I Love This Bar (30 page)

   "That one is fine," Daisy said. "It won't bloat him as bad."

   "Oh, he does better on Coors. Miller gives him the dog farts terrible," Edith said. "You go on back to sleep, darlin'. George is happy now."

   Jarod was laughing when she put the phone away.

   "George is a nightmare."

   "You love it," he said.

"I do. I really do."

"Next exit is breakfast," he said.

"Good, I'm starving."

   The Iron Skillet restaurant was the first step of the cowboy date. Everything on the buffet looked good and Daisy piled a platter with eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and gravy and filled a bowl with fresh fruit.

   "Little hungry there, are you?" Jarod asked.
Add
healthy appetite to the things I like about the woman,
he thought.

   "Yep, I am. I never pass up a good breakfast. You sayin' I eat too much?"

   "I am not saying anything like that. I'm glad to see a woman sit up to the table and enjoy her food."

   She put a forkful of the scrambled eggs into her mouth. "Where are we going?"

   He shook his head. "You tried to trick me, Daisy O'Dell, but it didn't work. It's a surprise. Enjoy each step of the way."

   "Okay, what's the next step?"

   "Riding and listening to good music. Maybe you can take a nap and I can watch you sleep. Or you can talk to me and tell me all about your life. Whatever you want to do in a truck for another four hours."

   "I could tell you everything about my life from birth to present in five minutes. What'll we do with the other three hours and fifty-five minutes? Step one is very good, by the way. This is a great breakfast."

   "I'm glad you like it," he said.

   "I don't just like it. I love it. Only time I ever had a big breakfast when I was growing up was when Granny was alive. Momma slept in the mornings because she always was on the close-up crew at the bar so she didn't get to bed until after three most nights. Pop-Tarts and milk was my usual fare before I went to school. And that's about one minute of my life story, so you only get four more on the trip."

   "I bet there's more than four minutes. But since I got you up so early, you can take a nap before you tell me the whole story," he offered.

   She took him up on it and fell asleep five minutes after they left the restaurant. He looked at her all he wanted, just like he'd said. Dark eyelashes fanned out across her high cheekbones and her eyes did that rapid movement thing causing him to wonder what she was dreaming about. Was it him? Or was it that old boyfriend she'd mentioned? Or was she fighting with Hayes Radner about selling the Honky Tonk?

   Part of him wanted to know exactly how Daisy felt about him. Was the difference in him and Billy Bob Walker simply that he'd had sex with Daisy and Billy Bob hadn't? Or did she truly have feelings for him? Could she learn to care?

   The other part feared knowing because he didn't want to lose her.

   A third part reminded him that he couldn't lose what he probably never had.

   Jarod argued with every annoying little voice.

   "Emmett knew what he was talkin' about when he told me you were my Mavis. Those were his last words," he mumbled under his breath.

   Daisy was dreaming about her grandmother. They were in the kitchen making cookies and she heard a deep voice in the distance say something about Mavis. One second she was in the dream, the next she was wide awake.

   "What time is it?"

   "Good morning to you too." Surely she hadn't heard him talking out loud. If she knew what Emmett had said, she'd bolt like a jackrabbit being chased by a whole pack of hungry coyotes.

   "I could use a cup of coffee and a bathroom. Where are we?"

   "On I-35 headed north," he said.

   She looked puzzled. "Are we still in Texas?"

   "Crossed the Red River about an hour ago. We're between Ardmore and Pauls Valley right now. There's a service station up ahead on Exit 55 with an A&W inside it. We'll get coffee there. You slept a long time. Feel better?"

   "Better than what?"

   "Cathy's not the only grumpy one in the family when she first wakes up, is she?"

   "It's an O'Dell trait. Get me some coffee and I'll turn into a human."

   He nosed the truck into a space right in front of the service station. She stretched when she was outside, putting her hands above her head and wiggling the kinks out of her neck.

   "Hey, look, Jarod. There's one of those Indian casinos across the street. Treasure Valley, the sign says. Let's go drop twenty dollars into the slots and win a million."

   "Can't today. Have to make it to the next step on time. But I promise if you want to gamble we'll stop on the way back tomorrow."

   She touched up her makeup and hair in the bathroom mirror. Jarod waited outside the door with two cups of coffee and they were back on the road in minutes. She sipped coffee and watched the scenery speed past at seventy-five miles an hour. They passed the Pauls Valley exit and kept going north. Her mind began to run in circles. Where on earth could they be going?

   The sign for Exit 91 said that they were passing Purcell on the west side. In a few minutes they went through Norman, home of Oklahoma University and the OU Sooners. Mercy, were they going all the way to Kansas?

   The busy hubbub of city traffic faded behind them when they left Oklahoma City. In Guthrie he took Highway 33 east toward Stillwater and she began to get very nervous. They went through Langston and Perkins and the next sign she saw said Cushing was ten miles ahead. Nervousness turned to panic.

   He pulled off on a gravel section line road and drove a couple of miles before he turned back to the left down a lane. At the end was a long low slung ranch house with dozens of trucks and cars parked in the pasture to the north. It reminded her of the vehicles parked at the Double M when Emmett died. Surely Liam or Frankie hadn't died or he'd have been a hell of a lot sadder.

   "What is going on here and where are we?" she asked.

   "Today is my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. In fifteen minutes they are renewing their vows in the backyard."

   "You. Are. A. Dead. Man," she said slowly.

   "Do I get to choose the method of death?"

   She crossed her arms. "Go on. I'll be right here when it's over and you can take me to the nearest motel."

   "You can either get out or I'll carry you over my

shoulder with your cute little underpants shining." She shot him a mean look and got out of the truck. "You're going to pay."

   "Probably, but I wanted you beside me today." He threw an arm around her bare shoulders. When everyone turned around in their seats to see who was arriving he waved. He took his place beside Stephen and Mitch on the front row of folding chairs with Daisy at his side.

   The back door of the house opened and the preacher motioned for everyone to stand as Liam led Frankie down the center aisle between the rows of chairs to the archway set up under the shade trees.

   Frankie was dressed in a gorgeous gold silk dress with thin straps. No one would have ever guessed she'd been married fifty years. That meant she was somewhere close to seventy years old and she didn't have enough wrinkles to make her look guilty of being fifty.

   Liam wore the cowboy trademark dark jeans and a white shirt, but he had topped it with a Western cut short tux jacket. No wonder his mother loved Jarod so much. He was the younger version of his father. Stephen looked more like Frankie with the high cheekbones and dark eyes. Mitch was a healthy mixture of the two, but Jarod was Liam forty years before.

   The preacher cleared his throat, motioned for everyone to sit down again, and began, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to hear Liam Stephen and Fransell Raine Blackwolf McElroy exchange their wedding vows again in honor of their fiftieth wedding anniversary. In today's world that is a wonderful testimony and example. In 1958, Liam met Frankie. They were married the next year. At this time we will hear them repeat their original vows and say some new ones. So Liam, do you take Frankie as your lawfully wedded wife for another fifty years to love, honor, cherish?"

   Two weddings in less than a week; Daisy couldn't remember going to two weddings in her life before that time. Her mother had brought her second husband home with the news that they'd been to the courthouse that day and Daisy had a new stepfather. With the third one she had gone to Las Vegas and Granny kept Daisy. But by the time the newlyweds arrived back in Mena a week later, the bloom was already off the honeymoon. After the divorce her mother said she'd never marry again and she didn't. But that didn't mean there were no more men in her life.

   Listening to Frankie say her vows wasn't easy with Jarod holding her hand. The way his thumb kept making lazy circles on the tender skin between her thumb and forefinger was about to drive her insane. Would Jewel pull a pistol from her cute little handbag and shoot her if she dragged Jarod out to that barn in the distance? It was either that or else die from blistering desire and Daisy was too damn young to die. Besides, what would they put on her tombstone?
Here lies Daisy O'Dell who died
of a sexual heat stroke.
She smiled at the visual of those words engraved under her name on a chunk of granite.

   "And now I pronounce you man and wife for another fifty years," the preacher said and Liam kissed Frankie. Not a little "old people peck on the check" kiss either. Sparks lit up the whole area like they did when Jarod kissed her. She blinked to get rid of that thought, but it didn't do a whole hell of a lot of good.

   Everyone clapped as Liam led Frankie back to the

house.

   "Liam and Frankie have asked me to thank each of you for sharing in their special day to invite you to a reception set up out in the barn. The one you can see out just beyond the yard fence with the caterers' vans parked to one side. There will be food and wedding cake and you can all congratulate the couple there," the preacher said.

   A white carriage pulled by six white horses appeared with Liam and Frankie inside. The horses stepped high and pranced as they carried them back to the barn. Daisy couldn't take her eyes off the sight. It was so very romantic, like something from one of her castle romance books.

   "What now?" Daisy asked.

   "Still ready to make me a dead man?" Jarod whispered.

   "Depends on what kind of food there is out there and if I get to eat because I've been a good girl," she teased.

   Stephen slapped him on the shoulder. "You old rascal. We'd given up on you makin' it on time. Pleased to see you again, Daisy. Welcome to our shindig. Hey, there's old Marty Flannery. I've got to go see him. Catch you in the barn, Jewel." He nodded toward his wife and crossed the lawn in long strides.

   Jewel's expression wasn't one of welcome when she looked at Daisy.

   Jewel touched Jarod's arm. "You need to stick around after you eat. There will be pictures so don't run off to the nearest beer joint with your…" she shot Daisy a long, hateful look, "
whatever she is. Just don't go to
o far. Momma Frankie wants pictures of
her
family," she told Jarod and walked away without even saying hello to Daisy.

   "Sorry about that," Jarod said.

   "You don't ever have to apologize for someone else's actions. And she didn't hurt my feelings. I'm a bartender, remember? If she wants a catfight I can deliver one but not until after I eat. I'm hungry and I just offered to be good," Daisy said.

   Jarod bent down and brushed a kiss across her lips. "Want to skip the food and go do something more fun?"

   "I wouldn't have the energy. I'm hungry enough to eat a cow. Horns, hooves, and all, so Jewel better make sure she's in line before me or she can starve to death."

   Jarod was stopped by so many people on the way to the barn that Daisy feared there wouldn't even be a chicken wing left for her. She'd been introduced to half the state of Oklahoma in the short distance between the house and the barn. They were all a blur, so remembering names was next to impossible.

   "Sorry that—" Jarod started when it finally looked as though they were going to make it to the barn without someone wanting to visit.

   "I told you not to apologize. I might not be hungry after all with that many bodies crammed into a hot barn," Daisy said.

   "Honey, we do things right up here. That's the sale barn. It's air conditioned."

   "You are shittin' me."

   "No, ma'am. Our cattle sale is in September. We wouldn't hold a high-dollar buyer very long if they had to sit in a hot barn."

   Cool air and the smell of barbecue met her when Jarod opened the door. White linen covered tables were set up around a dance floor. Waiters in black slacks, white tux shirts, and black bow ties took orders and carried food and drinks back and forth. The whole scene was one out of a fancy restaurant.

   They got into the buffet line behind Jewel and Stephen. Jewel turned around and flicked imaginary lint from Jarod's shirt. "Did I tell you that Mallory is divorced again? She moved back to Cushing. Called me last week. I invited her to come to the party but she said she didn't think it would be appropriate unless you didn't have a date. I don't think she's ever gotten over you."

   Daisy looked up at him with a question on her face.

   "Mallory is number two. Sasha is number one, and Emily, number three," he explained.

   "I'm sorry, darlin'. You did mention them but I keep the past where it belongs. In the past. Are those ribs? I love smoked ribs," Daisy said.