Taming a Texas Rascal (Bad Boy Ranch #6) - Katie Lane Page 0,22
not having a body to bury is even more painful.” She drew back. “You stay here if you have to. You don’t need to explain it to anyone. But if you need anything—and I mean anything—all you have to do is call. I’ll be out here in a flash. If it’s an emergency, you call Sawyer.” She winked. “There’s nothing like a hot cowboy coming to your rescue. Now get better so we can have ourselves another margarita party.”
Since Dixie shouldn’t be drinking if she was pregnant, Maisy figured she’d just misunderstood. “Who says we can’t have another margarita party now? I’ll tell you what. You bring the margaritas and I’ll grill up some fajitas tomorrow night to go with them. I’ll even let you bring your ornery husband.”
Dixie laughed. “It’s a deal. Especially since Linc and I aren’t what you’d call the best cooks. If we aren’t eating at the pharmacy soda fountain, we’re begging for an invite to dinner at Dixon’s Boardinghouse.” She opened the door of her SUV. “Now I better get before Emma and Boone kill each other.”
“Emma and Boone were the ones in the fender bender?”
Emma Johansen and Boone Murphy ran the Simple hardware store together. But not cordially. They fought like cats and dogs. Part of the town was betting on which one would kill the other first and the other part was convinced that they were madly in love and would eventually get married. Although those romantics were dwindling in numbers.
Dixie shook her head as she got into the sheriff’s SUV. “It seems that Boone parked in Emma’s parking spot and she didn’t take too kindly to it. Boone now wants her thrown in jail for purposely denting the back fender of his brand new Dodge Ram.” She shook her head. “This is the life of a small town sheriff.”
“And you love every second of it.”
“As much as you love that damned ol’ rodeo.” Dixie stuck her hand out the window and waved as she drove away.
Maisy stood there waving until the SUV disappeared in a cloud of dust, then she headed to the thicket of trees to the left of the trailer. The same trees that Sheriff Willaby had taken Dixie to, intending to kill her. Dixie believed the sheriff had brought her there because it was where he’d buried Sam’s body.
In the shade beneath the mesquite and oaks, Maisy saw the vague tracks of the tracking dogs in the dried mud. She followed them through the trees. They seemed to go around and around in circles. That’s how Maisy had felt since finding out about Sam’s death. She felt like she was spinning on a playground merry-go-round. Spinning and spinning until she was dizzy. She wanted it to stop so she could get off and catch her balance. But she knew there would be no getting off until Sam’s body was found.
It wasn’t like she believed he was alive. It was that she couldn’t believe he was dead. She couldn’t believe she would never have a chance to meet him face-to-face. Never have a chance to yell at him for leaving her mama and her. Never have a chance to forgive him.
And never have a chance to win his love.
She stopped and looked up through the green leaves of the mesquite and oak at the blue Texas sky.
“Damn you, Daddy. Damn you!”
Chapter Seven
“I want to help with my son as much as I can, but I don’t know if I can do the entire poopy diaper thing.” Cru lowered the chicken wing he’d just picked up and looked like he was going to be ill.
“Why not?” Val asked. “As a rancher, you deal with animal manure every day.”
“Yeah, but that’s with a shovel. I don’t actually have to wipe the horse’s butt.”
Logan laughed. “You’ll be just fine. I worried about it too. But when it’s your kid, it’s different. Not to say that it’s easy. I made a real mess of things the first few times I changed Helen.”
“Maybe Cru and I should come over and practice changing Helen before our babies get here,” Holden said. Sawyer wasn’t surprised by the comment. Holden had always been the practical Double Diamond boy who liked being prepared. Which was why he made a damn fine lawyer. “And maybe Devlin could come too,” Holden continued. “She’s feeling a little anxious about motherhood.”
“Y’all are more than welcome to come change diapers any time,” Logan said. “Especially if it’s at two in the morning.” After the