the table, Michael took Abigail’s hand in his and squeezed. His smile reflected his heart oh, so easily, as it always did. “It was a day, wasn’t it?” Michael said.

  Abigail nodded. “It was, indeed. Labor Day, 1975.”

  “That’s some memory you have there, Mom,” Greg said.

  “And the way you said that, I have a feeling it’s more than just a memory held in the way we women tend to recall such special times.” Maggie, her daughter-in-law, was sitting snuggled close to Richard. She’d looked a little peaked when she’d arrived, but now, with a simple supper of hot tea and toast, she looked much better.

  Abigail had suffered with suppertime morning sickness during her first pregnancy, as well. She looked across the table at her daughter, Julia, so happy and in love with her husbands, Dev and Drew, on either side of her. Both former Navy SEALs, their gentleness and care of not only their wife but their triplets—full of energy and now four years old—reflected the good men they were. And she took a moment to take in the beautiful picture her youngest sons made with their wonderful wife, Carrie, who was also expecting their first baby, due between Rebecca’s and Maggie’s.

  How her family had grown and how very much she loved each and every one of them. She looked first at Carson—her anchor—and then Michael—her fellow free spirit. Both men nodded.

  She took a minute to smile at those others of her generation at the table and then her wonderful mother-in-law, Kate.

  “I’m taking in the moment. There are so many of us, now, and it’s a miracle to me. The love that is filling every heart sitting here is something I never even knew existed before I came to Lusty. Family is everything.” She nodded to Greg. “I haven’t told anyone, but I’ve begun to write my journal—the one I’ll give to the museum to stand alongside the journals of all the other women who’ve made Lusty their home. I suppose that, along with looking forward to so many new additions in the next few months, has put me in a sentimental frame of mind today.”

  “I think that’s a wonderful idea, Mom,” Maggie said. “Can you give us a sneak peek? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the story of how you came to Lusty.”

  “It’s a beautiful story,” Kate said. “And one that feels like it happened just yesterday.”

  “I agree,” Bernice said. She grinned her encouragement.

  Abigail loved those women. They were hers, and it was hard to recall those years when she hadn’t known them. She knew they encouraged her because, of all of them, she likely was the shiest.

  “Go ahead, sweetheart.” Michael brought her hand to his lips. “I personally think it’s an amazing story.”

  “One of my favorites,” Carson said.

  “I’d love to hear it again, and now that I’m grown, I’ll bet there’s a lot more to the tale than I’ve heard before.” Julia beamed at her and in that moment so reminded Abigail of the young woman she herself had once been.

  Julia had always been a free spirit, one who suffered for a time from self-imposed rigidness. Abigail had worried about her then, in those months just before her men came back into her life. She knew how hard it could be to try and live up to an impossible standard. Julia’s had been self-imposed, but the one Abigail had matured to womanhood under had been crafted by her mother’s and her grandmother’s very narrow outlooks on life.

  “You’re going to tell us, aren’t you, Mom?” Carrie’s eagerness, her complete devotion to her husbands’ happiness, and her embrace of all things Benedict was one of Abigail’s purest joys.

  “I will.” She took only a moment to organize her thoughts. It didn’t take long, as she’d read over her journal just before getting ready for today’s gathering.

  “Some of you may not know this, but I not only married into the families of Lusty, I was a child of Lusty, after a fashion. Of course, I didn’t know that during my growing years. I grew up in a home that consisted of three females—my maternal grandmother, my mother, and me. My mother died suddenly, not more than a few months after her own mother—my grandmother—had passed. I was devastated, of course. And very shocked to discover that my financial inheritance was actually quite enormous.

  “But the biggest change for me, and the most daunting, was that I was suddenly all alone. There’d never been any aunts or uncles, not even a grandfather or a father in my life. My mother, as my grandmother had done before her, had decided to have a child without any further contribution from a man beyond his sperm.” Abigail cringed, very grateful that her three grandchildren were happily playing with the huge chest of toys in the great room and not paying attention to the adults.

  “You never knew your father or your grandfather?” Carrie asked.

  Abigail knew that would touch her sweet daughter-in-law more than most. Carrie and her sister Chloe—now Chloe Jessop and also living in Lusty—had lost their parents in a tornado when Carrie had been quite young. “I didn’t. I’d hoped that piece of information, the identity of my father, would be included in her will because I’d never even been told his name. To my mother, he was completely unimportant, having no further part in her grand scheme.” Abigail shook her head. “But no, there was nothing on him or my maternal grandfather. I believed that I was truly all alone in the world, with no family anywhere.

  “That reality took time to sink in. There was just me, and this very large house that was far too big for just me. So, I decided to go through it, sort through everything, donate what I could, and sell the house. That decision was the most meaningful one I’d ever made to that point in my life because that decision had been all mine. And also because, much to my shock, I discovered during my purge that my grandmother hadn’t been an orphan, as she’d led me to believe all those years. She had, in fact, been the youngest of three children born into a ménage family. Her fathers’ names were Terrence Parker and Jeremy Jones, and her mother was Phyllis MacNab Parker-Jones.”

  “The same people who accompanied Amanda Jessop-Kendall’s mother from Virginia to Lusty?” Maggie’s expression of surprise matched the looks on several of the faces staring at her.

  “Yes, indeed. After a lifetime of believing I had no one, I suddenly discovered I had a family. Right here, in Lusty, Texas.”

  Chapter One

  May, 1975

  Where to start? Abigail Parker stood in the middle of the kitchen, arms akimbo, and let her gaze wander the very large room. Her mother’s voice echoed in her head, a dir
e warning against putting the house up for sale while she was under emotional duress. Financial decisions must be made soberly, deliberately, and after much reflection, Abigail. Waste not, want not. Those unfortunate emotions of yours have no place when it comes to the dollars and cents of reality.

  Abigail closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and did the best she could to banish that voice. She’d been a dutiful daughter and granddaughter, all her life. Too dutiful, she thought now, since she was all alone in the world and had not the slightest idea what the hell should come next. Her grandmother had passed away just four months ago, but Maude Parker had lived to the ripe old age of eighty-one. Abigail had barely gotten over that loss when her mother had suddenly succumbed to a brain aneurism overnight—at the too-young age of only forty-eight. Vanessa Parker had never been sick a day in her life. Hell, the woman had had plans and agendas in place for the next thirty years!

  Oh, Mother, your plans and charts and details didn’t make a difference at all in the end, did they?

  Abigail pulled her thoughts back to herself. She’d been a dutiful daughter, had done everything she’d been told to do, down to the courses she’d taken in college and the clerking position she currently held at what had been her mother’s law office as she awaited the start of law school.

  Vanessa Parker had been a partner in the law firm of Peterson, Bates, and Associates. She’d decided, when she’d chosen to have a child, that said child would follow in her footsteps.

  Abigail hadn’t particularly wanted to be a lawyer. The only problem was she didn’t know what she did want to be. In the absence of any driving ambition of her own, she’d acquiesced to her mother’s wishes.