partners in this crazy venture, so we’ll never have to see each other again.” Reuben’s smile radiated meanness.
That’s when Jolene’s touch of evil surfaced—she would have loved to strangle him right there in the IHOP or else throw him in the bayou behind the inn. How did this despicable little rat-faced son of a bitch share DNA with her kind, softhearted uncle Jasper?
Reuben leaned forward and hissed, “Sell your half or live with it. I’m not going into debt for a loan to fix up that old trash heap. I hated the time my folks made me spend there in the summer. I hate fishing, I hate mosquitoes, and most of all, I hated being bored out there in the country. Give me the city and the sounds of civilization rather than owls hooting and tree frogs makin’ noise. I contacted a Realtor the minute I signed the papers, and I pity the fool who has to work with you.” He tilted his chin up and looked down his nose at her. “But don’t worry. You’ve got a place to live until some fool comes along with enough money to buy me out.”
“You’ll regret this someday,” she said.
He slid out of the booth, getting in one last dig before he strutted out of the restaurant. “No, I won’t. Goodbye, Jolene. When my half sells, I’m taking my department on a cruise over spring break. I’m glad that I never have to see Magnolia Inn or talk to you again.”
She shot another drop-dead look toward him. If it had penetrated that ugly black overcoat, he would have been sprawled out right there in front of the cash register. She hoped that he’d get such a case of motion sickness that he couldn’t eat a single bite of food the whole time he was on the ship or, better yet, that he’d fall overboard and not one of his precious friends would miss him. She was glad that they weren’t blood kin, but she wondered how Uncle Jasper would feel when he learned that Reuben had thrown away his half of the Magnolia Inn.
When she left, she wished the restaurant doors would slam like the screen door on the back of the Magnolia, but they didn’t even make a squeak. She stomped across the parking lot to her truck, but her athletic shoes didn’t make a sound, either. So she slammed the truck door and slapped the steering wheel hard.
Her stomach growled—she always got hungry when she was angry, but she and Reuben had met only for coffee. Thank goodness they hadn’t ordered food, because he’d left her with the check as it was. A bowl of leftover beans and a chunk of corn bread back at the inn would have to do for her lunch.
“Happy New Year to me,” she grumbled. “I’ve got a bed-and-breakfast that has barely broke even for the past year because it needs remodeling. I can’t get a loan with no credit in my background, and Reuben is a jackass.”
She started the truck, and the engine purred like a kitten. She kept it maintained even if it did look like crap. It got her from point A to point B with dependability, and that’s all that mattered right then. Maybe the Magnolia would be turning a profit in a couple of years, and that money could replace the old truck.
With the dozen or more bed-and-breakfasts in Jefferson, she’d have to really bill the Magnolia as quaint and quiet since it was five miles out of town. Dozens of catchy phrases came to mind for advertisements, but that took money, and right now, Jolene was so close to broke that she had to pinch every penny twice.
When Aunt Sugar had called to tell her she was going to have half of the inn, Jolene had been so excited that she could hardly sit still. She’d given her notice at the Twisted Rope, the bar she’d worked in since she’d turned twenty-one. Now she had less than a hundred dollars in her checking account, and Aunt Sugar had left enough food in the house to last only two weeks.
She could hope and pray that someone would see the potential in the old place, but until that happened, she had to find a job in order to eat. She knew how to do two things—waitress and tend bar. And she knew of only one bar in Harrison County, Texas, the Tipsy Gator. Dotty’s own property.
“I just hope that she’ll hire