Julie gathered him into her arms. "Of course you can. Actually, you can be their brother if you want to. Don't you think you look like me with that red hair? Miz Alvera and that woman today thought you were my son."
He grinned. "I'm your cousin, too, and I'll help you whip anybody's ass who calls either one of you a skunk."
"Chuck!" Griffin shook his head.
"Well, I damn sure will. I'll throw them down on the ground and I'll hit them until they say they are sorry," Chuck said.
"No more bad words or the bunch of you are going to play in your rooms all day alone," Julie said.
"Yes, ma'am," Chuck said but the grin didn't fade.
"Momma, will you be watchin' out the window when we go out and play? That mean woman won't come back, will she?" Annie asked nervously.
"The police are making sure that woman has gone back to California and I will watch out the window," Julie said.
They ran together, hand in hand, back out to their jungle and began to play as if nothing had happened. Their world was back to normal; hopefully it would remain that way for the rest of their lives.
Julie and Griffin sighed at the same time.
"That went fairly well," Julie said. "Thank you."
"Yes, it damn sure did and we've got to stop cussin' if we expect the kids to quit," he said.
Chapter 12
JULIE OPTED NOT TO READ THE GIRLS THE STORY OF Sleeping Beauty that night or let them watch The Little Mermaid, either. Both had a scary witch and neither Annie nor Lizzy needed to be reminded of the day's events. So she picked up a book about a kitten and how it loved to play in the backyard with its friends, a squirrel and a mouse. Then one day the kitten's other friends came to play and made fun of him because he should be eating the squirrel and the mouse, not playing with them. The children's eyes were fluttering when she said "the end," and Griffin carried Chuck over to his bedroom while Julie took Annie to hers.
She made sure the front door was locked and then went across the foyer, dining room, and kitchen and out into the backyard. Everything was still and quiet. It was too cold for the frogs and locusts to be putting on their evening performance. A north wind knocked the bare tree limbs against each other, but it wasn't much of a melody. She pulled her fuzzy robe tight around her chest and dug her toes deeper into her fluffy house shoes. Inside a warm bed and a good book were waiting, but Julie needed to be out of the box called a house so she could think. She sat down on the porch swing, pulled her legs up under her, and buried her chin in the soft collar of the robe.
Griffin made his retreat to the den after he'd tucked all three kids in one more time. Strange how he'd begun to think of them as that. The kids. Not Annie and Lizzy or Chuck or even one or the other. But in two weeks they'd become the children and when Annie went missing, the way his heart and mind went completely wild, it was as if she was really his child.
He heard a noise on the back porch and slipped out to check it, his pulse thumping as he wondered what exactly he would do if he found Dian back on his prop erty with intentions of stealing Lizzy again.
He stood in the shadows for several minutes looking at Julie. She'd handled things well that day and she was a great mother. But it wasn't those qualities that flushed his system with desire every time he looked at her. She was a damn fine-looking woman and sexy as hell, even in a robe and house shoes. It would be so easy to fall in love with her. That four letter word jerked him back to reality.
"Cold to be sittin' out here," he said from the shadows not five feet from her.
She jumped and set the swing to moving again. "You scared the hell out of me, Griffin."
"Then you should be an angel," he teased.
She pulled her knees up tighter under her chin and shiv ered when the north wind found its way inside her robe.
"Want to talk about today?" he asked.
"I thought we already had."
"We talked around it for the kids' sake. It's been on my mind all day, Julie. Out there, getting things ready for the winter sale, all I could think about were those words Dian said."
"What sale?"
"We have a little cattle sale coming up. I've been
deciding which cows to sell, which ones to keep, that kind of thing, but that's not what I want to talk about," he said.
"I see." She'd heard of cattle sales. That meant the trucks would arrive and load up whichever cattle were being culled and they'd drive away with them.
"I never knew about Graham and Dian and now I feel angry and guilty at the same time," he said.
"Why? Graham was a big boy. No one put a gun to his head and made him enlist," she shivered and wished he'd put his arm around her so she could be warm.
"It still makes me mad. He should be here today helping me and enjoying life."
"If he were here, would he be enjoying life? I don't think he liked ranching, did he?" Julie asked.
"Honestly? No, he didn't. He loved sailing and the four years we were in college he hated coming home on weekends. I could hardly wait until Friday noon. He could hardly wait until Sunday after church when we could go back. He should have been a professor." Griffin wondered how Julie had figured that out after only meeting Graham the one time.
"Then what makes you think he'd be enjoying life if he were here?" Julie asked.
Griffin thought about that. She was right, but it damned sure galled him to admit it. Graham never did like the ranch, hated getting his hands dirty, and the day his parents turned the ranch over to them, he'd gone to Wichita Falls and come home so drunk he could barely stagger up the stairs to bed.
"And if Graham had stayed," Julie went on, "what would have happened between you and Dian? She had a heat for him and he liked women. Would you have given him the ranch and your wife?"
Griffin stared at the stars sparkling through the tree leaves. Somewhere a lonely coyote howled, beginning the winter opera with a raspy solo. She was right and it was well past time after six years that he admitted his brother would had been miserable on the ranch. Just because Graham was dead didn't mean Griffin had to give him a halo and wings.
"Anyone ever accuse you of being outspoken?" he asked.
"Goes with the red hair and the Irish name. You don't have to answer those questions, Griffin. Just don't make your brother into an angel because he's dead. And don't believe for an instant that your ex was telling the whole truth. She was trying to hurt you today. She probably knows how much you and Graham loved each other. Besides, if he was mourning so much for her, why did he pick me up the very next night?"
"Dian always had a flare for the dramatic but looking back, it all makes sense, and I think there was a core of the truth in her story. I just wish he would have talked to me. Somewhere along the way we lost communication," Griffin said.
"About the time your folks moved away?" Julie asked.
Griffin nodded. Julie should have been a psychoana lyst or at the very least a grief counselor. He should have had these talks years ago and put it all to rest then. If he had, then maybe he would already have moved on.
"I have a sister and a brother, Eli. You met my brother. My sister, Sally, lives in Louisiana. Teaches down there and loves it. We talk on the phone weekly, but it's not like it was when we taught together in the same school," she said.
"You were a teacher in another school?"
"Well, I damn sure wasn't a waitress or a hooker. What did you think I was when I met Graham? You did! I can tell by your face that you thought I was something low class. Do you always jump to conclusions?"
"Don't yell at me. Why'd you quit one job and come to another?" he asked.
"My Aunt Flossie died and left me some money. I bought the Lassiter place and moved up here to get away from the town where Annie was born," she explained. Might as well tell him all of it, now that she'd started.
He sat down on the opposite end of the swing. "Go on."
"I love kids. Wanted a houseful, but it didn't work out that way. Now I'm too…" She stopped a w
ord short of admitting she was old.
"Old?" He finished for her. "How old are you really? Thirty? That's not old. Julia Roberts is still having kids and she's a lot older than you."
"I'm thirty-four and it took six years to get Annie," she admitted.
"It took one night to get Annie," he said.
"Okay, point taken. Jefferson is bigger than Saint Jo. My father is a preacher there and has been for a long time. Can you imagine the gossip when I brought Annie home with that white streak in her hair and my husband divorced me on grounds of adultery? I couldn't fight that at city hall, so I quietly signed off. He got to keep everything. I got my maiden name and sole custodial rights to Annie. It didn't work. Everyone thought she was a bastard, anyway. So I moved to where no one would know us or the circumstances of her birth. Guess what? That didn't work, either."
"Thirty-four isn't old, Julie. It's not old at all. It's been a long day and tomorrow comes early. I'm going to bed. Thanks for listening to me and for the honest opinions," he said gruffly.
"You are welcome," she whispered. Shock of shocks! Griffin appreciated her honest opinion about his brother. Graham, who'd been raised to angel status because he died, who'd always been the outgoing extrovert. She hadn't said anything that wasn't the truth according to what she'd understood.
The longest walk Griffin ever took was from that swing up to his bedroom. He slung himself back onto his bed and stared holes into the ceiling. It might be best if Julie did move out of the ranch house after the holidays. If she weren't right there all the time, maybe, just maybe he could move on with his life now.
She sat on the swing a while longer. When she stood up, her leg had gone to sleep so she had to stomp the feeling back into it. She stumbled into the house, locked the door, and went to the kitchen, where she ate a piece of leftover coconut pie before going up to bed. The day had held too much excitement. She hoped the next thirteen days of Christmas vacation were so boring that she was ready to go back to school when they ended.
Monday morning, a new routine started. Breakfast for Griffin, extra coffee for his thermos for him to drink through the morning. Julie had given Elsie the day off without consulting Griffin when Elsie mentioned that she hadn't had time to do a bit of Christmas shopping for her grandchildren.
Julie sautéed several rump roasts with onions, put them in the Westbend cooker, set the temperature on three hundred, and went about making a triple recipe of yeast bread. She rolled forty potatoes in aluminum foil for the oven. While she was washing romaine lettuce for salad, Lizzy and Annie wandered into the kitchen.
They wore their flannel pajamas. Their hair was tangled and in their eyes. They sat like zombies at the kitchen table—both of them so much like Griffin Luckadeau, it wasn't even funny.
Griffin stumbled into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. "Where's Elsie? Please don't tell me she's sick."
"I gave her the day off. I'm cooking for the hands today," Julie said.
"You did what? This is a piss poor time to give Elsie a day off," Griffin raised his voice. The words were scarcely out of his mouth before he realized he wasn't angry about Julie taking responsibility on the ranch, but the way she looked that morning in the kitchen—flour on her nose, bustling around as she cooked. She was beautiful beyond what words could describe and he liked it entirely too much.
Chuck had just made it to the doorway and stopped in his tracks. He put his hands over his ears. "What did I do wrong?"
"Not one thing, sweetheart. This is a big-people fight. You kids are fine. Sit down and have some orange juice. I'm making pancakes for breakfast," Julie said.
He took his hands away but eyed Griffin seriously. "I didn't do anything wrong?"
"No, you didn't. How would you like to help me in the barn today?" Griffin asked. "If Julie is going to cook then the girls can help her."
Chuck's face lit up like the star on the Christmas tree.
"We get to help?" Lizzy asked.
"Sure you do," Julie said.
She turned back to Griffin. "I should've talked to you, but it was late and she said she didn't have her shopping done. I can cook for a crowd, believe me. I used to cook for the homeless shelter in the summer when we went on mission."
Griffin hung his coat back up and waited for Chuck to have breakfast. "It's all right. I always get antsy the week of our sale."
Julie poured three small glasses of orange juice and set them on the table.
"You'll get to see where the sale is," Lizzy told Chuck while they ate pancakes as fast as Julie could flip them and put them on a platter.
"What's a sale?" Annie asked.
"That's when the people come and buy the cows," Lizzy said.
"Does a big truck come to take the cows away? I saw a truck like that when Momma and me moved to here. It had cows all shoved up in it," Annie said.
"The sale people bring the trucks. We have to make a party for them," Lizzy said.
"Party?" Julie looked at Griffin.
"Don't worry. Elsie knows what to do and it won't interrupt your schedule at all," he said.
After breakfast she braided Annie's and Lizzy's hair to keep it out of the food, and gave them small jobs to do in the kitchen. Lizzy washed lettuce leaves. Annie brushed butter on the top of the yeast rolls.
After lunch the girls helped clean up and then went into the den to play Barbies. Chuck begged to go back to the barn with Griffin.
"I forgotted one of the Barbies. We're having a sale dance," Annie skipped through the kitchen and into the foyer on her way to her bedroom to get whatever they had "forgotted."
"How many Barbies does it take to have a sale dance?" Julie followed her into the den.
"Lizzy says it takes a lot, maybe all of them acause the sale dance is the biggest thing ever," Annie said.
The front door opened and Julie went to see who had arrived. Annie followed her, still afraid that Dian might reappear and cart her off again. Her left hand held the Barbie; her right one clutched her mother's hand tightly. Two women shoved a couple of suitcases through the door and stopped when they saw Julie and Annie.
Julie recognized Griffin's mother immediately. The tall blonde had to be his sister. The eyes were the same, even if the hair was different.
The one with the white streak in her hair opened her arms. "Lizzy, darlin', come and give Grandma a hug."
Annie's lower lip protruded and quivered. "I'm Annie. I'm not Lizzy."
The tall blonde with Griffin's mother giggled. "You been watching that movie again, have you? Remember when she watched it a couple of years ago and wanted a red wig so she could be Annie? Excuse us for barging in. Are you the new baby-sitter? I'm Melinda, Griffin's sister, and this is our mother, Laura."
Julie stepped forward and extended her hand. "I'm Julie Donavan."
Griffin's mother was breathtaking. Laura wore jeans and a short-sleeved denim shirt over a red tank top and there wasn't an ounce of fat on her. She scarcely looked old enough to be Griffin's mother. And his sister: blonde, blue-eyed, model pretty, and slim with long legs. Julie felt unkempt in her faded tank top, her unruly red hair up in a ponytail, wearing no makeup.
"You look surprised. Didn't Griff tell you we were coming?" Laura asked.
Julie shook her head.
"Isn't that just like a man?" Melinda asked. "Okay, here's the deal. The big sale is Friday. We always come to the Lucky Clover to help Marita get things ready. This year I guess we'll be helping Elsie. It'll take the whole week, trust me—with the cooking for the crew and getting the barn decorated for the dance. It's a big, big job and we won't get in your way but we might enlist your help along the way."
"I see," Julie said.
Just when she thought she had it all under control, another flying saucer came hurling toward her. Griffin might be hanging from the nearest pecan tree come evening. He'd best talk fast or it would be the last meal he ever had.
Lizzy came out of the den and threw herself into Laura's arms. "Grandma! I knew
you'd be coming, I knew it because Daddy said the sale was almost here and you always come and I wanted you to see Annie and can we go to the dance just for a little while this year?"
Melinda's face went pale.
Laura's eyes kept darting from Lizzy to Annie.
"Did you see Annie? We're cousins acause my momma came yesterday and stole her and we had to go find her at Mamie's and my momma had pink hair and I didn't like her too much, Grandma. Is that a sin?" Lizzy kept on.
Laura bent down on one knee and looked long and hard at the child. "I don't think so. I'm pleased to meet you, Annie. I see you and Lizzy and I all have the same streak in our hair. That makes us special, doesn't it?"
Getting Lucky Page 20