Page 19 of Clara Knows Best

“You don’t have to tell me this stuff, Jesse.”

“I’m not telling you. I’m thinking out loud. Shut up for a minute.”

“Okay,” she said quickly, and went back to finishing his lunch. It was delicious, and she was much hungrier than she’d realized.

“I don’t know,” he said finally. “Are you done eating that? Let’s get out of here.”

“I thought you had all day,” she protested.

“Too late.”

She looked doubtfully at him for a second before looking over her shoulder to see who had entered the little restaurant.

DeWitt Petty made his way to their table, and he didn’t look happy. “This looks cozy,” he said. “Sharing a fork, huh?”

Clara looked down at the plate in the middle of the table. The lone fork did give the wrong impression—not that it mattered. She looked back up. “Uh, hey.”

“What are you doing here?” Jesse asked him bluntly.

Clara was startled; did they know each other?

DeWitt, too, looked a little taken aback. “Getting breakfast. What’s it to you?”

“Are you following her?”

Clara’s eyes flew to Jesse. Was it really necessary to be so confrontational? He had a mulish look in his eye, like he wasn’t in the mood to be tactful.

“No, I’m not following her. I was going to stop by the high school to see if you needed a ride, but you’d already left,” he informed Clara. “So I thought I’d get something to eat. Guess we had the same idea.”

Clara could admit to herself that she had absolutely no idea how best to deal with someone like DeWitt Petty. If he had a temper she’d never seen it, but he was huge and imposing and he seemed to think they were meant for each other.

Jesse showed no such hesitation. “How’d you know she was at the high school without her vehicle?” he asked.

“Small town, man.”

“Not that small,” Jesse said flatly.

“Kid in the STEM club mows my lawn. We were texting, and he mentioned it.”

“Right. Well, good thing you’re not following her, because that would make a lot of peoplereally mad. Dangerous people.”

“Are you dangerous?” DeWitt asked gently.

“Under the right circumstances,” Jesse answered just as politely.

There was a long pause. Clara could not believe that she was witnessing Jesse Flores threaten someone on her behalf. Could things get any more bizarre?

“Not following her,” DeWitt reasserted finally.

“I stopped by the Gila Monster this morning to ask who paid for all your margaritas,” Jesse told her.

“You did?” She looked up at DeWitt. “Was it you? You shouldn’t do that.”

“Hey, it was my pleasure,” he said easily.

“No, I don’t want you buying me drinks.” Her nausea was returning in force; carne asada had been a bad choice. She took a slow, steadying breath. “Can we go?”

“Yeah,” Jesse said, rising to his feet. For a long moment he and DeWitt faced each other, and then DeWitt stepped aside to allow him to pass.

---