Page 11 of Gotta Dig Deep
Her grandmother had passed peacefully in her sleep nearly five years ago, and Glenna still missed her every day. The woman had taken her on as a sullen teen angry at a world that had stolen her parents away in a single moment, their lives snuffed out in a pile of twisted metal. After that bleak moment, it felt like every good thing in her life had come from the hands of the woman she’d eventually called Grammy. So Glenna made it a point to visit the gravesite as often as possible, just to sit and gossip, telling her grandmother everything that had happened since their last one-sided conversation. It helped keep her grounded and reminded her where she came from—her roots.
“I don’t need anything from town, darlin’. Be safe when you go. I saw old man Snyder out runnin’ fences this morning. He didn’t say so, but you and I both know if he’s out doin’ his own work, probably means Jackson didn’t come home last night. If that man’s still in town, he’ll be owly for sure.”
“Mugh.” Grunting her displeasure, she shook herself all over. “I hate them.” She sighed and rephrased. “Not them, just Jackson.”
The Three S Ranch to their south was owned by Chester Snyder, who had always been a good neighbor. Respectful of fence lines and understanding of how things went when there were thousand-pound animals in the mix of things. When his wife passed last year, Glenna and Penn took it upon themselves to continue with their neighbor’s half-finished haying, putting up more than a thousand bales with the help of some of the other folks from town. That’s just how it was done in the country. Everyone pulled together.
Except for Jackson Snyder, the third S in the ranch’s brand.
Older than Glenna by ten years, Jackson had been an asshole as long as she’d known him. If he’d gotten drunk last night, it meant he’d probably gone home with the county-line bar’s sole bartender. A sweet woman, Cynthia was older, which for some reason pissed Jackson off every time he woke up in her bed.
Glenna could tell the man one fix for his anger issues.Well, two fixes. Don’t get drunk, and don’t go home with Cynthia.She shrugged. “I’ll watch for him. Avoiding Jackson is a fine art, and I’m proud to have mastered it from a young age.” Out in the country, playmates and friends were usually drawn from the closest neighbors. Not so in this case.
“I know you have.” Penn chuckled. “Now give me a kiss and go get dressed. I’ll make some eggs and sausage for our breakfast.”
“I knew there was a reason I loved you.” She turned and stretched up, rolling to her toes to place her lips against his. With a whispered, “Man who cooks and gives up his coffee without a fight? That man’s a keeper,” she pursed her lips. He ducked his head and closed the fraction of space between their mouths, possessing hers with a surety and familiarity that spoke to the years they’d been together. “Love you, Penn,” she said when the kiss broke finally.
“Love you more, darlin’.”
***
Standing at the grocery store’s meat counter, Glenna glared at the mounds of chicken breasts and thighs. “Owl got my rooster Avril last night. I don’t know whether to let my broody girls set their eggs and hope for babies, or wring their necks and make stew.” Her muttering had the man behind the glass-fronted case laughing. “You laugh now, Jeffrey, but my decision will determine if I have you wrap up some chicken for me or not.”
“You won’t kill your hens. You’re not kidding anyone except your ownself, Glenna.”
“I hate how you know me so well.” She aimed a pretend scowl his direction. “Why are we friends again? I’ll take four breasts and two thighs. It’s barbeque night, and too dang hot to cook a stew in the house, so the girls live to cluck another day. But only because it’s hot, not because I’m attached to them or anything.”
“Glenna, you named your rooster. Chances are those hens have names too.” He pulled the container from the case and turned to the back counter, ripping a length of waxed paper from a spool. “And yes, it’s too dang hot to cook inside. Hope this weather breaks soon.”
“Penn said the same thing this morning. The rains are good, but those storms are fierce. I worry about the electricity every evening, seems like.”
“It goes out, you know what to do.” Jeffrey turned and handed her the bundled package of meat, date and type written neatly along one long fold of white paper. “Take the blankets out and wrap that freezer up, first thing. I don’t want to be selling you any beef when you raise the best meat in the county.”
Grinning at him, she dropped the chicken into her cart. “You say the sweetest things.”
“Don’t tell your husband I was sweet talking you. He’d have my head.”
“Penn’s a lover not a fighter.”
“More information than I need to know.” Jeffery’s laughter followed her to the front of the store.
Bags packed in the footwell of the passenger seat, she stretched her back as she glanced around the small community that had sprung up around the intersection. Over the past ten years, Belle, Texas had gone from a population of about ten people to more than a thousand, families lured from Longview and Tyler by the new gated communities built on what used to be prime grazing pasture. Slowly, one at a time, smaller ranching families without generational support had sold to a local developer, leaving their ten, twenty, or even fifty-acre plots of land changed forever.
I don’t know what would be worse, having to sell the ranch to a Scrooge McJerk or Jackson Snyder.
Glenna shook off her thoughts and was climbing into the front seat of her truck when she noticed Penn’s truck parked alongside the doctor’s storefront clinic.Good for him. About time he got checked out.Sliding back out, she locked the truck behind her, crossed the highway with a quick look either direction, and jogged up the concrete steps in front of the clinic. A bell rang overhead, announcing her arrival and a blonde beehive peered around the edge of the receptionist window.
“Glenna, what brings you here today?” The nasally twang of the woman’s voice grated on Glenna’s nerves. Growing up in a small town had many benefits. It also had a few drawbacks, which was if her arch nemesis during high school didn’t move away, and Glenna also hadn’t moved away, the chances were high that she’d be running into this woman her whole life.
“Darcy Mae.” Glenna gave her a brief nod. “Just here for Penn’s appointment. What room’s he in back there?” She grabbed the doorknob of the single internal exit from the receptionist area and jiggled it.Why’s it locked?“Care to let me in so I can see my husband?”
“He’s with the doc now.” That teased and bleached head of hair shook back and forth. “Probably best not to disturb them. I’m sure Pendleton will be out soon if you’d care to take a seat?”
“At least tell him I’m here?” Glenna didn’t like the tone of voice Darcy Mae had used. Something about it had her hackles up. Still, she gritted out, “Please?”
“If you’ll just take a seat, he’ll be out here soon.”
Sensing there was no win for her in this confrontation, Glenna grumped audibly and chose the chair closest to the exit from the internal offices, grabbing a magazine from the nearby table. Two articles on deworming cattle later, the door opened outward, blocking her view of whoever was exiting. Darcy Mae’s greeting left no question, though, and her cheery, “Pendleton. You paying cash like usual?” stopped Glenna in place, half risen from the chair.
