“Holy shit!” Nona grabbed her ears.
She’d scarcely gotten the words out when the clouds opened the floodgates and it started to rain so hard that even with the lightning, visibility out the kitchen window was limited to only a few feet.
Jackson slumped into a kitchen chair and kicked off his boots. “That’s calling it too close for comfort.”
Nona opened the refrigerator and brought out three beers. “Not a word out of your mouth, Mama. I deserve this after today. That lightning that came close to parting my hair. When I finish this beer, I’m having first dibs on the bathtub and I’m not getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow. I forgot to ask, what did Aunt Emmy Lou want to talk about?”
“She wanted to call a truce. It’s part of her strategy, believe me. She doesn’t give up this easy. They’re going to start on you any day now.” Loretta twisted off the cap from the bottle of beer Nona handed her and sat down at the table beside Jackson.
“Granny already called a couple of times. I let it go to voice mail. I don’t want to talk to them. Right now, let’s celebrate.” She raised her beer bottle in a toast.
Jackson and Loretta both clinked theirs with hers.
“To us,” she said, excitement in her tone. “We did it. We got it all in and we didn’t lose a single bale. You must be a good luck charm, Mama.”
“Well, thank you. Dolly called and wanted to chat while I was driving the hay truck. She was even more pleasant than Emmy Lou. I wonder what they’ve got up their sleeves.” Loretta thought out loud as she sipped her beer.
“You might want to throw your phone in the creek,” Nona said. “I don’t want to referee your fights with the aunts. It’s all I can do to keep you and Daddy from locking up horns. Besides, you don’t want to go home yet. Like you said, when Aunt Emmy Lou calls a truce, there’s a hidden agenda.”
“Your mother and I weren’t really fighting. We were just stating opinions,” Jackson said.
“If it looks like a bull, is stubborn as a bull, and produces bullshit in the pasture, chances are it’s a bull.”
“What has that got to do with anything?” Jackson asked.
“And why would you have to referee my fights? I’m big enough and mean enough to take care of three meddling sisters,” Loretta said.
“Changing the subject because I’m too tired to talk about the way the aunts try to make me their business all the time. The weatherman says it’s going to rain all day tomorrow and maybe even the next, so I reckon I could sleep past five, right, Daddy? Pancakes and sausage for breakfast, Mama?” Nona asked.
“Maybe until seven since you worked a double today.” He grinned. “And, Loretta, thanks again.”
She nodded. “No thanks necessary, and, Nona, after all the exercise we had today, a breakfast with a million calories will be just fine.”
“Darlin’, there’s never been an inch to spare on your body,” Jackson said.
“If you two are going to talk body parts, I’m going to take a bath and fall into bed,” Nona said.
“Don’t fall asleep and drown.” Jackson picked up his beer.
“If I’m not out in fifteen minutes, send in the rescue squad.” Nona left half a bottle of beer on the cabinet and disappeared into the darkness of the foyer.
Loretta downed the rest of her beer and reached for what Nona had left behind. “It’s raining, Jackson. I’m taking Nona with me tomorrow. We’re going to Amarillo to shop. She needs to visit the beauty parlor for a haircut and she needs to do girl things. If she doesn’t, she’s going to resent this place.”
He covered a yawn with his hand. “Hey, I take her shopping and to the beauty shop when she’s here. And if I can’t, Rosie does. It’s not like she’s tied to the ranch and never leaves. But I have to admit, shopping is not my favorite way to spend a day, so I’m not arguing with you. If you want to grab a shower in my room, so you don’t have to wait for Nona to finish. I don’t mind.”
She drank the rest of Nona’s beer and tossed two bottles into the trash can. “Thank you. I’d love a quick shower. Speaking of your room, I changed sheets this morning and noticed that you still can’t hit the hamper with your clothes, can you?”
He crossed his arms on the table and rested his head on them. “If a sock falls in the forest and no one is there to pick it up, does it make a noise? After the day we put in, who gives a shit if my socks didn’t make it all the way inside the hamper? You sound like Rosie.”
“If a man throws his clothes toward the hamper and he doesn’t have a wife, the next closest female will bitch about it,” she said. “Breakfast is at eight tomorrow morning. Nona and I’ll leave midmorning.”
“Yes, ma’am. Have you talked to Nona about it?”
“Not yet. Do I have to promise with one hand raised to God and the other on the Bible that I won’t kidnap her and take her to Oklahoma?” Loretta said.
“The Bible is on the table in the foyer. We can do that tomorrow before you leave,” he said.
“You’re not kidding, are you?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Jackson, we’re just going shopping. If I turned my van toward Oklahoma, she’d probably jump out and break an arm or a leg.”
“Then you’d have to stay on even longer to get her well again.”
“Heaven forbid! Give me five minutes and I’ll be out of your room,” she said.
“If I’m not waiting on the top step, you’d best come on back down here and wake me up,” he said.
She left her dirty clothes in a pile on the bathroom floor, adjusted the water to the right temperature, and pulled back the shower curtain. She longed to fill the tub with hot water and soak her aching muscles, but five minutes didn’t allow for that kind of treat. So she flipped the switch and stepped over the edge to stand under a pulsating showerhead.
Cold air rushed in when the shower curtain was thrown to one side and her eyes popped from half-closed to wide open. There stood Jackson in all his naked glory, one leg already in the shower, the other on the way.
“I was about to fall asleep sitting out there on the step. Turn around I’ll wash your hair for you,” he said. “Don’t bother looking lower than my belly button. Not even you, with all your stunning beauty, could get a rise out of me tonight, as tired as I am.”
The shampoo was the same kind she used to buy. It smelled like coconuts and his hands were magic as they massaged her scalp. She’d showered with him hundreds of times. She’d seen him naked. But this night was a whole new experience. She could feel the heat from his body that was only inches from hers. She could smell the sweat of the day washing down the drain.
“Feel good?” he asked.
“There are no words to tell you how good,” she murmured.
“I love your voice when it gets like that.” He turned her around and adjusted the showerhead so that it pulsed against her hair. He moved a step closer. Their bodies were like magnets, each drawing the other closer and closer until they were inseparable. He picked up a thick washcloth, lathered it with her favorite soap, and ran it over her body, stopping to plant random soft kisses as he worked his way down her entire body.
“Jackson, we shouldn’t,” she whispered.
“We have to. We were filthy dirty. We can’t get in between clean sheets like that, can we?” he chuckled.
“You asked for it,” she said. “Turn around.”
“Why?”
“I’m going to wash your hair and make sure you are clean enough to go to bed.”
He obeyed.
Like he’d done, she used her fingertips to work the same shampoo into his hair.
He groaned. “You are right. Words can’t explain this.”
When she finished, she bypassed the washcloth and lathered up her hands. Starting at the tense, hard muscles in his shoulders, she washed and dug her fingers into places that
had bigger knots in them. When she finished with his calves, he turned without being told.
“Evidently you aren’t as tired as you thought.” She smiled.
He glanced down and smiled. “I guess not. What are we going to do about that?”
The shiver that danced down her backbone had nothing to do with cold air flowing from the overhead vent and everything to do with humming hormones. She wanted Jackson. Common sense said that she should grab a towel and run, not walk, to her room. Her heart tried to smother common sense. Every sane thought flew out the window to join the storm going on full force.
She raised up to her full height and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her wet lips met his in a blistering-hot kiss that fogged the entire bathroom. With a little hop, her long legs locked around his waist. Neither of them had forgotten how to have shower sex. Her hand slipped between their wet bodies and guided him inside her. He backed her up against the cold tile and they rocked together, their scorching kisses fueling the hunger that could never be totally satisfied between them. Her nails dug into his shoulders and he cupped her butt for better leverage. She moaned through the kisses and the rhythm increased to a speed and fierceness that made her dizzy. Breasts against bare chest, so close to him that light couldn’t separate them, they became one passionate being, trying desperately to bring the other one to a cliff-hanging experience.
She arched at the same time he growled her name and they tumbled over the edge together. He slid down until he was sitting in the tub. She shifted slightly so that she was sitting in his lap with her long legs off to one side.
“My knees are weak,” he said.
“You have knees?” she whispered.
The closed shower curtain created a small, foggy space. With the water still rushing down on them, Loretta imagined them behind a waterfall on an exotic island. She buried her head in Jackson’s chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. That was most likely the single biggest mistake of her entire life, but she still didn’t want it to end.
“You can’t spend the night,” he said.
“I didn’t plan on it.”
“I’ve never slept with a woman I’m not married to in this house. Can’t start bad habits now.” He tucked a strand of wet hair behind her ear and kissed her on the nose.
She knew Jackson. Even after all the years apart, she could tell when he was teasing to cover up. Now everything was suddenly awkward, like the big thing was in the room with them again and neither of them wanted to admit it was there.
Her knees were weak. Her body hummed with contentment. But common sense said that this shouldn’t have happened. She was too tired for fighting forces inside her heart and head.
“Jackson, we were tired and the beer and . . .”
He put a finger over her lips. “Not now. Don’t spoil this lovely afterglow. We’ll analyze the hell out of it later, but not now.”
“Okay.” She stretched the word out into five syllables. “Then I think maybe I’d best wrap a towel around my body and hurry across the landing to my room.”
“First part is good. Second part, not yet. I still have to brush your hair or it’ll look like shit in the morning. And you’ve got to go shopping. You throw things, like hairbrushes, if your hair looks like shit,” he said.
“I can brush my own hair.”
“Be still for another five minutes. I’ve always loved to brush your hair. It’s silky and I like the way it smells and that cute little sex noise you make because it feels so good to you.” He threw back the curtain, eased her out of his lap, and stood up. “You wouldn’t deny a dying man his last wish, would you?”
“Jackson Bailey, you are not dying,” she said.
“I could be. I hauled hay all day and half the night and now I’ve made love to you with the last thread of energy in my body. My poor old heart could stop at any moment. I am forty, you know,” he said with seriousness.
“Don’t give me that old shit, Jackson. Not after what we just did.”
He turned off the shower, wrapped a towel around her body and another one around his hips, and pulled a brush from the vanity.
Her eyes widened out. “Is that—?”
He grinned and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s your favorite pink brush. The one that doesn’t yank your hair out by the roots.” He slipped his big hand over hers and led her to the rocking chair beside his bed, where he pulled her down into his lap.
“I missed that brush. You can’t buy them anymore,” she whispered.
“That’s why you have to come back to the ranch. It’s mine now and I never let it leave my room.”
Loretta awoke in her bedroom at seven o’clock to the sound of a slow drizzling rain slapping against her windows. She stared at the clock, afraid to turn over for fear she’d find Jackson beside her. She could practically feel the heat coming from his body and yet no matter how hard she strained her ears, she couldn’t hear his soft breathing. Finally, she reached behind her body and gingerly slid her hand in an arc as far as it would go.
“Whew!” She let out a lung full of pent-up air. “At least that part was a dream.”
She bailed out of bed, grabbed a pair of underpants from the top dresser drawer and pulled them on. Now she didn’t feel nearly so vulnerable. She riffled through the drawer until she found a bra, then went to the closet to pull out a pair of khaki shorts and a dark green knit shirt. Fully dressed except for her sandals, she trusted herself to look in the mirror.
No hickeys shining on her neck. She didn’t have a wanton look in her eyes—well, not too much of one. She did need makeup to cover up those dark circles, but she’d only slept four hours. With that in mind, they didn’t look too bad at all.
“And my hair is smooth,” she said. “It’s that pink brush. I’m going to steal the damn thing before I leave at the end of the summer.”
Chapter Fourteen
I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO GO SHOPPING. Travis and I thought we’d work on that old tractor out in the barn this morning,” Nona said at the breakfast table.
Loretta didn’t want to fight with Nona on the first day they had off the ranch, so she chose her words carefully. “A day apart does any couple good, and, darlin’, your hair needs trimming. The ends look like straw.”
Jackson looked up over his morning paper. “Your mama is talking good sense. I’ll help Travis get that old tractor running this morning.”
“I don’t know why you still have that paper delivered. That’s yesterday’s news. You can get today’s instantly on the computer,” Nona said.
“Don’t change the subject.” Loretta’s voice raised an octave.
“I like a newspaper that smells like a newspaper. And your mama is right, your hair is starting to look like shit,” Jackson said.
“Whose side are you on?” Nona asked.
“Travis’s side. I wouldn’t want to run my hands though hair like that. I’d feel like I was back in the barn stacking hay,” he answered.
She drew a strand of hair through her fingertips. “Okay, you win, but I want to be home by six. Is that a problem?”
“No, ma’am. Not if you can be ready to leave in an hour.” Loretta smiled.
Loretta eyed the eastbound ramp on Interstate 40 north of Claude. The canyon was behind them and in four hours she’d be in her cute little house in Mustang, Oklahoma. Nona would pitch a pure bitch fit, but what could she do about it? She’d be in a van doing seventy miles an hour on a four-lane highway.
“Don’t even think of it,” Nona said.
“How do you know what I’m thinking?”
“You aren’t real good at hiding things, Mama. Whatever you think is written on your face. I wish you could have seen yourself when that Dina bitch was acting up in our yard,” Nona laughed.
“And what am I thinking now?”
“You are wondering what kind of hissy I’d throw if
you turned right instead of left.”
Loretta took the west ramp and pointed her van toward Amarillo. “Don’t always depend on that. I might be just messin’ with you, kiddo.” She couldn’t resist a look in the rearview mirror.
“You promised,” Nona said.
“I didn’t promise to not look that direction,” Loretta said.
“What are we doing first? Beauty shop or shopping?”
“I made an appointment for the full treatment, including a light lunch. Didn’t think we’d need much after that breakfast, and then I thought we’d shop for a couple of hours and be home by six. How does that agenda sound to you?”
“Like heaven,” Nona moaned. “I’d commit homicide for a massage. If you’d told me this morning a spa was involved, I wouldn’t have even mentioned the tractor.”
“You can have those things regularly at college,” Loretta said.
“I’m not having this conversation, Mama. My mind is made up. So we’re talking about something else. I texted Travis and he’s bringing pizza and a movie to the house at six. You and Daddy can watch it with us if you promise not to argue,” Nona said.
“Well, thank you so much for inviting us to sit in our living room and for reminding me a dozen times that we have to be home at six,” Loretta said.
Nona’s eyebrows shot up. “Our living room.”
“Don’t you get all sassy with me.”
Nona laughed. “Yes, ma’am. Do I need to remember anything? You need work jeans, right? Anything else?”
“The list is in my purse.”
Nona smiled. “I should have known.”
“Don’t make fun of me, either,” Loretta said. “When you are the only parent and working a full-time job plus making sure of dental appointments and doing everything alone, you will make lists too.”
“Whoa!” Nona said. “I appreciate you being a role model. I really do. And look—” She pulled a list from her purse. “I’m learning to make lists so I don’t forget anything. Besides, there isn’t a shopping mall four blocks down the road from Lonesome Canyon, so if I forget something I have to do without.”
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