“Aunt Luna!” Rose gasped.
“I’m old and eccentric”—Luna shook her forefinger at Rose—“so I can say what I damn well please, so don’t you Aunt Luna me in that tone.”
“Well, you need to put a filter on your mouth. Just because you think something doesn’t give you the right to spit it out for the whole world to hear,” Rose told her.
Luna laughed out loud. “Your sass makes up for the fact that you can’t boil water without setting off the smoke alarm. I’d rather have sass as fancy dinners and supper. We can always order out or heat up something in the microwave.”
Listening to Luna made Hud homesick for his own grandmother, who lived out on a ranch out near Tulia, Texas. He’d seen her for a short time at Maverick’s wedding, but it hadn’t been nearly long enough.
“I guess I’ve outed Rose.” Luna continued to giggle. “How about you, Hud? Do you cook?”
“I make a mean omelet, a fantastic peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I’ve been known to grill up a pretty good steak.”
The waitress finally made it to their booth with menus and three sets of silverware wrapped in dark-green cloth napkins.
“Kylie not working today?” Hud asked.
“No, she quit yesterday,” the lady said. “Got a night job working the bar at the Rusty Spur. I hear the tips are pretty good.”
“Bet y’all will miss her around here,” he said.
“I’m sure, but it gives me more hours, so I’m kind of happy for that and for her,” the waitress said.
“I’ll have sweet tea,” Luna said as she looked over the menu, “and spaghetti with mushrooms, and a takeout dinner of the same, and then a side salad with French dressing.”
“Water with lime,” Rose said, “and I’ll have the lasagna. House dressing on my salad.”
“Coors on tap, and the manicotti, and I’ll have ranch dressing on my salad.” Hud handed his menu back to the lady.
“Be right out with your drinks,” she said and hurried over to another table.
Hud was very aware that his hip was right next to Rose’s. The room suddenly seemed ten degrees warmer.
“So, what brought you to town today?” Luna asked.
“We need more barbed wire, so I got elected to come get it,” he said. Where was that waitress? His throat was totally parched. “Thought we’d bought enough last time, but we’re still short a couple of rolls.”
The waitress appeared at his elbow and set the drinks, their salads, and a basket of bread on the table. “Your food is almost ready,” she told them but didn’t stick around long, since the place was filling up fast.
Hud took a long drink of beer from the mug. “And I thought I’d stop back by your shop and pick up those candles.”
“You sure you want to chance it.” Rose turned to face him.
“You told me the third time’s the charm.” He grinned. “I’m hoping you’re right.”
“Shhhh,” Luna scolded, “don’t even talk like that. But we do have a little project for you to look at. You ever fixed holes in walls or put new glass in a picture?”
“Yes to both. What’s happened?”
“I missed a rat and killed a sheep.” Luna giggled.
Hud turned his head so he could see Rose and raised an eyebrow.
“It’s like this…” Rose sighed and started to tell the story.
Luna broke after the first sentence and told the tale with a lot more spice. “So I wasn’t lyin’ about shootin’ a mouse.”
By the time she finished, Hud was wiping his eyes on a big green napkin. “I’ll be glad to look at the walls and the picture. But once the wall is patched, we may have to do some painting. I can’t imagine that we’ll be able to match the color that’s on there now.”
“This has been one disaster after another, ever since I moved in,” Rose sighed.
“Yeah, and most of it happened since I first came in the shop.” Hud turned back to explain to Luna. “I thought I could buy my sister, Emily, a birthday present at the Rose Garden gift shop. That morning, Rose and I both got soaked.” He didn’t mention that was the same day Luna had arrived. “I came back to get the present and that time I got called out to a house fire before I could pay for the candles. Now all we got left is a power outage or a tornado.”
“I’d forgotten about tornadoes in Texas.” Rose shivered.
He almost threw his arm around her but stopped himself. “Honey, tornadoes are almost unheard of in January. They mainly come to visit Texas in the spring. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Good,” she said and set about eating her salad. “I’ll be long gone by spring.”
“Gone where?” Hud asked.
“Don’t worry about tornadoes, Rose, darlin’. I done scared them things off with my gun,” Luna said.
“Either back to the army for another four to six years or to Fort Worth to work as a translator for an oil company,” she answered between bites. “The army is sounding better and better when I think about tornadoes.”
“What makes you so afraid of them?” Hud asked.
“One hit Kentucky the last year I was home. It almost wiped out the commune. Trailer house roofs were blown off and dead chickens were everywhere. Daddy put me and Mama in the bathtub and covered us with the mattress off my bed, and he got in a closet.” She shivered again. “When that thing came over our trailer, it was the most horrible noise I’ve ever heard.”
“Me and Wilbur had us an experience with a hurricane in Florida,” Luna said. “We moved to Alabama, and be damned if the very next spring, a tornado didn’t come through our campsite. It was the craziest thing. It tore up travel trailers all around us, but the only thing that happened to us was a tree limb broke the bedroom window.”
“Which one was worse? The tornado or the hurricane?” Hud asked.
“The tornado, but I’d kind of settled in to our little place in Alabama,” Luna answered. “When I get real lonesome for the sound of the beach, I can always hitch a ride down to Mobile.”
“Don’t think you’ll be seeing any storms other than rain and lightning until spring around here.” Talk of tornadoes and hurricanes made him think of the unrest in his own body that sitting so close to Rose caused.
* * *
Rose held out her hand for the bill when the waitress brought it by, but Hud reached over her head and got it first.
“But you paid last time,” Rose argued.
“My granny would take a switch to me, even if I am twenty-eight years old, if I let a lady pay for dinner,” he said. “I’ll stop by and pick up those candles on my way home.”
“They’re in a gift bag and ready”—Rose clamped a hand on his forearm—“and thank you for dinner.”
Little heated shivers chased up her arm, all the way to her neck and then down her backbone. She couldn’t help but wonder if he’d felt the same thing. If he did, they’d have to be careful. The next disaster might be a fire at the B&B.
“Y’all are very welcome,” he said.
Rose couldn’t keep her eyes off him as he paid the bill at the counter and then left the café. His swagger and the tilt of his hat, the way he filled out his jeans and his biceps threatening to burst the seams of his knit shirt—all of it put an extra few beats in her pulse. It had been all she could do not to pick up the dessert menu at the end of the table and fan herself with it during the meal. He must not have felt what she did, she thought, but then he probably hadn’t been in love with her from back when they were only fourteen.
When Aunt Luna’s takeout order came, they went to the counter to pay for it only to find that Hud had picked up the tab for that as well.
“Now wasn’t that sweet of him,” Luna said as she made her way to Rose’s car. “You should flirt with that man. He’s a real gentleman.”
Rose got in behind the wheel. Flirting like she’d done earlier was one thing, but she didn’t dare go further than that. “Why get involved with him when I’ll be gone in only a few weeks? Why
start something that would only end badly?”
“Honey, you got to loosen up.” Luna fastened her seat belt. “If life can make a complete turnaround in five seconds, just think what it can do before Molly gets home. Hud is coming by the shop before he leaves town to check on that little dustup I had with that wicked rat. Flirt a little. Maybe you’ll at least get laid.”
“Good God, Aunt Luna!” Rose gasped.
“God isn’t good. God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.” She threw back her head and cackled.
“That’s from a Billy Currington song,” Rose said. “I might’ve lived on a lot of overseas places for a while, but I still love country music.”
“It sums up life,” Luna said. “I wish Wilbur would call. I love being here with you, darlin’, but I miss that old sumbitch. That song reminds me of him. I guess he’s still mad at me, but it was all his fault. He shouldn’t have encouraged that hussy clerk at the grocery store.”
Rose’s phone rang before she could respond to Luna. She put it on speaker and said, “Hello, Aunt Molly. I’ve got you on speaker, and Aunt Luna is right here in the car with me. We’re just about a block from the Rose Garden.”
“We’re packing up to go to our next country, and I forgot to tell you that I run an after-Christmas sale every year. You need to put everything in the shop on sale for fifty percent off. Drag stuff out of the storeroom and sell what you can. That’ll give me room to put out the new stock that’s been ordered. Molly stopped for a breath. “How long are you plannin’ on staying, Luna?”
“Until Wilbur calls, like always,” Luna answered. “If he don’t call you may be stuck with me forever, even though I never did like Texas.”
“We’d kill each other after a week,” Molly said.
“Probably so,” Luna agreed. “We’re home now, and I’m taking my food and myself into the house. You should put all that junk in the shop on half of half. People like that kind of sale.”
“Junk!” Molly’s voice shot up. “That’s expensive stuff, not garage sale junk like you decorate your trailer with.”
“It’s all stuff, whether you pay a dime for it at a yard sale or fifty bucks for it in a shop like yours. Goodbye, sister.” Luna got out and slammed the door.
“Is she gone?” Molly asked.
“Yep, she’s nearly to the porch,” Rose said. “You want me to start the sale today?”
“Yes, I do,” Molly answered, “and, honey, I’m sorry you have to put up with Luna. She’s always had a few screws loose, just like your Granny Dee did.”
“She’s not so bad,” Rose said. “Honest, she kind of entertains me.”
“What happened to the girl that y’all took in? Is she still there?” Molly asked.
“No, Claire gave her a job at her quilt shop and she left. I kind of miss the baby, even if we did only have her for that one night.” Rose explained about the time she and Hud had had with the baby and then about Chester bringing the mouse to her bed.
“Holy crap!” Aunt Molly fumed. “My sister is dangerous without a gun. With one she’s trouble waiting to happen. I’ll call Wilbur, myself, if she’s not gone in a couple of days.” Molly said. “Got to go now, darlin’. I’ll call again in a few days, but if things get too bad with Luna there, cancel all the appointments, and drive her to Alabama in my car.”
“I don’t think it’ll get that bad,” Rose laughed. “Honestly, Aunt Molly, she’s not so hard to live with, and she tells the most amazing stories.”
“Don’t believe a one of them,” Molly said. “Bye now.”
The call ended and Rose put her phone back in her purse. She got out of the car, went inside and hung her coat on the rack inside the door, flipped the sign on the gift store from CLOSED to OPEN, and turned on the lights. There were over a hundred scented candles in addition to lots of figurines and small gift items ranging from blinged-out pens and key chains to silk scarves and fancy gloves in the store’s inventory.
She wondered if she should put an ad in the local newspaper about the sale as she went into the storeroom and opened still yet another box marked PUT OUT FOR VALENTINE’S DAY in Aunt Molly’s neat handwriting.
“Hey, come and see this…” Luna yelled from her bedroom. “Your boyfriend is a hero. He’s done got his picture on the front page of the newspaper.” She’d already crossed the foyer and had the paper spread out on the checkout counter when Rose came out of the storage room. “There he is, carrying little Sally out in one arm and he’s got Dixie hangin’ on his shoulder like a bag of chicken feed. We gotta save this for when Molly gets home.”
“Where’d you get that paper?” Rose asked.
“There’s one on the porch every day about this time. I picked it up on my way in the house. You should give your feller a kiss for being such a big hero,” Luna said.
“He’s not my feller,” Rose argued.
“And he ain’t never goin’ to be unless you make a move.” Luna raised one of her perfectly arched gray eyebrows.
The sound of a truck door slamming caused both of them to stop talking.
“Sounds like he’s here,” Luna said. “Yep, that’s boots on wood that I hear. He’s goin’ to knock on the door any minute.”
Sure enough, he knocked and then stuck his head inside to yell, “Anyone here?”
“The woman in a relationship is always the one in charge,” Luna whispered. “She sets the mood for the whole house. We only let the menfolks think that they’re the ones handling everything.”
“Then why are you here and not at home with Wilbur?” Rose asked.
Luna chuckled. “There’s that sass that I like again. I’m here because every so often, I get lonesome for my sister, and I usually start a fight so I’ll have a reason to come see her. But, honey”—she winked at Rose—“I always make him think it’s his fault, and this time it is. He needs to stop flirtin’ with that two-bit hussy at the store.”
“Hello!” Hud called out again as he opened the front door, wiped his feet on the mat, and then stepped into the small gift shop.
“I’ve got your candles—” Rose started to say, and then the electricity went out.
“I didn’t touch a thing,” Hud said immediately.
If it hadn’t been for the sunlight shining in the windows, the place would have been pitch-black.
“I can’t ring your candles up,” Rose said. “The cash register runs on electricity.”
“Might just be a fuse in an old house like this,” Hud said. “Is the fuse box—”
“It’s in the basement,” Luna butted in. “I’ll get my flashlight and lead the way down there to it. Me and Molly had to replace a couple the last time I was here. I been tellin’ her for years that this old place needs rewiring and new plumbing. Hell’s bells! It needed that done when she bought the business forty years ago.” She talked the whole way across the foyer and into her bedroom. She came out with a tiny flashlight in her hand and her big denim hobo bag thrown over her shoulder.
“I don’t think you’ll need your purse,” Rose told her.
“Never know when looters might break in and steal it while we’re in the basement. Better to be safe than sorry, and besides, I got my important stuff in here.” Luna opened the door under the staircase and led the way down the narrow steps into a dark, damp, pungent-smelling room with a dirt floor.
“I’ve never been down here. Didn’t even know it was here. Why does it have a dirt floor?” Rose was very aware of poor old Hud practically filling the stairwell and ducking to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling. She shuddered when she walked through a spiderweb, but she managed not to scream.
“I expect that the original owners planned to finish the floor someday, but that day never got here.” Luna shined her little light on the breaker box. “Well, would you look at that? She’s replaced the old round fuses with circuit breakers. I’ll just flip this one and…”
When she switched it to the ON position, Rose was looking up at the lightbulb that was
swinging from a cord hanging from the ceiling. The light almost blinded her, and then she saw a big black spider on the water pipe right above her head. She squealed and turned to make a mad dash for the stairs and ran right into Hud’s broad, hard chest. There were two things that scared the bejesus right out of her—rats were one and spiders were the next.
Before she could get past him, she heard a loud bang that echoed off the walls of the tiny basement. Water spewed out of the pipe right above her and Hud, soaking both of them, and a squished spider fell right on the toes of her boots. She jumped straight up and wrapped both her legs around Hud’s waist and hung on to him like a monkey with her arms around his neck.
“I hate rats and mice. Give me a snake any day of the week rather than those creatures,” Rose muttered.
“Didn’t need to waste ammunition on that varmint”—Luna held up a shovel—“and if the other one comes sniffin’ around here, I’ll kill his sorry ass too.”
“Aunt Luna, you busted a hole in the water pipe,” Rose said.
“Pipes can be fixed. That big old mother could have laid a thousand eggs and would have taken over the whole place.”
“Guess I’d better go get my toolbox again.” Hud took a few steps to the side to get them out of the spewing stream.
“I can call a plumber,” Rose whispered.
“This one will be easy to fix, but the water will be off in the house for about thirty minutes.” Hud started up the stairs with her still wrapped around his body.
Before they got to the top step, another spider swung down from a thin thread, and landed on Hud’s shoulder. It ran across Rose’s hand before it floated down to the floor.
“It touched me, Hud!” Her voice went high and squeaky. “That damned thing ran across my hand.”
“Just a couple more steps, and you can get the feel of it washed off your skin,” he said.
He hurried through the open door, straightened up, and she slid off him. Her body was still pressed against his, and his eyes were on her lips. She was sure he was about to kiss her, so she instinctively moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. His eyes slowly closed, and then that damned spider crawled up the wall and was staring right at her. Chester came out of nowhere and took off after it like a lion chasing a gazelle.
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