Lets go, Maddie. Lets let Linda-Ann get back to work.
Once we were out on the street again, I turned on my sister. You have to learn to lighten up, Maddie. Not everybody responds to intimidation.
Thanks for the tip, Mace. Seeing as how Ive worked with young people all my life and you work mostly with raccoons, I appreciate the lesson in human psychology.
Dont get mad. Im just saying sometimes you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Now you sound like Mama.
I was beginning to realize there are worse things I could sound like.
Maddie and I put our argument on hold, stepping off the street as a pickup truck with mud on the flaps made its way from the drive-thru lane. I couldnt believe my eyes when I caught a glimpse of the driverblack Stetson on his head, left arm in a cowboy shirt propped on the sill of his open window. My heart started pounding and my tongue went dry. I never imagined seeing him would send me for a loop; not after all these years.
Jeb Ennis! I yelled, before I even realized Id opened my mouth.
Oh, no, Maddie said.
When Jeb spotted me, he lit up in a smile. Maddies face darkened. He parked his truck and waited to cross the road to where my sister and I stood. There was a steady stream of traffictrucks carrying livestock feed and fertilizer, and the occasional tourist in a rental car whod ventured far from the resorts on the coasts in search of the
real
Florida.
As Jeb waited for the road to clear, I had plenty of time to check him out: Blonde hair, blinding white smile, the tanned face of a man who works outdoors in the Florida sun. Tight, faded jeans fit his legs like blue denim paint. He was still long and lean; the years had added only a pound or two to his six-foot frame. First, Id had inappropriate thoughts about Martinez. Now, seeing Jeb, my knees were as weak as a schoolgirls. I really need to get out more.
Reaching our side of the street, he spent a long moment staring at me.
You look great, Mace.
And he looked good enough to eat. The attraction had outlasted anger, and the passage of a decade, at least. I shoved my shaking hands into the pockets of my jeans.
Jeb removed his cowboy hat and pushed a hand through his hair, flattened and slightly sweaty where the band had rested. Youre sure a sight for sore eyes, Mace. How long has it been?
Not long enough, Maddie muttered.
I think it was my first year of college, I said, surprised when my voice came out sounding normal.
Maddie stepped in front of me, getting right in his face. Thats when some horrible cowboy broke her heart. Tell me, Jeb, are you still riding rodeo? She tossed him a smile like shed rather it was a rattlesnake.
He nervously moved the hat in his hand to his waist, covering up the championship calf-roping buckle on his belt. Nah, Maddie, Im too old for rodeo. He smiled back at her. I bought myself a little ranch west of here, out near Wauchula.
Not far enough, Maddie said.
I bit my tongue before I echoed Mama and told Maddie to mind her manners. She was trying to watch out for me, and with good reason. On the other hand, a lot of time had passed. And the man did look mighty fine in his boots and jeans. He smelled of sweat and hay and the faintest trace of manure, which is like an aphrodisiac for a former ranch gal like me.
I think my big sister was just leaving, Jeb.
I tried to signal Maddie by jerking my head toward the dumpster and her car, but she ignored me. Maddie, dont you need to get back to the middle school and torture some little children?
Ive got all the time in the world, Mace. My sister shifted her purse from her right shoulder to her left, the better to take a swing at Jeb if she needed to.
We were just talking about the owner of this place, that poor guy who got murdered. Did you know him? I asked Jeb.
His eyes flickered to the drive-thru. Only to nod at.
Youre probably a pretty good customer, Maddie said. If I remember, drinking too much was among your many flaws.
Maddie! I said.
Jeb glared at my sister, his green eyes cold. I dont drink like I used to, not that its any of your business. I just bought a couple of cases of beer for the boys who work with me at the ranch. He put his hat back on, straightened the brim, and dipped it a little toward Maddie before he turned to me. Were having a barbecue tonight, Mace. Id sure love for you to come.
Mace is allergic to barbecue sauce. Gives her hives, Maddie lied.
I stole a quick look at his left hand. No wedding ring. Still, I wasnt going to be that easy.
Ive got plans tonight. I wish. How about you ask me for the next one?
Is your number listed?
Mace doesnt have a phone. Maddie made a last-ditch effort.
Ignore my sister. Im in the book.
After he left, Maddie lit into me. I cant believe youd give that devil the time of day, Mace. When he breaks your heart again, dont say I didnt warn you.
Im a big girl now, Maddie. And you didnt have to be so rude. My hearts been shattered a time or two since Jeb.
But never as bad as that first time, Mace. Never that bad. My sister glanced at her watch. Now, I really am late. The kids will be raising a ruckus if Im not there to supervise the school bus lines.
She got into her Volvo and rolled down the window. Ill talk to you after school, okay? We need to decide what to do next about Mama.
As Maddie pulled away, I started looking through my purse for my cell. I wanted to call my other sister, Marty, and tell her about running into the great love of my life. No phone. I remembered pulling everything out of my purse inside the Booze n Breeze, hunting for a pen.
I walked back inside and saw Linda-Ann waving my missing phone over her head.
I figured youd be back for it, she grinned.
Listen, I want to apologize for my sister. Shes been a principal for so long, she treats everyone like theyre in the seventh grade.
Thats OK. Shes just as mean as ever, though. You know how her name is Madison Wilson?
I nodded.
Back in middle school, all the kids called her Mad Hen Wilson.
I leaned in close. Thatll be our secret, Linda-Ann. I didnt tell her that Maddie was not only aware of the nickname, she embraced it.
Theres something else I want to tell you. She touched one of her dreadlocks to her lips. How well do you know that good-looking cowboy who just left here?
Pretty well. We used to date, a long time ago.
Then you might want to ask him what he knows about the guy who owned this place.
I got an uneasy feeling in my gut. Whys that, Linda-Ann?
That cowboys been in here a lot in the few months Ive worked here. He always went back into the office to talk to Mr. Albert, and theyd always shut the door.
An old Ford rumbled into the drive-thru. I waited while Linda-Ann served a woman with three screaming kids, two of them still in diapers. Id be buying booze too, if I had that brood.
As the Ford backfired and pulled away, the stench of burning oil filled the little store. Linda-Ann continued her story. The last time the cowboy came in, they were back there yelling so loud I could hear their voices coming through the concrete wall.
Could you tell what they were saying?
I couldnt make it out. She folded a dreadlock in two and let it spring back. But when the cowboy left, he slammed the office door so hard it about came off its hinges. Then he kicked over a whole display case of beer. Mr. Albert came out to the counter a couple of minutes later and told me to clean it up. I thought hed be angry.
He wasnt?
His face was ghost-white and he was shaking. He didnt look mad. He looked scared to death.
I barely had time to process what Linda-Ann revealed about my one-time boyfriend.
I had to rush to work, where I was past late for an after-school event. Two third-grade classes were scheduled to visit the makeshift wildlife center I maintain at Himmarshee Park. A teacher from the last group of kids who came by sent me a letter, saying her students were still talking about the injured fox and scary snakes.
This latest group of kids was already there. I didnt want to disappoint them by not showing up.
I could hear the din of thirty-one third graders as I crossed the little bridge over Himmarshee Creek and turned into the park. When I walked in the office and dropped my purse on the desk, Rhonda, my boss, shot me a relieved look.
Thank God, youre here, Mace. Those little monsters are tearing the place apart.
Within ten minutes, I had the students gathered in an outdoor amphitheater, ooohing and aaahing over the contents of a half-dozen cages. The star of the show, a bull alligator missing an eye and most of one foot, was waiting in the wings in his outdoor pool, ready to wow the kids for the shows grand finale.
Does anybody know what this is? I held the first cage aloft. Two dozen hands shot into the air.
A skunk! cried a little boy in a red shirt who couldnt wait to be called on.
Thats right. But we dont talk out of turn, do we? Anyone with the right answer today will get a special award. But you have to wait til youre called on to get the prize, I said.
Now, this skunk I trapped because it was eating up the tomatoes in some ladys garden. She definitely didnt want it around because when she invited her friends over for cards, seeing a skunk freaked them out. It was probably somebodys pet, because it had been descented. Who knows what that means?
Fewer hands went up this time. I called on the red-shirted boy so he wouldnt feel bad.
It means he dont stink no more, he said.
Doesnt stink anymore.
Very good. Now, it was wrong to buy this skunk as a pet, and then let it go in the wild, I said. You know why? Because skunks use that stinky smell as a defense against bigger animals. Without it, this little guy was as helpless as a kitten.
And so it went for the next thirty-five minutes. A demonstration with something furred or slithery; a lesson about environmental responsibility. Finally, I herded the kids to the pool holding the seven-foot-long Ollie. There, I lectured them about staying away from alligators in the wild.
Never, ever feed an alligator, or tease it in any way, I said. If they get too comfortable around people, its dangerousnot just for you, but for them. Thats when gators become what our state laws call a nuisance animal. And that means that someone with a trappers licenselike my cousin, Dwightcan kill them and sell them for their meat and hide.
I thought of my stuffed-head key holder at home. It wasnt that gators fault someone built a house with a pool in his territory. But once they did, it wasnt safe for him to make himself at home there anymore. So now his head graced my coffee table, like a trophy buck on the basement wall of a deer hunter up north.
I pointed over a low concrete wall at Ollie, lolling in his pond. Now, that gators here because he became a nuisance to people who like to play golf. But we didnt kill him. We got special permission to keep him for educational purposes. Does anybody know what that means?
Hands shot up. I picked a little girl in a yellow sundress.
Teaching?
Right, I told her. Now, Ill educate you a little about Ollie.
Thirty-one small bodies crowded toward the pond. Careful, now! You may peek over, but you may not climb onto that wall.
When theyd chosen their spots, I continued, A gators jaws are about the most powerful thing in the animal kingdom, I told them. If Ollie were to clamp down on your arm or leg, the pressure in his bite is more than sixteen times harder than your average big dog. His jaws are even stronger than a lions.
At this point, I tossed a whole raw chicken into Ollies gaping mouth. Some of the girls screamed when the gators jaws snapped shut over his meal. I took my bow.
Handing off the kids to one of their teachers, I collapsed on a park bench. I was staring up at the sky through the green-needled branches of a cypress tree when I heard a tentative voice.
Excuse me, Ms. Bauer?
A pretty redhead peered at me from the end of the bench.
Im here with the kids, she said. Theyre going to want to know: Howd Ollie get hurt?
A fight with another male, probably over a mate. And if you think Ollie looks bad, you should have seen the other guy.
The line usually gets a laugh, but the teacher didnt crack a smile.
Uhm I wonder if I could speak to you about another matter?
With the kind of day Id had, with her hesitation and demeanor, this couldnt be good.
Sure. I patted the bench next to me, inviting her to sit down. Whats on your mind?