Free Winning Texas by Nancy Stancill

our clubs. ”
    “ Yeah, I know, ” Lila Jo said. “ I told him he should buy a condo before prices went up the last time. He listened to me and I found him that awesome place you ’ re in now. ”
    “ It ’ s very nice, ” Juliana said. “ But I love the water, so I ’ d like to be here on the weekends. ”
    “ Does Kyle want to spend his weekends here? ”
    “ Not as much as I do, ” Juliana said. To her horror, tears began to leak from her eyes and suddenly she was sobbing. She muffled her sobs into a tissue and wiped her eyes, but not before Lila Jo bobbed up, ran around the table and enveloped her in a hug so tight it took her breath away. She hated the attention Lila Jo ’ s impulsive gesture was getting from the curious diners, but despite herself, she was grateful for the woman ’ s sympathy.
    “ What ’ s the matter, sweetie? A pretty lady like you shouldn ’ t have any reason to boohoo, ” Lila Jo said, returning to her seat.
    “ I came from Brazil five years ago to marry Kyle, but he keeps putting it off, ” Juliana said in a tremulous voice. “ Now my parents and sisters and cousins are all laughing at me. They say I should come back to Brazil and find a good man. And he has other women sometimes. I can feel it. ”
    “ Well, he does seem to have an eye for the ladies, ” Lila Jo said. “ But I don ’ t have to tell you that all men stink like polecats. I left my husband when I found him screwing the twenty-year-old tart doing the filing at his office. We ’ re not divorced yet, but I ’ m holding that over his head until our settlement, believe me. ”
    Juliana nodded, still embarrassed that she ’ d shown her emotions in public.
    “ The thing, Julie Girl, is to bide your time till you can get even, ” Lila Jo said, pointing her magenta-colored fingernail theatrically. “ Now let ’ s look at these listings. I ’ d suggest something at the higher end. Make that boy pay. ”
    Juliana and Lila Jo looked at five listings on the island ’ s fancier West End that were adequate, if not spectacular. Then, prompted by Lila Jo ’ s additional iPhone search, they looked at four others that were more elaborate. Juliana agreed with the real estate broker that a four-bedroom, four-bath house facing the Gulf with a pool and spacious grilling deck was the best. By the time they left the island, close to dusk, Lila Jo had put a contract on the half-million-dollar beach house. It was about 20 percent more than the upper end of the budget Kyle had suggested, but Juliana, egged on by Lila Jo, decided that she deserved it.

CHAPTER 10
     
    Kyle Krause careened down Interstate 35 toward Laredo, giddy at the thought of being on his own for a precious few days. Juliana had been impossibly crabby for weeks and it would do her good to look at weekend houses in Galveston with the perpetually upbeat Lila Jo Lemmons. Maybe she ’ d catch some of Lila Jo ’ s happy spirit. It wouldn ’ t do their finances any good if the real estate agent found something Juliana wanted to buy, but that was another story.
    Krause was using a low-key gray SUV for this trip because he was picking up three Salvadoran immigrant women and ferrying them to the ranch in the Hill Country. It was an onerous chore, but his good deed for Juliana might cancel out the bad behavior he was planning at the end of the trip. He missed driving his Porsche, not the least for the envious glances it drew from male motorists and admiring looks from female drivers and passengers.
    He ’ d left early enough so that with luck, he ’ d make it to the ranch of his friend Spud Jarvis by late afternoon. The three Salvadorans were temporarily housed there, so he ’ d spend the night with Spud and his wife Daria before leaving for the Hill Country with the women. After dropping them off at Krause Ranch, he ’ d swing over to San Antonio where he was looking forward to a layover at his business, the Texas Gas Emporium. Bonita Vasquez, a manager at the