Blame It On Texas Read Free Page A

the motor running for the air-conditioning. He didn’t want this nice little old lady passing out from heatstroke. “There. How’s this?”
    “Just fine.” She rolled down the window and stuck her head out as if she was going to yell at the construction workers. Not that anyone would’ve heard, with a dozer moving dirt around behind the foundation. A blast of dusty hot air wafted into the truck, but the elderly woman seemed oblivious to it as she watched the construction crew of five men erecting framework. “They don’t move too fast, do they.”
    “It’s the hottest part of the day,” he pointed out, hoping she’d close that window before she expired from the heat and the dust. It scared him, how old she was. “Maybe you should—”
    “They can take their time, for all I care. I’m in no hurry to die in one of those silly villas.” She sighed. “I’ll bet you spent a few nights in this place. Or are you too young to remember the drive-in movies on weekend nights?”
    “I remember.” Darkness. Kissing Kate. Pressing her down on the back seat, the one with the rips in the vinyl he’d taken great pains to repair. To this day duct tape made him think of making love to a brown-haired teenaged girl.
    “My family used to keep cattle here, back before the railroad came through. Did you know that?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    She pressed the button on the door and the window rolled up. “My, that’s easy.”
    “Yes.” He waited a moment. “Are you ready to head back to town, Mrs. Knepper?”
    “I think you’d better call me Gert. We should be on a first-name basis since we live together.”
    “And me?” the boy said, leaning forward so that his chin touched Gert’s shoulder for a brief moment. “What can I call you, Mrs. Knepper?”
    “Mrs. Knepper,” his father replied.
    “Well, now, most of the children I know call me Grandma Gert, so you sure can, too, Danny,” Gert declared. “If that’s okay with your daddy.”
    Dustin nodded and put the truck in reverse. “Where to now, Gert?”
    “The library, I think. I have some books to get and then we’ll get groceries after we go to the bank.”
    “Sure.”
    “Danny can go to the library with me and help me carry the books,” Gert said. “You must have errands of your own to do without dragging an old lady around with you.”
    “I’m worried about the heat, Gert. You want to get a cold drink at the café first?”
    “I wouldn’t mind. The boy and I might have one of those chocolate milk shakes.”
    Danny got a kick out of that idea. “Oh, boy,” he said, leaning forward again. “I never had one of those before.”
    “Well, my goodness.” Gert was clearly speechless. She frowned at Dustin. “Does he have one of them milk allergies or something?”
    “Not that I know of.” He didn’t know much, that was certain.
    “What’s that?” the boy asked.
    “It means you get sick when you drink milk or eat ice cream, things like that,” Dustin explained, hoping he was right. No one had warned him that becoming a father meant you were supposed to be right about everything.
    “I’m okay,” Danny insisted. “Grandma Gert and me’ve been drinking milk all week.”
    “We sure have,” the old woman agreed. “So I guess a chocolate milk shake will go down real good—with some French fries and maybe a hamburger, too.”
    “Wow,” the child whispered under his breath. Dustin winced, wondering what in hell Lisa had done to this kid besides the crap he already knew about. Too thin and too quiet, Danny still had that scared look in his eyes, like someone was going to yell at him or worse. Dustin felt sick to his stomach and his hands clenched the steering wheel.
    Gert gave him a sharp look. “You’d rather be back at the ranch working, wouldn’t you?”
    “Well, ma’am, there’s a lot that needs doing.” Not that any of it would matter if Gert decided she’d lived out there for too long. He could always go back to the Dead Horse and