“You told ’em we were hunting, right?” Craig said. They were unloading the shotguns from the back of Jackson’s truck.
Jackson took his time looking over one of Daddy’s old shotguns that he was holding on to for Louisa. Beat looking at the womenfolk who were yapping loud enough to scare a bear. “Yep.”
“Good thing squirrel sees about the same as you do.”
Jackson gave the women another once-over. Louisa was wearing camouflage, though it was tight enough that she would’ve looked more appropriate in the kind of place she better never set foot in. Miss Ophelia had on a dress that even he could tell was brighter than the sunshine. Only Mamie was in sensible pants and boots, but she was talking into her phone, using some app that acted like an old-fashioned Dictaphone. Radish sat adoringly at her feet.
Or maybe snoringly. Getting hard to tell with the old girl.
“You young fellers need any help?” Miss O’s boyfriend, Cletus, sauntered over to the back of the truck with the bowlegged stride of a man whose center of gravity had finally shifted below his better assets. He gave Craig a nudge. “Or care to make an old man look useful in front of his girl?”
Craig handed the old guy a shotgun.
“Loaded?” Cletus asked.
“Not yet.”
Cletus went back to the women. To show ’em how to hold a gun, he said on a wink.
Louisa started to reply to that, the slant to her eyes saying more than the words she had yet to launch. Jackson shot her a look, and thank the blessed stars, she shut her trap.
Beside him, Craig chuckled. “How far is it to your place from here?”
“About an hour.”
“We could give ’em a head start.”
Decent idea. But far as he knew, not one of them knew first aid. Mamie’d written a couple of doctors and nurses in her books, but Jackson didn’t reckon her research had given her hands-on experience. He eyed the truck bed. “Huh,” he said pointedly. “Looks like I forgot the shells.” Brought his dog too.Wouldn’t have done that if he thought he had any real chance of bagging squirrel today.
Craig clapped him on the shoulder. “Next time, man.”
Coming home had been good for something, at least. He’d forgotten how much fun he and Craig used to have.
They both looked at the women and Cletus again. “Your mamie’s gonna be disappointed,” Craig said.
“She’ll be happy with getting a feel for the lay of the land. Next time I’m in town, I’ll take her out to the range so she can see how shooting feels.”
“Can’t decide if you’re brave or nuts.”
Jackson thought of a certain pair of doe eyes and showed a rueful smile. “Little bit of both.”
They broke the unfortunate news to the ladies and Cletus that they wouldn’t be taking home any squirrels unless they happened to get close enough to club ’em on the head with the butt of a shotgun. No one seemed to mind, so they went ahead and traipsed into the woods for Mamie’s research.
If Jackson didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought Louisa looked relieved. But she shook her dark curls down her back and marched up alongside him. “Awful careless of you,” she said with a sidelong glance. “Guess you’ve been distracted.”
Yeah, he’d had pie on his mind lately, but admitting that to Louisa would be akin to inviting his family over to sift through his underwear drawer. “Distracted by what?”
“That piss-poor lineup Alabama’s calling a football team this year.”
“Louisa Margaret, I know your momma didn’t raise you to talk like that,” Mamie said. “Lord-a-mercy, what your father’d say if he heard you now. Got half a mind to take you over my own knee.”
“Squirrel!” Miss O flung her gun up so fast, Radish dove between Jackson’s legs. She aimed at the tree straight overhead. Her hair tilted all funny. Cletus clapped a hand to it. “That’s right,” she said to the sky, “you go on and run, youlittle furry rascal. If I had some bullets, you’d be going in my soup pot tonight.”
“Ophelia, that’s not how hunters talk,” Mamie said. “They get all quiet-like and creep along until they’ve got a good shot.”
“I had him in my sights.”
“But squirrel’s got ears, you know.”
