by Susan Harper
“So, I’m assuming Laurie and Monica never got along?” Kendell asked.
“Not once Laurie and Junior started dating. Junior, Monica, and I have been best friends since we were kids,” Brenton said, sounding very sad as he said it. “Laurie never liked the idea of her boyfriend having a female friend. She’s controlling, which is one of the main reasons he finally broke up with her.”
“You don’t think…” Kendell stopped herself from making any accusations, but Brenton already knew what she was thinking.
“I would like to hope that Laurie wouldn’t,” he said. “But…I guess you never know. The only people in that cellar I can’t vouch for would be you and your friends, but I can’t imagine what motive a handful of out-of-towners would have for hurting Monica. Everyone else I know well, and it is painful to think any of those people I know and love would want to hurt her. So, I don’t know.”
Kendell decided not to say anything else. Instead, she and Brenton got to work on cleaning up the mess made by the trampoline. They swept up all the broken glass from the window and then nailed a tarp to the wall. Next, they found some wood in one of the barns that Brenton cut up, and the two of them fashioned a replacement board for the one that had gotten busted during the storm. “Apart from the window, this looks good as new,” Brenton said to Kendell. “Good job, city girl. Now let’s see if you can catch some chickens.”
Kendell laughed, having a hard time imagining she would be any good at that. Mrs. Carson and Laurie and Mary had already managed to catch a chicken each by the time they had finished fixing the coop. Mary managed to snag herself a second one. “How many chickens do you all have?” Kendell asked.
“Twelve,” Mrs. Carson said. “And so far, we’ve managed to catch four. I think I see some over by the pigpen.” She pointed. There were about four or five of them walking around.
“You’re gonna want to walk up behind them and grab them around their bodies, pinning their wings down and avoiding their talons,” Laurie said to Kendell.
“Thanks,” Kendell said. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“I kind of want to see her do it,” Mary teased, and Laurie laughed a bit.
“Betcha she falls on her face,” Laurie said.
“Hey, I totally got this,” Kendell assured, and even Mrs. Carson laughed at her a bit.
“Oh, don’t give the pretty city girl such a hard time. I’m sure she can catch a chicken,” Mrs. Carson said. “Go for it, Kendell.”
Kendell made her way over to the pigpen where the chickens were gathered, walking slowly to avoid startling them. They didn’t seem to mind her presence, but as soon as she reached out, they started to strut off. When she ran at them, they ran faster. She realized very quickly that she looked ridiculous and the women and Brenton were laughing at her. “Hey, I’d like to see you hail a New York cab, just saying,” Kendell said, laughing at herself a bit.
Everyone else caught at least one more chicken before Kendell finally managed to snag herself one. She was proud when she finally did, and Brenton initiated a round of applause for her accomplishment. Unfortunately, they found one chicken half-eaten by a fox, much to Kendell’s displeasure, but they managed to locate and pen the rest.
It was around this time that Kendell spotted Jesse and Junior by the pigpen, having just arrived back from checking the fences and getting ready to head to the Johnsons’ homestead to investigate their ranch as well. Laurie was standing nearby and Kendell missed whatever started the interaction, but the next thing she knew, she saw Laurie and Jesse pushing each other, and the two went fumbling on top of one another into the pig’s pen.
6
Jesse could not believe it when this woman pounced on her. She had just been standing there, talking to Junior about his ranch. He was so…hot. And he had this charming, youthful smile that made her blush. As a New Yorker, Jesse never imagined herself crushing on a man like Junior, but the butterflies in her stomach every time the man opened his mouth were hard to deny. They had just driven around the entire exterior of the enormous herding grounds where Junior’s family kept their cattle. The fence had managed to survive the storm, so they had driven to meet Junior’s father to let him know that the Carson family fencing was good to go. They had then decided to make a quick pit stop at the homestead for Junior to grab a drink from the fridge, as he was claiming to be a bit parched. He had run inside, grabbing each of them some water, and the two of them had wound up standing by the pigpen talking.
An innocent smile and the touch of his arm was all it took to send Laurie off the deep end. She had come up behind Jesse and shoved her. Jesse spun around, glaring at her. “Are you serious?” she snapped and promptly flung her water at the woman’s face. “Grow up!”
“Ack!” the woman shrieked as though she was the wicked witch and the water burned her face. “Me grow up?” she sneered, then went to shove Jesse again.
“Laurie, knock it off!” Junior snapped.
Jesse managed to sidestep another shove, and as Laurie came near, she flung a palm in the woman’s direction. Her open palm made direct contact with the woman’s ear, and Jesse knew from experience after a tussle with her older brother as a kid that a direct palm to the ear was not a pleasant experience. “Ow! Oh my gosh! Ow!” Laurie yelped.
“Back off!” Jesse hissed.
“There’s a ringing in my ear!” Laurie shouted. “I swear, you dang Yankee, if you screwed up my hearing, I’ll—"
“Oh, shut up,” Jesse said, and Laurie went at her again, this time managing to grab her by the hair.
Jesse grabbed Laurie’s hair as well and attempted to yank her down and off, but Laurie was gripping her like a cat whose claws had been caught in a rug. Laurie shouted several profanities at Jesse, mostly those involving one’s sexual charisma, and accused her of having already slept with Junior. “You psycho,” Jesse hissed. “I just met him last night!”
Junior attempted to grab one of them to pull them apart, but all that earned him was a kick in the leg that made him fumble. The two of them separated for a split-second, and that was all Laurie needed to run at Jesse full-speed as though she was some football player. The two of them fell back, flipping clear over the pigpen and into the mucky waters below. “Ah!” Jesse wailed. “My clothes!”
Laurie sat up, also drenched in muck, but she shook it off like it was nothing. She stood up, wiping mud off herself and allowing it to splash into Jesse’s face. Kendell, Mary, Brenton, and Mrs. Carson all arrived over by the pigpen as Junior was jumping over the small fence to help Jesse to her feet.
Junior, after helping the hysterical Jesse stand, pointed a finger in Laurie’s face. “Get out of here, right now!” he shouted. “Go inside and shower off, you’re covered in crud! Just be grateful the power is back so you even have a shower!”
Laurie huffed and attempted to throw a leg over the fence. She struggled and turned around, looking at Junior. “Mind giving me a hand?” she asked in a flirty tone as if now was an appropriate time to flirt with one’s ex.
“Sure,” he said as she attempted to throw her leg up over the gate. He gave her rear end a prompt shove, causing her to fall to the other side and land on her stomach.
“Ah! Junior!” she wailed.
“Inside!” he shouted at her.
She stormed off toward the house.
“And don’t you dare get any mud on my mama’s clean floor!” he called, and she shot an obscene gesture over her head at him.
“Now, Junior,” Mrs. Carson said. “I know she wasn’t acting like it, but Laurie’s a lady. Don’t let me ever catch you shoving a lady again.”
“Sorry, Mama,” he said, walking Jesse to the gate.
“Jesse, are you okay?” Kendell asked, and Jesse did her best to pretend she was.
“I’m fine. It’s just mud, right?” Jesse said, but she was pretty sure Kendell read right through her. Jesse was not exactly known to be cool under pressure. She was an uppity New Yorker type who had once brok
e down in tears when a taxi drove through a puddle and got her shoes wet. Secretly, she was completely freaking out wondering if she was covered in mostly mud or mostly pig feces.
“I am so sorry about that, Jesse,” Mrs. Carson said. “You seem like such a sweet girl. Laurie… She hasn’t exactly been…”
“Normal,” Junior huffed. “I broke up with her because of how jealous she was of Monica. She tried telling me I wasn’t allowed to talk to her, but I’ve been friends with Monica since we were just tots running around. Plus, Laurie didn’t want me working the ranch. We would have never worked, but she is…persistent.” Junior rolled his eyes and put a hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go rinse you off before we head to the Johnsons’ ranch.”
“I might as well go with you two,” Brenton said. “We got the chickens rounded up.”
“Thanks,” Junior said, and the three of them walked up to the side of the house where a large garden hose was.
Jesse frowned. She really wanted a shower, but she supposed this would have to do. They were waiting on her to head to the other ranch. I like how the crazy girl gets to go inside and shower while I’m stuck hosing off in the yard, she thought with an eye-roll. Junior gave her the hose and let her drench herself, the mud all forming at her feet. She paid careful attention to her hands and face, because the idea of carrying around germs from that mess made her sick.
Once she wrung her shirt out, Junior gave Brenton the keys to his truck so that he could sit in the bed with Jesse while he drove. It was a long drive to the neighboring ranch, so she did her best to get comfortable. The sun was shining bright after the terrible storm, so Jesse was hopeful that the sun would dry her off.
“I think you win the award for craziest ex,” Jesse said.
“Not an award I want to have,” Junior moaned. “You know, we hadn’t even dated that long. A year, maybe. Since day one, she’s been so commanding. Started picking out colleges she wanted me to attend. I’m nearly thirty. If I wanted to go to college, I would have gone by now. She just said she wasn’t going to be with a guy who shoveled cow crap for a living and that I needed to make more money. Well, if that’s what she was wanting, I wasn’t going to be it for her.”
“You’d think that would have made sense to her,” Jesse said. “It’s like you were a project to her.”
“Exactly,” he said, shaking his head. “What about you? You got any looney former boyfriends?”
“Plenty,” she said. “I sure do know how to pick them. Let’s just say my friend Kendell used pepper spray on one of them.”
He laughed. “Oh, you must be kidding me.”
“Nope,” she said. “We all went to a club together. Kendell brought her boyfriend Jack, and I brought Mr. Grabby, and he tried to grab on Kendell while Jack was off getting us drinks and I was in the restroom. She whipped her can of pepper spray out of her purse and got him right in the eye. She sure does know how to clear a room at a club…”
Junior laughed. “I ain’t never been to a club. I must be some dumb hillbilly rancher to you, huh?”
“Clubs are really not that great of an experience,” Jesse said. “And you were smart enough to ditch the psycho. You don’t seem dumb to me.”
He smiled. “Good. I wouldn’t want you to think poorly of me.”
“You must think I’m some stuck-up city girl, right?” Jesse asked.
“I mean, you did just tussle with a Texan girl and not get all too bothered after being shoved into a pigpen,” he said.
“I’m secretly freaking out and wishing I had hand sanitizer,” she said, and that made him laugh.
“Sorry,” he said. “I suppose I could have let you stay at the homestead and shower off, and Brenton and I could have handled this, but, honestly, I kind of wanted to get to know you a bit. I’m a little bummed Brenton decided to tag along.”
Jesse blushed. “Oh, really?”
“Yes, really,” he said, and suddenly, the truck stopped moving. They looked out ahead of them toward some pastures, and in the distance, Jesse could see another house–probably the Johnsons’. The whole area was flooded.
Brenton hopped out of the truck, as did Junior. Junior held out a hand to help Jesse down, and her boots sunk into the mud.
“Man…” Brenton groaned. “This will take forever to dry. The dang creek rose up.”
“We better go make sure the house ain’t flooded,” Junior said, and Brenton agreed.
They had to walk to avoid getting the truck stuck in the mud, and at one point, Jesse got her boot stuck. Thankfully, the house was fairly dry. They also checked out the herd’s fencing, and it wasn’t damaged. The cattle’s area was wet but would be fine to move the cattle to, but there was no path leading to the fences that would be safe to travel across with a herd. “Looks like our cows are going to be staying with you a bit longer,” Brenton groaned.
“That path over there don’t look too bad,” Junior said, pointing. “It’ll probably dry up in a day or two.”
Brenton headed inside after removing his muddy boots to pack a bag for himself and his parents, grabbing some extra supplies since it seemed they would be staying on the Carson ranch for a few more days. While outside, Jesse caught Junior staring at her. “What?” she asked, embarrassed knowing she had washed all her makeup off and her hair was probably tangled and halfway dry.
“You just look nice,” he said. “Pardon me for staring.”
Jesse smiled at him. After Brenton had his bags packed, they marched back through the mud and then loaded up in the truck, heading back to the Carson ranch. Jesse and Junior sat in the back, this time sitting much closer as they talked and got to know one another. As they approached the Carson ranch, Junior slipped her a quick kiss.
7
Kendell, Pauline, and Jesse had all been given one of the ranch’s guest rooms to share. With so many guests staying in the house, there wasn’t much room for everyone, but they were doing their best to make it work. Kendell and Pauline had been getting ready for supper after a long day of work, and Pauline was relieved she hadn’t been put in charge of supper as she had spent the whole morning on her feet getting lunch ready for the large group of people. “I’m really getting too old to do much at all!” she wailed in despair as she sat on the one bed in the room, putting on a clean pair of socks.
Kendell laughed. “I don’t know. I think you got quite a bit of fight left in you, Pauline.”
“Oh, I didn’t say I don’t have fight left in me,” she said. “But, speaking of which, how proud are you of your little blonde friend tussling with that gaudy Texas girl?”
“I’m pretty impressed, honestly,” Kendell said with a smirk. Jesse was currently in the shower; she had gotten the messiest out of just about everybody that day after being thrown into a pigpen and then having to traipse through the mud at the Johnson’s farm. “She’s normally pretty squeamish when it comes to anything outdoors related. She showed me she can handle a lot more than I give her credit for.”
The door to their room opened, and Jesse was standing there dressed up with her hair pulled up in a towel. She was wearing a scowl on her face. “Laurie broke Mary’s hairdryer,” she hissed.
Kendell frowned. “Why was she even using the hairdryer? She showered this morning after the pigpen incident, and it was working an hour ago after I showered.”
“I think she went in there and broke it so I couldn’t dry my hair!” Jesse hissed. “She is out to get me! I wanted to…look nice at dinner.”
“Someone likes that Carson boy,” Pauline teased.
Jesse blushed. “Well… Yeah… I do.”
“Easy there, Jesse,” Kendell warned. “You know you live in New York, right?”
“Yeah, but…” Jesse had this look of absolute joy on her face. “Kendell, I really like him.” Her face turned red. She seemed almost giddy.
“Oh yeah?” Kendell asked as Jesse removed her towel, letting her sopping wet hair fall down.
“Yeah,” she said. “I mean
… I really, really like him. Kendell, I think he could be the one.”
Kendell tried not to laugh. Jesse had melodramatic tendencies, but she did seem rather serious. “Jesse, that’s sweet,” Kendell said. “But you two are pretty different. You know he’s a rancher, right? And he and Laurie broke up because she wanted him to do something other than ranching. Brenton told me that this morning.”
“I know,” she said. “But I can’t help it. I really like this guy. He’s different.”
“Honey, you cannot deny the pull that a Southern boy has,” Pauline said with a smile. “A true Southern gentleman can make any girl’s toes curl. My husband was the same way.”
Kendell laughed. “Well, I’m happy for you, then, Jesse.”
“He’s really upset about what happened to Monica,” Jesse said. “I want to try to help.”
“I agree,” Kendell said, then elbowed Pauline. “And I think you and I may have a little experience in this area.”
“Yes, indeed, we do,” Pauline said. “Being here on the ranch makes it easier. There are only so many suspects.”
“That’s true,” Kendell said. “Let’s see. There’s Mr. and Mrs. Carson, Mary, Junior, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, Brenton, and Laurie. That’s the smallest suspect list we’ve ever dealt with. We were all locked up in the cellar together, so it’s not like there could be any more surprises.”
“I think Laurie did it,” Jesse said.
“You’re just saying that because she pushed you into a pigpen,” Kendell said.
“No, the girl does have a point,” Pauline said. “She has motive. She wants Junior to be with her, and Monica had clearly been hinting at Junior all night about wanting to be with him. And, Laurie even attacked Jesse in broad daylight for flirting with him. If she’ll attack a woman while everyone is looking, imagine what she thought she could get away with in the dark of the cellar with all the noise of the storm going on?”