The Great Jackalope Stampede Read Free Page A

“It’s the least I can do to pay you back for racing down here to my rescue.”
    After Gramps had received his diagnosis of a broken fibula, Claire had taken one look at the worry creasing Ruby’s face and picked up the phone. She’d called back home to South Dakota, explaining to Natalie what had happened and asking her if she and her tools felt like spending a little vacation time in the desert.
    Natalie had grown up working alongside Claire and Gramps, building homes, outbuildings, and more. Unlike Claire, Natalie had followed in Gramps’s shoes, making carpentry look easy. She still worked as a “handy woman extraordinaire” at one of the resorts just outside of Deadwood.
    Natalie hip-bumped Claire, grinning at her from under her old straw cowboy hat. “I owed you one, remember?”
    “Oh, yeah. That guy was such a dick.” A grimace wrinkled her cousin’s brow, making Claire do a double take. “Wait, you’re not seeing him again, are you?”
    “No!” Natalie’s laugh sounded harsh, still laced with anger. “Not after what he did with that tongue-pierced skank.” She waved off the past, seeming to avoid Claire’s gaze while she took her time pulling off her leather gloves finger by finger.
    Claire decided not to pick at what appeared to be a semi-fresh scab. “You should have come down and hung out when you broke your leg back in August.”
    “I was a little preoccupied back home.” Natalie stuck her gloves in her back pockets, her jaw tightening, lips pressed together as if she were fighting to keep from saying something else. Then she blew out a breath and her mouth relaxed into her usual grin. “When is that man of yours going to show up? I have a bone to pick with him about stealing you away from us back home.”
    “Tomorrow morning. He’s working late tonight.”
    Mac had been putting in a lot of overtime lately on the job site. While Claire understood some of what his role as a geotechnician entailed, she had a feeling he was spending more time at work than necessary to avoid spending evenings at home with Ronnie always in the background.
    “ Dios mio! ” Manny grinned up at them. “Double the pleasure, double the fun.” Manny blew a kiss their way. “Natalie, mi amor , I didn’t know you were coming down to play build-a-bathroom with Claire. How long will you be in town?”
    “Just long enough to make you fall in love with me, Romeo.”
    “I never fell out of love, bonita . Where are you sleeping?”
    “With Claire in the Skunkmobile.”
    Henry had chased a skunk into Gramps’s ancient Winnebago Chieftain while Claire had been inside grabbing a change of clothes. It had taken several days and a lot of vinegar and tomato juice, not to mention several Silkwood style showers, for the smell to wear off her and the rotten mutt. Even after a full detailed cleaning, the R.V. still had a hint of parfum de Pepe le Pew , especially after baking during the day in the warm sun.
    “I have a big bed if you need more room,” Manny said with an exaggerated wink, and then he jerked as Gramps poked him in the ribs.
    “I don’t think it’s big enough,” Natalie said.
    Chester laughed. “That’s what his last girlfriend told him.”
    “I thought Ronnie was staying in the R.V. with you,” Gramps said to Claire.
    “No, she’s bunking in your spare room up at the house.” Needing some breathing space from her older sister, Claire had insisted that Ronnie stay there.
    “Where’s Katie staying then?” Chester asked.
    “At Butch’s place.” Claire’s younger sister had been spending most nights at her boyfriend’s house since she had rammed his pickup for the second time and knocked his world on its side. She also worked for him at The Shaft.
    “So, if Ronnie is in the house with us, and Natalie is in the R.V. with you, where is Mac going to sleep when he gets here?”
    Claire crossed her arms over her chest. “Where do you think?”
    “You know what that means, don’t you, Ford?”