Donna pounced. Come on, J.J., hes from La Mesa. Your hometown is Lubbock. I know youve been home recently. Didnt you just help your mom move into an apartment in an assisted-living community? On the map, Lubbock and La Mesa arent too far apart.
Texas is big, J.J. mumbled. OkayI know of him. Everyone within hog-calling distance of La Mesa, which by the way is pronounced La-mee-sa, not La-may-sa, knows of Mack Bannerman. He owns Turkey Creek Cattle Ranch, the biggest Hereford breeding ranch in West Texas. Although what J.J. really wanted to saythat Mackenzie Bannerman was a two-timing ratshe couldnt without opening a vein and releasing years of pent-up heartache. She thought shed vanquished those feelings, but apparently she hadnt.
Perfect, her boss said. Since youll be interviewing and photographing Mr. Bannerman for his layout. Hes a hit. Readers are already clamoring online for a chance to meet him, based solely on his entry photos.
J.J.s heart dropped to her brightly polished toes, now sticky with cream and sugar. Assign someone else, Donna. Im still jet-lagged from back-to-back assignments. I havent had time to download the presummer fashions I took in Cancun yet.
Joaquin is in Miami filming Mr. July, whos studying migrating sharks and dolphins. Our part-time photog is on maternity leave. Id think youd jump at the chance to check on your mom. I know you were worried that shed have a hard time after losing your stepdad.
True. But honestly, Donna, after taking a closer look, Bannermans not all that photogenic. Let me scan our other prospects and find someone better.
The room erupted in hoots of laughter. Whats better? an assistant shouted. Hes gorgeous.
The creative director waved the essay, silencing the staff. Everyone on the selection committee thinks its so sweet, J.J. His daughter nominated him. She hopes well send the check for his charity with a nice lady who might make a suitable wife for her poor, widowed dad.
Donna broke in again. This program has given us a huge jump in subscriptions. Almost triple compared to last year. If you write a story to capitalize on the sympathy angle, think of the publicity. Of course, well have to do our best to send a reader who ends up marrying him. That will make a fantastic follow-up down the line.
J.J. considered Donna a friend as well as a boss, but with Donna the magazine always came first, so she wasnt surprised by the suggestion. However, the notion that shed participate in setting Mack up with some unknown woman was appalling. J.J. knew, of course, that he had at least one child. She was only too aware hed had that child with Faith Adams, his former girlfriend. Although theyd betrayed her, J.J. had been sorry to hear about Faiths death.
The staff member with the essay said, Well screen the candidates carefully. Its obvious that his daughter wants her dad to fall in love and be happy again. And shes yearning for a mother, so well have to find someone nurturing. This poor kid lost her mother at birth.
That shocked J.J., who had specifically avoided asking about Mack on her trip home. And her mother, who hadnt wanted her to marry a rancher, would have never been the one to bring him up. However, the Mack Bannerman shed known had been an intensely private person, and hed be horrified to have a bunch of people mucking around in his life. Unless hed changed.
She could still clearly recall the night thirteen years ago when shed driven from Lubbock to Turkey Creek Ranch to tell Mack about a scholarship shed been offered to study for her masters in photojournalism in France. Shed hoped Mack would ask to move up their wedding date; shed have gladly foregone Paris to be his wife. But shed walked in on a touching scene with her fiancé consoling his sobbing former girlfriend. Faith was blubbering about being pregnant, and saying that her very religious parents would, if not kill her, make her life miserable for what theyd deem a terrible sin.
Mack had tenderly brushed away Faiths tears, assuring her hed speak to her father. Mack insisted Faith move to Turkey Creek straightaway. And he promised to keep her safe from her fire-and-brimstone preacher daddy.
J.J. had died a thousand deaths standing hidden from the entwined pair. Shed felt sick and humiliated to learn that Mack had gotten Faith pregnant. He and J.J. were engaged! The couple didnt see her leave Macks house. She cried her heart out on the drive back to campus, but managed to harden it with help from her mother, who agreed to send back Macks ring. Skipping graduation, shed grabbed the Paris opportunity and hadnt looked backuntil now.
She made one last effort to change Donnas mind. What can we really know about the women who enter the contest? Who would want to meet a man that way? Whats to say a winner isnt a gold digger, or...crazy?
Donna rolled her eyes. You know we run background checks on the men we feature and on the readers we select to deliver the five-thousand-dollar check. And everyone signs a release.
Out of curiosity, what is Mack Bannermans charity?
The director with the application answered. He underwrites a steak-fry festival each year. Proceeds go to a Texas contractor who retrofits homes for disabled veterans.
Impressed against her will, J.J. felt the last of her barricades crumble. Meeting Donnas steady gaze, J.J. murmured, Fine. Ill wrap up this layout and go to Texas next week.
As the room emptied, Donna kept J.J. behind for a minute. If the article and photographs go smoothly, take an extra week to visit your mom. Im going on vacation for two weeks myself. When were both back, Ill help pick the reader we send to meet your Mr. Bannerman.
Thanks. I guess I feel extra responsible because he lives in my home territory.
Hmm. Is that all it is? I sensed it might be more.
N-no, J.J. stuttered. I pulled up my Texas roots a long, long time ago.
The woman gave a crisp nod, squeezed J.J.s arm and walked out of the room, calling to someone in the hall. J.J. was left feeling rattled. Damn it all, and damn Mack Bannerman for resurfacing from the rubble of her life and causing her to lie to a woman she admiredher boss, no less.
Resolutely but by no means happily, J.J. flew across the country a week later. While in the air she decided how to handle this inconvenience professionally. Once she landed in Lubbock, shed rent a vehicle, drive to La Mesa and meet Macks daughter, as prearranged by staff. Shed ask the necessary questions to write an article, take photos of him on a horse herding cows or whatever he did during his workday. Shed spend one night in town, then go back to Lubbock and visit her mom. Afterward shed zap straight back to New Yorkwith her heart intact.
She had a plan, and she wasnt prepared for it to go awry. But late that afternoon when she checked into the motel in La Mesa, her plan did just that. The clerk at the front desk handed her a phone message from Macks daughter, Zoey. The girl couldnt meet J.J. as arranged, the note said, because her best friends mother couldnt bring the kids to town today. The message instructed J.J. to meet the girls at the public library at ten the next day rather than going out to the ranch.
Once in her room, J.J. stared out the window at the Western town that had grown little in the time shed been gone. She admitted to being curious about the child Mack had with Faith. She hadnt known Faith well. It was Mack who had included the thin, pale woman in their college group. Sparing a moment to reread the message, J.J. felt a niggling suspicion that Mack might not be aware that he was going to be displayed in a high-circulation womens magazine. But she knew the staff had sent him a release to sign, so J.J. would meet the kids, then proceed. The staff of Her Own Woman, most of them mothers, had empathy for the motherless Zoey Bannerman. It hadnt occurred to them that anything might be amiss with the kids nomination of her father. And maybe nothing was. This uneasiness in J.J.s stomach could well be her own reservations over seeing Mackenzie again.