Page 94 of Clara Knows Best

He shook his head. “Full dog mom.”

“Maybe I’m just ovulating,” she joked, and Jesse did not have the guts to look at her dad and see how he liked that remark. Clara’s attention turned from the dog to him, and he saw her gaze sweep over him. “Leg day, huh? Bet that was fun.”

“Yeah. I’ma go shower before dinner,” he said, dreading the next flight of stairs. “Then I’m going to hit up that poker night at the hardware store.”

“What? Really?”

“Why not? Sounds like I know a lot of those guys.”

“Yeah, you do,” she agreed. “I just never expected you to go for it. I’m glad.”

“You think Yoli’s new neighbor will be there? I’d like to meet him. Isn’t he someone’s nephew? Ed What’s-his-name?”

“Uh, I don’t—yeah, he didn’t—uh, hmm,” Clara stammered.

He watched her, intrigued. He’d never seen her like that before. Was she so into this guy already? “You don’t want me to meet him?”

“Um,” she said. She made a weird face. “He—Who are we talking about? I don’t really…remember Yoli talking about a new neighbor.”

She wasn’t ready to talk about him in front of the Colonel. Not a great sign, given her utter lack of shyness and how close she was to her dad, but fair enough.

“Never mind, then,” he said.

“Okay,” Clara said, but he thought she looked a little stressed out.

He was the seventh poker player, but the guys were glad to see him.

“Doctor money! Nice,” Jordan the young cop said. “Grab a beer. You can sit by me.”

Jesse grabbed a chair at the round table and Skip introduced him around while Roy Bent, his young ear-infection patient’s father, got him an ice-cold beer.

The only one who didn’t look extremely familiar was Jordan’s brother Cody, who owned the bakery, Daily Bread, and Jesse figured both of them were just too young to have been on his radar back in the day.

Ted McMann had gotten fat, but seemed cheerful. Helio Cruz had been an easygoing teen, and he was pretty much unchanged, both in looks and temperament. He was the first friend Jesse had made when he’d moved to Romeo from Austin in the middle of ninth grade, and the one who had convinced him to join the wrestling team.

“You remember how Col. Wilder had us sanding the floors with him that summer?” Helio asked him, shuffling a deck of cards. “Took a month in that massive old house.”

“Yeah, I remember. No A/C, that’s what I remember most.”

“No A/C,” Helio repeated, laughing his contagious machine-gun laugh. “Forgot about that, man. We were sweating all over the floors! Col. Wilder came and found me like a year, year and a half ago, and hired me to work on that doctor’s office reno with him.”

“He did?”

“Put me in charge! I thought he was crazy. Said he knew I was a good worker. I said, ‘It’s been like fifteen years since you saw me sand a floor, how do you know what kind of worker I am? I don’t even have a contractor’s license, man.’ Well, six months go by, right? Suddenly I got a license, I got employees, I got trucks,I got job sites. Heck, I got a fiancée! He did this to me! I’m a business owner, man!”

“Sounds like the Colonel,” Jesse agreed, amused by the indignant delivery. “I’m glad you’re doing well. I don’t know how we lost touch.”

“Wasn’t a lot to it. You stopped taking my calls.”

“Mine, too,” Skip put in. Skip, in addition to being Jordan’s cousin, was some kind of second or third cousin of Helio’s, but Jesse couldn’t remember which.

He grimaced at the accusation, which he knew was justified. “Yeah, sorry about that. The girl I was seeing helped me lose touch with pretty much everyone I knew.”

“I dated one of those once,” Roy Bent volunteered. “Then I married Allie and it’s the opposite problem. Making me new friends everywhere she goes. No offense, dude.”

Helio was still shuffling the cards, and no one seemed in a hurry to play an actual game. That was okay with Jesse; he was mostly there to collect information.

“In Allie’s defense, I’m pretty sure Clara put her up to it this time,” he said.

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