Page 21 of The Wedding Gift

“I’m callin’ my granny.” She laid the gun on her chest of drawers and picked up her phone.

Cameron crossed the room, sat down on the bare mattress of the other twin bed, and slipped his phone from his back pocket. His grandmother answered with a question, “Are you at the Honky Tonk yet? We just got word that badweather was coming that way. Y’all may get two or three inches of snow tonight.”

“You’ve got some explainin’ to do,” he said. “JJ is a woman.”

“Yep, and you’re a cowboy.” He could visualize his grandmother’s brown eyes twinkling. “All of us thought it was best not to tell you until you’d signed the papers.”

“I’m not living in a one-room apartment with a strange, pistol-toting woman. I’m not even unpacking. I can drive from your place in Stephenville every day,” he said.

“Nope, you can’t. We’re in Fort Lauderdale tonight. Tomorrow, we set sail on a long cruise that will last until after New Year’s. I forget what it’s called, but we’ve let out our house on one of those things where folks can come and stay while we’re gone,” Maria Walsh told him sternly.

“Y’all are at the top of my shit list,” he grumbled.

“Call it payback,” Maria giggled. “You were on the top of ours when you went and quit the college education we’d paid for without a degree and went to Florida to manage a bar. You have a brilliant mind, Cameron. You could have been an astronaut or a doctor or a lawyer, or even the governor of the great state of Texas or Florida if you’d set your head to it, but oh, no, you wanted to be a bartender. So, now you are one and we’re even. We’ll see you after New Year’s,and if you don’t like the arrangements there, then why don’t you go back to Florida and give your half of the Honky Tonk to Jorja?”

“Or maybe she’ll go back to wherever she came from and give her half to me,” he said.

“Don’t underestimate that redhead. From what Lila told me, she don’t back down easy,” Maria told him.

“We’ll see about that,” Cameron said. “Have a good cruise, and this isn’t over.”

“Don’t expect it is. Glad you made it to Mingus and that you’ve met Jorja. Y’all play nice now and share your toys.” Maria’s laughter was cut off when she ended the call.

Jorja tossed her phone on the bed and flopped down beside it. “Our grandparents have pulled a sneaky one on us. What would they do if we just walked out of here this evening and didn’t open up for business tomorrow evening?”

“You ever worked in a bar?” Cameron asked.

“Nope,” she answered. “Have you?”

“I’ve managed one for nine years. If you’ve got a mind to leave, then pack up your pretty little pillows and your Christmas tree shower curtain, and sell your half to me.” Cameron met her cold stare and didn’t blink.

“I haven’t worked in a bar, and only know how to mix up a daiquiri and a margarita, but I have a degree in businessmanagement, cowboy, and if I can take care of a multimillion-dollar corporation for eight years, I expect I can run the Honky Tonk,” she answered with a definite sharp edge to her tone. “That said, if you don’t want to own this bar with a girl,”—she put air quotes around the last two words—“I will gladly buy you out, and you can scoot right back to the beach.”

“I didn’t mention that I managed a tiki bar on the beach in Florida.” He eyed her even more closely.

“Granny just now told me. She thinks this predicament they’ve put us in is funny. I don’t,” Jorja told him.

“Neither do I, but I’m damn sure not selling my half of this place to you.” Cameron’s stomach grumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since noon, and it was now nearing midnight. Mingus didn’t have a café, and the one in Thurber, just a mile or two down the road, had been closed when he came past it. “I’m hungry, so before I unload my things, I’m going into the bar to grill a burger or make an omelet.” He stood up and headed toward the door he figured went out into the bar, but the one he opened was a walk-in closet, and her things were all lined up on the left-hand side. Shoeboxes five deep were stacked on the shelf above her clothing, and there were at least twenty more pair on the floor. “You figure you’ve got enough shoes?”

“That’s my business, not yours,” she smarted off at him. “And you can keep your dirty old boots on your side. If I find them mixed in with my things, I’ll toss them in the trash.”

He shut that door and tried another that opened on the bar. He reached around the wall and flipped on the light switch. A single bulb above the grill lit up, and he headed in that direction.

“How did you even know that they’d installed a grill?” Jorja asked. “And we have a kitchenette in our apartment.” She followed him and switched on another light that showed tables with chairs turned upside down on them, two pool tables, and a jukebox over in the corner.

“I was here last Christmas, and the bartender made me a burger and some fries. Is there food in the apartment refrigerator?” he asked as he turned the knob to heat up the grill.

“It’s empty,” she admitted, “but I checked things out when I arrived, and there’s food in the refrigerator in the bar. Evidently, the last managers were here until closing last night from the look of things.”

“No use in taking the food from here to there, and besides, the grill is bigger than that tiny stove I saw in there.” He went to the refrigerator and brought out bacon, eggs, cheese, and a bag of onions and peppers chopped up together.

Jorja hiked a hip onto one of the barstools and watchedhim like a hawk.Did she not know how to make an omelet or use a grill?Cameron wondered.Dammit! What kind of partner had Merle stuck him with?

When the green light said the grill was ready to use, he cracked four eggs into a bowl and whipped them with a fork. Before he could pour them out on the grill, Jorja hopped down, rounded the end of the bar, and headed for the refrigerator.

“What do you think you’re doin’?” he asked.

“I’m going to make myself an omelet, but I want bacon in mine, and maybe a hash brown and some grilled toast to go with it. If I’m going to eat this late, I’ll just call it breakfast, so move over and let me have my half of the grill,” she said.

---