I Love This Bar (17 page)

   "Coffee. Black with just a touch of milk," he said.

   "I'll fix it," Jarod said. "You two go on and visit." He had to get away from her even if for only a minute and collect his thoughts. Would he believe her if she had a plausible excuse for every day?

   Emmett waited until he was in the house before he started on her again. "You going to tell me what it is you're fightin' about?"

   "That's our business and we'll work it out," she said.

   "It's my business if I've got to live with you, by damn."

   "You're a nosy old fart, aren't you? You tell your mother-in-law everything you and Mavis fought about?"

   He chuckled. "Hell, no. Nosy old woman didn't know when to keep her mouth shut."

   "Do you know when to keep your mouth shut? What if I told you what we're fightin' about and you told Chigger or Jim Bob?"

   Emmett shook his bony finger at her. "Don't you try to hoodwink me, young lady. I'm not so old that I don't know when you're sidetrackin' me. Married folks need to be together. You get rid of that Honky Tonk and come on out here to the ranch where you belong. Jarod can use your smarts as a vet to help with these cows. I'll give you three months and then I'll burn the damn thing down if you don't get rid of it."

   For a split second, Daisy couldn't have uttered a word if it had been a matter of life and death. If Jarod hadn't returned with the cheesecake and coffee on a tray she might have bolted and ran. She cleared her throat twice. She looked at Jarod who stood there with a cheesecake on a saucer in front of her. She was careful not to touch him when she reached for it.

   She held it in her lap and glowered at Emmett. "What in the hell are you talking about?" She accentuated each word with a jab of her finger against the arm of his rocking chair.

   Emmett narrowed his eyes and leaned right up into her face. "I mean it. I'll burn it to the ground and spend the rest of my life in jail for doing it if you don't come to your senses. From what the doctor tells me about these worms in my body, I ain't got long anyway so I don't give a damn if I spend it behind bars or sittin' in my chair. Now I'm going to eat my cheesecake and take my nap and you two are going to get this shit settled. I ain't in the mood to listen to fightin'. It'd make that cheesecake sour on my stomach."

   He didn't say another word until he was finished and his coffee cup empty. "And this will be taken care of when I get up. I ain't havin' my supper ruined because you two are acting like a couple of bratty kids."

   "Yes sir," Daisy said.

   "Sorry about that," Jarod whispered when Emmett slammed the screen door.

   "What in the hell is going on? He thinks that we are…" She stumbled over the word.

   Jarod nervously ran his fingers through his hair. "I know what he thinks. He's been like this ever since Sunday. Let's go for a walk around to the backyard. I wouldn't put it past him to be eavesdropping."

   He led the way across the porch, around the south end of the house, and to the backyard to an old swing hanging from an ancient pecan tree. He sat down on one end of it and patted the other end.

   "Have a seat and let me explain."

   She sat down and waited.

   "I took him to the doctor. He said it's typical of the Alzheimer's and he's got kidney failure on top of that. Said that when the kidneys start to go they produce too much nitrogen and it eats little holes in the brain. Depending on what portion is being destroyed, it affects whether he wants to eat everything in sight or nothing sounds good. That's the worms he says are eating him up. He's got less time than we figured," Jarod said.

   "But where did he ever get the idea we were…" She still could not utter the word.

   "He got the notion in his head last Sunday night. Started in on me that it wasn't right for you to stay at the Honky Tonk at night and only come out here on Sunday. I argued with him and told him we were
not
married. He got so mad I thought he'd blow a fuse and have a stroke. Said I couldn't pull the wool over his eyes and he wasn't born yesterday. He could tell by the way we looked at each other that we'd snuck off to Oklahoma on Sunday and got married. What were you two talking about? Why would you be upset because the cattle weren't up in the corral? What would you be doing with cattle on Sunday or any other day?"

   "I'm a vet tech. I've been vaccinating his cattle for about four years now. I'm not a licensed vet but I can take care of what he's got left. Herd is diminishing pretty fast but then he's not able to take care of them. Usually he gets the Walkers to come over and round them up for me."

   "You are vet tech and you work as a barmaid?" Jarod cocked his head to one side. His dark eyebrows knit into a line across his gray eyes.

   "You got a problem with that?" she snapped.

   "Why aren't you working for a vet?"

   "Bartending pays better. I take care of a few animals on the side. Emmett and Mavis hired me when they got to where it was too much of a job. Most ranchers as you know take care of their own cattle unless it's an emergency. I stay busier than I want."

   "But," Jarod started.

   Daisy exhaled loudly. "All I ever wanted to do was work with animals, especially on a ranch. I got a job with a vet in Mena, Arkansas, and I really loved it. But one night I had a boyfriend problem, got in the car, and started driving." She sat back and looked off into the distance for a moment with a pained look in her eyes that made Jarod want to jump up, find the jerk who'd hurt her, and beat him senseless. Then, with a little shiver, she seemed to shake off the bad memory and shrugged. "The car broke down on Interstate 20 not far from Thurber. I pulled off and met Ruby. She offered me a job as a bartender and I took it. I'd been working as a bartender for years, even before I was legal. Kept at it on weekends when I finished my tech training to pay the student loans off."

   She smiled, thinking about Ruby. That chance encounter with the woman who was like a mother to her had been a turning point in her life. "Anyway, when I took the job Ruby offered, I called my vet boss. He said he was glad I was getting out of Mena and away from the scumbag boyfriend who would never leave the area and to let him know if I needed a reference for a tech job. Ruby told Merle that I had vet tech training and word got out here in Texas. Merle started it when she brought her cat to the Honky Tonk for me to treat it one night. Before I knew it I was treating everything from chickens to horses. This week on Monday I had to sew up a bull that forced its fat way through a barbed wire fence. I've given a goat Pepto for bloat and talked to a sweet old lady who insists on feeding her dog, George—named for George Jones, no less. Anyway, she wants to let him drink beer. She says she can put up with dog farts."

   The chuckle started down deep in his chest and erupted into a guffaw that scared the sparrows out of the pecan tree. He laughed until his sides ached and then laughed some more.

   "Go on," he said finally.

   "It's not really funny," Daisy said, although she was starting to grin—his laughter was contagious. "Some days I don't know if I'm comin' or goin'. Now, do you think Emmett will be over this married shit when he wakes up?"

   Jarod's shook his head. "You are really something, Daisy. I was so mad at you for not taking my calls I couldn't think straight."

   "Why?" she asked.

   "I wanted to see you again. I thought you had another fellow…" he stammered.

   "I thought you didn't call because it was just a one night stand for you," she said softly. "And I was mad enough to call for the backhoe for the local cemetery."

   "Guess we both got things wrong, didn't we? Miss Daisy O'Dell, could I please have your cell phone number before you leave here so this doesn't happen again?"

   She smiled. "Yes, sir, you can. Now answer my question about Emmett."

   "I don't think so. He's been on the kick all week long. First thing he asks every morning is when you are coming downstairs. I finally told him you were trying to get someone to help you at the Honky Tonk and until you did you'd be here on Sunday and Monday. He's been antsy every evening like a little kid asking when you were coming home." Jarod could hardly believe his ears. Daisy, a vet tech? What other tricks did she have up her sleeves?

   "What are you going to do?" she asked.

"Beg," Jarod said.

   She snapped her head around to face him. "Oh, no. Huh-uh, not in a million years. Not for all the dirt in Texas. Besides, I don't owe you jack shit."

   "He's been a nightmare. I couldn't leave him all week or I would have driven up to the Honky Tonk."

   They were adults, not whimpering teenagers. Sitting beside him with her pulse racing and wanting to reach out and run her hand down his jawline before she kissed him passionately, she wished she was a teenager instead of an adult.

   "I'm not staying. You can deal with him," she said. What she didn't say was that she didn't trust herself to stay in the same house with Jarod. Just sitting beside him on the swing put her on an emotional roller coaster.

   "I'll pay you," Jarod said quickly. "He won't know when we go upstairs at night that we are sleeping in separate rooms. He's put you into Mavis' place. Whatever she said went around here and he's been lost since she's gone. You've given him a reason to live. I can't believe you got him to agree to a donkey on the property. Next thing you know he'll be puttin' up windmills if you say you think they're a good idea." Hell,
woman, I'd buy
windmills, a donkey, and anything else you can think of
to get you to stay here tonight.

   Daisy took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. To sleep one door down the hallway from him every night for several weeks would be pure hell. She'd spent a hell of a week trying to get him out of her mind. She'd never get it done if she slept with him again, and every minute of every night would be a temptation. And like he had just said, letting it go on would be pure foolishness.

   The swing stopped and Jarod started it again with the heel of his sandal against the hard packed earth. "Please stay the afternoon and night before you say no. See what happens when he wakes up. Could be he'll get up in a whole new world but I don't think so. It's set in his mind like chiseling on a tombstone."

   "The afternoon and night?" she said weakly.

   "You told him you'd stay," he protested.

   "I was just following your lead in appeasing the old goat."

   Jarod crossed his arms over his chest, more in a gesture to keep from touching her than to exhibit an attitude. "If he doesn't forget the whole thing when he wakes up, you're the one telling him you aren't staying. I damn sure am not going to be in his bad graces the rest of the week. He's bad enough when he's looking for you to drive up any minute. If he thinks you aren't staying he'll go off in a tantrum that'll rival any two-year-old kid's fit you've ever seen."

   She stood up.

   "Where are you going?" he asked.

   He damn sure didn't want to worry with Uncle Emmett if she left. He was damned if he got what he wanted and damned if he didn't. He'd get the blame and a ten-hour lecture on how to treat a woman properly if she left. The same one he'd listened to every day all week. However, if she stayed, the scalding heat between them could burn down the place. He'd take a chance on the latter if she'd just consent to stay.

   "To get a glass of tea. I can't think when I'm sitting still," she said.

   Jarod followed her back into the house. "If you stay it only has to be until he goes to bed or maybe we can even invent an excuse before that. I'll step outside and call on your cell phone and you can say something about having to go take care of one of your animal things. Just until dark tonight, please."

   "Until dark and then I'll think about the rest of the time."

   
Good God Almighty, why did I say that? I don't want
to spend my whole afternoon here and I'm damn sure
not going to spend nights on end sleeping so close to
Jarod that I can smell his cologne in the evenings.

   "Thank you," Jarod said. He touched her shoulder and the world stood still. When it started spinning again it made him dizzy.

   The heat from his hand left a burn mark on her back. She was sure of it because she could feel each joint of his finger engraved there. A single week of pretending and she'd be a drooling moron in a white straightjacket. "Don't thank me yet. I just agreed to stay until dark."

   They were walking up on the porch when Emmett pushed his walker out the door. Jarod grabbed Daisy around the waist and kissed her hard and long. When she pushed him back, he whispered, "It's part of the pretending."

   
Pretend, hell! I'll show you pretend if you do that
again. I'll pretend to haul you out to the barn and I'll
pretend to have another bout of sex with you. Don't tell
me that kiss was fake. It was more real than anything
I've ever experienced short of that night in the truck bed,
Daisy thought.

   Emmett sat down in his rocker and slapped his thigh. "Now that's what I like to see. You made up. I knew you would. You two go on up and have your afternoon nap now," he said with a broad wink at Jarod. "I'm glad you're home, Daisy."

   "Dear God," Daisy whispered.

   "Amen! He's sweet as sugar when he gets his way and mean as a cougar when he doesn't. I don't know if I can take it, and I can't leave," Jarod whispered back.

   Emmett tilted his chin up in a knowing gesture. "Just like I told you, sweet nothin's in her ear will work every time. Woman likes that more than anything. Glad to see you are finally listenin' to me."