Jackrabbit Junction Jitters Read Free Page A

mean anything to you after all.”
    Henry yawned and watched a grasshopper bounce across the
drive.
    “Typical male.” She tossed the leash onto the floor next to
him and stepped through the front door into the combined campground store and
house.
    A breath of cool air fanned her warm cheeks. The scent of
freshly brewed coffee beckoned. Jess sat on a stool behind the counter reading
a book. A faded, olive green curtain divided the aisles full of camping whatnot
from the rest of the three-bedroom house.
    Jess looked up from her book and smiled. “Mornin’, Claire.”
    With her shoulder-length, curly red hair pulled back in a
ponytail and her freckled face free of makeup, she looked twelve, not two weeks
away from sixteen.
    The wooden floorboards creaked as Claire strolled down the
aisle that featured potato chips and pretzels on one side and boxes of candy on
the other. The buzz of the overhead florescent lights nearly drowned out
Emmylou Harris singing “Two More Bottles of Wine” on Ruby’s old clock radio
above the cash register.
    “Hey, Elvis.” Claire patted the life-size cardboard cutout
of the King wearing his white jumpsuit, holding a can of Diet Coke. She grabbed
a can of soda pop from the wall-length cooler at the back of the store. Hot
coffee would come later, after she’d stopped sweating. Her breakfast of
champions needed a serving of grains according to the good old USDA, so she plucked
a pack of Twinkies from the shelf on her way to the counter.
    “What are you reading, Jess?”
    Jess flipped the book over long enough for Claire to read
the title, Today’s Job Market .
    “Is that for school?” Claire dug a couple of dollars out of
her back pocket to pay for her meal.
    “School hasn’t started yet.”
    “Then why are you reading that?”
    Why was she reading at all? Jess wasn’t really the bookworm
type of girl. Her nose was usually busy rummaging through somebody else’s
business, and most of the time that somebody else was Ruby.
    “I need a job.”
    “I thought you were babysitting the Franklin triplets this
summer.” Claire would rather hammer nails through the tips of her fingers than
spend four hours with those three little hellions. They made Chucky-the-doll
seem like Winnie-the-Pooh.
    “I am, but I need more money.”
    “Why?”
    “To buy a car.”
    Jess had made it no secret that she would be tearing up the
roads in a few weeks. It was practically the front-page story in the Yuccaville
Yodeler .
    “Maybe your mom will let you drive the old Ford to school.”
    Jess glanced at the curtain that separated them from the rec
room. “It’s not for school,” she whispered. “I need it to drive to Cleveland.”
    Oh, Cleveland. Right.
    Claire mentally shook her head at the girl’s naiveté. Jess’s
father lived in Cleveland with his new wife and kids. According to the last
letter he’d sent, he had no room in his home or his life for Jess—not that he
ever had. The piece of shit only paid child support because Ruby had dragged
the Arizona courts into the mess.
    Jess wasn’t the only one who’d rather be a thousand miles
away from Jackrabbit Junction today. Claire was tempted to offer the kid a ride
to Cleveland right this moment. Although, she didn’t really buy that Jess would
run away from her mother, the only sure thing the girl had had since sticking
her head out of the womb.
    “When do you plan on leaving?” Claire took a bite of a
Twinkie, chasing the sweet cake with a swallow of soda.
    Jess shrugged. “Soon. After Mom marries Harley, she’s
probably not going to want me around here anymore.”
    A tried and true drama-princess, Jess could make flossing
her teeth a three-act play with a curtain call to boot. “You think Ruby will be
so busy throwing parties and tasting expensive wines that she won’t have much
time for you?”
    “Probably.” Jess leaned toward Claire as if she had inside
information on Area 51. “She’s already making me go through my old clothes