Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) - By Tina Leonard Page 0,70
shook her head. “Can’t.”
Sugar was nervous too. And damn it, Maggie had been back there a long time. Lucy bit off a fingernail and buried it in the planter beside her chair. “Think they’d tell me anything if I went and asked them how she’s doing?”
“Sure,” Sugar said, “they’d tell you to have a cup of coffee and watch the TV over there, and we’ll know something soon enough.”
“Damn it!” Lucy got up and stalked around the chairs. “I can’t be as calm as you are.”
Sugar looked at her. “Come sit next to me.”
Lucy did, and it felt good to have Sugar wrap her arms around her.
“It’s going to be okay,” Sugar whispered to her, and Lucy closed her eyes, believing her, because all her life, whenever her big sister had told her it was going to be okay, it had been true.
“That’s looking good,” Jake told Lassiter, looking at the beginning of the repair job he was doing at Bait and Burgers. “It looks better than it did before.”
Lassiter nodded. “Cosmetic facelift more than structural, fortunately. It’s cheaper that way.”
Jake squatted down to look at the new concrete. “Certainly looks stronger.”
“Next time Bobby runs his tank through her, his tank’s going to take on more damage,” Lassiter said with satisfied pride.
“That’s what I want to hear.” He clapped Lassiter on the back. “Good man.”
Lassiter pulled out his phone, staring at it for a minute. “Good news. Maggie got a clean bill of health.”
Jake blinked. “Clean bill from what?”
“She had breast cancer.” Lassiter looked at him strangely. “Did you not know?”
“I mean…not about this.” Sugar had never mentioned today’s trip to him. Jake’s blood chilled a bit. “They went out of town to a doctor?”
“Yeah. Because of the breast cancer. Sugar wanted her mom to have the best doctor she could find.” Lassiter looked at his hard work, shrugging. “Sugar just about lost her mind when Maggie got sick. She quit the military to take care of her mom. Caught her ex cheating on her, so she divorced him, and packed the whole family up lock, stock, barrel to start over here. Maggie said in the beginning she wasn’t too sold on the idea, but now that they’ve been here for a while, Maggie’s fallen in love with the town.” Lassiter grinned. “I can easily see myself marrying Maggie Cassavechia, if things keep going the way they have been. My God, that’s a lot of woman.”
“That’s great, Lassiter.” He slapped his buddy on the back, wondering why Sugar hadn’t updated him the way Maggie confided in Lassiter. He didn’t really know Sugar, he realized. She knew more about him than he knew about her.
“I’d better go. You’re sending me a bill?”
Lassiter nodded. “Yeah. I am. A big one. Raid your piggy bank.”
Jake laughed. “Good.”
“Hey.”
Jake turned around. “Yeah.”
“Maggie says she’s tired. She’s not coming over tonight. Meet you at the back fence, if you’re not having company of your own.”
Jake nodded. “No plans that I know of. I’ll bring the hops.”
He went off, his mind revving with everything he’d just learned. God bless Maggie C for taking on the parade crap when she had her own personal issues to deal with.
Lucy certainly had run head-first into the brick wall that was PC.
Sugar was a tough lady to never mention what she was dealing with.
The Cassavechias would never admit it, but they needed help. They needed a firewall. He looked around the small town he loved and hated, and realized that if the Hot Nuts were going to survive the gauntlet here in this town that ran about as backward as a time-traveling clock, they had to have a champion.
And that champion was going to be him.
Chapter Eighteen
“Hey, Jake.”
Averie gave him a sultry grin as she floated in the center of his pool, strategically arranged on a float for maximum sex appeal. She wore a tiny black bikini and an aura of come-and-get-me he couldn’t miss. Jake swallowed, wondering why his evening plans had just gotten hijacked—and how to get out of this unfortunate dilemma.
He really was hoping Sugar would call. It was time the two of them talked. He was missing a big chunk of her life, and he didn’t want to keep getting updates from Lassiter. He understood completely what Lassiter meant when he said Maggie C was a lot of woman. Sugar had not fallen far from the family tree.
“What are you doing, Averie?” He felt pretty sour at the moment. He didn’t want to be cruel, but he