Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) - By Tina Leonard Page 0,88
is going to be just fine.”
Maggie nodded. “We’ll crank this float down Pecan Creek’s town streets and turn the town on its ear, and they’ll probably run us out of here, but we’ll be together.”
Lucy laughed. “I’m going nowhere. I’m staying right here and making Vivian Bentley my best friend. And I’m going to talk Bobby German into being my pool boy when we get rich off of Sugar’s nuts and buy ourselves a real pool.”
“That sounds wonderful.” Sugar closed her eyes, imagining the pool, the blue water, the cleansing baptism of sinking into refreshing coolness. “Next stop, three pool men, one for each of us.”
They hugged each other, marking a silent vow.
It was going to be all right. In fact, everything was going to get better than anything they’d ever imagined when they’d first loaded up the blue Oldsmobile for Texas. Sugar knew in her heart the future held nothing but blue water, pecans and maybe, J.T. Jake Bentley’s hard muscles and teasing smile.
J.T. Jake Bentley would make a hot pool boy.
If she could close the door on the past.
Jake looked at the repair job Lassiter had done on the Bait and Burgers. It looked better than new. He wondered if Lassiter wanted more work renovating Pecan Fanny’s.
Jake had big plans for Pecan Fanny’s.
But first, he had to talk to Kel.
He hadn’t seen Kel in days, and that was a bad sign. Kel usually hung around, the Bait and Burgers being both job and hangout for him. But since he’d moved out of Jake’s house, Kel had been lying low.
He hadn’t been a very good friend. And the truth was, Kel had always been there for him.
“Jake.”
He turned around. “Hello, Mother.” He kissed Vivian on the cheek. “What brings you to the Bait and Burgers?”
“What brings you?” Vivian shot back.
“Well, I happen to own this greasy spoon,” Jake said, and Vivian gave him a gimlet gaze.
“I wondered when you were finally going to come clean about that.”
Jake looked at his mother. “Why didn’t you say something?”
She shrugged, her blue wool dress formal as ever, her walking shoes prim and proper. “It’s not my place to be in your business. But you should know as well as anyone that there are few secrets in Pecan Creek.”
Jake looked at his mother. “Touché. So the purpose of this visit then is what? Something must be on your mind.”
“We need to talk about the ladies who are living in our house.” Vivian’s face was set in determined lines.
He couldn’t say he hadn’t known his mother wouldn’t want to talk to him about the Hot Nuts. “Okay. Come inside. I’ll spring for a burger for you.”
“I will take you up on that.” Vivian slid into a booth. “With curly fries, please.”
Jake put the order in with Evert, then returned to join his mother with a couple of sodas. She sipped hers delicately.
“I know that you have a fondness for Sugar Cassavechia.” Vivian sniffed, the hanging balloon unspoken being, ‘Though you could do so much better.’ “I know she stayed at your house for about a week after the unfortunate incident in our family home.”
Here it goes, the guilt trip. “The dead body wasn’t their fault, no more than it would be your fault if someone broke into your house.”
“I know.” Vivian nodded. “Although the Cassavechias do seem to attract a certain amount of excitement and drama.”
That was not necessarily a false statement. “A little excitement is good for Pecan Creek.”
“I was thinking more of an arts district, but whatever.” Vivian shrugged. “Are they renewing the lease?”
“I doubt it. I think the dead guy was a bit much for them.”
“Of course if Lucy Cassavechia hadn’t been blogging about her sister’s business, complete with pictures of the bedrooms, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened. Did we give them permission to use any images of our house on the Internet?”
Jake looked at his mother. “No.”
Vivian looked at him. “And I suppose you’ve discussed with Sugar the need for permits and health inspections?”
“Again, I don’t think they’re going to renew the lease.”
“But the business is operational now. And they have no permits. The reason this is a problem,” Vivian said, “is that we’ll never be able to sell that house now that it’s had a dead stranger in it. Everyone in town knows it was a mentally ill individual.” She frowned at Jake. “Why would anyone buy their product with such a thing hanging over them?”
“A dead guy isn’t going to affect their product negatively,” Jake said, though he