Nuts and Buried Read Free Page B

something she wasn’t. I kind of liked this Jeannie Wheatley more, thinking she had a great sense of humor, coming as her own kind of famous Texan.
    Eugene looked relieved to get away from rabbits and dry arroyos. “Well, Lindy. Don’t remember seeing you since you beat the devil out me that time in high school.”
    â€œGave you one black eye. You deserved it.”
    â€œAll I said was you were pretty.” He leaned back and laughed. “With most girls, that line got me a little better than beat up.”
    Jeannie was frowning, then asking me which famous Texan I was supposed to be.
    â€œLooks like somebody got run over out in the road, you ask me.” Miranda leaned back, narrowed her eyes and wiggled her eyebrows.
    â€œWatch yer mouth, Miranda,” Melody chimed in. “I think Lindy looks like some poor soul from the old days. I’m guessing Sully Browne. Seen her headstone out in the cemetery. That right, Lindy?”
    I didn’t get to answer before the two women set to arguing, in low voices, over who I was. I heard the words “death warmed over” and turned back to Eugene, asking him how he’d been doing since he moved away from Riverville. I felt like asking why he’d come back now but didn’t, thinking it wouldn’t come out sounding friendly.
    â€œI’m glad you came to the party. Want everybody here in Riverville to get to know my bride,” Eugene said and hugged the yellow lady to him. “We’re thinking of settling right here, in this house. ’Course, I need to work out everything in Dallas. Still got my office and business. But Jeannie likes it here and she doesn’t like Dallas much. Too big.” He smiled down at his bride. He’d grown from the gawky, gangling kid I knew in high school into a tall, skinny man. I’d lost tract of Eugene after his father sent him off to a privateschool in Houston. He wasn’t a bad guy. A little too much daddy-money, but how could he help it, with all those wells flowing all over Texas?
    I turned to Jeannie. “Are you really the Yellow Rose of Texas?” I asked by way of making conversation. Behind me came a gasp from Ethelred, who was more into dropping hints and slurs than taking anything on directly.
    â€œYou like it?” She twirled again. “Elizabeth thought . . .”
    I caught on fast that this wasn’t a joke. Probably ignorance. My estimation of Jeannie Wheatley dropped a couple of notches. Or maybe it was just Elizabeth’s meanness that got me.
    â€œYou’re the one working on all those new trees?” Jeannie started right in with the information, whoever prepped her for the party, had put in her head. “What a great thing to be doing. Hope I can come over someday and see your greenhouse. I’d love to hear how you do all that experimenting.” She kept smiling. Her round blue eyes smiled, too. I began to warm to our new resident.
    Eugene excused himself from the circle of women pretty quick. “Promised the men I’d put out some of my gun collection. Gotta set things up in the gun room.” He smiled over at Jeannie in that way men smile at new wives. A way that made me uncomfortable and not wanting to be in the middle of something between them that should be kept secret.
    Jeannie showed a lot of white teeth, and a lot of love in her big blue eyes.
    â€œBet you’d be interested, Lindy.” Eugene turned back to me. “Got a Browning machine gun, 1919A4 semiautomatic. Really rare. Got a couple of great Colts—1911s. A few of Wesson’s own guns. Maybe three hundred guns altogether. Can’t put ’em all out. Most stored in my gun safe. If you’re interested in guns, come along in a while?”
    He looked around at all of us. “I’ll be holed up for halfan hour or so. Enjoy the buffet. Looks like they’re going to open it soon.”
    â€œWhen are you gonna eat, honey?”