"Why Nocona? Why not Saint Jo?"
"It's like this: Capps Corner is thirteen miles to Nocona and about nine to Saint Jo. We support both volunteer fire companies. If a wild fire starts, you'll see why. Pastures start burning, we need all the help we can get out here in the middle of nowhere."
"I see," Julie said.
"I donated a dozen jars of your squash relish to the auction. I'm dying to see how much it sells for and who buys it."
"But California could have bought that," Julie said.
"California can't put out a fire if it's licking at my door."
"In more ways than one," Julie said.
Mamie busted out laughing. "You are a naughty girl, my friend."
"Sometimes."
Annie was bouncing like a rubber ball on concrete. "Let's go. I see the pretty colors. They look like my bathtub boats. I'm going to yell and scream for the one with the red, white, and blue sails."
They were barely stopped when Lizzy came running from Marita's quilt. She was yelling, "Annie! Annie!" before Annie had her seat belt unfastened.
"They are here?" Julie asked.
"Of course. Everyone in the whole area is here. Griffin is a member of the fire department and besides, the Luckadeaus always come to the regatta. Come on. Let's get the quilt spread out before the race begins," Mamie said.
Marita waved her over. "Hey, Julie, come put your quilt next to ours. Those girls are going to want to spend their time together anyway."
Mamie and Julie carried their cooler and quilt to the edge of the water and spread it out right next to Marita's. Annie and Lizzy pointed at the sailboats and tried to decide on which one they were going to root for. Annie had fallen in love with the red, white and blue one, but Lizzy liked the turquoise and yellow, and they wanted to cheer for the same one.
Finally they decided that whoever could throw a rock the longest distance in the lake would pick their favorite boat. Each chose a rock with great care. Lizzy threw hers first. Annie tossed hers second. It wasn't even a contest. Annie's rock went the longest distance so they'd be yelling for the red, white, and blue sails.
Julie sat down and listened to Marita and Mamie talk about the people they would see and those who weren't there yet. Few names meant anything to her, so she let her mind drift. So the Luckadeaus had their fingers in every pie in the whole county? She could have sworn that a bull rider wouldn't be a candidate for sailboat racing. Her pulse quickened at the idea of Griffin in sailor's garb with his hands around the ropes, but she set it to rights before it got plumb out of hand.
Then Marita said something about Milli and Beau.
"Will they be here?" Julie asked hoping her voice didn't give away her aggravation at having her day spoiled by those interfering Luckadeau wives.
"No, Milli has gone to her parents in Hereford, out in the panhandle of Texas. She has her own little airplane and takes the kids with her once a month to spend a night with her folks. Beau is knee deep in hay and wheat," Marita said. "You'd love Milli, you ever got to know her. She's a hoot. Let me tell you, anything Beau can do, she can do just as well."
Julie didn't answer. She'd never get to know the woman. "How about Jane and Slade?"
Marita shook her head.
"Griffin is the auctioneer tonight, isn't he?" Mamie asked.
"Yes he is and he's going to say words so fast I can't hear them all—wait 'til you hear them, Annie. He talks so fast it sounds funny," Lizzy answered.
Julie almost groaned out loud.
Mamie explained. "Griffin is a member of the volun teer fire department in Saint Jo and in Nocona. He went to auctioneer school when he was still in high school so he helps out with things like this. Graham was the sailor. Had a boat with a four leaf clover on the sail. He won the race when he was sixteen. Damn, that boy could sail like he could… well, let's just say he could do a little better than California."
"Mamie!" Julie whispered.
"We were kids. He was pretty. I was…" she stopped. "I'm going to hush now. Some things don't bear remem bering, at least not out loud. Suffice it to say that nothing really happened. Not that I wasn't willing, but he had a girlfriend and what goes on in a boathouse stays in a boathouse, kind of like Las Vegas."
Or Dallas,
Julie thought.
Five blasts let everyone know the race was getting serious. Lizzy counted the honks on her fingers and told Annie what was happening. Annie held up her fingers on the next series and told her there would be four this time. When the boats really set off, both girls began to hop up and down and yell for the red, white, and blue sailboat.
"Hi. Y'all got an extra beer? I'm spittin' dust." Alvera Clancy settled onto their quilt without an invitation.
Mamie popped open a longneck and handed it to her. She downed a fourth of the beer without coming up for air and burped loudly. Both girls giggled and sucked hard on their juice packs and waited, but no burp was forthcoming.
"How are you today?" Alvera looked right at Julie.
"I'm fine. It's a lovely weekend for a regatta, isn't it?"
Alvera smiled. "Yep, it is that. You got your ducks in a row for the big fight on Tuesday? That Clarice has been callin' ever'body in the area to come to the meetin'. God Almighty, but that woman likes to meddle. I told my brother when he married her he was going to be sorry. Ever heard that old sayin' that says, 'Marry in haste, repent at leisure'? Well, that's what he did. He repented long as he could stand it and then he had a heart attack and died. I wanted to put something like that on his tombstone but Clarice had this sticky sweet thing about how he's 'Missed by those who loved him.' She thinks a gold fingernail makes her opinion worth more than anyone else's. You two get your ideas together and present them. I'll be there in case she gets too out of hand."
"She's your sister-in-law?" Julie was amazed.
"You oughta feel sorry for me. I've had to put up with her all her life. Went to school with her when she was a blonde-haired, snotty-nosed kid. Then my brother married her when they wasn't old enough to know no better. The old bitch will be a burr under your saddle until she's dead. Just don't back down from what you want to do. She's goin' to fight you ever' step of the way on ever' decision, but hell, honey, it'll make you strong. Time she's in the grave… hopefully it will be sooner rather than later… you'll have enough steel in your bones to run things proper."
If Julie had kept the grin inside, she would have burst.
Mamie laughed aloud. "Yes, ma'am, we'll do our damnedest to stay in the saddle the full eight seconds at the meetin'."
"I'm countin' on you. Got to go speak to Everett now. Thanks for the beer. Would you look at that? Clarice has arrived in all her pasted-on glory. God dang, she looks like hell," Alvera said as she stood up.
Julie looked around and sure enough, there was Clarice getting out of a brand-new Cadillac. She wore turquoise Spandex capri-length pants, a flowing thin shirt printed with flags of every color of the rainbow, and a bright red camisole. Her sandals, with kitten heels that sunk into the moist grass every time she stepped, were the same color as the pants.
She looked Julie right in the eye, tilted her chin up, and went in the opposite direction.
"Guess she's here to do some politickin'," Mamie said.
"I love this town," Julie said with a giggle. She didn't even realize she'd said the words aloud until Mamie grinned.
"Oh, darlin', you just wait until you get to know all of them and the way their lives entangle. It's a hoot," Mamie said.
Julie felt Griffin's gaze even before she could see him, making long strides up the edge of the water and watching the boats. Her nerves frayed out at just the sight of him in those tight jeans and boots. She let her eyes linger another moment—glad for her sunglasses so he couldn't see how he affected her—before she looked back out at the lake.
Griffin noticed her when he heard his daughter squealing and looked around to see the two little girls with white streaks shining. He hadn't thought about her being there but Lizzy would be glad to see Annie. He'd take that child without a second's hesitation if he could, especially if he could adopt her without having to deal with Julie. He wondered if she'd be willing to agree to a
settlement? He answered his own questio
n with two words: "Hell, no!" in a low voice. After the way she'd protected Annie and Lizzy both that day on her porch, he had no doubts that she'd kill anyone who tried to take her child.
He claimed a corner of Marita's quilt. "Hello, ladies."
"Where'd you come from?" Mamie asked.
He opened the cooler. "Had to get the chores done before I could leave. Lizzy was in hot water so Marita brought her early. Want a beer?"
Mamie took the offered longneck.
"You?" he asked Julie.
She reached and he passed. Their fingertips brushed and sparks flew around them like fireworks on New Year's Eve. By continuous refusal to acknowledge the sensations, she hoped they'd simply die in their sleep one night. She'd made a colossal mistake with a Luckadeau one time before and it was not happening again. The hormones shifted into high gear even when women had sex on a regular basis, but when a lady had been celibate as long as she had? Well, it stood to reason the hormones would shoot right on into overdrive.
An old oak tree that had lived out its usefulness would put out a bumper crop of acorns the year before it died. A woman who was on the brink of menopause, especially in the Donavan family when the ladies went through it in their late thirties, would have sexual cravings because her body wanted one more baby. Look around at all the tag-along kids in the world born when a woman was past forty and thought she'd finished having her family.
Thirty loomed right around the corner when Annie was born and Julie had tried every fertility drug known to the medical profession. Derrick had refused to be checked, saying that his swimmers were strong. Turned out he was wrong. Annie was proof of that. Now Julie was thirty-four and the biological clock was about to run out of time, so it was setting up a howl for sex. Forget about making love; her body didn't care a flip about love. It was trying to procreate and by damn she wasn't letting it have its way if her decision caused the governor of the great state of Texas to go blind or if it caused Clarice Utley to be nice for a whole day.
Yeah, right!
her conscience argued.
If Griffin
Luckadeau gave you a push you'd fall backwards and
take him down with you. Wake up, lady. It's move or
be miserable. You can't live in Saint Jo and have a
moment's peace in your heart.
Griffin stole glances at Julie, who was looking espe cially pretty today. She seemed more pensive than usual and much less prone to get her hackles up. He studied her from behind mirrored sunglasses and liked what he saw. No wonder his brother was attracted to her. Mercy, but she was a fine-looking woman. But she'd slept with Graham and that threw up a block so big Griffin could never climb over it.
"Want another beer?" Griffin asked.
Until he spoke, Julie hadn't realized she'd finished off the whole beer. She held up the empty bottle and stared at it for several moments before she shook her head.
"Where were your thoughts? Looked like you were seeing right through that bottle and into eternity," Griffin said.
"My thoughts aren't up for discussion. Why don't you sail?" Julie asked.
"That was Graham's thing. Every time I get on any kind of boat, even a canoe, I get sick. I can't imagine going on a cruise. I'd spend all my time in the bathroom huggin' the toilet and upchucking."
"And yet you can sit on a bull for eight seconds? That doesn't make sense," she said.
"Graham tried bull riding one time. Got so nervous he almost had a heart attack," Griffin said seriously. "It's the twin thing. We looked exactly alike but we had very different tastes. In all things."
She looked at him from the corner of her eye but couldn't decide if he was delivering a grand slam against her character again, calling her a white trash hooker, or if he was merely stating fact.
He went on, "Graham had this overpowering person ality that overshadowed everyone in his presence, including me. The maddest I ever got at him was the day he came home from Wichita Falls and told me he'd joined the Air Force. He was shipping out for boot camp in a week. We about came to blows."
"Why?" Julie asked.
"Because I didn't want him to go. I'd never been away from him for more than a week and that was for my honeymoon. I was selfish on several sides. He was my brother. I didn't want him over there where he might get killed. I didn't want to run the ranch by myself. My mother's family left their ranch in south Texas to her and she and Daddy went to take care of it, leaving me and Graham to run this one. I didn't want to do it all by myself and I wanted him to be here with me to share the good times as well as the not-so-good," Griffin said.
"And besides all that, you didn't want him to go have all the fun, did you?" Mamie teased.
"Look what all that fun got him," Griffin said.
Mamie scooted across the quilt and put her arm around him. "I'm sorry, Griff. I didn't mean to be ugly. I was just teasing."
Julie started to stand up. "I'm going now. I'll find somewhere else to sit after a remark like that. I don't even care if you think I'm being insensitive."