They were belly down in the sand under deep camouflage waiting for the white limousine. Her first bullet was to take out the front passenger tire, then fire the RPG, rocket propelled grenade, and to leave no one alive. She blinked twice and fired and awoke with a start before it hit the target.
She wondered what Iraqi children were doing in her bunker. The noise of hammers sounded like machine gun fire. She looked up expecting to see Jonah’s dark eyes but instead the credits rolled at the end of the movie on the television. Waylon’s eyes popped open and he gasped when his sister wasn’t lying right beside him. He slowly scanned the strange room and finally sighed when he found her on the sofa beside Sharlene.
Sharlene inhaled deeply and banished the dream from her mind.
Judd wiggled and then opened her eyes. “Did you have a good nap?” she asked Sharlene.
“Yes, I did. How about you?” Sharlene hugged her closer.
“I didn’t go to sleep. I just gotted up here on the sofa and got you to sleep. I used to do that for Momma. She’d let me get her to sleep and then she’d feel all better after a good nap,” Judd said.
“Well, thank you for a wonderful nap,” Sharlene said. “Are you two hungry? I always wake up hungry when I take a nap.”
Both heads bobbed up and down.
“How about some cookies and milk? I’ve got those soft chocolate chip ones and some Oreos.”
“Oreos.” Waylon put his pillow on the rocking chair and pulled out a kitchen chair.
Judd followed his example. “The other kind and do you have chocolate milk? I don’t like white so good.”
“I like white,” Waylon said.
“You are so different to be twins,” Sharlene commented.
“That’s acause he’s a boy and I’m a girl,” Judd giggled.
They ate their snacks, made a hurried rest room stop, and ran out the door yelling at Uncle Holt. She stood on the tiny back porch and watched him stop work, gather them up in his arms, and listen to their chatter for a few minutes. Then they raced toward the oak tree with Judd yelling that the last one there was a dummy.
She walked out to the work site where a noisy concrete mixer turned slowly, getting the cement ready to pour into the foundation forms.
“Is all this machinery yours?” she asked.
Holt stopped and leaned on a hoe. “It belongs to the company and the four of us own the company equally. Do you want the outside to be rough wood like that part or are you going to paint it?”
She looked at the weathered wood. “Just like that if you can get it. Got any ideas about the front to make it look connected?”
“I’d just put two levels of the façade up, leaving three above the old part to hold the sign. That way it would look like it’s been here forever. That old stuff is weathered cedar. New cedar would be a different color. I’ve got some barn wood stored up in one of Bennie’s barns. There’s probably plenty to cover the outside and it’d look identical to what you’ve already got.”
“How much?” Sharlene asked.
“I reckon we could make a deal. You got time for two kids to take a nap and give them cookies and milk in the afternoons, it would make us even on the wood.”
She smiled up at him. “Sounds like a good deal to me.”
She turned around too quickly and ran into Kent. She started to tumble and he reached out and caught her pulling her close to his chest.
“I’m so sorry.” She pushed away and blushed scarlet. “Grace is not any part of my name.”
“Not me. That was the highlight of my day,” Kent said.
“Well, thank you for not letting me fall on my face.” She hurried toward the apartment.
“Might as well give it up, brother,” Chad said.
“Why’s that? She’s a fine looking lady.”
“Take my word for it. You ain’t got a chance. She’s already set her sights and they ain’t on you,” Chad told him.
“Who’s she got her sights on, then?”
“Boss man over there.”
Holt threw up both palms defensively. “Don’t go gettin’ me involved. I’ve got kids to think about, jobs to line up, and I sure ain’t got time for romance.”
Kent grinned. “Never know when romance might make time for you. I got to get me a couple of kids. They are regular chick magnets. Want to rent yours out for a night or two?”
“I’d sell them to you some days.” Holt grinned.
Chad turned off the cement mixer. “Don’t sell them to him until after Friday. Me and Gloria are taking them to see that new Disney thing. She says that you got to have kids to go to it and I was supposed to ask Holt already but I just now remembered.”
“Why do you have to have kids to go to the movies?” Bennie asked.
“Because Gloria says it’d look weird for us to go without them. It’s a cartoon movie and besides, she loves Judd and Waylon. Almost as much as she loves animated movies and musicals,” Chad said.
Bennie wiped a hand across his forehead, leaving a streak of dirt in its wake. “That mean you don’t get to watch R-rated blood, guts, gore, and war movies anymore?”
“Sure I do,” Chad said. “Just not with Gloria. So can I have your kids that night? I’ll take them with me after work and we’ll bring them home to you after the movie. We’re staying in the trailer that night and then going over to Weatherford to do some shopping on Saturday.”
“You sure she wants to spend her time with kids?” Holt asked. He’d never hear the word Weatherford again without thinking about taking Sharlene to her hotel and accidentally falling asleep with her in his arms. She hadn’t mentioned it and he sure wasn’t going to. This job was working out too well for all of them to jeopardize it by saying something about how drunk she’d been or how unladylike she had been the morning after.
“Says she does. We have a blast every time you share with us,” Chad answered.
“You better run, boy. Next thing she’ll be wanting a couple of her own,” Bennie chuckled.
Chad grinned. “Never know.”
***
Sharlene fell back on the sofa and willed her heart to stop racing. It wasn’t fair to be so attracted to a man who’d seen her piss drunk.
“But I am,” she said breathlessly. “But that don’t mean I can’t get over it. I had the chicken pox when I was sixteen and I got over that so I can damn well get over this. So settle down, heart—and brain, you stop throwing up those naughty visions. Think about Larissa and her new baby and the new addition to the Honky Tonk. Don’t think about Holt Jackson.”
She smiled when she remembered her first impression of Larissa in the Honky Tonk. She had wondered what a classy woman like that was doing running a two-bit bar and she’d been right. So was her first impression of Holt right? Was he even remotely interested in Sharlene?
Her cell phone rang and she finally located it in her purse on the third ring. “Hello,” she said without looking at the caller ID.
“I heard Holt Jackson is down there building an addition onto the Tonk,” Larissa said.
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear. I was just thinking of the first time I came into the Honky Tonk and my first impression of you and how wrong I’d been. I hear a baby in the background. Let’s talk about babies. That’s a lot more fun than talking about men or two-by-fours.” Sharlene sidestepped the Holt issue.
“Ruby is beautiful. She’s sleeping four hours at a stretch now and has Hank wrapped around her finger so tight that he’s become a contortionist. Now, about the Tonk. You think that addition will put an end to the cowboys and owners magic charm? That you’ll be free of it if you make the Tonk look different?” Larissa said.
“Hell, I don’t know,” Sharlene said.
“Aha! I hear frustration in your voice so I know something is going on. I’m driving down there if you don’t talk to me,” Larissa said.
“Okay, but you’re going to get stars in your eyes and get all romantic and it wasn’t like that. It was a big mistak
e that’s circling around to bite me on the ass and it’s got big teeth and I’m scared I might have said some things I shouldn’t, but he’s not actin’ all strange so I’m hoping I didn’t…” She stopped to inhale.
“Good God, there’s a cowboy involved, isn’t there?” Larissa said.
“Yes, but not like Hank or Travis or Jarod. This time it’s not even a thinkable situation. I got drunk and we’d met the day before when he came to give me an estimate so he took me to the hotel room. I passed out and he was a gentleman,” Sharlene explained. “Wait a minute, Waylon is at the door. He must need to go to the bathroom.”
“Waylon stays in the house. He has a litter pan in the bathroom. Are you still drunk?” Larissa asked.
“Come on in, honey,” Sharlene said.
“Judd chased the pee out of me,” Waylon giggled.
“Who are you talking to?” Larissa asked.
“I told you, Waylon had to use the bathroom. He’s kind of shy but Judd is a brassy little thing and she bosses him just like I used to try to do to my brothers,” Sharlene said. “He’s finished and leaving now.”
“I put the lid down,” he said.
“That’s good, kiddo.” Sharlene shut the door. “I guess I’d best start at the beginning, huh?”
“That sounds like a perfect place to me and don’t leave out anything. Do one of your ‘in the beginning God made dirt’ because I want to hear it all,” Larissa said.
Sharlene took a deep breath and began.
When she finished Larissa was laughing so hard she couldn’t talk.
“It’s not that damn funny,” Sharlene said.
“Oh, yes it is.”
“How can it be funny? I was piss drunk.”
Larissa got the hiccups. “I’m imagining your face when you swung that bathroom door open and there he stood. Bet that knocked you on your hungover ass, didn’t it?”
“My ass wasn’t what was hungover and it didn’t waste a bit of time shoving him out the door and slamming it so I could throw up. Real romantic, huh?” Sharlene snapped. “And if you tell Hank one word of the story, I’m going to ban you from the Tonk forever.”
“I won’t tell Hank but I can’t wait to call Cathy and she’ll tell Daisy. Now that idea of having a Honky Tonk Christmas is even better. When all the girls come home, you’ll have a cowboy too.”
“I will not! I swear you’ve got romance on the brain.”
“And you don’t?”
“Hell, no. Lust occasionally but not with Holt Jackson. Can’t you just imagine it? We’d get all into the kissing and foreplay and then he’d remember me smelling like a brewery and upchucking. Like I said, real romantic. Our Honky Tonk Christmas is going to be the grand opening of the new addition and the celebration of my first book being published. I’ll have copies for all four of you that day and my Honky Tonk Christmas doesn’t have a damn thing to do with a cowboy.”
Larissa hiccupped again. “I’ve seen the front cover of your book and honey, it has everything to do with cowboys.”
Sharlene laughed with Larissa. “I’m hanging up now before you get me all tangled up in words. One last thing, Judd—who is named Ashley Judd Mendoza, soon to be Jackson when Holt gets her and her brother adopted—loves the colors of our house. I’m letting them live in it as part of the payment for the job.”
Larissa cracked up again. “I will tell Hank that part of the story. He thought my colors were butt ugly and now a man has to live there.”
“Waylon says they’re butt ugly too.”
“You buried the cat and he never did see the house so what’s he got to do with anything?” Larissa asked.
“Remember what I told you? Waylon is Judd’s twin brother. My cat Waylon died and yes, I buried him there and that’s why I was at the house when Holt came home with the kids Sunday.” Sharlene went on to tell the part about burying Waylon and the boy, Waylon, thinking she was going to bury him.
“It just gets better and better,” Larissa said.
“I think that’s all and I’m really hanging up. I’ll call later in the week,” Sharlene said.
“Bring the kids up to the ranch for a day and we’ll really catch up,” Larissa said.
“Good-bye and no thanks. I’m not getting roped into anything. Kids, cowboys, or lust.”
Sharlene was deep into a scene where her heroine and hero were arguing about whether or not the hero had been flirting with the local hussy at a barn dance when a loud rat-a-tat-tat on the door made her grab both ears and duck her head.
“It’s just one of the kids. It’s not gunfire,” she said as she made her way across the living room floor.
She slung open the door to find Holt leaning against the door jamb, dirt smeared across his face and the knees of his overalls green with grass stains.
“Just wanted to thank you for letting the kids run in and out of your place all day. You didn’t have to do that,” he said.
“They are great kids. I loved having them around. Want a glass of iced tea? It’s made,” she asked.
“Love one but I’m way too dirty to sit on your furniture. Can you bring it outside?”
She nodded. “Wait for me under the shade tree.”
She popped ice from two trays and filled two quart jars, poured tea over it, and carried it out to the yard where Holt was sprawled out in a fold-out lawn chair. He took the jar from her and nodded toward the construction site.
“Don’t look like much but it’ll go fast from this point,” he said. “How’d your writing go today? Did the kids interrupt too much?”
“They were fine, really. I’m ahead of schedule and believe it or not, Judd and Waylon are wonderful role models for a couple of the kids in my story. It’s hard to visualize the whole thing all finished.” She waved toward the lines of concrete that would hold the foundation blocks. “It doesn’t look so big right now.”
“Never does. When we put up a house, that’s the first thing the owners mention. That it looks so much smaller than their plans,” Holt said.
“Guess it’s like a book. First few pages look pretty small compared to the finished product.”
“That’s right. All things start small, even humans, and grow into something bigger,” he said. “This tea sure hits the spot. Hey, kids, get your messes cleaned up. We’ve still got unpacking to do at home.”
“Maybe we’ll find my Barbie dolls,” Judd said. She and Waylon started picking up their toys and putting them inside a big blue tote bag.
Holt handed the empty jar to Sharlene and stood up with a groan.
“You’re not that old.” She smiled.
“No, but I’m that sore,” he said. “Thanks for the tea. We’ll be back tomorrow and you’ll see more progress.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” she said.
***
Merle was the first customer in the joint that night when Luther opened the doors. She grabbed a stool at the end of the bar and set her cue stick case beside her leg. “The parking lot is full and they’re chomping at the bit out there. Lord, you’d think it was Saturday night instead of Tuesday the way they’re all lined up.”
“Coors?” Sharlene asked.
“No, I’m not drinking until I win a game then someone else can buy. I heard you got a couple of permanent trailers out there with the guys who are helping Holt put on the addition. Are they any good at pool?”
“Didn’t ask them,” Sharlene said. “How’d you find out about Chad and Kent so fast?”
“Honey, like I told Larissa last year, you can’t fart in Mingus without everyone in town knowin’ what you had for dinner. Talk don’t cost a thin dime and it travels fast. I heard that the Stigler brothers were part of Holt’s crew. Them and Bennie Adams. You flat out got the best carpenters in the state workin’ for you. Just be damn careful. Three of ’em ain’t married and you know what they say about this place. Seems like we change owners more often than a hooker changes her underpants and I’m getting tired of it. I hated change when I was
a young person. Now I’m old and cantankerous and hate it even worse. So promise me you won’t let any of them three sweet-talk you into leaving,” Merle said.
“I promise,” Sharlene said.
“That was too fast and you didn’t even think about it for a minute. Something ain’t right,” Merle said.
Sharlene bristled. “I just met those men and everyone is trying to hook me up with one of them. I’m not interested in a cowboy, a preppie, a damn biker, or even a millionaire. I’m not ever getting married. You’ve lived without a man all these years so why are you pushing me at Holt Jackson?”
Merle cracked up. “I ain’t pushin’ you at anyone, kid. I just wanted my sassy Sharlene back and I’ve got her now. Talking too damn much. Making promises she probably won’t keep but she’s home and I’m fine for tonight. I’m going to go shoot some eight ball. I was worried you’d gone down there to that reunion shit and decided to re-enlist and be a GI Jane woman again. Then I got to thinkin’ maybe you’d fall for Holt and I’d lose you that way.”
“Been to the army, did my job, finished with it, and came home. Don’t plan on falling for Holt Jackson or any other cowboy,” Sharlene said.
Merle had no idea just how finished she was with the army, and how much she loved the solitude of the Honky Tonk.
The jukebox cranked up to a slow Hank Williams tune and the people coming inside hit the dance floor in a country waltz.
Loralou took Merle’s stool.
“Hi,” she said.
Tessa pushed the swinging doors at the end of the bar and grabbed a tray. She placed six Mason jars on it and got ready for the first rush when the dancers worked up a sweat and were ready for beers and mixed drinks. “You’re back again. Must’ve liked that cowboy a lot.”
“Actually, not. I found out the sorry sucker is engaged. That’s my luck,” Loralou said. “I’m out licking my wounds tonight and hoping there’s still a charm hiding somewhere just for me.”
Chad and Kent claimed a stool on each side of her before Sharlene could answer.
“Give us two of them big jars full of Miller,” Chad said.
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