"She's a pretty woman but not for me," Jarod said.
"Why?"
"She's a barmaid and she's not one bit attracted to me. Matter of fact, I think she hates me. Ain't no use wastin' time and besides, I've got all I can handle with Emmett and trying to get that ranch back in working order. I just plain haven't got the time or energy for her."
"Yep, she'd be a handful, all right. It'll take a strong man to tame that one. I see the way you look at her. You've got bit, old man, by the lust bug. But you probably couldn't keep up with her anyway. She's out of your league," Jim Bob taunted.
"It won't work, Jim Bob. Give it up. And besides, since when is a bartender out of my league?"
"I can tell Chigger I tried and believe me, Daisy is a hell of a lot more than a barmaid."
Jarod chuckled. "Tell Chigger you gave it your best shot and leave it at that."
Jarod listened to Jim Bob sing Chigger's praises but his eyes kept straying to the porch. Daisy had disappeared inside with Chigger then reappeared a while later wearing a dress and her hair down. He couldn't wait to get the fish cleaned so he could get a better look at her all dolled up.
***
Chigger joined Daisy in a few minutes. Her blond hair had been blow dried and floated on her shoulders. She wore a sundress, not unlike the one she'd loaned Daisy, only it was made of a demure pink and white gingham check and came to her ankles. Like Daisy, she was barefoot and her shoulders were bare. Daisy was ready to argue that no way were her big breasts that perky without silicone and then she noticed the clear bra straps across Chigger's shoulders.
"Where'd you find a bra with clear straps in your size?"
"Victoria's Secret. You should shop there. They've got the cutest things. Not that you'd ever need a bra with clear straps with those perky girls you've got, but you could get a little lace teddy and seduce Jarod."
"Shhh." Daisy nodded toward the two men taking long strides toward the house.
Jarod's mouth went as dry as desert sand when he saw Daisy sitting there in a dress with her bare feet drawn up in the rocking chair. If only he'd met her at a friend's house and not in a bar. If only she was a teacher or a lawyer or even a waitress, and not a barmaid.
Jim Bob bent to give Chigger a lingering kiss on the mouth. "Well, lookee here. You two sure do clean up nice."
Chigger pointed toward the door. "And we're hungry, so go cook."
"Want some help?" Daisy asked. The electricity between her and Jarod was almost visible and the tension it created was thicker than the walls of a nuclear fallout bunker.
"Naw, we'll take care of supper. Chigger's too pretty to be comin' in the kitchen. Besides, she can't cook worth shit. Only thing she makes that's fit for human consumption is sweet tea." Jim Bob carried the bowl of fish fillets inside the house.
Jarod followed. He felt a need to say something, anything. But not a single word came to mind. Daisy looked good enough to eat, but it was more than that. He knew she was smart, hard-working, and feisty. Cleaned up and dressed up she looked beautiful, but with the intelligence in her eyes and her capable hands, she also looked like a woman who could dance all night, get up at dawn, and work until dusk, and then do it all again. She looked vulnerable and strong at the same time and Jarod had gotten shot with a bolt of lust, and something else, like had never happened to him before.
Whatever it was, it's killing me,
he almost groaned.
"I think he liked what he saw," Chigger whispered.
"You really can't cook?" Daisy tried to change the subject. Anything to get her mind off the way Jarod's eyes swept over her, creating a demanding desire that she had trouble controlling.
"Let's get on the same page. Some things is not contagious. Momma tried right hard to infect me with the cooking bug. It didn't take. I was immune to it. But the first time I looked at a
Cosmopolitan with a big headlin
e on the front about pleasing a man, I was hooked on sex."
"I'm avoiding
Cosmo
today. So does that mean you don't cook?"
"Throw that damned cookbook into the fire. I really do not cook. I clean like a maniac and I can make a man moan in the bedroom, but I do not make him do the same in the kitchen. I'd rather be reading a good erotic romance as a recipe. You ever read anything by Jasmine Haynes? Lord, after reading one of her books, it's all I can do to get to the Honky Tonk and find Jim Bob. Saw a hitchhiker last week on the way and almost stopped and picked him up just to take the edge off."
"Damn, Chigger!" Daisy exclaimed.
"Well, I did. I'll bring you a few of her books, but don't you drool on the pages. Bet by damn when you read one of them you'll be peelin' Jarod's clothes off every chance you get. And that stupid rule Ruby had won't even enter your mind. Do you really like to cook?"
"Love it when I have time and people. It's been a long time since I had either," she said.
Chigger shrugged. "How are you in the bedroom?"
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"Woman that's hot in the bedroom and a cook too? Why in the hell ain't you married?"
"I almost was at one time. My cooking or my bedroom skills couldn't keep him tied to one woman. We fought. He hit me and I hit him back. But I only got one hit in and he kept hitting me hard until I figured out he was the meanest one of us. When he finally stopped, I pulled out my sawed off shotgun from the corner and had the hammer jacked back before he took off out the front door. Never heard from him again."
"What'd you do?"
"Shot the glass out of the back window of his pickup truck. Wished the whole time I'd blown the back of his head off but I missed. Only time I ever did."
"What would you have done if you had killed him?"
"I'd have gone to the hardware store, bought a shovel, and buried his sorry ass out in the mesquite. Instead, I packed my clothes and what I wanted out of the apartment we were sharing and started driving. Got to Thurber before my car died. How do you ever know who to trust?" Daisy asked seriously.
"I reckon it's a learned thing. We ain't born with it for sure. I think you can trust Jarod."
"Think ain't good enough for me anymore. It has to be know."
"Then I expect you'd best get to knowin', girl, or else the heat between y'all is going to fry both of you," Chigger said. "Let's go in there and do some supervising since you know how to cook."
"Hey, I didn't say I knew how to cook fish. I can fry chicken and mash potatoes, even make lasagna that's presentable and cook up a roast to die for, but—" Daisy protested.
Chigger cut her off mid-sentence. "That's more'n I can do. We're going inside so you can figure out that oil and water thing, and besides, it does a woman's heart good to see a man in the kitchen. Come on."
Chigger led the way to a couple of stools on the living room side of the bar dividing the living room and kitchen. Together they watched Jim Bob peel potatoes and Jarod mix up cornmeal, flour, and cayenne pepper to coat the fish.
Jim Bob stopped long enough to kiss Chigger on the forehead. "You think you could set the table out on the deck without causin' a disaster?"
"If we're usin' plastic."
"I'll trust you with the good stuff since we got company, darlin'," Jim Bob said.
"I'll help," Daisy offered.
She and Chigger were suddenly bumping into the men in the small area as they gathered up plates and cutlery. Daisy didn't have a single reaction when her arm brushed against Jim Bob's, but when she backed into Jarod's chest her pulse raced like it did the night they both wound up on the floor of the Honky Tonk. Could that have only been three days before? It seemed like weeks.
Damn that Chigger, anyway, talking about erotic romance books. Now every time she looked at Jarod, she pictured him lying on black satin sheets with nothing on but a big smile.
"Excuse me," she said the second time it happened.
"Small kitchen," he said hoarsely. If she touched him again he was going to have to take a cold shower before supper time.
She and Chigger carried the dinnerware out to the deck and set places on the glass-topped table surrounded by four chairs.
"Might as well have a seat. No, not there. You can't see Jarod from that angle. Pull your chair around here beside me. That way we can watch them," Chigger said.
"Chigger, for the last time. We are not compatible. He's a rancher—"
"And you are a vet who loves animals. What better combination? Hell, you could dress up as a nurse in one of them little short sexy things from Victoria's Secret and he could be your horse and—"
Daisy stuck her fingers in her ears. "Shut up or I'm leaving," she hissed. God Almighty, didn't Chigger understand she didn't need a bit of help in creating a scenario with Jarod? And she sure didn't need sexual props. One king-sized bed and candlelight was plenty.
"He sees me as a bartender and that's what I am more than a vet tech, which is not a full-fledged vet at all," Daisy said.
"You're a vet to all the folks around here. You bring that black bag of yours and do as good a job as any certified vet so don't give me that shit."
The tinny ringtone of "I Love This Bar" came from the living room loud and clear.
"Well, shit. I forgot to prowl through your purse and turn that damn thing off. Tell whoever it is that you don't have a vehicle and no one is driving you out to any ranch to pull a calf. Besides, you are wearing my sundress and you can't ruin it." Chigger kept talking the whole time Daisy rushed into the house and fished the phone from her purse.
"Hello," she said.
"Daisy, this is Cathy. I was about to hang up or leave a message."
"What's going on? Are you all right?"
"No," Cathy said.
"Talk to me," Daisy said.
"It got ugly last night. His name is Brad and he…"
"You have my permission to kill him. Want me to send the shotgun by FedEx?"
Jarod and Jim Bob stopped what they were doing and stared.
She covered the mouthpiece of the phone and whispered, "My cousin and her boyfriend. I'll explain later," Daisy explained and turned her attention back to the phone. "What are you going to do?"
"He's gone. He's not moving back in here," Cathy said.
"I can always use a damn good bartender at the Honky Tonk."
Cathy's heavy sigh came through the phone. "Thanks. I hate to leave Mena. It's home and my other job is here."
"Home is where you hang your hat, girl. Keep me posted."
She flipped her phone shut and turned to find Jarod and Jim Bob still staring.
"What?" she said.
"Someone going to get killed?" Jarod asked.
She perched on a barstool. "If I had my way about it I'd order up a backhoe for the Mena, Arkansas, cemetery today."
"And?" Jarod asked.
"Not that it's a bit of your business, but here's the story. Daddy was in the service and had an army buddy from Cherokee, North Carolina, where Momma lived. So he went home with the friend for a weekend and met Momma. Love at first sight and all that. They got married after a quick courtship and he moved her to Mena where he intended to come back to once he got out of the service. She got pregnant on their wedding night and he got killed a month later. So Granny moved from Cherokee to Mena to take care of Momma, who refused to leave the place where he was buried."
"God, that's sweet," Chigger said from the doorway.
"It was until I was about six months old and she found a new boyfriend," Daisy said. "Daddy had one brother who had a daughter, Cathy. We're only a few weeks apart in age and Mena's not a big place so we were pretty good friends. We usually meet in Dallas once a year for a couple of days and catch up on everything. That's who just called."
"I see." Jarod went back to frying fish.
"So what'd her boyfriend do?" Chigger pried.
"He got drunk and mean," Daisy said.
"Must be a family thing. Does she need your shotgun to make a believer out of him like you did that old boyfriend of yours?" Jarod asked.
He looked up at Daisy. Was that why she hated him? Was he paying for some other sorry sucker's mistake? Was the man a total nut case? Anyone who'd hit a face made for kissing and a body made for loving had to be out of his mind.
Daisy changed the subject. "How long until that fish is done? I'm starving."
"Got to fry some hush puppies and potatoes and cut up a salad and supper will be ready," Jarod said. Suddenly he wanted to know everything about Daisy, especially whatever the old boyfriend did to make her mad enough to get out the shotgun. Was that what she was talking about when he went back to the Honky Tonk for Uncle Emmett's wallet?
"You cooked both of those enormous fishes in that time?" Daisy asked.
"No, we cooked enough for our supper. The rest went into the freezer for the next time," Jim Bob answered.
The question hanging in the air between Jarod and Daisy was whether there would be a next time or not. The answer they came to at the same time was that there probably shouldn't be. Oil and water might mix on occasion. Gasoline and matches did not—ever!
Chigger dragged Daisy back out onto the deck so she could pry the whole story of her cousin and the abusive boyfriend out of her. By the time she had all the details, Jim Bob and Jarod carried supper out. Jim Bob sat down beside Chigger, which left Jarod to sit on the other side of the table so close to Daisy that his knee touched hers.