Eleven #2
“You do the same,” she said, and nodded as she got into the truck with Danny and they headed back to the ranch.
John was in the kitchen drinking coffee with his mother when Josie walked in. He gave her a biting look. “I guess he didn’t
think to frisk you,” he said.
“John Everett,” his mother said, “you stop it.”
“Sorry, Mom.” He didn’t look sorry, though.
“Josie is the one you should be apologizing to,” Heather replied.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, Mrs. Everett,” Josie said with a warm smile. “After all, a man who keeps a rattlesnake for a pet
can’t be expected to be very civilized with his conversation.”
John’s glare could have fried an egg. But he glanced at his mother and decided not to risk it again.
“Why would you expect the sheriff to frisk her?” Heather asked suddenly.
“Mom, I know you’ve noticed that she carries a pistol.”
“Well, yes, but she works in real estate.”
Occasionally, his mother was vague, John thought to himself, although he didn’t dare say it out loud. He just smiled and asked, “What does that mean, Mom?”
“It’s always on the news that some poor woman went alone to show a property to some man and she got, well, attacked or killed,”
Heather explained.
John looked at Josie with a thoughtful expression and a gleam in his eyes that made Josie want to go across the table and
batter his ears with a fork.
“I know exactly what you’re thinking, and shame on you!” Josie said to John.
Heather gave her an odd look.
She ground her teeth together. “Sorry, Mrs. Everett. I guess I’m not quite civilized, either.” But she added with downcast
eyes, “At least I don’t keep a vicious reptile for a pet.”
“And imagine you being afraid of one?” John drawled.
She knew what he was insinuating; that she was a reptile, too, but she couldn’t say that. She had to grit her teeth and just
smile back. “I’m not afraid of him,” she lied.
“Of course not,” he said. “That’s why I have to cover his cage with a sheet every night when you go to bed, so you won’t be
terrified when you walk past my room.”
“You could, of course, close your bedroom door,” she replied.
“I live here,” he said. “You’re only visiting. Precious lives here, too. Poor old snake. He’s going to need therapy after
that cattleman crashed through the glass and scared him to death trying to get away from him, and Precious wasn’t doing anything.”
“The snake is going to need therapy?” she said in a monotone.
“Well, he’s got feelings, too,” John said.
“Just before he sinks his fangs into you,” she said under her breath.
“And he doesn’t have any fangs,” John defended him. “He’s toothless.”
“Ohh, wasn’t that the cutest cartoon movie that had Toothless and he was a dragon and he had all the dragon friends, and they lived in the village and everybody was afraid of them!” Heather said instantly, trying to moderate the conversation.
“Bang, speaking of guns,” Josie began, and then clapped her hand over her mouth and blushed. She hadn’t meant to let that
out. “Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry!” she said. She pointed to John, glowering. “It’s your son. He’s corrupting me.”
“I really think the corruption was already there,” John said sweetly.
“Oh, you two!” Heather sighed, getting up from the table. “The holiday season is upon us.” She looked from one of them to
the other. “Peace on earth? Harmony? A time to lay down arms?”
“We’d have to remove them first,” John said through his teeth.
Josie smothered a smile just as JJ walked in the back door with Cole. They let in a breath of cold air.
“Is it getting colder outside?” John asked.
“Moderately so,” Cole replied. “And I need to ride out to the line cabin on the north border and check on Ken Bailey. His
wife said he’s caught a cold now to go with his other problems.”
“Oh, dear,” Heather said, “and he’s just got over pneumonia.”
“She said he went right out this morning and went to work. I may need a length of rope,” Cole sighed. “He’s almost as stubborn
as I am. May said he was out trying to break horses this morning, coughing his head off.”
“Threaten to tell Lucy,” John suggested. “It worked last time. He’s terrified of his daughter,” he added, grinning.
Cole chuckled. “It sure did. Nice idea.”
John just grinned at him.
JJ had been standing quietly but he was shifting from one foot to the next impatiently.
“And what’s your problem, my boy?” Josie asked with a smile.
“The tree,” JJ said. “I know we had to get home early last time we went after it. But we still haven’t got one. It’s after
Thanksgiving and Mercedes says you always get the tree just after Thanksgiving anyway.” He looked hopeful. “Me and Dad couldn’t
have a tree on account of they cost so much money, and we didn’t have money for decorations anyway . . .” He grimaced and
looked embarrassed and turned red.
“Now, don’t do that,” Josie said gently. She got up and hugged him. “I know about Christmas trees. I always put up a little
one in my apartment, but I can’t have a big tree because I don’t have room.”
“You don’t go home for Christmas, ever?” Heather asked worriedly.
Josie looked uncomfortable. “Well, no,” she said. “Mama’s not there anymore and my dad . . . Well, he’s just never home for
Christmas, so I’d be all by myself. If I’m going to be alone, I’d just as soon be alone in my own space.”
“You won’t be alone here,” Heather said gently. “And you’re very welcome to be here.”
“You certainly are,” Cole said, and glared at his son before he could open his mouth. “Very welcome. Right, John?”
John almost choked himself to death trying not to let the words out that he wanted to say. So instead, he said, “Right, Dad.”
But he couldn’t look at Josie while he said it.
She cocked her head and looked at him. “You could put up a Christmas tree in your room for Precious,” she said. “You might
get him a set of false teeth for his present.”
He glared at her. “Careful that I don’t wrap him up and put him under the tree with your name on the tag,” he threatened softly.
“Oh, that wouldn’t work,” she said. “I’d just rattle the box, and it would rattle back and Precious would be airborne almost immediately. Now, you wouldn’t want that, would you? Poor old snake would really need therapy then.” She averted her eyes. “In fact, you might profit from it yourself.”
“I am not in need of therapy!” he said curtly.
“Oh, yeah?” she replied. “Why don’t you walk into the nearest psychologist’s office and tell him you keep a pet rattlesnake?
I’ll show you therapy.”
JJ leaned against Josie and slid an arm around her. “Now, Josie, I think it’s really cool that John has a pet rattlesnake,”
he told her solemnly. “I don’t know of anybody else who does. Most people have cats and dogs and geese . . .”
“Geese!” John did a mock shiver.
“Why do you look like that?” Josie asked.
Heather was smothering laughter.
“Sure, you can laugh, Mom. It was your goose!” John muttered.
“Well, I did really mean to cook it. But he was such a sweet goose, and he followed me around everywhere I went . . .”
“And protected you from your whole family,” Cole said through his teeth.
“In my defense,” Heather said, “nobody ever told me about geese and men.”
Cole’s eyes were dancing with laughter.
“That’s right, Dad, gloat,” John muttered, ramming his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You bought it for her. And the
darn thing didn’t bite you!”
“I told you not to chase him,” Cole said in a droll tone. “Especially not in front of the other geese.”
“Case in point,” Josie interrupted, “a male goose is a gander.”
“Thank you for that brilliant observation,” John retorted.
“We did get you right to a doctor,” Heather reminded him.
“Damn doctor had hysterics right there in his office, with his nurse bent over double right beside him. And it wasn’t funny!”
John added.
“It was if you weren’t the victim,” Cole replied. He held up both hands as John glared at him, “Okay. I’ll stop,” Cole promised.
JJ was laughing, too. “Dad worked on this ranch where they kept chickens and ducks and geese. One of the ganders really had
it in for Dad, but he could outrun it. He said my granddaddy could outrun a horse at full gallop.”
“So could mine,” Cole said with a warm smile. “Those old timers were tough.”
“So . . . the tree?” JJ said in a small voice with a hopeful look in his big eyes.
John laughed. Josie found him fascinating like that. It changed him so much from the sarcastic companion she’d grown used
to. He glanced at her suddenly and caught her staring. His face changed as his eyes narrowed on her flushed cheeks. He didn’t
say anything but the look made her feel odd sensations. She averted her eyes quickly before it became obvious.
“Okay, the tree it is. Who’s coming?” John asked.
“I can’t,” Heather said. “Mrs. Myers is coming to talk about a problem she’s got with one of the congregation, and I promised
I’d listen.”
“And I have to go to the line cabin and see about Bailey,” Cole added.
“Josie has to come,” JJ piped up. He looked at John. “Please? I’ll bet she’s good at picking out Christmas trees.”
“We can also get one for Precious,” Josie said with a straight face. “Or maybe we could get him a girlfriend.”
“Great idea,” John said. “And she can sleep in the room with you.”
Josie threw out both hands, palms out. “No, no, no, no, no, forget I said anything!”
“And when you get back,” Heather said, “one of you has to go up in the attic and bring down the Christmas decorations that
go on the tree and on the door and on the fence.”
“I’ll go get it,” John said. “But I’m not decorating it.”
“Me neither,” Cole said firmly.
“We could ask Tanner,” Heather threatened.
“If you do, you won’t see him until New Year’s,” Cole promised.
“I’ll help,” Josie volunteered. “I love Christmas. It’s my favorite season. I love to decorate things.”
“One year I asked your father for a tree,” Heather told John. “He brought it home and started hanging spurs and lariats on
it.”