Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) - By Tina Leonard Page 0,36
I can’t help her anymore. But she pays in cash, so…” Lucy shrugged. “It’s hard to pass up.”
“It will certainly help. Thanks, Lucy.” Sugar felt relief that her sister had figured out an easy way to benefit the family resources. She didn’t want her mother or her sister to know how dire their circumstances might be by Christmas.
“Maggie should be home by now.” Lucy got up, went to the window, peered out. “It’s one o’clock in the morning, Sugar. Maggie won’t carry a cell phone, but we could call Granddaddy Longlegs and tell him Mom needs her sleep. I bet Jake knows his cell number.”
Sugar rose from the bed, recognizing that her sister was truly anxious about their mother. “Remember when you wanted to go down to the meeting and protect Maggie from the walleyed bats?”
“Yeah. And lucky we did. You have to admit she needed us for support that night.”
“This time I think she doesn’t. Come on. Let’s get you a cup of hot milk.”
Lucy padded behind her down the stairs. “Nothing good happens after midnight, Sugar.”
She put some milk in a big coffee mug and heated it in the nuker. “Lucy, if Mom lets that big cowboy romance her wildly and sweep her off her feet, if he moves her into his ranch house and they live in wild-and-crazy sin, it would be the best thing that ever happened to her.”
Lucy’s eyes were huge. “How can you say that?”
“Because it’s true. I’m putting some brandy in your milk, and some cinnamon. You need to calm down. You’re acting like you’re the mom and Maggie’s your teenager.”
“You don’t understand,” Lucy said. “What if Maggie falls in love with someone here in Pecan Creek?”
“It’s not a raging hot spot,” Sugar admitted, thinking about Pecan Fanny’s and the Bait and Burgers. “There’s a preponderance of older folk, I’ll grant you, which might be up Maggie’s alley. And she says she loves it here. But, Lucy, no one says you have to stay here and babysit us.”
Lucy looked stricken. “I’m the baby. I’m not ready to be pushed out of the nest. Even when we were in the military, we were stationed at Pensacola, Sugar. We were never far from home, except for some training and short deployments.”
Sugar finished making her sister’s toddy, then went to hug her. “Lucy, you don’t have to be our baby anymore,” she said, and Lucy said, “I know. You two are just so helpless,” and then they laughed, and Sugar fixed herself a straight-up toddy, no milk, and wondered if Jake really had taken Averie with an ie not a y home to her Barbie bed.
“Lot of sexual tension going on around here,” Lucy said darkly. “Just remember I warned you about the honest, innocent town of Pecan Creek.”
“I’ll be on guard against anyone who wants to toss me on a bed of rose petals and make me delirious with joy. But Mom can take care of herself.”
“I just don’t want to lose her,” Lucy said, and Sugar went to hug her sister again.
“We won’t. And we’re always going to have each other,” Sugar said, knowing now that Lucy’s voice was that of a small girl worried about her mother and breast cancer and maternal love being stolen from her. “We’ll make sure Lassiter understands Maggie has to be home by ten from now on, no excuses. Just like she made us do when we were teens.”
Lucy laughed. Sugar drank her toddy and thought about Jake and wondered if amends-among-friends was possible between them, when she really wished it had been her he’d taken home tonight.
“Damn it,” Jake said when banging erupted on his front door at three in the morning. He’d barely gotten to sleep. After taking Averie home, she’d had a tipsy fit on him, dragging up past tense you’re-the-only-man-I-ever-loved-didn’t-my-virginity-mean-anything shit. It had gotten old fast, and he’d left, after he’d made sure she wasn’t going to do anything but fall face-first into her bed.
The evening had certainly screwed up his night with Sugar. He’d been testing the waters, but they were colder than he’d realized. “Who is it?” he barked through the door.
“Kel. Debbie locked me out. And changed the locks.”
Jake jerked open the door. He stared out at Bobby and Kel. “Where’s Evert?”
“With Cat.”
Bobby and Kel passed him and headed into the den. They’d done this a thousand times, but tonight, Jake wanted peace and sleep. “Don’t you