Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) - By Tina Leonard Page 0,56
She just told me, and I blessed her out about it.”
“What exactly was Vivian looking for?” Sugar asked, her tone freezing.
“Dirt. She wants you to leave Pecan Creek.”
“What is her problem?”
“Well,” Jake said, “she has several, but I think Maggie’s a problem because she’s cool, and now she’s grabbed Lassiter, whom Mom’s had a thing for for years. Lucy’s trouble because she’s Lucy, and frankly, Mom’s a little stuck in Victorian times. Lucy’s bellybutton ring, short skirts and tat offend Mom’s sense of propriety for Pecan Creek.”
“That is dumb,” Sugar said. “Tell her to mind her own business. We’re not going to dress to impress her, and tough titty if Mom and Lassiter have a thing. Vivian could get a man if she wasn’t a dried-up old stick who judges everyone.”
Jake sighed. “There are some reasons for that, but I agree.”
“So what’s her problem with me?”
“Well, apparently the fact that I like you.” He ran a hand down her arm. “You’re divorced. Mom thinks I’d get back together with Averie if I wasn’t blinded by you. I told her to butt out, but then she sprung the PI bit on me. It was not our best family moment.”
“What about me?”
Jake winced. “Sugar, I want you to know that I don’t care about any of this. It was none of my business. It doesn’t change the fact that I think you’re a helluva woman.”
“Jake,” Sugar said, “what about me?”
“You’re divorced, and your ex is still crazy about you,” Jake said, surrendering. He was too far in to work himself free now. “He wants your business to fail so you’ll come home with your tail between your legs and get back with him, apparently.”
Sugar’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “That’s not going to happen. I will never return to Ramon, or Florida. If this doesn’t work out, we’re on our way to live near family in Oklahoma.”
That was the last thing Jake wanted to happen. He wanted Sugar right here, in his world. “There’s some theory that you ran off your stepfather. Or that something happened to him.”
Sugar’s eyes narrowed. Jake’s chest tightened as Sugar didn’t deny it.
“And that your sister was dishonestly discharged from the military,” Jake finished on a rush of misery. “Something about a problem with an officer. That’s the whole graveyard the PI dug up.”
Sugar looked at him for a long moment.
Then she got off him, slipped into the water and splashed up on the bank.
“Sugar!”
She whistled for Paris, who jumped up with her bone and dove into the canoe. Sugar shoved off hard—she was a lot stronger than he’d given her credit for—and before he could get himself off the raft and up the bank, she was paddling smoothly through the water.
Jake shook his head. “I saw that coming,” he muttered. “I can’t say the odds on that weren’t greatly stacked against me.”
He pulled the rafts in, then sank onto his chair and opened a beer.
Wish I’d brought a case. I need divine intervention from the goddess of hops.
Sugar tore into the house, startling Lucy, who was eating popcorn on the sofa and looking at a magazine, dreaming of the day when she could afford a new pair of sandals and maybe a crossbody bag. “Sugar!” Lucy exclaimed. “You scared me half to death!”
“We’ve got to leave here,” Sugar said. “Start packing up your stuff. Find Maggie.”
“What in the world happened?” Lucy stared at her sister. “Sit down for a minute and get a grip.”
“I don’t want to get a grip.” Sugar looked wild, and Lucy’s heart dropped into her stomach. “My grip is gone.”
Lucy blinked. “Did Vivian get to you too?”
Sugar whirled to face her. “What do you mean, too?”
Lucy shrugged. “She gets to everyone. I just pretty much figured out a way around her. Or at least my friends did. Get a glass of wine and sit down, and we’ll burn an effigy of her together. Or I bet I can whip up a really good voodoo doll that will have her jumping around.”
Sugar looked frantic. “Lucy, we can’t stay. This is not the warm and inviting town I hoped it might be. It’s not. We’re going to have to find a new place to live.”
“I don’t know. I feel pretty welcome here.” Lucy got up to get her sister a generous glass of wine and a big gulp of the grape for herself. “Whatever it is, we’ll work it out.”
“Oh yeah?” Sugar took a slug of the wine. Some of the color returned