“Uncle Zed, this is too much,” Dana said. “But I love you for doing it. You and Granny made the last one I had, but I was already out of high school at that time. Thank you so much.”
“You girls sure make an old man feel good this mornin’. Happy Easter to the bunch of you,” he said and then went back to work.
The other shoe was going to fall any minute. Dana’s life was living proof that it would. The morning had started off beautifully, with the baskets designed special for each of them and then the gooey, hot cinnamon rolls straight from the oven. But good things did not last forever.
Her last job had proven that beyond the old proverbial shadow of a doubt. She’d thought that she’d stay on the ranch until Brook graduated from high school, but everything fell apart on Valentine’s Day when the boss’s wife came out to her apartment with the pink slip.
“You’ve got two weeks to get out,” she’d said.
“Why?” Dana was so shocked that one word was the limit that morning.
“Two reasons. You are stealin’ from us and you’ve been sleepin’ with my husband,” her boss, Linda, had said.
“I am not,” she’d argued.
“I believe you are, and I will not ever give you a recommendation for another job. I just want you and that kid of yours gone.” Linda had spun around and stormed back to the house.
It didn’t take long to figure out that she was the scapegoat for a crooked foreman who was the real culprit, but he was Linda’s cousin, so she’d never believe that he would do something like rustle a few cattle or take kickbacks from an artificial breeder. And the bit about Dana sleeping with a sixty-eight-year-old man was ridiculous. He was older than her father would have been if Gavin Clancy was alive. But she did find out that he was indeed cheating on Linda with a friend of hers, who’d probably passed the buck when Linda had gotten suspicious.
“Thank you, God, for Granny’s love and for this job and house,” she whispered as she raised her eyes toward the ceiling.
“Hello, Dana.” A masculine voice came from the front of the store.
She had a definite new spring in her step as she rounded the end of the minnow tank, expecting to see Payton bringing in a new bait supply. But it was Marcus standing in front of the counter with a big smile on his face.
“Happy Easter. Are you going to put these chocolate bunnies on sale? If you do, save them all for me to take home to my mother. She loves them,” he said with a heavy wink.
“Hadn’t planned on dropping the price on them. There’s only about ten left, and they’ll probably go today.” She’d buy them at full price and take them to the house before she sold them to him. No way would she encourage him to flirt with her or with Tawny. Good Lord! He was graduating from high school when Tawny was in first grade.
“I thought I’d enjoy my quiet time a lot more than I am. I actually miss my cat and my mother, so I’m checkin’ out early and goin’ on home this mornin’. I called Mama and told her that I’d take her to church and we’d go eat at her favorite little Mexican place after services. I asked Tawny if she’d like to join us, but she said she had to work,” he said. “Did you have a talk with her, Dana?” His tone was far from friendly.
“I told her the same thing I told you. There’s too much of an age difference.” She felt like she was stepping into the role of Tawny’s mother instead of a sister, and she didn’t like it at all.
“I’d say that’s for her to decide.” Marcus tilted his chin up a notch.
“Probably, but it’s my right to express my opinion. I’ve got work to do, if you’ll excuse me,” she said.
Marcus’s mouth set in a firm line, and his eyes went cold. “Mama always said that you’d turn out as wild as your mother and that your grandmother got crazy after her husband died. I guess she had that brain tumor for years.”
Dana had visions of drowning him in the minnow tank and then burying his body back in the wooded area behind the house. Harper would help her for sure and probably Tawny, too, even if she still thought that Marcus had mesmerizing blue eyes.
“You want to say that to Uncle Zed?” Dana said through clenched teeth.
“I hear that Zed was the reason she quit going to church,” Marcus said.
“Enough.” Dana put up a palm so close to his face that she could feel his breath. “Granny Annie had wings and a halo and walked on water, so please just go.”
Marcus took a step back. “I’m just statin’ facts that you already know. I’ll be seein’ you around.” He spun and left the store in a hurry.
His car had barely gotten out of sight when Tawny popped into the store. “Was that Marcus leaving? He checked out early with a song and dance about not wanting his mother or cat to spend the holiday alone. Was he in here asking you to go to church with them?”
Dana shook her head slowly. “He’s stinging because we’ve both turned him down and slinging insults at Granny and me because of it.”
“That son of a bitch,” Tawny fumed. “Is he crazy? No one talks smack about Granny Annie and lives to see the light of day. I’ll get some concrete blocks, and we’ll sink his sorry ass in the middle of the lake.”
“This from the sister who thought his eyes were pretty?” Dana’s tone was edgy, but she needed a good solid fight to ease her anger. They’d only vowed to be nice when Zed was around, and he was in the café.
“They’ll be even prettier as they bug out when we throw his body over the edge of a boat. What’d he say about you?”
Dana shrugged. “That his mama figured I’d turn out wild like my mother. Nothing I haven’t heard before.”
She’d never overcome the fact that she was a bastard child—not in that area of Texas where everyone knew everything about everyone and didn’t mind shouting it from the rooftops. Her two sisters might have a bitchy mother, but at least they’d had both parents.
Shame on you! Granny had told her when she’d whined about the same thing when she was fourteen. You’ve got beauty, brains, and a family. I won’t hear you feelin’ sorry for yourself.
“That settles it. We’ll drown his cat with him.” The anger in Tawny’s statement brought her back to reality.
It started as a weak giggle and developed into full-fledged laughter that Dana couldn’t control. “What’d the cat do?” she said between hiccups.
“It had the misfortune of belonging to him,” Tawny said. “Next time he wants to come to our cabins, I’m going to infest his sheets with bedbugs. I’ll figure out where I can buy them online.”
A cold chill chased down Dana’s spine. “He’s one of Brook’s teachers. You don’t think he’d be ugly to her in class because we both rejected him, do you?”
Tawny’s eyes went to slits. “That had better never happen, or else the next time the drug dogs come around, they’ll find a bag of pot in his desk.”
“You wouldn’t!” Dana gasped.
“He’d best leave my niece alone is all I got to say.” Tawny picked up a bag of chips. “Put this on my bill. I need something salty to combat all that wonderful chocolate and those cinnamon rolls. And I might want to scratch your eyes out most of the time, Dana, but believe me, when it comes to Brook, I will go the distance with you.”