I Love This Bar (16 page)

Saturday night was even busier than Friday. Chigger and the Walker men were there and she didn't have a moment to think about songs or their hidden meanings. She drew up more beer and popped the lids off more bottles and cans than she'd done in one night in years. By the time Tinker told her good night and went home and she picked up her customary beer and put enough coins in the jukebox to play Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder and Lead," she barely had enough energy left in her long legs to prop them up on the table.

   Daisy figured Miranda's songwriter had written the song especially for her. It was the thing that brought her to the Honky Tonk. She had loaded her shotgun, the only inheritance she'd gotten from her granny when she died, and Chris got the fight he wanted. Just like Miranda said in the song, he'd slapped her face and shook her like a rag doll but by damn when it was all said and done he was running and she was staying.

   The idea of staying brought her to the issue with Jarod. He wasn't a permanent fixture. As soon as Emmett had breathed his last, he'd be gone and Daisy wasn't going anywhere. So that fixed that.

   
Yeah, right. I had sex with him. He didn't call or
show up for a whole week. That tells me it wasn't
anything but a one night stand and I need to grow up
and get over it.

   She'd get over the attraction.

   Someway.

   Somehow.

   She had to or it was going to drive her stark raving crazy. Every time a man walked into the Honky Tonk all week, she'd checked him out, hoping it was Jarod, and then she'd been disappointed. She couldn't endure life walking on a tightrope with no net under her. She had a choice just like she'd had with Chris. In that case she could stick around and let him abuse her physically. In the one with Jarod she could hang onto a one night stand and pine away mentally wanting more. Neither one had a future. She'd gotten over Chris and by damn she'd get over Jarod McElroy too.

The sun was hot enough to raise a blister on a pair of alligator boots and Daisy was not in the mood to vaccinate cows that afternoon. She sure wasn't in the mood to face Jarod after he hadn't called her all week. She drove past the ranch and down the road to the back of the property where the corral was located, grumbling the whole way. With any luck at all, he would have lit a shuck back to Oklahoma without even looking back.

   The little blue Maverick bounced along for twenty minutes at less than ten miles an hour. Someday she was going to break down and buy a small pickup truck, an old one like Jim Bob's fishin' wagon, to do her vet business.

   When she reached the corral she slapped the steering wheel with her palms. "Damn it all to hell. Does luck run when it sees me coming? Where are the cattle? I'm a vet tech. Does Emmett expect me to bring them in from the four corners of this place as well as take care of them?"

   She got out of the car and listened intently, hoping to hear the bawling of a few cows being herded toward the corral. Nothing. She walked to the fence and climbed all the way to the top rail, balanced on it like a gymnast, and squinted as she looked out over the land. A cow over there eating what green grass it could find. Two over there close enough together that they looked like they were gossiping. Was one telling the other about the stud bull over in Jim Bob's pasture? Maybe the old bovine had been talking to Chigger. There was at least a dozen down there belly deep in dirty pond water. They'd better not let Emmett catch them skinny-dipping or he'd have a fit.

   "Damn, damn, damn," she swore as she made her way down the split rails to the ground. Using the sleeve of a chambray work shirt she wore over a faded red tank top, she wiped the sweat from her brow as she got into the sweltering hot car and started it up again. How on earth a car that had been so cool ten minutes before could heat up so fast was a mystery as strange as a man who could turn to ice after the hottest sex she'd ever had.

   She was halfway back to the ranch before the air conditioner cooled the car. She parked out behind the backyard fence and carried her bag to the porch where Emmett's two old Catahoula dogs were sleeping. She would vaccinate and worm them and tell Emmett to call a certified vet or the Walker men to work his cattle that year. She wasn't wasting another day and putting her car through the torment of driving to the back of his ranch.

   "I won't desert you two old boys, but the cattle business is over and that's a promise," she said as she opened her bag.

   Neither dog twitched an ear when she popped the needles into their hips.

   "See, that didn't hurt and it'll keep you going for another year." She made notes in a small book she carried in her bag concerning dates and times the dogs had their shots. Later she'd transfer the information to her laptop back at the Honky Tonk.

Guinea opened his blue eye.

"It's not your fault I'm in such a foul mood," she said.

   Duck opened both his blue and brown eye and wagged his tail a few times.

   She rounded the two-story white frame house and found Emmett sitting on the porch in a rocking chair. He wore a sweat-stained, broad-brimmed straw hat, faded bibbed overalls, and a white T-shirt.

   "For someone who loves air conditioning and refuses to go anywhere, you sure spend a lot of time on the porch," she grumbled.

   He narrowed his eyes and pointed at her. "Where in the hell have you been? I been waitin' on you all day and I can't see you comin' if I'm sittin' in the house. At least you got on enough clothes today. What you had on the other day wouldn't sag a clothesline if you'd been swimmin' in them and they was soppin' wet. Don't know why you have to keep runnin' that Honky Tonk. Hire you some help. Hell, if you can't afford it, I'll even pay for it."

   "Don't you be tellin' me how to run my business, Emmett McElroy. And why aren't the cattle in the corral? You usually have the Walkers or someone come get them ready for me. I'll be damned if I'm going to haul those bawling critters up from the farm ponds."

   He completely ignored her question and kept talking nonsense. "I want you to stay at the ranch now. Get somebody else to run that damned old beer joint. We need you here."

   "What in the hell are you talking about? Why would you think I need to stay here?" Daisy asked.

   "Hello, Daisy. You're early," Jarod said from doorway. One look and he forgot that he'd been ready to spit nails that morning when he awoke. His mouth went dry and his hands trembled with the urge to rush out on the porch and gather her into his arms.

   "Hello, Jarod," she said, surprised that she could utter a coherent word. She felt as if an elephant was sitting on her chest, crushing her lungs, keeping her from taking the next breath; so much for ending the attraction. She hated the morning after the first night of an affair. It was even more uncomfortable when it was the week later—a whole week of not hearing a single damn word. How dare he stand there, looking all sexy, reminding her how those strong arms felt holding her under a sky filled with twinkling stars and a full moon, and say nothing but that she was early.

   Jarod was amazed that he'd gotten out a simple hello. He scanned her from head to toe and back again, stopping several times along the way. She looked like she'd just come in from a hard day's work out on the ranch. Dust on her jeans and scuffed up boots in bad need of polish. Staying away from her for a whole week damn sure hadn't kept him from wanting her. If anything, it made it worse.

   She opened the door and handed him the cheesecake. "Yes, I'm early. I'll be leaving in a few minutes, though."

   "Why? I do believe it was grilled steaks, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob?"

   Daisy shot him her meanest drop-dead look. "Yes, it was, but since you haven't even started cooking, you can forget it."

   "Why would I?"

   "Because evidently you don't want me here."

"Why do you think that?"

   "Come on, you aren't stupid. I haven't heard a word from you all week."

   "I called you every single day all week. I called first thing in the morning. I called at noon, in the middle of the afternoon, even at two o'clock one morning, hoping I'd catch you before you left the bar. So don't tell me about not calling, woman. I tried. Don't you ever answer your phone—or do you leave it off the hook so you don't have to talk?"

   "Oh!" The air gushed out of her lungs. "I was out on Monday morning and Tuesday a squirrel got in the transformer and blew the lines and…" She stopped. "You could have come to the Honky Tonk any night."

   "Emmett's been sick," he whispered.

   Emmett hit the rocker arms with his fist. "Now you two stop that bickerin'. I know the first year you do a lot of fightin' and makin' up, but I want to see more makin' up and less fightin'. Has he made you mad, darlin'? Is that why you stayed gone all week? Come on over here and sit down beside me and we'll talk about that boy of mine. He's a lot like me. Until I got Mavis I wasn't too swift with the women folks either, but I've been givin' him advice this week and I think he'll be better today."

   "He's been like this all week," Jarod whispered through the screen door.

   "Stop that whisperin' behind my back. And for God's sake, Jarod, give her a kiss. I'll shut my eyes if it embarrasses you to do it in front of me. Things I see on television these days would have put my grandma's eyes out and you can't even kiss Daisy in front of me. You ain't seen her all week. Don't know why she has to run that damn Honky Tonk anymore. This place can support her and we need her to help take care of things," Emmett said.

   Jarod would have loved to kiss her but not with the tension still hanging between them. She had an excuse for Monday and Tuesday, but every single day in the week? He didn't think so. She owned a Honky Tonk that didn't close until two a.m. What would she be doing out every day?

   Daisy sat down beside Emmett. "He'll be out here soon as he gets his boots on. Now you tell me why those cattle aren't in the corral."

   Emmett snorted. "You need to go upstairs and put on a dress. Woman shouldn't run around on Sunday lookin' like you do. You expect that boy of mine to be nice then you need to be nice to him. Dress up so he'll take you out for ice cream. Me and Mavis used to drive over to Mineral Wells on Sunday afternoon. They had this little ice cream parlor and she ate strawberry. I damn sure wouldn't take you for strawberry ice cream in that getup. Mavis always dressed up in her best dress and waved her hair all pretty for our ice cream dates."

   "I was supposed to vaccinate cows today. I didn't know anything about ice cream," Daisy said.

   Emmett snorted. "Don't you make excuses, Daisy. You know very well we never work cattle on Sunday. I want you to be nice to Jarod and stop this bickering with him. He's not too bright. He don't see things as well as I do. He's been busy gettin' the ranch up in crackerjack shape before I die. Me, I got time to notice things now that I'm old," Emmett said. "Why would you think we work cattle on Sunday anyway?"

   Emmett's blank eyes said that he really did not remember telling her that he wanted her to come to the ranch and vaccinate the cattle that day. Talking about it would only agitate him further so she changed the subject. "There was a whole family of coyotes in the pasture. Looked like a momma with five or six half grown babies. You got a donkey out there that'll kill them if they try to harm a baby calf? There were enough of them they might try to take down a small heifer. I don't reckon they'd mess with an old rangy bull though."

   Before Emmett could answer Jarod joined them. He hadn't put on his boots but rather a pair of sandals. Even his naked toes made her hormones go into overdrive.

   He chose a rocking chair on the other side of Emmett rather than the one right beside Daisy. He couldn't trust himself to sit that close to her without at least reaching across the space and touching her cheek.

   Emmett's blue eyes narrowed and he pursed his mouth so tight the wrinkles from the top blended with those on his chin and erased his narrow lips. He glared at Jarod. "What in the hell have you done with my donkey? I ain't seen it around in a few days. Damn thing didn't die, did it? I hope to hell not. If that bunch of coyotes take down one of my baby calves, I'm holdin' you responsible."

   Jarod almost choked. "I guess he's out in the back pasture."

   "Well, put him up closer to the house. Them coyotes are gettin' brazen what with the hot summer and all. We might ought to buy another one. Keep one out with the cows and one up close to the house too. I thought I heard a mountain lion the other day settin' up a squall out in the pasture. Bet that donkey killed it 'cause I ain't heard it since then."

Daisy cut her eyes around at Jarod.

   He barely shook his head and quickly mouthed that he'd tell her later.

   "Let's have some of that cheesecake for an afternoon snack and then I'm going to take my Sunday nap," Emmett said. "Maybe you two can talk out this fight if I'm not here. Don't know why y'all are in a tiff but I know it. Jarod shoulda kissed you when you got here even if you are dressed like shit. You can't fool me, Daisy. You ain't been home all damn week so I know you are fightin' and right here at the first that ain't a good sign. I might be old but there ain't a damn thing wrong with my brain. You make him apologize and toe the line."

   "Yes, sir, I will do that," she said.

   "And you'll stay here tonight and not go to the Honky Tonk since it's closed, right?"

   "Of course I will. I'll go fix us all a piece of cheesecake. Want coffee to go with it or sweet tea?"