“Ada Lou says that this is pretty country in the spring when everything begins to bloom,” I said after a few minutes.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Jackson chuckled. “I do like the way the bigger yucca plants stick up out of the snow. Look, there’s a cardinal.”
“Ada Lou told me that when you see one, it means someone who has passed away is thinking of you,” I said.
“I’ve been told that, too, and I’m choosing to think that one is my grandfather. I was away on a mission when he died, and didn’t get to come home to the funeral.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Thank you. My grandpa was a blunt old guy, and I could hear his voice telling me not to come home, because he was dead and wouldn’t know if I was there anyway. Dad assured me that Grandpa would have wanted me to stay right where I was and save lives,” he said.
We seemed to hit every traffic light in town before he finally parked in front of a place called the 170 Degree Steak House.
“We are here,” he said.
“How did you ever find this place?” I asked. “And why is it called that?”
“I have no idea. It’s only been open for a little while. It’s part of the Hotel Paso del Norte, a place where my folks like to stay when they are in this area,” he answered.
I was a little worried about whether I was dressed for such a fancy place. My long, straight denim skirt and cowboy boots would have been much better suited to May’s Café than in a high-class place like we walked into. When he mentioned steak, I’d figured on something like LongHorn SteakHouse or maybe Saltgrass. I mean, I’d been to some of the fanciest restaurants across the country—from the Odeon in New York City to Top of the World in Las Vegas to Le Pichet in Seattle. I sure wished I’d worn one of my poker-playing dresses that evening. Maybe you can’t leave everything behind.
Jackson ushered me inside and told the hostess his name and that he had reservations for two. The paneled walls, crystal chandeliers, and padded leather chairs reminded me of the dining rooms in some of the really fancy hotels I had visited for poker games through the years. I seldom stayed in them, because even when I was flush, I was a little too tight with my money to fork over what a room cost.
“You should have told me that we were going to a place like this,” I fussed at Jackson while we followed the lady to our table. “I would have dressed up.”
He helped me remove my denim jacket and handed it to the lady, along with his leather jacket. Then he pulled out a chair for me and kissed me on the cheek. “I thought you were dressed up. You are beautiful in that outfit—but, darlin’, you would be gorgeous wearing a gunnysack tied up at the waist with a length of baling twine.”
“What do you know about either of those things?” I asked.
“Oil isn’t the only thing my family is interested in,” he answered. “Remember my four older sisters? My folks handed Jenny the reins to the Armstrong Cattle Company a while back. She doesn’t only run that business, but she, her husband, and her three sons work right out on the ranch with the hired hands.”
“And the other three?” I asked.
“Joy is the prissy one,” he said with a smile. “She and her husband are the oil company’s lawyers. They live in Dallas, don’t have any children, and from what she says, don’t intend to ever have them.”
I was sure enough out of my league, even if I had eaten in high-class places. “What about the other two?”
“Jaylynn is the oldest child and the bossiest. She wanted to shoot me when I joined the military. She and her family live in Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, and have three daughters. All of them have business degrees and run the Armstrong Trucking Company.”
“Sweet baby Jesus!” I muttered.
“They’re all ambitious women,” he said, “but when we all get together for holidays, it seems like we revert to when we were kids. They try to boss me, and I retaliate by teasing them.”
“And the last one?”
“That would be Jessica, who is a couple of years older than me. She doesn’t have a finger in any of the family pies. She and her husband are both doctors and have a son who is studying music in Nashville. He has hopes of being a country music star. He’s got the backing from his parents if the industry likes his voice.”
“You all have names that start with aJ?”
“Yep, my Dad is James. Mama is Julia. They thought it was cute,” he answered. “If you had five kids, would you do that to them?”
“Would you?”
“Hell no,” he said. “None of my sisters did. We didn’t mind being the J’s, but still ... Seven J’s in one family?”
“Neither would I, but I don’t expect that I’d ever have five kids anyway. I’m thirty, so even by spacing them out two years apart, thatwould mean I would be forty by the time the last one was born. I can’t imagine having enough energy to chase five of them around,” I said.
The waiter came by and filled two of the stemmed glasses with water. He laid two leather-bound menus on the table and asked if we wanted to see the wine menu.
