Jackson squeezed Mamie’s shoulder. “We’ll find another one.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “And we’ll do it quiet-like. What we need to do now is find us a good tree all full of nuts to sit under.”
Craig grinned and shook his head.
Didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what he was thinking.
“Should’ve brought them biscuits Flo’s younger granddaughter baked,” Mamie murmured.
“Now you hush,” Miss Ophelia whispered back. “She’s the prettier one.”
“Shows in her baking, bless her heart.”
“Don’t matter none,” Louisa said. “Jackson don’t like any of their biscuits.”
Miss Ophelia gasped. Cletus patted her shoulder. “I like your biscuits,” he said.
“Did he tell you that?” Mamie demanded of Louisa.
“Didn’t see him eating any of them, did you?”
All five of them turned to look at him. “Had a big breakfast,” he said.
Mamie peered over her spectacles. “You getting a taste for something other than biscuits?”
Danged if his ears weren’t getting all hot like when Anna Grace called him out on being more than a dumb old redneck the other night. “PFT coming up.”
Her lips pursed. “You ain’t telling me you’re getting too old to run a couple miles and do a few push-ups and sit-ups, now, are you?”
“He is getting a few gray hairs,” Louisa said.
Jackson tucked her into a headlock. He pointed down the path. “Y’all want to hunt squirrels or not?”
“We should get going,” Miss Ophelia said. “Flo and Dolly are setting out lunch over the pass. And Dolly’s bringing that girl from her church who fries chicken so nice.”
“That means she’s got buckteeth and birthing hips,” Louisa said.
“Bless her heart,” Mamie agreed on a sigh. She patted Jackson’s arm. “Don’t you worry none, sugarplum. Still lots of nice young ladies out there for you.”
But nice young ladies got ideas. And there wasn’t one of them who could touch Anna Grace’s pies. Hunting season or not, that suited him fine. He had a feeling some milk would go good with her pie, and he was patient enough to wait for it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
There were things she wanted to do and things she had to do, and she was stubborn enough to do it all alone.
—The Temptress of Pecan Lane, by Mae Daniels
Anna flexed her fingers over Rex’s keyboard and stifled a yawn. She’d been up studying past midnight every night this week. But she’d finished her first certification this morning, and tonight was her last class night of the week. She could catch up on sleep this weekend.
When she wasn’t studying.
Still, she had reason to smile. She planned to stop at Jimmy Beans after class and drop Jackson a note about joining her.
She wiped the yawn-induced tears from her eyes, then squinted at the documentation from the new supplier. It didn’t look right. Or maybe her brain had finally hit overload.
Jules sauntered into her office. “Are you always this useless after a test? I’ve been emailing you all morning.”
“You’re in the next cube.”
Jules grabbed the ruler out of her desk organizer and tapped it on the desk. “Didn’t feel like yelling. You have that tech report done yet?”
