My Give a Damn's Busted (22 page)

Larissa stopped at the bottom of the porch steps. “What do you do in the winter?”

“I plant pansies and that purple shit that looks like overgrown cabbages. I reckon she don’t care what it looks like as long as I don’t forget to tell her everything that happens. I’ve got lunch ready. Made soup today. We’ll eat early today. Come on in. You can answer my question while we eat.” Merle held the door for her.

“That sounds wonderful, and is that bread I smell?”

“Cornbread to go with the soup. I whipped up some cinnamon rolls for dessert.”

“Who else are you expecting?”

“I got up this morning with a feeling that someone would be coming by. Thought it might be Angel. She still might run through sometime today. She often does. It’s closer to come out here than to drive all the way back to the ranch and besides, Garrett’s noon and hers is two different things.” Merle led the way through the small foyer into a great room that housed living room, dining room, and kitchen.

“Love your house. Want to sell it?” Larissa asked.

“Hell no! Had it built when we came to Mingus exactly the way I wanted and I ain’t changed my mind about what I want far as a house goes in all these years. Honey, terrorists couldn’t blow my old ass out of it. I’ll show you the rest of it after we eat.”

“What can I do to help?” Larissa asked.

“Bowls are on the bar with the cornbread. Soup is on the stove. Don’t need to do anything but help yourself. We’ll eat in here at the kitchen table since there’s only two of us. It’s cozier. Now tell me what brings you to my house today?” Merle picked up a bowl, crumbled cornbread in the bottom, and carried it to the stove, where she filled it.

Larissa did the same. “Tea in the fridge?”

“Yes, it is. Ice in the door. Make us both one,” Merle said.

Larissa blew on a spoonful of hot vegetable soup before she put it in her mouth. “Good,” she muttered.

“Picante sauce.”

Larissa’s eyes asked the question.

“That’s the secret. Half a cup of picante sauce. It spices it up and puts a little fire into it. I’m always glad for company but why are you here, Larissa?”

“I woke up to find Luther and Hank both on my porch this morning.”

“Luther is fighting with Tessa. She wants to ask you if she can work the bar a couple of nights a week to make some extra Christmas money. She helped Sharlene the other night and she’s damn good. Luther don’t want her to work in a bar.”

“Well, that’s a double standard. He works for me,” Larissa said.

“Yes, it is and they’ll work it out. Luther is still carrying around baggage about his ex-wife and that driller that she had an affair with. He’s got to let it go and realize Tessa isn’t that piece of trash. She’s a good woman. I’m sure Luther wanted you to tell him he was right and to ask you to not hire Tessa. Now what in the hell was Hank doing there?”

Larissa tipped up the tea. “He said he and Hayes had a fight and he won. He says he wants to be Hank on a full-time basis. Henry is giving him the ranch and he’s going to be a rancher.”

“You got a problem with that?” Merle asked.

“He’ll get bored. He’s used to the fast life.”

“Did you? Mingus is a little smaller than Cairo or London or even Stockholm. They’re a hell of a lot more exciting than Dallas, Texas, and you lived in all of them before you moved here. It sounds to me like you and Luther got a lot in common.”

“What?” Larissa was dumbfounded. She’d expected Merle to offer to have Hank killed like she had an old boyfriend of Cathy’s back in the days when Cathy owned the Tonk.

“Luther’s judging and so are you. Maybe not for the same reasons. You didn’t know Hayes except for a day, hell, for less than an hour. How do you know that he wasn’t dissatisfied with Dallas before he ever met you or came to Mingus this last time?”

“Are you telling me to pick up where we left off?”

“Hell no! You got to start all over if you are interested in that cowboy. Toss the past out the window and start from scratch. Just like me when I make a mess of a shirt. I can’t very well put a patch on the design and expect to sell the damn thing. I have to throw it in the trash can, pick up a piece of material, and build another shirt. That’s what you’ve got to do
if
you are interested,” Merle said.

“What about trust?”

“That’s why you start over. That trust is gone. You never could trust Hayes. Now you got to see if you can trust Hank. And that’s already a bit shaky so don’t get in a hurry. Give it time. Build a good solid foundation. You can’t put up a house without a foundation that’ll weather cold, hot, and everything in between. Learn to be his friend and let him be yours. Then go from there.”

Larissa smiled. “How’d you get so smart?”

“Old age.”

“You? Don’t give
me
that line of shit. Merle Avery is ageless.”

“For that you get two cinnamon rolls.”

***

The Honky Tonk was full five minutes after the doors opened. Wednesday night used to be the slowest night of the week. Not so, anymore. Three-for-a-quarter songs about cheatin’ and drinkin’, cold beer, good mixed drinks, and a bouncer who kept things from getting out of hand kept people waiting in the parking lot for someone to leave.

“Need some help?” Tessa asked. She was a tall brunette with green eyes and a splash of freckles across her nose. Black plastic framed glasses perched on her nose that was just slightly too large for her face. Tight jeans stretched across a bottom that was wider than her top half. She had a ready smile and a quick wit.

Larissa thought about it for less than a minute before she nodded. Luther might get mad but he could get glad in the same britches. She did need help and she’d already had it from a damn fine source that Tessa could do the work.

“I pay minimum wage and you keep your tips. You run the beer handles, Tessa. Sharlene, you move up to mixed drinks. I’m going to work the bar and do buckets. Anyone gets in a bind, holler and I’ll help whoever needs it,” Larissa said.

“Fair enough,” Tessa said.

“Luther going to quit because of this?” Sharlene asked.

“That’s Luther’s problem,” Larissa said.

“We had us a talk. He’s fine with it now,” Tessa said. “But I’m glad you hired me without asking. I hear that Hank Wells is back in town. What do you think of that?”

“Hey, can I get a bucket of longneck Coors?” A customer asked from the far end of the bar.

Larissa grabbed a galvanized milk bucket, shoved six bottles of beer into it, and added two scoops of ice. She carried to the end of the bar and set it in front of the man.

“You got a Wednesday special on this, right?” he teased.

“Sure I do. On Wednesday you get it for twice the amount you pay on Tuesday,” she shot back at him.

“That the price for drinkin’ instead of listenin’ to preachin’ on a church night?” he asked.

“You got a guilty conscience?”

“Not me!” He handed her a twenty-dollar bill.

She made change and counted it back to him.

“Want to dance? I see you got lots of help and no wedding ring.”

“Don’t dance with customers,” she said.

“Too bad. I’m a damn fine dancer.”

Hank slid onto a bar stool. “I know one customer you danced with once upon a time.”

“Yes, and look what it got me,” she said. Her crazy heart was acting like her fat cells when they found a hidden candy bar. Over the top with excitement and couldn’t wait to get the paper off and taste the sweetness.

“What did it get you? Sharlene, could I get a martini?” Hank raised his voice but didn’t take his eyes off Larissa’s face. If fate would let him, he would be content to sit on that bar stool the rest of his life, sinking into the depths of her brown eyes.

“It got me in a mess and I thought Hayes was gone.”

“He is.”

She nodded toward Sharlene who was heading toward the mixed drink table. “Martini?”

“Hank likes them too. Especially the ones that he gets in the Honky Tonk. They’re almost as good as the owner is beautiful.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said.

“I’m not uttering words of flattery, ma’am. I’m speaking the pure gospel truth.”

Sharlene looked at Larissa before she even made the martini. At her nod she put it together and set it in front of Hank. “What are you doing here?”

“I been answerin’ that question all day. I’m here for a drink and a little conversation with the customers, to listen to some good old country music and watch the dancin’. I’d ask the pretty boss to dance with me but she told that other man that she don’t dance with customers. I guess that’s what I am tonight so that’s what I’m doing here,” he said.

“I need help,” Tessa called.

“Enjoy the martini.” Larissa left Hank on the bar stool and went to help draw a dozen beers.

“What happened?” Sharlene whispered out the side of her mouth. “I figured you’d shoot him on the spot if he ever showed his face in the Tonk again.”

“I’ll tell you the whole story after we close tonight,” Larissa promised.

“That’s five and a half hours from now. I can’t wait that long.”

“Short version then. He’s moved back permanently. Showed up on my porch this morning. More later.”

“That’ll keep me until we close,” Sharlene said seriously.

Larissa didn’t want to wake up. She peeked at the clock to find that it was noon. Stallone was stretched out on the pillow next to her, his eyes wide open and set on her face. Voices carried from the porch into the house for the second morning.

“Shit!” Larissa moaned. Two mornings in a row was too damn much. The smell of coffee reached her nose and she threw back the sheets. She padded barefoot to the kitchen, poured a cup, and sat down at the table. Luther and Hank needed to find a new place to take their morning break or she was going to put a quart jar on the porch and charge them to sit in her orange rocking chairs. For two men who hated the colors she’d picked out they were damn sure making themselves at home there.

She cocked her head to one side and strained her hearing. That wasn’t Luther’s voice or Hank’s. One of them was a woman’s and the other was deep and slow. The masculine one asked a question and the woman talked… and talked… and talked.

“Sharlene!” Larissa said.

Stallone went to the door and meowed pitifully. He reared up on his hind legs toward the doorknob and looked back over his shoulder frantically.

“Okay, okay. I can see you are trying to cross your legs,” she griped. She opened the door and he made a beeline to the edge of the porch, dug a hole, and squatted.

“Guess he was in a hurry,” the deep voice said with a laugh.

“When you gotta go, you gotta go. Come on out here, Larissa. We won’t have many more mornings this nice. Sun is out and the birds are chirpin’,” Sharlene called out.

She carried her cup of coffee to the porch. Sharlene occupied one rocker and Henry the other.

He got up and motioned for her to sit. “I’ll take the porch step.”

“Keep your seat. I’ll take the step,” she said.

“I ain’t arguing with you. I don’t have much trouble gettin’ down but the gettin’ up is a different matter.”

Sharlene’s kinky red hair was pulled up into a frenzied ponytail. Her paint splotched jeans were faded at the knees and her shirt had been red at one time but was almost pink. She wore her work boots with scuffed toes and worn-down heels.

“I used the key you told me about last night and went on and made coffee since you was still asleep. Stallone was hungry so I fed him,” she said.

Larissa looked at Henry.

“I was here before her. Had to run down to Stephenville for another tractor part. Ought to sell the damn things to the man for the tractor cemetery and let him make a few bucks on what parts are good. But I’ve got a sentimental vein in my heart for old things. Can’t bear to get rid of them long as there’s parts to fix them. Ever hear that quote about a broke give-a-shit?”

Larissa shook her head.

“If your give-a-shit has a crack, you can fix it; if it’s plumb broke you might as well throw it out.”

“Kind of like the song by Jo Dee Messina,” Larissa said.

“Yep, she probably got the idea from that old saying,” Henry said.

Sharlene fidgeted with the chair arms. “Guess I better come right on out with it. It’s all bottled up inside of me and makin’ me nervous as hell. My paycheck came in the mail this morning. I got my pink slip and a letter. It said they’d give me a very good recommendation for another job but they were cutting back staff again. Last come, first to go type thing. So I’m out of a job at the newspaper. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Not for me. You making enough at the Tonk to live on?” Larissa asked.

“Without rent or utilities and since my car is paid for, I am.”

“How much are you savin’?” Henry asked.

“That’s a different matter, but I don’t have to have a big savings account. If I’ve got a roof, a place to work, and something to eat, I can be happy,” Sharlene said.

“You got a dollar an hour raise starting tonight since you are definitely full time now. What are you going to do during daylight hours?”

Sharlene flashed them a big smile. “Write a book. Please don’t think I’m crazy. It’s been keeping me awake at night just thinkin’ about it. I’ve already got it named and I think it’ll be a best seller.”

”I think that’s a great idea,” Larissa said.

Sharlene wiped her forehead dramatically. “You don’t think it’s a waste of time?”

Henry reached across the distance separating the chairs and patted her arm. “You write that book. Whatever is laid on your heart, you do it and you won’t have a bunch of regrets later down the road.”

“Will you talk to me about Palo Pinto County and Ruby Lee?”

A shiver crawled down Larissa’s spine. “Why would you ask that?”

“My book is going to be fiction but Ruby Lee is the inspiration for it.”

“I would love to talk to you about Ruby anytime. You just come on up to the ranch and we’ll sit on the porch and I’ll tell you lots of stories on that pretty lady,” Henry said.

“Thank you. I appreciate that, Henry. Larissa, before you let the cat out we were talkin’ about this house. Henry says that he hasn’t ever seen anything like it,” Sharlene said.

“Hank told me all about it but I deliberately come down here today myself so I could take a look at it. It ain’t as gawd awful as he said it was but it don’t miss it by much.”

Sharlene shook her finger at him. “I love it. I wanted to paint the Honky Tonk this color but Larissa wouldn’t let me. You’d think I’d be disfiguring a damn shrine the way she looked at me. So since I couldn’t paint the beer joint I painted my kitchen table and chairs and every little side table in the apartment a different color. Y’all want to go home with me and see it right now?”

Henry shook his head emphatically. “No, ma’am. This is enough for my tired old eyes for one day.”

“Old, my ass. What are you, fifty-two?” Larissa said.

“Sixty-two this past month. I’m helping Hank get his ranchin’ legs steady under him for the next year and then I’m retiring.”

“What will you do when you retire? Ranchers and farmers don’t retire. I come from that kind of country up in Corn, Oklahoma. And I ain’t never known a rancher or a farmer to retire. They just keep on doin’ what they do until the day they drop dead,” Sharlene said.

“That’s what I plan on doin’ too. Hank will have the ranch and I’m givin’ him the house in a year. I’m going to get a smaller one built out in the north forty and help him wherever I can. But I’ll be finished making big decisions and worrying about whether it’ll be a good year.”

Sharlene stood up. “Well, I got to go. Thanks for the raise, Larissa.”

“You earned it.”

“You saying that means as much to me as the raise. Henry, I’ll be up to the ranch in a few days. Write down a few notes so you don’t forget anything,” Sharlene said.

“Honey, where Ruby Lee is concerned, I remember everything in perfect detail. You just come on anytime. I can always take a break and talk to you about her.”

She took time to pet Stallone on the way to her car and waved as she pulled out onto the road and headed back south toward the Honky Tonk.

Henry took a sip of coffee and set his cup on the porch. “The beer joint still looks the same. I’m glad you ain’t changed anything about it. I hear it’s got to be a right popular place and Luther has to count heads to make sure y’all don’t get too many at one time in there.”

Larissa moved from the porch step to the empty rocking chair.

“I didn’t just come up here and sit in your chair so I could see the house,” he said.

“I know,” Larissa whispered.

“I’m in the same boat you are, lassy. I don’t know if he’s made this decision on a whim or if he’s thought it out. Ranchin’ is tough business. It’s hard on the body and the mind. That’s why I’m givin’ him a year before I turn it over to him lock, stock, and barrel. Will you give him the same amount of time?”

She’d been thinking about Sharlene being at the ranch with Hank and trying to get past a little jolt of jealousy while she listened with one ear to what Henry said. When he asked the question, she came back to the moment with a jolt.

“Why are you asking that?”

“One year, Larissa. In that amount of time we’ll see if he’s Hayes or Hank. This is my dream. That my son would come home to the ranch that I love but I’m afraid to believe it. He’s here partly because of you. You got every right to tell him to go straight to hell, the way he done you. If he was a kid I’d take him out to the wood shed and use a switch on him for it, but he ain’t. I’m afraid if you tell him all his chances are gone he’ll go back to Dallas. If I have him a year then he’ll put down roots.”

“Merle says I have to start all over again from scratch if I’m interested in him. That I have to go slow and give it time,” Larissa said.

Henry pulled a red bandana from the bib pocket of his striped overalls and wiped sweat from his forehead. “Merle is a smart woman. Always has been. Tried to talk sense to me when we were all younger. I wouldn’t listen.”

Larissa stuck her hand out. “One year.”

He shook it firmly. “If he ain’t took root by then, I’ll let him go.”

***

Larissa was dang glad for Tessa and Sharlene on Saturday night. It had always been the busiest night of the week but that night had been a record breaker. The place filled up more than three times as people came and went and Luther let more in. Not once all night had the number dropped below full capacity. She’d sold enough beer and drinks to float the
Titanic
by two am when Luther unplugged the jukebox and called out that the place was closed.

The cash register was overflowing. Tessa and Sharlene were both dancing jigs when they counted their tips. Larissa decided to get a bank deposit ready even though she was dog tired. Tessa and Sharlene pitched in, counting the bills and rolling the change. It was three o’clock when she finally locked the money into the trunk of her car and drove home.

Stallone didn’t rush out from under the kitchen porch to rub against her legs like usual and there was a light on in her kitchen. Neither was unusual since she often forgot to turn off lights and the cat could be out chasing field mice or else sleeping high up in a tree on a limb.

She tossed her purse on the sofa and went straight to the kitchen. She planned to eat a bowl of cereal, forfeit her shower, and go to bed smelling like she was the lone survivor of a forest fire.

“Hello. Was it a tough night?” Hank said from the kitchen stove.

She jumped like she’d been caught naked on Main Street at high noon. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry. I couldn’t sleep so I got up and drove down here. I was going to sit on the porch and wait for you but you still hide the key in the same place. You want your eggs fried or scrambled? Bacon is cooked. Biscuits will be out of the oven in five minutes,” he said.

I said we’d go slow, remember? Slow my ass. How does one go slow with that much testosterone in a room the size of this kitchen? I’m too tired to chew but I bet I could wrangle up enough energy to jerk them jeans off his sexy butt.

“Fried. Easy over. I’m going to take a quick shower and get the smoke off me.”

“Better hurry. Cold fried eggs are horrible.”

She threw all her clothes on the floor, stepped into the tub, and pulled the shower curtain, then adjusted the water and asked herself what in the hell was she doing? She should parade out into the kitchen and tell him to take his fried eggs and shove them up his lying ass. But she was hungry and it smelled so good. She’d eat before she sent him packing with orders to never cook her breakfast at three in the morning again.

She shampooed and let the hot water rinse her hair and untie the knots in her back muscles at the same time. When she finished, she wrapped a towel around her head and pulled on a terry bath robe.

“Perfect timing. Biscuits just came out of the oven. I buttered them already and the last three eggs are fried. Have a seat and I’ll pour coffee for us,” he said hoarsely. The woman was even sexy in a bathrobe and a towel turban. He didn’t care if her name was Ruth, Larissa, or Miss Piggy.

She didn’t wait for coffee but slid three eggs, half a pound of bacon, and a pile of hash browned potatoes onto her plate. He could cook, paint, and haul hay, plus he could dance and was damn good in the bedroom department. That should be the first block of the foundation of a new and better relationship. But that could be her hormones talking and not her common sense.

“So?”

“Wonderful,” she said around a mouthful of flaky, buttered biscuit.

“I don’t mean the food. Do I get a second chance?”

She stopped and met his stare across the table. “I’m never quitting my job at the Honky Tonk, Hank. You sure you want a second chance?”

“Did I ask you to leave the Tonk?”

“You are Henry’s son,” she reminded him.

“And I can learn by his mistakes, can’t I?”

“I just wanted to make that clear from right now at the beginning, Hank. Anyone takes me, they take my beer joint.”

“I don’t care about you being a barmaid,” he said.

“Okay, then let’s take things very slow and see where they end up. I don’t want to rush anything.”

“Deal,” he said. “I was wondering if after breakfast you would like to go do something very slow.”

“I mean it, Hank. No sex.”

He raised both dark eyebrows. “Ever?”

“Six months, at least. I said slow. I didn’t say never. If we’re ever going to build anything from the ashes of a failed relationship, it cannot be rushed.”

“I can live with that. But what I was talking about had nothing to do with sex. I am glad that you thought it did because now I know the rule. Got any more?”

“I’ll think about it and get back to you. What were
you
talking about?”

He handed her another biscuit. “I’ve got an old quilt behind the seat of my truck. I know a place up on a rise on the ranch that is a wonderful spot to watch the sun rise. You don’t get to see something like that in your line of work very often.”

“Okay,” she said.

“Thank you.” He reached across the table and wiped a bit of butter from the edge of her mouth with his napkin.

Six months! I made the damn rule. Now I’ll have to live with it,
she thought.

***

Up in the northern part of Palo Pinto County the land has more rolling hills and curves than in the southern part. She could see little in the darkness but when he drove past the ranch house she realized they were on his land. The ride from there was bumpy at best and made her glad she’d taken time to empty her bladder before she left the house.