LITMIR.BIZ

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tap on the door interrupted the memories before they could cut too deeply. He looked up with a wave of relief. “Come in.”

      Dave Watson lounged into the room, deceptively casual in jeans, a T-shirt and a ball cap. He managed to look like a good old boy interested in nothing more than the Cowboys’ prospects for the upcoming season. In actuality, Dave was as shrewd as they came and in Landon’s opinion, the best investigator in Fort Worth.

      “Hey, chief. How’s it going?” Dave wandered across the room and slumped into the visitor’s chair.

      “You tell me.” Landon studied the private investigator’s face, but Dave didn’t give anything away. “Do you have results already?”

      Dave shrugged. “It wasn’t exactly a challenge. No twin girls were born in any hospital in Fort Worth on the date you gave me.”

      “You’re sure?”

      The P.I. just looked at him in response. It had been a silly question. Dave wouldn’t report unless he was sure.

      So that left the question hanging. Had Violet been lying, or just ill-informed? Either way, Landon didn’t like it.

      He came to a quick decision. “I want you to expand the search. Same date, but take in Dallas and the surrounding area, okay?”

      “Will do.” Dave raised an eyebrow. “Is that all?”

      “For now. I might need more later.” Landon shoved back from his desk in a decisive movement. “I’m going out of town for a few days. Call my private cell number if you find anything.”

      Maddie might think she’d ended things between them, but she couldn’t end his sense of responsibility for her. Regardless of whether Violet was on the up-and-up or not, he had a bad feeling about this situation. Either way, Maddie could end up hurt. It was his job to see that didn’t happen.

      * * *

      “Was this the best facility to deal with her care?” Maddie asked the question as they walked through the hospital lobby in Amarillo the next morning.

      “It has the highest-rated trauma center in this part of the state,” Violet said. “Luckily, Jack saw the accident, so he called for help on his cell phone right away. Doc Garth was there in minutes.” She’d be forever grateful for that. Without Doc’s prompt care, her mom might not have made it as far as Amarillo. “As soon as the doctor realized how bad it was, he had her airlifted here.”

      Maddie nodded. “I didn’t mean my question to sound critical. Really. I’ve spent most of my life in the city. The ranch seems so remote in comparison.”

      “I guess so. It’s just home to me.” She smiled as they got on the elevator. “You can’t imagine how stressed I was driving in Fort Worth traffic. I can drive from the ranch clear into Grasslands without passing another car.”

      An older woman got into the elevator after them, doing a double take as she looked from one to the other. Violet wasn’t sure how to respond. So this was a taste of what it was like, having an identical twin.

      If they’d been raised together, would they have dressed alike? Would they have had their own private jokes and secrets that no one else was allowed to know? Sorrow filled her. It was strange, to be mourning the loss of something she’d never had. Did Maddie feel the same, or didn’t it bother her?

      The elevator doors swished open, and Violet’s stomach lurched. The hospital was nice enough, as hospitals went. She led the way down the long corridor toward her mom’s room. Bright, cheerful, with none of the antiseptic odors she remembered from a brief hospital stay when she was six.

      Despite that, Violet’s spirits were dampened each time she came through the doors. No matter how cheerful she tried to be, just in case her mom was actually hearing her, fear hung on her like a wet, smothering blanket on a hot Texas day.

      “It’s the next room down,” she said, and tried to pin a smile on her face when she saw the apprehension in Maddie’s eyes. “It’ll be all right. One of the nurses told me that coma patients can sometimes hear what’s said, even if they can’t respond. So she may know you’re here. Know we’ve found each other.”

      “I hope so,” Maddie murmured, and Violet had the sense that she was praying silently. Whispering a prayer of her own, Violet squeezed her hand and walked with her into the room.

      Sunlight streamed across the high hospital bed, and machines whirred softly. Belle was motionless, lying much as she had been when Violet left yesterday. A lifetime ago, it now seemed.

      “Mom?” Violet covered her mother’s hand with hers. How odd it was to see Belle’s hands so still—she was always in motion, and even in conversation her hands would be moving.

      No response, and Violet fought to keep that fact from sending her into a downward spiral.

      “One day when I say that, you’re going to open your eyes and ask what I want.” She kept her voice light and gestured for Maddie to come closer.

      Maddie’s face had paled, and tears glistened in her eyes. She seemed to be searching Belle’s features, maybe looking for herself there.

      “I brought someone to see you, Mom. You’re going to be so surprised. It’s Maddie. Can you believe that? We’ve found each other, after all this time.” She gave her sister an encouraging smile. “Say something to her.”

      “I’m so glad to see you.” Maddie’s voice wobbled a little on the words. “I didn’t know. I never guessed that my real mother was out there someplace. Not until I walked into a coffee shop in Fort Worth and saw Violet sitting there.”

      Violet stroked her mother’s hand, willing her to hear. “We look exactly alike, Mom. Did you realize we would? I suppose we must have, even when we were babies.”

      The enormity of the whole crazy situation struck Violet, and suddenly she couldn’t control her voice. She couldn’t keep pretending that this deception was okay.

      “Why, Momma?” The words came out in a choked cry, in the voice of her childhood. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

      But her mother didn’t answer. Maybe she never would. For the first time in Violet’s life she faced a problem without her mother to advise her. The loneliness seemed to sink into her very soul.

      And then she felt an arm go around her. Maddie drew her close, her face wet with tears for the mother she’d never known. As they held each other and wept, Violet knew she’d been wrong. She wasn’t alone.

      * * *

      It was late afternoon when Violet finally got to Grasslands that day. She wouldn’t have bothered going to town after driving back from Amarillo, but she was responsible for the Colby Ranch Farm Stand, and she had to be sure things were going smoothly.

      Maddie had opted to stay at the ranch rather than come into town with her, and Violet couldn’t help feeling a bit of relief at that decision. The two of them had attracted enough second glances in Amarillo, where no one knew them. Violet could just imagine the reaction in Grasslands, where every single soul could name her. She’d have to figure out how she was going to break the news to friends and neighbors, but at the moment, it was beyond her.

      She hurried into the cinder block building on Main Street that housed the farm stand. The stand had grown and changed a lot since it had been nothing more than a stall along the side of the road. She liked to think she’d had something to do with that growth.

      Jack had never shown an interest in the produce fields and the pecan grove, and his only reaction when assigned to weeding or planting duty had been a prolonged moan. Belle had never listened to that, and when they were growing up, they’d both learned how to do every chore that was suitable to their ages. It had been good training for the future.

      Violet had never understood her brother’s distaste for farming. From the time she could trot after Ricardo, Lupita’s husband, she’d gone up and down the rows with

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