Page 4 of Clara Knows Best

Mabel climbed carefully down and crossed the yard to meet Clara at the porch. “It’s here waitin’ for ya. Who’s that?”

Clara turned to see Jesse getting out of the truck. “Oh, that’s Jesse. He’s kind of a friend of the family. Jesse Flores, this is Mabel Rickles. Jesse lives in Austin.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, and offered her his hand.

The older woman raised her eyebrows at Clara before taking him up on the handshake. “You two got anything going on?”

“I wish,” Clara retorted. “He’s way out of my league.”

Mabel liked that, and punched Jesse’s arm. Then she told them to sit tight and went inside the house.

“Still got a mouth on you,” Jesse remarked wryly.

“Fortune favors the bold,” Clara said righteously. It was kind of an unofficial family motto. “You know why she went in there, don’t you?”

“To get someone to load your order?”

“To call her sister and tell her that Clara Wilder’s driving around with some out-of-town hottie.”

“Am I a hottie?” he asked in surprise.

“To Miss Mabel you are,” she said with a grin. “And her sister Sherry’s the postmistress, so word’s gonna spread.”

“How do you know everyone in Marfa? Were you homecoming queen here, too?”

“I don’t knoweveryone. Earl and Dale Keplinger are from Romeo. The Rickleses are friends of Uncle Jim’s, and besides…they have hay.”

“And Memo Del Amo had a fire.”

“Yeah,” she said, her humor fading. “The drought’s been hard on everyone. Bad yields. Lots of fires last fall.”

“How’s Jim holding out?”

“He’s doing pretty good. He’s always prepared, you know? Wily. And he diversifies, so he can shift his focus if he has to.”

He was watching two men walking towards them from the barn. “All of you Wilders are wily.”

She had to smile at his grim tone. “Does that mean you know why my mom guilt-tripped you into coming out here?”

“I have a pretty good idea. Shut up, now.”

She rolled her eyes at the cautious command, and went down the steps. “Hey, Mr. Rickles! How’s it going?”

“Hiya, Clara,” the farmer said.

“Jesse Flores, Curtis and Jake Rickles.”

The men exchanged brisk nods and Curtis promised that he and his son would have the flatbed loaded with bales faster than a sneeze through a screen door.

“Sounds fast,” Clara said.

2

The farmer’s wife invited them into the house for coffee and cake, and Clara, though he half-expected her to be snobby about it, accepted immediately.

“Clara loves my coffee cake,” Mabel informed him as she cut into it, and added modestly, “It’s my mother’s recipe.”

“I’m so glad you asked us in,” Clara said cheerfully. “Jesse must be starving. We came straight from the airport.”

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