Nothing but Trouble_ A Kevin Kerney Novel - Michael Mcgarrity [31]
“Hello, yourself,” Julia Jordan said. “I understand you tried to save somebody who died on the highway.”
Kerney nodded as he gazed at Julia. Although now a bit more full figured, she still retained her good looks, and her laughing eyes, which always seemed to be a bit mocking, hadn’t lost any luster. Her long, curly hair, more gray than dark brown, cascaded onto her shoulders.
“I didn’t help much.”
“You look good with your shirt off,” Julia said slyly. “Care to go skinny-dipping with me?”
“I don’t think so.”
Julia laughed as she glanced at Kerney’s wedding band. “I’m not surprised. You always were the straight-arrow type.”
Quickly, Kerney slipped into his blood-splattered shirt. “Was I, now?”
“My God, were you hurt?”
Kerney buttoned up. “No, it’s not my blood.”
“Do you have a fresh shirt to wear?”
Kerney nodded.
Julia stepped to the three-quarter-ton. “Good. Follow me home. My parents can’t wait to see you. Mom’s in the kitchen cooking up a storm for you. You were always the one friend Johnny had that Mom favored the most. Me too.”
“Why didn’t I know this back then?”
Julia grinned as she climbed into the three-quarter-ton. “I’ve often wondered that myself.”
The drive to the ranch headquarters was a straight shot to low, grassy hills that rolled on toward the mountains. Four houses, all of them white pitch-roofed structures with screened front porches painted in green trim, sat in a large grove of shade trees within easy walking distance of a horse barn. A water tank, windmill, and feed storage bins stood behind the barn next to a large metal shop and garage. Everything about the place was spic and span. Even the heavy equipment parked outside the garage was lined up in a neat row.
Julia stopped in front of the largest house in the compound, a long ranch-style home with a big picture window that looked out on the porch. She led him through the unoccupied front room, a comfortable space filled with art, books, and easy chairs, to a spare room, and left him there to change his shirt. When he returned to the front room, Joe and Bessie greeted him, both smiling broadly.
Bessie wiped her hands on her apron and gave Kerney a hug. She felt like a feather in his arms, so tiny now and stooped of shoulder. The top of her snow-white head barely reached his chest. Joe Jordan’s handshake was hearty and firm. He also was white haired, but still ramrod straight and lean. Wire-rim spectacles sat low on the bridge of his nose, and his face was wind-burned a deep red, accenting the furrows of crow’s feet at the corners of his blue eyes.
Julia stepped out of the kitchen holding a tall glass of water, which Kerney gratefully accepted and quickly drained.
“Since I found him on the ranch,” Julia said with a grin, “can I keep him?”
“Not from the looks of the wedding ring he’s wearing,” Joe replied with a laugh as he herded Kerney into the kitchen.
At the kitchen table Bessie passed around a platter of sliced cold beef, a basket of hot fresh biscuits, a bowl of sauce for the beef, a salad, and a pitcher of lemonade. She’d set the table with her best flatware and linen napkins.
Over lunch Joe questioned Kerney about the fatality on the highway. He answered but left out the gory details.
Joe shook his head as he cut a small piece of beef and dipped it in the dollop of sauce on his plate. “Those Mexicans are so damn poor, not even the fear of death stops them from crossing the border. A neighbor south of here found two dead bodies on his land just last year. A young woman and a middle-aged man.”
“I guess it isn’t a problem that’s going away anytime soon,” Kerney replied.
“Not in my lifetime,” Joe said. “Best we can do is try to keep them off the ranch. Walt Shaw does a pretty good job of that.”
The conversation switched to old times on the Jornada, and they reminisced and caught up. Kerney learned that Bessie had survived breast cancer, Joe had undergone a hip replacement, and Julia was divorced and now dividing her time between the ranch and her house in Tucson.
Kerney told them about Sara and Patrick. Only Joe and Bessie