I Love This Bar (34 page)

   "Yes, he is and I've tried to give him a raise but he won't have any of it. Says he's got more than he needs already and doesn't want any more money."

   "Oh my God!" Cathy exclaimed.

   "Hey, it's not really that big of a deal. I'd pay him twice the amount he's getting if he'd take it," Daisy told her.

   "I'm not talking about Tinker. Look who just walked in the door." Cathy pointed, quickly poured a shot of Wild Turkey, and tossed it back.

   Daisy turned and frowned. The man wore pleated black slacks with black wingtipped shoes and a blue plaid tie that matched his shirt perfectly. His brown hair was feathered back. He had his eyes trained on Cathy and nothing or no one else existed.

   "Hello, Cathy. What in the hell are you doing here?" He hiked a hip onto a bar stool.

   Tinker got up and lumbered slowly across the floor. He sat down beside the man and said, "Coffee with two teaspoons of sugar, please."

   Cathy looked at him as if she were seeing two ghosts. Tinker had never ordered anything at the bar. He kept a small cooler under his chair and each evening he put six Dr. Peppers in it. By the time they closed the bar all six were gone and he put the empty cans in the trash before he went home.

   "What's your name, cowboy?" Tinker asked. "Haven't ever seen you at the Honky Tonk before."

   He eyed Tinker up and down and asked, "Who are you?"

   "I'm the bouncer and the ID checker. Don't need to check your license. You're definitely over twenty-one," Tinker said.

   "What are you doing here?" Cathy asked.

   "Looking for you. This is atrocious."

   "What?" Cathy asked.

   "You working behind a two-bit dive of a bar. I've come to take you home."

   "I'm not going anywhere with you, Brad. The first time you hit me ended the whole thing. I'm happy here and I'm not leaving."

   Tinker leaned over and whispered in Brad's ear.

   He held up a finger. "One minute."

   "I think it's time for you to leave. Cathy has spoken her mind and it's over between you two," Daisy said.

   Billy Bob sat down on the bar stool next to Brad and chuckled. "Beer, please, darlin'."

   "What's so funny?" Brad looked at him in the mirror rather than turning his head.

   "I'm going to explain something to you. What you do with it determines whether I whip your ass tonight or shake your hand," Billy Bob said.

Cathy and Daisy were both speechless.

   Billy Bob winked at Cathy and went on, "It's all right, darlin'. He don't know but he's fixin' to find out. You'd be Cathy's old boyfriend. Well, I'm Cathy's new husband, Billy Bob. That makes me Daisy's cousin. Me and Cathy got married last Friday over at the Palo Pinto courthouse. Now that you know how things are, I reckon you'd better get on out of here."

   Brad spun the stool around and looked Billy Bob up and down. From his red hair and freckled face to his scuffed up boots, then he turned to glare at Cathy. "You married this? God, I thought you'd do better as smart as you are."

   Billy Bob squared his shoulders and grinned. "Kind of amazin', ain't it? I don't even care if she married me for my money. I'm the one who gets to go to bed with her and she's the one who cooks my bacon for breakfast, so I'm the luckiest sumbitch in the world, way I see it."

   Brad slapped the bar with both hands, causing Billy Bob's beer to slosh out over the top of the jar.

   "I'm leaving. Damn, I thought you'd do better than a redneck farmer." He threw up his hands and stomped across the dance floor between two songs.

   Cathy opened the cooler and took out a quart of milk, poured a glass, and downed it without coming up for air.

   "Ulcer?" Tinker asked.

   She nodded.

   "Tinker, how did you know?" Daisy asked again.

   "Saw her throw back a shot. Y'all never drink when you are working. Had to be something bad."

   "Well, thank you very much for noticing."

   "Give the man a raise. Double his salary," Cathy whispered.

   Tinker shook his head hard. "Don't want a raise. Don't need more money. And Miss Daisy, that man comes around again, you call me. I know places where they'll never find his body."

   "I got a feeling he ain't comin' back," Billy Bob laughed. "I think I plumb put his nose out of joint."

   Cathy opened the cash register and handed Billy Bob a fistful of change. "You decide what music we're listening to and the drinks are on the house tonight for you."

   "Well, gosh dang, I didn't know there were benefits beyond sleeping with you and having my breakfast cooked," Billy Bob said in mock bashfulness.

   "How'd you know who he was?" she asked Billy Bob.

   "I heard him say he was taking you home. Figured you wasn't married to him or he'd of said something about you bein' his wife."

   "Well thank you," Cathy said.

   "And now I will go and play some music for my sexy wife," Billy Bob teased.

   Chigger popped an elbow on the bar. "You been sleeping with Cathy? Dr. Pepper, Cathy. Can't drink but I can sure enjoy the company around here. Gawd, but I missed everyone even if it was the most fantastic honeymoon in the world. Now what in the hell are you talking about, sleeping with Billy Bob? Are you going to be my sister?"

   Cathy shook her head at Chigger. "No, but I'd almost sleep with him after the favor he just did." She pointed at Billy Bob. "Go play something fast and upbeat."

   Chigger took his stool when he left and looked at Daisy and Cathy who were both still jittery, their eyes never leaving the door for more than a few minutes. "Talk," she said.

   Cathy filled her in on the Brad events and Daisy told her about Jarod kidnapping her for two days. Chigger finished one soft drink and ordered another. "I missed all the fun."

   "I'd think that you had more fun than we did," Daisy said.

   Chigger giggled. "Did I really have more fun than you? Surely you didn't get kidnapped and hauled off to a party and didn't even get laid?"

   "Seems like I did," Daisy said honestly.

   "What? Kidnapped or laid?" Chigger asked.

   "I'm not tellin'," Daisy said.

   "How the hell you goin' to know if you two are any good in bed if you don't go there? Surely, you ain't plannin' on marryin' him without testin' the waters first. Might be they're too damn shallow and you can't even swim in them," Chigger fussed.

   Daisy's laughter came out high pitched, a release of built up tension, but it felt wonderful. Everything was in the right place again. Brad was gone. Chigger was home. Jim Bob was at a table with his brothers and…

   She narrowed her eyes. When had Jarod arrived?

   Chigger sighed. "Lord, I'd love a longneck bottle of Coors or a pitcher of margaritas. Just knowin' I can't drink for seven more months makes me want it even more. And Jim Bob made me stop smoking, too. I'd go stark ravin' mad if the doctor said I couldn't have sex for seven months too."

   A whole crowd pushed through the doors. Tinker looked up but it was evident none of them needed to produce identification. Not with those bald heads, gray hair, and wrinkles.

   Joanie yelled at Daisy, "Hi, darlin', we're on our way back to San Antone. Decided to bring the whole bunch of us in for some dancin'. We got to braggin' about our good time on Monday and everyone wanted to come see the place. Make us thirty beers and four pitchers of piña coladas for the ones who don't drink beer."

   Jarod stood up and crossed the floor in a dozen long strides, walked through the swinging door back behind the bar, and started filling Mason jars.

   "What are you doing?" Daisy asked.

   "Helping. You make piña coladas. Chigger and Cathy can carry them to the table. It's going to be a profitable night," he said.

   Chigger winked. "And what's your payment?"

   "I'll discuss that later with Daisy." Jarod grinned.

   He filled jars and lined up six to a tray. Cathy carried them and Chigger took care of the pitchers and glasses for piña coladas. By the time the second song was finished drinks were sitting on four tables that had been pushed together. Billy Bob and Joe Bob were both dancing with the new customers. Merle had one of them cornered at a pool table and by the smile on her face she was wearing the crown that night.

   The jukebox was belting out one tune after the other and they were either doing a long line dance or else a fast two-step. Jarod kept the handles down on the beer taps, filling two jars at a time. Cathy ran her legs off going back and forth to the tables and Chigger continued to help with the mixed drinks until one o'clock in the morning, when Jim Bob insisted they go home.

   The square dancers shut down the place at two, getting into their RVs and pulling out of the lot going south down Highway 281 to San Antonio. They declared they were already planning a trip back to Sulphur, Oklahoma, and they'd be back the next year at the end of August so to make sure there was plenty of beer.

   "And tell that woman who stole all my money at the pool tables I'm practicing up and I'll get it back next year," a fellow yelled as he got into his RV.

   "Her name is Merle and you better practice everyday," Cathy yelled back and waved.

   Tinker must have decided that Jarod could be trusted because he took his empty soda cans to the back and told Daisy he'd see her the next night. She heard the rumble of his cycle as he rode north at a few minutes past two.

   Cathy took one look at the empty jars on the tables and threw up both hands. "My feet hurt. I'm going to take a shower and go to sleep. Good night, you two."

   "Night, Cathy," Jarod said.

   "Save me some hot water," Daisy said as she popped the tops on two longneck Coors and handed one to Jarod. "Set down and rest your feet before you go."

   She pulled out a chair and propped her aching feet on a table. She sucked down a fourth of the beer and burped when she came up for air. "Pardon me," she said.

   "You are excused," he said. Working in the hay field all day hadn't worn him out like the previous four hours. "Time to discuss my payment."

   "Beer ain't enough?" she asked.

   "Not on your life, honey."

"What have you got in mind?"

He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Forget it, cowboy. I'm too tired."

He took a draw on the beer. "Wednesday is payback."

"What's happening Wednesday?"

   "A whole convoy of trucks is coming from Cushing. Cattle. Furniture. Tractors and equipment."

   "What's that got to do with me?"

   He wanted to say,
Just everything since I'm going to
convince you to live with me someday. But instead h
e said, "Garrett is moving in. There'll be thirty or forty hungry men. I'll order chicken and pizza but I need help getting it out to the ranch. Plus I need your help with the cattle. We need a vet on hand."

   "Don't feed them sorry old takeout food. I'll get Chigger and Cathy to help and we can put up those eight-foot tables out under the shade trees and serve them out there. What time will they arrive?"

   "They'll start pulling in midmorning. Furniture will arrive first, then the cattle and finally the equipment. Some of it's so big that it has to have lead cars to bring it down the highway."

   "Lead cars?" she asked.

   "You know, those cars that announce there's an extra wide load behind them so the drivers can be aware," he explained.

   "Where are you putting furniture?" A visual of Emmett's house with all the clutter in every single corner flitted through her mind.

   "In a barn until Garrett and I can clean out the house. It'll take a few weeks," he said. "And thanks, Daisy. They'll appreciate a home cooked meal. Whatever you need, just keep the tickets and I'll pay for it."

   "Any preferences?"

   "You cook. We'll eat. Lots and lots of sweet tea. They'll be thirsty. I can order food but I do need a vet."

   She made plans even though she was exhausted. "I'll come on out on Tuesday night."

   He found enough energy to wiggle one eyebrow.

   "Go home before you fall asleep," she said.

   "I'd sleep better if you were beside me."

   It was tempting but it was so much closer to her bed and there was the rule about no men in the apartment. It had been a nerve-racking night and she needed to digest it all, from Brad to Billy Bob to Jarod, anyway.

   "I'm almost too tired to walk across the floor to my apartment. You going to be all right driving home?"

   "Don't know if I can make it to the ranch without runnin' off the road," he said as he cleaned off the three square tables and pushed them up together. Then he stretched out on top of them on his back. He handed her the empty Coors bottle and shut his eyes. "Let me take a thirty-minute nap and I'll be fine. Crawl up here with me."

   "You can't sleep here," she said.

   "Why not?"

   The table was closer than her bed. She pushed him and he shifted over slightly. When she crawled up on the table he wrapped her up in his arms and drew her close to his side.

   "This is crazy when there's a bed," she said.

   "I could sleep on a rock with you in my arms."

   "That's sweet but we are two adults and we're not sleeping on hard tables. Come on." She slid off the table.

   She led him through the door into the dark apartment. The water was running in the shower and a sliver of light showed under the bathroom door. Daisy didn't even slow down. She went straight to her bedroom, pulled Jarod down on the bed beside her, and curled back up in his arms when he stretched out.