Chapter 14
“Are you really not going to tell me about your airplane?” Lottie asked that evening before they left the bathroom.
Knox had already had his shower and was wearing nothing but a towel, wrapped low enough to see the V of his abs.
Asking about the plane was nothing more than her feeble attempt to talk about anything so she would stop wanting to run her hands all over his broad chest.
“Nothing to tell. Tripp wanted to keep it, so we did,” Knox answered.
“Why did you have it anyway? You talk about your mother’s estate, and you share a plane with your brothers. Are you rich or something?”
“Let’s leave the rich story at ‘or something,’ but I will tell you about the plane.
Tripp and my dad used it to fly to places where Dad had either oil wells or companies that he had to check on regularly.
I’m a carpenter, so I never got into all that business end of things.
But it has come in handy a few times since we sold the company and Mother’s estate and moved to Spanish Fort,” he answered and changed the subject.
“Now, let’s talk about why Thomas’s tacos are any better than any fast-food joints. ”
“One more question, and then we’ll talk tacos,” Lottie said. “Are you really a prince in pauper’s clothing?”
“Never heard it put that way before.” Knox chuckled. “I’m not royalty, but I was never a real pauper, so I wouldn’t know about either one. My parents raised us to be responsible and hard workers, and we never felt entitled.”
“Fair enough,” Lottie said. “What makes the tacos so special is that Thomas makes his own blend of spices for the meat. He makes the corn and flour tortillas from scratch, and also a special salsa. And…” She turned around to face the wall.
“He does not share his recipes for any of it, so we only get them once or twice, depending on how long the construction project lasts.”
Knox got dressed and then took his place in the far corner. “Martha, my mother’s housekeeper and cook, used to make homemade tortillas for us. She said that we had hollow legs that she could never get filled up, no matter how much food she made.”
“I’m decent now,” she said. “And my mama used to tell me that feeding three boys was a lot tougher on the checkbook than one girl. I guess boys just eat more, but tonight I plan to run all y’all some competition.”
Knox wiggled his eyebrows. “So, you worked up a big appetite in here with me, did you?”
“Of course,” she said without a second’s hesitation. “Staring at a blank wall while you cover up all those muscles takes a lot of energy and eats up a lot of calories.”
“You think I’m a stud, then?” He continued to tease.
She picked up her tote bag and dirty towels and opened the door. “I did not say that.”
He followed her out. “You implied it.”
“Did not!” she snapped.
“Is there trouble in Paradise?” Jack asked from across the room.
“I wouldn’t know about Paradise,” Knox answered, “but we’re all good here.”
“We are not fine, Uncle Jack,” Lottie disagreed. “He’s not remembering my exact words.”
Jack draped an arm around her shoulders and guided her over to the bar, where Thomas flipped fresh, hot tortillas onto a platter. “It’s a guy thing, sweetheart. Us men have selective hearing.”
“Mama says that same thing,” Lottie said.
Knox handed her a plate and got in line behind her. “ That’s why women are from Venus, and men are from Mars. Want me to get you a beer? There’s no way you can handle two dozen tacos and a bottle at the same time.”
Lottie took the plate and began to put together half a dozen tacos. “What do you know about that old book about women and men?”
Knox had talked himself into a corner without meaning to do so. A woman from one of his previous short-lived relationships had quoted lines from the book when she was angry with him for not doing what she wanted. This was not the time or place to discuss the past with his fake girlfriend.
“Someone mentioned it, so I checked it out.” It wasn’t a complete lie because he had scanned through the book after his last girlfriend threw it at him when she left the house during a hissy fit.
* * *
Knox covered a yawn with his hand and glanced at the clock. “Would I be a horrible fake boyfriend if I leave you alone to watch the last of this episode? I can hardly keep my eyes open.”
“Of course not,” Lottie said. “It’s an hour past my bedtime, too, and we both have to work tomorrow morning.”
“You can come to bed with me if you don’t want to go home,” he suggested. “It’s a king bed, so we probably wouldn’t even touch each other.”
“No thanks, but I do want to finish the rest of this episode. Go on to bed. I’ll turn out the lights and make sure Bally doesn’t sneak out when I leave.”
Knox stood up and headed back to the bedroom end of his trailer. He pulled back the covers, and she heard a few soft snores in only a little while.
Lottie intended to watch the last twenty minutes of the final episode in the Dark Winds series and then go back to her own trailer.
But her mind and body had different ideas when she stretched out on the makeshift couch/bed and pulled a throw over herself.
She was already half-asleep when she picked up the remote and turned off the television.
“Just a twenty-minute nap,” she whispered to the kitten. “Then I’ll get up and go home.”
Sunrays peeked through the blind slats the next morning when she awoke to Cheeto pitching a fit outside. It didn’t sound like his normal wake-up-it’s-morning crowing, but more like he was warning every sparrow and crow this side of the lake that something wasn’t right.
She threw back the throw and stood up. “Not that I have any insight into rooster talk. How can Knox sleep through all this noise?”
Bally had managed to climb up onto the edge of the sink, and her tail was a fluff ball, and when Lottie tried to pick her up, the kitten hissed at her.
“What’s going on, girl?” Lottie held her close and rubbed her fur. “What has got you and Cheeto both spooked this morning? Is a storm coming our way? I hope not, because if it is, it will slow down our progress.”
She set the kitten down on the floor, and it ran under Knox’s bed.
If both of Knox’s animals were this upset, then she’d bet that Prissy was in a tizzy too.
Figuring that she’d better not even stick around long enough to make a pot of coffee, she slipped her shoes on and peeked out the door.
She expected to see dark clouds and maybe see a streak of lightning, but it looked like it would be another beautiful day without even the slightest little breeze to make the new leaves dance on the apple tree.
She had raised her right foot and was ready to step outside when she heard a faint noise like dry beans being shaken in a jar.
She looked down to see a huge diamondback rattlesnake, coiled and ready to strike.
She slammed the door shut, screamed, lost her footing, and fell backward.
She landed on her back on the floor with a very unladylike thud.
The next thing she knew, she was gasping for a breath to fill her lungs.
Then Knox was on the floor beside her, his big arms lifting her to a sitting position. “What happened? Are you all right? Did you bump your head? Do we need to take you to the emergency room?” He fired off questions, but she didn’t have enough breath to answer a single one.
“Sn…sn…” She tried to get the word out, but she simply could not.
“Have you got a concussion? Can you speak?”
“Snake!” She finally managed to get the word out. She hated spiders, but she would do battle with a whole family of tarantulas before she did with a snake. Those things had been evil since the days of Adam and Eve.
“Where? Were you dreaming? Did you spend the night here, or did you see one on the way?” he asked.
She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “On your top step.” She was so proud of herself for getting a whole sentence out that she could have jumped up and danced a jig.
“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” Knox asked.
“Cheeto is having a fit. Bally sensed something was wrong, too, or maybe she could smell it.”
“Did it bite you?” Knox’s voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a barrel as he checked her foot and leg.
“No, just scared the bejesus out of me,” she answered. “I hate snakes.”
“I’m not a big fan either. Are you sure you’re okay?”
The room took a spin or two when she stood up, but she made it to the sofa and sank down on it. “I’m fine, just still a little rattled.”
Knox went back to the bedroom and returned with a pistol. He eased the door open, aimed, and fired. Bally had come out from under the bed and was slinking along with her little belly close to the floor when the shot sounded all through the trailer. She growled and jumped up on the sofa with Lottie.
“It’s okay, baby girl,” Lottie consoled her. “Knox is our hero today.”
Knox put the gun away. “That snake won’t bother anyone again. I’ll get it off the steps soon as I get dressed. Then I’ll make us some coffee and breakfast.”
“I should go see about Prissy.”
“You are still a little shaken up. I can hear it in your voice, and the color hasn’t come back into your face. Let’s get some food and coffee in you before you go.”
“Okay.” She agreed without an argument. She leaned back and closed her eyes, but they popped open in a hurry when a virtual picture of that snake showed up with its mouth wide open.
She shivered all the way to her toes and had barely gotten herself under control when Knox came back through in a T-shirt and his faded work jeans.
He went outside, and it was several minutes before he came back.
“What took so long? Was it still alive?” she asked.
“No, ma’am. I killed him dead, but I didn’t want you to have to look at it, so I threw it in the lake to feed the fish,” he answered. “Now, let’s get some food going. How about chicken and waffles?”
“That sounds wonderful,” Lottie answered.
Cheeto began his usual crowing, telling everyone that it was dawn and time for them to rise and shine. Bally hopped down from the sofa and wound around Knox’s legs. Life was back to normal.
Knox made coffee and then filled Bally’s bowl with food, carried fresh water and food out to Cheeto, and came back to make breakfast. “You need to be extra careful and watch your step wherever you go. That old rattler was a grandpa. He had at least a dozen buttons on his tail, so there could be more of his family members in the area.”
Lottie shivered again. “I will. I promise.”
“Have you never seen one on a construction site before?”
She shook her head. “Only a couple of little garden snakes, and I’m scared of them too.”
“So”—he grinned as he set up a small waffle maker—“I’m a hero? Does that mean I can go from being a fake boyfriend to a real one?”
“It does not!”
“That took the quiver right out of your voice,” he said.
* * *
Knox practiced what he preached as he and Lottie walked away from his trailer that morning. He scanned every which way and checked under and around Lottie’s trailer while she changed into work clothes.
The rest of the guys were already at the rec hall and sipping what might have been their third or fourth cup of coffee. Thomas waved from the table where they were sitting and pointed at a couple of empty chairs.
“Did you hear that gunshot this morning?” Eddie asked.
“Sounded like it came from down near your trailer,” Gabe said. “We wondered if one of your old girlfriends or one of Lottie’s old flames had come back with a jealous streak and killed both of you.”
“I haven’t got one that would care enough to spend the rest of her life in jail,” Knox said.
“Neither have I,” Lottie told them.
“I figured it was some kids with firecrackers,” Thomas added.
“No, it was a gunshot,” Lottie said. “Knox killed a rattlesnake on his steps. I don’t know how big it really was, but in my eyes, it looked like a granddaddy python that could swallow the whole trailer.”
“You are terrified of snakes. What happened when you saw it?” Jack asked.
“I slammed the door, screamed loud enough to make Grandma Johnston rise up out of the grave, lost my footing, and the fall knocked the wind out of me.”
“What happened to the snake? I hope it didn’t crawl away and decide to live up under my trailer,” Eddie said.
“Knox shot it and then threw it into the lake,” she answered.
“It’s fish food,” Knox said. “I checked under my trailer and Lottie’s to be sure there weren’t any more critters, but it wouldn’t hurt for all y’all to do the same every day. They’re looking for nice warm places at this time of year.”
“I always thought if the devil himself popped up in front of you, that you’d fight old Lucifer to the ground,” Lance, one of the second crew, said.
“I would,” Lottie declared, “but a snake is an animal of a different kind altogether, and they terrify me.”
“Keep a sharp eye out,” Jack said. “Time to get to work. If we don’t get Mandy’s retirement home done by deadline, I might be in some seriously hot water.”
“We’re on it,” Knox said and extended a hand to Lottie. “We’d hate for you to start off your second honeymoon sitting in boiling water.”
Lottie put her hand in his and stood up. It wasn’t the first time, and probably wouldn’t be the last, that he wished they were in a real relationship.