Page 29 of Texas Daze (Texas Montgomery Mavericks)

Grisham looked over his shoulder. “Sure are. Hard working at doingnothing.”

She chuckled, then grabbed a stool and dragged it over to where the guys were sitting. “Any calves thismorning?”

“Two,” Pedro replied. “Both females. Both out, cleaned up and standing under their moms when I found them. Bothlookgood.”

“Great,” she said. “Got anything else todrink?”

Grisham pointed his bottle toward an ice cooler. “Helpyourself.”

She pulled a diet soft drink out, cracked the top, and took a long swallow. “Wow, that tastes good.” She rolled the icy bottle on her forehead. “Anything on the schedule for thisafternoon?”

“You’re the boss,” Grisham said. “You gotanything?”

“Nope.”

“Then I guess there’s nothing on theschedule.”

“You check on the hay lately?” sheasked.

“Yep,” Grisham said. “Should be ready to cut toward the end of the month, or early in June. Looks like one of our betteryields.”

“Great. That’ll make Dadhappy.”

“Speaking of, they called today. Wanted to know if they needed to be back for the hayharvest.”

Acid splashed up the sides of her stomach. Her parents checking uponher?

“Oh? What’d youtellthem?”

“I said no. You were whipping us all into shape and we’d be finewithoutthem.”

She laughed. “Whipping you into shape? Ha. That’ll be the day. Seriously, were they worried about things here? I wonder why they didn’tcallme.”

“Did. Said you didn’tanswer.”

She pulled out her cell and saw that she had two missed calls and two voice messages. One from her parents and one from Riverside Ortho. She’d listen to themlater.

“You’re right. I must have turned the ringer off and forgot to turn itbackon.”

“Somebody’s coming down the drive,” Pedro said. “Can’t be my date. She’s not picking me upatsix.”

Marti looked at the teen. “Your date is picking you up and not the other wayaround?”

Pedro grinned. “What can I say? She insisted. I’mirresistible.”

“She probably saw the inside of your truck,” Grisham offered. “No sane person would want to ride in that trash-filledbucket.”

“Hey man, don’t knock my ride,” saidPedro.

“The truth hurts,” Marti said, laughing as she stood. “I’ll see who’s here. Probably apackage.”

It wasn’t apackage.

Chapter8

Delene Younger was poundingon Marti’s door by the time she got to the house fromthebarn.

“You know, you could just check to see if it’s locked rather than trying to knockitdown.”

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