Long, Hot Texas Summer

by Brown, Carolyn

  “What were we on before we got to this place?” Loretta grabbed the hand grip above the door of the truck.

  “Lonesome Canyon. Ezra has always had an easement to his property. You used to know that, Loretta.”

  “Why in the hell don’t you keep it up better than that?” she asked.

  “Ezra and his one hired hand are the only folks who use the road, and the easement agreement is that if he wants to cross my land to get to his, then he maintains the road,” Jackson said.

  “What’s that? I can’t ever remember being back here before.” She pointed to the right.

  “The Malloy cemetery. His great-grandfather and all his people since are buried there.”

  “And what will happen to that when he’s gone? I only remember him having one daughter and her mother took her away years ago, right?” Loretta asked.

  The little cemetery of no more than thirty tombstones was shaded by a central pecan tree and fenced in with white wrought iron. There were no flowers, but it was pristine—mowed grass and no weeds in the fencerow.

  Jackson shrugged. “Hopefully whoever winds up with the place will take care of it.”

  The ranch house was set right up against the wall of the canyon and painted a rich mustard color that blended in with its surroundings. A wide porch surrounded three sides of the rambling one-story structure and when they stopped at the yard gate, Ezra waved and headed their way.

  Loretta started to open the door, but Jackson reached across and touched her knee. “He’ll pout if a woman opens it. Don’t want to spoil the visit because you didn’t let him be hospitable and open the gate.”

  “Are the stories true about him? We didn’t really talk at the Sugar Shack,” Loretta asked softly.

  Jackson nodded. “Every one of them.”

  “Y’all get out and set a spell,” Ezra yelled as he shut the gate behind them.

  Loretta reached for the door handle, only to have it swing open and there was Ezra with a hand out to help her. “Welcome to my ranch, Loretta. You probably don’t remember, but you were here one time before. Your daddy brought you here once when you were a little girl. He was looking for a lamb so you could show it at the country fair. I didn’t have any young enough, so we didn’t do business.”

  “I’m glad to see you again, Ezra, and I remember trying to find a lamb, but you are right, I don’t remember coming here.” She smiled.

  “You remind me of my third wife. She was a redhead and had long legs. Met her up at a café in Canyon where she was a waitress. I took one look at her and figured she’d throw a son for me. They say the third time is the charm. They lied. All I got was a third daughter and by then I was too damn old to try again.” As he talked, he led the way to the porch, where he motioned toward four white rocking chairs.

  “I remember her,” Loretta said. “I was in high school and dating Jackson. I remember seeing y’all at the county fair. She was a pretty woman.”

  “All my wives were pretty,” Ezra chuckled.

  A young man with a crop of light brown hair, wire-rimmed glasses that accentuated his green eyes, and a square-cut jaw poked his head out of the door. “Evenin’, folks. Can I get y’all a beer or a glass of sweet tea?”

  Ezra made introductions. “This is Rusty Dawson. Hired him last year to help me run this place and now he’s like an old hound dog. I can’t get rid of him. Rusty, you already know Jackson. This is his wife, Loretta.”

  “Pleased to meet you ma’am,” Rusty said. “Don’t pay no attention to him. He likes me, but he don’t want nobody to know it. He ain’t nearly as mean as he wants folks to think he is.”

  Ezra cackled out loud. “Boy don’t have a bit of problem speakin’ his mind. That’s why I hired him. Wish he was my son instead of my foreman.”

  “I’d sure like a beer, Rusty. Loretta?” Jackson asked.

  “Tea is fine, and thank you.”

  “Be right out,” he said.

  “Set yourself down, Loretta. My bones are old and a gentleman wouldn’t ever sit before a lady,” Ezra said gruffly.

  She eased down into the chair on the far end. “Yes, sir. Sorry about that.”

  Jackson sat beside her. “So how are things on the Malloy spread?”

  “Jackson is a fool,” Ezra told Loretta. “If I had a long-legged woman like you in my house and I was his age, I’d be making a son with her.”

  When Ezra rocked forward and winked, she felt the heat rising from her neck to her cheeks and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. She was almighty glad to see the young man bringing a tray out to the porch at that moment. “Thank you so much. It’s a warm night, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Ezra handed Loretta a tall glass of tea and then took one of the two longneck bottles of beer from the tray. Rusty handed the second one to Jackson and said, “Y’all have a good visit. I’ll see you in the morning, Ezra.”

  “Any time you get tired of working for this old cantankerous shit, jump the fence, Rusty, and I’ll give you a job,” Jackson said.

  Rusty had a cute lopsided grin. “Thank you. If he gets any worse, I might take you up on it.”

  “Hey, now! I treat you like the son I ain’t got, so don’t be threatenin’ to leave me,” Ezra said.

  Rusty waved over his shoulder and in a few minutes, Loretta heard an old wooden screen door slam and a pickup engine fire up, and then a bright red truck rounded the house and headed up the lane.

  “He’s the best damn help I’ve ever had. I should leave him my ranch, but there’s something tellin’ me to make him work for it instead of makin’ it easy,” Ezra said.

  “You could sell it to me and I’ll let him run it for me,” Jackson said.

  “No, sir. I called you because I got something to say. I don’t want it spread about but I should tell you. I made you the executor of my will, so you need to sign the papers this week. They’re at the lawyers’ office in Amarillo. Same one you use. Me and your daddy always said Wilbur is the only lawyer we’d ever trust. Rest of them ain’t worth the bullet to put them out of their misery.”

  “Why would you do that?” Jackson asked.

  “The cigarettes have caught up to me, but hell, I give it a good run. I’m eighty years old. Rusty will wind up with the ranch because not a one of those girls I begat will want it. Still, I like a good fight, so my will says that they all have to live here together in this house for a year and the last one standing gets the ranch. They can have my money, all but a few thousand for Rusty to use as startin’ cash, but to get the ranch they’ll have to live on it. Last one standing at the end of a year gets it. If there ain’t one here, then it goes to Rusty. I want you to promise me that you’ll see to it that’s the way it happens,” Ezra said.

  “When did you find out about this?” Jackson asked.

  “Been a week or two. I ain’t told Rusty yet. Don’t want to worry him, so keep it under your hat,” Ezra said.

  “Aren’t there treatments you could take?” Loretta asked.

  “Maybe, but I ain’t interested. I’ve had a good life and the only thing I regret is them three girls. I wanted a boy to leave my ranch and money to, but life is what it is. You ever want a son, Jackson?” Ezra asked.

  “I wanted a whole yard full of kids. I didn’t really care if they were boys or girls, as long as there were lots of them. Guess it’s because I was an only child. Maybe Nona will give me a whole yard full of grandkids,” Jackson answered.

  “Too bad you and Loretta didn’t stick. Gettin’ a start as early as you did, you might have had a big family. Me, I didn’t get started until I was fifty. Married a thirty-year-old woman and had my first daughter that next year. All downhill from there. No grandkids yet, so I don’t even get to leave the ranch to a grandson.”

  “You should get a second opinion,” Jackson said.

  �
�I ain’t spending money on a second opinion. What sent me to the doctor in the first place is that I knew there was something bad wrong in my lungs. I was coughin’ up blood. Pardon me for talkin’ about that kind of thing in front of you, Loretta,” Ezra said.

  She laid a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry Ezra. Is there anything else we can do?”

  “Dance with me if you go back to the Sugar Shack any time soon.” He patted her hand.

  “You got it.” She smiled.

  “When are you going to fix that road back to my place?” Ezra changed the subject abruptly. “It’s on your property.”

  “It’s in the papers that you have to keep up the road to your place for the easement through my land,” Jackson said.

  They were like two tomcats, circling each other warily. Loretta expected fur to start flying any minute.

  “Well, you could be a good neighbor to a dying man. It’ll be a hell of a job for the coroner’s wagon to come tote my dead body off the ranch when I’m gone,” Ezra said.

  “I haven’t seen a doctor’s report. You might be jerking my rope to get me to fix a road,” Jackson told him.

  Ezra yawned. “I wish you’d have been my oldest son and Rusty had been your younger brother. We’d have had some good times on the ranch.”

  “We really should be going, Jackson,” Loretta said.

  “Mornin’ does come early,” Ezra said. “Thank y’all for coming over on short notice and thank you, Jackson, for taking care of things for me.”

  “I’m glad to do it,” Jackson said.

  Ezra followed them to the truck and opened the door for Loretta. He stood at the gate and waved until Loretta couldn’t see him anymore through the side mirror.

  “Daddy still does that,” she said.

  “What?” Jackson asked.

  “Waves until his kids are completely out of sight.”

  “So do I when I have to tell Nona good-bye,” Jackson said softly.

  Loretta looked up at the moon. It had not been affected one bit by their separation and divorce, or by the mud puddles in the road. It didn’t stop doing its job because Ezra was dying with lung cancer or because Nona wanted to quit school. It didn’t care who made a mistake and had to live with the consequences of their choices.

  “What are you thinking ’bout so hard? I don’t think you even heard me,” Jackson asked.

  “I was looking at the moon and thinking about how time goes on no matter what happens,” she said.

  “Maybe the pull of the moon is making you slide over here to me.” Jackson grinned. “Got to tell you that I like having you close. It’s like old times.”

  “I think it’s got more to do with holes in the road than it does with the moon in the sky,” she said, but she didn’t move back to her side of the seat. “Why isn’t his ranch up next to the road, instead of back against the wall of the canyon?”

  “Poker.” Jackson pulled back out onto the highway, where the ride was a lot smoother. “Somewhere in the distant past, his daddy and my grandpa were playing poker. They both ran out of money, so Mr. Malloy put up half his ranch and Grandpa put up an equal amount of his. Grandpa won the hand and Mr. Malloy handed over the deed to the front half of his ranch with the stipulation that we’d honor an access easement for his generation and all those to come.”

  “That is crazy. Who would ever put up land for a damned poker game?” Loretta gasped.

  “Evidently two old fellows who each thought they had a winning hand. Shall we go skinny-dippin’ or go home and have a beer to get that sweet tea out of our mouths?” he asked.

  “Well, that was an abrupt change in the subject matter,” Loretta answered.

  “Just thought I’d ask. You look gorgeous in those new jeans and your hair is all done up pretty, but you’d look even better out of the jeans and with wet hair stringing down your back, maybe in the shower.” He grinned.

  “Ice cream it is,” she said.

  “Well, shit! Me and Ezra ain’t got no luck at all when it comes to women. But ice cream does sound good.”

  Loretta pulled a clamp from her purse and twisted her hair up off her neck. “Were you disappointed when Nona was a girl?”

  “No, I hated that name you had picked out for a boy,” he answered without hesitation.

  “Be serious,” she said.

  “Loretta, when Nona wrapped her tiny fingers around my pinky, my heart melted. I was a father even if I was barely nineteen and didn’t know how to be a husband,” he said seriously. “So, the answer is no. I was not disappointed.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “Your mother told me that when you married the right woman, you’d have sons and my daughter wouldn’t even matter. I know she was sick, but her words worried me.”

  He made the turn onto Lonesome Canyon and the first star of the evening popped out over the house. “I wish sometimes we would have gone on to college and gotten out of the canyon until Mama was gone. I loved her, but she sure messed with our marriage, didn’t she?”

  “We have to realize that she was sick, Jackson, and forgive her,” Loretta said.

  He parked in front of the house. “Let that water get on under the bridge?”

  “That’s right. Now, about that ice cream?”

  “Chocolate or vanilla?” he asked, but he didn’t wait for her answer. He circled the truck, opened the door for her, and held out his hand to help her out of the truck. Her hand still in his, suddenly his face came closer and closer. She barely had time to moisten her lips before his mouth covered hers in a long, lingering kiss that had her leaning in for more when he ended it.

  He laced his fingers in hers and led her into the house through the back door, flipped on the light and backed her up against the cabinets until their bodies were plastered together. His eyelashes fluttered shut, fanning out on his cheekbones as he moved toward her for another kiss. She braced herself for the shock.

  “Hey, is that you, Daddy?” Nona yelled.

  “Kids!” Jackson took two steps toward the refrigerator.

  “Mama?” Nona entered the kitchen with Travis right behind her, arms around her waist and chin resting on top of her tangled hair. Her plumped-up lips gave testimony that they’d done more making out than movie watching.

  Jackson peeked around the refrigerator door. “We’re having ice cream.”

  “Where have you been? We left you in the kitchen and then you were gone,” Nona asked.

  “We went to see Ezra,” Jackson said. “What kind of ice cream do you want, Travis?”

  “None for me,” Travis said.

  Nona shook her head. “Me, either. You should have told me you were going to Ezra’s. We could have gone with you. I like that old guy.”

  Travis left her long enough to pull out a chair and sit down. She plopped down in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  Jackson got out the ice cream. “Chocolate or vanilla, Loretta?”

  Loretta got two bowls from the cabinet and handed him the dipper. “A small scoop of each with caramel on both.”

  “Dammit! That sounds good,” Nona said. “Don’t give me the eyebrow thing, Mama. I’m old enough to drink a beer and to say a cussword.”

  “You keep telling me that, but I’m wondering if you’re trying to convince me or yourself.” Loretta’s chest tightened with the first bite, but she figured it was the ice cream. “I’m going up to my room now.” Her voice sounded hollow in her own ears.

  “It’s early,” Jackson said.

  “I’ve got some phone calls to make and a good thick romance novel calling my name.” She picked up her ice cream dish and started for the sink.

  “Leave that. I’ll take care of it with mine,” Jackson said.

  She set it back down and waved, but they were already talking about vaccinations and tagging and plowing the fields for another crop of alf
alfa. Her feet felt like lead as she climbed the stairs. For the first time since she’d been at the ranch, she locked her bedroom door behind her. Without turning on a light, she kicked off her boots and called Heather.

  “Hey, Loretta, what’s going on in your part of the world tonight? We sure had a good time visiting with you,” Heather said.

  “Got a few minutes?”

  “For you, darlin’, I’ve got all the time in the world. You sound horrible. Is everything all right?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Do I need to come to the ranch?”

  “No, just talk to me. I had all the divorce emotions years ago. The guilt, denial, and all that. But I feel like I just hit the bottom of the barrel and I don’t even know why,” Loretta said.

  “Been there. Only difference was it didn’t take years. I went through it all in just a few weeks,” she said.

  “But I thought your divorce was amicable.”

  “It was divorce all the same, and I did get depressed.”

  “How long did it last?” Loretta asked.

  “A week or two. Maria was worse. It took a whole month to pull her up out of it,” Heather said. “You’ll have a tougher time, darlin’.”

  “Why? I don’t like this. I want it to end right now.”

  “What triggered it?” Heather asked. “Tell me every single thing you did today.”

  “Spa, shopping,” Loretta started.

  “No, honey. I want to know from the time you woke up. What you ate, what was said, who you saw or met at the spa, your feelings, all of it. I’m turning off the television and I’ve got a six-pack of diet cola in the fridge. So start talking.”

  Loretta sighed. “It might take awhile.”

  “Divorce is hard. I don’t have to get up early tomorrow. I’m listening,” Heather said.

  “Okay, last night Jackson and I had sex,” Loretta said.

  “That doesn’t surprise me. Go on,” Heather said.

  Loretta gave her a play-by-play of everything that happened from the morning until the ice-cream-in-the-kitchen scene. “Now you talk,” she said.